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October 29, 1973

Dear Alice:

The last two entries on my flight record from the Perme d'Alger read thus:
"Lundi...20/5...avec Lieut. Denis ... Reglage... 0:20
"[[ditto for Lundi...20/5...avec Lieut. Denis ... Reglage...]]" 2:15

On them hinges a tale of frustration, of the most unpleasant experience I had in France until the day of my final crash. Note that I made two flights on the same day and with the same pilot.  He was the commander of the squadron.  Our flight in the morning lasted only 20 minutes. That was because Denis broke off our mission in a rage and came home. When we got out of the plane he was so angry that he refused to speak to me. I knew that my time with Escadrille 40 was nearly finished (actually the order recalling me was dated that day). It looked as if I might be sent back to Amanty in disgrace. But before we set out on our afternoon flight Denis and I were friends again. I was restored to good standing and the mission went off smoothly.

We had set out in the morning to do what the Americans of WW2 called "spotting" artillery fire. But in WW2 the spotter could converse freely with men on the ground by radio telephone. That simplified the job so much that I understand it was performed by one man flying alone and combining the functions of pilot and observer. In WW1 he could not have done that, for the radio telephone was not yet available. In August of last year I wrote you describing the clumsy ways we of the AEF had for communicating between ground and air. In the instance of which I am now writing the technological difficulties were aggravated by a linguistic barrier.

On the bulletin board at the squadron was a list of 8 or 10 numbered "reference targets" the French artillery used from time to time, Targets they really wanted to destroy were apt to be so well camouflaged that an observer would have difficulty identifying them from a distance, It was hard to spot shellbursts in relation to such a target. The reference targets were objects readily recognized and easy to locate precise;y on the map. Once the guns were accurately adjusted on any target on the German side, they could be shifted with confidence to bear on any other in the same area. That was because the maps were so accurate. On that morning we had been scheduled to work on target #4, which was the intersection of two trenches a quarter-mile or so behind the German front.