once more
addressed to the Admiralty, who agreed to provide four more fighting
squadrons to be used on the western front. These squadrons made a
punctual appearance, and during the earlier half of 1917 did magnificent
work in helping to maintain the British supremacy in the air. Naval
Squadron No. 3, for instance, under Squadron Commander R. H. Mulock, was
at work on the western front from the beginning of February to the
middle of June. During this time it accounted for eighty enemy aircraft
with a loss of only nine machines missing, and provided highly respected
escorts for photographic reconnaissances and bomb raids. From July 1917
onwards the naval squadrons, having bridged the gap, were gradually
replaced by squadrons of the Royal Flying Corps, and were returned to
Dunkirk.

The loan of these squadrons naturally diminished the force available for
aerial operations under naval control, but the spirit in which the help
was given is well expressed in a letter of Wing Captain C. L. Lambe,
who was in command of the naval air forces at Dover and Dunkirk.
Writing in August 1917 he points out the serious effects on the force
under his command of the wastage of pilots, but concludes: 'I would
remark however that the loan of these squadrons to the Royal Flying
Corps must have been of the greatest value to the Empire, since the
official record issued by the Royal Flying Corps states that up to
August 3rd, 1917, a hundred and twenty-one enemy machines have been
destroyed by naval squadrons, and two hundred and forty have been driven
down out of control.'

When help was needed by the army, it was generously given by the navy,
but the difficulties which inevitably present themselves when the
attempt is made to secure the smooth and efficient collaboration of two
separate forces cannot be solved by generous feeling. Most men are
willing to help their country, but a country's revenue cannot be raised
by free gift. Without justice and certainty there can be no efficiency,
and for justice and certainty law and regulation are required. The chief
administrative problem of the war in the air had its origin in the need
for a large measure of co-operation between the military and naval air
forces. The repeated attempts to solve this problem, the problem of
unity of control, by the establishment of successive Air Boards, and the
achieved solution of it by the amalgamation in 1918 of the two services
under the control of an Air Ministry-