time, seemed small afterward in the light of airship work on the Western Front in 1918.

On March 20 fifty Allied airplanes attacked the German submarine base at Zeebrugge, Belgium, and works at Houltade. For two days air-battles constituted the greatest activity seen on the Western Front. In one raid against German towns in upper Alsace, two sky-fleets clashed in one of the most spectacular battles of the war. Four French airplanes and three German were brought down. The raid, in which a squadron of twenty-three French craft invaded

RELIGIOUS SERVICES AT THE FRONT

A chaplain for a pulpit has made use of the body of an aeroplane

upper Alsace and grappled with almost an equal number of German Taubes, furnished a thrilling spectacle. Two of the three German machines brought to earth were masses of flames as they crumpled up. The four French planes that were brought down were wrecked. Possibly twenty persons were killed, including seven civilians, and many more than that number were injured. The raid was directed for the greater part against Mülhausen, where seven were killed and thirteen hurt, and against Habsheim, just east, where one soldier was slain. A total of seventy-two shells were dropt. Several of the fighters were killed when their machines

crashed to earth. Another raid, made by the French about the same time, did heavy damage at Metz, Château Salins and Dieuze. Twenty powerful shells were hurled at the Metz station, and five were dropt on each of the other towns. Three civilians were wounded at Metz.

An upper Alsace raid had dramatic clashes from the moment the French planes soared above the Mülhausen station. In several minutes more than a score of German planes had risen to oppose the invaders. The occasion came when German aircraft were sent up in considerable groups to take note of the effect produced on French field-guns thickly massed there and the aircraft had to be dispersed. German tactics in the air resembled those in the field, their aim apparently being to overwhelm the adversary by numbers. When the Germans found the French were sending up men singly to observe the movements of troops and the positions of the artillery, they began sending men up in couples. The French then doubled their scouts, and the Germans quadrupled theirs. After the first week in March their flying squadrons never comprised less than ten machines, and often were numerically larger. Engagements at heights of 2,000 yards, in which a score of machines were employed, was the result. The losses increased in proportion on both sides. Guynemer one day was engaged with two German fliers at once, when one of his adversaries was observed to land so abruptly as to warrant the supposition that his machine was demolished. Meanwhile bullets from the enemy had put one of Guynemer's arms out of action, but he succeeded in getting back to his base by employing the other arm skilfully. While the Germans, in some of the engagements, had the advantage of numbers, French pilots appeared to outdo them in audacity. The French machines were equal in horizontal speed to all those of their adversaries except the newer types, and were quicker than any of them in getting into the air. On March 25 a squadron of British sea-planes attacked German airship sheds in the northern part of Schleswig-Holstein. Three of the British machines were brought down by German anti-aircraft guns and their occupants taken prisoner, while one of the convoying destroyers and two German patrol boats were sunk.

While the French with artillery continued to make every effort to block the Germans from getting toward Verdun, their comrades in the air were no less busy. Stenay, Longuyon, Montfauçon and Nantillois, in the regions north of Verdun, and Vifwege, east of the Forest of Houthulst and northeast of Ypres, were raided by French airplanes in the third week of April. Twenty-one shells and eight incendiary bombs were dropt on the railway-station at Longuyon, while twenty-three miles north by east of Verdun five shells were dropt on the station at Stenay on the Meuse, twenty-five miles below Verdun, and twelve on bivouacs in the region of Montfaucon and the station at Nantillois. There were two air-raids on Vifwege, a small village about seven miles northeast of Ypres. French aerial squadrons during the day and night bombarded the railroad-station on two occasions. On the first thirty and on the second eighteen shells of large caliber were thrown down by aviators, and many reached their objectives. All the Allied airplanes returned unscathed.

Navarre early in May dropt a second manifesto behind the German lines challenging Lieutenant Immelmann, the "superhawk" of Germany, to an air duel for the championship of the world. This German flier, who had been credited with bringing down fifteen enemy airplanes, had ignored the first challenge, dropt from the sky a month before. Navarre, who had fourteen air-victories to his credit, in his second message informed Immelmann that he intended to make Immelmann's airplane his fifteenth. Navarre was a smoothfaced French youth who had by that time fought more than fifty air-duels. His methods were entirely different from those of Immelmann, who swooped down on his prey from a great height, shooting as he passed, but failing to return to the attack if the enemy airplane was not brought down. The French flier dashed straight for his enemy, circled him, worried him with a disconcerting fire and dived and dipt to avoid bullets. Navarre pursued if the enemy fled, gyrating like a bee over and above his enemy while his machine-gun kept popping. In 1915 Navarre had battled victoriously against five German airplanes, bringing down two and escaping unharmed. An official statement from

Paris on April 6 declared that thirty-five German airplanes had been destroyed in March and that only thirteen French aircraft were lost. These figures differed somewhat from the Berlin totals.

Lieutenant Immelmann's daring exploits had made his name known through Europe. He was killed during the third week of June, 1916, in a fall with his machine. His name was first mentioned in an official report from the German War Office on October 2, 1915, when he had shot down his fourth aeroplane. Immelmann had received various decorations, ending with the highest order, Pour le Mérite, when he disposed of his eleventh adversary. When he shot down. his twelfth Emperor William wrote him an autograph letter of commendation. Before the Emperor had finished the letter the report came that the Lieutenant had bagged his thirteenth adversary. The Emperor crossed out the word twelfth and substituted thirteenth, saying: "One can not write as fast as Immelmann shoots." Immelmann was a native of Dresden, born in 1890. Some newspapers compared him with Captain Otto Weddigen, the submarine commander, who gained fame by sinking three British cruisers in the North Sea, and later met his death on the submarine U-20.

France now possest an aeroplane that had beaten the world's records for speed. It was made at Blériot's factories at Suresnes, near Paris. The Fokker had been described as a hawk; the new French machine in comparison was a swallow, a graceful, almost frail-looking biplane, and was called a "spad"-the word having been derived from the initial letters of the Société pour l'Aviation et Dérivés. The spad climbed rapidly and smoothly and could attain a speed of more than 125 miles an hour. The Fokker's speed was 100 miles an hour. On account of its swiftness, the spad could be entrusted only to the most expert pilots, because, altho its speed could be reduced a little, only the most skilful airmen could alight without smashing it.

Georges Boillot, an automobile racer and aeronaut, was killed in a fight with five German aeronauts during the same month, but before the bullet hit him he had brought down one of the German machines. Boillot had served