Arizona republican., 1917-05-11
GERMANS PAINT
 AIRSH|PS IN MOST
 VIVID COLOR|NGS
(From Staff Correspondent of the
 Associated Press)

of the new German policy of painting their machines most grotesque pat terms. They seem to have gotten this idea from the old American Indian custom of painting their faces to frighten their opponents, or else the spring fancies of the German airmen have been allowed to run riot with vivid color effects.
 Each day the British pilots bring home from over the lines new reports of fantastic creations encountered amid the clouds. The gayest feathered that have come north with the spring cannot hope to rival the variegated hues of the harlequin birds that rise daily from the German air dromes. The coming of this fantastic order of things in the air was first heralded by a squadron of German planes met ten or twelve days ago. It then was noticed that some of the enemy machines were striped about the body like yellowjackets.
 Nowadays nothing appears too gaudy to meet the tastes of the enemy airmen, who seem to have been given carte blanche with the paint brush. There are green planes with yellow noses, silver planes with gold noses. khaki -colOred planes with greenish- gray wings, planes with red bodies, green wings and yellow stripes, planes with red body and wings of green on top of blue planes with light blue body and red wings. Virtually all the gaudiest machines go in for red body effects. with every possible combina- tion of colOrs on their wings. Some have one green wing and one white; some have green wings tipped with various cOlors.
 One of the most fantastic met in the last few days had scarlet body brown tail, reddish -brown wings with white Maltese crosses against a bright green background. One machine look ed like a pear flying through the air. It had q pear shaped tail and was painted a ruddy brown, just like a large ripe fruit.
 One of the piebald squadrons en- countered was made up of white, red and green machines There were still others palpably painted for what has come to be known as camouflege's as guns, wagons and tents are often painted to blend with the landscape and thus avoid detection. This lavish use of paint, however, has ACsN1 flicted on the Germans by the British fliers. But it must not be imagined that the Germans are not putting up a stalwart fight. Just as their force has been strengthened on land so it has been in the air. Just as the Germans have thrown in new divisions of in fantry and new batteries of artillery to check the allies offensive. so they have sent aloft hundreds of new ma chimes to contest for the mastery of the air, an important phase of modern war
 More than once the theory has been put forward recently that this strang est of all wars may directly or indi- rectly he decided deep in the sea or high in the air. The best evidence of the way the air battles are going is the fact that virtually all of them take place miles over the German lines. At times the German planes come over on reconnaissance work, which they at tempt to carry out at height of 1000 feet or more. It is the rarest thing, however, that fights are seen on the British side of the line All the general air engagements occur back of the German trenches, about the only ma = chimes brought down in British terri tory being those which have been de liberately trapped and surrounded and forced over to this side,
 So it is with bombing raids Last night enemy machines dropped three bombs near a railway station in the British lines, but in one of the half score of raids carried out last night by the British not less than 56 big bombs were dropped on single German en- T intuition dump was blown up. The ex- ploSion was so terrific that one of the British planes 1000 feet above was blown completely upside down and the surprised pilot had a busy thirty sec onds getting his back on an even kee again. One British squadron had had its eyes on this dump for some time and the fliers were in high elee today over their success.
 In the fighting yesterday the British sent six Germans crashing and drove down Il out of control. As result ol bombardinS and fighting only five
 British machines were missing. The toll of machines brought down is nc
 Index of the numbers of fights that oc- cur daily. Manifestly these are inde- ciSiVe where brilliant pilots meet ant light each other until exhausted, with. out either being able to give the other the unlucky bullet" All the fighterS expect to get bullets through their ma chlnes daily, it is only the "unucky' one that counts. One distinguishes young Briton came flying home a few days ago, grinning almost from ear tt ear because he had been in figh
 with four hostile red sconts. He sen
 one crashing and out -maneuVered til,
 rest to such an extent that they wer. bus
 II Is the custom of all flying service.
 now to permit the better known pilot.
 10 ny When and where they will il
 search of legitimate prey The before
 pfeaF last exploits of single British pi
 lot With such rowing commission mas
 pc taken as typical of the daily adven
 lures and not unusual Taking the ali
 about SIX o'clock he cruised toward tn,
 morning sun and saw three British
 combing machines fighting five Ger
 man Albatross scouts. He dived at on,
 ot the scouts and began maneuverin,
 Tor position. when he saw one of tn
 British bombers diving steeply with l;
 hostile craft on his tail The Britisl
 scout dived for this machine until h. saw the bomber flatten out and sIil
 away. He then climbed to 1000 feet Where he fell in with another Eritis Ilghtlng machine. but the pair had no proceeded far when suddenly they wer set upon by seven German scouts. Al 1 patrosses, including the five who ore Nlously had broken off the battle.
 mere was rough and tumble fightin
 TOT i've or ten minutes when the Brit
 lsn scout who was mounted on a flee rl-plane. rot within twenty yards Q one or the Germans and fired poin olaiik into him, then watched him stal lIEn