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Aviation History
1916
1916 - 0731.PDF
AUGUST 24, 1916. records of the submarines. And the miraculousness of it is heightened by the solemn official language in which the feats are described. " It is almost sadly that the report states that on July 26th the enemy machines * were quite inactive until late in the evening,' much as one might report that the fish were not biting well. Then, however, we cheer up, for ' a reconnais sance to Cambrai saw some 15 and had considerable fighting.' So the day did not pass entirely without sport. But it is the character of the fighting that'moves astonishment. " On July 27th, we are told, ' Captain B engaged several hostile machines, driving them off,' and the ' several' is delightful. On the same day ' Lieutenant C dived at five hostile machines which were attacking a B.E. between Le Sars and Martinpuich. All the hostile machines were driven off.' Two days later, ' Lieutenants D, U and S saw five Rolands on the attack and broke them up, scattering them\ in all directions.' Then ' Captain B ' turns up again, being attacked by an enemy machine which he had mistaken for one of ours. He inconsiderately gets his side gun jammed, so he fires a drum from his top gun and bags the enemy. That he did bag him is only known from the report of another of our men, ' Lieutenant J,' who was watching and saw the enemy go down, Captain B himself being busy ' watching another machine.' It is often so, when the birds come too fast. ' Captain B ' could hardly be expected to keep count of everything. " And so the bewildering record goes, with tales—two lines " long on the average—of the loveliest fighting against odds and of deeds up there above the clouds that shame us earth worms. We read how now and again the aeroplanes come down to 700 ft. and thereabouts and drop their bombs on horse transport moving along the roads or on columns of infantry. At such a height one almost expects to read that the enemy drove them off with stones and clods. We hear of them going to this town and that and bombing moving trains so that they blow up, and antrnunition stores which continue exploding for an hour afterwards, the shocks being felt by our [/LIGHT machines at a height of o.ooo ft., end 1 illages used as billets which catch fire and bum until next day. " Yet all this is not the main work which the airmen do. The bulk of the reports deal exclusively with the obsarvktbo work for our artillery, and how good that is I have told several times. Here we have the record oi the numltcrs of ' targets ' that are ' registered ' each da\. and what happens to those unhappy targets when the guns get on to them "It may be remembered that one day 1 reported that the enemy's machines were showing signs of enterprise H seems that on that day ' some 25 machines in all appear to have crossed short distances over our lines.' Among them they dropped one bomb in a wood. Then the record goes on 'No decisive results of the fighting were seen, as the fights followed one another so quickly (too many birds again ' | The fighting was all in our favour, however, and the enenn formations were in every case dispersed and driven off. Two of his machines are believed to have been destroyed, hut their is no confirmation. Several were driven down.' " But the gist of it all is in another sentence : — The work of our Corps machines was not interfered with. The Corps machines just went on with their work, registering targets for the edification of the guns, and taking the photographs of the enemy's ground that show up every trench which he makes or little molehill which he throws up till it stands out as distinctly as a burglar in the light oj I policeman's lantern.1 " It is an extraordinary document, which makes one most of all deplore the poverty of the human imagination whii h before the coming of the aeroplane, could fashion nothing more thrilling as occurring in the air than futile nights on rocs' backs and magic carpets. What one deplores less is the extremely uncomfortable time which the enemy is having, not only in the air, but in all the region under the air over a large space behind his lines." A Central News message from Amsterdam on August i"tli says :— THE LATEST ANfERICAN "TWIN" BATTLEPLANE.—Built by the Atlantic Aircraft Co., It has a span of 48 ft., and a supporting area of 550 sq. ft. The chord and gap are 6 ft. and 7 ft. respec tively, and the length is 28 ft. 6j ins. Two 90 h.p. Aeromarlne engines are installed, and the speed range is 50-85 m.p.h. Photo, by courtesy of " Aerial Age.") 727
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