destroying it.

[Illustration: THE RELATIVE STRENGTH OF SOME OF THE EUROPEAN NATIONS IN
AEROPLANES AND DIRIGIBLES.
--Aero and Hydro, Chicago]

After the destruction of this Zeppelin the Germans confined their aerial
activity to the use of scouting aeroplanes, several of which were
destroyed by shots from the forts. Attempts to reach the aeroplanes with
shells were often unsuccessful, however, owing to the inability to shoot
high enough.

AVIATION CAMPS IN EUROPE

In the early days of the great war only an occasional flash of news was
received about the French and Russian aero-military operations or those
of the German corps along the Russian and French frontiers. It was
difficult to imagine that they were idle, for the German-Russian and
the French-German frontiers had been the locations of many military
aeronautical camps or fortresses. These were described at the outbreak
of hostilities as follows:

"Along the German frontier facing Russia are the important aero centers
of Thorn and Graudenz, while the nearest aero base in Russia is at Riga,
farther north.

"Against German invasion there are French centers at Verdun, Nancy,
Luneville and Belfort. The most important is at Belfort. Sixty miles
from the Belgian frontier and 170 miles from Liege is the great center
at Rheims, with the even more important base at Chalons-sur-Marne only
twenty-five miles distant.

"Seventy-five to 100 miles is the scouting range of the military
aeroplanes, while the dirigibles will scout 500 to 1,000 miles from the
base, according to the duration efficiency. The Zeppelins might, taking
some risk, travel even farther. With this taken into consideration,
the fact that there are only two German aero centers on the French
frontier--Aix-la-Chapelle and Metz--is not very significant. The range
of the Vosges occupies the territory where there is no aero center.

"Back of the mountains, along the Rhone from Dusseldorf to Strasbourg,
there are a dozen aero stations, some of them devoted to aeroplanes and
dirigibles, others to dirigibles alone.

"The latest data show that Germany has sixty stations, including private
dirigible hangars, while France has thirty, in most cases of greater
extent than those in Germany, Russia, eight months ago, had ten, but it
is believed that this number has been increased twofold since that time.

[Illustration: HOW GERMAN EMPIRE IS FORTIFIED AGAINST AERIAL ATTACKS.
CENTERS FROM WHICH KAISER WILLIAM'S DIRI