Perhaps the biggest work of all the Americans performed was a certain aviation camp and school. In a few months it was completed, and it was the biggest of its kind in the world. The number of airplanes used merely for training was in itself remarkable. The flying men--or boys--who had, of course, already been broken-in in America, did an additional course in France, and when they left the aviation camp they were absolutely ready for air-fighting at the front. This was the finishing school. The aviators went through eight distinct courses in the school. They were perfected in flying, in observation, in bombing, in machine-gun firing. On even a cloudy and windy day the air overhead buzzed with these young American flyers, all getting into the pink of condition to do their stunts at the front. They lived in the camp, and it required moving heaven and earth for one of them to get leave to go even to the nearest little quiet old town. [Illustration: THE SECRETARY OF WAR’S OFFICIAL CHART This reproduction of Secretary Baker’s chart, which hung in his office at Washington, illustrates graphically Germany’s success and failure in the war.] An impression of complete businesslike determination was what one got when visiting the Americans in France. A discipline even stricter than that which applied in British and French troops was in force. In towns, officers, for instance, were not allowed out after 9 P. M. Some towns where subalterns discovered the wine of the country were instantly put “out of bounds.” No officer, on any pretext whatsoever, was allowed to go to Paris except on official business. From the camps they were not even allowed to go to the neighboring towns. [Illustration: SHOWING GERMANY’S ROAD TO DEFEAT Austria’s fluctuations are indicated, as well as the morale, military position, political and food conditions and undersea enterprises of Germany.] The postal censors who read the letters of the American Expeditionary Force were required to know forty-seven languages! Of these languages, the two least used were Chinese and German. The announcement of the organization of the first American Field Army was contained in the following dispatch from France, August 11, 1918: “The first American field army has been organized. It is under the direct command of General John J. Pershing, Commander-in-Chief of the American forces. The corps commanders thus far announced are Major Generals Liggett, Bullard, Bundy, Read, and Wright. “The creation of the first field army is the first step toward the co-ordination of all the American forces in France. This does not mean the immediate withdrawal from the British and French commands of all American units, and it is probable that divisions will be used on the French and British fronts for weeks yet. It is understood, however, that the policy of organizing other armies will be carried out steadily.”