At 7:10 I landed safely here at our camp. And what was the thanks I got for having sailed around over the enemy's lines for over two and a half hours? I got a "call down." I had hardly shut off my engine when Wilhelm came racing over to me. "Where were you? What have you been doing? Are you crazy? You are not to fly without my permission! You're not to go up unless I am along." And more of the same stuff. Only after I had given my word to do as he asked, would he let me alone.
Wednesday evening we had a fine surprise: two of our "missing" returned. They had been forced to land behind the enemy's line because their motor had stopped. They were hardly down when the "Pisangs" (French peasants) came running toward them from every direction. They managed to get into a nearby woods by beating a hasty retreat. Behind them they heard the yelling of the men and women. The woods was surrounded, and they had to hide till night fell. Then they escaped into the Argonne Forest, under cover of darkness although fired on a number of times. Here they spent five days, avoiding French troops. As they had only berries and roots to eat, and could only travel at night, they were almost ready to surrender. But on the morning of the seventh day they heard someone say, in German, "Get on the job, you fool." Those were sweet words to them, for it was a scouting party of German Dragoons. Thus, they got back to us.
Yesterday I went along to the light artillery positions, and from there had a good view of the battlefield. There really was nothing to see. There were no large bodies of soldiers, only here and there a rider or a civilian. The only thing you could see was the smoke from bursting shells and the burning villages all about. But if there was nothing to see, there certainly was plenty to hear--the dull noise of the light artillery, the sharp crash of the field pieces and the crackling of small arms. On the way we passed an encampment of reserves. It was a scene exactly like one during the annual manoeuvers; some were cooking, some strolling about, but most of them loafed around on their backs, not paying any attention to the battle at all.
At 5:30 we went up. Now I had a chance to see from the air the same scene I had just beheld from the ground. There was still heavy firing; as far as the eye could see villages were burning. At 7:30 we were down again.