They're the greatest daredevils in the business; do anything, and get away with things the Boche wouldn't think of trying. They don't look on their work as a great series of personal adventures but as part of an organized mechanism with objects a good deal bigger and more important than the interest of one man.
"So the British don't take such interest in the individual feats of prowess of prowess of favorable fliers. Air-duelling is not the object of flying. The object is to get the information one's set for and to get back with it.
"As soon as a flier crosses the line he must count on the great danger of being shot down by these guns as well as on the chance of meeting an enemy in the air and having to fight him.
Disregard Losses.
"Of course all this means losses, and when they've toted up at the end of the day or week or month this part of the showing may indicate that the Boche has had all the best of it.
"But if there could be pitched into the scale on the side of the British service the results gained, the value of information gained about the enemy and of information he has been prevented from gaining about our own lines, the showing of movements accurately planned because of superior information, of positions taken or artillery fire accurately placed, of soldiers' lives saved because of better intelligence about the enemy's weak places—then the showing would be a lot different.
"Suppose a set of photographs is needed by the staff showing some section of the enemy's line perhaps a considerable distance back of the front. 