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Aviation History
1916
1916 - 0494.PDF
f/DGHTl attacked El Arish (90 miles east of Port Said). Some bombs were dropped, wounding seven persons. Two of our aeroplanes effectively JUNE 8, 1916. bombed a warship and enemy aeroplanes off El Arish and made good use of their machine-guns." From Other Sources. A REUTBR message from Cairo on May 21st says :— " It is officially announced that, no doubt in retaliation for the successful British attack on Kl Arish on May 18th, two enemy aeroplanes dropped sixteen bombs on Port Said this morning. The bombs were mostly directed against the Arab quarter. Two civilians were killed, two severely and 11 slightly injured. Five soldiers were wounded, one seriously. An eye-witness affirms that the air men used searchlights in each case before dropping their bombs. Anti-aircraft guns quickly drove off the machines." It was announced in Petrograd on May 23rd that Russian airmen had dropped large numbers of bombs on the railway station of Ponevezh (on the Dvinsk-Libau line) and destroyed the permanent way of the railway from Libau for a distance of several kilometres. They also demolished some ammunition depots. Information was received in Amsterdam that on May 23rd a train carrying four destroyed German aeroplanes passed through Gemmenich, the machines having been hit by enemy artillery near Courtrai. Mr. W. Beach Thomas, writing to the Daily Mail 'from British headquarters in France on May 21st, said:'— " Great adventures in the air become, in these latter days of bright skies and light winds, the commonplaces of official chroniclers, both with the enemy and ourselves. It is eloquent of the activity of this warfare that the Germans lost an average of three machines a day throughout March and April—I speak of the whole of their front—and they have fought many stirring batt'es. "Airmen, of course, do not go out to fight. Their chief business is to see and photograph or to prevent others from seeing and photogiaphing. The Germans above others use the great speed they have attained chiefly in escaping attack, as a good airman should do. But you cannot fulfil your mission without fights; and the best defence is often offence. Not once or twice lately rival airmen have made straight for one another head to head, like two bulls charging. They have never yet met, because the heart of one or the other always gives out too soon, but the fighting is often at a distance not double the length of a cricket pitch. Of the machines that have met their fate a very large proportion are shot down from the air. The ' Archie,' or anti aircraft gun,' scares and hits many more than it brings down. The other day, for example, a shell went clean through the armoury of one of our single-seaters. It missed the pilot's shins by inches, and though it did not explode made a mess of the machine on both sides. The airman felt that something rather unusuai had happened, and was awjre of dust and d&ris and a rocking machine. But the confusion made little or no differ ence to him. He quickly recovered balance, went on flying, and ultimately returned to his aerodrome with ease and safety. Another of our pilots shot down an enemy in the air. But the fall was not, as it is called, a "era-her," only a nose-dive, which may mean anything, so he followed the diving enemy in order to see the finish and complete the victory. Unhappily, as he neared the ground his 'joy-stick,' or lever handle, jammed in some way, and though he was well within the enemy's territory, he was forced to come to earth. " Then, like the mythical giant, the touch of earth renewed his force. The jar released the 'joy-stick,' and he skimmed into space again as a swallow lifts after touching water. Nor was he touched by hostile tire. The prevalence of the east wind has proved, of course, a welcome advantage to our men. The wounded German cannot now slide home to safety as he has done a score of times on the oarage of the west wind. It is easier, too, to gauge the length ® ® Rewards for the R.N.A.S. IN a list of naval honours given in a supplement to the London Gazette issued on May 31st there appeared the following : — The King has been graciously pleased to approve of the award of the Distinguished Service Cross to the undermentioned officers:— Flight Sub - Lieutenant HBNRY KARSLAKB THOROLD, R.N.A.S. Sub-Lieutenant REGINALD HBNRY POSTAL, R.N. For conspicuous gallantry during a combat with an enemy aeroplane in the Dardanelles. At the outset Flight Sub-Lieut. Thorold, the pilot, was severely wounded in the back, and Sab- Lieut. Portal, the observer, in the thigh and arm. The pilot momentarily lost control, and the machine nosed dived, but he soon regained control, and the