FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1916
1916 - 0125.PDF
AIRCRAFT AND THE WAR. THE Daily lele^raph correspondent in Paris, writing on February 6th, says :— " For the first time the French General Headquarters has broken the rule of strict anonymity in recording feats performed at the front. Thus we learn officially that Sergeant Guynemer brought down yesterday his fifth enemy aeroplane. The sergeant is just 21, and looks 19. He is a tall, slight lad with dark hair, but scarcely a shadow of a moustache. He was a public schoolboy when war broke out, and volunteered. He only got his flying commission nine months afterwards, in April, 1915. Yesterday's was his fourteenth flight over the German lines. His most exciting expe rience was when he, with another aviator, pursued three German flying machines. His bag that evening was three Aviatiks—two brought down by him and one by the other aviator. On another occasion he had an extraordinary battle with a Fokker. Both machines circled round one another, firing their machine guns. Suddenly Guynemer dashed upward, and flew over the German, and while doing so shot the enemy aviator through the head. Guynemer just managed to get back to the French lines, his machine being almost a wreck. He wears the Legion of Honour military medal and the Military Cross, the latter with four palms or clasps." According to the Flensbicrger Nachrichten, a German observation balloon was seen last week-end near Osterby, Schleswig, drifting away. It was thought that she had probably broken loose from the North Sea coast. The Teleqraafs Belgian frontier correspondent on Friday reported that during the previous few days German searchlights and flares at Antwerp had been no longer perceptible. Presumably a guilty conscience had led the Germans to fear air reprisals from the Allies. The Morning Post correspondent in the east of France, writing last week regarding the conditions in the Champagne district, said : — " The Zeppelin raids in the district have done no damage at all. Indeed, one might almost defy them to do any damage, for the little townships, nursed in the laps of the rolling hills, are so darkened that their position at night is nearly unplaceable. In this respect, however, there happened a sequel to the last raid that is not without significance. The Zeppelin had been chased away after discharging harmlessly a number ol bombs that fell in fields (this is not an official euphemism, because I have seen the holes) when a fire broke out in a small workshop situated at a most interesting point. It blazed up surprisingly, and its origin has not been satisfactorily established. I am assured on all hands that there are German spies and agents everywhere. On the walls of a British aid institution out in the eastern district hangs the notice in English and French : ' Ask nothing. Answer nothing.' It is a principle that has still to be lived up to everywhere." A Reuter message from Petrograd on Friday said :— " As a retort for the German air raid on Dvinsk, Russian aviators violently bombarded the military buildings at Ponievege, and destroyed a long stretch of the railway line and blew up an ammunition train." The Daily Telegraph correspondent in Rome on Sunday said :— " Austrian aeroplanes are making reconnaissance flights over Durazzo." Information was received in Paris from Milan last Tuesday to the effect that Austrian aeroplanes dropped bombs on Durazzo in order to terrorise the inhabitants. Several houses were destroyed. The aviators also threw down papers suggesting that the Serbians should return to their country. Another manifesto threatens the destruction of Durazzo \i the embarkation of Serbians continues. The Durazzo correspondent of the Agenzia Nationale reported that the atroplane which distributed pamphlets over Durazzo was brought down near Bazarscian, and the aviators captured. The Frankjurter Zeitung last week reported that for some time past Metz has been repeatedly subjected to French aerial attacks. A Reuter message from Petrograd on February 1st mentioned that it was reported from the southern front that German aeroplanes of a new type are being used. They are smaller than the Taube, and are armed with special small machine guns. Mr. G. Ward Price, writing from Salonika under date February 1st, says :— " Salonika experienced the full thrills of modern warfare in the form of a Zeppelin raid this morning. Those lying awake at 2.45 heard a loud buzz, quite different to the familiar whirr of the aero plane. Between then and three o'clock twenty-five large bombs, with terrific crashes, fell into the water of the harbour and on the town. The people with windows facing south distinctly saw the airship, and in the opinion of some who have seen Zeppelins over London this was sailing much