Part 9 (2/2)
920--Attacked with Deuillin a group of three one-seated Albatros, faht one down almost intact: pilot wounded, Lieutenant von Hausen, nephew of the general And Deullin brought down another in flaer had attacked and grilled a two-seated plane These four Boches were in a quadrilateral, the sides of which measured five kilometers, four and a half kilometers, three kilometers and three kilometers Those ere in the middle need not have bothered themselves, but they were completely distracted
1430--Forced down a two-seated Albatros in flames
Three Boches within our lines for my day's work Ouf! GG
Guynemer, who had been promoted lieutenant in February and was to be made captain in March, treated this Lieutenant von Hausen humanely and courteously as soon as he had landed In all his mentions up to that ti pilot”; he was nowpilot”
Early in April the Storks left Lorraine and went to make their nests on a plateau on the left bank of the Aisne, back of Fismes New events were in preparation After the Ger line, the French arlish army--which was to attack Vimy cliffs (April 9-10, 1917)--was about to undertake that vast offensive operation which, frone, was to roll like an ocean wave over the slopes of the Cheneul and Brimont, and the Moronvillers mountain Hearts were filled with hope, and the s and their wounds did not prevent the hearts of the soldiers in that spring of 1917 fro in sublime sacrifices for the cause of liberty
As at the battle of the Somme, so at the battle of the Aisne our aerial escadrilles were in close touch with the general staff and the other arms of the service Their success was no doubt dependent upon the quality of the airplanes, and the factory output, and lih they were unable to achieve the mastery of the air from the very first, they continued obstinately to increase their force, and little by little their successes increased
They had to oppose an enemy who had just accomplished an immense improvement in his aviation corps
In Septe by the lessons of the So which its aviation forces had been so terribly scourged, resolved upon an alanization of its aeronautical service Hindenburg's progra of both the direction and the technical services A decree dating from November, 1916, announced the separation froht Forces (_Luftstreitkrafte_), which were to be placed under a staff officer, the _Kommandeur der Luftstreitkrafte_ This new _Ko of theof the pilots, was Lieutenant General von Hoeppner, with Lieutenant Colonel Tjoand field escadrilles, these last being intrusted with scouting, photographing, and artillery work, in constant touch with the infantry
Most of these novelties were servilely copied from French aviation The Germans had borrowed the details of _liaison_ service, as well as those for the regulation of artillery fire, froulations The commander of the aeronautical section of the Fifth German Army (Verdun) said in a report that ”a conscientious aviator was the only reliable informant in action” And his supre upon this sentence, drew the following conclusions: ”All this shows once h methodical use of Infantry Aviation, the coh the whole battle But the necessary condition for fruitful work in the field lies in a previous training carried on with the infantry, uns, artillery, and _liaison_ units The task of the Infantry Flyer is apt to becoround , or our own troops yielding ground When all these unfavorable circumstances are united, the Infantry Aviator can only be effective if he has perfect training So he must be in constant contact with the other services, and the Infantry ht to make himself understood by the troops, even without any of the usual signals”
But these airplanes, while doing this special work,escadrilles The best protection is afforded by the chasing units, fitted to spread terror and death far afield, or to stop ene the French services, Ger the whole winter of 1916-1917, and by the following spring she possessed no less than forty Before the war she had given her attention aliarized: as the Morane had been altered into the Fokker, the Nieuport became an Albatros Their one-seated 160 HP Albatros, with a Benz or Mercedes fixed engine and two Maxih the propeller, was henceforth the typical chasing ine Gothas (520 HP) and the Friedrichshafen and AEG (450 HP) soonescadrilles
At the sa of the Son was repudiated The order of the day beca concentration, likely to secure, at least in one sector, decided superiority in the air, even if other sectorsmen were never to be over-worked, so as to be fresh in an eency The subordination of aviation to the other services was evidently an inspiration fro: ”The aviation forces shall be always ready to attack, but in perfect subordination to the orders of the co officers”
In spite of this _readiness to attack_, the ene work The airht without special orders He seldom cruises by himself, and h altitudes and given to pouncing falconlike on his prey, like Guynemer, there are scores of Richtofens who, under careful protection fro to attract the ene behind him by a spiral or a loop It should be said here that the Ger the nu, as the French do, the evidence of eye witnesses The high figures generously allowed to a Richtofen or a Werner Voss are less creditable than the strictly controlled record of a Guyneesser, or a Dorme
The enemy expected in April, 1917, a massive attack from the French air forces in the Aisne, and had taken measures to evade it An order fro units shall be given the alarhted The Ger combat except on equal terround If, on the contrary, the German machines took the offensive, the order was that, at the hour deterether to a low altitude, and divide into two distinct fleets, the chasing units flying above the rest These two fleets ht as they go, and y, never giving up the pursuit until they reach the French lines, when the danger froreat
From this it is evident that the preference of Ger the offensive was not sufficient to induce it to offer battle above the eneroup squadrons into overpowering masses The French had preceded their opponents in the way of technical progress, but the Germans made up for the inferiority, as usual, by method and system The French were unrivaled for technical i of their pilots
Their new machine, the Spad, was a first-rate instruth, speed, and ease of control to the best Albatros, and the Germans knew that this inferiority must be obviated All modern battles are thus preceded by technical rivalry The preparation in factories, week after week, andmachinery it is, but it is in appearance only that it seems to be independent of man A battle is a collective work, to which each participant, from the General-in-chief to the road-s his contribution Colossal though the whole seems, perfect as the enormous machine seems to be, it would not work if there were not behind it a weak unner, the anonyes the air of the hostile presence, an observer who secures inforood time, some poor soldier who has no idea that his individual action was connected with the great draht about wonderful results--as a stone falling into a pool makes its presence felt to the rehters on the Aisne, Guyneht! (sic) they tumble down,” he wrote laconically to his fa down: on May 25 he had surpassed all that had been done so far in aerial fights, bringing down four German machines in that one day His notebook states the fact briefly:
830--Downed a two-seater, which lost a wing as it fell and was smashed on the trees 1200 meters NNE of Corbeny
831--Another two-seater downed, in flaer, forced another two-seater to dive down to 600 meters, one kilometer from our lines
Downed a DFW[22] in flames above Courlandon
Downed a two-seater in flanicourt and Conde-sur-Suippes Dispersed with Captain Auger a squadron of six one-seaters
[Footnote 22: The DFW (_Deutsche Flugzeug Werke_) is a scouting h the propeller, the other mounted on a turret aft It is thirty-nine feet across the wings, and twenty-four in length One Benz six-cylinder engine of 200/225 HP Its speed at an altitude of 3000 meters supposed to be 150 kilometers an hour One of these machines has been on view at the Invalides since July, 1917]
Now, his Excellency, Lieutenant General von Hoeppner, _Ko intervieo days later by newspaper h them told Germany and, if possible, the whole world, that the German airplanes and the German airmen were unrivaled ”As for the French aviators,” he went on to say ree our men when they are sure of victory When they have doubts about their own superiority, they prefer to desist rather than take any risks” This solemn lie the newspaper men repeated at once in their issues of May 28