Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-12-21
DARING FEATS
ARECARRIED ON
BY BRDMEN
Air Fighters Escape Alive
Seemingly by Miracle;
Hair-Raising Incidents

Correspondence of The Associated Press
Behind the British Lines In France,
Nov. so.-Stories of daring escapades
of British aviators. exciting aerial
combats from which the air fighters
escaped alive seemingly only by mir
Rcle, and of brilliantly executed raids |
upon German aerodromes and troops !
behind the German lines are mar
rated in the reports of the Royal |
Flying Corps covering the activities
OF ABOUT one week. Hair-raising
incidents of fierce conflicts above the
clouds or low over the German COM
anunication lines are described in |
these succinct reports without bonn
bsst, as though these narrow escapes !
from death were commonplace and
all in the days work of the air
fighter.
For example, there was the case of
a British aviation officer who, when !
nearly a mile above the earth, was
attacked by two enemy aircraft. He |
shot down one of them out of con- |
troll, but was himself wounded and |
tainted while still high in the air. !
recovering consciousness, he found |
Ills machine upside down at an eleva-
tlon of 1000 feet with one enemy air
craft still firing at him. The Brit |
Usher, however managed after a
struggle to right his machine and
land safely.
In a somewhat similar instance a
German scout attacked British air
plane carrying a pilot and observer. !
one of the Germans bullets passed
hA nf a
British airplant and seriously wound
ed the pilot The British observer,
however, pumped a full double drum
of bullets at the enemy scout at very
close quarters and the German went
TO the ground with a crash.
Meanwhile the British pilot had
tainted and fallen against the steer
ing stick" in such "a fashion as to
throw the airplane into a spin. The
British observer climber over the side
and forward along the plane to the
pilots cockpit, lifted the pilot to his
seat and, still standing on the wing
of the plane, released the steering
gear. brought the machine out of the
spin and safely to the ground.
Two British officers were returning
from an expedition over the enemy's
lines to locate hostile batteries when
their machine was hit by anti-air-
craft fire and the engine damaged
Nolplaning. the machine landed 300
yards from the British lines, the
airplane turned over and the avi-
ators were hurled out on the Ger
man side of canal. Running along
the beach under heavy fire from
rifles and machine guns. the aviators
dived into the canal only to find it
full of barbed wire, but managed to
reach the British lines in safety.
Many instances illustrating the
reckless daring of the British avi-
ators sent over the German lines to
obtain information, destroy aero
dromes and harry the German re-
serves. are contained in the official
narratives. One pilot who crossed
the lines at Ypres threw off two at
tacking machines, bombed the Heule
aerodrome near Lille and was fired
upon by two machine guns. He dived
at one of them, firing both guns of
the British airplane, drove the Ger
mans from their guns fired upon thel
aerodrome again, attacked and scat
tered a column of 20 German infan-
trymen on the road. A German two
scatter airplane was circling 500 feet
above him for an attack. II zoomed
up under its tail and fired into it,"
writes the British aviator. 1T
crashed down onto the railway"
Another British pilot had fired a
hundred rounds on German troops
on the march when he was inter-
rupted by two enemy airplanes. He
attacked them and drove both down
and then finished the job of driving
the German infantry into trenches
and shellholes.
Flying at the height of 200 feet, a
British aviator engaged in a re-
volver duel with two German off,
GERS in motor and while doing so
ran into some lines of telegraph
wires. but fortunately his machine
cut them. A few minutes later he
attacked German infantry, which es-
capped his gun only by diving into
pOnd,