in.

[Illustration: Photo by International Film Service.

"_Showing Off._"

_A Nieuport performing aerial acrobatics around a heavier bombing
machine._]

So much for night bombing. By day it is different. Though at
night it is the billets which usually form the target, by day
bombing is carried out for the purpose of damaging specific
objects. Railroads, dumps of stores and ammunition, and enemy
aerodromes are the favourite targets.

The raiding machines fly in formation and are surrounded by other
machines used solely for protective purposes. Generally a raid is
carried out by machines from two squadrons, the bomb carriers
belonging to a corps wing and the escorting machines to an army
wing.

All the machines meet at a prearranged rendezvous well on our
side of the line at a certain time and a given altitude. There
they manoeuvre into their correct formation. A flight commander
leads the raid and his machine is distinguished by streamers tied
to it.

Once over the target the fighters scatter and patrol the
neighbourhood while the bombers discharge their missiles on the
objective. Usually, unless anti-aircraft fire is very heavy, they
descend a few thousand feet to make surer of the target, and when
their work is completed rise again to the level of the escort.

Results can usually be fairly judged by day. An ammunition dump
quickly shows if it is hit and stores soon burst into flame.
Railway stations or junctions show clearly damage to buildings or
overturned trucks, but the damage to the track itself is hard to
estimate. Aerodromes may be bombed for the purpose of destroying
enemy machines in their hangars or merely in order to spoil the
landing by blowing holes all over the place. It is with great
delight that a pilot remarks in his report that a hostile
machine, surrounded by mechanics, was about to ascend, but that
instead he had descended to within a few hundred feet and
obtained a direct hit, with the result that the enemy machine,
including the surrounding men, seemed to be severely damaged.

One officer on a bomb raid saw his chance in this way, descended
to four hundred feet under intense rifle fire, successfully
bombed the enemy machine, which was just emerging from its
hangar, and then tried to make off. Unfortunately a