Brewster 'A Glimpse of War through a Private's Eyes', a retrospective account of experiences in World War I, 1915-1917 / John James Brewster - Page 527
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[Page 527]
was seen to make a "nose dive" & fall crashing behind the Hun ridge
The four continued the fight but in a short time one of the Allies & one of the Huns turned & flew very rapidly towards their individual lines, both had evidently been injured but escaped destruction The remaining planes continued the battle & it was quite an exciting spectacle to watch them using all their skill & cunning to try to gain the advantage
After 5 or 6 minutes during which the guns of both machines could be heard keeping up a continuous rattle of fire, the Allied plane suddenly "nose dived" straight towards the earth in exactly similar manner to the one that had already "crashed", but this plane was closely followed by the Hun whose Machine gun kept "spitting" bullets all the time.
When within what looked like 100 feet from the ground the Allied plane very smartly righted itself, & came flying at full speed with a wave like motion still quite close to the ground, towards our front line, reaching it both planes flew over the "fallen" timber so low that they just seemed to be clearing the branches sticking up. The wave like motion in the flight was to give the pursuing Hun as difficult a target to hit as possible, but the enemy plane was very fast & to every movement made by the Allied man the Hun moved in unison immediately. A better picture of a hawk in full "career" after its quarry could not be imagined
These airmen must think and act very quickly, a dull witted airman courageous & daring as ever he might be, with his gun out of action, and a bloodthirsty Hun expert, hanging on to his tail, pumping lead at the rate of 400 a minute would have little hope, but a quick thinking man often escapes.
With his gun out of action he tries to get clear by a "bluff" nose dive crash being followed he must look to his own line for help, the wave like motion