mobile forces and earthworks of a
modern army--but their experience of observation from the air had to be
gained over the enemy lines. It has always been the tendency of our air
forces to make more of the pilot than of the observer. When battles in
the air became frequent, this tendency was strengthened. The pilot is
the captain of the craft. If he is killed, the craft cannot keep the
air. But if more depends on the pilot, it is equally true to say that a
higher degree of cold-drawn courage is demanded from the observer. He
suffers with the pilot for all the pilot's mistakes. For hours together
he has nothing to do but to sit still and keep his eyes open. He has not
the relief that activity and the sense of control give to strained
nerves. He is often an older man than the pilot, and better able to
recognize danger. There is no more splendid record of service in the war
than the record of the best observers. The two embroidered wings of the
pilot's badge are the mark of a gallant profession, and are worn by
novices and veterans alike; the single wing of the observer's badge was
the mark of service done over the fire of enemy guns.

It has already been told how a large scheme for the expansion of the
Royal Flying Corps was set on foot at home by Lord Kitchener, Colonel
Trenchard, and Colonel Brancker. In November 1914 Colonel Trenchard was
given the command of the First Wing. In August 1915 he succeeded General
Henderson in the command of the Royal Flying Corps in France. General
Henderson had held this command during the whole of the first year of
the war. Under his guidance the new, small, tentative air force, which
he had done so much to create and foster, took its part in a great
European war, and rapidly gained recognition for itself from the other
branches of the service. When he relinquished his command in the field,
General Henderson continued until October 1917 to be General Officer
Commanding the Royal Flying Corps, and Director-General of Military
Aeronautics. Soon after that, when the Air Ministry was formed, he was
given a seat on the Air Council, which he resigned in March 1918. At the
close of the war he took over the control of the International Red Cross
organization at Geneva, where he did good work until his death in August
1921. He was a white man, a good friend, and an honourable enemy,
high-spirited and sensitive--too sensitive to be happy among those
compromises and makeshifts which are usual in the