Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1917-06-03
A|RMEN MUST Be
EXPERTS TO LIVE

who did stunts with MS machine pe-
fore this war began. The aerial aero
bat paradoxically was looked down
upon. Today the whole game has
changed and the more circus stunts a
pilot can do the safer he is in the air.
Unless a man can loop the loop. fly
upside down, bump the bumps and DO
a general topsy-turvy, wine-ielly wob-
BILE while never missing note with his
machine gun, his life is apt to be a
short and slightly agitated one.
With the advent of long, bright
summer days, battleplanes march
acress the sky, patrol the clouds and
do possibility there in just the same
way as soldiers do on the ground.
There are machines corresponding to
infantry, which go in droves and at
tack or repel attacks. Others are
like cavalry and do scouting. Still
more are comparable to the artillery
Some are like tanks. ssme like armor-
ed motor cars, and so do sniping
among the creamy thunderheads. But
the pilot of each machine must know
how to fly as human beings never flew
before, otherwise the cracker-box on
Which he sits at meal time is sure to
play the role of a vacant chair at
some not very distant date.
From a gun-pit near Monchy-le.
Drenn I have just witnessed some Of
the most terrific fighting OF the war
Aside from the savage attacks and
counter attacks by infantry through
out this region and an artillery activ-
ity thus far unsurpassed anywhere, the
battle was just as tough as any in
the air as on the earth.
A fleet of Is wide-winged bombers
swept across the line high up, ac-
companied by light fighters darting
about like hawks keeping hostile ma
chimes at a distance. Patrols guarded
tie British side of the line, sailing up
and down, swerving and turning ready
| for attack or defense, while air senti-
nels kept watch about the observation
balloons lest out of the cloud-pits
should dart destroyer-type German
plane and put the sausage down. Now
and then, as Prussian airmen attempt
ed to force their way over to the Eng
| fish side to give their artillery the
range on batteries and troops, fierce
fighting developed in which machines
we're brought down crashing.
Between Monchy and Guemappe the
German infantry suddenly appeared in
the open, coming from behind Vert
Wood, southeast OF Monchy, and the
enemy araillery increased their she'll
fire on this hilltop until it was bu-
ried under white, yellow and black
smoke. Shrapnel filled the air with
their thin puffs of smoke, one white
puff and one black, and, lest the Brit
! ISL should throw in their reserves a
harrage of light and heavy explosives
rained down on the slopes TO the
west.
Here British battleplanes sot in
some of their stunts, which would have
set a grandstand wild with mixed awe
and delight. One pilot swooped down
almost perpendicularly as though
about to crash into the shattered roof
itnps of smoking, seething Monchy, but
just as he seemed about to touch, he
careened on the tip of one wing, turn
ed at sickening speed to the right and
disappeared into the smoke of battle,
few yards at most over the heads o.
the madly attacking Germans. For a
few seconds his sudden appearance
and the deadly work of his machine
gun must have caused something akin
to panic in the enemy ranks, then he
aid away again at 1870 miles an hour
hound and round he turned, swooping
tCH lily DdCh olANbNh Va WI
Iurtil completely lost to view. He loop
ed, twisted ,wobbled and d!s'ed so that
only chance shot might touch him
1t looked as if he had gone mad YET
oaly this seeming madness made his
escape from death possible. But for
his arieal acrobatcs he and his ma
. chine would have been riddled with
bullets AS it was he came out sue
lcessful and unframed The Germans
were hurled back, smashed and de
moralized and part of the glory of de
feating them was his.
In the meantime a battle was being
fought out in the clouds above the
fields west of Wancourt, southwest OF
Monchy. Further to the north an
ether German was hit at $4,000 feet
and down he fluttered like a dead lea!,
followed by the British aviator who
had downed him. This he did to make
sure the fall was real, not faxed.