Boy Allies under Two Flags

by Clair W. Hayes

  CHAPTER XVIII

  THE BATTLE IN THE ADRIATIC

  The French and Austrian fleets were steaming into battle in theAdriatic. This coming struggle, while it was to be by no meansdecisive, was nevertheless the first engagement of any magnitudeto be fought in southern waters; also it was the first in whichfighters of the air were to play an important part.

  The Marie Tieresa, back from her successful raid, was one of theforemost in the French line of battle. Now, as she steamedforward with the rest of the fleet, her hydroplanes were madeready for action.

  Captain Dreyfuss summoned Jack and Frank before him.

  "You will each take a seat in one of the hydroplanes," heordered. "Your duties will be to drop bombs on the enemy. Eachmachine carries two men, one a pilot. Therefore you will eachtake 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 machinewas none other than the French midshipman he had so latelyengaged in fistic combat. The latter, whom the boys had learnedto 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 thebattleships, now skimmed over the water, and a moment latersoared in the air. Flying on beyond the French ships, a smudgeof smoke came into view, then another, and then many more. Shipsof all kinds, Jack could see, dreadnoughts, cruisers, torpedoboats and scout ships, advancing toward them.

  Then, as they drew nearer, Jack made out other vessels, lying lowin the water, without smoke, approaching. These were theAustrian submarines. Jack counted the enemy--sixteen ships ofall classes, and opposed to these the French had offered almostan equal number. The forces of both sides under and above thesea, of course, he could not count.

  Some of the airships from both sides now came into contact, andbrisk skirmishes ensued. Rifles flashed from them, and suddenlyone tumbled into the sea. It was an Austrian craft, and it wasfirst blood for the French.

  Now the aircraft, at a signal, returned to their respectivefleets, and hovered over them. The speed of both squadrons wasreduced together. The submarines of both fleets suddenly sankfrom sight, and it was evident to Jack that the first blowsprobably would be struck from under water.

  The aircraft once more advanced, flying low, seeking to learn thepositions of the submarines, and to point them out to the gunnerson the big battleships and cruisers. A periscope, extending afew feet above water, gave Jack a good target, and the laddropped a bomb.

  There was a terrific explosion below the water. The periscopedisappeared. 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 nowengaged with the first ship of the Austrian squadron. They wereengaged gun for gun.

  Now the second ships of each fleet came into action, and then thethird. Ship after ship engaged the enemy, until the battlebecame general. For an instant, after each salvo, the rivalsquadrons were hidden from each other by the smoke of battle, buta brisk wind soon blew this away, and the cannonading continued.

  Now one of the French vessels steered aside and dropped behindthe line of battle. She was disabled.

  The next ship moved up, and the French advance continued asbefore.

  The torpedo craft of the French, gathered behind the Frenchbattle line dashed forward suddenly, headlong for the Austrianfleet. For two miles they sped on, apparently unnoticed by theenemy, then the great turret guns of the Austrians opened onthem. The French torpedo craft began to suffer. Two togetherswung broadside to the Austrians, riddled with holes; the boilerof a third burst, the ship broke in two and sank almostinstantly. But the others raced on.

  Toward the big Austrian battleships they dashed. Austriantorpedo boats rushed out to meet them.

  A shell from a French warship struck one of these, and she wentto the bottom immediately. Others suffered by the French fire.

  Four thousand yards from the Austrian fleet the French torpedoboats launched their torpedoes; then they fled back to theprotection of the battleships, still engaged with the Austrianpursuers with small guns.

  But they had done their work. A hundred torpedoes, driven bytheir motors of compressed air just below the surface, weresteering automatically for the Austrian battleships.

  Suddenly the fourth ship of the Austrian line staggered; a whitespray of water leaped high in the air, and the Austrian vesselsplit into many pieces. The first torpedo had gone home. Thefifth and sixth Austrian battleships also now leaped from thewater, and then sank from sight. Farther back another Austrianship 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 inspite of this they succeeded in launching their torpedoes, andthe French battleship, far back, suddenly disappeared from thesurface of the Adriatic.

  Now the battle grew so terrific that individual ship movementscould not be kept track of. The Austrian torpedo craft retreatedand the French gave chase. Jack and Frank saw all this, soaringabove the sea, a part of it, and yet not a part of it, for so farthey 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 agreat, gray, pencil-shaped object approaching through the air.He recognized it instantly--a German war dirigible, sent tohelp the Austrians. Under it flew smaller forms, aeroplanesaccompanying it as guard. And now a second Zeppelin appeared--andthen a third.

  Swiftly they swept over the sea. A moment and they had passedover the broken line of Austrian battleships, and sped on towardthe French fleet. The French perceived the menace, and theirspecial quick-firers, elevated for aeroplane defense, came intoaction.

  But the Zeppelins bored on, and their powerful guns fired downmacarite shells. The first French battleship, already strippedby 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 asecond 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, nowturned and came back. The shells of the ships burst harmlesslybelow it. As the torpedo boats had gathered for an attackagainst the Austrian fleet, so now did the French aircraft gatherfor 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 ofthe French machines burst through, only to be met by the deadlyfire of the Zeppelins and sent into the sea.

  Yet a few survived, and their rifle bullets riddled the gaschambers of the big balloons, but these tiny perforations availednothing. The French flyers who survived darted beyond theZeppelins 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 attackagainst these giants of the air had not been found.

  But now, in response to a word of command from Jack, Pierrenodded his head in understanding. In the meantime the Frenchbirdmen had re-formed and had rushed forward in another gallantattack. But the result was the same, and, while they succeededin accounting for some of the smaller planes' the Zeppelinscontinued to fight as before, dropping their powerful shells uponthe French fleet below.

  But this time there was one plane that did not swerve as it burstthrough the Austrian line of small planes, and darted toward thefirst dirigible. Straight on it rushed, absolutely reckless, andcrashed into the first giant balloon, head-on-collapse the greatforward gas chamber, setting it on fire, exploding it, blowingall the mighty war balloon to atoms.

  In this plane were Jack a
nd Pierre. It was Jack's eye that hadmade out the only means of effective attack against thedirigible. Even as he had ordered the attack, the lad knew thatit meant almost certain death, but he had not hesitated. Herealized that the French aircraft must be shown some means ofdestroying these huge air fighters, and knowing that there wastime to convey his ideas to the other, had acted at once.

  Now, this accomplished, the plane in which Jack and Pierre hadperformed this success, driven deep into the flaming mass ofwreckage, was falling with the broken war balloon down into thesea.

  The wreck fell slowly, for the fabric, yet unconsumed, parachutedand held in the air. Then, finally, hissing and splashing, itfell into the sea.

  To Jack's ears, as he came again to the surface, came the criesof men wounded and burning. An arm flung toward the sky sent hiseyes in that direction, even as he swam.

  He saw the two remaining dirigibles fighting together againstanother aeroplane attack. But the way had been shown, and nolonger did the French sheer off when they broke through theAustrian 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, miraculouslyuninjured, swam. The latter stretched out an arm, and graspedthe 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 friendFrank.