Page:Air Service Boys Flying for France.djvu/181

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176
BEHIND THE FRENCH LINES

ter's duties were especially to release the deadly bombs that were strung under the frame, when the proper time arrived. He was also in position to use the rapid-fire gun with which each plane was armed.

After the squadron had vanished the boys stood and listened to the sounds growing fainter in the distance. Some shooting followed, the Germans trying to pot them as they crossed over the lines, but without success, since they had already attained considerable altitude, and the firing was done at random.

Perhaps in the gray of early dawn they would return to the camp, the men tired, and almost frozen; but with glowing accounts of the immense damage they had managed to inflict on the concentration camps of the enemy.

Such is the life of an army aviator in war times.