s between Guignicourt and
Conde-sur-Suippes. Dispersed with Captain Auger a squadron of six
one-seaters.

[Footnote 22: The D.F.W. (_Deutsche Flugzeug Werke_) is a scouting
machine provided with two machine-guns, one shooting through the
propeller, the other mounted on a turret aft. It is thirty-nine feet
across the wings, and twenty-four in length. One Benz six-cylinder
engine of 200/225 H.P. Its speed at an altitude of 3000 meters supposed
to be 150 kilometers an hour. One of these machines has been on view at
the Invalides since July, 1917.]

Now, his Excellency, Lieutenant General von Hoeppner, _Kommandeur der
Luftstreitkraefte_, being interviewed two days later by newspaper men he
had summoned for the purpose, told them and through them told Germany
and, if possible, the whole world, that the German airplanes and the
German airmen were unrivaled. "As for the French aviators," he went on
to say remarkably apropos, "they only engage our men when they are sure
of victory. When they have doubts about their own superiority, they
prefer to desist rather than take any risks." This solemn lie the
newspaper men repeated at once in their issues of May 28.

A few months later one of these same reporters, reverting to the subject
of French aviation, took Guynemer himself to task in the _Badische
Presse_ for August 8, 1917, as follows: "The airman you see flying so
high is the famous Guynemer. He is the rival of the most daring German
aviators, an _as_, as the French call their champions. He is undoubtedly
to be reckoned with, for he handles his machine with absolute mastery,
and he is an excellent shot. But he only accepts an air fight when every
chance is on his side. He flies above the German lines at altitudes
between 6000 and 7000 meters, quite out of range of our anti-aircraft
artillery. He cannot make any observations, for from that height he sees
nothing clearly, not even troops on the march. He is exclusively a
chasing flyer bent on destroying our own machines. He has been often
successful, though he cannot be compared to our own Richtofen. He is
very prudent; always flying, as I said above, at an altitude of at least
6000 meters, he waits till an airplane rises from the German lines or
appears on its way home. Then he pounces upon it as a falcon might, and
opens fire with his machine-gun. When he only wounds the pilot, or if
our airman seems to show fight, Guynemer flies back to his own lines at
the inc