The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1918-02-15
American in French Service
PAYS Tribute to Filters From
England.
REGARD WORK SERIOUSLY
Germans Ahead as Builders, but Brit
ons Are Best Fliers-one Object
Is to Bring Back Information
Required by the Staff


case which was made the other day
by an American airman who has been
during most of the war attached TO
the French air service. He knows all
about the air business, has taught
other men to fly and to fight and has
himself highly creditable record OF
bringing down Hun planes. He knows
all the stars of the French service and
many of the British. =
He paid high tribute to the German
flying machines, observing repeatedly
that the procession of German I'M
provements in planes and engines
moves so swiftly that the allies are
all compelled to hustle constantly TO
keep from being outdistanced. When
ever the French and British catch up
with German construction the Germans
produce something new and still bet
ter.
Work With Land Forces.
Equally important, he declares, the
British have much the most accurate
notion of what the flying service is
about. They coordinate 1t with their
military operations. most effectively.
They have less fear Of the daily report
of comparative losses on both sides.
They use the aircraft for certain spe-
cific purposes; when the bit of infor-
nation that Is wanted Is accounted Of
more value than the chance of losing
some machines, why the British sery-
ice goes after the information. ~
AT the end of the day 1t may be
necessary to make a report admitting
that more British than German ma
chimes were lost; but what of that2
The needed observation was taken, or
the highly important photograph was
secured. az
"The British operate their service
not with a view to saving their ma
chimes, not with notion of avoiding
dangers as much as possible; especial
ly not with the idea that to lose more
machines than the enemy loses is a
showing of inferiority, sign of de-
feat. y u 5e.
1.-THE British aviators are not spoiled
with laudation and heroics. They re-
gard themselves very much as so
many Tommies In the trenches do.
Their business Is to go up when they
are told and get what they are sent
for; just as Tommy's business is to
hang on till hades freezes when he's
attacked, and to go over and never stop
when he's ordered to attack. Neither
one of them feels particularly enthu-
siastic about his job as means to
winning honors or distinction; he
doesn't think much about that part Of
it. He attends strictly to the job.
ITS the sporting instinct that makes
these Britishers such good flying men.
They're the greatest daredevils In the
business; do anything, and get away
with things the Boche wouldn't think
of trying. They don't look on their
work as a great series of personal ad.
ventures but as part of an organized
mechanism with objects a good deal
bigger and more important than the
interest of any one man. ~
interest In the individual feats of PROV
ess of favorable fiiers. Air duelling is
not the object of flying. The object
Is to get the information ones sent
for and to get back with it,
"As soon as a filler crosses the line
he must count on the great danger of
being shot down by these guns as well
as on the chance of meeting an, en-
envy In the air and having to fight him.
Disregard Losses.
"Of course all this means losses, and
when they've toted up at the end of
the day or week or month this part of
the showing may indicate that the
Boche has had all the best of 1t.
But If there could be pitched into
the scale on the side Of the British
service the results gained, the value
of information gained about the en-
envy and of information he has been
prevented from gaining about our own
lines, the showing of movements ac-
curately planned because of superior
VI pOoihhoho tuhCh VI uA'
tillery fire accurately placed, of sol.
diers' lives saved because of better In
telligence about the enemy's weak
places-then the showing would be q
lot different
Suppose set of photographs is
needed by the staff showing some sec
ton of the enemy's line perhaps a con-
siderable distance back of the front.
To have those photographs may decide
whether a particular move is to be un-
dertaken and how; so the airmen are
sent after 'em. Maybe two or three
will be brought down and their ma.
chimes smashed up; perhaps some be-
hind the enemy's llnes-pOssibly some
body will fly for the last time. The
point is that If one camera gets back
with the pictures wanted the thing har
been successful"