Part 13 (1/2)

In September, 1916, Guynemer had tried at the front one of the first two Spads On the 8th he wrote to M Bechereau: ”Well, the Spad has had her _bapteme du feu_ The others were six: an Aviatik at 2800, an LVG at 2900, and four Ru one another with barely 25(at 1800 on the speedometer) they no doubt took ot over it and back to their shooting (fine popping, though) it was too late My gun never jammed once” Here he went into technicalities about his new un, but further on reverted to the Spad: ”She loops wonderfully Her spin is a bit lazy and irregular, but deliciously soft” The letter concludes with estions for minor improvements

His correspondence with M Bechereau was entirely devoted to a study of airplanes: he never wandered froineer by constantly co to hireat difficulty ”Yesterday,” he wrote on October 21, 1916, ”five Boches, three of them above our lines, caun, and io I had to let two others get away Sickening The weather is wonderful Perhaps the gun ork now” In fact, a few days later he wrote exultingly, having discovered that the jaenious reed a Fokker one-seater biplane It o roup of our Nieuports, the controlling board would not give the victory to anybody Yesterday got an Aviatik ten er shot dead by the first bullet; the plane, all in rags, went down in slow spirals and must have been knocked flat so to fall, brought one down hiular ball

On Noveine which he wanted er, he told M Bechereau of his 21st and 22d victories:

As for the 21st, it was a one-seater I ant spirals down to its own landing ground No 22 was a 220 HP, one of three above our lines I caer stood up, but fell down again in his seat before even setting his gun going I put some two hundred or two hundred and fifty bullets into hile of 45 on the first volley When I let hio, Adjutant Bucquet took him in hand--which would have helped if he hadn't already been as full of holes as a strainer He kept his angle of 45 till about 500 meters, when he adopted the vertical, and blazed up on crashi+ng to the ground

The Spad ravished hihts on the So M

Bechereau he began with an inspiring narrative

_Deceruh-class round with an Albatros, a fine, clever fellow, between two and ten ed fifteen shots, and he snapped ht fore-cable--just a few threads still held--while I shot him in the small of his back

A fine spill! (No 25)

Now, to speak of serious things, I must tell you that the Spad 150 HP is not much ahead of the Halberstadt The latter is not faster, I admit, but it cli However, our latest model knocks them all out

The letter adds only some recommendations as to the necessity for more speed and a better propeller

Buthis ic airplane that would siedly carry on a fight, so he rued until his idea was realized But he was forced to practice exhausting perseverance, and on several occasions the lack of comprehension or syave up It was not his way in a workshop, any ling, trying, and frequent beginning over again, he saw himself at last in possession of the wonderfulhis oeapons

In January, 1917, he wrote to M Bechereau urging hi will soon be here, and the Gero to sleep, it will be '_couic_' for us” Henceforth his correspondence, soineer was entirely devoted to the ht, etc The s, and every detail was minutely discussed In February he wrote to his father as if he had been a builder: ”My machine surpasses all expectations, and will soon be at work In Paris I go to bed early and rise ditto, spending all day at Spad's I have no other thought or occupation It is a fixed idea, and if it goes on I shall beconed, let nobody dare to mention a weapon of any kind in ht hioal; but unexpected obstacles would come in his way, and it was not till July 5, 1917--the saion of Honor from General Franchet d'Esperey at the Aisne Aviation Ca-hoped-for airplane But in a fight against three DFW's, the splendid new ot riddled with bullets, he had to land, and everything had to be begun over again But Guyneain, and in fact he was to give the airplane another chance in Flanders, and to see all his expectations fulfilled The 49th, 50th, 51st and 52d victories of Guyneed to impose his will on matter, and on those who adapt it to the warlike conceptions ofout his wings on high, he ht well think himself invincible

CANTO IV

THE ASCENSION

I THE BATTLE OF FLANDERS

After the battle on the Aisne Georges Guynemer was ordered to Flanders, but he had to take to his bed as soon as he arrived (July, 1917) and only left the hospital on the 20th He then repaired to the new aviation camp outside Dunkirk, which at that time consisted of a fes of tents near the seaside He was to take part in the conteht from Fismes on the 23d--for the Storks Escadrille had been incorporated into a fighting unit under Major Brocard No disease could be an obstacle to a Guynemer when an offensive was in preparation In fact, all the Storks were on the spot: Captain Heurtaux, now recovered frone in April, was in coer (soon to be killed), Lieutenant Rayache and _sous-lieutenant_ Bucquet were there; while Fonck and Verduraz, newcomers to the squadron but not by any means unknown, Adjutants Guillaueants Gaillard and Moulines, Corporals de Marcy, Dubonnet, and Risacher, coain

In order to realize the iun on July 31, was to rage till the follointer, it may not be out of place to quote a Gerer_, published at the end of Septe, Doctor Wegener wrote as follows:

How can anybody talk of anything but this battle of Flanders? Is it possible that sorow hot over the parliamentarization, or the loan, or the cost of butter, or the ruht to be fixed on these places where soldiers are doing wonderful deeds! This battle is the ht It was supposed to be ended, but here it is, blazing afresh and prooes on with his usual doggedness, and the last bombardment has excelled in horrible intensity all that has been known so far Even before the signal for storantic was their artillery, so dreadful their guns, so intense their firing

These lines help us to realize how keen was the anxiety caused in Ger so soon after the battles of Chaener stood in the way of his own judg that the battle on the Marne which drove the eneht him to a standstill, and the battle round Verdun which effectually wore hireatest of the war The second battle of Flanders ought rather to be compared to the battle on the Somme, the real consequences of which were not cofried line took place in March, 1917 While the first battle of Flanders had closed the gates of Dunkirk and Calais against the Germans, and e at Ypres into the Gerth, made formidable by three years' daily efforts, secured the Fle land, and threatened Bruges In the first battle, the French under Foch had been supported by the English under Marshal French; this tionists, under Pluh (Fifth Army), were supported by the First French Army under General Anthoine

It was as late as June that General Anthoine's soldiers had taken their stand to the left of the British ar the Cheht well be believed that they were tired They had borne the burden from the very first; they had been on the Marne and the Yser in 1914, at the nune, Lorraine and Alsace; and in 1916, after the Verdun epic, they had had to fight on the So the ene the Allies, they represented invincible determination, as well as a perfected round they had never seen before, ht well have been anxious for a respite; yet on July 31 they were in the fighting line with the British Two days before the attack they crossed the Yser canal by twenty-nine bridges without losing one ence and spirit which added to their ascendancy over the enee of the French ar such an exceptional second in General Anthoine, Petain, now co the British offensive by attacking the Gerust 20 the Second Army under Guillaumat was victorious on the Meuse, near Verdun, while the Sixth Ar for the Malmaison offensive which on October 23 secured for the French the whole length of the Chemin des Dames to the river Ailette