The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1917-06-22
Most Dramatic Feature Of New
Warfare Developed on Eu-
ropean BattlefieIdS.
WRITER GIVES VIVID PICTURE
Young AvIators Take Deadly Risks
and Do Work of Terror In Same
Spirit Knights Of Old Went
Forth to Battle.

LOndon.-Nothlng that the great war
mas developed is more dramatic and
Thrilling than battle between avia-
tors amid the clouds. 1t has come to
be common occurrence for a detach-
ment of airmen to ambuscade them
selves behind cloud bank, sweeping
down suddenly from cover upon their
opponents.
A correspondent with the British
armies east Of Arras sends this de-
scription of aerial warfare:
There have been hours when /
have heard overhead a continual tat
too of Lewis guns and when a great
sweep of sky has been racked out with
white shrapnel clouds following our
hiying squadrOns engaged hOtly with
hostile machines. One cannot follow
the progress of these aerial battles,
ut is only rarely that one can distin-
guish an enemy machine from ours,
except by clOudlets of our anti-air-
craft barrage. But far and high one
sees the daring specks chasing
Through the blue, touched sometimes
by sunlight, so that for a moment they
are all golden or glistening or white
us snOwflakes, and down to one comes
the loud drOne of engines and the lit
tile hammer knocks of Lewis guns.
Look Like Butterflies.
Our soldiers on the march stare up
at the war above their heads, 50 alOof
from them, so dreamlike, and the men
on the supply columns get their
glasses out and laugh when one of our
kite balloons is hauled down sudden
by with great haste. "Old Rupert has
IgOt the wind up" they say; "a Boche
plane must be sneaking round" 1t is
NO joke when a German airman de-
scends out of cloud and hOvers over
N battery, signaling back to his guns.
d was in such a situation the other
day, and had to crouch with the gun
ners below a bank while shrapnel bull
lets from our own "Archies" whipped
the ground about.
Red wings have come into the sky,
for the new German fighting machines
have crimson planes, SO that they look
pike butterflies when the sun is on
them. Enemy airmen have been try
Ing to compete with our own by swoOp
ing low above marching troops and
gun teams and using their machine |
guns in way which adds new
periIs to war. But, though they fight !
behind their own lines with great skill
and courage, they do not come over
pur country in any such numbers as
pur men invade theirs.
! These bOys-for they are absurdly
young in the average age-take all |
these deadly risks and do all this
work of terror with the same spirit |
as the young gentlemen of England |
who rode out with Sir John Chandos
and Sir Walter Nanny to seek COM
bat with French knights many hun
dred years ago along the roads where
our modern men-at-arms go marching
today.
German Tires First.
During this recent fighting one of
them challenged a German Albatross,
which accepted fight, and for an hour
they did every trick known to flying
stalling, banking, side-slipping, loop
lng-in order to get in the first shot.
1t was the German who tired first
though he showed himself master of
his machine.
There are boys in our air service
who have killed six or seven Germans
In single combat. A few have account
ed for many more, and go off again
for a mornings hunting of men as
though on a good adventure. Yet they
know the risks and the fortune of war.
They cannot have all the luck all the
time. When the turn comes it is quick
to the end; or If hit and left alive,
they do amazing things up there in the
high skies TO save the final crash.
A few evenings ago two of our
young officers were attacked by five
hostile aircraft, and both were wound
ed, one in seven places, but they de-
stroyed one of the German airplanes
and landed safely, though their own
machines were pierced by many bull
ets.
On another evening Of the battle of
Arras two hostile aircraft were en-
gagged by one of ours and forced to
and, though one of our officers had
his cOllarbone broken by machine
gun bullet. ,