More circumspect than the others, Guynemer had his
airplane armed with a machine-gun. Meanwhile the staff was preparing to
reorganize the army escadrilles. The bold Pegoud had several times
fought with too enterprising Fokkers or Aviatiks; Captain Brocard had
forced down one of them in flames over Soissons; and the latest recruit
of the escadrille, this youngster of a Guynemer, was burning to have his
own Boche.
The first entries in his notebook of flights for July, 1915, record
expeditions without result, in company with Adjutant Hatin, Lieutenant
de Ruppiere, in the region of Noyon, Roye, Ham, and Coucy-le-Chateau. On
the 10th, the _chasseurs_ put to flight three Albatros, while a more
rapid Fokker attempted an attack, but turned back having tried a shot at
their machine-gun. On the 16th Guynemer and Hatin dropped bombs on the
Chauny railway station; during the bombardment an Aviatik attacked them,
they stood his fire, replying as well as they could with their
musketoon, and returned to camp uninjured. Adjutant Hatin was decorated
with the Military Medal. As Hatin was a _gourmet_, Guynemer went that
same evening to Le Bourget to fetch two bottles of Rhine wine to
celebrate this family fete.
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