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Show TEUTONS INCREASING TllUlfi FORCES Said to Be Planning to Forestall Activities of the Americans. SERVICE IS POPULAR Increased Pay and Allowances Allow-ances Attracting Many Infantry Officers. FRENCH FRONT, March 15. (Correspondence (Corre-spondence of the Associated Press) Great preparations are being: made in Germany to meet the anticipated crisis in fighting in the air when the United States is ready to put forth its real strength iu that branch of the war. Evidence Evi-dence observed here indicates that Germany Ger-many is planning to forestall the American Ameri-can effort in this direction. Many pilots are undergoing instruction in the German aviation centers and the construction of airplanes is proceeding at a pace hitherto unknown. Many student stu-dent aviators have been passed from the infantry and artillery into the air service. ser-vice. Until a few months ago German aviators avia-tors were recruited almost exclusively from the ranks of the officers. Now would-be aviators are accepted from the lower ranks also. Pay Much Greater. ! StUI, the proportion of officers remains almost overwhelming, many Iiavlng transferred from cavalry regiments with the desire of being- employed in a branch of the service in which activity is constant, con-stant, instead of remaining with the mounted troopH, whose sphere of usefulness use-fulness has been very restricted since the early days of the war. The increased pay and allowances accorded to flying men have also attracted many infantry officers from the ordinary line regiments, regi-ments, while still others see in aviation greater chances of being decorated than is the lot of officers employed in other ; branches of the army. Most of the instruction camps are in the Interior of Germany, some of them government organizations and others run by airplane construction companies. After the preliminary training, the pupil pilots have to pass a series of examinations examina-tions which become increasingly difficult as the training progresses. The entire period of instruction is about six months for a pilot. Given Special Course. Those who Intend to become "observers are put through a special course, which comprises artillery spotting, photography, wireless telegraphy, meteorology, map- ; reading- and the drafting of reports. All observers are army officers, those for ; the artillery spotting being chosen from artillery batteries, while for reconnais- sance work they are selected from any other branch of the service. Bombing aviators form a special class by themselves and go through a thor-; thor-; ough training in calculating height and ! distance. They practice the dropping of ! missiles while seated on"an elevated airplane air-plane framework, beneath which is stretched an endless leather belt running at varying speeds. On this belt is paint-, paint-, ed a landscape. The pupils are equipped with steel arrows and directed to drop them upon certain objects on the landscape. |