PHOTOGRAPHIC WORK.

No one who has had the opportunity of comparing a large-scale photographic mosaic of the battlefields in France can fail to be impressed by the wealth of detail, detail which, however meaningless or unimportant it may appear to the uninitiated, often discloses facts of the utmost tactical importance to the General Staff. In this, skilled workers of the R.A.F. Photographic Section, labouring day and night in darkened cellars or dug-outs, illuminated only by the dull glimmer of a green or yellow light, share in the glory of achievement with their flying comrades. A single machine returning from a reconnaissance during the battle will bring home as many as 200 photographic plates exposed over the enemy’s lines. Any one of these plates may contain some valuable item of military intelligence. A scratch, a thumb mark, a moment’s carelessness in handling the delicate film of the negative may obliterate a record, to obtain which at least one airman has risked his life, and quite possibly a dozen others have fought furious protective combats in the air. Yet in a surprisingly short space of time finished prints from the 200 plates will be in the hands of the Intelligence Staff.

In addition to these varied activities, on the ground and in the air, British low-flying airmen have, throughout the week, harassed the enemy in his forced retirement, attacking his railway and road transport, and causing much havoc and destruction among his sorely tried troops. A recently captured German order, signed by Ludendorff himself, throws a vivid light upon the efforts of our low-flying aeroplanes upon the German infantry. The order, which had evidently been issued as the result of “painful incidents” over the German lines, reads:

“No one is to open fire upon an aeroplane without personally making sure that there is no iron cross on the machine, or that the distinctive enemy markings are visible. It is very improbable, and has never yet been proved, that the enemy makes use of our national markings in order to deceive us. Fire should therefore never be opened once the iron cross is seen. This rule must be strictly observed.”

It may safely be inferred from this order that not a few enemy machines have been brought down by indiscriminate and panic-stricken firing from the German infantry, and that their recent losses have been even greater than those disclosed in the British official communiqués.