UNPRECEDENTED AIR BATTLE
The story of the air battle of March 23-24 reads like one of the most extraordinary adventure tales ever imagined. The struggle began with squadrons of airplanes ascending and manoeuvring as perfectly as cavalry. They rose to dizzy heights, and, descending, swept the air close to the ground. The individual pilots of the opposing sides now began executing all manner of movements, climbing, diving, turning in every direction, and seeking to get into the best position to pour machine-gun fire into enemy airplanes. Every few minutes a machine belonging to an allied or German squadron crashed to the ground, often in flames. At the end of the first day's fighting wrecked airplanes and the mangled bodies of aviators lay strewn all over the battlefield.
All next day, March 24, the struggle in the air went on with unabated fury. The allied air squadrons were now on the offensive and penetrated far inside the German lines. The German aviators counterattacked whenever they could, and more than once succeeded in crossing the French lines. But at the close of the second day victory rested with the allied airmen, and during the next five days scarcely a German airplane took the air.
The nature of the military operations on the earth below during these five days, (March 25-29,) favored the allied airmen and permitted them to secure important results in attacking infantry. The Germans were advancing through the valley of the Oise and across the Picardy plains, while the Allies were endeavoring bring up sufficient reserves to hold back the advance. The fighting was now in the open, and except for walls, trees, and ditches there was practically no cover of which the Germans could take advantage. This was exactly what suited the allied air squadrons as they sallied forth to harass and hamper the advancing German columns, which they attacked by day and night. Many German units were completely destroyed by showers of bombs, others were dispersed and demoralized, and there is no doubt that the allied squadrons, unopposed for the time by German aviators, did much to retard the advance of the enemy columns. The allied airmen literally swarmed in the air, but in carefully organized formations, so that their attacks would reap the largest possible gain.