Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1917-04-25
Spectacular Fighting 15,-
600 Feet Above Ground
Makes History.
DEEP" SKY BIG HELP
mot a Cloud for Germans
to Hide Behind" Says
Correspondent.
EN \ STAFF CORRESPONDENT
of thc Associated Press

WITH THE BRITISH ARMIES IN
FRANCE, via Lordon, April "a
The intensely bitter ground fighting
OF the last two days has been reflect
ed in the air and the British royal
living corps yesterday established
Lcw record by bringing down lortv
German machines. Fifteen OF these
were actually seen to crash whle %
collapsed or fell in spinning nose
Owes. completely cut Of control.
Thc fights TOOK place fifteen thou
sand feet in the iir, from which dis
tancc II Is barely possible to see tho
ground ANA wholly impossible tc SEQ
| an adversary crash unless the pilot de-
! lberately follows down. Such n course
is not feasible whore the fighting has
taken on the character Of a general
melee, ns is nowadays often tho case.
y remarkable part of voster9 >v's per-
| fornance Is that cnly twJ British ma.
chimes arr missing.
Wcathcc l. Ideal
II was the finest day for war flying
that the young khaki pilots ever had
and today they have been At t again
smce sunrise, bat the full reports OF
| their exploits are not ye; in.
| 1t Is nowu, however. that one in
rtpid young flyer, failing t. find a
single German observation balloon
| uioft. sought ont one in lis hangac
on the ground. dived at 't and set the
big gas bag laze from stem to stern.
Nc Cloud to Hide Behind.
Since Sunday the British airnen
have beer reVelling in weather ;hey
lave long desired. Not cloud was In
the sky today behind which a German
could find shelter. Deprived of that
means of "digEinr themselves" tho
! fa,.u 20 fh1n
usual ard Very iifflelltr,v fins. fs-ssA.-
ish machines were everywhere along
tho battle frcnt and ffr behind tho
German Inc. Bombing raids were
carried out i5 niles back, the ma
Chimes deliberately flying over ground
whore battles were raging with the
greatest fury.
German trains rushing reinforce
ments to the front were attacked and
transport columns on the roads were
bombed and completely disorganized.
In several instances the British ma
chimes came low over the fighting
lines and poured machine gun fire
into the German ranks. In doing this
machines have deliberately crossed
the fire of their own rs well as the
enemy's guns.
One Flyers Record.
Yesterday one British pilot, after
all his ammunition gone, descended,
reloaded, tilled up his petrol tanks
and took TO the air again. Another
pilot felled two machines, while the
other 80 were divided among SINH
lar number OF British pilots.
The greatest fighting yesterday,
oddly enough, was a drawn battle ono
of the British pilots met a brilliant
German fler and for a full hour they
maneuNcrcd in most marvellous
manner without either being able to
bring his gun to bear on the other.
They rolled, looped. twisted elab-
orately stalled their engines and.
standing the machines on their tails,
slid backwards thru the air, but all to
no avail. II probably was the most
wonderful air duel the war has yet
seen.
4 Great Battle.
The British pilot reported today that
several times he felt sure he would
get his adversary between his sights,
but tho latter invariably wriggled out
Of the line Of fire The British flier
himself was kept busy avoiding tho
German, and once he dared dive all
most perpendicularly Tho combat
did not break ofs until both pilots
d had fairly exhausted themselves and
their petrol.
Strangely enough. later in the day
another British pilot encountered the
: same German machine The Brit.
7 isher was swinging his way home
ward after a hard days work, but he
jockeyed with the German for nearly
quarter of an hour before fly
Ing on.
just Got n rabbit"
, In strange contrast to this was the
, experience of one Brtisher who
somewhat peevishly complained last
[ night tnat 81 only got a rabbit" He
1 explained this by saying that while
+ his opponent had a good machine, he
was a clumsy fellow and couldn't
, fight at all and was sent spinning
with the first burst of gunfire
Still another pilot mounted fast
new machine and deliberately al
lowed n German to get on his tail
{ Then he suddenly looped behind his
e adversary and caught him Just with
1 in the sights the burst of fire killing
: the German instantly The machine
= swerved and the dead man pitched
out ten thousand feet from the
ground.
, The fighting yesterday was all
within the enemy territory. Several
British machines had bullet holes
{ thru their wings but sailed home un-
aided and took the air again this
lmorning,