of surrender! Whereupon
our infantry were signalled to take possession, which they did. Don't
shrug your shoulders, friend the reader, and say: "Quite a good story,
but tall, very tall." The facts were related in the R.F.C. section of
'Comic Cuts,' otherwise G.H.Q. summary of work.

Fighting squadrons soon caught the craze for ground stunts and carried
it well beyond the lines. One machine chased a train for miles a few
hundred feet above, derailed it, and spat bullets at the lame coaches
until driven off by enemy craft. Another made what was evidently an
inspection of troops by some Boche Olympian look like the riotous
disorder of a Futurist painting. A pilot with some bombs to spare
spiralled down over a train, dropped the first bomb on the engine, and
the second, third, fourth, and fifth on the soldiers who scurried from
the carriages. When a detachment of cavalry really did break through for
once in a while, it was startled to find an aerial vanguard. A
frolicsome biplane darted ahead, pointed out positions worthy of attack,
and created a diversion with Lewis gun fire.

At the end of a three-hour offensive patrol my pilot would often descend
our bus to less than a thousand feet, cross No Man's Land again, and
zigzag over the enemy trenches, where we disposed of surplus ammunition
to good purpose. On cloudy days, with the pretext of testing a new
machine or a gun, he would fly just above the clouds, until we were east
of the lines, then turn round and dive suddenly through the cloud-screen
in the direction of the Boche positions, firing his front gun as we
dropped. The turn of my rear gun came afterwards when the pilot
flattened out and steered northward along the wrong border of No Man's
Land. Once, when flying very low, we looked into a wide trench and saw a
group of tiny figures make confused attempts to take cover, tumbling
over each other the while in ludicrous confusion.

I remember a notable first trip across the lines made by a pilot who had
just arrived from England. He had been sent up to have a look at the
battle line, with an old-hand observer and instructions not to cross the
trenches. However, he went too far east, and found himself ringed by
Archie bursts. These did not have their customary effect on a novice of
inspiring mortal funk, for the new pilot became furiously angry and flew
Berserk. He dived towards Bapaume, dropped unscathed through the
barrage of anti-aircraft shelling for which this stro