South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1918-08-13
AIR FIGHTERS
GIVE GREAT AID
IN BIG DRIVE
Dreadnaught German Air.
plane is Brought Down.
Carried Five Engines and
Seven Passengers.
By BERT FORD.
International News Service

WITH THE BRITISH ARMY on
THE PICARDY BATTLE FRONT,
Aug. ia dreadnaught German
airplane carrying seven men and
equipped with i've engines has been
shot down by the British. All the
occupants were killed by the eNplo-
sion of two unreleased bombs. They
were buried by Americans in the
crater made by the explosion.
Allied aviators are intensely inter
ested i'm the victory over the great
plane and overjoyed at its capture.
The German dreadnaught of the air
was equipped with large supply Of
tcrpedoes and bombs, each weigh
ing go pounds.
The monster craft was apparently
downed on its maiden flight The
giant Gotha was shot full of holes
while d battery of searchlights play
ed upon il.
Was Bombing Village.
The great airplane was engaged
in dropping bombs upon village
when the wings we're seen 10 tilt in
the concentrated glare of the
searchughts Then it plunged 20
earth under its own enormous
weight
The dimensions and construction
OF the machine constitute a distinct
departure from the old type and
caused almost as much comment as
the bombardment of Paris by Ger
man cannon.
Disturbed by the scale and success
of the operations OF British aviators
in the present offensive. the Ger
mans are massing machines.
Thirty Fokkers attacked y Brit
ish flyers on sunday and in the
fighting which followed five German
machines were destroyed and one
other was sent down out of control.
All of the British planes escaped.
This is q sample OF the way the
British have been shading the
Gothas during the past few months.
Air Work Unprecedented.
Air operations carried out in con-
junction with the allied drive on the
PiCardy front are unprecedent in
the history of the war.
Six hundred British planes were
thrown into the conflict.
One hundred and twenty six
enemy machines were downed in
two days, it was officially an
nounced. not including a number
OF others that were undoubtedly de
stroyed by aviators who failed to re-
turn.
Fifty British machines were re-
ported as missing
Considering the scale of the op-
erations and the unfavOrable wealth
er at the opening OF the offensive,
the British losses are not heavy
Forty-eight German machines
were shot down on the first day and
/ II were driven down out of control.
on the second day SO German
planes were destroyed and. - were
( shot down out of control
Fantastic Fighting.
The work of the air service in the
first three days of the drive showed
! the most unique and fantastioshght-
( ing i'm the history of any army.
The British established the inno-
walton of carrying machine gun am
/ in advanced positions in aiEplanes.
Aviators fought duels with ma
chine gunners and sharp shooters
cleared trenches, held up hostile
l transports and otherwise aided the
/ land forces by flying low over the
| field Of battle.
SiIences Battery.
A lieutenant saw German anti
tank guns checking the advance Of
eight armored cars. He swept low
and attacked the Germans with ma
chine gun FIRE silencing the batter
/ les.
Another aviator blew up an am
munition dump, flying so low that
the debris nearly reached his ma
chine.
one airman, flying 200 feet above
/ the ground, saw 200 boches huddled
I in a ravine He fired $50 rounds of
ammunition into them and saw
I dozens fall.
I Still another aviator scattered
/ transport train with bombs and ma
+ chine gun nre setting the car ablaze.
/ One German transport train was
cut in two al a station inside of the
hostile lines