THE BATTLE IN THE ADRIATIC
The French and Austrian fleets were steaming into battle in the
Adriatic. This coming struggle, while it was to be by no means
decisive, was nevertheless the first engagement of any magnitude
to be fought in southern waters; also it was the first in which
fighters of the air were to play an important part.
The Marie Tieresa, back from her successful raid, was one of the
foremost in the French line of battle. Now, as she steamed
forward with the rest of the fleet, her hydroplanes were made
ready for action.
Captain Dreyfuss summoned Jack and Frank before him.
"You will each take a seat in one of the hydroplanes," he
ordered. "Your duties will be to drop bombs on the enemy. Each
machine carries two men, one a pilot. Therefore you will each
take separate machines."
Frank and Jack saluted, and a moment later were in their places.
What was Jack's surprise to find that the pilot of his machine
was none other than the French midshipman he had so lately
engaged in fistic combat. The latter, whom the boys had learned
to call Pierre, greeted him with a smile.
"I'm glad I am to have you along," he said simply.
"Thanks," was Jack's brief reply.
The French hydroplanes, at least fifty of them, from all the
battleships, now skimmed over the water, and a moment later
soared in the air. Flying on beyond the French ships, a smudge
of smoke came into view, then another, and then many more. Ships
of all kinds, Jack could see, dreadnoughts, cruisers, torpedo
boats and scout ships, advancing toward them.
Then, as they drew nearer, Jack made out other vessels, lying low
in the water, without smoke, approaching. These were the
Austrian submarines. Jack counted the enemy--sixteen ships of
all classes, and opposed to these the French had offered almost
an equal number. The forces of both sides under and above the
sea, of course, he could not count.
Some of the airships from both sides now came into contact, and
brisk skirmishes ensued. Rifles flashed from them, and suddenly
one tumbled into the sea. It was an Austrian craft, and it was
first blood for the French.
Now the aircraft, at a signal, returned to their respective
fleets, and hovered over them. The speed of both squadrons was
reduced together. The submarines of both fleets suddenly sank
from sight, and it was evident to Jack that the first blows
probably would be struck from under water.
The aircraft once more advanced, flying low, seeking to learn the
positions of the submarines, and to point them out to the gunners
on the big battleships and cruisers. A periscope, extending a
few feet above water, gave Jack a good target, and the lad
dropped a bomb.
There was a terrific explosion below the water. The periscope
disappeared. There was one Austrian submarine less.
The two squadrons of ships meantime were drawing nearer together.
The first French battleship, flagship of the squadron, was now
engaged with the first ship of the Austrian squadron. They were
engaged gun for gun.
Now the second ships of each fleet came into action, and then the
third. Ship after ship engaged the enemy, until the battle
became general. For an instant, after each salvo, the rival
squadrons were hidden from each other by the smoke of battle, but
a brisk wind soon blew this away, and the cannonading continued.
Now one of the French vessels steered aside and dropped behind
the line of battle. She was disabled.
The next ship moved up, and the French advance continued as
before.
The torpedo craft of the French, gathered behind the French
battle line dashed forward suddenly, headlong for the Austrian
fleet. For two miles they sped on, apparently unnoticed by the
enemy, then the great turret guns of the Austrians opened on
them. The French torpedo craft began to suffer. Two together
swung broadside to the Austrians, riddled with holes; the boiler
of a third burst, the ship broke in two and sank almost
instantly. But the others raced on.
Toward the big Austrian battleships they dashed. Austrian
torpedo boats rushed out to meet them.
A shell from a French warship struck one of these, and she went
to the bottom immediately. Others suffered by the French fire.
Four thousand yards from the Austrian fleet the French torpedo
boats launched their torpedoes; then they fled back to the
protection of the battleships, still engaged with the Austrian
pursuers with small guns.
But they had done their work. A hundred torpedoes, driven by
their motors of compressed air just below the surface, were
steering automatically for the Austrian battleships.
Suddenly the fourth ship of the Austrian line staggered; a white
spray of water leaped high in the air, and the Austrian vessel
split into many pieces. The first torpedo had gone home. The
fifth and sixth Austrian battleships also now leaped from the
water, and then sank from sight. Farther back another Austrian
ship dropped from the line of battle.
Now a school of Austrian torpedo craft dashed forward again.
