ce. The Belgian airmen dropped bombs on the aviation
field at Ghistelles on March 27, and on the following day a Zeppelin
hangar was destroyed at Berchem-Sainte-Agathe, near Brussels. On March
30, 1915, ten British and some French aviators flew along the coast
from Nieuport to Zeebrugge and dropped bombs on magazines and
submarine bases. The last day of the month saw the destruction of the
German captive balloon at Zeebrugge and the death of its two
observers. The Belgian aviators on the same day threw bombs on the
aviation field at Handzaeme and the railroad junction at Cortemarck,
and, south of Dixmude, the famous birdman, Garros, fought a successful
duel in the air with a German aviator.

An aviator of the Allies flew over the aerodrome at Lille on April 1,
1915, and dropped a football. The Germans hastened to cover. When the
ball bounced prodigiously as a result of being dropped from such a
height, the Teutons thought it was some new kind of death dealer, and
remained in their places of safety. In fact, they remained there quite
a few minutes after the football had ceased to bounce. When they
finally emerged most cautiously and approached the object of their
terror, they read this inscription on it: "April Fool--Gott strafe
England."

Though the antiaircraft guns, or "Archibalds," as the soldiers called
them, were not especially effective except in keeping the flyers at
such a height that it was not easy for them to make effective
observations, a "Taube" was brought down at Pervyse, and near Ypres
another was damaged on April 8. But on April 12 a German flyer
inflicted some loss on the Allies' lines and escaped without being
even hit. On the following day, presumably emboldened by that success,
German aeroplanes threw flares and smoke balls over the British
trenches east of Ypres, with the result that the soldiers of King
George were subjected to a severe bombardment. All things considered,
however, the Allies had ground for their belief that they more than
held their own in the air.

Afloat the Allies continued to maintain the supremacy which had been
theirs. The French and British battleships held the left of the
Allies' line. Their great guns proved their effectiveness on the
Germans who were advancing from Ostend on Nieuport. They repeatedly
bombarded the position of the kaiser's men at Westende, east of
Nieuport. The Germans had trained one of their mammoth pieces of
artillery against that town presumably b