ob erver succeeded in firing another two magazines, whereupon the enemy aeroplane sheered off and disappeared. The pilot took his machine safely back to the aerodrome, a distance of about twenty five miles, and, after making a perfect landing, lost consciousness. of a reconnaissance flight. It will give some idea how the air hums with aircraft when I say that within one day during this fair May weather five-sixths of our available pilots were ' up' on business. "And what is the moral of these flights? Who holds the lord ship of the air? . We and the French have the better and the more adventurous pilots. We have new planes of very rapid climbing power, with new and more powerful engines. Fokkers have on occasion been outpaced. The Germans on their side have, as all electricians know, the best magneto, and their engines are singularly compact and perfect, and of very high power. As in many departments, they owe their points of superiority in war, as in peace, to the thoroughness of their technical training. Their failure is in individual quickness—in the air as in the trench. I may quote in illustration of the point an Anzac soldier. He was discussing Boche snipers. ' They are good,' he said, 'and very accurate, but terribly slow.' It is a pity that we cannot say the same of their engines." Mr. G. Renwick, writing to the Daily Chronicle from Salonica on May 24th, says:— " French aeroplanes carried out an extensive raid on enemy territory to-day. Leaving Salonica early in the morning one squadron bombarded hostile encampments at Xanthi (in Bulgaria, on the Salonica-Constantinople railway, near the Greek N. E. frontier), causing considerable damage. A second squadron first bombarded Veles (Kopruli, Serbia, on the Middle Vardar), and then, flying farther norih, dropped a number of shells on Uskub. This is the first time Uskub has been bombed by aeroplanes. At both places material damage is reported to have been done. All the machines returned to Salonica safely." It was reported in Rome on May 28th that a naval dirigible the previous evening dropped 28 bombs on the enemy's battery at Punta Salvore (at the entrance to the Gulf of Trieste) with excellent results, and returned safely in spite of the heavy fire to which it was subjected by the enemy artillery. A message to the Petit Parisicn from Salonica on May 26th stated that during the morning German aeroplanes flew over the lines and dropped bombs. The French aviators again bombed the enemy camps north of Petritch. The military critic of the Berliner Tageblatt, in an article explaining the difficulties with which the Germans have to contend before Verdun, makes the significant admission that the transport of new artillery and munitions to that front is greatly interfered with by the fact that all the railways and roids used for this puipose are being constan ly watched and bombarded by French aviators. According to the Echo Beige, the Germans have established an aerodrome on the plateau of Ans, near Liege. Mr. W. Beach Thomas, writing to the Daily Mail from the British headquarters in France on May 30th, says :— " One individual air feat deserves recording. One of our aerial photographers took in one flight a continuous stretch of eight miles of trench ; and every inch of the series of photographs is clear and precisely defined." A mes age from Rome states that an enemy seaplane was brought down in the Lower Adriatic on May 30th. The Times correspondent at Salonica, writing on June 1st, says:— "Yesterday French aircraft bombed the Bulgarian town of Porto- Lagos (on the coast of the Aegean, between Kavala and Dedeagatch) and were particularly successful in destroying depdts of munitions. To-day bombs were again dropped on Petritch." ® @ Honours for Zep. Strafers. IT was announced in the London Gazette of June 6ih, that the Field-Marshal Commanding-in-Chief, Home Forces, has recom mended to the Army Council the names of the undermentioned officers for distinguished service in connection with the defence of London against hostile air raids :— Major F. V. Holt, D.S.O., Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry and Royal Flying Corps. Major T. C. R. Higgins, the King's Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment) and Royal Flying Corps. Second Lieutenant A. de B. Brandon, Royal Flying Corps (Special Reserve). "•Second Lieutenant C. A. Ridley, Royal Fusiliers and Royal Flying Corps. These officers have shown great bravery and readiness to take risks of all sorts, going up and landing at night in all weathers, more often than not under most dangerous conditions. Second Lieutenant Brandon is the first pilot to succeed in dropping bombs on a Zeppr lin at night.
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