They were met by a fierce hail of fire from the French, but in
spite of this they succeeded in launching their torpedoes, and
the French battleship, far back, suddenly disappeared from the
surface of the Adriatic.
Now the battle grew so terrific that individual ship movements
could not be kept track of. The Austrian torpedo craft retreated
and the French gave chase. Jack and Frank saw all this, soaring
above the sea, a part of it, and yet not a part of it, for so far
they had had little to do.
Pierre, seated in front of Jack, suddenly uttered a shout.
Following the direction of the pilot's eyes, Jack perceived a
great, gray, pencil-shaped object approaching through the air.
He recognized it instantly--a German war dirigible, sent to
help the Austrians. Under it flew smaller forms, aeroplanes
accompanying it as guard. And now a second Zeppelin appeared--and
then a third.
Swiftly they swept over the sea. A moment and they had passed
over the broken line of Austrian battleships, and sped on toward
the French fleet. The French perceived the menace, and their
special quick-firers, elevated for aeroplane defense, came into
action.
But the Zeppelins bored on, and their powerful guns fired down
macarite shells. The first French battleship, already stripped
by the raking fire of the Austrian fleet, seemed to crumple up,
and a moment later disappeared altogether.
The rain of shells from above found breaches in the armor of a
second French ship, caught a magazine forward and exploded it,
almost at the same time blew up a magazine aft, and the ship,
broken in two, sank.
The first dirigible, having passed over the French fleet, now
turned and came back. The shells of the ships burst harmlessly
below it. As the torpedo boats had gathered for an attack
against the Austrian fleet, so now did the French aircraft gather
for an assault upon these enemies of the air.
But the enemy's airmen did not wait for them. They charged.
Machines met, wing against wing, and toppled into the water.
Others, their propellers crushed, met the same fate. But some of
the French machines burst through, only to be met by the deadly
fire of the Zeppelins and sent into the sea.
Yet a few survived, and their rifle bullets riddled the gas
chambers of the big balloons, but these tiny perforations availed
nothing. The French flyers who survived darted beyond the
Zeppelins and withdrew. The attack had accomplished little, for,
while some of the Austrian aeroplanes had been sent into the sea,
the dirigibles were still intact. A mean for successful attack
against these giants of the air had not been found.
But now, in response to a word of command from Jack, Pierre
nodded his head in understanding. In the meantime the French
birdmen had re-formed and had rushed forward in another gallant
attack. But the result was the same, and, while they succeeded
in accounting for some of the smaller planes' the Zeppelins
continued to fight as before, dropping their powerful shells upon
the French fleet below.
But this time there was one plane that did not swerve as it burst
through the Austrian line of small planes, and darted toward the
first dirigible. Straight on it rushed, absolutely reckless, and
crashed into the first giant balloon, head-on-collapse the great
forward gas chamber, setting it on fire, exploding it, blowing
all the mighty war balloon to atoms.
In this plane were Jack and Pierre. It was Jack's eye that had
made out the only means of effective attack against the
dirigible. Even as he had ordered the attack, the lad knew that
it meant almost certain death, but he had not hesitated. He
realized that the French aircraft must be shown some means of
destroying these huge air fighters, and knowing that there was
time to convey his ideas to the other, had acted at once.
Now, this accomplished, the plane in which Jack and Pierre had
performed this success, driven deep into the flaming mass of
wreckage, was falling with the broken war balloon down into the
sea.
The wreck fell slowly, for the fabric, yet unconsumed, parachuted
and held in the air. Then, finally, hissing and splashing, it
fell into the sea.
To Jack's ears, as he came again to the surface, came the cries
of men wounded and burning. An arm flung toward the sky sent his
eyes in that direction, even as he swam.
He saw the two remaining dirigibles fighting together against
another aeroplane attack. But the way had been shown, and no
longer did the French sheer off when they broke through the
Austrian air line. Two small planes crashed into the dirigibles,
one into each, and exploded them.
They fell to the sea, burning, men tumbling out upon all sides.
A form struck the water close to where Jack, miraculously
uninjured, swam. The latter stretched out an arm, and grasped
the body by the shoulder, as it reappeared upon the surface.
Then a cry of amazement burst from his lips.
The form that he thus clutched so tightly was that of his friend
Frank.