The Watertown news. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1917-1919, 1917-11-12
BRITISH in LEAD
AS AIR FIGHTERS
American In French Service
Pays Tribute to FIiers From
England.
REGARD WORK SERIOUSLY
Germans Ahead as Builders, but Brit
ons Are Best Fliers-one Object
10 to Bring Back Information
Required by the Staff.

London.-"There's only one air serv-
ice In this war and it's the British.
II that sounds like bit of British
swank, why, IT merely isn't.
It's the precise statement Of the
case which was made the other day
by an American airman who has been
during most of the war attached to
the French air service. He knows all
about the air business, has taught
other men to fly and to fight and has
himself highly creditable record Of
bringing down Hun planes. He knows
ell the stars Of the French service and
many Of the British.
He paid high.tribute to the German
flying machines, observing repeatedly
that the procession Of German i'm
provements in planes and engines
moves SO swiftly that the allies are
all compelled to hustle constantly to
keep from being outdistanced. When
ever the French and British catch up
with German construction the Germans
produce something new and still bet
ter.
Work With Land Forces.
Equally important, he declares, the
British have much the most accurate
notion Of what the flying service is
about. They coordinate it with their
military operations most effectively.
They have less fear Of the daily report
of comparative losses on both sides.
They use the aircraft for certain spe-
cific purposes; when the bit of infOr-
nation that is wanted is accounted Of
more value than the chance of losing
some machines, why the British serv-
Ice goes after the information.
At the end of the day it may be
necessary to make report admitting
that more British than German ma
chimes were lost; but what of that?
The needed observation was taken, or
the highly important photograph was
secured.
"The British operate their service
not with a view to saving their ma
chimes, not with notion Of avoiding
dangers as much as possible; especial
~ not with the idea that to lose more
machines than. the enemy loses Is a
showing of tnferiority. a sign Of de-
feat.
1.-THE British aviators are not spoiled
with laudation and heroics. They re.
gard themselves very much as sc
many Tommies in the trenches do
Their business Is to go up when they
are told and get what they are sent
for; just as Tommy's business Is tC
hang on till hades freezes when he's
attacked, and to 60 over and never stoI
when he's ordered to attack. Neither
one of them feels particularly enthu
siastic about his job as a means tt
winning honors or distinction; he
doesn't think much about that part OF
1t. He attends strictly to the job.
'It's the sporting instinct that makes
these Britishers such good flying men
They're the greatest daredevils in the
business; do anything, and get away
with things the Boche wouldn't thinl
Of trying. They don't look on theil
work as a great series of personal ad
ventures but as part OF an organized
mechanism with objects a good dea
bigger and more important than th'
interest of any one man.
$50 the British don't take so mucf
interest in the individual feats of PROV
ess of favorable f1iers. Air duelling /:
not the object Of flying. The objec
is to get the information ones sen
for and to get back with it.
"As soon as a f1ier crosses the line
he must count on the great danger o.
being shot down by these guns as wei
as on the chance Of meeting an en-
envy In the air and having to fight him
Disregard Losses.
"Of course all this means losses, an(
when they've toted up at the end O.
the day or week or month this part O.
the showing may indicate that thu
Boche has had all the best of it.
"But If there could be pitched int
the scale on the side of the British
service the results gained, the valu
of information gained about the en-
envy and of information he has beer
prevented from gaining about our owl
lines, the showing Of movements &C
curately planned because of superiO
information, of positions taken or al
tillery fire accurately placed, Of sol
diers' lives saved because of better In
telligence about the enemy's veal
places--then the showing would be