WAR

y the end of May both Douglas Campbell and Eddie Rickenbacker were Aces.
On June 6 Campbell was wounded in an attack on a photographic two-seater. He
began his attack with a diving pass and worked the enemy machine from 18,000
down to 3000 feet. The German pilot was very good and his manoeuvring prevented
Campbell from closing up in the blind spots. Thinking the gunner was
finally out of ammunition, Campbell went right in for a shot and as he turned
away the gunner put a burst into the Nieuport. One explosive bullet hit a few
inches behind Campbell and a large piece of shrapnel lodged in his back. He
broke off and headed home. The wound was not serious, but the first ail-
American Ace was out of action for the rest of the war.
He was out at a time when every loss was critical. Allied reinforcements
were moving up and every man was desperately needed. The U.S.A.S. had two
full-time jobs on its hands, the fight for aerial supremacy and ground attack;
sorties were flown throughout the daylight hours. To hold up the German advance,
bottleneck targets such as bridges were singled out, and when the Germans put
up a stiff defense for these targets, violent air battles resulted. In general, the
Germans were outfought in the air long before they were stopped on the ground.
When bridges were destroyed the German engineer companies threw pontoon
bridges across the rivers and the troops continued to move up. At Commercy, one
such pontoon bridge was a priority target, and Reed Chambers led the 94th
in that day. The bridge was lined with troops and Chambers signaled the
squadron to form in a line behind him. The troops opened up with rifle and
small arms fire as the Spads came down firing at a mass of human targets packed
in a narrow and confining space. At the end of the run the Spads turned around
and came back. "It was like cutting wheat," Chambers recalls. When all the
ammunition was used up the squadron went home, gassed up, re-armed, and took
off again. When they went back, the reception was hotter than it had been the
first time, but the horrible job was done, and it was still like cutting wheat.
The strain of constant flying and fighting, of high-altitude patrols without
oxygen, of too much killing, began to tell. There were mistakes, accidents, needless
losses. This was happening on both sides of the line. After flying all day the
men would drop exhausted into their cots at night, and then the bombers would
come over. Many men lost friends during bombing raids. George Vaughn recalls
that he was much more afraid of the bombers than he was of the fighters: "You
just don't know where the bombs are going to land. You're helpless."
Some things happened that could only be ascribed to nervous exhaustion.
Reed Chambers, a cool customer if there ever was one, was tormented by a
nightmare: a face. The face would appear vague and distant, and would
slowly come nearer until it seemed as if the face and Chambers were literally
nose to nose, staring at each other. That's all, just staring. Then Chambers
would wake up, his sleep spoiled. Who was it Chambers was not superstitious,
but it was a torment not to know to whom this disembodied face belonged.
Was it a man he had killed Or was it the man waiting for him in the sun
Chambers.
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