Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-07-11
BRITISH AIRMEN SUPREME
AFTER UNCERTAIN PERIOD
Hold Unquestionable Superiority, Besting Enemy Air
men in Every Style of Fighting, Even Excelling
in Bombing Raids

crowded by marching troops. He then
began a whrlwind of machine gun fire
against the unprotected riflemen, who
probably suffered more casualties in
the next five minutes than they did in
all the rest of the battle.
The German airmen were doing a lot
of low flying that day, as is their
custom during battle, and they were
thoroughly out fought, many of their
airplanes being destroyed
Some with Unusual Features
out of scores of aerial combats re-
Gently there have been some that
produced unusual features. on July 4
battle-royal was fought between the
British and twenty hostile planes. De-
spite the fact that the British were
greatly outnumbered, they came out
victorious. Three of the enemy ma
chimes had been destroyed and another
driven down out of control when the
fight ended, while all the British re-
turned safely.
on July /, near Braye, a British cap
tain, who was leading an offensive pa
troll dved on German bplane and
pumped a stream of bullets into it, while
| sitting directly on its tail. The enemy
went down almost Immediately in flames.
! The captain then fired at another Gel
| man, who went down vertically, but
what happened to him was not deter
mined Then the captain, with three
other planes. <sttacked a great German
fleet of aboutCorty machines. The cap
| tain so riddled one enemy scout thar
one of it's wings fell off and it crashed
! like a stone. He next wheeled on an
other scout and shot it down out or
/ control with bursts from above The
captain being almost out of ammuni-
! ton. started to return home alone, when
! he was attacked by four German scouts
He did a turn and a half roll and got
onto the tail of the leader upon whom
! he poured a volley from his machine
gun until the German dropped in a
swirl of flames. This exhausted the
British captains ammunition, and he
flew for home.
On July ! a British pilot, while on
offensive patrol about Estaires. was
pounced upon by three German scouts.
As they swept down toward him two of
them colided. The third opened fire on
him, but fed when the Britisher ma
neuxered into position and offered bat
tie. In the meantime one of the other
enemy planes had had both its wings
torn off in collision and crashsd. The
other was going down in slow spirals
The British pilot followed and fired 100
rounds into the boche machine at close
range. The enemy dropped another
5000 feet. smoking, and then burst into
flames. which finished It.
Another Collision Fatal
Another fatal collision occurred the
other day. A British lieutenant with
a patrol of six machines, was flying
over German territory when he saw six
enemy scouts making for Nillers-Bre-
tonneux The British machines raced
into a battle. and the lieutenant tackled
one of the Huns at close range. This
enemy went down vertically, after being
badly shot about Another hostile air.
plane which was close by turned sc
suddenly that it smashed into the Ger
man leader. and both machines collapsed
and went down in tangled wreckage.
The nerve of British airmen under try.
ing circumstances is illustrated by ar
incident which occurred a few days ago
, A British pilot and observer were max
ing a low reconnaissance over the Ger
man zone when the petrol tank wa:
pierced by a bullet from hte ground. Th'
observer climbed out into the wing o
: the swaying machine to investigate tn
extent of the damage. Having satisfiet
/ himself that he could repair it, h
crawled back to the seat and, after oh
. tanning his leather cap and stick. aEatl
mounted the wing and plugged the ho
in the tank with the stick and the cap
The reconnaissance was finished befor
the pair returned home.