Hearts
were filled with hope, and the men were inspired by a sacred joy. Their
sufferings and their wounds did not prevent the hearts of the soldiers
in that spring of 1917 from flowering in sublime sacrifices for the
cause of liberty.
As at the battle of the Somme, so at the battle of the Aisne our aerial
escadrilles were in close touch with the general staff and the other
arms of the service. Their success was no doubt dependent upon the
quality of the airplanes, and the factory output, and limited by the
enemy's power in the air. But though they were unable to achieve the
mastery of the air from the very first, they continued obstinately to
increase their force, and little by little their successes increased.
They had to oppose an enemy who had just accomplished an immense
improvement in his aviation corps.
In September, 1916, the German staff, profiting by the lessons of the
Somme campaign during which its aviation forces had been so terribly
scourged, resolved upon an almost complete reorganization of its
aeronautical service. Hindenburg's program arranged for a rehandling of
both the direction and the technical services.
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