Part 10 (1/2)
A fewto the subject of French aviation, took Guyneust 8, 1917, as follows: ”The airh is the fa German aviators, an _as_, as the French call their champions He is undoubtedly to be reckoned with, for he handles his machine with absolute mastery, and he is an excellent shot But he only accepts an air fight when every chance is on his side He flies above the German lines at altitudes between 6000 and 7000 e of our anti-aircraft artillery He cannotclearly, not even troops on theour own h he cannot be co, as I said above, at an altitude of at least 6000 meters, he waits till an airplane rises from the German lines or appears on its way hoht, and opens fire with his un When he only wounds the pilot, or if our airht, Guynemer flies back to his own lines at the incredible speed of 250 kilometers an hour, which his very powerful ht Every man chases as he can”
”Every man chases as he can” Quite so To revert to that 25th of May, the ”very prudent” Guyne towards the French lines They were two-seaters, less nimble, no doubt, than one-seaters, but provided with so erous ar the a risky contest!” Yet he pounced upon his three opponents, who pro evolutions around hihtly below hi him down in flaer for a one-seater is to be surprised from behind Just as Guyne after hiain fired upwards, and the airplane fell in fla elapsed between the two fights Guynemer then returned to cahts; his nerves were strained and his as tense He soon started again Towards noon a German machine appeared above the caet there? This is what the air themselves It was useless to chase it, for it would take any of theer to rise than the Ger up, so the sky with binoculars Everybody was back except Guynemer, when somebody suddenly cried:
”Here comes Guynemer!”
”Then the Boche is done for”
Guyne, and the instant he was behind and slightly beneath hiun was heard, but the ene full speed, and was dashed into the earth at Courlandon near Fish the head
In the afternoon the very prudent Guynemer started for the third tiardens (that is to say, in the eneht down another machine in flames
”Very prudent” is the last epithet one could have expected to see in connection with the name of Guynes or even in his clothes The Boche, being the Boche, had shown his usual respect for truth and generosity towards an adversary
Guyneenerally announced his success by ine work to some tune This tihboring airplane sheds understood, also the cantonouts, field hospitals and railway stations; in a word, all the communities scattered behind the lines of an ar so insistently that everybody, with faces upturned, concluded that their Guyne the like wildfire, as news has theNo, it was not simply one airplane he had set ablaze; it o, one above Corbeny, the other above Juvincourt
And people had hardly realized the wonderful fact before the thirdin flaht it was about to fall upon theine was singing
And for the fourth tiht Could it be possible? Had Guyneht down in one day by one pilot hat no infantryalese had ever seen And froouts, depots, parks and cantonered in the sky on this May evening, whoever handled a shovel, a pickaxe or a rifle, whoever laid down rails, unloaded trucks, piled up cases, or broke stones on the road, whoever dressed wounds, gave medicine or carried dead men, whoever worked, rested, ate or drank--whoever was alive, in a word--stepped out, ran, jostled along, arrived at the caot helterskelter over the fences, broke into the sheds, searched the airplanes, and called to the mechanicians in their wild desire to see Guyne at every door and peeping into every tent
Somebody said: ”Guynemer is asleep”
Whereupon, without a word of protest, without a sound, the crowd strea its way back to the quiet dells behind the lines
So ended the day of the greatest aerial victory
II A VISIT TO GUYNEMER
_Sunday, June 3, 1917_ To-day, the first Sunday of June, the woes came to visit the camp nobody is allowed to enter, but from the road you can see the lorious, and the broad sun transfiguring these French landscapes, with their elongated valleys, their wooded ranges of hills, and generally harested Greece, and one looked around for the colonnades of te country rose the Aisne cliffs, where the fighting was incessant, though its roar was scarcely perceived
Why had these villages been attracted to this particular camp? Because they knew that here, in default of Greek te Gods They wanted to see Guynes from hamlet to hamlet, from farm to farm, of what had happened on the 25th, and on the next day Guynemer had been almost equally successful
Several aviators had already landed, men with famous names, but the public cannot be expected to reraceful spirals, landing softly and rolling along close to the railings
”_Guyne crowd, took off his helan discontentedly to exa two Ger their colors themselves, insured the duration of their works He resented not being able to ine, his Vickers, and his bullets At length he see to leave his machine, and pulled off his heavy war accouter man As he rapidly approached his tent, his every motion watched by the onlookers, a private turned on hi--