ng attacks against German arms and ammunition
factories, railway junctions, and other military establishments, on a
scale never before attempted in aerial warfare. Toward the middle of
the month as many as eighty-four French aeroplanes were assembled for
a flight over the German lines, and so carefully were these aviators
trained that in less than four minutes the eighty-four aeroplanes were
in the sky, arranged in perfect tactical formation. On this particular
occasion a reconnaissance was made in force, and the various
evolutions and the distributions of the machines were carefully tried.
With such practice, on August 25, 1915, a French aerial squadron,
including sixty-two aviators, flew over the heights of Dilligen in
Rhenish Prussia, thirty miles southeast of Treves, and dropped more
than 150 bombs, thirty of which were of large caliber. This raid,
while successful in many respects, was not without damage, for the
French lost four aeroplanes. One fell to earth on fire near Bolzhen
with the pilot and observer killed. A second was captured by the
Germans, together with its occupants, near Romilly, a third was forced
to land near Arracourt, north of Luneville, and was destroyed by
German artillery, and the fourth landed within range of the German
guns near Moevruns, south of Nomeny, behind the French front. On this
very day a second French squadron bombed the German camps of Pannes
and Baussant, starting fires, and discharged bombs over other German
stations and bivouacs. In Argonne stations were bombarded as well as
the aviation park of Vitry-en-Artois. Allied fleets of French,
British, and Belgian aeroplanes, both of the land and sea services,
comprising some sixty machines in all, bombarded the wood of Houthulst
and set a number of fires.

It must not be inferred that at this time there was any lack of
individual effort or achievement. Often bombs were dropped at
important stations on lines of communication, and on August 26, 1915,
a poisoned gas plant at Dornach was bombed by a French aeroplane and
ten shells dropped.

[Illustration: German aeroplane guns, mounted on turntables. They can
be turned quickly to any direction and to whatever angle of elevation
is required.]

On the other side, during the month of August, 1915, and particularly
toward the end, raiding expeditions were organized by the Germans, and
on August 28, 1915, an attack on Paris was organized, in which six
German aeroplanes were to take part.