Almost invariably their enemies desperately avoided a fight with them,
retreating far within their own lines, where, even then, they were not
sure of safety. Those who accepted their gage of battle seldom returned.
The enemy aviation camps from Ham to Peronne watched anxiously for the
return of their champions who dared to fight over the French lines. None
of them cared to fly alone, and even in groups they appeared timid. In
patrols of four, five, and six, sometimes more, they flew beyond their
own lines with the utmost caution, fearful at the least alarm, and
anxiously examining the wide and empty sky where these mysterious
knights mounted guard and might at any moment let loose a storm. But in
the course of these prodigious first three months of the battle of the
Somme, our French chasing-patrols not infrequently flew to and fro for
two hours over German aviation camps, forcing down all those who
attempted to rise, and succeeding in spreading terror and consternation
in the enemy's lines.
The Franco-British offensive began on July 1, 1916, on the flat lands
lying along both banks of the Somme River.
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