In their first operational deployment, eight aces including Nungesser, Guiguet and Chaput were specially trained by Le Prieur in their use, and in an early morning attack on 22 May 1916, managed to down six balloons in short order, panicking the German authorities into lowering the remainder along a 100 kilometers stretch of the front lines, blinding the German Army in time for the first French counter-attack on Fort Douaumont.