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

10 their lanulnS grOu1dS IDeSe rOcK-
cts are of different colors and are sent
up at regular intervals until the ma
chine is either safely back or is given
up for lost. When the machine is sight
ed and is circling down toward the
ground big flares are lighted, so as to
enable the aviator to pick his spot for
landing. The whole thing is scientif-
ically arranged, and there are not many
accidents in this part of the work.
One of the most daring parts Of the
air work is the dropping of spies be-
hind the enc$ny's lines. l believe this
goes on on both sides and in many
cases Is successful. The second time
was going ON leave to England | had
made arrangements to go with one of
our fellows from the flying corps. We
were to start on a Mondey morning,
and o. the Friday before he told me
hat he was going to make his last
fight before going to England on the
following morning, Saturday.
He started out at 4 o'clock Saturday
morning with a man and a crate of
carrier pigeons in his machine, and he
had orders to drop both behind the
German lines and return to his head
quarters as quickly as possible.
As | said, he started out at 4, n SO
far as l know be Is not back yet. He
may have been shot down, he may
have had an accident and been forced
to land behind the German lines, or
any one of a hundred things may have
happened. All we know is that he
failed to return.
The anti-aircraft gun was practically
unknown before the beginning of his
war, and there is an enormous chance
for improvement in this branch of
aerial warfare. 1t is very interesting
to watch an anti-aircraft gun in action.
for one can see the gun fired and then
see the shell burst a few seconds later.
So far as l know there is no accurate
way of finding the range of an aero
plane in motion. The popular way of
shooting at a flying machine seems to
be that of firing shells in a large circle,
using the machine as the center, and
then closing in until the aeroplane is
lead in line. There is the uncertainty,
however, of knowing when to time the
shell to burst, and, so far as l can see,
it seems to be pretty much a matter
of luck. l heard an average quoted on
the number of hits to the number of
shells fired, and the figures were one
hit out of every 5000 shells. / cannot
vouch for the accuracy of this state
ment, but l do know that the number
OF hits is surprisingly small.
The falling of the shfapnel from
these shells which burst in the air is
rather dangerous, as l can show by
narrating an incident which happened
to us. We were out in a car near q
village called Brandhook, and we no.
ticed as we anne along that a German
%aeroplane was coming directly toward
us and that it appeared to be follow
ing the road. Our anti-aircraft guns
were playing on it, and the shells SEEM
ed to be bursting mighty close to it.
Before it attained a point above us
it turned at right angles and made off
toward the German lines. We contin-
ued on our way, and a little farther on
we came to where an empty auto was
standing in the middle of the road.
We stopped and looked around for
signs of the occupants, but could find
none. When we had been there about
five minutes an officer and the driver
of the car showed up and said they.
had been forced to take refuge in a
dugout on account of the falling shrap-
mel.
Holes where pieces of shrapnel had
entered the ground were to be seen all
.uo,,,d c.I --0%r;1l - dtr eouao - kho
pieces up. We dug down ten inches and
had not reached them, so we gave 1t
up as a bad job and went on to camp.
This will show that these pieces of
shrapnel are not to be sneered at as
being harmless.
Another favorite stunt with aero
planes is the dropping of hundreds of
steel darts ON bodies of moving troops
or ever on towns or the men in the
trenches. These darts are four or five
inches In length and have a sort of
four pointed tail. They are extremely
sharp and are heavier at the point
than they are at the tail. This causes
them to fall point down.
1t has been proved that one of these
darts dropped from a great height
would, if it struck a man on horseback
square on the top of the head, pass
through the length of a mans body,
through the saddle, through the horses
body and disappear into the ground. I
have seer darts that have been drop
ped, but 1 have never been where they
were falling, and | had no desire to be
either.
There was a German who pulled the
greatest little game of bluff on us. We
were at a village called Rheninghelst
when this fellow came over, and ev-
erybody remarked at how low he was
flying. Our anti-aircraft guns were let
ting him have 1t from all directions,
and suddenly his engine stopped and
the machine began to fall. The guns
LET M. thinking that he was winged.