ds in the
Compiegne region, he saw two airplanes more than 3000 meters above
Chauny. As the higher one flew over Bailly he sprang upon it and
attacked it: at 50 meters, fifteen shots from his machine-gun; at 20
meters, thirty shots. The German fell in a tail spin, north of Bailly
over against the Bois Carre. Guynemer was sure he had forced him down;
but the other airplane was still there. He tacked in order to chase and
attack him, but in vain, for his second adversary had fled. And when he
tried to discover the spot where the first must have fallen, he failed
to find it. This was really too much: was he going to lose his prey?
Suddenly he had an idea. He landed in a field near Compiegne. It was
Sunday, and just noon, and he knew that his parents would be coming home
from mass. He watched for them, and as soon as he perceived his father
rushed to him:

"Father, I have lost my Boche."

"You have lost your Boche?"

"Yes, an airplane that I have forced down. I must return to my
escadrille, but I don't want to lose him."

"What can I do?"

"Why, look for him and find him. He ought to be near Bailly, towards the
Bois Carre."

And he vanished, leaving to his father the task of finding the lost
airplane as a partridge is found in a field of lucerne. The military
authority kindly lent its aid, and in fact the body of the German pilot
was discovered on the edge of the Bois Carre, where it was buried.

This victory was ratified, but a few days later the authorities, failing
to find the necessary material proof, refused to give Guynemer credit
for it. Ah, the regulations refuse the hunter this game? Guynemer,
turning very red, declared: "It doesn't matter, I will get another." He
was always wanting another; and in fact he got one four days later, on
December 8. This is the report in his notebook: "Discovering the
strategic line Royne-Nesle. While descending, saw a German airplane
high, and far within its own lines. As it passed the lines at
Beuvraigne, I cut off its retreat and chased it. I caught up to it in
five minutes, and fired forty-seven shots from my Lewis from a point 20
meters behind and under it. The enemy airplane, an L.V.G. 165 H.P.
probably, dived, caught fire, turned over, and, carried along by the
west wind, fell on its back at Beuvraigne. The passenger fell out at
Bus, the pilot at Tilloloy...."

When the victor landed at Beuvraigne near his victim, the artillerymen
belonging to a nearby battery of 95 m