s
of feet below and heading for home and safety. Every Fokker
pilot knows that once his surprise dive is over he has no chance
against another machine--the build of the Fokker only allows this
one method of attack--and he does not stop to argue about it. His
offensive dive becomes a defensive one--that is the sole
difference.

Sometimes a large squadron of German machines, composed of
various types of airplanes, intercepts a returning formation. If
it attacks a grand aerial battle ensues. The British fighting
machines spread out in a screen to allow the bombing machines a
chance of escape and then attack the Huns as they arrive. In one
place one British airplane will be defending itself from two or
three German machines; close by two or three of our busses will
be occupied in sending a Hun to his death; elsewhere more equal
combats rage and the whole sky becomes an aerial battlefield,
where machines perform marvellous evolutions, putting the best
trick flying of pre-war days very much in the shade. No sooner
has a pilot accounted for his foe, by killing him, forcing him to
descend, or making him think discretion the better part of
valour, than he turns to the help of a hard-pressed brother,
surprising the enemy by an attack from the rear or otherwise
creating a diversion.

A single shot in the petrol tank proves fatal; loss of pressure
ensues, the engine fails, and the pilot is forced to descend. He
can usually land safely, but should he be in enemy territory he
must fire his machine and prepare for a holiday in Germany.
Should he be fortunate enough to plane over our lines little
damage is done; the tank can be repaired and the machine made
serviceable again. But for the time being he is out of the fight.
Sometimes the escaping petrol may ignite and the pilot and
observer perish in the flames--the most terrible fate of all.

The aerial battle ends in one of two ways: one side is
outmanoeuvred, outnumbered, and has lost several machines and
flies to safety, or, the more usual ending, both sides exhaust
their ammunition, only a limited quantity perforce being carried,
and the fight is of necessity broken off. Meanwhile the bombing
machines have probably crossed the line in safety, and their duty
is finished. Should they be attacke