8--the opening days of the great German
drive--there was comparatively little aerial activity. The aviators of
both sides were preparing for the impending battle, which actually began
on the morning of March 23d and lasted all that day and the day
following.

The story of the air battle of March 23d-24th reads like one of the most
extraordinary adventure tales ever imagined. The struggle began with
squadrons of airplanes ascending and maneuvering as perfectly as
cavalry. They rose to dizzy heights, and, descending, swept the air
close to the ground. The individual pilots of the opposing sides then
began executing all manner of movements, climbing, diving, turning in
every direction, and seeking to get into the best position to pour
machine-gun fire into enemy airplanes. Every few minutes a machine
belonging to an Allied or German squadron crashed to the ground, often
in flames. At the end of the first day's fighting wrecked airplanes and
the mangled bodies of aviators lay strewn all over the battle-field.

All next day, March 24th, the struggle in the air went on with unabated
fury. The Allied air squadrons were now on the offensive and penetrated
far inside the German lines. The German aviators counter-attacked
whenever they could, and more than once succeeded in crossing the French
lines. But at the close of the second day victory rested with the Allied
airmen, and during the next five scarcely a German airplane took the
air.

The sudden termination of the war caused speculation throughout the
world concerning the future of the airplane. When rumor declared that
America's newly-won pre-eminence in aviation would disappear, Captain
Roy N. Francis, of the Division of Military Aeronautics, made this
statement.

America cannot afford to junk the airplane fleet which has cost her so
many millions of dollars. I do not believe that any other nation will do
so. Even if the peace congress should decide on universal disarmament,
there are still any number of uses to which airplanes can be put in time
of peace.

Take the air mail service, for instance. This is now only in its
infancy, but it is destined to become as common as the railway mail
service. It will employ hundreds of airplanes and aviators all over the
country.

Then there is the possibility of our machines being used for seacoast
patrol work, a valuable addition to our coast-guard forces which save
many ocean vessels from disaster every year.

They will b