to provide for replenishment of fuel and minor repairs to
aircraft. Squadron commanders were urged to work out all necessary
arrangements for the journey. How carefully they did this is shown by
some of the entries in the squadron diaries. In the diary of No. 2
Squadron (Major C. J. Burke's) a list is given of the articles that were
to be carried on each of the machines flying over to France. Besides
revolvers, glasses, a spare pair of goggles, and a roll of tools, pilots
were ordered to carry with them a water-bottle containing boiled water,
a small stove, and, in the haversack, biscuits, cold meat, a piece of
chocolate, and a packet of soup-making material.

The programme for mobilization was, in the main, successfully carried
out. The headquarters of the Royal Flying Corps left Farnborough for
Southampton on the night of the 11th of August, their motor transport
having gone before. They embarked at Southampton, with their horses, and
reached Amiens on the morning of the 13th. The movements of the Aircraft
Park, though it was the last unit to leave England, may be next
recorded, because it was in effect the travelling base of the squadrons.
The personnel and equipment were entrained at Farnborough during the
evening of Saturday, the 15th of August, and travelled to Avonmouth. Of
the twenty machines allotted to them only four, all Sopwith Tabloids,
were actually taken over in cases. Of the other sixteen (nine B.E. 2's,
one B.E. 2 c, three B.E. 8's, and three Henri Farmans) about half were
used to bring the squadrons up to establishment; the remainder were
flown over to Amiens by the personnel of the Aircraft Park, or by the
spare pilots who accompanied the squadrons. The Aircraft Park embarked
at Avonmouth very early on the morning of the 17th, arriving at Boulogne
on the night of the 18th. They disembarked, an unfamiliar apparition, on
the following morning. The landing officer had no precedent to guide him
in dealing with them. Wing Commander W. D. Beatty tells how a wire was
dispatched to General Headquarters: 'An unnumbered unit without
aeroplanes which calls itself an Aircraft Park has arrived. What are we
to do with it?' If the question was not promptly answered at Boulogne it
was answered later on. The original Aircraft Park was the nucleus of
that vast system of supply and repair which supported the squadrons
operating on the western front and kept them in fighting trim.

On the 21st of August the Aircraft Par