Part 8 (2/2)

Is this a letter? At first, it is a bulletin of victory: two airplanes for five bullets, plus one passenger ”_couic_” Then it becoend of aviation: he stops the eneers; Roland would write in that style to the beautiful Aude: ”Met three Saracens, Durandal cleft two, the third tried to settle the affair with his bow, but the arrow broke on the cord” Young Paul Bailly was right: ”The exploits of Guyne them just as they happened we find them more beautiful than any we could invent” That is why it is better to let Guynemer hiht accent is there, the rapidity and the ”_couic_” The following letter is dated September 15, 1916

_From the saroup of six, four of them squeezed at 25 meters

In four days, six combats at 25 meters: filled a few Boches with holes, but they did not seeh so rounds up between 5100 and 5300 (altitude) To-day five combats, four of them at less than 25 un jammed at 50 meters In the second, at 5200, the Boche in his exciteless coach; his ears(16th) The third was a nose-to-nose co Aviatik Too much impetus: I failed to hamroup of three: I failed to hammer him, I lurched: _pan_, a bullet near er (that is the third this week), then knocked up the pilot very badly at 10 reat difficulty, and he must be in hospital

Three lines to describe a victory, the sixteenth And what boarding of the adversary, fros upon the eneh him Both speeds combined, he does not make much less than 400 kilo hardly last one second, after which the combat continues, with other maneuvers Soht and thought in fighting such duels!

This was the period of the great series of combats on the Soed battle uninterruptedly for eight ether they were divided into two groups, one under the command of Major Fequant, the other under that of Captain Brocard, appointed chief of battalion It becomes impossible to enumerate all Guynemer's victories, and we can merely emphasize the days on which he surpassed hiht doo eneht of 3000 meters Little Paul Bailly would hardly have believed that; he would have said it was surely a legend, the golden legend of aviation Nevertheless, here is Guynened by the escadrille commandant:

”_Saturday, Septeny At 1120 forced down a Boche in flaed, near Carrepuy; at 1125 forced down a Boche in flames near Roye At 1130, was forced down myself by a French shell, and smashed my machine near Fescamps”

These combats occurred between Peronne and Montdidier To his father he wrote with more precision, but in his usual elliptical style

”_September 22_: Asphyxiated a Fokker in 30 seconds, tumbled down disabled

”_September 23_: 1120--A Boche in flames within our lines

”1121--A Boche disabled, passenger killed

”1125--A Boche in flames 400 meters from the lines

”1125 and a half--A 75 blew up my water reservoir, and all the linen of the left upper plane, hence a superb tail spin Succeeded in changing it into a glide Fell to ground at speed of 160 or 180 kilo broken like rees, and caround 40was left but the body, which was intact: the Spad is strong; with any other machine I should now be thinner than this sheet of paper I fell 100 meters from the battery that had deht nizing; the shell struckThe Boche fell close by Major Constantin's post I picked up the pieces”

The group which he had attacked was co in _echelon_, three above, two below The thich fleere assaulted by one of our escadrilles, and the pilots, seeing a ht at first it was their own victory ”It wasfrom the upper story,” Guynemer explained drolly, in his Stanislas-student ed battle with the three pilots ”of the upper story,” and had forced them down one after the other ”The first one,” he said, ”had a half-burned card in his pocket which had certainly been given hi by the date, which read in German: 'I think you are very successful in aviation' I have his photograph with his Gretchen What German heads! He wore the same decorations as that one who fell in the Bus wood” Is this not Achilles setting his foot on Hector and taking possession of his trophies? Guynes done to France, the invasion of our country, the destruction of our towns and villages, our desolation, and our dead, so many of our dead whose deserted hoive pity, but to do justice And in doing justice, when an adversary whoht hienerosity

For him, thirty seconds had separated the Capitol from the Tarpeian Rock After his triple victory caht of 3000 hest speed down to earth, and rebounding and planting itself in the ground like a picket ”I was completely stupefied for twenty-four hours, but have escaped with -the-loop straps, which saved neto During that 3000-round (I had the choice of sauces): I found the way, but there were still 95 out of 100 chances for the wooden cross _Enfin_, all right!” And this postscript followed: ”Sixth tiht down: record!”

Lieutenant VF, of the Dragon Escadrille, colliding with a coht of 3000 meters, had a similar fall onto the Avocourt wood, and was similarly astounded to find hi the five or six minutes of the descent

”Soon,” he wrote, ”the trees of the Hesse forest caht; in fact, they seemed to approach at a dizzy rate of speed I switched off so as not to catch fire, and a fewthe trees I nosed up th so that it would fall flat There was a terrible shock! One tree higher than the rest broke s, and made me turn as if I were on a pivot I closed my eyes There was a second shock, less violent than I could have hoped: the machine fell on its nose like a stone, at the foot of the tree which had stopped me I unfastened my belt which, luckily, had not broken, and letintense agony The only bad effects were that h s, and was dumbfounded to find that all my faculties functioned normally”

Guynemer did not tell us so much; but, as a mathematician, he calculated his chances He too had switched off, and with the greatest sang-froid superintended, so to speak, his fall Its result was no less ical

The infantrymen had observed this rainfall of airplanes The French plane reached the earth just before its pilot's last victim fell also, in flames The soldiers pitied the poor victor, who had not, as they thought, survived his conquest! They rushed to his aid, expecting to pick him up crushed to atohost; but he was standing, he was alive, and the excited soldiers took possession of hieneral approached, and i to Guynemer:

”You will review the troops with me”

Guynemer did not kno to review troops, and would have liked to go

He was suffering cruelly from his knee: