various flights over Gallipoli. The Admiral
went off on some other naval quest.

Samson and Davies are fliers of the first water--and not only in the
air. They carry the whole technique of their job at their finger tips.
The result of K.'s washing his hands of the Air is that the Admiralty
run that element entirely. Samson is Boss. He has brought with him two
Maurice Farmans and three B.E.2s. The Maurice Farmans with 100 H.P.
Renaults; the B.E.2s with 70 Renaults. These five machines are good
although one of the B.E.2s is dead old.

Also, he brought eight Henri Farmans with 80 Gnome engines. He took them
because they were new and there was nothing else new; but they are no
use for war.

Two B.E.2C.s with 70 Renaults: these are absolutely useless as they
won't take a passenger.

One Broguet 200 H.P. Canton engine; won't fly.

Two Sopwith Scouts: 80 Gnome engines; very old and can't be used owing
to weakness of engine mounting.

One very old but still useful Maurice Farman with 140 Canton engine.
That is the demnition total and it pans out at five serviceable
aeroplanes for the Army. There are also some seaplanes with us but they
are not under Samson, and are purely for naval purposes. Amongst those
are two good "Shorts," but the others are no use, they say, being wrong
type and underpowered.

The total nominal strength of Samson's Corps is eleven pilots and one
hundred and twenty men. As everyone knows, no Corps or Service is ever
up to its nominal strength; least of all an Air Corps. The dangerous
shortage is that in two-seater aeroplanes as we want our Air Service now
for spotting and reconnaissances. If, _after_ that requirement had been
met, we had only a bombing force at our disposal, the Gallipoli
Peninsula, being a very limited space with only one road and two or
three harbours on it, could probably be made untenable.

Commander Samson's estimate of a minimum force for this "stunt," as he
calls our great enterprise, is 30 good two-seater machines; 24 fighters;
40 pilots and 400 men. So equipped he reckons he could take the
Peninsula by himself and save us all a vast lot of trouble.

But, strange as it may seem, flying is not my "stunt." I dare not even
mention the word "aeroplane" to K., and I have cut myself off from
correspondence with Winston. I did this thing deliberately as
Braithwaite reminds me every time I am tempted to sit down and unbosom
myself to one who would sympathise and lend us a hand i