The cord which still linked him with his infancy and youth
was now to be strained, and on March 11 the Storks Escadrille received
orders to depart next day, and to fly to the Verdun region.
The development of the German fighting airplanes had constantly
progressed during 1915. Now, early in 1916, they appeared at Verdun,
more homogeneous and better trained, and in possession of a series of
new machines: small, one-seated biplanes (Albatros, Halberstadt, new
Fokker, and Ago), with a fixed motor of 165-175 H.P. (Mercedes, and more
rarely Benz and Argus), and two stationary machine-guns firing through
the propeller. These chasing escadrilles (_Jagdstaffeln_) are
essentially fighting units. Each _Jagdstaffel_ comprises eighteen
airplanes, and sometimes twenty-two, four of which are reserves. These
airplanes do not generally travel alone, at least when they have to
leave their lines, but fly in groups (_Ketten_) of five each, one of
them serving as guide (_Kettenfuhrer_), and conducted by the most
experienced pilot, regardless of rank. German aviation tactics seek more
and more to avoid solitary combat and replace it by squadron fighting,
or to surprise an isolated enemy by a squadron, like an attack of
sparrow-hawks upon an eagle.
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