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Aviation History
1916
1916 - 0106.PDF
1/yGHT him from 12,000 ft., overhauled him, and opened fire at close range. After some mana-uvring a jet of flame was seen to come from the enemy's machine, and the Fokker dived steeply. " On the same day a pilot on escort duty saw his reconnaissance machine a( tacked by a Fokker. With another British aeroplane in support he dived at it and drove it off, and it was last seen going down in a spiral. On the homeward journey one of our aeroplanes was attacked by another Fokker, but it beat a hasty retreat when the British pilot opened fire. " Again on January 17th, two pilots on escort duty with bombing ® ® The Raids on Paris. Ai TICK an immunity from raids for ten months, Paris was visited by a Zeppelin ou Saturday night, about ten o'clock 13 bombs being dropped in a working-class suburb, resulting in nine houses being wrecked, 25 people killed and 27 injured. The Zeppelin was sighted at 9.20 p.m. at La Fertd Milon,on the Durcq, 40 miles north-east of Paris, and it apparently followed the Marne Valley. The night was still and fine but very misty, and the aviators who rose in pursuit stated that the airship kept at an altitude of 12,000 ft. Owing to the mist, therefore, the searchlights were unable to locate the airship. The bombardment only lasted a few minutes, and according to one report, the bombs were dropped so rapidly that two hit one house. The tunnel of the underground railway was pierced in one place, the explosion just missing a train which had passed a few seconds previously. The Daily Telegraph Paris correspondent writing on Sunday night said :— " At Le Bourget Aviation Camp, which is entrusted with the atrial defence of Paris, it is stated that the raid took no one by surprise. For aerial defence the Paris district is divided into a certain number of segments, and each was regularly patrolled by aviators last night, as every night. Among the thirty aviators who rose to pursue the Zeppelin, five saw it precisely, because it re mained in their segment. What saved the Zeppelin was the thick haze. " This hampered us terribly," said one aviator. "At five hundred yards height I could no longer even see the searchlights, and for myself, in spite of my head light, I could not see ten yards ahead while flying." Accordiog to the Matin one pilot chased the Zeppelin for fifty- three minutes, and attacked it with machine-gun fire at a range varying between 50 and 100 yards. He was fired at with several machine guns from the airship. The Paris Municipal Council has decided to open a credit of 30,000 f. for the relief of sufferers, and part of the famous Pere Laclnise Cemetery will be set apart for the burial of the victims. Later messages state that the death-roll is increased to 29 and the number of injured to 30. On Sunday night there was another raid, about the same time, and some thirty bombs were dropped on the northern outskirts of the capital. Most of the bombs were of the incendiary type, and only slight material damage was done. According to a Reuter message from Paris, one of the unexploded bombs weighed 103 kilos, (just over 2 cwt.), another 65 kilos., and a third 57 kilos.; on examination it is said that they were all found to be charged with trinitrotoluol. It is reported from Rotterdam that travellers arriving from ® (?) FEBRUARY 3, 1916. machines were waiting for two laggards when they were attacked from above and behind by a single-seater Fokker. The pilot was in a standing position, and fired through his propeller, opening with a burst at forty yards. Our pilot turned and opened fire with half a drum from the Lewis gun. The German flew round and attacked again. Our men gave him another half a drum, and the pilot of the hostile machine appeared to be hit, and he dived and was lost to sight. Beyond any question at all the damage inflicted on the enemy by our air service is greater above all comparison than the injury they do to us." ® ® Germany state that there were rejoicings in Berlin over the raid on Paris. The Daily Mail Rotterdam correspondent reports that Zeppelins have been active in Belgium for more than a week, and he learnt that the trips were chiefly experimental trips by new craft. One result of the raids on Paris has been a great cry for repri.-als on German towns. Bank Clerk and a Zeppelin. AT the annual meeting of the London County and Westminster Bank, last week, it was mentioned that one of their clerks, Mr. F. F. Morgan, laid the gun which crippled the Zeppelin raider, sub sequently destroyed at Ostend. Mr. Morgan joined the Anti- Aircraft Corps, and subsequently transferred to the Royal Naval Reserve, and it was while serving on a patrol boat that he was instrumental in damaging the Zeppelin, one shot taking effect in the tail and another in the forepart of the airship. His section had received the thanks of the Admiralty. A ZeoDelin Over Danish Territory. MESSAGES received in Copenhagen from Malmoe, Sweden, on Sunday last state that a Zeppelin was twice observed on the evening of lanuary 28th passing over the island of Gothland with search lights. The Nyk6bmg Dagblad states that similar observations were made at the same time from the southern Danish islands, where German airships were seen passing over neutral territory. Dutch Fire on Zeppelio. INFORMATION was received in Amsterdam on January 27th to the effect that on the previous day a Zeppelin was sighted over the northern part of Belgium manoeuvring along the Dutch-Belgian frontier. Dutch soldiers fired at the airship, which returned over the frontier, and left in the direction of Bruges, apparently not damaged. Airship Wreckage off Norway. ACCORDING to reports, of Norwegian origin, circulating in Copenhagen, among the large number of mines washed ashore lately along the coast between the Christianii Fjoid and the Swedish border are some large aircraft bombs, measuring 2 ft. in diameter. Quantities of wreckage, indicating the recent destruction in this vicinity of one or more airships, are also reported to have been found. Torpedo boats and coastguards are removing the bombs and mines. A close investigation is being made by the authorities. Lieut. Boehme Killed. FROM the " wireless " news sent out from Berlin on Jan. 26th :— The German Aviation Branch takes this opportunity of expiessing its regret at ihe los* of Lieut. Boehme, who was cited several times in the Main Headquarters report. Lieut. Boehme fell down with his machine at E.isisheim, in Alsace, and was killed immediately. ® f?> "Life is a mirror—smile at it and it will smile back; frown at it and it will frown again." NOTHING like a vigorous anti-Zeptic treatment to free the air from Germs. 1 ! I As there is nothing like pub icity for securing reforms, our air policy can probably do with a lot of Billing. —Whipped Topics. Citing a Case. " WORK as we will, we can't excel nature." " Oh, I don't know. A monoplane can fly upside down. Ever see a bird do that ?" ! ! ! IT happened during one of the air raids, at a place not specified in the newspaper reports. Mosesstein, just emerging from a chemist's shop, got in the way of the explosion, and when he recovered in the hospital found that both his feet had been amputated. "Just my luck," he grumbled; "and I had just vent and bought six-pennyworth of corn plaster." AN officer of the Royal Flying Corps, while at home on leave fiom the front, was invited to join a party for a couple of days' shooting in the country. "Oh, no, no, thanks," he replied with emphasis, " I've not the heart for it. I've been the bloomine bird myself."—News of the World. 6 106
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