The reports supplement and confirm one another. Captain D. Le G. Pitcher, of No. 4 Squadron, had gone up with Captain A. H. L. Soames soon after 7.0 a.m., and had returned at 8.40 a.m. with the news of a column stretching from Roye to Chevincourt. This information was at once telephoned from the aerodrome at Senlis to General Headquarters. The movements of some of the other formations of the German First Army were also seen to have changed direction. Lieutenant C. G. Hosking and Lieutenant K. P. Atkinson on a B.E. of No. 4 Squadron flew over Roye and Lassigny, confirming the report of movements in that area. Then turning west they passed over various columns moving in a southerly direction until they reached the road that follows along the east bank of the river Avre from Amiens through Montdidier, and here they found part of the German Second Corps. The head of the main body was in Montdidier at 2.0 p.m., and its tail was in La Neuville. Flying south along the road they found the advanced guard of the column at Le Ployron. All these air reports left little doubt as to the enemy's movements, and the operation orders sent out by General Headquarters from Dammartin-en-Goele at 8.50 p.m. on the 31st of August gave the information that the enemy appeared to have completed his westerly movement, and that large columns were advancing in a general southerly or south-easterly direction on Noyon-Compiegne. Sir John French directed that the retirement should be continued on the following day in a south-westerly direction. Air reconnaissances of the 1st of September, whilst confirming the news of von Kluck's wheel in a south-easterly direction, also reported heavy columns as having reached Villers-Cotterets and Crepy-en-Valois. To withdraw the British out of reach of a night attack Sir John French decided to continue the retreat earlier than he had intended. The corps commanders were ordered to get clear by a night march. We know now from von Kluck's own statement that, perturbed at leaving the British army on his flank, he determined to make another effort to catch them up. He therefore ordered his corps to turn south to settle with the British. So on the 1st of September he was again in pursuit of the British, but the British were slipping from his grasp. There was fighting on this day, which held up the pursuit, and by the evening the German army had made an average advance of no more than ten miles. Von Kluck persisted on the following day, but in vain. The British escaped towards the Marne. 'A chance of dealing a decisive blow', he says, 'against the British Army was now no longer to be hoped for, and it was therefore decided to move the two Corps on the left wing, the Third and Ninth, in the general direction of Chateau-Thierry against the flank of the French retreating from Braisne-Fismes on Chateau-Thierry-Dormans in front of the Second Army.' [Illustration: Map Illustrating Aerial Reconnaissance Area. 2nd to 9th Sept. 1914.]