Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1915-08-20
BATTLE IN THE. !. AIR
British Aviator Stands Aeroplane
on Its Tail.
Altman Risks Death by PIun0tns
Earthward and Directing His
Weapon at His Enemy
Above Him.

London.-Mr. c. G. Grey, editor OF
the Aeronaut, writes as follows in the
Daily Express:
Within the last few days l have
had the luck to run across some OF
our people who happened to be at
Dunkirk when the Ramsgate Zeppe.
lin was attacked by naval seaplanes.
Their account of what happened eluci-
dates several interesting points.
When the Zeppelin was first sighted
from the French coast it was compare
lively low down and seemed to be
steering wildly and paving from side
to side as IL 1t had been hit. Soon
afterward naval aircraft were seen In
pursuit.
Apparently as soon as the aero
planes were sighted by the Zeppelin
the big machine made frantic attempts
to rise, but seemed to make little
progress till it heaved overheard two
big masses of stuff to tighten itself.
None of the eye-witnesses could be
perfectly sure what these masses of
material were. Each seemed to be
about the size of a man, and some peo-
pie were inclined to assume that they
hove overheard the bodies OF men who
had been hit Others were of the opin-
ion that they were simply cases Of
spare ammunition, or, perhaps. even
machine guns.
Whatever 1t was, before the aero
planes reached her she was already
climbing rapidly. with the result that
only one Of the aeroplanes actually
managed to get directly over the ship
to drop its bombs.
The pilot Of one of the other aero
planes. which was q small and very
fast single-seated biplane. carrying a
machine gun, finding that he was un-
able to reach the height Of the Zeppe-
lin in time to get within range Of her.
started firing at her from below. As
the machine gun was q fixture on the
aeroplane and had to be aimed like
the gun on Judson's "fatiron gunboat"
in Mr.. Kipling's famous story, by
wearing ship to suit" the only way
the pilot could bring his gun to bear
on the ship was by standing the aero
plane on its tail and deliberately fall
ing backward while he was firing.
The watchers on the ground thought
at first that his machine had been hit.
but when they saw him recover and
repeat the performance several times
they came to the conclusion either
that he had gone mad and was giving
the crew Of the Zeppelin an exhibi-
ton of fancy flying or that there was
some method in his madness and he
was really attacking.
Whether he actually managed to
hit anything or not could not, of
be known, but Q machine guns
only chance against Zeppelin is to
put q, bullet into the petrol tank or
into an engine. In such q case 1t may
with luck cause q petrol fire In one
Of the cars and SO set the whole ship
alight, or 1t may put the engine out
Of action. 30 that the airship is unable
to make Roadway against the wind.
but no amount Of ordinary machine
gun bullets would ever bring Zeppe-
lin down simply by perforating the
gas bags.
1t is pleasing to know that the one
which did get over the Zep-
pelin and undoubtedly did somes dam
age to 1t was Of that essentially Eng
fish make, the Avro-in fact. a sister
machine to those which made the sue
cessful raid on Friedrichshafen.