oy."

They became fatalists after a few fights, and believed in their luck, or
their mascots--teddy-bears, a bullet that had missed them, china dolls,
a girl's lock of hair, a silver ring. Yet at the back of their brains,
most Of them, I fancy, knew that it was only a question of time before
they "went west," and with that subconscious thought they crowded in all
life intensely in the hours that were given to them, seized all chance
of laughter, of wine, of every kind of pleasure within reach, and said
their prayers (some of them) with great fervor, between one escape and
another, like young Paul Bensher, who has revealed his soul in verse,
his secret terror, his tears, his hatred of death, his love of life,
when he went bombing over Bruges.

On the mornings of the battles of the Somme I saw them as the heralds of
a new day of strife flying toward the lines in the first light of dawn.
When the sun rose its rays touched their wings, made them white like
cabbage butterflies, or changed them to silver, all a sparkle. I saw
them fly over the German positions, not changing their course. Then all
about them burst black puffs of German shrapnel, so that many times
I held my breath because they seemed in the center of the burst. But
generally when the cloud cleared they were flying again, until they
disappeared in the mists over the enemy's country. There they did deadly
work, in single fights with German airmen, or against great odds,
until they had an air space to themselves and skimmed the earth like
albatrosses in low flight, attacking machine-gun nests, killing or
scattering the gunners by a burst of bullets from their Lewis guns,
dropping bombs on German wagon transports, infantry, railway trains
(one man cut a train in half and saw men and horses falling out), and
ammunition--dumps, directing the fire of our guns upon living targets,
photographing new trenches and works, bombing villages crowded with
German troops. That they struck terror into these German troops was
proved afterward when we went into Bapaume and Peronne and many
villages from which the enemy retreated after the battles of the Somme.
Everywhere there were signboards on which was written "Flieger Schutz!"
(aircraft shelter) or German warnings of: "Keep to the sidewalks. This
road is constantly bombed by British airmen."

They were a new plague of war, and did for a time gain a complete
mastery of the air. But later the Germans learned the lesson of low