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four motors.  The British had their own, the Handley-Page.  The French used the Italian-made Caproni.  They had a range of around 150 miles from their base, and they carried heavier bomb loads than did the day bombers.  They were painted black to make them harder to see in the darkness, but they could be picked up in searchlight beams.  I was in Paris at least twice during raids by night bombers.  It was exciting to watch the searchlights converge on them and to see the shells begin to crack around them.

Observation planes were nearly all single-engine two-seaters.  I wrote something about them in an earlier letter.  Neither side produced a better one than the French Salmson.  Its top speed, in level flight, was about 120 miles per hour.  The only American-made planes ever used in battle were brought in during the final weeks, after I had gone to a hospital.  So I know about them only from hearsay.  They were two-seaters equipped with the so-called Liberty motor.  They were said to be faster than the Salmson, making about 135 miles per hour.  But they could carry only enough gasoline for about two hours' flight, and they had an unpleasant habit of catching on fire with no provocation from without.  Aviators I talked with in the hospital referred to them as "flying coffins".

Pursuit or chasse planes were relatively small but fast single-engine one-man craft with two or three machine guns geared to shoot through the propeller.  The pilot aimed his entire plane at a target.  In 1918 the German were equipping all their chasse squadrons with Fokkers, triplane or biplane.  The triplanes had the advantage that they could fly at an upward angle better than any other.  We dreaded them because once a Fokker triplane got behind and under the tail of an observation plane he could stick there until he downed you.