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Show cialist," with an official scorn of sixteen balloons and eleven aeroplanes. All refused re-fused to smoke ;uil they ilnult nothing stronger than light wine with .-r. The strain of air fighting during t he active period is so grc.u thai, only perfect physical training can withstand it . The pilots go out twice uiways, Sometimes thricf daily in spoils of two hours and a Spad con fly in all weather save a fog or blinding rain. Nervous exhaustion is the chief dread. Tts first symprmn it nightmares of the machine puns jamming- 'living on your . tad" is commonest. A couple of days' rest is the only remedy. Good condition enables the airman to survive where a ; less fit man perishes. They toid uie of a 1 youngster shot down with a bullet in his 8torn;ii:h last Friday tailing into the ' enemy territory south of the Marne. lie was stunned by thu fali, but soon re-: re-: novo red consciousnes and crawled from the smashed mach ine into a near-by . thicket, where lie liid till nightfall. During Dur-ing the darkness he made his way two kilometers into the American lines, narrowly nar-rowly missing being shot by a sentry suspicious of a Boche ruse. Throuhout the air ser.viee a realization of the value of the work has created a splendid spirit. I STOMP SPIRITS STRUNG j III II II Realization of Great Value of Services to Army Aids Men in Maintaining Splendid Morale. NERVOUS EXHAUSTION THEIR CHIEF DREAD Magnificent Co-operation of Airmen Made Possible Advance of the Allied Armies in France. By WALTER DURANTY. (New York Times-Chicago Tribune Cable, Copyright.) WITH T1IIJ KKION'CH ARM V. July 2G. An account of the magnificent service rendered by the aviation corps in battle was given the correspondent today at the headquarters of one of the finest French air fleets. "l'iom the aviation viewpoint the battle bat-tle was divided into two periods, the first from Monday to Friday, when we concentrated our attention on tho Marne crossing; the second from Friday onwards on-wards during which tho principal efforts were directed against the enemy's communications com-munications in tho rear," said an officer of the fleet staff. "As early as5 o'clock Monday morning we received detailed information in-formation from two Spad battleplanes ahot the German bridging operations. Tho" bridges were constructed beforehand and were brought in one piece to the bank, launched perpendicularly with the course of the river and allowed since to cross with the current into a position touching1 the opposite bank, where it was immediately attached." The whole business only took a few minutes. "One of tho Spad's flew right across directly above tho bridge at a height of thirty-five feet, raking the enemy with machine guns. The clouds were then too low .for acurate work by the bombers, but a strong force of Spads at once began I harassing the enemy. More than once the bridges, six were reported in use by 10 a. m., were cleared for fifteen minutes at a time by the effects of their fire and the slaughter of men and horses was terrible. .One after another the battle planes would drive toward the objective, i loose a whole round and rise to refit a iew cartridge drain. Before noon bomb planes each carrying five inch bombs weighing nearly fifty pounds apiece were sharing in the work of devastation. They ! dropped bombs from a height of 500 to 1000 meters. i Targets Easy to Hit. "The prjectiles could hardly fail to find a target either on the bridge or amidst tho 'dense masses of the enemy on the rivor banks. As soon as a bomber unloaded un-loaded his cargo he had to plunge and sweep the foe with the machine gun, then ret urn for another load and repeat the performance. That went on without respite re-spite day and night until the enemy re-crossed re-crossed the river and it must have cost thousands of lives besides fatal delays when every moment was priceless. "How the , Germans dreaded the air attacks is shown by the fact that numerous numer-ous antiaircraft batteries and machine guns were installed on the hills overlooking overlook-ing the river before the battle, but very few of our machines were thus downed, although all had their wings riddled. 'The German battle planes were pretty aggressive, but, as usual, they hesitated to tackle the bomb planes in flying formation. for-mation. When the latter swooped o drop bombs they were effectively protected pro-tected by a strong force of Spads up above who were engaged in continual combats with great success. "The Boche bomb planes nowhere were reported working by day. They seem to reserve themselves exclusively for night work. The counter-offensive changed our tactics. In strong groups of bombers whose way was cleared by battle planes we attacked the transportation centers like Fere, Fism.es. Bas Oehes, Couionges and Braisne. The imagination might picture a romantic ro-mantic aerial battle of hundreds of planes engaged in a death struggle across miles of sky, but in point of fact, the German resistance to such mass attacks was confined con-fined to hovering on the outskirts of the fie.it in an attempt to cut off stragglers. This unit alone dropped thirty tons of bombs on the three days on Fore station and started a conflagration on Friday that has not yet been extinguished. Boches on Retreat. "As the Boche retreated our work was lightened by the congestion hostile aerodromes caused by the abandonment of the advanced fields. Thus the Boches were so crowded as to cause frequent accidents ac-cidents and resulted in great confusion which we augmented by bombing them repeatedly. The convoys on the roads also suffered terribly. At Loupiegne one bomb plane alone destroyed twenty munition muni-tion camions." I talked later with a group of Spad pilots including Lieutenant Boyau, former captain of the French international football foot-ball team, now a crack "Drachen spe- |