reater element of danger.
On the other hand on the battle-front fighting information has in great
measure taken the place of the system of men going up "on their own".
They are perhaps not so liable to meet with a numerical superiority
on the part of enemy machines, which spelt for them almost certain
destruction.

For a long time the policy of silence and secrecy which screened "the
front" from popular gaze kept us in ignorance of the achievements of our
airmen. But finally the voice of the people prevailed in their demand
for more enlightenment. Names of regiments began to be mentioned in
connection with particular successes. And in the same way the heroes of
the R.F.C. and R.N.A.S. were allowed to reap some of the laurels they
deserved.

It began to be recognized that publication of the name of an airman who
had destroyed a Zeppelin, for instance, did not constitute any vital
information to the enemy. In a recent raid upon London the names of the
two airmen, Captain G. H. Hackwill, R.F.C., and Lieutenant C. C. Banks,
R.F.C., who destroyed a Gotha, were given out in the House of Commons
and saluted with cheers. In the old days the secretist party would have
regarded this publication as a policy which led the nation in the direct
line of "losing the war".

In the annals of the Flying Service, where dare-devilry is taken as
a matter of course and hairbreadth escapes from death are part of the
daily routine, it is difficult to select adventures for special mention;
but the following episodes will give a general idea of the work of the
airman in war.

The great feat of Sub-Lieutenant R. A. J. Warneford, R.N.A.S., who
single-handed attacked and destroyed a Zeppelin, has already been
referred to in Chapter XIII. Lieutenant Warneford was the second on
the list of airmen who won the coveted Cross, the first recipient being
Second-Lieutenant Barnard Rhodes-Moorhouse, for a daring and successful
bomb-dropping raid upon Courtrai in April, 1915. As has happened in so
many cases, the award to Lieutenant Rhodes-Moorhouse was a posthumous
one, the gallant airman having been mortally wounded during the raid,
in spite of which he managed by flying low to reach his destination and
make his report.

A writer of adventure stories for boys would be hard put to it to invent
any situation more thrilling than that in which Squadron-Commander
Richard Bell Davies, D.S.O., R.N., and Flight Sub-Lieutenant Gilbert
Formby Smylie, R.N., foun