Evening star., 1918-09-01
BRITISH AIR STUNTS
DEEDS Of DARING
Filler Tacks on Tail Of Enemy
Formation and illustrates
Its Purposes.
MANY THRILLING EXPLOITS
By EDWARD PRICE BELL.
Cablegram to The Sunday Star and
CHICAGO Daily News. Copyright. 1913.

Cablegram to The Sunday Star and
LONDON, August 81. - Exciting
stories Of the exploits Of British air.
men during the present offensive in
France reach me from authentic
sources.
The pilo. Of a scout machine flying
over the German lines was able. un-
perceived, to tail on behind a hostile
formation of nine machines that was
just leaving it's own aerodrome and
to follow it without being noticed till
the German formation met a British
artillery observation machine on
lower level
-. German machines left the
fo.:aation and dived to attack. In
stantly following, the English pilot
swooped down upon them and got in
a burst from his machine gun which
caused one of them to sideslip into
and interlock with its companion.
Following them up he put in another
burst which sent both crashing to the
earth in flames.
Enemy Killed in Landing:
That night two British machines.
detailed to watch a German aero
drome from which bombing machines
worked, sighted another hostile ma
chine preparing to land. The enemy
maneuvered frantically to evade the
nighthawks.
Round and round the aercdrome
they circ1ed. Finally, when low down.
lone of the British pilots was able to
bring his machine gun to bear on the
German, who was killed when his
blazing craft crashed to earth.
Sausage" Set on Fire.
One afternoon the enemy, hard
pressed by the allied troops and fear
ing for the safety of his balloons, be-
gan to move these back. A British
scout sighted two being towed by
horses.
Flying low a heavy fire was direct
ed at him from the ground. Needless
of this he diyed still lower and sue
ceeded in setting one of the "saus-
ages" on fire. He was driven from
the remaining balloon by the increas-
ing hail of bullets.
anti-tank gun. The gunners hastily
1imbered up, but his fire stampeded
their team. The gun. was upset in a
ditch.
BY this time the pilot had been
wounded twice, but noticing various
infantry concentrations in the vicin-
ity he attacked and dispersed them
before returning to his aerodrome.
Elation Turned to Fright.
Another pilot seeing a party of
Germans collected in the open de-
scended to investigate. He found
they were exulting over a British ma
chine brought down in their lines.
A bomb released from a height of
only 100 feet effectively dispersed
them. After this he dropped three
more bombs on other parties Of troops
near by.
During this performance his ma
chine was SO severely damaged by
rife fire that soon he had to descend
alongside an English cavalry output.
Not having exhausted his enthusiasm
he procured a rife and put in some
dismounted cavalry fighting before
borrowing horse and returning to
his aerodrome.
Dog Fight in Air.
An American pilot attached to a
British squadron was returning from
a bombing raid with an English OBJ
server when attacked by two forma-
tions of enemy scouts. The first Ger
man machine to close was at once
shot down in flames by the observer.
The same fate befell another which
was attacking from the rear.
A regular dog fight ensued. In the
course of the battle two more hostile
machines were so damaged they spun
downward, where they were seen to
crash.
The British machine was badly shot
up, but neither occupant was hit. The
pilot was just able to land his war;
worn craft safely behind our lines.
Observer in Ticklish Part.
One English two-seater on important
reconnaissance work. in spite Of a
furious archie" fire, remained over
the position and got the desired in
forma ton. At last a shot pierced the
petrol tank. The petrol spurted out and
saturated the pilot.
Realizing the danger Of fire the OBJ
server climbed out on the lower plane