OUR FIGHTERS IN THE SKIES.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XL, Issue 12541, 12 May 1915, Page 7

OUR FIGHTERS IN THE SKIES.

liAjoror the E.vian:

(By Ernest Townloy.) General Headquarters

British Amiv in France

If the G-erm.ins could only destroy, cr even daunt, the British airmen, what- a hoard of German .secrets tiny would preserve! But they cannot daunt, such men as the lloya] Flying Cor]>s >s madt of. Tliey fear them instead. You .see many a Briti-h aerpolane flying towards the Gtriuan lino. I have seen no German Taube during the week I have been, with the British army in France. The German airman who ventures above the British lims does not wait to argue the point when a British, flier rises "for the chase. He scoots for safety, for the British lovec has .shown that it i- fearless of death, eager to destroy, and -nvincibh: in a battle in the skies. Some aeroplanes at the front are attached to various sections of the army, for an important part of their work is to discover enemy gun positions and report them to the-British commanders over the way, so that the British batteries may pitch their shells in the right place. They report progress while the fight is going on.

But further back machines are refitted and tuned up to concert pitch. The machines that have been "ditched'' by some unlucky descent or torn in the wing by shrapnel or nifle bullets, come home to be overhauled and repaired 1 . Sometimes a few patches and a dab of varnish (it is really s'ome other mixture) are sufficient: sometimes the poor creature has to lie str'pped to the bone —it looks like the dissection of an unwiuaed hornet —-and built up anew —new wings, new wires, new screws, ne.v tail, new engine parts. They showed me one proud she?!—the body of the .aeroplane that fought and scattered about a dorcn German rivals somewhere near Dunkirk-a little while

ago. < What eagle-.-ved lads they are. these British fighters in the skies! Continual watching -from tlie'-r ethereal eyries ilins given them a piercing vision. Cherubs might envy, their cheeks, pink as coral from frequent contact with the cold, pure air through which they soar and cT've and sail. They are as KfiMet and' unaVmion-trative .ux their ways as the crew of a herring smack. I saw a couple of them, in goatskin coats and leather skull caps, come s.ttr'ding lightly across the heath from the sheds', their little barque was ready for the voyage. They climbed aboard and took their seats, and one of them turned his head and roared, and, without a word or a thought for anything hut the machine and d-uty. they rose from the heath and sailed awav for the distant German lines. They meet with the good' luck they deserve as a rule. Shrapnel comes up at them, but ra'o'v hits the mark. Now and then win-r- are riddled, but th-e----little 'bce-hoV- make litt'.e (liii'ert nee. and 1 can easily be put right when they, return. It is not cften that a man is hit.

Now and then there happens the thing that men mu-t :\-')ect_ in war.. It is soon t-v'Ul. and. .f-r tin- time, forigotten. for nun ; ivr t '-niorr.-w to look, for and to i>: vide ana 'nst when they are in the mldjt of \vw. "Hear about- and- '?" '■•" "No. what h-nr-eued:-" "Machine to-;k' lire—mw down ,i:i oiir lines —both Iviru-t.'-' "Headr" "Yes. I'r.'dia'lv g,>t a bul.'et through the petrel t-irk." •■".•'' . .

The t:'-.rns to something else. "Wrr-n'" :>n '? at war he does -not want to chatter about > grisly, a t'::ng as d'e-ath. '

"When a man . d'-s." said Jasper Petulengro. "he is <-=t into the.-earth, and his''wife and children <-crrow over .him. If he h-' nc'ther ■ il'e.nor child, then his i'at'.icv and mo+'.Ver. T- suppose : and if he i' ouite nl'—•" -in "the world, whv. then, he is '■-■ ■ r'.-itn tl"> - en.rtli. and there i:; ru end to +h-> •n-,ttor.'' "And d-> von think th-.t- '■< the end of man ?'" .- • "There's an c-H r r ,'-i-.n, .h.'ot.her, more.'s th" - \yi".' "Why do you ■'"" M?"'' •';.:;: "Life is sweet, brother." -■■■■ -- '.'Do you "think so?" --" 1.

.' -'Think so! " : .-There's- night- and clay, brotte'r. both-sweet things: sun, moon. brother, \plr -sweet thin"'*.: therp'.* likewise the wind P'P t. 1 " 1 heath ; life is verv sweet, brother: who woul-i wHi to die?"

AY ho would wish to die.:' Yet these men at the front-, altbetiiih life is very sweet, face death' daily, so that GroqlBritain mar -conquer and lvc. The wind'brings the sound of guns..