Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/706

 Jumping Through an Aerial Bonfire

��One of the most sensational episodes of the great war

By Carl Dienstbacli

��THE great war has led to many radical changes in the me- thods of warfare. Some were discontinued alto- gether, others modified, still others greatly de- veloped. The trench-war- fare, which reached a higher development than ever before, naturally in- fluenced the artillery tac- tics and led to an extensive use of observation bal- loons. These balloons, which were and still are used on all fronts, are essential for directing the fire of the artillery and have amply demonstrated their usefulness. The de- struction of the enemy's balloons is one of the most important tasks devolving upon the aviation branch of every army. It might be said that it is part of their daily routine to seek and, if possible destroy, by gunfire or aerial bombs, the observation balloons which direct or correct the fire of the enemy's artillery.

It was one of those attempts to destroy an enemy observation balloon on the Italian front which led to one of the most sensational episodes recorded during the great war. One of the allied flyers, having ignited the gas of the hostile balloon, dashed with terrific force through the fiercely blazing bag and, although dis- abled by the shock, succeeded in landing safely behind his own lines.

There is nothing very sensational or romantic in the circling of an airplane around an airdrome, while on the other hand the most daring fiction has never invented and pictured anything half as wonderful and sensational as was that daring dash of that allied airman clean through a burning hostile observation

���Collision was inevitable. The airplane dashed clear through the burning balloon

��balloon, three thousand feet above the ground. It was another incident de- monstrating the dramatic possibilities and the ele- ment of romance in fly- ing.

Four ally flyers at- tacked the hostile ob- servation balloon, which was guarded by three air- planes. While each of the allied flyers engaged one of the hostile flyers in combat, the fourth flew straight for the balloon, opening fire with incen- diary bullets at short range. So intent was he upon the destruction of the balloon that he mis- calculated the distance. When he found that it was too late to avoid a col- lision with the burning balloon, the daring air- man put on full speed and, withour hesitation, dashed straight through the fiery monster.

The wings of his airplane were broken by the shock but the stays and braces held them long enough to enable him to glide down to safety behind the lines of the Allies. Tattered pieces of the bag of the balloon were still clinging to the wings of the airplane when it reached the ground, grim evidence of its sensational dive, unparalleled in the history of aviation.

Had the fabric not yielded, or had not the gas been ignited before the collision, this airplane would undoubtedly have shared the fate of the Austrian airplane which, a short time before the beginning of the war, accidentally rammed an Austrian dirigible, was upset and crashed down in flames, entangled in the folds of the burning balloon. The result was complete disaster.

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