The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-01-27
S|NCLE-HANDED. A|RmAN FIGHTS
 HOSTILE FLEET
Charges Into Dozen of Foes Aviators and Gets Away
 With It.

Jan. 27.-The announcement that Improved weather conditions per mitted increased aerial activity along the entire front" is the laconic and prosaic way in which the official com munique dismisses some of the most spectacular episodes of the war.
 To those who have once witnessed this increased aerial activity such an announcement conjures up at once a picture of countless aeroplanes in the air-scouting, fighting, diving, spinning, lowering over enemy tar gets and calmly sending wireless sig nals through the fountains of enemy fire, photographing the enemy lines, bombing his ammunition dumps and sheds and supply columns, and other wise "carrying on'' in the sky in a manner wholly bewildering to the on- locker but; typifying in supreme de- gree the Indispensable part aviation is playing in this war.
 With a candor often uncommon in times of strife, the British communi- que may end from day to day with the simple statement that one or two or three or four "of our machines have not returned" This means they hcve either been hit and forced to lanc in the enemy lines, or have been shot down to fate more certain. It is no child's play to circle above a German battery observing for half an hour or more, tortured by exploding shells and black shrapne1 puffballs 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 bringing the lustre of everlasting fame to the British aviation service. Some are scarce eighteen. It is rare to find a flying man over twenty-five.
 In the aggregate, however, the loss es in tne flying corps are as nothing compared with the useful and vital work of the wings" z accomplish. Without them the big guns would have no far-seeing eyes to correct their shells. Without them and the hundreds of photographs they daily take, the mapmakers could not trace each detail of the trench positions W uncut them the general staff could not accurately know just what is go- ing on by day and night behind the enemy lines. Without them modern war would lose it's most fascinating phase.
 The s'good flying of single day on the British front alone may repre- sent a day of hundred fights, day of four score aeroplanes in wing-to- wing combat--a day of a thousand personal incidents and deeds of daring in the once strange strata of high thin air.
 It might tell,, for instance, of how Lieutenant A in a fast-fying scout machine, encountered a squadron of twelve German Hollands. 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 hos tile craft. Evidently the Germans were intent upon some errand which they proposed to carry out in force, for they paid no heed to the khaki clad airman until he deliberately div ed into then1,s firing as he came. This threw the twelve Germans into pan ic and their formation was entirely broken up. Meantime Lieut.. A got beneath the nearest machine and fired an entire drum of cartridges into it at fifteen yards. The hostile ma chine collapsed and crashed That is supreme word in the lexicon of the flying corps. A machine may fall, or dive, but until 1t is actually seen to crash it is not counted as an enemy casualty"
 After seeing, his particular enemy crash" Lieut.. A, drew off to think things over. He was somewhat arnazeu to see still more hostile ma chimes coming up in formation. But he dashed at the leader of the new corners and sent him in a spiral nose dive to a crash" This led to still more complications and the intrepid little pilot soon found himself engag- ed with three machines. His fight With these was indecisive.
 For" says the dfhcial record, "hav- ing expended all his ammunition, Lieut.. A, set off for home.''
 A few days later, it is related, he took running dive into a formation the self assurance an eagle might have in the midst of 8 flock of spar rows. Before he was through he had sent three adversaries ~"crashing.'
 "This time,'' says the record, The
 
 for more ammunition and returned to the scene of battle where he engaged and disT .ersed such enemy machines as remained in the vicinity. One was seen to crash upon a housetop.''
 This same little Lieutenant A, seems to persist in the records of the service. One day he was crossing the enemy lines at 11,500 feet when he found himself directly above a German kite balloon, sent up for artillery obser- vation. Pretending to be in trouble, and thus avoiding fire from the anti aircraft guns, he fell in side-stalls to 1,500 feet, suddenly righted himself and dived at the balloon. He open ed and continued firing until he al- most touched the big gas bag. Just as he passed over it, the thing burst into flames and was destroyed in. a few seconds.
 The Germans lately have adopted the ruse of t'stalling'' and shamming fall out of control It is thrill ing, but not uncommon thing to see German machine, when closely pressed, turn it's tail straight up in the air and dive toward the earth and feet, and just as the initiated on- locker would expect a crash it fattens out and starts pell-mell for it's own lines. One does not always get away with this bit of aerial strategy, however, as is shown by the record of Capt B. After attacking three hos-