Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-09-17
us. AIRPLANES
! AIDED IN VICTORY
Liberty Motors Proved
Their Worth in St. Mihiel
Battle
TESTED OUT IN PURSUIT
development Of Speed Against
Germans Biggest Success of
American Machines
TESTED OUT IN PURSUIT
By EDWIN L. JAMES

Special Cable to Euening Public Ledger
= COPYRIGHT, 1913, bv Ne,o York Times Co.
With the First American Army in
France, Sept. II.
American.inade airplanes, driven nv
Liberty motors, played an important
role In our reduction of the st. Mihiel
salient. While we owe thanks TO the
French, British and Italians for the
major part of the great airplane con.
centraeon, considerable proportion
Of It was Simon-pure American.
The machines in use were De Havi.
land fours, two-seated biplanes. We
used them primarily for bombing. but
out intrepid aviators also used them
for pursuit machines and for stra6ng
the German lines.
To the work of our airmen was due
in great part the large number of
prisoners captured. The main avenue
of the Germans retreat was the high.
way from Vigneulles to (name of town
deleted). Because of mud this road be-
came jammed Thursday and Friday
and offered good mark for our
aviators, flying low, who sent
machinegun bullets by the thousands
into the German lines along the high
way, achieving very good results. In
this work our American-made ma
chimes did effective work, dropping
small bombs and making many di.
rect hits.
Our pursuit machines proper. of
course, were of French make. But, as
test of the Liberty motor planes, a
number of our pursuit, squadrons
Thursday and Friday included De
Haviland fours, which gave a. most
excellent account of themselves, being
credited with part Of the bag of
(deleted) Germans we got Thursday.
These machines were not able to dive
and maneuver with the pursuit planes,
but, having guns at both front and rear,
they did not have to do so much diving
out of the way as the pursuit ma.
chimes, which are single-seated with
only one gun pointing forward
But where the Liberty motor
achieved the biggest success was in
the development of speed against the
German pursuit planes. One instance
illustrates this. Three of our De
Haviland fMlrs at an altitude of 5000
meters sped two Fokkers. The
machines after them. The American
machines had better speed than the
Germans and drew down on them. The
Germans dived. Our machines got
one and the other escaped.
This is a most hopeful development,
for in view of our admitted present
shortage Of pursuit machines, the
possession of a bombing or observa-
ton machine which can take care of
itself against German pursuit ma.
chimes will go long way toward
>remedying the defect. .-
This was the first battle perform
7 ance OF American machines equipped
with Liberty motors, and our air Off
GERS are enthusiastic over the results.
Our air supremacy during the fight
for the salient led to the Germans
placing large numbers of pursuit
machines on this front. Whereas for
two days very few German aviators
I appeared. Sunday they were out in
force. One squadron of ten Allied
planes out for bombing encountered a
formation of sixty German machines,
and this is an illustration of recent
German tactics in the air. The enemy
takes no chances. but flies only in
large numbers and gives battle only
when in superior force.
Sunday night our machines bombed
& Conflans and several other German
strategic points north Of our new line.
Three ammunition dumps were set on
fire, and other damage was done
Thursday and Friday we dropped six
teen tons of bombs in the st. Mihiel
salient. The next few days promise
interesting air fights. We still have
the supremacy of the air in this sector,
but it is no longer undisputed.