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Balloons were set on fire from time to time.  The observer in his basket most often had warning by telephone from watchers on the ground in time to jump out and float to earth with his parachute.  That was one advantage he had over those who flew in aeroplanes.  The allies never succeeded in adapting the parachute for use in planes.  The Germans finally did, but when the first German flyer jumped from a plane with a parachute the war had less than two months to go.  The balloon observer had another advantage in that he could use field glasses.  They were useless in aeroplanes because of the vibration.  The main disadvantage of the balloon observer was that he was a long way from the objects he wanted to see.  His balloon had to be out of range at least of the enemy's light artillery.

By 1918 aeroplanes had become specialized for four different kinds of service.  Each had its own organization and employed a different type of aircraft.  There were (a) day bombers, (b) night bombers, (c) observation planes, and (d) pursuit or chasse planes.  Bombing was in WWI relatively unimportant, for the planes could carry only light bomb loads and navigation was less reliable than it was later.  As I had said before, compasses had not been made to work in aeroplanes.  Bombers had to find their way to and from their targets visually, by the map.  Their activity was limited to clear weather.  The French day bomber was the Breguet, a sturdy two-seater that was also used for observation work and was comparable to our Salmsons  Day bombing was a dangerous business because of the enemy's chasse, and the bombing planes flew in formations of six or more for mutual protection.  Even so they rarely bombed targets more than 30 miles inside enemy territory.

Night bombers were the largest planes in use, with as many as