nt Force into Germany itself, which so largely influenced the
later months of the war. Finally, the airman, not content with his own
perpetual and deadly fighting in the air, fighting in which the
combatants of all nations developed a daring beyond the dreams of any
earlier world, began to take part in the actual land-battle itself,
swooping on reserves, firing into troops on the march, or bringing up
ammunition.

[12] From the recent Official Report issued by the Air Board.

And while the flying Army of the Winds was there developing, the
flying Army of the Seas, its twin brother, was not a whit behind. The
record of the Naval Air Service, as the scouts for the Fleet, the
perpetual foe of, and ceaseless spy upon, the submarine, will stir the
instincts for song and story in our race while song and story remain.
It was the naval airmen who protected and made possible the safe
withdrawal of the troops from Suvla and Helles; it was they who
discovered and destroyed the mines along our coasts; who fought the
enemy seaplanes man to man, and gun to gun; who gave the pirate nests
of Zeebrugge and Ostend no rest by day or night, who watched over the
ceaseless coming and going of the British, Dominion, and American
troops across the Channel; who were the eyes of our coasts as the
ships, laden with the men, food, and munitions, which were the
life-blood of the Allied Cause, drew homeward to our ports, with the
submarines on their track, and the protecting destroyers at their
side.

Nor did we only manufacture planes and train men for ourselves. "The
Government of the United States," says the Air Service Report, "has
paid a striking tribute to the British Air Service by adopting our
system of training. The first 500 American officer cadets to be
trained went through the School of Military Aeronautics at Oxford,
afterwards graduating at various aerodromes in England. These officers
formed the nucleus of American schools, which were eventually started
both in the United States and in France.... In all about 700 American
pilots have passed through our schools.... And when the question of
producing a standardised engine was considered every facility was
given and all our experience placed at the disposal of the American
Government, with the result that the Liberty engine was evolved."

Meanwhile the constant adaptation to new conditions required in the
force stimulated the wits of everybody concerned. Take aerial
photography. T