Arizona republican., 1917-01-30
WEATHER PERMITS AERIAL ACTIVITY
 0|V WAR FRONTS
Republican A. p. Leased Wirel

Republican A. P. Leased Wirel
 WITH THE BRITISH ARMIES IN FRANCE Jan. 29.--rhe announcement that improved weather conditions permitted increased aerial activity along the entire front is the laconic and prosaic way in which the official communique dismisses some of the
 most spectacular episodes of the war. To those who have once witnessed this increased aerial activity such an announcement cOnjures up at once a picture of countless aeroplanes in the air-scouting. fighting, diving, spin
 hing. lowering over enemy tragets and calmly sending wireless signals through l the fountains of enemy fire, photo
 graphing the enemy lines bombing | his ammunition dumps and sheds and | supply columns and otherwise "carry-
 ing on" in the sky in a manner wholly l ! bewildering to the on-looker, but typi- i 1 flying in supreme degree the inds-
 pensable part aviation is playing in | this war. i
 With a candor often uncommon il |
 times of strife, the British com l
 munique may end from day to day |
 with the simple statement that one or two or three or four "of our machines | have not returned" This means they
 have either been hit and forced to |
 land in the enemy lines, or have been
 shot down to fate more certain. IL is no childs play to circle above a German battery observing for half an
 hour or more tortured by exploding
 shells and black sharpnel puffballs
 coming nearer and nearer like the eX | tending finger tips of some hand of
 death. But they are little more than children-these mere boys who are
 bringing the lustre of everlasting fame
 to the British aviation service. Some
 are scarce eighteen. It is rare to find
 q flying man over twenty five.
 In the aggregate, however. the loss
 as in the flying corps are as nothing
 compared with the useful and vital
 work the wings accomplish. Without
 them the big guns would have no
 far seeing eyes to correct their shells
 Without them and the hundreds or
 photographs they daily take the map
 makers could not trace each detail
 of the trench positions. Without them the general staff could not accurately know just what is going on by day
 and night behind the enemy lines.
 Without them modern war would lose it's most fascinating phase.
 The "gocd flying" of a single day on the British front alone may repre- , sent a day of a hundred fights. day of four score aeroplanes in wing to- wing combat-a day of thousand personal incidents and deeds of dar- ! thin air
 It might tell. for instance of how Lieutenant A in a fast-flying scout
 machine, encountered q squadron Of | twelve German Hollands. The odds ' were one-sided enough, but the young p Britisher decided 10 take chance. He l climbed swiftly and surely until he
 got far above and to the rear of the n hostile craft Evidently the Germans were intent upon some errand which f they proposed to carry out in force | for they paid no heed to the khaki 2 clad airmen until he deliberately dived , into them. firing as he came. This f threw the twelve Germans into a ; | panic and their formation was entirely n ! broken up. Meantime Lieutenant A h got beneath the nearest machine and : fired an entire drum Of cartridges into !, | t at fifteen wards. The hostile ma [ chine collapsed and crashed" That d is q supreme word in the lexicon of d the flying corps. A machine may fall d or dive. but until it is actually seen s to crash" it is not counted as an z enemy casualty"
 After seeing his particular enemy
 crash" Lieutenant A drew off to , think things over. He was somewhat |. amazed to sec still more hostile ma :. chimes coming ID in formation. But :. he dashed at the leader of the new . l 'DIIltlS anu Stilt IiIU III d SplldI lOSt !, drive to s crash This led to still :. more complications and the intrepid U little pilot soon found himself engaged
 with three machines. His fight with
 these was indecisive.
 For" says the official record, "hav-
 ing expended all his ammunition Lieutenant A set off for home
 A few days later it is related. he
 ,ool1 a running dive into formation
 of twenty hostile p1nPhinac with all
 he self assurance an eagle might have
 n the flock of sparrows. Before he
 was through he had sent three ad- [, versaries crashing"
 VI This time says the record. "he II returned to one of our aerodromes for | more ammunition and returned to the
 scene of battle where he engaged and
 dispersed such enemy machines as re-
 mained in the vicinity. One was seen
 to crash upon a housetop."
 10 This same little Lieutenant A seems z to persist in the records of the service e One day he was crossing the enemy 70 lines at l1.500 feet when he found Il himself directly above a German kite )f balloon. sent up for artillery observa- y ion. Pretending to be in trouble. and n thus avoiding fire from the anti-air- of craft guns, he fell in side stalls to
 l.500 feet suddenly frightened him. y self and dved at the balloon. He h opened and continued firing until he )f almost touched the big gas bag Just Ie as he passed over it, the thing burst d into flames and was destroyed in a l. few seconds
 of The Germans lately have adopted is the ruse of "stalling' and shammina es a fall out Of control It is thrilling le but not unknown thing to see Ger
 man machine. when closely pressed in turn it's tail straight up in the air ant o. dive toward the earth for a distance " of two or three thousand feet. anC to just as the initiated on-looker woulf De expect q crash" it flattcns out ant re starts pell-mell for it's own lines Ont ad does not always get away with thi. ce bit of aerial strategy. however. as i. o'' shown by the record of Captain B B. After attacking three hostile machines
 he saw one of them going down in z a spinning nose dive. He suspected tn, D. honesty of that dive and decided tC T. do a little diving 'on his own" Thi. ,n dramatic downward duel continued V, for full thousand feet. until the Ger D. man was driven into a spin "and seer