artillery over a battlefield. McConnell goes on to describe the Escadrille's first sortie and recounts his fear of losing contact with his companions as he had never flown over the region. During the flight, the clouds had closely joined and blocked his view of the other planes, and he had lost the others altogether. McConnell continued to grow uncertain about his position as he couldn't make out a single plane, but one by one, the others began bobbing up above the cloud level. Upon the Escadrille's first sortie, they flew over Dannemarie where they were able to see the trenches for a brief time before they were shot at with shrapnel. The Escadrille escaped and turned north after crossing the lines into Mullhouse, where McConnell notes the keen sense of satisfaction of "their invasion of real German territory." In mid September 1916, the Escadrille was ordered to pack up and head to Somme. During this transition, Victor Chapman, a close friend of McConnell's, died over the Verdun sector and his death visibly shook up the Escadrille. Quoted from his novel, McConnell describes the aftermath of the news: "We could read the pain in one another's eyes. If only it could have been some one else, was what we all thought, I suppose. To lose Victor was not an irreparable loss to us merely, but to France, and to the world as well." Chapman was the first to die, followed by Kiffin Rockwell, the first American pilot to shoot down a German aircraft in World War I, and Norman Prince, a leading founder of France's Lafayette Escadrille - all close friends with McConnell. The death of his comrades urged the rest of the men to greater action against the Boche. The arrival at Somme shifted the escadrille's previous concept of pilot life. Before Somme, the escadrille had always been quartered in towns and the life of the pilots was all that could be desired in the way of comforts. They had come to believe that they would only wage a de luxe war, and were therefore unprepared for any other sort of campaign. The introduction to the Somme was a rude awakening. Instead of being quartered in a villa or hotel, the pilots were directed to a portable barracks newly erected in a sea of mud. Battle of Verdun Shortly after the Escadrille's first sortie, they were ordered to the sector