ifferent stations; you could go to Strassburg, to Brussels, and
places like that.

_The Chairman_: Then, sending them over in enormous numbers would
also put out of business their airplanes, and they would be
helpless, would they not?

_Adjt. Prince_: Absolutely. You not only have on the front a
large number of bomb-dropping machines, but a large number of
fighting machines. When the Somme battle was started in the
morning the Germans knew, naturally, that the French and British
were going to start the Somme drive, and they had up these
Drachens, these observation balloons, and the first eighteen
minutes that the battle started the French and the English, I
think, got twenty-one "saucisse"; in other words, for the next
five days there was not a single German who came anywhere near
the lines, but the French and English could go ahead as they-felt
like.

_Admiral Peary_: Have you any idea as to how many airplanes there
are along that western front on the German side?

_Adjt. Prince_: There must be about 3000 on that line in actual
commission.

_Admiral Peary_: That means, then, about 10,000 in all, at least?

_Adjt. Prince_: I should think so; I should say the French have
about 2000 and the English possibly 1000, or we have about 2500.

_Adjt. Rumsey_: If they have 3000 we have 4000; that is, right on
the line.

_Adjt. Prince_: We have about 1000 more than they have, and we
are up all the time. The day before I left the front I was called
to go out five times, and I went out five times, and spent two
hours every time I went out.

It would be gratifying to author and to reader alike if it were
possible to give some account of the progress in aerial equipment
made by the United States, since its declaration of war. But at the
present moment (February, 1918), the government is chary of
furnishing information concerning the advance made in the creation
of an aerial fleet. Perhaps precise information, if available, would
be discouraging to the many who believe that the war will be won in
the air. For it is known in a broad general way that the activities
of the Administration have been centred upon the construction of
training camps and aviation stations. Orders for the actual
construction of airplanes have been limited, so that a chorus of
criticism arose from manufacturers wh