No one has succeeded better than Boyd Cable, in the _Red Cross
Magazine_, in conveying an impression of what “Quick Work” means in the
war combats between aeroplanes when the fighting machines are in expert
hands. But after all it is doubtful if one can realize in reading how
quick the action was, inasmuch as the fight took less time than you
will require to read one of these columns aloud. As Mr. Cable says:
“It is difficult, if not indeed impossible, to convey in words what
is perhaps the most breath-catching wonder of air fighting work, the
furious speed, the whirling rush, the sheer rapidity of movement of
the fighting machines, and the incredible quickness of a pilot’s
brain, hand, and eye to handle and maneuver a machine, and aim and
shoot a gun under these speed conditions. I can only ask you to try to
remember that a modern fast scout is capable of flying at well over a
hundred miles an hour on the level, and at double that (one may not
be too exact) in certain circumstances, and that in such a fight as I
am going to try to describe here the machines were moving at anything
between these speeds. If you can bear this in mind, or even realize
it—I am speaking to the non-flying reader—you will begin to understand
what airmen-o’-war work is, to believe what a pilot once said of air
fighting: ‘You don’t get time to think. If you stop to think, you’re
dead.’
“When the flight of half a dozen scout machines was getting ready to
start on the usual ‘offensive patrol’ over Hunland, one of the pilots,
‘Ricky-Ticky’ by popular name, had some slight trouble with his engine.
It was nothing much, a mere reluctance to start up easily, and since he
did get her going before the flight was ready to take off, he naturally
went up with it. He had a little more trouble in the upward climb to
gain a height sufficient for the patrol when it crossed the line to
stand the usual respectable chance of successfully dodging the usual
‘Archie’ shells.
“Ricky, however, managed to nurse her up well enough to keep his place
in the formation, and was still in place when they started across the
lines. Before they were far over Hunland he knew that his engine was
missing again occasionally, and was not pulling as she ought to, and
from a glance at his indicators and a figuring of speed, height, and
engine revolutions was fairly certain that he was going almost full out
to keep up with the other machines, which were flying easily and well
within their speed.”