_"
Ask the gunners in the batteries of the April advance, as they work
below the signalling planes; ask the infantry whom the gunners so
marvellously protect, as to the truth of the prophecy!
"Our casualties are _really_ light," writes an officer in reference to
some of the hot fighting of the past month. Thanks, apparently, to the
ever-growing precision of our artillery methods; which again depend on
aeroplane and balloon information. So it is that the flying forms in the
upper air become for the soldier below so many symbols of help and
protection. He is restless when they are not there. And let us remember
that aeroplanes were first used for artillery observation, not three
years ago, in the battle of Aisne, after the victory of the Marne.
But the night in the quiet village wears away. To-morrow we shall be
flying through the pleasant land of France, bound for Paris and
Lorraine. For I am turning now to a new task. On our own line I have
been trying to describe, for those who care to listen, the crowding
impressions left on a woman-witness by the huge development in the last
twelve months of the British military effort in France.
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