lee: aviation and the war 229 



All these subjects are highly specialized at the present time. 

 It is absolutely impossible for a pilot to be an expert in all three 

 subjects. He may be an excellent flyer in a heavy machine but 

 he msiy fail as a gunner; another pilot may be extremely good in 

 the scouts. All these things require special knowledge and 

 special tactics for teaching them. The pilot in the single seater 

 must be an expert gunner. He must know his gun absolutely 

 thoroughly, but if he can't shoot straight he may as well go home. 

 Some machines have three or four guns. If a gun goes wrong, 

 the pilot must be able to locate the trouble and correct it. He 

 must go through various courses of training, including ''stunting" 

 courses, and until he has completed these he is not allowed to 

 go over-seas. 



Furthermore, before he goes over-seas he has to be absolutely 

 proficient in what is called formation fljdng. In former days the 

 machines went out one, two, or three at a time. Nowadays it is 

 of no use to go over alone or in pairs. The machines now fly 

 in sixes, eights, twelves, sixteens, and twenty-fours. They fly 

 together, bunched up and well packed in. If the formation is 

 well packed in no Boche will attempt to touch it. But if one of 

 the pilots drops out of the formation, if his engine goes wrong and 

 his revolutions start dropping and he starts losing height, then 

 the enemy is after him. They wait their time until he is well put 

 of his formation and then his only safeguard is to stunt. 



A friend of mine (now Colonel), Jack Scott, used to go out 

 ''Hun hunting" by himself. He once was out beyond the lines 

 looking at his own squadron, when a squadron of Boches came 

 between him and his own lines. The only thing he could do was 

 to stunt, and although he got bullets all through his machine, 

 his gun was hit, he had three holes through the seat, and a lot of 

 holes through other parts of his machine, he got away all right. 

 But he said he got so tired of flying around and around that he 

 was almost ready to give up, when one of the enemy happened 

 to come in line, and Scott fired when he saw him on his sights. 

 The Boche went spinning to the ground. That little accident 

 heartened him so that he revived and got away. 



There was another fellow, Bishop, who was of the same sort. 

 He went out scouting alone and saw five enemy machines just 



