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The Operations in the Meuse-Argonne extended from the opening of the battle on September 25th, to the signing of the armistice, on November 11th. While the fighting was continuous during this whole period, particularly for the Air Service, nevertheless the three distinct attacks which were launched on September 26th, October 4th and November 1st, divided the fighting into three phases: The first from September 26th to October 3rd; the second from October 4th to 31st; and the third from November 1st to 11th. They will therefore be considered in this order.


First Phase [[strikethrough]] September 26th to October 3rd. [[/strikethrough]] 

After a violent artillery preparation of three hours the infantry advanced at 5:30 a.m. [[strikethrough]] launched its attack on schedule time, [[/strikethrough]] and daylight found our air units in place over the front carrying out their missions in spite of heavy haze, ground fog, and a sky overcast with low hanging clouds which made observation nearly impossible. The visibility improved somewhat as the day wore on, but at no time exceeded more than 8 to 10 kilometers.


Enemy aviation, though extremely active within his own lines, made no attempt to penetrate our rear areas with observation planes, but on account of the low hanging clouds his pursuit was successful in destroying several of our balloons. His pursuit patrols were generally encountered in flights of from 7 to 9 planes, but toward the late afternoon [[strikethrough]] he increased [[/strikethrough]] these were increased to [[strikethrough]] flights to [[/strikethrough]] large concentrations, numbering in some cases as many as 23.


Our pursuit succeeded in successfully combatting the enemy [[strikethrough]] attack [[strikethrough]]  at every point. The First Group, profiting by the