tole only passing glimpses of the whole, for each one was intent on
his part, which was to keep watch of whether the shells of the battery
to which he reported were on the target or not. To distinguish whose
shell-burst was whose in the midst of that cloud of dust and smoke
over the German positions seemed as difficult as to separate the spout
of steam of one pipe from another when a hundred were making a wall of
vapor. Yet so skilled is the well-trained airman that he can tell at a
glance. It is not difficult to spot shells when only a few batteries
are firing, but when perhaps a hundred guns are dropping shells on a
half-mile front of trench, a highly trained eye is required.
Occasionally a plane was observed to sweep down like a hawk that had
located a fish in the water. At all hazards that intrepid aviator was
going to identify the shell-bursts of the batteries which he
represented. The enemy might have him in rifle range, but they were
too busy trying to hold up the British infantry to fire at him. Other
aeroplanes were dropping shells on railway trains and bridges, to
hinder the Germans, once they had learned where the force of the
attack was to be exerted, from rushing reenforcements to the spot. For
that kind of work, as for all reconnaissances, the aviators like
low-lying clouds. They slip down out of these to have a look around
and drop a bomb--thus killing two birds with one stone--and then rise
to cover before the enemy can bring his antiaircraft guns to bear.

[Illustration: German infantry storming a hill in the Argonne. The men
bend low for safety, though pressing eagerly forward toward the
enemy's lines.]

A German description of the Battle of Loos says that during the
preliminary gas attack the British artillery was hurling gas bombs
upon the Germans. The latter coughed and held their ground as long as
they could, but many fell, unable to resist the fumes. In the midst of
all this the Germans were preparing for the expected infantry attack.
Finally the British appeared, emerging suddenly as if from nowhere,
behind a cloud of gas, and wearing masks. They came on in thick lines
and storming columns. The first line of the attackers were quickly
shot down by the hail of rifle and machine-gun bullets that rained
upon them from the shattered German trenches. The dead and wounded
soon lay like a wall before the German position. The second and third
lines of the British suffered the same fate. It was estimated