The Eyes in the Air 



All aboard for a reconnaissance flight over the German lines 

 By Aviator Henry Bruno 



Late Imperial Royal Flying Corps, Canada 



IN the British Flying Corps there are 

 two kinds of air reconnaissance work — 

 Corps and Army. Corps reconnais- 

 sance is carried out by a single airplane 

 and army reconnaissance by squadrons of 

 machines numbering not less than five 

 and as many as thirty. To understand 

 just what a Corps reconnaissance flight 

 means it will be necessary for me to trans- 

 port you to an active section of the West- 

 tern battlefront during the summer. 



A two-gun, two-seater Sopwith fighter 

 is trundled out of a hangar. While the 

 pilot is inspecting the map of the territory 

 over which he is to fly, 

 the observer receives 

 his orders to get infor- 

 mation on the move- 

 ment of enemy troops, 

 motor transports, trains 

 and the direction in 

 which they are going, 

 over an area of not 

 more than ten thousand 

 yards in front of the 

 allied position. A du- 

 plicate of the pilot's 

 map and writing ma- 

 terials are ready in the observer's seat. 



As the final order is given, the plane 

 ascends and wings its way over the lines 

 towards the enemy. The pilot climbs 

 rapidly, keeping a wary eye open for enemy 

 ai'--raiding squadrons. The usual height 

 at which he operates is from six thousand 

 to ten thousand feet. 



Hearing the German lines the observer 

 eagerly scans the ground below through 

 powerful glasses. If you were to look 

 through these same glasses you would see 

 mile after mile of shell-marked earth - 

 every mile seemingly the same as the 

 next. But to the observer every foot of 

 that ground holds information worth 

 noting, information which he is willing to 

 give his life to get. The pilot doesn't linger 

 over the battlelines. His work is still to 

 be done back of the enemy's trenches. 



Far below the plane is a thin wisp of 

 white smoke. To the uninitiated it 



When the observer returns from his 

 trip over the enemy lines he fills out 

 a report on a blank like this and 

 turns it in to general headquarters 



means nothing; but the men in the plane 

 know that it is a train winding towards 

 the front. Its position is quickly marked 

 on the map. 



What's That Cloud of Dust? 



A white road next occupies their atten- 

 tion. The pilot drops the plane a little 

 — utterly oblivious to the anti-aircraft 

 shells bursting around him. One part of 

 the road is obscured by a black smudge 

 and a cloud of dust. A regiment of in- 

 fantry is on the march. Why infantry 

 and not cavalry? The dust cloud tells. 

 It would hang in the 

 rear of cavalry and the 

 men and horses would 

 look like black specks. 

 It is such deductive 

 reasoning as this that 

 an observer has to be 

 trained to make. 



The observer esti- 

 mates the number of 

 troops by figuring what 

 space they occupy. A 

 little further on, three 

 black specks move rap- 

 idly down the road. Motor trucks in a 

 hurry. All this is recorded by the watch- 

 ful observer who becomes more keen as 

 the minutes pass. 



The plane is over a railroad station now. 

 Are there any parked motors? How many 

 cars are on t-the rails? Several work- 

 ing parties below run for cover when the 

 plane hovers over them. Evidently this 

 is an important depot as seven "archies" 

 hurl shells skyward in an effort to scare 

 the aerial visitor away. A shell bursts 

 near by. The plane rocks from the ex- 

 plosion. Then, as the pilot shuts off the 

 motor, the machine dashes earthward in a 

 nosedive. Nol he is not hit. The ob- 

 server just wants a closer view of the 

 depot. Nearer and nearer the plane 

 swoops, with machine-guns from the 

 ground adding to the din from the anti- 

 aircraft guns. Five hundred feet from 

 his objective he flattens out, opens up the 



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