Now, the air forces had had their part in the victory. Obliged, as they
were at Verdun, to resist the numerical superiority of the enemy, they
had thrown off the tyranny of atmospheric conditions and accepted and
fulfilled diverse missions in all kinds of weather. Verdun had hardened
them, as it had "burned the blood" of the infantry who had never known a
worse hell than that one. But as our operations now took the initiative,
the aviation corps was able to prepare its material more effectively, to
organize its aerodromes and concentrate its forces beforehand. Its
advantage was evident from the first day of the Somme offensive, not
only in mechanical power, but in a method which cooerdinated and
increased its efforts under a single command. Though this arm of the
service was in continuous evolution, more subject than any other to the
modifications of the war, and the most susceptible of all to progress
and improvement, it had nevertheless finished its trial stages and
acquired full development as connecting agent for all the other arms,
whom it supplied with information.
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