and in the course of
the attack about 100 shells were dropped on the royal palace and the
station, killing, according to German reports, four persons, and
wounding a number of soldiers and civilians, but without doing
important material damage. Antiaircraft opened fire on the French
raiders and they were forced to retire. In this attack the French
machines were painted with the German distinguishing marks, with the
result that after their attack a German airman arriving at Stuttgart
was fired on by the German troops until he was recognized as one of
their own officers, fortunately landing unhurt near the town.

During the first three weeks in September, 1915, the Royal Flying
Corps, with the British army in the field, was very active, and there
were forty air duels in eighteen days. During the first three weeks
four monoplanes were known to have been destroyed, and at least seven
others sent heavily to earth, and all survivors were, of course,
forced to retire to their own lines.

One notable contest by a British pilot took place one morning when he
beat off the first four German machines that had come to attack him,
one after the other, but by the time of the onslaught of the fifth, he
had exhausted all of his machine-gun and revolver ammunition. The
British airman proceeded to go through the motions of aiming and
firing his revolver, and the German pilot not realizing that the
weapon was useless, after firing a number of shots at him, retired, so
that the British officer was able to finish his reconnoitering and
return to his own lines.

On September 7, 1915, a furious battle in the plain sight of thousands
of soldiers occurred in midair, and resulted in the destruction of a
German aeroplane, which had been particularly active in ranging the
German guns, and had circled and signaled above the British positions,
apparently with considerable effect. A British aeroplane straightway
went out and attacked the German at a height of 9,000 feet above the
latter's lines, and the duel was in clear sight of the armies. Every
form of maneuver known to the expert pilot was indulged in, and in the
meantime, both foes were shooting at each other as rapidly as
possible. Finally the German aeroplane was seen to fall erratically at
an angle, nose downward, that indicated its probable destruction.

On September 13, 1915, two German aeroplanes were brought down by the
British within their lines, one of which fought a most thrilling