The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1917-01-27
AVIATION PLAYING
IMPORTANT PART
1t Is No Child's Play to Circle Over a
German Battery Observing for Half
an Hour in the Midst of
Great Danger.

} WIN WIG DilOlSu Armies Ill france
Jan. n Correspondence of The Associ
ated Press. = The announcement tina
Improved weather conditions permitted
increased aerial activity along the entir,
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 an
nouncement conjures up at once a picture
of countless aeroplanes in the air---scout-
ing, fighting, diving, spinning, lowering
over enemy targets and calmly sending
wireless signals through the fountains Of
enemy fire, photographing the enemy
lines, bombing his ammunition dumps
and sheds and supply columns, and 9th
ierwise carrying on" in the sky in a
manner wholly bewildering to the on
locker, but typifying in supreme degree
the indispensable part aviation is. play
ing in this war.
With a candor often uncommon in
times of strife, the British communique
may end from day to day with the sim
pie statement that one or two or three
or four 'of our machines have not re-
turned" This means they have either
been hit and forced to land in the enemy
lines, or have been shot down to fate
more certain. II is no child's play to
circle above a German battery observing
for half an hour or more, tortured by
exploding shehs and black shrapnel puff
balls coming nearer and nearer like the.
extending finger tips Of some hand OF
death. But they are little more than
| children-these mere boys who are bring
ing the luster of everlasting fame to the
British aviation service. Some are scares
eighteen. 1t is rare to find flying man
over twenty-five.
In the aggregate, however, the losses
in the flying corps are as nothing com
pared 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 Of photographs
they take the mapmakers could not trace
each detail of the trench positions, With
out them the general staff could not ac-
.curately know just what is going on by
day and night behind the enemy lines.
Without them modern war would lose its
most fascinating phase.
The good flying" of single day on
the British front alone may represent
a day of hundred fights, a day of four
score aeroplanes in wing towing COM !
bat-a day of thousand personal Incl
dents and deeds OF daring in the once
strange strata OF high thin air.
1t might tell, for instance of, how
Lieut.. A in fast-tiying scout machine,
encountered squadron Of twelve Ger
man Rolands. The odds were one-sided
enough, but the young Britisher decided
to take chance. He climbed swiftly
and surely until he got far above and
to the rear of the hostile craft. Evident
" the Germans were intent upon some
GRAND which they proposed TO carry out
in force, for they paid no heed to the
khski-clad airman until he deliberately
Owed into them, firing as he came. This
threw the twelve Germans into panic
and their formation was entirely brok-
en- up. Meantime Lieut.. A got beneath
the nearest machine and fired an entire
drum of cartridges into it at fifteen
yards. The hostile machine collapsed
and crashed" That is supreme word
in the lexicon of the flying corps A ma
chine may fall. or dive, but until it is
actually seen to crash" it is not count.
ID as an enemy Casualty"
After seeing his particular enemy
crash" Lieut.. A drew off to think things
over. He was somewhat amazed to see
till more hostile machines coming up
N formation. But he dashed at the lead
IF of the newcomers and sent him in a
piral nose dive to crash" This led
o still more complications and the in
repid little pilot soon found himself
ngaged with three machines. His fight
With these was indeeisive.
'For," says the official record, shay
ng expended all his ammunition, Lieut.
set off for home"
A few days later, it is related, he took
running dive into formation Of twen-
V hostile machines with all the self as
urance an eagle might have in the midst
( hock of sparrows. Before he was
Trough he had sent three adyersaries
This time" says the record, she re-
nrned to one of our aerodromes for
1ore ammunition and returned to the
Gene of battle where he engaged and dis.
ersed such enemy machines as remained
1 the vicinity. One was seen to crash
pom a housetop."
This same little Lieutenant A seems to
ersist in the records of the service. One
ay he was crossing the enemy lines at
500 feet when he found himself di.
city above German kite balloon, sent
p for artillery observation. Pretend
g to be in trouble, and thus avoiding
re from the anti-aircraft guns, he fell in
de stalls TO 500 feet, suddenly righted
Imself and dived at the balloon. He
Dened and continued firing until he al
ost touched the big gas bag. just as
passed over it, the thing burst into
lmes and was destroyed in few sec
ada