lower. From the roof one saw the windows of the tight-packed houses in the native town, which rises like an amphitheatre on the hill around the bay, flickering one after another into light. The streets filled quickly. Greek firemen worked hard with hand-pumps, and then parties of blutjackets, hurriedly landed from the ships, came along at a double, carrying a hose, and the fire was at last localised. Several wounded Greeks were in the streets as I passed. Seven persons were killed near the docks, and ten in the town. A man and his wite were killed in bed. Two Greek soldiers were killed, and twenty-eight persons wounded. The windows of some of our store-houses were smashed, as were those of the Greek Prefecture, where a bomb fell in the garden ten metres from the entrance. At three a.m. the Zeppelin made off westwards." A Reuter telegram of the same date reported :— " A German aeroplane was brought down to-day by the Allies at Topsin. The two aviators were taken prisoners and sent to Salonika." The Times correspondent at Salonika, writing on February 2nd, says :— "The German aeroplane captured yesterday at Topsin was brought into Salonika this afternoon and deposited in front of the headquarters of the French Staff, where crowds of sightseers surround it. It is a huge machine of the Albatros type. It was not, as was reported yesterday, brought down by artillery fire, but by a French aeroplane bullet which smashed its radiator. The two successful airmen were publicly thanked and decorated by General Sarrail to-day. The loss of Greek lives aid the damage to Greek property, estimated at about .£250,000, inflicted by the Zeppelin have provoked an outburst of indignation in the local Press. Sedulous efforts are being made by German propagandists here to persuade the ignorant lower classes of the population that all the injuries to life and property in yesterday's Zeppelin raid were caused by the guns of the Fleet. It is, however, officially (declared to-day that not a single shot was fired by the ships, all the- ex plosions heard in the town being those of Zeppelin bombs, which are now known to have been 25 in number. " Fourteen French aeroplanes yesterday flew over the Bulgarian town of Petritch and threw over 180 bombs on the enemy's positions, causing considerable damage to their camps." According to a Bulgarian commtiniquS, 470 men were killed in the Bulgarian camps, and the total of killed and wounded was about a thousand. The Standards correspondent at Athens says :— " The Allies' reply at Petritsi to the German raid on Salonika had better results than were at first supposed. As at Monastir, photo graphs showing bird's-eye views of the enemy's positions had been previously taken and enlarged for the use of airmen. "The Allied airmen returned uninjured, though heavily shelled. Panic broke out among the inhabitants of Petritsi. Much damage was done to the military buildings." According to reports from Athens the Greek Government has protested to Berlin against the bombardment of Salonika. The local pro-German newspapers have also protested nt the indis criminate bombing of the town. The raid has occasioned a boom in insurances, as it is stated that out of £1:0,000 of goods destroyed only £4,000 worth was insured. German agents endeavoured to circulate reports that the damage to the warehouses was done not by bombs but by shells fired by the Fleet, but it is pointed out that naval guns were not fired as the Zeppelin offered but a poor mark. A second attempt was made by a Zeppelin on the following day, but on comiDg under the fire of the British batteries, it retired. An Exchange telegram from Athens on Saturday stated that two Zeppelins were observed on the previous evening in the proximity of the Greek frontier, but they did not venture over the French lines. ® ® ® $ Small Steamer Sunk by Zeppelin Bomb. ALMOST at the same time as the fate of the "L19" became known it was learnt that a Zeppelin had dropped a bomb on a small coasting steamer while at anchor. The steamer—the "Franz Fischer"—left Hartlepool on Monday afternoon, January 31st, bound south, and about 10.30 on Tuesday evening, according to a rescued seaman, the Zeppelin appeared right overhead. The bomb fell near the engine room, and the ship only remained afloat for two minutes. Of the crew of sixteen only the chief engineer, a steward and a seaman were picked up by a Belgian steamer and transferred to a mine sweeper, which brought them into port. Fatal Accident at Aidershot. WHILE flying at Aidershot recently a machine, piloted by Lieut. Browning, was seen to fall to the ground. The pilot and observer, Lieut. J. S. Reed, were both seriously injured, and the latter, in spite of an operation, died from injuries to the brain. 125
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
