lines,
harass the enemy, attacking whenever possible, thus giving protection
to their own _corps-d'armee_ aircraft--which are only incidentally
fighting machines--in their work of reconnaissance, photography,
artillery direction, and the like. But we did not know how this
general theory of combat is given practical application. When I think
of the depths of our ignorance, to be filled in, day by day, with a
little additional experience; of our self-confidence, despite
warnings; of our willingness to leave so much for our "godfather"
Chance to decide, it is with feelings nearly akin to awe. We awaited
our first patrol almost ready to believe that it would be our first
victorious combat. We had no realization of the conditions under which
aerial battles are fought. Given good-will, average ability, and the
opportunity, we believed that the results must be decisive, one way or
the other.

Much of our enforced leisure was spent at the bureau of the group,
where the pilots gathered after each sortie to make out their reports.
There we heard accounts of exciting combats, of victories and narrow
escapes, which sounded like impossible fictions. A few of them may
have been, but not many. They were told simply, briefly, as a part of
the day's work, by men who no longer thought of their adventures as
being either very remarkable or very interesting. What, I thought,
will seem interesting or remarkable to them after the war, after such
a life as this? Once an American gave me a hint: "I'm going to apply
for a job as attendant in a natural-history museum."

Only a few minutes before, these men had been taking part in aerial
battles, attacking infantry in trenches, or enemy transport on roads
fifteen or twenty kilometres away. And while they were talking of
these things the drone of motors overhead announced the departure of
other patrols to battle-lines which were only five minutes distant by
the route of the air. For when weather permitted there was an
interlapping series of patrols flying over the sector from daylight
till dark. The number of these, and the number of _avions_ in each
patrol, varied as circumstances demanded.

On one wall of the bureau hung a large-scale map of the sector, which
we examined square by square with that delight which only the study of
maps can give. Trench-systems, both French and German, were outlined
upon it in minute detail. It contained other features of a very
interesting nature. On another