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^[[18]]

October 18, 1973

Dear Alice:

In all my flights with French pilots in Champagne I never saw a German on the ground.  That was quite normal.  Most likely the German observers who came over daily during the same period never saw a Frenchman on our side.  Infantrymen in the trenches did not move around when an enemy plane was overhead.  A German in his field-gray uniform, standing still against a trench wall, simply could not be seen by an observer half a mile above him.  Binoculars were of no help in a plane, because of the vibration.  On reconnaissance we usually flew at 1200 to 1500 meters, which is nearer a mile than a half.

The sector on which we were operating was the very model of trench warfare.  In spite of bloody fighting from time to time the front there had remained stable since 1914.  Hence both sides had had time to dig to their hearts' content.  The ground was moderately elevated and rolling, so there was no such drainage problem as the British had to[[strikethrough]] conten [[strikethrough]]contend with in Flanders.  All the trenches in which there was much traffic had walkways of duckboard, so that the feet stayed dry even in rainy weather.

From our field the most direct route to the front lines was due north, about ten miles.  On the way you passed over reserve systems of trenches, complete with barbed wire and parapets, that the French had prepared to fall back on in case the existing front should be overrun.  Four or five miles from the front you began to see shell holes, which became more numerous until they were finally merged ^ [[into]] a so ^[[l]]id expanse of churned-up earth.  There was hardly any vegetation within a mile of the front lines.  The subsoil in Champagne is chalky so the shelled areas were white.  Two or three miles from the front you passed over the dead village of Prosnes, so battered that I do not think there was a piece of wall six feet high left standing.  On the German side, with their front trench ^[[runn]]ing along its southern border, was an area of rubble that had been another village, Nauroy.  A little further back on the German side were the remains of a larger village, Beine.  It was in about the same state as Prosnes.

Our sector ran almost straight east-and-west. Just beyond the western end of our beat were two of the forts that had defended Reims.  One of them, Nogent l'Abbesse, was in German hands.  Opposite it on