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Aviation History
1914
1914 - 0943.PDF
SEPTEMBER II, 1914. and in order to escape the fire from French forts, the pilot flew over Swiss neutral territory. The Daily Mirror of the 4th inst. described an inci dent which it is alleged took place on one of the British naval airships when returning from a reconnaissance. A propeller had broken, and, owing to contrary winds, the airship commenced to drift towards German territory. Seeing that the only hope was to fit a new propeller, an engine-room artificer crawled along the 2^ in. iron bracket and performed the operation at a distance of about 15 ft. from the gondola while the airship was at a height of 2,500 ft. The statement is hardly surprising that he has been recommended for promotion ! A thrilling incident was related to Queen Alexandra last week by a sapper in the Royal Engineers who was wounded and is now at the London Hospital. The Daily Telegraph gives his story as follows :— " Following a very hard fight on the day before, he was lying on the ground with his regiment resting. Suddenly a German aero plane hove in sight. It flew right over the British troops, and commenced to signal their position to the German camp. " A minute later, amid intense excitement of the troops, two aeroplanes, with English and French pilots, rose into the air from the British rear. Ascending with great rapidity, they made for the German aeroplane, with the intention of attacking it. " At first some of our men, who were very much on the alert, fired by mistake at the French aeroplane. Luckily their shots went wide. " Then the troops lay still, and with breathless interest watched the attempts of the French and British aviators to outmanoeuvre their opponent, and to cut off his retreat. After a little time the Franco-British airmen abandoned this attempt, and then the Eng lishman and the German began to fly upwards, in the evident desire to obtain a more favourable position for shooting down from above. Owing to the protection afforded by the machine, it would have been of little use for one aviator to fire at his opponent from below. Once a higher altitude was attained the opportunity for effective aim would be much greater. " Up and up circled the two airmen, till their machines could barely be distinguished from the ground. They were almost out of sight, when the soldiers saw the British aviator was above his opponent. Then the faint sound of a shot came down from the sky, and instantly the German aeroplane began to descend, vol planing in graceful fashion. Apparently it was under the most perfect control. On reaching the earth the machine landed with no great shock, ran a short distance along the ground, and then stopped. " Rushing to the spot, the British soldiers found, to their amaze ment, that the pilot was dead. So fortunate had been the aim of the Englishman that he had shot the German through the head. In his dying moments the latter had started to descend, and when he reached the earth bis hands still firmly gripped the controls. ** The aeroplane was absolutely undamaged, and was appropriated by the British aviators." On September 4th, a submarine arrived at Harwich with a German naval lieutenant and a mechanic on board. It appears that when cruising about 30 miles IftlGHT from Borkum, a seaplane was sighted floating on the water with a damaged engine. After rescuing the men the machine was sunk; and it was stated in the Daily Telegraph that the seaplane had been scouting for British warships previous to the failure of the engine and that the men had endeavoured to effect repairs during the 20 hours they had been in their predicament. It is sug gested in Reynolds' Newspaper that the incident occurred on August 28th and that the seaplane formed part of the aeroplane flotilla covering the operations of the portion of the German Fleet which destroyed the fifteen British fishing boats. On the 3rd inst., two Belgian aviators flew over the city of Liege and dropped messages stating that the Allies were being successful in the operations and urging the inhabitants to keep up their courage. A Zeppelin is reported to have made an attempt to wreck the tunnel near Wetteren in Belgium on the 4th inst., but was unsuccessful, and on the same day a German aeroplane which had been compelled to descend near Ostend owing to engine trouble, was captured and destroyed by a number of peasants. The Petrograd correspondent of the Chronicle relates that wounded Russian soldiers returned from the front state that the Zeppelins are useless—three of them having been brought down by the Russians, who used the petrol for their motor cars. The German aeroplanes were, however, most effective, and had rendered great service to the Germans, as they had manoeuvred over Russian troops during the fighting and signalled their observations to the artillery commanders, who were thus enabled to direct their fire into the Russian lines. An official communique issued by the Servian au thorities at Nish on the 5th inst. stated that an Austrian aeroplane had been destroyed by mitrailleuses between Jania and Lesnitza. The pilot was killed. Mr. Richard H. Davis is reported to have sent a cable to the New York Tribune which throws a lurid light upon the morale of the German troops. He says :— " When I was a prisoner with them one of their own aeroplanes passed over us. They thought it was an English machine and Count von Schwerin, commanding the 7th Division, and all his staff at the same time began thrieking commands, some to shoot, others not to shoot. They were like men gone suddenly crazy. It was a most pitiable exhibition. Their conduct throughout can be explained in only one way. They are men who know they are in the wrong, that their cause is unlawful, and, like a man who enters a house as a burglar, they do not hesitate at murder." Captain Voisin is reported to have sent his congratula tions to Lieutenant Campagne, of the French Air Service, who, despite the failure of his engine, which had been struck by a bursting shell, managed to glide down from AIRCRAFT AND THE 'WAR.—A German 7'5 centimetre aerial gun trained for firing, on a motor truck. right, the German 13 centimetre bomb-dropping tube for dirigibles. 943 On tbe
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