At Le Bourget he tried the new Nieuport
machine, which was the hope of the fighting airplanes. Finally, on July
19--memorable date--his journal records Guynemer's first victory:
"Started with Guerder after a Boche reported at Couvres and caught up
with him over Pierrefonds. Shot one belt, machine-gun jammed, then
unjammed. The Boche fled and landed in the direction of Laon. At Coucy
we turned back and saw an Aviatik going toward Soissons at about 3200
meters up. We followed him, and as soon as he was within our lines we
dived and placed ourselves about 50 meters under and behind him at the
left. At our first salvo, the Aviatik lurched, and we saw a part of the
machine crack. He replied with a rifle shot, one ball hitting a wing,
another grazing Guerder's hand and head. At our last shot the pilot sank
down on the body-frame, the observer raised his arms, and the Aviatik
fell straight downward in flames, between the trenches...."
This flight began at 3700 meters in the air, and lasted ten minutes, the
two combatants being separated by a distance of 50 and sometimes 20
meters.
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