FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1918
1918 - 0457.PDF
APRIL 25, 1918. are two important reasons for this cessation of air raids, thechief one being that Germany has found it necessary to concentrate on the French front all her available machines,and has left none at all to assist the Austrians, whose air service is unequal, without assistance, to the undertakingof effective long-distance raids. The second reason is to be found in the fact that during the first three months of thepresent year the enemy losses in pilots have been so serious that both Germany and Austria realise the absolute necessityof sparing the air service as much as possible, and confining its activities to only the most essential operations, particu-larly in view of the fact that by about May or June they expect to find themselves faced with great air forces fromAmerica. Whether these be true reasons or not, it is pretty certainthe Huns will want all the machines they can get together to parry the blows which are likely to be rained upon themin the near future. Apropos this offer of humane consideration from theGerman barbarians, it may be that they also have something more than an inkling of what the French have up theirsleeves, to justify M. Maurice Barres in a Paris journal stating that within a very short time " we are going to producesomething not bad in the way of bombardment. That is why in the Rhine Valley they are keen on limiting theemployment of aeroplanes." - WE wonder which side was the more surprised last week,the R.A.F. officers upon their way home upon running into three flocks of swallows at 4,000 feet, migrating northward,or the masses of these harbingers of summer when they found themselves skimming " neck and neck " with human ridersof the wind. To France againfalls another pioneer achievement, the cross-ing of the Sahara by aeroplane. So far halfthe desert had been "conquered," but now,according to the Echo de Paris of April 20th,the full trip across has been accomplishedby three machines, which left Ouarglaand arrived at Salah, having completed thetrip in seven hours with a solitary landingat Inifel. LAST week a numberof newspapers dis- covered a " new Ger-man aeroplane'' which had made its appear-ance at the Front-—• the Pfalz. It may beworth noting that the 160 - Mercedesi-enginedPfalz machine was described and illus-trated in last week's " FLIGHT." AN evening paper,giving particulars of the present moon andits phases, concludes by remarking: " Theweather during the coming moonlightshould be extremely uncertain." We agree—it certainly should ! THE Ratepayers'Association at Bognor have urged on thelocal council that danger is caused byaeroplanes to street traffic and to peopleon the sands by flying " unnecessarily low." " A most unpatriotic letter," was Mr. Staffurth'sdescription of the communication when it came before the Council, and Mr. Smith added that he was surprised thatthere was not a resolution to ask the Kaiser not to advance any further. These are the men, presumably, who an'managing our home affairs ! A correspondent tells us that on several recent visits to that district he has seen aviatorswho come from training aerodromes a few miles away doing many reckless and stupid performances along the sands andover the pier, obviously " showing off " for the benefit of alien air-raid dodgers and other Bognor visitors. Perhaps ifone or two valuable machines belonging to the Royal Air Force get smashed up on the front and a few casualtiescaused among the local inhabitants, these intelligent members of the Council will alter their views. •"•>•,'••, _' . LAST week there was an unusual ceremony at one of thenew aerodromes " somewhere on the South Coast," when the D.C.M. was-presented to Corpl. H. F. Welfare, of the North-umberland Fusiliers, who is now employed there He was twice mentioned in Despatches and has no less than 27wounds. The whole of the officers and men of the aerodrome and the civilian staff were paraded for the occasion, and themedal was pinned on his breast by Major Greenwood, R.A.I1. As the corporal was about to be married he was also therecipient of a present in the shape of a bedroom suite from the civilian staff, the gentleman making the presentationremarking that he was sorry he could not pin this also on his breast ! . ..",';. AN interesting article by le Sous-lieutenant Viallet, entitled"Considerations sur les Avions de Chasse," appears in La Guerre Aerienne. It deals chiefly with a popular Britishaeroplane which it describes and illustrates through the article as " the Sop-with ' Pop ' ! " Is this because it is amachine which has given the Bochesginger, or is it because the useful little scoutflies upwards like a cork out of a bottle ? MORE AERIAL PROPAGANDA—" Mein Goit! Herr Kapitan,dere is yet einother of the never-to-be-sufficiently-detested English swine dropping of the leaflets! '' 4S5 THERE is a certainflight officer at an East Coast station, whocan tell tales in the manner of Coleridge'sAncient Mariner. He drifted in the otherday, borrowed a pipe- ful of tobacco from us,pocketed our last box of matches absently,and told us the de- lectable story of theyoung and tender com- mander of one of thenew American sub- marine '"chasers," whowas roaming over the seven seas in searchof any prey that might offer. He came insight of a buoy, and was just about tomake fast to it, when despairing shrieksfrom every syren within sight or hearingwarned him that he was hooking up witha floating mine ! Also there was theone about the skipper of a crazy, namelesscraft, resurrected from an honourable retire-ments in the early days of the war, whohounded an elusive sub. into shoal water,where it lay doggo. Thereupon the chiefsent a man overside with a 'eavy 'ammer
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
