ouzeaucourt
where we get car and report to H.Q. 12th
Brigade near Le Catelet.

Get back to St. Quentin about 11.30 p.m. and
report to General Smith-Dorrien.

(_Signed_) L. B. BOYD-MOSS, Major.

The machine, it will be seen, dropped a bomb on a park of transport
vehicles, was fired at by howitzers, and was brought down by heavy
infantry fire. A more dreaded enemy here makes an early appearance--the
prevailing westerly wind. This wind was the heaviest trial for pilots
during years on the western front; it made it easy to get at the enemy
and difficult to get away from him; the road to safety always, while the
west wind was blowing, lay uphill.

On this same day--the day of the battle of Le Cateau--the First Army
Corps under Sir Douglas Haig was delayed, and failed to reach its
appointed position in touch with the Second Army Corps. Lieutenant A. E.
Borton and Lieutenant F. G. Small were dispatched from headquarters in a
machine of No. 5 Squadron to 'find Sir Douglas Haig'. With them went
Lieutenant D. S. Lewis in a B.E. machine fitted with wireless apparatus.
He was to report by wireless when Sir Douglas Haig was found.
Lieutenants Borton and Small in their Henri Farman, being unable to find
a suitable landing-ground in the rear of the First Army Corps, landed
between the firing lines in a field protected by a rise in the ground
from the direct fire of the enemy. With the aid of a cavalry patrol they
succeeded in delivering their message to Sir Douglas Haig, after which
they returned to their machine, started up the engine, and flew away in
the presence of two Uhlans, who had just ridden into the field.
Meantime, Lieutenant Lewis, to whom they were unable to signal, lost
touch with them; he circled in the air for an hour under fire, and
returned with one shell splinter and four bullet-holes in his machine,
and with one of his hands grazed by a bullet. Captain L. E. O. Charlton
was also sent at 11.30 a.m. to report to General Smith-Dorrien at
Bertry. 'I found him', he says, 'in considerable anxiety as to his left
about Haucourt and Selvigny. Having been on that flank at 9.30 a.m., I
was able to reassure him as to its safety, and made another ascent to
confirm my previous reconnaissance. During the reconnaissance I was able
to report that the enemy had made no progress, though their she