nd
prevented the withdrawal of any men from his lines; his ammunition dumps
were set ablaze, the fires from them lighting up the whole country-side
for miles around. In the air the efficiency of our preparatory work was
equally demonstrated. A new type of flier winged his way back and forth
over the sausage-fed warriors, and the ability of our birds to hold the
line in the Heavens was amply demonstrated, one British airman, on the
28th of March, five days before the battle began, downing three German
eagles in quick succession. Spellbound I watched the magnificent work of
this flier.

Far up as the eye could reach, six British planes in battle formation,
the leader of the squad about three hundred yards in advance, four
others in a row, the sixth three hundred yards in the rear, winged their
way. Suddenly, the rear bird shot downward, volplaning and looping the
loop with as much abandon as if he were in an exhibition park. I
quickly discerned the object of his lightning-like descent. Hovering
over our trenches were three German vultures. As he dropped, Fritz
volleyed at him with his anti-aircraft mouthpieces, but failed to land.
The bird kept on his downward plunge until he reached his objective, and
as he dove into the vultures, our anti-aircraft guns, which had been
endeavoring to wing the German birds, ceased fire and all eyes were
turned heavenward. With bated breath we watched and waited the outcome.

The Fritzies spread out in circle formation, with a view to surrounding
it, each a little higher than the other. With a lightning-like swoop the
British bird, getting right in front of it and turning sharply, let fly
his machine gun in rapid fire, Fritz answering energetically. In less
than three minutes' time, a distinct wabbling was noticeable and the
British sparrow, seeing that his work there was done, turned his
attention to the others. His work was surely done; Fritz continued to
wabble and then plunged in a deadly drop until he got to the Lens-Arras
road, where he made a desperate attempt to alight on the highway; but he
got tangled up in the trees, his wings being smashed and remaining in
the branches, the body of the plane shooting down into a deep ditch and
embedding itself and its two occupants in the mud. They were dead. A
tremendous cheer greeted this victory over the first opponent. The other
two airmen followed our bird, volleying at him as they flew. With a
quick motion he turned upside down, swooping