May 16, 1918—­Going to have another operation tomorrow and then I think I’ll be well.  And, believe me, if I am I am going back and get somebody for this.  We are now on the Somme, near Rouen.  I suppose you know Baron von Richthofen has been brought down.  I’m sorry, for he was a game, clean scrapper, and I know, for I’ve had several brushes with him.  The Huns came over here last night and dropped sixty bombs, killing people and wounding I don’t know how many.  Several of the bombs hit about 300 meters from here and our beds shook like the dickens.

COMMENTS ON HIS WAR CROSS

At the Front, June 14, 1918.—­I’ve been back here from the hospital for several days and we are having beautiful weather, doing lots of work and losing lots of men, but getting results.  I think by now you have all my letters explaining the change into the American army and the croix de guerre, which doesn’t signify a great deal.  Things look pretty bad now, but the French are holding strong with the constant arrival of Americans and I think the Hun advance is stopped.  We have been working at very low altitudes and while we have lost men heavily the work was extremely effective.  We have been shifted from one part of the front to another so that one hardly has time to unpack before we go to a new attack.  Our car has a broken piston, so we have had to walk more than usual and my leg gets so worn out in a short time that it is slow going.

GREAT FRENCH FLYER BRINGS DOWN

At the beginning of the year, Lieut.  Rene Fonck, the great French flyer and ace of aces of all the belligerent forces, had only nineteen successes to his credit, but during the last days of fighting the wily Lieutenant scored many victories bringing his totals up to seventy five enemy airplanes officially destroyed, with forty more probable successes awaiting official verification.  The final list of Lieut Fonck is all the more astonishing when it is considered that he made flights only when he thought himself in the fittest condition, and every time he flew he triumphed over the German Aviators.  His wonderful success is accredited to his incomparable tactics, keen eyesight and most remarkable skill.

OTHER CHAMPIONS OF THE AIR

Among other champion flyers of the allied forces Major Bishop of the British is credited with seventy-two victories; Lieutenant Coppens of Belgium, wounded during the late fighting, and with a leg amputated, holds the record of thirty-six victories; Lieutenant Baracchini the Italian flyer has thirty victories to his credit; Eddie Rickenbacker the American ace is responsible for twenty-four enemy victims, and Edward Parsons, another American flyer is credited with eight official victories and seven more unconfirmed.  Captain Kosakoff the Russian ace held seventeen successes to his credit at the close of Russias fighting.