But
how to rid them of these enemies, and render the latter incapable of
harm? Here the air cavalry, the airplanes built for distant scouting and
combats, intervened. The safety of observation machines could only be
insured by long-distance protection, that is to say, by aerial patrols
taking the offensive, not by a solitary guard, too often disappointing,
and ineffective against a resolute adversary. Their safety near to the
army could be guaranteed only by carrying the aerial struggle over into
the enemy's lines and preventing all raids upon our own. The groups
belonging to our fighting escadrilles on both banks of the Somme
achieved this result.
The one-seated Nieuport, rapid, easily managed, with high ascensional
speed, and capable, by its solid construction and air-piercing power, of
diving from a height upon an enemy and falling upon him like a bird of
prey, was then the chasing airplane _par excellence_, and remained so
until the appearance of the terrible Spad, which made its _debut_ in the
course of the Somme campaign, Guynemer and Corporal Sauvage piloting the
first two of these machines in early September, 1916.
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