The first battle in the air was fought today, near Nancy, between a French aeroplane and a German dirigible.
Every man engaged in the fight was killed.
According to the report received here tonight, Roland Garros, the French flyer, sighted the German dirigible shortly after it had crossed the border from Alsace-Lorraine.
The dirigible was an enormous affair of the Zeppelin type, and was manned by 25 German soldiers.
It is supposed to have been sent up for scout duty from the German column which crossed the French frontier at Cirey.
Garros, who had been scouting about the territory for some time after news of the German invasion was received, sighted the dirigible at a height of more than 1000ft.
He drove his fleet monoplane straight at the dirigible. Instantly the huge gas bag exploded with a terrific detonation, followed by a burst of flame.
The monoplane, hopelessly entangled in the wreck of the dirigible, crashed with it to the earth, engulfed in flames, and without a possible chance to clear itself from the debris.
Garros and the 25 German soldiers probably were dead before they struck the ground.
All that could be recovered from the smouldering pile after the flames had been quenched was some charred fragments of human flesh and bones, according to the report received here.
Such advices as had been received here concerning the battle state that Garros did not hesitate for the fraction of a second when called upon to throw his life away in the service of his country.
The second conflict was waged last night, over the little village of Toul.
At sunset the villagers were sent into a panic by the sight of a monster Zeppelin dirigible hovering above them.
It was momentarily expected that the war airship would drop bombs into the village, and excitement ran high when a French military aviator got out his machine and rose to a great height above the Zeppelin, and began riddling it with bullets.
The huge aircraft fell to the ground, and in descending the French aviator lost control of his monoplane and was instantly killed.
• Mr Richard Campbell, of Finegand, possesses a cow that has given birth to triplets, ''all doing well'', to quote a once familiar phrase in the birth columns of the newspapers (says the Balclutha Free Press).
The calves, in fact, are now one month old, all females, all pure white in colour, and remarkably healthy in appearance.
The three little strangers, experts affirm, even hold possibilities in the way of developing a new and more virile bovine breed. - ODT, 7.9.1914.
• COPIES OF PICTURE AVAILABLE FROM ODT FRONT OFFICE, LOWER STUART ST, OR WWW.OTAGOIMAGES.CO.NZ
