still were others palpably painted
for what became known as "camouflage" purposes, as guns, wagons and
tents often are painted to blend with the landscape and thus avoid
detection.

This lavish use of paint, however, did not reduce the heavy daily loss
inflicted on the Germans by the British flyers. But it must not be
imagined that the Germans did not put up a stalwart fight. Just as their
resistance was strengthened on land, so it was increased in the air.
Just as the Germans threw in new divisions of infantry and new batteries
of artillery to check the Allies' offensive, so they sent aloft hundreds
of new machines to contest for the mastery of the air, an important
phase of modern war.

The manner in which the British flying corps dominated the air during
the battle of Messines Ridge in June, 1917, and completely smothered the
German aviation service for the time being is one of the most thrilling
and remarkable stories of the entire war.

Hundreds of British planes were well behind the German lines when the
battle broke into its fury at dawn. They had stolen over during the
darker intervals of the brief night when the moon was hidden by storm
clouds. Other hundreds went aloft with the first faint streaks of coming
day and, guided by the flashes of the guns, flew into the thick of the
fighting.

COMBED BY MACHINE GUNS.

During the night British machines combed enemy railway stations, trains,
ammunition dumps and troops coming up on the march. Others hovered above
German airdromes and circled low among airplane sheds and fired hundreds
of rounds from machine guns into them and prevented the enemy machines
from coming out. Later in the day, while the fighting was most intense,
British airmen dropped about three tons of bombs on the German flying
grounds as a further deterrent, which proved highly effective.

In addition to shutting the German airmen out of any early participation
in the battle, the British airplanes were in a large degree responsible
for the fact that the Germans could not launch a counter-attack of
appreciable strength until forty hours after the battle for the ridge
began and every bit of ground desired by the British in this particular
operation had been taken and secured.

Far back of the German lines the British planes searched out troops in
every hamlet, town and village. In several places they saw them
gathering or marching in the main streets, whereupon they flew down low
at times and