Friday, 25 September 1914; Belgium: the first aerial combat involving an aircraft of the Compagnie des Aviateurs occurred. Like on previous days, Sacha Petrowski & Maurice Benselin took off on a bombing mission to Berchem-Ste-Agathe airfield, the base of Feldflieger-Abteilung 38. As it was not the first of their bombing missions on the airfield, FA 38 had a Taube in the air at the time the Farman arrived. The German observer fired at the Belgian aircraft, but Benselin returned his fire with four shots from his carbine. Although Benselin never mentioned anything about the outcome of the combat, he put in a claim after the war stating that the aircraft force-landed with the 'pilot' holding his head with both hands, apparently wounded. Reconnaissance missions carried out this day made it all clear that the Germans were turning their attention towards Antwerp.
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