The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-08-31
DESTROY SEVENTY
British Airmen Account for
Many Hun Planes.
Lost Only % of Their Own in
Same Time.
RESULT OF WEEKS FIGHTING
Have Brought Down 324 in
Past Four Weeks.
Are Bringing the War Home to
Germany.
RESULT OF WEEKS FIGHTING

New York. Aug. 3I.-Summing up
the British aviation communicates for
the weeks just passed, the British bu-
reau of information here today de-
clared that there is a consistent and
remarkably high average of enemy
r'achines destroyed week by week."
and that there is "a siRguIarly spas
modic and obviously nervous method
in Germ-ay's efforts to combat the
threefold aerial offensive which is
being carried on by the British.
Destroyed Seventy Enemy Machines.
The statement declares that in the
week seventy enemy machines were
destroyed and eleven driven down out
of control on the west front alone. Dur
ing the same period. it is stated only
JEenty-seven British machines were
reported missing.
Thus. for every British airplane
which failed to return the statement
says. more than two German ma
chimes are reported to have been dis
abled.
S24 in Last Four Weeks
THAT these figures are by no means
exceptional is shown by the fact that
during the last four weeks 324 enemy
machines have been accounted for I'M
der similar circumstances while only
116 British have been reported miss
INK ne same DTOdQ results are OBJ
served upon the Italian, Balkan and
Palestine fronts, where eighteen enc
my machines have been destroyed or
driven out of control. During the last
week. twelve British machines have
been reported missing.
Taking the whole of the European
Mediterranean battlefields together,
the Royal air force has accounted for
10 the neichborhood of 40 enemy air
craft. against a net loss of twenty
nine British machines. It is however,
upon the western front that this re-
markable disparity is most significant,
for it is here that Germany is concen-
tratinC the major portion of her
strength.
Face ThreefoId Problem.
''Et is here also that she is faced
with the threefold problem. not only
OF defending her long battle front.
but also of warding off the insistent
and formidable British attacks upon
her right and left flanks-Belgian ma
val bases and the industrial centers of
the Rhine"
The statement includes a table
showing the number of air raids which
have been carried out against towns
behind the German western front dur
ing the week. The result of photo
era phs taken after these expeditions
is also stated.
'Innumerable raids have been made
on all vital enemy positions" it is
stated. including Seclin, Lille. Menin,
Cambria. Valenciennes. Cortrai. Ar
mentieres, Douai, Chaulnes, Peronne,
etc.
To take at'hazard a specimen page
OF raw aerial photographs we find the
indisputable camera record of the
following bomb bursts:
''Obendorf. three bursts one on the
railway sidings. one alongside the ex-
tension of the StauSer works, one on
the Mauser works.
'Offenburg, three bursts, two be-
hind the railway work shops; one on
the station.
"Offenburg-( following day)-Five
bursts; one on the main station; two
on the railway; one direct hit on rail-
way bridge; one on railway south of
station.
Facts such as these" the statement
comments, go far to explain the in
tense resentment which Germany feels
with regard to the now incessant at
tacks upon her centers of munitions
production"