Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-01-27
PORTRAYAL Of BRAVERY
IN THE AERIAL FIGHTING
Losses and Achievements of Men in
Allied Service Compared-In-
trepidity of Aviators.

Correspondence of the Associated Press.
WITH THE BRITISH ARMIES IN
FRANCE, January 10.-The announce
ment that Improved weather condi-
tions permitted increased aerial activ-
ity along the entie ront." is the la
comic 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
a picture Of countless aeroplanes in
the air-scouting, fighting, diving,
spinning, lowering over enemy targets
and calmly sending wireless signals
through the fountains of enemy fire.
photographing the enemy lines. bomb
ing his ammunition dumps and sheds
and supply columns, and otherwise
carrying on" in the sky in a menner
wholly bewildering to the onlooker
but typifying in supreme degree the
indispensable part aviation is playing
in this war.
With candor often uncommon in
times Of strife, the British communique
may end from day to day with the
simple statement that one or two or
three or four "of our machines have
not returned" This means they have
either been hit and forced to land in
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 exploding shells and
er and nearer like the extending finger
tips of some hand of death. But they
are little more than children-these
mere boys. who are bringing the lns-
fay- NJ Iac Two 20, To tk,1 DIT ;,In
aviation service. Some are scarce
eighteen. 1t is rare to find flying
man over twenty-five.
Losses and Achievements.
In the aggregate. however. the losses
in the flying corps are as nothing
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 stan could not accurately know
what Is going on by da: and night be-
hind the enemy lines Without them
modern war would lose its most fasci-
mating phase.
The good flying of single day on
a day of hundred flights, day of
four score aeroplanes in wing-to-wing
combat day of a thousand personal
incidents and deeds Of daring in the
once strange strata Of high, thin air.
| 1t might tell, for instance. of how
| Lieut.. A, in a fast-fying scout machine.
encountered a squadron of twelve Ger
man Rolands. The odds were one
sided enough. but the young Britisher
decided to take g 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 a panic. and their
formation was entirely broken up.
| Meantime Lieut.. A got beneath the
| nearest machine and fired an entire
! drum of cartridges into it at fifteen
/ yards. The hostile machine collapsed
| in the lexicon of the flying corpA A
machine may fall, or dive. but until It
| is actually seen to crash" it Is not
| counted as an enemy casualty"