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back to the last really great connected battle that I believe occurred on the Western Front. It was the 14th day of October, as I remember it, that I was starting from my headquarters at Souilly to make my usual inspection and reconnaissance in the air. I had the reports from the French Fourth Army on our left that they had broken through the enemy line and were engaged in battle, at the same time that we were pushing along our entire front from the Argonne to the Meuse.

Just as I was leaving I was asked very earnestly by a staff officer, who at a later date commanded the aviation of our 2nd Army, if he could accompany me. I consented and took my two-seater Spad.

We jumped into the aeroplane at the Souilly aerodrome, and I laid my course directly for Somme-Py in the Champagne. We rapidly obtained our altitude of some 4,000 metres, or 13,000 feet, and passed the Argonne Forest on our right. I had been looking carefully for the well remembered roads to the east of Somme-Py; they no longer existed. I looked for the villages; they were not to be seen. Never on any field has the ground been so completely obliterated as it was here. It is seldom that a place is so destroyed, particularly a road, that it cannot be quickly seen from the air. Glancing to the left, we saw the place where our gallant Second Division had broken the German line while acting with General Gouraud's army. No Man's Land, here, was the worst desert I have ever seen, and it will be remembered that this section in times past saw innumerable Roman battles, saw Attila and his Huns defeated, and, during the present war, has been a perfect charnel house for human beings. I imagine that more men have been killed in battle in this section of Champagne than in any other area of corresponding size in the world.

I had been with this French Fourth Army during their terrific assaults in April, 1917. These thoughts flashed through my mind as I