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Aviation History
1914
1914 - 0942.PDF
(Alii SEPTEMBER II, 1914. AIRCRAFT AND THE WAR. REPORTS more or less authentic and detailed information relating to the work accomplished by the aircraft engaged in the war are gradually becoming fuller, although they still deal mainly with bomb-dropping operations, and little is still actually known of the service which has been performed by the Allies' pilots in the class of work for which aeroplanes are especially fitted—namely, recon naissance, and the observation of gunfire. The German aeroplanes, which had been flying over Paris daily since the 30th ult., made their last appearance on Wednesday, the 2nd inst., when two of them flew over the city. Both were fired at immediately they appeared by guards posted on the roofs of houses, but no damage was done, and the machines were able to make their way, one towards the north-east and the other towards the east. The former, however, when passing over Fort de Romainville was attacked by rifle fire from two French aeroplanes, which took up their positions one on each side, for about ten minutes, during which time the German was continually ascending, and owing to the superior climbing powers of his machine he was able to get safely away. The other pilot was not so successful, as in flying over Fort de Champigny, he was brought down in a manner very graphically described by Mr. A. G. Hales in the Evening News of the 3rd inst.: — " It was five-and-twenty minutes past five in the evening when a sudden sound brought me to my feet wide awake and watcnful. . . What is it ?' I snapped the question at my son, who was on the war path with me. The reply came crisp and sharp—' An aeroplane travelling like the devil. Looks like a German, and I'll bet she's after the big mob of cattle sored yesterday in the fields for the Army.' .... "Suddenly she dipped her nose earthward and came sweeping down, plunging through space as a hawk 'stooping' on its Prev The next moment the ship veered in her down ward swoop and skimmed the earth as a swallow skims in full flight. It was superb airmanship, and, foe though I knew the man at the wheel to be, I could not help admiring his splendid nerve, for at the low altitude he was now sailing at any marksman amongst the heavy foliage could have brought him down with a shot gun. " There were two of them in the craft, . . . " They must have known their ground well, or they would never have dared to skim the tree tops as they were doing. . . . " They saw something from their vantage ground which we could not see or hear, for as suddenly as the machine had dipped towards earth it rose again. . . . Again it dipped earthward, but further away from our hiding-place. " I knew the sentries must have seen the invader by this time, but no rifle spoke. " Out of the fields to the right rose a French aeroplane ; she rose like a bird on the wing, climbing up and up, but always well from under the invader. "A shot through body or brain, or a plunge down to annihilation ? Whichever it was the man at the driving gear showed neither fear nor hesitation ; he took the only course open to him. " Up he climbed, his plane pointing almost vertically towards the clouds. It was his only chance—to get above his foes one at a time and drop bombs on them, or else to dive straight down on one and bring it to earth—and death—with him. " The Frenchmen knew as well as the invader. They raced him skyward, always keeping from under, yet closi ng in on either flank like a pair of eagles hunting down an ospre y. . . . They drew closer and ever closer. " The man on the left reached out an arm and fired at the man at the German's driving gear. Did he hit or miss ? We could not tell. " We saw the German make a sudden headlong dive, and even as he .shot downwards he veered in his flight and passed under the left-hand foe and skimmed away like a wild goose going down the wind in a gale. It was a splendid piece of manoeuvring, for it took him from between his foes. " The right-hand Frenchman struck across his path at right-angles, and to do so he had to swoop down and lose the advantage of the upper air. The German had to turn, and the changed course drove him in the direction of the fort whose existence he must have known as well as his pursuers. '' To attempt to pass that fort at the altitude he was travelling at meant being riddled by lead, for well he knew the red caps would be watching the fight and flight, rifle in hand, in their hundreds. No hope lay that way, and the game was up; but the German was game. " Give the devil his due, he was game to the marrow. Only men brave to the verge of madness take on such tasks as he had taken, but his sands were running out. " But his moment was not yet. He turned and twisted, dived low, rose high, darted to right and left, charged forward, wheeled, and tried to drive his machine through that of a foe. " His skill was superlative, his nerve unbreakable. We lost sight of them all behind a clump of foliage, and then two vessels came into view, and both were craft of France. " The German lay a broken mass of splinters on the ground, and amid the wreckage lay two dead men who, whatever their faults may have been, had known how to die like men, if they had lived like buccaneers of the trackless blue." A communique issued on September 3rd, which stated that "the measures taken for chasing German aeroplanes with heavily-armed PVench machines flying over Paris have prevented the Germans from flying over the city again to-day," forms a fitting commentary upon the inci dents above referred to. During that day a German aeroplane was brought down at Vincennes by two French aeroplanes, the pilots of which, it is stated, sent charges of grapeshot into the wings. On the 2nd inst, a German aeroplane dropped a number of bombs on Belfort, but no damage was done, although the noise from the explosions was deafening, AIRCRAFT AND THE WAR.—On the left, German method adopted for charging a Parseval dirigible in the open. On the right the German Dreyse gun for use against aircraft. 942
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