its mooring and drifted from Bapaume towards Ypres, with the observer trying to surrender to RFC aircraft as they intercepted but it was shot down and the observer taken prisoner. Next day air operations continued but 29 September was washed out. On 30 September, were taken and crews flying at low altitude over the battlefield studied the condition of the German wire and trenches. The advance of the Reserve Army deprived the Germans of observation to the south and it became more important to deny the Germans opportunities for air observation to compensate. The British Nieuport 16 fighters remained a match for the newer, faster, German aircraft and began to escort bomber formations. During another attack on Lagnicourt aerodrome, German pilots got airborne and attacked the bombers which led to a dogfight with the escort of Nieuports and FE 2bs; three German fighters were shot down for the loss of an FE. The growing menace of the new German fighters, led to proposals to increase the number of fighter squadrons from four to eight per army. On 21 October, a German counter-attack at Redoubt was repulsed and a British attack which had been prepared for the afternoon, caught the Germans still recovering and captured its objectives, assisted by contact patrols and artillery observation by 4 and 7 squadrons. The visibility was so good that ten artillery emplacements were destroyed, damaged and seven ammunition pits exploded. Many of the remaining German artillery batteries were forced to stop firing because of the speed by which they were seen by the British air crews and engaged with counter-battery fire, the British having decided to suppress many batteries rather than destroy a few. Long-range bombing raids were successful and offensive patrols to protect the corps squadrons over the battlefield shot down two German aircraft and drove down Aftermath Analysis In 1938, Wilfrid Miles, the British official historian wrote that the attacks of the Battle of Thiepval Ridge had not completed the capture of the ridge. The British had fought with skill and determination but the ridge was a defensive position of great strength and the German defenders fought with equal persistence. Both sides continued until they were exhausted, in trenches full of mud. More depended on the qualities of individuals in an operation that was not a form of semi-siege warfare. Destructive and creeping bombardments were used but the fighting took place on slopes