essfully active.

It will be recalled that in the Japanese investiture of Port Arthur
during the Russo-Japanese war, thousands of lives were expended upon the
retention and assault of 203 Metre Hill. It was the most blood-stained
spot upon the whole of the Eastern Asiatic battlefield. General Nogi
threw thousands after thousands of his warriors against this rampart
while the Russians defended it no less resolutely. It was captured and
re-captured; in fact, the fighting round this eminence was so intense
that it appeared to the outsider to be more important to both sides than
even Port Arthur itself.

Yet if General Nogi had been in the possession of a single aeroplane
or dirigible it is safe to assert that scarcely one hundred Japanese or
Russian soldiers would have met their fate upon this hill. Its value to
the Japanese lay in one sole factor. The Japanese heavy guns shelling
the harbour and the fleet it contained were posted upon the further
side of this eminence and the fire of these weapons was more or less
haphazard. No means of directing the artillery upon the vital points
were available; 203 Metre Hill interrupted the line of sight. The
Japanese thereupon resolved to capture the hill, while the Russians,
equally appreciative of the obstruction it offered to their enemy, as
valiantly strove to hold it. Once the hill was captured and the fire
of the Japanese guns could be directed, the fate of the fortress was
sealed.

Similar conditions have prevailed during the present campaign,
especially in the western theatre of war, where the ruggedness of the
country has tended to render artillery fire ineffective and expensive
unless efficiently controlled. When the German Army attacked the line of
the British forces so vehemently and compelled the retreat at Mons,
the devastating fire of the enemy's artillery was directed almost
exclusively by their airmen, who hovered over the British lines,
indicating exactly the point where gun-fire could work the maximum
of havoc. The instant concentration of massed artillery fire upon
the indicated positions speedily rendered one position after another
untenable.

The Germans maintained the upper hand until at last the aerial forces of
the British Expeditionary Army came into action. These airmen attacked
the Teuton aerial craft without the slightest hesitation, and in a
short while rendered cloudland absolutely unhealthy. The sequel
was interesting. As if suddenly blinded, the