Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1917-12-07

- 11N1 u AADI
ARE way as to Joke and play with
footballs In the very face of certain
death broke the Germans nerve. and
they gave way with practically no re.
s~istanee at all. Instead of the regi
ment being wiped out. as it should have
been. the men took the trenches with
losses of under 100. 1t was wonderful
l have referred to the work of our
aeroplanes in various parts of this sto-
ry. but | think that noncombataEts
sometimes fail to realize what an i'm
portant and effective part the Royal
Flying corps is playing in this war.
Aeroplanes themselves are still pretty
dangerous modes of loeomotion. and
when it comes to running other RISKS
for the sake of gaining information or
doing material damage ii needs a man
who does not know what the slightest
qualm Of fear is and who is cool and
ready for action in the case of erler-
gency TO make a good military aviator.
We have several a%viators in our
tquadrons who have made big names
for themselves. Among them are Cap
tahi 6lldlSC. u. - ". LleNlltId1l
Hawker, V. c., D. s. o.. NJ. c.. and
also Robert Lorraine, the popular ac-
tor, who is commonly known as the
"actor-airman."
These three in particular have dis
tinguiShed themselves on our little
front. Captain Strange has a lame
foot, but he has done some of the finest
work of the war. In three days he de-
stroyed three stations or big rail CEN
tiers which were of great Importance
to the Germans. In each case he en-
ployed the same methods. He flew
over the point he was aiming for,
stopped his engine, did a nose dive to
within q few hundred feet of the
place, dropped his bomb and got away
safely. Each time he came back with
the planes of his machine riddled with
bullets. 1t takes IN awful lot of
nerve to do a thing like that.
Lieutenant Hawker was the terror of
the "Avatiks" and taubes, and he has
been known to fight three of these big
machines single handed, destroying
two and putting the other one to fight.
Mr.. Hawker longed for a chance to
get mixed up with a Zeppelin, and on
one occasion he nearly realized his
wish.
1t was a bright moonlight night last
summer when everything was as quiet
and peaceful as IN could wish it to be.
A scattering rifle fire could be heard
from the trenches, but there vas really
nothing doing at all. About 0 or 10
O'clock we heard the hum of IN engine
away above us. and we thought, of
Ecourse, it was an %aeroplane. AS 1t
came nearer we realized that no aero
plane engine could make so much noise
as that, and very SOC word vas pass
ed around that there was a Zeppelin
above us.
Very few of US had eve seen a Yep
pelin, and we were more than strain
ing our eyes to catch a glimpse of this
one. Judging from the noise of the
engine, it seemed as though the thing
kept circling around owe our encamp-
ment; but, try as hard as we could.
we were unable to catch sight of it.
1t had not been over us so very long
before we heard a motor engine start
up at the flying grounds, and word
came around that Lieutenant Hawker
was going up after ii. Soon we saw
an aeroplane- shoot up over the tree
tops and to circle around.
gaining altitude every moment. 1t was
quickly lost to view, though, and soon
the engines of the Zeppelin could be
heard no longer, so we concluded that
it had made off. Lieutenant Hawker
few until daylight; but, much to his
disappointment, he failed to find the
Zeppelin.
Another aviator who became famous
was Commander Sampson of the Royal
Naval Air Service. At the beginning
of the war he did SO much damage
with his aeroplane that a price vas
put upon his head by the German au-
thorities. We heard that the sum of
1000 was offered for Commander
Sampson, dead or alive. This did not
make any difference to him sc far as
his work was concerned, and he did
just as much damage after the fact
became known as he did before.
Nor was his activity confined to air
work. He had an armored car that he
used to go out in, and the exciting
event of the day used to be to watch
Commander SIMPSONS return. He
seldom failed to bring back prisoners.
and the damage he did to the Germans
with the machine gun was fearful.
Last spring we had a new type of
aeroplane come out. and 1t was a beau
ty. 1t became known as the British
Scout, and it vas in this type of ma
chine that Lieutenant Hawker defeat
ed. three big German battle planes. 1t
has a very high powered, high speed
engine and can pull right away from
any other type of machine that flies.
1t carries n man only, who runs the
machine and works the gun too. so he
has his work cut out for him.
Before ! ever saw a bomb dropping
aeroplane in action I used to imagine