Air Service Boys Flying for France/Chapter 22
CHAPTER XXII
WRECKING A MUNITION PLANT
Higher they went, since it was necessary that they pass over the German lines at an altitude such as would insure them safety from any furious burst of shrapnel fire from the watchful enemy below.
Had it been a dark night doubtless numberless searchlights would have been brought into play, striving to pick out the machines whose drumming reached the ears of the wakeful enemy below. But when the moon reigned in the heavens it was useless to depend on such artificial light.
Finally Tom saw they had reached the altitude agreed on as the working basis. He could detect ahead of him one or more of the big planes taking flight toward the north. There lay the land of the Teuton, as yet wholly free from invasion, save through just such desperate means as this night expedition.
Far below they could see a myriad of dots of lights. These might be the fires of the hostile armies, for the weather still remained cold. In the nights particularly a blaze was acceptable to such of the fighting men as had to remain out of the trenches and back of the lines.
Tom could also see colored lights, which he guessed were rockets. The Germans were sending up signals. He wondered if their starting out was known, or suspected, and whether some sort of bombardment was in store for the raiders as they passed over the Teuton front.
After the recent raid that was said to have been so very successful it seemed reasonable to believe that the German High Command would expect a repetition while the moon still gave a favorable light.
Tom quickly learned that his guess had been a good one. From below came a jumble of sounds faintly heard, along with the regular pulsations of his powerful motor. Then just under them shrapnel began to burst in great quantities. But the French knew just how high the enemy anti-aircraft guns were capable of sending their missiles, for seldom did a shell come dangerously close to the raiding machines.
They were just out of range, and that peril seemed to be put at rest. Presently, from the indications, they knew they were beyond the hostile lines, and doubtless passing over the country that lay between Verdun and the border of Lorraine.
In the lead was the head pilot, a man who possessed a wonderful ability to take an expedition like this out, find his objective, perhaps one hundred and fifty miles away, and come back, after dropping tons of high explosives.
Those who followed were strung out in two diverging lines, just as wild geese always fly, forming the letter V. In moving in this formation the danger of collision was more or less done away with. Besides, every pilot knew just where his location in the line was, and could keep watch of those ahead, while looking for the signals agreed upon.
All communications had to be carried on with flares, since sounds were utterly out of the question. As a rule it was the duty of the observer to discover such signals, and pass them on to the rear unless, as in the case of the two chums, they brought up the line, being the very last unit of the eleven machines in the bombing squadron.
Now and then the moon would hide behind banks of fleecy clouds, but only to reappear again a little later, to shine with undiminished light Jack wondered whether a storm might come along while they were aloft. He had been in several small flurries of the kind, but that was in the broad light of day. To be caught when on a night journey would be a new experience for both of them.
After a while he made out that they were now above some river, and had apparently altered their course, as if the pilot meant to follow the stream.
Jack was not puzzled at all by this fact. In company with his chum he had studied a chart of the country of Lorraine and the Rhine district beyond. He knew that the Mosel River flowed in an almost northeasterly direction, with numerous bends, to empty finally into the Rhine on the border of Hessen Nassau, one of the German provinces.
When presently they glimpsed many lights below Jack knew they were passing over the fortified city of Metz, once a French possession, but taken by Germany, just as Strassburg in Alsace had also been taken when they won the war in 1870.
"They must have been great war times too," he reasoned. "But not as bad as now, not by a long shot!"
Still the raiders kept steadily on. They were fired at frequently, but without being injured, since they maintained their safe altitude.
Another glow of lights, much modified, told them where Treves lay. Jack understood that they had passed beyond the line of the captured province of Lorraine, and were speeding above genuine German territory. It gave him something akin to satisfaction to know that no matter where they dropped those big bombs now they were bound to do damage more or less to the enemy country.
Still they moved forward. The head pilot changed the course as frequently as he saw fit, but often they were out of sight of the twisting river below; though a little later on they would again cross it.
An hour passed. Jack figured that possibly they had covered a distance approximately seventy miles. When another thirty minutes had gone he believed that they would be at the junction of the Mosel with the world-famous Rhine. Here stands a typical German city, Ehrenbreitstein. He was eager to glimpse the lights of this place, because it would indicate that two-thirds of their dash into the heart of Germany had been successfully accomplished.
In due time all this came about, and as the two air service boys looked far down they could just manage to discover the gleaming silver thread which they knew must be the Rhine, of which they had read and heard so much.
At this point their course took an abrupt change. Up to then the general direction had been due northeast, but now it headed toward the north. They were still passing over Rhenish Prussia, where, as they knew, a regular bee-hive of industries connected with war work was located. Indeed, there were few parts of Germany at that time where the population, such as had been left when the able men went to the front, was not engaged in making munitions, or some industry connected with the successful carrying out of the war.
Soon Jack caught the signal that told him they were now on the border of the busy beehive where no work but that on army contracts was being done. Far below them lay the great buildings given up to such purposes, and which it must be their aim to try to destroy.
Besides the high explosives intended to shatter walls and wreck buildings when they fell, the raiders also carried a supply of lighter missiles. These were meant to scatter liquid fire broadcast, and start innumerable conflagrations that it would be impossible for human skill to extinguish. Thus they took pattern of the German fire-bombs which had so often been rained down on London.
Suddenly began a most remarkable exhibition of bombardment, with those immense bat-like planes hovering far above the munition plant and discharging their terrible freight as fast as they could find themselves at the proper angle to insure a possible hit.
Bang! Boom! Bang!
While the explosions came but faintly to the ears of those a mile above, the observers saw most thrilling things taking place below them.
There were fires blazing in half a dozen different sections. These sufficed to light up the entire plant, so that the remainder of the bombs could be let loose with greater accuracy, and accomplish still more damage.
Tom continued to guide the plane, following the one ahead in ever widening circles. On his part Jack kept releasing such of the bombs as had not been let go. While unable to more than surmise where these landed, still the youth felt confident that they had given a good account of themselves.
At last it was over, and the "home" signal was given. Both young aviators were more than glad to see it, for they had become fairly sickened with the sight below, and with realizing what a terrible panic must prevail among the workers in the raided munition works.
The return voyage was started. Things went well for some time and then there came a change. The breeze increased and made it much more difficult to keep up the regular formation. Suddenly the plane which was serving Jack as a guide seemed to be swallowed up in a cloud, for he could no longer discern it ahead.
"Gee, that's strange!" he muttered. "What became of it?"
As they had not ascended it became apparent that the clouds were scurrying along at a much lower level than before. This seemed to indicate that a storm was gathering in the levels closer to the earth.
Tom sent his machine higher, hoping to get above the clouds and perhaps find others of the raiding force. Not another airship was in sight, and even in this higher level the clouds gathered about them.
The two air service boys were lost in the upper air currents.