This is radically
untrue, and his notebook contradicts it. From the very first day the
_debutant_ fulfilled the promise of his apprentice days. After one or
two trial flights, he left for a scouting expedition on Sunday, June 13,
above the enemy lines, and there met three German airplanes. On the 14th
he described what he had seen in a letter to his father.--His
correspondence still included some description at that time, the earth
still held his attention; but it was soon to lose interest for
him.--"The appearance of Tracy and Quennevieres," he wrote, "is simply
unbelievable: ruins, an inextricable entanglement of trenches almost
touching one another, the soil turned over by the shells, the holes of
which one sees by thousands. One wonders how there could be a single
living man there. Only a few trees of a wood are left standing, the
others beaten down by the "_marmites_,"[16] and everywhere may be seen
the yellow color of the literally plowed-up earth. It seems incredible
that all these details can be seen from a height of over 3000 meters. I
could see to a distance of 60 or 70 kilometers, and never lost sight of
Compiegne.
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