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Aviation History
1914
1914 - 0921.PDF
over hilly country. On one occasion only one aviator remained in camp, all the others having been despatched on various missions. Without any hesitation he under took all the work and carried out all four journeys successfully. When he landed for the fourth time he exclaimed, ' I should win the prize. I have flown more than one thousand kilometres.' "Like his comrades, Jules Vedrines is serving his country, and has been falsely reported shot and wounded in a motor accident. He is, however, well, and has had his machine named 'La Vache' (the cow), the words being painted in great letters. These pilots have found a new game. Each evening after their flights they count the number of bullet holes in their machine, marking each with a circle in red chalk so that none may be included in the next day's total. The record at present appears to be thirty-seven holes in one day, and the pilot in question claims to be the 'recordman du monde.' " There are others whose work is not so striking as those -who dare the enemy's bullets, but which is quite as necessary. They are those who fly to the front with a new machine from the construction and repairing centres, and then bring back damaged machines for renovation." From Copenhagen on the 30th ult. it was reported that the well-known Gerpian airman Post (? Rost) was killed, together with his passenger, as he was leaving Johannisthal to join the army. The machine is said to have been fired at by German soldiers under the impression that it belonged to the enemy. According to the same message the Austrian pilot Rossman, attached to the General Staff, was killed, together with his passenger, on the Austrian frontier, through his machine capsizing and falling from a height of 800 metres. It is further stated that the officer had, during the war, made many success ful flights, while on the day of his death the Austrian Army Gazette announced that he had been decorated with a high Austrian order. The Petrograd correspondent of the Daily Telegraph quotes from the Russkoye Slave the following account of some reconnaissance work by the Russian pilot Kusminsky:— " I ascended with an officer of the General Staff". At the start we flew along the line of our own army, but then we turned sharply towards the enemy. With us there ascended two other aviators. Each had a different mission, and we soon lost sight of one another. " According to the orders of our commander, my officer and I had to keep within view of the highway. We flew very high, the barograph indicating between 1,300 and 1,350 metres. At times we went even higher, and it was so bitterly cold that we almost froze. Suc cessful scouting proved to be quite possible, as the air was very clear. Through Zeiss binoculars we could dis tinguish different portions of the enemy's army, and even identify carts loaded with stores. " When not far from the Russian frontier, and still at that great height, we suddenly heard an explosion, and the whole apparatus quivered and leapt in the air. We found that the suction valve of the motor had burst. We were saved from destruction by the self-possession of my officer. He kept his head, and did not move a muscle, so that I was able to shut off the benzine and open the contact. We began to descend in a volplane, and to avoid capture by the enemy did our utmost to prolong our flight in the direction of the Russian lines. " Although we had a very good map we could not tell precisely where we were. At last we touched the ground and saw in the fields not far away a crowd of peasants. "The officer at once shouted, 'Soak the apparatus with benzine, and get matches ready, so that if they are Austrians we can set the whole thing on fire.' But we had no need to do this, for they were Russians. " We had come down about three miles within the Russian frontier, and soon a party of our own troops arrived and carried us back to their quarters." Advices from Amsterdam on Monday stated that a German aeroplane had been brought down at Kameryk. The two officers on board who had dropped bombs on a railway bridge, doing some damage, were made prisoners. A report from The Hague on Tuesday said that a German biplane flew over Cambrai and dropped bombs in the vicinity of the railway staiion, destroying the bridge. The aeroplane- was fired at and brought down, its two occupants, one of whom was wounded, being made prisoners. In the fighting last week two German aeroplanes were said to have dropped bombs on the British Camp at Cambrai, but without causing any destruction. A private in the Gloucester Regiment who was wounded at Cambrai saw a German aeroplane bearing the French colours flying over the British troops. He says that until the German artillery fired at it as a test of their range it was not molested, but then it was brought down by British machine guns. In connection with the naval battle in Heligoland Bight last week it has been stated that information as to the action of the British fleet was conveyed to the Heligo land forts by seaplane, On Tuesday evening a Zeppelin paid another visit to Antwerp and dropped several bombs, and the following is an official account of the damage done :—" A Zeppelin airship was reported at to.30 yesterday evening from the forts on the south of the City and on the Nethe River. The airship passed over Alost towards Termbnde and Ghent, and then returned towards Antwerp and attempted to fly over the town, but the heavy artillery fire kept it outside the outer fortifications. At 3.30 this morning five or six bombs were thrown from the car. The ship then flew in the direction of , where a bomb was dropped near the station. It then proceeded towards . Seven bombs were dropped in the Pare du Rossignol, close to some houses where two hospitals were established. The houses, which were flying Red Cross flags, were damaged. Ten or twelve persons were slightly wounded. "The airship's evolutions took ten minutes. The projectiles were different from those used on the former occasion. The bombs thrown to-day were covered by thin envelopes held together with mushroom-shaped rivets. They were filled with special bullets, calculated to inflict horrible wounds. Such a type of bomb has never been used by artillery, and is completely unknown to them. It is made on the same model as that used by the notorious Bonnot robber band in France." According to the Rev. Fqrbes Phillips, writing to the Daily Express from Boulogne, the French are now testing a new weapon, for use on aeroplanes, which is said to be more effective than bomb-throwing, " The new fighting aeroplanes are fitted with boxes which are filled with thousands of steel 'arrows.' They are really steel bolts about four inches long, The airmen of war sail over the enemy, and the aviator with a simple device opens trap doors, and the steel contents of the box are distributed on the enemy. The effect upon men in mass or lying in the firing line is deadly, for one of these dropped from 2,000 ft. will go clean through a man." 921
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