New Britain herald., 1918-02-21
CONTEMPT FOR ]. s. GUNNERS SHOWN BY
 PRUSSIAN AVIATORS
Germans Hold Complete Suprem. aCy Of Air Over American SeC-
 tor and Fit Around at Will

PUUk LEAD IN FRUM PLAltE DISGUISED IN ALLIED COL0RS Anti-Aircraft Weapons Fail to DIspei Composrlre of Enemy F1yers-Fre-
 ouent Raids on Small Towns-First
 of New F1eet-Acro Club of Ameri-
 ca Calls Meeting to Consider Sit
 uation.
 With the American Army in France, Feb. 20, (By the Associated g Press )-Control of the air in the American sector belongs to the en- erny. Any of the officers will make this declaration-all have made it. The control is obvious.
 German airplanes come and go over the American lines almost at will.
 Every time the Germans come over, their path through the sky is fol- lowed by feecy shrapnel puffs, but the chances of hitting an airplane with anti-aircraft shells is so re- mote that the enemy aviators calmly fly along as though on a pleasure tour Every now and then airplanes on this side attack the enemy. They always do this when they get a chance but the Boche is clever while flying and manages to come over and take pictures, make observations and do virtually whatever else he desires and then calmly sails home without interruption. Nearly always he is at an altitude of about 5000 metres where he is comparatively safe from anti-aircraft fire and knows it.
 It is not permitted to name any of ficers of the American force. It is not permitted to quote them. If both were allowed it would be possible to carry quotations from virtually every officer at the front urging a speedy appearance of large mum bers of American airplanes with American pilots.
 There is only one way to wrest con- tro1 of the air < ~om the enemy, that is to fight him for it in the sky and to relieve him from it by greater num- bers.
 Disguised As Allied Machine.
 Right now if the Germans knew American airplaneS were waiting for them every time they came over the , line their trips would be less frequent, Neither would they dare to attempt such a piece of work as when they recently flew over the lines in a plane disguised with the allied red, white and blue bullseye marking and cut loose with a machine gun on Amerl- can soldiers in the trenches.
 Had there been AmeriSan planes nearby chances of the Germans get ting back home after such a trip would be small. And it is extremely doubtful, officers say, if they would have tried it.
 Any officer also will say the safety of individual soldiers depends upon keeping the enemy from doing as he pleases overhead For days the Ger mans have been flying over certain towns where American troops have been resting after periods in the trenches. Once or twice these day light observation tours have been fol lowed the same night by visits by enc my bombing planes.
 So free and unrestricted are the German airmen that in some town: the commands are under strict order: to disappear under cover the mOmen ' a German plane is sighted.
 First of New Fleet.
 Moreover, officers say, more ant more German planes are appearing il the sky and in various quarters ther is growing belief that these are tn first of the machines the German have been building feverishly to off set large numbers of expected Ameri can airplanes in accordance wit plans announced in the United States
 Whether this belief is true or nc the fact remains that the America troops are holding the sector and ar being endangered daily because ther are no American airplanes with then The question from one end of tn line tO the other is: ''When are som American planes coming here?"