The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1915-04-18

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rose. They Were the first airvessels of
any kind seen by the siberians. There
was an insporing cry of "Ptitchki.
which means Little Birds" Under
heavy fire the Siberians crossed the pom
toon bridge and charged the German
lines.
Gen Radko Dmitriyeff is carrying on
| tremendous ACCOMPANYING at Przemysl.
! Aastrlas besieged and strongest fort
ress. Little is known of the plight of
THIS town, which is Galicia's key. Cen
eral- bieutenant kuzmanek is in COM
mand lie spends his days making ir-
lltatlng sallies and trying to trap Radko
Dmitriyeff to assault his wire entangle-
ments and fougasse mines Dmitriyen
replies with aeroplane bombardmenfs
MOST OF Przemysfs civil population was
! cleared out before the siege began.
Aeroplane shells do the concrete forts
no harm. The bombardment Is directed
against the town. barracks and stores
Aeroplanist Lieutenant Drielxoff one
day dropped Ia bombs on the barracks
oehlhd the forts facing towards Yaros-
law lie destroyed altogether the quar-
tefs OF 1000 soldiers Driel<off had a
narrow escape. Engine troubles began
ana ne mad TO descend in front OF an
advanced trench outside the line of
| iorts fhe Austrians poured in rifle and
machine gun fire. The aeroplane was
| riddled. Driekoff kept his head He sat
In the car while his mechanic handled
the motor, and then, in a storm of bull
lets, rose. The mechanic received a bull
let In tho ankle Driekoff ESCAPED
Austrian aeroplanists excel German
| IN ruses. once by an aeroplane russo
they retoolS trench. During the fight
ing near Rozadow the Austrians found
and repaired an abandoned Russian
biplane. They sent this aeroplane aloft
a bai
OF the Russians. 1t flew north In a big
circle behind the Russian lines. and
| lieh turned and flew south az IL il were
coming to the Russian fighting lines
from the Russians staff. The evening
oeiore the Russians had captured an
austrian trench. Their field telephone
was out OF order. The Austrian aero
plane which they imagined was their
own dropped canister with a message
/ IN good Russian purporting to be signed
oy the chief of the staff of General
ru2skL The message ordered the Rus
san brigade commander to abandon
the captured trench The commander
obeyed. The Austrians reoccunied tho
trench. Soon afterwards the Russians
discovered the truth. Next day the aero
pianist tried ne wruse He was hit In
.ne neck py bullet, and fell with his
aeroplane over a Russian tranch
1rahd Duke Nicholas men have can
uhteer lieutenant Eulers. who is nov,
on the way to Viatka, is one. Eulers
- graduate of Cologne Comule-ciaI
! schooi. He was Stationed with his
dauke at Lyck in East Prussia He
new over the Russian fortress of Con-
,onus' feil INTO the marshes of the
bohr and was captured He .seana1
! In stolen Russian uniform NcIbi,,g
was heard of him until the fightin,s
round Lodz at the end of Noven,her
ihen he flew right over the grand
aukes army and was shot down at
LlpkoW, near Warsaw. In order to
avoid being court martia1ed FIR iis
flight he gave the name of Won les
sci AT Praga he recognized his own
ialpe aeroplane, which, repaired ana
without the black iron cross whicr
n,elks German machines, was in uee by
russians. He showed his feelings so
MAJ MAJ keoly that suspicious were aroused
anu ne was identified as the CAPTIVE
OF Gonionds. Eulers' escape was mar
Toned IN view of his courage
Aeroplanists without special mill
.ary training prove to be of little use
III war. 1t Is 10 times easier to learn
20 ny than II is to learn to carry
uue ar reconnalssances Even officers
useu TO feconna issances on land can
not, without special training. estimate
ioni the air the strength of troops and
me nature of their movements This
because army movements seen from,
ABOVE are deceptive partly# because
sPeeiai measures are taken to deceive
aitmen. rake" trenches are nada.
real trenches are obscured or dug he
hihu rows OF overhanging trees: gun
lositions are carefully rooted with sods
ana when snow Is on the ground arc
looted with planks covered with snow
Inc pest CIVILIAN airmen are deceived
RUSSIA has vast number of ci,,ilia N
alrmen and the preparing OF tbasa For.
recommending goes on with srea4 sreea
beiore being allowed to reconnoitre
the enemy army airmen are sent m
lily over Russian fortresses: over Rnse
slan lishtihg armies; and over tracts
OF country where large bodies of Rus
siah troops are on the march. They
are required to present reports os to
! me number positions and movements
Oh the troops; the proportion of each
arm, and other noteworthy things
such as fake trenches and partlv
oonceaied gun positions. The reports
are compared with the facts known 70
the staff. Later the airman student 10
given bombs and is allowed 10 dron
tnem on the enemys fortified tions
rms is to steel his nerves. Only wh.n
ne is thoroughly Competent is he al
,oweo 10 report on the dispositions OF
the enemy.
Two months of daily exercises ara
needed before a skilled flyer can recon-
noitre with surety. The time is short
ehed by giving preliminary training with
the new bird s-eye flying game" IN
vented by an officer of engineers 4 na,,
ABOUT 70 feet square is stretched on tba
floor of a shed with specially con
strncted roof. The map shows the natu-
RAJ conditions and colorng of the thea
ire OF war. On it by movement Of dummy
ccrps along Sits are shown the advance
OF retreat OF infantry, cavalry, artillery
6attles are fought. The rates OF nova
menus or the dummy troops are in pro-
pcrtlon TO the size of the map In the
celilng above Is small moving window
iet through which peers the air recon-
ha'ssance student. The eyelet allows the
| student TO see only so much of the man
as represents the area of the theatre
OF war visible to an airman The eve
| let 1urther moves across the ceiling an
| the relative rate of motion of an aero
pane Looking through the eyelet the
student sees in miniature exactly what ha
| Wouio see from swiftly moving aero
| Piehe. lie complies a report of the
strength of the dummy troops and their
nic' enents. and later he compares il with
the ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS records of the ac-
tual movements.
| Grand Duke Nicholas aeroplape serv-
ice works well. This in spite of the fact
that many of Russias' airmen and me-
cnanics when war broke out were Ger
mans and frenchmen. who are now done
Withcut Inc loss of flyers is small
6erman airmen have met strange deaths
when flying over the Russian army. Dur