312

A Torpedo Designed by Fulton 320

The Method of Attack by Nautilus 320

The Capture of a U-Boat 324
Painting by John E. Whiting

A British Submarine 336

Sectional View of the Nautilus 336

U. S. Submarine H-3 aground on California Coast 344

Salvaging H-3. Views I, II, and III 348

U. S. Submarine D-1 off Weehawken 352

A Submarine Built for Spain in the Cape Cod Canal 356

A Critical Moment 360
Painting by John E. Whiting

A Submarine Built for Chili Passing through Cape Cod Canal 364

A Submarine Entrapped by Nets 368

Diagram of a German Submarine Mine-Layer Captured by British 372

A Submarine Discharging a Torpedo 374

A German Submarine in Three Positions 376

Sectional View of a British Submarine 380

THE CONQUEST OF THE AIR

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY

It was at Mons in the third week of the Great War. The grey-green
German hordes had overwhelmed the greater part of Belgium and were
sweeping down into France whose people and military establishment
were all unprepared for attack from that quarter. For days the
little British army of perhaps 100,000 men, that forlorn hope which
the Germans scornfully called "contemptible," but which man for man
probably numbered more veteran fighters than any similar unit on
either side, had been stoutly holding back the enemy's right wing
and fighting for the delay that alone could save Paris. At Mons they
had halted, hoping that here was the spot to administer to von
Kluck, beating upon their front, the final check. The hope was
futile. Looking back upon the day with knowledge of what General
French's army faced--a knowledge largely denied to him--it seems
that the British escape from annihilation was miraculous. And indeed
it was due to a modern miracle--the conquest of the air by man in
the development of the airplane.

General French was outnumbered and in danger of being flanked on his
left flank. His right he tho