43 176 245 For the period January to December 15, 1917, French airmen claimed the following figures, brought down in German and French lines: 586 machines; seriously damaged, 583. In practically the same period in 1916 (January-December 31) the corresponding figures had been only 417 and 185. Some interesting figures also were published from combined English and French calculations regarding the strength of the German air service at the end of 1917. It was claimed that it consisted of more than 200 squadrons with a total of about 2,500 machines, divided as follows: Bombing squadrons 23 Chaser " 40 Protecting " 30 Patrol " 80 Artillery " 100 There were also said to be numerous separate squadrons of aeroplanes and hydroplanes belonging to the German Navy, and about twelve squadrons each for garrison and training purposes. Amongst other events in the various aerial services a number deserve especial mention. On September 7, 1917, German machines bombed a number of Allied hospitals on the French coast. As a result four Americans, belonging to a Harvard unit, were killed and ten wounded, and another American, a member of a St. Louis, Mo., unit, was killed. On September 11, 1917, the famous French "ace," Captain Georges Guynemer, was killed in an air battle, after having brought down shortly before his 53d enemy plane. On November 22, 1917, the British Admiralty announced that a successful air attack in the vicinity of Constantinople had been carried out by a large British bombing airplane, which flew from England to a British base in the Mediterranean in a series of eight flights. The stopping places included Lyons and Rome, and the total distance covered was nearly 2,000 miles. The machine was actually in the air thirty-one hours. This is believed to be a world's record for a cross-country journey and for the weight carried. During some parts of the flight strong winds and heavy rainstorms were experienced, and there was one stretch of 200 miles over a mountainous country where it would be impossible for any machine to land. Another record long-distance flight was that made by Captain Laureati of the Italian air service in a S. T. A. machine with a 200 H. P. Fiat engine, from Turin to London, a distance of 650 miles. The distance was covered in seven hours, twenty-two minutes, and thirty seconds. No stops were made and one passenger, a mechanician, was carried. In the latter part of January, 1918, the former German cruiser _Goeben_, then the Turkish _Sultan Selim_, having been beached after a fight with British naval forces at the entrance to the Dardanelles was bombed repeatedly by British naval aviators who also bombed Constantinople with success.