JIMMIE WALKS UP AND DOWN THE TRENCH 14

ENTRANCE TO OFFICERS' MESS 40

THE PATRIOTIC, SCIENTIFIC MECHANICS 44

AFTER THE LANDING 84

NIGHT BOMBING WITH THE "BEDOUINS"

CHAPTER I

PER ARDUA AD ASTRA

In prehistoric times the first man to make for himself a stone hatchet
probably became the greatest warrior of his particular region. He may
not have been as strong physically as his neighbor, but with the aid of
so marvellous an invention as a stone hatchet he undoubtedly conquered
his enemies and became a great prehistoric potentate, until some other
great man made a larger and stronger hatchet; so down to the present
invention has followed invention and improvement has been added to
improvement to such an extent that it is difficult to imagine what new
weapon of destruction man can develop in the future.

What would the past generation have said of a man who had prophesied
great armies fighting in the air? Even in the early months of the war
there were but few who realized what an important part of the war was to
be carried on in the newly conquered element. When the infantry saw an
occasional box-kite-looking machine drifting slowly over the lines,
struggling to keep itself aloft, how many, I wonder, foresaw that in a
few months these machines would be swooping down on them like swallows,
raking them with machine guns by day and bombing them by night? How many
artillery officers laughed at the suggestion that a day was coming when
thousands of great guns would be directed from the air? Yet in a few
short months two great blind fighting giants, their arms stretching from
the Belgian coast to the Swiss border, learned to see each other; and
their eyes were in the air.

The first aeroplanes to cross the lines carried no armament; they were
for reconnaissance work only; they would fly a few miles back of the
enemy lines, have a good look around, and then come back and report what
they had seen. Often British and German machines would pass quite close
to each other. Flying was considered sufficiently dangerous, not to add
a further danger to it by attacking enemy machines.

The Germans, however, because they greatly outnumbered the British in
the air, had more eyes to see with; something had to be done; so rifles
were carried by the British a