Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1917-08-05
BRITISH FLYERS ACT ON THE SPUR
 0F THE MOMENT
Allowed Wide Range As Free Lances.-Out-Ma-
 neuvre Germans.

Correspondence Associated Press) London, July 8.-In no branch of the British army does personal initiative count more than in the flying corps. In no branch of the service has it been more encouraged. The British pilot held the Germans in check by sheer in- herent manpoWer when machine SUI premacy was undeniably with the Ger mans. Now that this supremacy has been neutralized by the increasing ef- 1 fectiveness of the British aeroplane, British pilots are given greater liberty of action still, and many of them act in what might be called "free lance" capacity, says a British official state ment.
 One of those rowing airmen was over the battle line early one morning with no other purpose than that of sending to destruction any hostile plane which he might chance to meet, when the singular scarcity of possible opponents decided him to push furth- CT afield.
 Then the German gunners concen- trated their attention on him. Clouds of anti-aircraft shrapnel festooned his course, and flaming onions" - in- flammable shells designed to set fire to an aeroplane-groaned up from be- low and burst in groups. But all the efforts of the German gunners were in vain. Now nose-diving and side slipping, now soaring skyward, the British airman pirouetted his way through the poisonous flame-stared mist, and broke clear to the fresh cloudy heavens out of range.
 Safe past this "zone of the Archies" he spied German aviator high above him watching for chance to "come down on the taiP' of an unsuspecting pilot, a favorite method of attack to Hun airmen. The Briton decided to rid himself of the menace without more ado.
 Descending thousand feet or so, he deliberately slid under a bank of clouds and there circled slowly, wait ing for the German to drop on him. Like yacht driving through the spin drift of a breaking wave, the hostile aeroplane broke through the encircling mist and drove straight down on his antagonist. Down went the nose of the British machine. As if held to- gether by an invisible stay, these two giant hawks dashed earthward.. Sud- denly the foremost machine swooped upward and the famous side-loop man. oeuvre was performed. Ere the Ger man realized what had happened, his intended victim had reversed the order of the dive, and a well-directed burst of machine-gunJ fire sent the one-time pursuer crashing to the earth.
 Rid of his adversary, the British air
  Through the cloud patches, he saw the German aerdrome which was his ob- jection. Earthward he swooped. The Germans saw him coming, and frantic airmen tried to get aloft be- fore his arrival. One left the ground, but a splash of machine-gun bullets killed it's pilot and it slipped to de- struction. Another made the attempt. but ere it had risen fifty feet, it shared the fate Of the other machines. A group of mechanics struggled with third plane. A spray of bullets swept over them and they struggled no longer.
 There was a silence in that aero- drome, and stiffness, and no living man was to be seen. The British ma chine droned lazily up above while it's pilot rectified jammed machine gun. Then it swept over the hangers riddling them and the aeroplanes with in. Content with his work the Briton turned homeward.
 More than ten miles away were the British lines. One German attempt ed to intercept him. He boldly vol planed down. the German machine-gun began to stutter, then the German pilot banked and dived. He was afraid to fight alone.
 Again the Archie" clusters blurred the sky, but the range was too great for them to be dangerous. A few min utes later the adventurous voyage ended and the Briton was safe. The results of this sole effort were three hostile aeroplanes destroyed, and whole squadron, with it's aerodrome, wiped off the German fighting strength for days to come.