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Finally, on July 19 memorable date his journal records Guynemer's first victory: "Started with Guerder after a Boche reported at Couvres and caught up with him over Pierrefonds. Shot one belt, machine-gun jammed, then unjammed. The Boche fled and landed in the direction of Laon. At Coucy we turned back and saw an Aviatik going toward Soissons at about 3200 meters up.
"'A droit alignement couvres sur deux. "The Lieutenant made the call." "The detachment moves off in the night, marching in slow cadence that step which so peculiarly gives the impression of restrained force and condensed power. "We leave the fort and gain the artillery butts true landscape of the front! Trenches, stripped trees, abandoned wagons!
"And in the middle of all that our silhouettes of carbines, casques and sacs. "Absolute silence. "We stop we advance and suddenly in the dawn which has begun, we arrive at our destination the execution ground. "'Cannoniers halte! Couvres sur deux. A droite alignement." "A rattle of arms. And there in front of us, at hardly fifteen yards, we catch sight of the post.