emer, who had been promoted lieutenant in February and was to be
made captain in March, treated this Lieutenant von Hausen humanely and
courteously as soon as he had landed. In all his mentions up to that
time Guynemer had been described as a "brilliant chasing pilot"; he was
now mentioned as an "incomparable chasing pilot."

* * * * *

Early in April the Storks left Lorraine and went to make their nests on
a plateau on the left bank of the Aisne, back of Fismes. New events were
in preparation. After the German retreat to the Hindenburg line, the
French army in connection with the English army--which was to attack
Vimy cliffs (April 9-10, 1917)--was about to undertake that vast
offensive operation which, from Soissons to Auberive in Champagne, was
to roll like an ocean wave over the slopes of the Chemin des Dames, the
hills of Sapigneul and Brimont, and the Moronvillers mountain. Hearts
were filled with hope, and the men were inspired by a sacred joy. Their
sufferings and their wounds did not prevent the hearts of the soldiers
in that spring of 1917 from flowering in sublime sacrifices for the
cause of liberty.

As at the battle of the Somme, so at the battle of the Aisne our aerial
escadrilles were in close touch with the general staff and the other
arms of the service. Their success was no doubt dependent upon the
quality of the airplanes, and the factory output, and limited by the
enemy's power in the air. But though they were unable to achieve the
mastery of the air from the very first, they continued obstinately to
increase their force, and little by little their successes increased.
They had to oppose an enemy who had just accomplished an immense
improvement in his aviation corps.

In September, 1916, the German staff, profiting by the lessons of the
Somme campaign during which its aviation forces had been so terribly
scourged, resolved upon an almost complete reorganization of its
aeronautical service. Hindenburg's program arranged for a rehandling of
both the direction and the technical services. A decree dating from
November, 1916, announced the separation from the other services of the
Air Fight Forces (_Luftstreitkraefte_), which were to be placed under a
staff officer, the _Kommandeur der Luftstreitkraefte_. This new
_Kommandeur_, who was to superintend the building of the machines as
well as the training of the pilots, was Lieutenant General von Hoeppner,
with Lieutenant C