CHAPTER XXXII

ENEMY ACTIVITY

In November, 1916, a series of brilliant conquests by British and French aviators had reduced the Germans to a secondary, if not actually a futile, part in the air. But after a period of bad weather and a lull in the fighting, German aviators again ventured over the Allies’ lines. Their enterprise, however, was short-lived. Proof of the Allies’ superiority was again seen on November 10 in an important aerial victory over the German lines. Thirty British machines defeated a greater number of the enemy—his strength is believed to have been between thirty and forty—while on a bombing expedition between Bapaume and Arras. The fact worth remembering is that the British airmen were not turned off, but that they punished their assailants decisively and then fulfilled their obligations as ordered, delivering seventy-two high explosive bombs on Vaulx-Vraucourt with satisfactory effect.

‘It is a pity,’ writes Mr. Percival Phillips, special correspondent of the _Daily Express_, ‘that such a thrilling episode of aerial warfare cannot be told in detail—but there are very few details to be had. The only eye-witnesses at close range were the intrepid airmen involved, who were so fully occupied with their own individual opponents that it was impossible to follow the fortunes of the entire enemy fleet until its ignominious disappearance. I am told, in the dry, matter-of-fact language of our airmen, that the British bombing ‘planes, flying at pre-arranged altitudes in a westerly wind, surrounded by their escort, sighted the German battle machines climbing through the rising mist to try to intercept them. The British fleet dropped to accept battle, and they closed a mile above the German trenches.

‘Then followed a breathless, furious duel, fought at a dizzy speed as the opposing ‘planes swirled and eddied through the clouds, intent on each other’s destruction. Machine-gun bullets ripped their hulls. They circled and dived with amazing confidence and accuracy. British and Germans alike drove their craft with superb skill, for the science of fighting in the air has become as intricate and difficult as handling a group of Dreadnoughts. No longer do the aeroplanes barge blindly at each other, firing point-blank, like old ships of the line. The expert crews twist and dodge in a manner undreamed of even a few short months ago, working their guns with nice discrimination, perhaps putting in one skilful shot where the pioneer guns of the air would have wasted half a drum. The battle was won as much by good airmanship as by the work of individual gunners. The German pilots were out-manœuvred. When at last their machines had enough of the fight—three of them had reeled earthwards, smoking wrecks—they dropped beyond range to examine their wounds, and the victorious British fleet passed on its way, in full view of the great army of spectators gazing upwards from the fields, road, and trenches below.’

Besides the three German ‘planes destroyed, others were sent down more or less damaged, but the full extent of the enemy casualties could not be ascertained. A broken aeroplane does not drop like a stone. It takes three or four minutes to reach the earth, and there is not time during an engagement for the men who are fighting to follow the progress of every crippled machine in its aimless descent.

The British casualties for the day’s work were two bombing machines and two escorting machines missing, one observer killed and two pilots wounded. Of the latter, one managed to alight inside the British lines; the other came down in ‘No Man’s Land.’

The special correspondent of the _Times_ describing the same battle writes: ‘It is a long time since the German initiated anything new in the air. Now, in his recrudescence of activity he is doing his best to learn from us. He copies exactly our methods, formations, and air tactics. In the recent moonlight nights especially his airmen have been penetrating behind our lines, trying to bomb rail-heads and transport, and so forth; and individual Germans are even getting so bold as to do what we have done for the last four months, namely, fly low enough to use their machine-guns on troops in trenches or on columns on the road. So far, they are making little by it; and they are having a most exciting time. One of the chief evidences of the new activity has been the great aerial battle, wherein some seventy aeroplanes were engaged, which the official communiqué has already mentioned. It took place between nine and ten o’clock on the morning of November 9, well over the German lines in the direction of Vaulx-Vraucourt, whither certain of our aeroplanes were bound on a bombing expedition. With them were fighting machines and scouts, making in all a fleet of thirty sail. Near the villa of Mory, just before reaching Vaulx-Vraucourt, they sighted an enemy squadron somewhat outnumbering themselves, the actual strength being something from thirty-six to forty aeroplanes.

‘They attacked at once. Some of our machines were flying at a higher level than the enemy, and they plunged headlong to join in the general engagement, which was fought at an average height of not much above 5,000 feet. Of the mêlée which followed, it is impossible to get any coherent account, for no man in it had time or thought for anything except the enemy machines with which he was successively engaged; but for twenty minutes there raged among the clouds such a battle as the world has never seen before: an inextricable tangle of single combats, of darting, swirling machines, the air filled with the roar of seventy propellers and the chatter of guns.

‘Four of our machines were lost, that is to say, that they were compelled to descend in German territory, a strong westerly wind drifting the battle as it raged more and more over enemy’s soil. In the ships which came home, one brought a dead observer, and two others, with wounded pilots, had difficulty in beating up against the wind and landing in our lines. Of the enemy we know that six machines were sent to earth, of which three are known to have crashed. What happened to the other three, beyond that they were falling out of control, is not known. In yet another the pilot was seen to be shot dead. What further casualties the enemy suffered he only is aware; but the best evidence that the victory was ours lies in the fact that the whole enemy formation was broken and scattered. The Germans fled for safety in all directions, leaving us in possession of the sky. Then we went upon our business; we punctually dropped our bombs on the stores and ammunition depots of Vaulx-Vraucourt, and then came home proudly flying in regular formation, no German daring to interfere.’

Again and again the Germans have made desperate efforts to snatch the control of the air from the firm grasp of the Allies, but without the desired result. The Allies’ aviators are not to be beaten. Their enterprise, their courage, above all their heroic bearing, are proof against all attacks.