On Sunday, December 5, 1915, as he was making his rounds in the Compiegne region, he saw two airplanes more than 3000 meters above Chauny.  As the higher one flew over Bailly he sprang upon it and attacked it:  at 50 meters, fifteen shots from his machine-gun; at 20 meters, thirty shots.  The German fell in a tail spin, north of Bailly over against the Bois Carre.  Guynemer was sure he had forced him down; but the other airplane was still there.  He tacked in order to chase and attack him, but in vain, for his second adversary had fled.  And when he tried to discover the spot where the first must have fallen, he failed to find it.  This was really too much:  was he going to lose his prey?  Suddenly he had an idea.  He landed in a field near Compiegne.  It was Sunday, and just noon, and he knew that his parents would be coming home from mass.  He watched for them, and as soon as he perceived his father rushed to him: 

“Father, I have lost my Boche.”

“You have lost your Boche?”

“Yes, an airplane that I have forced down.  I must return to my escadrille, but I don’t want to lose him.”

“What can I do?”

“Why, look for him and find him.  He ought to be near Bailly, towards the Bois Carre.”

And he vanished, leaving to his father the task of finding the lost airplane as a partridge is found in a field of lucerne.  The military authority kindly lent its aid, and in fact the body of the German pilot was discovered on the edge of the Bois Carre, where it was buried.

This victory was ratified, but a few days later the authorities, failing to find the necessary material proof, refused to give Guynemer credit for it.  Ah, the regulations refuse the hunter this game?  Guynemer, turning very red, declared:  “It doesn’t matter, I will get another.”  He was always wanting another; and in fact he got one four days later, on December 8.  This is the report in his notebook:  “Discovering the strategic line Royne-Nesle.  While descending, saw a German airplane high, and far within its own lines.  As it passed the lines at Beuvraigne, I cut off its retreat and chased it.  I caught up to it in five minutes, and fired forty-seven shots from my Lewis from a point 20 meters behind and under it.  The enemy airplane, an L.V.G. 165 H.P. probably, dived, caught fire, turned over, and, carried along by the west wind, fell on its back at Beuvraigne.  The passenger fell out at Bus, the pilot at Tilloloy....”

When the victor landed at Beuvraigne near his victim, the artillerymen belonging to a nearby battery of 95 mm. guns (47th battery of the 31st regiment of artillery), and who were already crowding around the enemy’s body, rushed upon and surrounded Guynemer.  But the commander, Captain Allain Launay, mustered his men, ordered a salute to Guynemer, made a speech to his command, and said:  “We shall now fire a volley in honor of Sergeant Guynemer.”  The salvo demolished a small house where some Boches had taken refuge.  Through the binoculars they could be seen to scatter when the first shell struck their shelter.