Norwich bulletin., 1915-07-24
Stories of the War
A Einht in the Air.

With the few rare cases or dueiS between airships and submarines as the only exception. air battles between flying machines have furnished the supremely spectacular and dramatic features of the present war. They have been by no means common which perhaps increases the spectac- ular feature-and they have Invariably demanded of the participants a degree of iron nerve that the average man can hardly conceive of.
 Such an air battle took place re- gently on the West front. Two French and one English aeroplanes were pitted against one German flying machine. The Frenchmen soon withdrew. leaving the German and the Englishman to match their skill and nerve against each other. The fortunes of war were against the Englishman, and he was killed, but not before he had given an exhibition of nerve that compelled the admiration of the Germans who wit messed the battle.
 How thrilling the contest was may be judged from the following account, written by a Berlin officer:
 Our airship building possesses, very naturally, a strong attraction for our opponents, the French and the Eng lish We have to be constantly on our guard, and the sentries dare not take a moments rest lest they fail to give us warning of the approach of the enemy dL li6 cdLllCSl POcoAOAO
 Recently the building has been visited repeatedly by the French, who have tried to hit 1t with bombs. Thus far they have had no luck in that di- rection, and our artillery has been able in one week to bring down two French men who relied too confidently on the speed of their machines. and who &C., cordingly displayed an altogether too great carelessness, one might almost say imprudence.
 "Yesterday afternoon three bipianes were signalled. and at the signal Lieut. C. rose to meet them ana 70 prevent their coming if possible. As a matter of fact two of the biplanes, which got into the cross fire of our guns. turned and went back The third flyer however, who was about zIOO meters up. continued onward and steered for his goal with the utmost
 About 15O yards in front of the air. ship building two bombs were thrown, one of which did not explode at all and the other went off harmlessly. In the meantime our flyer, who had first sat- planes had left. turned toward the third enemy and steered toward him as fast as he could.
 Our biplane, 1t could be plainly seen was not as fast as the other which later proved to be English-but the aviator attempted nevertheless to get into the same altitude. At first the manoeuvre was not. clear to us, then we realized that Lieut. GI's tactics were right. From guns in the rear of the building the Enghshman re- ceiyed a couple of shrapnels that burst uncomfortably near to him.
 Nevertheless he made a short curve and steered toward the building again. He was again taken under heavy Ire. and one shrapnel struck his machine. The Englishman, however, wanted to do what he had come for, and so in spite of the quickfiring guns dropped from 300 to 400 yards lower so as to be able to aim the better.
 ~This manoeuyre was bis undoing. Lieut. C., who now was at least 500 meters higher up, decided to overcome the inequality in speed in the two machines by a dangerously steep 'plane" and shot down to a point about 50 meters above the Englishman- The observer in our machine at once be- gan to fire upon the enemy.
 The English aeroplane reared sud- denly, toppied over to the right, and then fell sharply. As we found later. the propeller had been torn away by several bullets and the side steerer was badly damaged. When about 200 yards above the ground the machine turned twice over and plunged to the ground. As 1t struck the benzine tank exploded and we, hurrying up from all sides, found nothing but remnants. The two occupants were dead"