New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-01-28
Scout Often Darts to Combat
Alone with German Aero
Squadron - Boys Pilot
Scores of Planes


With the British Armies in France,
Jan. Announcement that I'M
proved weather conditions permitted
increased aerial activity along the en-
tire 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
announcement conjures up at once q
picture Of countless aeroplanes in the
air scouting, fighting, diving, spin
ming. lowering over enemy targets and
calmly sending wireless signals through
tho fountains OF enemy fire, photo
graphing the enemy lines and bombing
his ammunition dumps and sheds and
supply columns. :,
The British communicate may end
from day to day with the statement
that one or two or three or four "oi
our machines have not returned" Ihis
means that they have either been hit
and forced to land in the enemy lines
or have been shot down to fate more
certain. 1t is no child's play to circle
above a German battery observing for
half an hour or more, tortured by eXplod-
ing shells and black shrapnel pufballs
coming nearer and nearer, like the ex-
tending fingertips 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
scarcely eighteen. 1t is rare 10 find a
flying man over twenty-five.
Work of the Highest Importance
In the aggregate, however. the
losses in the flying corps are as moth
ing compared with the useful and vital
work the wings" accomplish. With
out 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 map
makers could not trace each detail OF
the trench positions. Without them
the general staff could not accurately
know Just what is going on by day
and night behind the enemy lines.
The good flying" of single day on
the British front alone may repre-
sent day of hundred fights, day
of fourscore aeroplanes in wing-to-
wing combat day Of thousand per-
sonal incidents and deeds of daring
in the once strange strata Of high, thin
air.
II might tell, for instance, Of how
Lieutenant A, in a fast-hying scout
machine, encountered squadron OF
twelve German 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. 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 dived
into them, firing as he came. This
threw the twelve Germans into panic
and their formation was entirely
broken up. Meantime Lieutenant A.
got beneath the nearest machine and
fred an entire drum OF cartridges into
il at fifteen yards. The hostile ma
chine collapsed and crashed" That
is a supreme word in the lexicon OF
the flying corps. machine may fall
or dive but until il is actually seen
to "crash" it is not counted as an en-
envy casualty"
After seeing his particular enemy
crash" Lieutenant A. drew off to
think things over. He was somewhat
amazed 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 g spiral nose
dive TO a crash" This led 10 still
more complications, and the intrepid
little pilot soon found himself engaged
with three machines. His fight with
these was indecisiye.
Wasp OF Sky Starts Homcward
For" says the official record, "hay-
ing expended all his ammunition, Lieu
tenant A set of for home"
A few days later, II is related, he
took a running dive into formation
of twenty hostile machines with all
the self-assurance an eagle might have
in the midst Of flock of sparrows.
Before he was through he had sent
three adversaries crashing
This time" says the record, "he
returned to one of our aerodromes for
more ammunition and returned to the
scene Of battle, where he engaged and
dispersed such enemy machines as re-
NAMED in the vicinity. One was seen
to crash upon q housetop."
This same little Lieutenant A
seemed 10 persist in the records OF the
service One day he was crossing the
enemy lines at II 800 feet, when he
found himself directly above a German
kite balloon, sent up for artillery OBJ
servation. Pretending to be in trouble,