Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1919-02-04
BRITISH AIR WORK.
Some Wonderful Feats That Have
Bean AeeompIishsd.

Some Wonderful Feats That Have
Been Accomplished.
The following narratives, writes q
London correspondent Of the Christian
Science Monitor. are typical Of the
daily incidents which made up an or
dinary days work Of pilot, in the
Royal Air Force curing the war.
A British two-seater carried out o
most successful solo raid on Frescaty
|aerodrome the other day. In spite Of
extremely bad weather conditions.
Heavy clouds hung low. and at no
place was 1t feasible to ascend above
1900 feet. The lines were crossed at
only 500 feet, and In some places the
pilot had to descend to 400 feet over
hostile country. in order to pick up
landmarks. At certain, places the
clouds were no more than so feet from
the tree-tops. J- ss@~
On reaching the German aerodrome,
the British machine descended to 40
feet and, selecting large Zeppelin
shed prepared to drop his bombs. Near
the shed stood a group Of 20 or 80
German mechanics. evidently under
the impression that the weather was
far too bad for an English raider. and
perfectly satisfied that the machine
that loomed above them through the
mist was German plane seeking some
neighboring drome. ,rtA.t
The first bomb. which made q direct
hit upon the shed, showed their mis-
take, and scattered the survivors. The
second bomb hit another hangar. de-
stroying both it and the machines
within. ef,
On the way home the pilot and OBJ
server interrupted their journey to
scatter with their machine guns
group of men and transport busy,
drawing ammunition from local
dump. s.. .tn,
An English scout pilot was flying
over a partially ruined village behind
the German lines, when he noticed
that the main street was occupied by
a long column Of German ARTILLERY.
Diving down to 20 feet. ne shot down
the leading gun team, The remainder
OF the column broke into q gallop and
attempted to pass around the block.
Again the English pilot ,dived and shot
down the following timber team, thus
completely blocking the road. Having
exhausted his ammunition upon the
next following and the rear teams Of
the column. The pilot fiewlswiftly back
and informed the nearest British long
range battery Of the target. Within O
few minutes the guns were turned on
the village, an6 the artillery completed
the work the flying man had 80 sue
cessfully initiated.
On the same day another British
scout pilot put in some very successful
work during the course ofta single
flight. He began, as he crossed the
lines, bringing down a German balloon
in flames Flying on, he noticed four
double gun limbers. drawn by mules
and on the march. He dived and OPEN
ed fire. The first two limbers fell in O
ditch and the teams OF the other two
stampeded wildly. His next target was
a body Of. German infantry-6oo
strong. He expended 160 rounds on
them, causing scores Of casualties, and
the utter rout of the survivors. Still.
the enthusiastic pilot was not satisfied,
and a battery Of six German howitzers
which he spotted was the next target
to suffer from his zeal. The teams
were scattered, the shelters well pep
pered, and the guns silenced.
His next exploit was to attack the
complete batteries Of German field
guns. Here again he caused numerous
casualties. using upon the crews and
drivers his last remaining rounds OF
ammunition before returning to his
drome.
A British pilot had been engaged
with a German L. v. G. machine. and
after a stiff fight, succeeded In destroy
ing the enemy machine. But during
the encounter the British machine had
suffered some damage and the pilot was
forced to descend to behind the enc
my's lines. Luckily before being OBJ
served, he was able temporarily to. re-
pair his machine, and take on again.
AS soon as he had climbed a few thou
sand feet he noticed German d. F.
W. engaged with British s. E. s. AZ
there were other German machines In
the vicinity which might intervene at
ay moment, the English pilot. despite
the damaged condition Of his machine,
at once went to the assistance Of the
s. E. and helped its pilot 70 shoot
down in flames the D. F. w. before
making of for repairs to his own
drome. The pilot Of the German ma
chine lcaped from his burning machine
but his parachute caught fire, so that
his chance of escape was lost.
A British two-seater machine whilst
on artillery patrol was attacked by q
formation Of eight Fokkers. Luckily
for the English flying officers, the Ger
mans did not attack simultaneously,
but dived one at a time upon the Brit
ish machine. AS each Fokker dived
past, the English observer replied to
its fire, but naturally. having to antici-
pate the attack of the next following
machine, he could not devote much
attention to each.
When each member Of the German
patrol had dived, they climbed again to
repeat the performance. This time the
leader was rather more separated from
the next German machine, and the
English observer had time for longer
reply. His fire took excellent effect,
and the German machine spun down.
wards and crashed. The loss Of this
one machine so discounted the re-
manning Fokkers that, though they
were still seven to one, they broke OF
the fight, and allowed the British Of
ficers to- finish their Job unmolested.