In the early days of the war pilots seldom flew over 3,000 feet high, and since there were no machine-guns mounted in a practical way, the pilots could only content themselves with firing revolvers at one another. The only thing they had to fear was rifle-shot and the trajectory of artillery. The few antiaircraft guns had no greater range than 3,000 feet, and, as a matter of fact, most of the reconnaissance work done at Verdun in the first six months of 1916 was at 3,000 feet altitude. The first historic record of a machine-gun mounted on an aeroplane was in the despatch telling of the death of the French aviator Garaix on August 15, 1914, by the aerobus Paul Schmitt. Garaix had 200 rounds of ammunition. In December of that year the 160 horse-power Breguet piloted by Moineau mounted a machine-gun. The French pusher Voisins, with no obstruction of vision to the gunner in the nacelle, afforded an excellent opportunity for the use of machine-guns. Moreover, most of the aeroplanes brought down in the early days of the war were the victims of engine trouble or shots from rifles on the ground. A staff report of October 5, 1914, of the Germans relates that the French aviator Frantz, flying a Voisin with his mechanic Quenault, shot down a German Aviatic plane with two aviators from 1,500 metres altitude, killing the two Germans. For this feat Sergeant Frantz received the Military Medal, the first decoration given a French flier in the war. On October 7 Captain Blaise and Sergeant Gaubert, in a Maurice Farman, with a rifle shot down Lieutenant Finger, a Boche who had defended himself with a revolver. Captain Blaise expended eight shots before he got the German flier. The first recorded equipment of a machine-gun on a German machine was on October 25, 1914, when a Taube near Amiens opened fire on a Henry Farman machine piloted by Corporal Strebick and his mechanic, who were directing artillery-fire. The Germans first used a Mauser gun for their aeroplanes. Meanwhile, the need for having a machine-gun fixed stationary on the aircraft and armed by manœuvring the aeroplane became more evident. Roland Garros, who was the first to fly across the Mediterranean Sea from France to Tunis, Africa, mounted a gun to shoot through the propeller on February 1, 1915. In order to protect the blades from the bullets, he had the propeller-tip covered with steel. Thus, when the bullets hit, they were deflected. Only 7 per cent hit the blades, however.