"Douaumont, Douaumont is ours!"
* * * * *
Suddenly our motor became silent--Armengaud tapped me on the shoulder.
I turned and he cried:
"We must land!"
We were at that moment at a fixed altitude and I saw Armengaud twist to
the right and to the left in the fuselage, looking for a safe spot to
land----
All at once the wind whistled loudly and we assumed a dangerous slant.
At certain moments the machine rocked--it did not seem to be going
ahead--then it recovered its nose.
"I do not see a place to put it!" Armengaud cried:
"Douaumont, Douaumont is ours!"
It did not matter to me, although we fell; it was perhaps death,
but--Douaumont was ours!
The ground seemed to approach very rapidly; Major Armengaud guided
his airplane toward a little prairie north of Dugny, bordered by two
gullies. We landed easily on the ground, but our "cuckoo" broke a
hidden telephone wire----
"_Hein!_ what do you think about it, Capart?"
"What a spectacle--you're an ace, major!"
I jumped at the same moment under the fuselage to connect the telephone
wire he had cut. At the same time the major examined his motor--it was
a trivial matter and soon repaired!
At the end of half an hour we got the motor running and once more rose
in the air.
Darkness fell and the atmosphere was biting cold. The wind sang in the
wings of the machine. When we reached the environs of Lemme, above the
forest, it seemed as if we were standing still. It became more and
more obscure and I asked myself how we could land. It was black below,
but, here, it seemed as if we flew through a sea of blue. The woods
appeared a sombre tint and the mist which clung to the branches looked
like clusters of fleece on Christmas trees----
The little lights underneath us flickered one after the other,
enlivening the vista more and more as they grew more numerous. Streams
of camions on the different roads resembled long, phosphorescent
worms----
Masses of clouds, strung out like attenuated lawn veils, fluttered
quickly past, between us and the ground, completing the fantastic
sketch----
I turned yet again. Back of us, one could still perceive the last
scintillations of the battle! The bursting shell, which we heard no
longer, became long, vivid flames that rose above the horizon----
* * * * *
During those hours I experienced the most stirring moments of my life,
and one of the greatest epochs in the history of the world! Thanks,
dear bird!
We arrived above the aviation field; the major shouted at me:
"Lean over to the right and keep your eyes open----"
We watched the ground closely so as not to be smashed. What matter,
once more, because we are still under the spell of the sight we have
just seen----
Descending slowly, our eyes commenced to be accustomed to this
obscurity. We recognized the contour of the field, and our old "cuckoo"
dropped gently on earth----
And that's how we assisted in the recapture of Fort Douaumont!
WHAT PASSES IN YOUR MIND WHEN FALLING
10,000 FEET, VADELAINCOURT.
_October_ 25, 1916.
To-day I went up on a rocket test at a very high altitude. Suddenly one
of the rockets burst in the propeller, and it snapped like a pistol
shot--the horizontal rudder also was damaged----
The descent commenced by great jerks and it seemed as if the machine
would collapse and fall apart----
Flameng, my pilot, made a sign "that it could go very bad with us----"
We went through a great cloud and I began to believe we would crash to
earth. Despite three accidents in two days, this will be very pretty,
I say to myself. I thought that after what I had seen these last three
months, it would be absolutely idiotic to die in a bed, and I began to
laugh at the idea----