The Exploits of Chapman, Prince, Rockwell, Guynemer, Marchal, Immelman, Boelke, Richthofen and Others

Page 5

villages near the coast. A chapel was wrecked, and several
houses were damaged. One man was injured. Next morning
ten airplanes appeared on the coast of Kent and dropt
bombs on Dover, Margate, and Ramsgate.  There were no
casualties at Margate, but at Dover and Ramsgate eleven
persons were killed and thirteen injured.  A hospital and
some houses were damaged.  England was twice attacked
by German air-raiders on September 4.  The first attack
spent most of its force upon the naval station at Chatham,
waere 108 persons were killed and 92 wounded.  All the
victims, except one killed and six injured, were sailors and
non-commissioned officers.  In the second attack both the
southeast coast and the London districts were bombarded.
The raiding squadrons in both cases were made up of air-
planes.
	On September 25 it was learned that Guynemer, the
French aviator, had been killed in battle, probably in a
reconnaissance flight over Flanders.  He had left Dunkirk
on September 11 and nothing had been heard of him since.
Gnynemer had attained, world-wide fame by his exploits.
Experts considered him perhaps the, most brilliant aviator
of the war. He had been last cited in an official French an-
nouncement on September 10.  Guynemer was twenty-one
years old. The feeling of his countrymen for him was shown
when, carrying the flag of the aviation group, he marched
in a parade in Paris at the celebration of the French na-
tional holiday in July, 1917, during which he was greeted
with wild outbursts of cheering and covered with flowers
thrown by women and children.
	Guynemer had frequently been asked to go to the rear,
place his talents as an inventor and his vast experience in
war flying at the disposal of the air administration, but in-
variably he refused, being unable to bring himself to give
up the fascinating adventurous life of an air-fighter.  He
was credited in army aviation records with having shot
down fifty-three planes inside German lines and with having
destroyed at least, twenty-five more that were '11nconnted.
His greatest work was done on May 17, 1917, when he
brought down four German machines, two of which he ac-
counted for in the space of two minutes, having attacked
a group of four. With only three cartridges left, while on
his homeward flight, he encountered the fourth German and
shot him down with one of the three remaining cartridges.
	Fifty-three German machines officially credited to Guy-
Nemer's record were worth something more than 1,500,000
francs.  Some of them were manned by two or three men.
It was estimated that he accounted for more than eighty
pilots, observers, and gunners.  His last fight took place
some four or five miles inside the German lines northeast of
Ypres and opposite the British lines.  His success was due
largely to his marksmanship, his ability to fire on the instant
lie was ready.  It was this wonderful coordination of eye
and finger that enabled him to fell three German fliers in
150 seconds, the greatest military feat ever performed in
the air, a deed after. which, with one plane wing wrecked by
a shell, he fell 104)00 feet and escaped. He had the instinct
of strategy and used every form of attack; straight firing at
the enemy's level, the sudden dash from behind the corner
of a cloud, the hawk-like swoop in which he sent bullets as
he dropt like a plummet, and the impudent assault, just
above German trenches.  With feints and lunges he once
drove an enemy machine to earth inside the French lines
when the German plane had a crew of three men and a gun,
while Guynemer was alone and his gun was jammed and
useless.  To have seen three years of war from the wide
blue, to have done more than any other single soldier to
blind the German, to have worn on his breast every medal
that France gives to her brave Guynemer could have asked
no more except, very likely, to die for his country. He was
well described as a D'Artagnan, with the face of a woman
and the heart of a Frencman.
	The strongest air attack so far attempted on London and
the coast towns by the Germans was carried out on Octo-
ber .1 by four groups of hostile airplanes.  Some of the
machines got through to London and bombed the southwest-
ern district.  A terrific barrage was sent up from the de-
fense guns, and the roar of battle lasted' intermittently for
two and a half hours. The Germans bombed coast towns as
they passed over and proceeded toward London. Two of the
groups succeeded in getting a number of machines through
the sky barrage. Numerous bombs were dropt on the south-
western district, which was thickly populated with the homes
of the upper and middle classes. The fire from the defend-
ing guns became longer and louder than ever before.  A
rain of shrapnel fell in all sections of the town, and the
streets were virtually deserted save for a few police.
The failure of an early morning raid on London on
November 1 was proof, notwithstanding the journalistic out-
cry to the contrary, of the efficiency of London's defenses
Only three of thirty airplanes succeeded in reaching the
heart 'of the city. Despite mist and many light clouds, which
gave them an excellent chance of concealment, they were
forced from their course in an effort to avoid salvos from
anti-aircraft batteries. Most people were abed when police
whistles gave the alarm. There was some hasty dressing and
scurrying to lower floors and other places' of safety, but a
majority of Londoners stayed abed and took the raid liter-
ally lying down. Eight persons were killed and twenty-one
others were injured. About thirty airplanes in seven groups
took part. Apparently the raid was the most elaborate, at-
tempt to "lay London in ruins" ever made by the Germans.
That it was a failure was due to the new air defenses, which,
with the gunfire of airplanes, broke up the hostile squad-
rons.
	American aviators by November 14 had dropt bombs on
Germany.  Some of the Allied airplanes on night raids
carried Americans along as bombers, and they dropt bombs
upon the dimly seen lights of factories, railroad stations and
military depots.  These aviators were not a part of the,
Lafayette Escadrille, which had just been transferred from
the French army to the American, but were old American
Army aviators, some of whom had been in Mexico.  Paris,
for the first time in several months, was subjected to a
German air-raid on January ~0, when 'a' number of German
machines dropt fourteen tons of bombs.  Considerable dam-
age was done and some twenty persons were killed.  One of
the raiding machines was brought down.
	On March 8 another air-raid was made on London, the
Germans being aided by the aurora borealis which brilliantly
illuminated 'the northern heaven.  Seven or eight airplanes
crossed the east coast. Anti-aircraft fire was heavy and the
machines were at first driven back, but others, attacking from
the south, managed to penetrate as far as the metropolis and
dropt bombs. No objects of military importance were dam-
aged, but eleven persons were killed and forty-six injured.
	On March 11 four German machines were brought down
and fifteen trained ' aviators, mechanics and pilots were
killed or made prisoner in an air attack on Paris. The raid
was attempted on a scale hitherto unapproached, nine squad-
rons participating. Some of the machines followed the rivers.
Oise and Ourcq, while others came along the Crell-Paris and
Soissons-Paris railroads.  The percentage of units that sue-
ceeded this reaching Paris was small.  Aerial defenses had
improved greatly since former raids.  Many German ma-
chines were forced back and obliged to drop their cargoes
of bombs in vacant fields in Paris suburbs. While the raid
was in progress, French machines executed a counter air-
offensive on the enemy's airdromes from which the German
'raiders had started.  More than, three tons of bombs were
dropt on landing fields.
	On March 13 British airplanes attacked munitions works
and barracks at Freiburg, in the Black Forest, nearly ten
tons of bombs being dropt.  Great Britain was now quite
ready for air-raid reprisals on Germany.  War-planes of
every type were being produced by the British and French
in far greater numbers than by the Central Powers.  The
Allies were equipped for aggressive aerial warfare on a
great scale. Germany, defeated on the battlefield and balked
in her submarine campaign, had reached a state of impotent
rage. She was striking England 'wherever she could through
non-combatants, including women and children.  One week
later Ludendorf launched his great offensive in the west.
Airplanes played a great part in defeating him, Allied
superiority in the air having become very great.

Previous | Next

Baptain Boelke
Boelke was among the most celebrated of German airmen, and respected among his enemies because of his sportsman like qualities.