"
Guynemer did not know how to review troops, and would have liked to go.
He was suffering cruelly from his knee:
"I happen to be wounded, General."
"Wounded, you! It's impossible. When a man falls from the sky without
being broken, he is a magician, no doubt of that. You cannot be wounded.
However, lean upon me."
And holding him up, almost indeed carrying him, he walked with the young
_sous-lieutenant_ in front of the troops. From the neighboring trenches
rose the sound of singing, first half-suppressed, and then swelling into
a formidable roar: the _Marseillaise_. The song had sprung spontaneously
to the men's lips.
* * * * *
Cerebral commotion required Guynemer to rest for a few days. But on
October 5 he started off again. The month of October on the Somme was
marked by an improvement in German aviation, their numbers being
considerably reinforced and supplied with new tactics. Guynemer defied
the new tactics of numbers, and in one day, October 17, attacked a group
of three one-seated planes, and another group of five. A second time he
made a sortie, and attacked a two-seated plane which was aided by five
one-seated machines.
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