In October, 1916, a hostile seaplane was shot down and destroyed by one of our naval aircraft. The enemy machine fell into the sea. This was evidently the raider that approached Sheerness at 1.45 p.m., flying very high. Four bombs were dropped, three of which fell into the harbour. The fourth fell in the vicinity of the railway station, damaging several railway carriages. No casualties, however, were caused. Naval aeroplanes went up and the raider made off in a north-easterly direction. But our men of the Royal Naval Air Service pursued the enemy machine, and after a short, sharp battle in the air, sent it diving into the sea. CHAPTER XXVI HEROES OF FRANCE _Vive la France!_ To her heroic sons we owe in a great measure the supremacy in the air enjoyed by the Allies. Who can forget the heroic and skilful M. Pégoud? Great is our debt to him. With his remarkable skill as a pilot in the earlier days of flying—his wonderful diving, ‘turning and twisting,’ his ‘looping the loop’ and flying upside down, all with amazing ease and grace—he taught the astonished world a great object-lesson in the materiality of the air. ‘He showed that the air can give the aviator as much support as water to a fancy swimmer, and that where stability is lacking the human brain can supply the need, and that in human flight, like the bird and its wings, the machine and the individual can be in closest touch.’ To his bold example and skilful illustrations as a pilot we owe more than can be told. Above all, would we praise his heroic spirit. It is indeed the heroic spirit of the airmen of France that has been largely the source of our great success. Who has not heard how at the time of the great German offensive against Verdun the aviators of France, thinking of naught but conquest for their beloved country, flew straight into enemy aircraft, thus robbing the enemy’s pilots of their nerve, and gaining a supremacy by their self-sacrificing courage which has remained firmly in their grasp! And never must we forget that to the heroic courage of the airmen of France is added remarkable skill. Take, for instance, the triumphant French aviator Lieutenant Nungesser, who has brought down no less than twenty enemy machines. Such victories could only have been gained by great skill linked with indomitable courage. The official communiqués of France tell many thrilling stories. Take, for instance, the following for September, 1916: ‘One of our aeroplanes, which was attacked by four enemy machines, succeeded in freeing itself from its opponents, one of which, subjected to machine-gun fire at very close quarters, fell in the Chaulnes district.