The Benson signal., 1916-09-16
DARING DEEDS
PERFORMED BY
KNIGHTS OF AIR
Feats of British Aviat0rs in
Somme Campaign Related
by Correspondent.
GREAT HELP TO ARTILLERY
Flying Men, Hinged by White Puff
Clouds Of Exploding Shells, Direct
Deadly Fire Upon Foe-Many
Musicians Among Pilots.

London.-Mr. Philip Gibbs, a CORE
spOndent with the British armies in
the field, sends to the Daily Chronicle
an interesting article dealing with the
British supremacy in the air and its
vital relation to the operations of the
Somme. He writes:
"All through the battle of Picardy
most of US have kept glancing up into
the sky across the enemy's lines from
day to day and looking for Prussian
aerOplane. 1t is rare bird.
"Now and again when our flying men
are not out because the clouds are Iy-
ing low and it is 'dud day. as they
call it, hostile machine sneaks
through the mist and drops a few
bombs and goes full speed back again !;
and more often, but not very often,
flight of PrusSians will come in q gang
through clear sky and attack one or
more of our scouts if they can be sure
of having all the odds in their favor.
Behind their own lines they are more
bold (and there is nothing wrong with
their courage as individual fighters), :,
the air like modern Black knights
with the Iron Cross as their badge)
to defend their territory from all in
truders-nOt, however, with any great
SuccesS-and to provide exciting COM
bats for our own knights errant. But
During the first week of the battle,
which began on July 1, the hostile ma
chimes were invisible, and yet during
all this time of fighting we cannot go
up to the lines without seeing our own
aerOplanes flying above the shell fire
in Prussian territory.
Hinged by White Puff Clouds.
'The Arches are firing at them,
ringing them round with white puff
clouds. which burst very close, so close
that one holds ones breath or speaks
a whisper-They've got him !'-until a
second later one can see the aeroplane
skimming onward steadily and quite
careless Of these explosions which fol-
low on the trail of his wings. Below
these flying men of ours shells are
crashing end smoke is vomiting up,
and villages are burning, and there is
all the tumult of battle, but they circle
round as aloOf as the winged gods
themselves, it seems, from all this
earthly strife-yet not alOOf, because
they help to direct the thunderbolts,
as some of the old gods did
$50 far from prowling on our side of
the lines, these pilots and observers
make daily habit of going for far
journeys into the enemy's zone, often
as far as Bapaume, which is a dozen
miles beyond our own trenches, and to
places like Martinpuich and Cource-
lette and Flers. A few days ago they
set Martinpuich on fire, and it was still
burning when they flew over 1t again
next day.
ION July % four of our aeroplanes
paid a surprise call on Mons the scene
of our earliest fighting two years ago
and reminded the enemy of our con
temptible little army of those days by
dying low and dropping bombs on the
rolling stock in the railway station and
apOn sheds full of munitions. They
we're leisurely in their circlings, and
stayed until fires had exploded at four
different points and much ammunition
had been blown up. Then they came
home to dinner.
every day and all day long they are
out and about, across the Prussian
lines, observing for our artillery and
directing the fire of our guns upon the
fnernys batteries and other targets
which they have seen below with their