Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ILLUSTRATIONS A view of the French and German trenches . Frontispiece FACING PAGE A Voisin bombarding-machine 8 A Nieuport "avion de Chasse" 8 " Mechanics ran the machines out on the field in long lines" 18 The little caf6 across the road 26 A Morane-Parasol 34 "I had received orders to make a flight during a snow-storm" 62 The author, together with his first mechanic, at the "mitrailleuse" 62 A Farman artillery-machine 72 An anti-aircraft .75 90 A bad landing 98 A heavy bombarding-machine 124 A German aeroplane brought down by a French aeroplane 138 A bi-motor Caudron 146 MY ENLISTMENT IN the last two years aviation has become an essential branch of the army organization of every country. Daily hundreds of pilots are flying in Europe, in Africa, in Asia Minor; flying, fighting, and dying in a medium through which, ten years ago, it was considered impossible to travel. But though the air has been mastered, the science of aero-dynamics is still in its infancy, and theory and practice are improved so often that even the best aviators experience difficulty in keeping abreast of the times. My experience in the French Aviation Service early taught me what a difficult and scientific task it is to pilot an aeroplane. By piloting I mean flying understandingly, skilfully; not merely riding in a machine after a few weeks' training in the hope that a safe landing may be made. In America many aviators holding pilot's licenses are in reality only conductors. Some pilots have received their brevets in the brief period of six weeks. I can only say that I feel sorry for them. My own training in France opened my eyes. It showed me how exhaustive is the method adopted by the belligerents of Europe for making experienced aviators out ...