It had been decided that an important railway junction behind the German lines was to be bombed. All day long had been the continuous roar of death, and now, when night had fallen, all the sky seemed on fire with it. Voluminous clouds, all bright with a glory of infernal fire, rolled up to the sky, the most frightful and tragic thing it has ever been given to men to behold, with an infernal splendor beyond words to tell.
With a tense, restless emotion the order to set off out over the enemy lines was awaited. In the ground-fog the machine, with a load of bombs tucked away under the wings, looked a mysterious, weird thing, and shadowy forms flitted hither and thither across the aerodrome. The tramp of marching men could be heard, and the tap of drums to the rhythm of their feet, and those transport columns which shake the Flemish cottages of the little hamlets as they pass along.
At last the order was given, and up into the chill air the machine rose. Circling round a couple of times, the nose of the airplane was set in the direction of the objective, away behind the inferno of the hell-fires of No Man's Land.
Only the mighty voice of the engine could be heard, and headlights were switched off just before crossing the line. There was still a dank, heavy mist hanging over the ground, and visibility was not so good as might have been desired.
But down below one of those terrible bombardments, a beautiful and devilish thing, was in full blast. All the sky seemed on fire with it, and thousands of gun flashes were winking and blinking from hidden places and hollows. Shells rushed through the air as though flocks of colossal birds were in flight. Amid all the noise and din of those fires of hate and hell it was certain the monotonous drone of the engine would not be heard.
Then, when the Hun lines had been crossed without trouble from "Archies," glancing back, star-shells could be seen bursting and pouring down golden rain. And as far as the eye could see, northward and southward, stretched seemingly unbroken lines of Verey lights. The enemy was also sending up his flares, as he often does, to reveal any masses of men who may be moving between his shell craters and ours.
Quickly the "eggs" were dropped on the objective, and two terrific bursts of flame indicated the explosions. Evading the beams of a searchlight that sought to pick up the machine, home and the friendly darkness were sought.
The German lines were recrossed, and, glancing below, it was seen that S O S light signals, with their little cries of color to the German gunners behind, were being sent up into the skies. It was some time ago that such lights were first seen up in the sky, and they had never ceased their winking for a single night, though now they appeared blurred in the white breath which had arisen from the wet earth.
And to pass over all this is to conceive a great admiration for these gunners, who, amid all the tumult, deafening and nerve splitting, of our batteries, work with an endurance and courage to the limit of human nature. G. B.