The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-06-03
Faultiness May Be Due to Speed in Turning Out Machines by Builders TEUTONS ARE USING CLOUDS FOR SCREENS This Is Another Indication of Their Fondness for Digging h." Such as
 Started the Trench
 Fighting
From a Staff Correspondent of the
 Associated Press.)

From Staff Correspondent of the | Associated Press.)
 l With the British Armies in France,
 June 2.-(via London, 7:s0 D. m.)-While
 overcast skies have limited the aerial of
 fensive in the last few days British pilots continue to bring in accounts of German
 airplanes breaking to pieces in the air
 shortly after being attacked. This ten l fortnight. Once shot out of control the I German planes have lost their wings, tails and other gear to such an extent
 that when they finally crash to the ground 1 very little wreckage can be seen.
 l day or two ago a British pilot flew
 at an enemy machine head on, maneuver- ing at the last moment just in time to
 avoid a collision. One of the wings of 1 the British plane, however, scraped one
 Of the German wings, whereupon the lat
 ter began to fall. The British pilot dived after him and was startled to see the
 Germans damaged wings fly completely
 off while the tail dragged as if it's back was broken.
 USE FLOATING CLOUDS l Whether faultiness in so many German airplanes is due to the speed with which the Germans have to turn them out to
 meet the British offensive, or to the lack | of suitable material, is matter of no concern on this side of the line.
 ] Attempts by the Germans to use float | ing clouds IS screens for airplane raids 1 have led to some rather spectacular sky bombardments by British anti-aircraft guns. These guns have occasionally driven the raiders from cover and forced them to turn back over their own lines. German aviators seem especially trained in the defensive use of clouds, for dur ing air battles if bit of passing vapor is available they invariably dive or side slip into it. This is only another demon- stration of the German passion for dig ging in, such as first brought the world war to trench fighting. The Germans dls ln on the land, in the air and under the sea.
 ACTIVITY GROWING The artillery activity appears grad
 ually to be growing in intensity along
 most of the British front, with raids and counter raids going on first in one
 sector and then in another. These raids are the means that the armies
 have of keeping in touch with the en- emy and harassing him. First intro
 duced in the British armies by the Canadians, raids were taken up by the
 French and Germans. The last. named
 were never very successful at the art, however, although recently captured Germans asserted their company com. manders promised them iron crosses and long leaves of absence if they brought back even one British prisoner in raid.
 Strange working parties recently have been seen just behind the Ger man front line. They labor under the eyes of German guards with bayo- nets fixed. The workers are clad in l sort of gray uniform but wear straw I hats, derbies or civilian caps, such as | often are given to prisoners of war ] It has been reported many times lately i that the Germans are deliberately working British prisoners in very close proximity to the front line.
 | Three British soldiers who had been given up as lost returned to their lines
 yesterday after three days behind the | German outposts without food The 1 trio became lost on patrol duty and | discovered they were inside the Ger
 man lines. They hid in a shell hole
 during the day time and tried for three
 successive nights to return to the Brit
 ish lines before they finally succeeded. | FIGHTING DIFFICULT | Such experiences are possible now adays with a ragged and irregular front line for outpost positions as they exist in the battle area east of Arras. l The fighting there is more difficult in some ways than when the armies were
 in fixed trench positions. Then each side became accustomed to the others trench habits and the slightest un- l familiar move day or night had an easily defined significance. East of 1 Arras at present there are only short stretches of trenches with posts be- | tween them but each shell hole is a potential strong point and may hold | a nest of machine guns. chain of connected shell craterS makes A first