The Leader, enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ga.) 1915-1921, 1917-06-01
BIRDMEN In FIGHT
$4,000 FEET In AIR

NJ SHCCl Whatever on the BRUSH
aerial offensive which continues day
and night with unrelenting intensity.
In the last few days there have
been witnessed some of the most des-
perate air battles of the entire war.
One or two of these have been fought
at the unprecedented hight of 10000
feet or more than three and half
miles from the earth.
Recently there was a duel in which
British pilot, having run out Of am
munition for his machine, got close
enough to his antagonist to shoot him
down with his revolver. This Incl
| dent served to recall the fact that
when the war broke out the only
weapons which aerial pilots had were
pistols and carbines
Commenting today on the dazzling
attitudes at which many combats oc-
cur nowadays, pilot said that when
he first went to war in 1914 he flew a
machine which took an hour and a
quarter to reach 5000 feet
That's nothing" said one of his
comrades, the old bus had in those
days couldn't reach 5000 feet at all"
The airplane which could not reach
l0,OC0 feet well u1Icr ten minutes
would be strapped quickly now.
A notable feature OF the air fight
ing in the last ten days has been
The tendency Of the German machines
to break in pieces soon after being
shot out OF control
he toll Of German planes destroy
ed in May will mount far into the
hundred. n last Sundays fighting
alore thirty were accounted for. Fiji
teen were seen to crash to the ground,
fourteen were driven down completely
out of control and one was shot down
by artillery.
One Of the melces on Sunday be-
tween six British and eight German
machines was as thrilling as any aerial
battle ever fought 1t was at close
quarters throughout; so close in fact.
that wings scraped against wings and
Fighting pilots could look each other
squarely in the eye. No sooner would
British pilot swoop up to the tail
OF one of the German machines than
another German was upon his tail.
This German in turn would almost
Immediately have another British pi-
lot pouring bursts of machine gun
bullets at him. At one time seven ma
| chimes were following each other in
head long fashion toward the earth.
1t was nearly eight o'clock in the
evening when the British offensive
patrol sighted the eight Germans, we'll
over their own lines. The enemy ma
chimes fled but were eventually over
hauled and brought to combat. The
commander of the British formation
Owed at the nearest German, but the
latter turned sharply beneath him and
escaped the first burst of fire. The
commander then attacked another
machine just in front of him, pouring
in many rounds at ranges shortening
from fifty to twenty yards. The Ger
man went down 1000 yards in a
SPIN, then turned over and continued
to tall, completely out of control.
BY this time another hostile craft
was on the commanders tail. He
tried to shake off the German but
could not do so and deliberately went
down IN a spin. When he fattened
Out he found the German still with
nm and so he again went down in =
SPIN. The German was then attack
ed by British pilot who had follow
ing his machine with bullets until he
went tumbling to earth, swaying back
ed HIM down and sat on his tail flood
and forth like a piece of paper. in a
gale.
Spinning and diving, this remark
"OiS pdttle kept up until three Ger
mans had been shot down. The others
having fed, the British patrol re-
formed without single casualty. The
pilot who brought down a machine
with seven shots from his automatic
pistol already had accounted for two
other Germans, making a record of
three for the day.
One OF the most remarkable es-
capes from death which pilot ever
mad occurred today While over the
German lines his machine was h;t nv
shell which tore hole throuob
and exploded on the engine. wreckine
IT. The pilots leg was fractured in
two places but he brought his machine
back over the lines to within FIVE feet
OF the ground, where he lost CON
seriousness and crashed to the earth
The machine was so shot ND that the
men who extricated the Young Aier