FIERCE AIR BATTLES.

ENEMY LOSSES 4 TO 1.

An impartial observer, viewing the air fighting upon the British Western front during the last week, would have noted with some astonishment that, while the Germans employed very strong forces upon a relatively short sector of the front, their losses in machines destroyed and driven down out of control were nearly four to one compared with the British machines reported missing. This fact is the more remarkable when it is remembered that the majority of the combats have taken place over the enemy’s territory, and that the British airmen have not infrequently engaged them in inferior numbers.

The sector of the front in which air fighting has chiefly taken place may be said to stretch roughly from a point slightly south of La Bassée Canal to the northern bank of the Somme, with its centre in the region of Cambrai. Possibly fearing an extension of the present battle towards the coast, the enemy’s scouts have been very active north of the Arras-cambrai road, and many fierce conflicts have taken place over the valley of the Scarpe. The main air forces of the enemy have, however, been located between Marquion (on the Arras-cambrai road) and the railway from Equancourt to Epehy. Here British airmen have encountered unusually large formations of the enemy, engaging them constantly over their own lines, and inflicting very heavy losses.

In the course of some dramatic air fighting upon these sectors forty-eight enemy machines were destroyed, twenty-eight driven down out of control, and five German kite balloons shot down in flames. Twenty-one British machines were reported missing. There can be little doubt that the German losses would have been even heavier had not high winds and frequent storms reduced the total amount of flying on three days of the week. During the same period some highly successful raids were carried out by British night-bombing machines, particularly on the night of Sept. 6-7, when the enemy’s railway connections at Armentières, Lille, Douai, Denain, Cambrai, and St. Quentin were very heavily bombed, and a number of other objectives attacked with excellent results. All the British machines returned safely from these raids; during which nearly sixty tons of bombs were dropped.