The Charge of the Lightest Brigade 



The men in the airplanes swoop down and 

 rake the trenches of the enemy with 

 machine-gun fire — a new military maneuver 



By Carl Dienstbach 



CONSIDER well the photograph repro- 

 duced at the bottom of this page, 

 showing French soldiers engaging in a 

 new kind of target practice. They are 

 learning how to shoot at swift, low-flying 

 airplanes. It is an historic document — 

 this photograph. It shows how formidable 

 the airplane has become in an unexpected 

 way. During more than one charge, air- 

 planes have actually flown ahead of the 

 troops and assisted them in the attack. 

 Flying machines have also deliberately 

 swooped down and with their machine-guns 

 raked the affrighted men in the enemy's 

 trenches from a height of scarcely two 

 hundred feet. Only the other day a pilot 

 dropped down from the skies and shot 

 several German staff officers who were 

 riding in an automobile. 



All this is in keeping with what we expect 

 of an artificial bird. Before the war, ma- 

 chines flew at a fixed level in order to avoid 

 the eddies and swirls near the ground. 

 Now they are like hawks and eagles. They 

 swoop down and soar up, wheel around, 



The airplane swoops down suddenly like an 

 enraged eagle, rakes the enemy trench with a *■ 

 machine gun and flashes away out of range 



circle slowly and perform evolutions which 

 even a swallow could hardly emulate. Nor 

 is any attention paid to high winds or 

 to rain. 



All this is largely due to 



French soldiers engaged in a new kind of target practice, in which airplanes, flying low at the 

 rate of about one hundred and thirty miles an hour, are the objects at which the guns are aimed 



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