The Allied airmen played a great part in the battle.
So many machines were in the air at once that it was difficult to avoid col- lisions. They bombed the enemy's fleeing batteries and transports, they bombed his reserves hurrying up to patch the broken lines, they fired on troop trains and Staff officers, and they devoted particular attention to the bridges over the Somme by which he must retreat. The German air service was outclassed. In the six days from Thursday to Tuesday two hundred and eight German machines and ten balloons were destroyed by our airmen alone. We lost fifty machines the first day and one hundred and eight in the six days, but many of these were shot down from the ground as they skimmed over the heads of the enemy troops. Meanwhile the Independent Air Force continued its long-distance raids into Germany. Last Sunday it went to Karlsruhe and bombed the station. On Monday our airmen paid their first visit to Frankfort,
bombed the aeroplane works, and destroyed two of the enemy machines which tried to cut them off. The same day another squadron attacked and damaged the German aerodrome at Hegelian, after a sharp fight with ntrmerous enemies.
