Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-10-06
A|RP[ANE WONDERS
GROW WITH WAR.
British Air Gunners Now Said
to Excel the Germans at
Least Three to One.
DEMORALIZE THE TURKS
BY EDWARD PRICE BELL.
Cablegram to The Sunday Star and
Chicago Daily News. Copyright, 1913.

Cablegram to The Sunday Star and
Chicago Daily News. Copyright, 1918.
LONDON, October 5.-Air fighting
claims many of the most striking fea-
lures of the present allied advance on
all the fronts. Nowhere have the. air.
men done better work than in<Pales-
time. Gen. Allenby's fiiers covered his
cavalry turning movement, complete
ly, making it's success absolute. Enc
my retreating columns, debouching
from Tulkeram, Messadis and Nablus,
were machine-gunned and bombed
from the air until the survivors aban-
doned their vehicles and the whole
plan of retreat collapsed.
Turks retreating from Nablus to
Baisan. attacked as described. ran
AWAY from their guns, motor lorries
Land horSe-drawn transports. their
seven mile long column dissolving
and everything falling into the hands
of the British. Three days of such
fighting resulted in Gen. Allenby los
and three missing. Having regard
for the results achieved, this is about
the most economical warfare that
could be imagined.
"Flash-Spotters" in the air have been
doing great work for the British, Bel
gians, Canadians, Australians. French
and Americans during their fierce on
slaughts against the German defense
The ash-spotterS appear at dusk, fly
ing swiftly toward the enemy lines
bidding goodnight as they go to the
artillery observation f1iers returning
to the airdrome after long and risky
yigilS in the air.
Locating Batteries Hard Task.
Remarkable feats continue to be
performed by the various fighting and
observation groups of the royal air
force. One of the hardest tasks is
that of locating hostile batteries.
CHANGING down from a height OF
! 5000 feet. the flash-spotter notes over
/ the dim landscape the points of or
ange light leaping up and dying out
These points disclose the positions OF
| the enemy'S guns. They are marked
| on the flash spoilers map. but not un-
| til by careful study he has convinced
himself that the light reveals the
| spot where real guns are stationed
! and not spots where the willy German
has put dummy guns. The difference
between them and the real guns the
observer determines by the action
! color. duration and frequency of the
| flashes.
| He notes on his map not only the
| position of a gun, but its caliber, az
nearly as he can judge, and by reason
| of his high training he can judge
| very closely. Gun position after CUR
! position is studied and mapped in thi:
; way. Finally the flash-spotter re-
| turns to his batteries. compares the
marks on his map with the list of en-
envy gun positions already in the
| hands of his officers. He probably
Of Gx,<
! or six unknown new enemy gun tar.
| gets.
Stalled Engines Glide to Safety.
The next morning these positions
are photographed and the prints ex-
amined by countless battery officers
In the afternoon an artillery obServa-
ton machine goes up and aids the
guns in demolishing these positions
Thus German batteries are shelled out
day after day from their camouf1ag ed
pits.
Stalled engines are common thing in
the air. but a stalled engine is by nc
! means necessarily fatal. Most machines
| if the engine stops. take a gliding angle
| naturally and the pilot can keep the
plane at this angle easily. Assuming
that the machine is 5000 feet up and
has gliding angle of one in seven. the
| pilot has at least a Seven-mile glide ir
which to find a landing place. If only
| 1000 feet up he can glide two miles
In a certain part of France where
hops are cultivated on a large scale the
engine of a plane stopped dead 200 feet
above the bristling tops of the hoI
poles. BY piece of perfect airmanshir
the pilot slid his machine between two
rows of poles and saved himself, the
observer and the plane.
! Machines are often forced to land just
behind the trenches, where the ground
| is full of shell holes. One landed intac,
| in the market place of French town
though fortunately not on market day.
Night Flying Marvellous.
Nothing could well be more marvellous
than the feats of observation achieved
by the night airmen. The daylight f1ieI
| has many landmarks, but in the best OF
| circumstances much skill is required t,
make sure of these landmarks. AS for
the night flier, he has precious few
landmarks he can depend on recognize
ing in conditions of average visibility.
He must read the lights and the lights
are numerous and confusing. They vary.
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