Sometimes people who were dining on the
Place Stanislas left their tables to watch some fine battle in the air,
after which they resumed their seats and their appetites, merely
replacing Rhenish by Moselle wines. Nevertheless, the frequency of
raids, and the destruction caused by bombs, began to make the existence
of both native and visiting Nancyites decidedly unpleasant. The Storks
Escadrille, which arrived in February, very promptly punished these
aerial brigands, by a police policy both rapid and severe. The enemy
airplanes which flew over Nancy were vigorously chased, and less than a
month later the framework of a good dozen of them, arranged in an
orderly manner around the statue of Stanislas Leczinski, reassured the
population and served as an interesting spectacle for the visitor who
could no longer have the pleasure of admiring, behind Lamour's gates,
the two monumental fountains consecrated to Neptune and Amphitrite, by
Guibal, and which were then covered by coarse sacks of earth.
Guynemer had contributed his share of these _spolia opima_. On March 16
he alone had forced down three Boches, and a fourth on the 17th.
Pages:
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184