And the news, when it did come, came attenuated. 'We heard there had
been mischief with aeroplanes and bombs in Paris,' Barnet relates; 'but
it didn't seem to follow that "They" weren't still somewhere elaborating
their plans and issuing orders. When the enemy began to emerge from the
woods in front of us, we cheered and blazed away, and didn't trouble
much more about anything but the battle in hand. If now and then one
cocked up an eye into the sky to see what was happening there, the rip
of a bullet soon brought one down to the horizontal again....
That battle went on for three days all over a great stretch of country
between Louvain on the north and Longwy to the south. It was essentially
a rifle and infantry struggle. The aeroplanes do not seem to have taken
any decisive share in the actual fighting for some days, though no
doubt they effected the strategy from the first by preventing surprise
movements. They were aeroplanes with atomic engines, but they were not
provided with atomic bombs, which were manifestly unsuitable for field
use, nor indeed had they any very effective kind of bomb. And though
they manoeuvred against each other, and there was rifle shooting at them
and between them, there was little actual aerial fighting. Either
the airmen were indisposed to fight or the commanders on both sides
preferred to reserve these machines for scouting.
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