Dunkirk, whence countless air
attacks were made on all military centres in Belgium. Many more R.N.A.S.
squadrons, well provided with trained pilots and good machines,
patrolled the East Coast while waiting for an opportunity of active
service. This came early in 1917, when, under the wise supervision of
the Air Board, the section of the Naval Air Service not concerned with
naval matters was brought into close touch with the Royal Flying Corps,
after it had pursued a lone trail for two years. The Flying Corps units
on the Western Front and elsewhere are now splendidly backed by help
from the sister service. For the present purpose, therefore, the
military efforts of the R.N.A.S. can be included with those of the
R.F.C., after a tribute has been paid to the bombing offensives for
which the Naval Air Service has always been famous, from early exploits
with distant objectives such as Cuxhaven and Friedrichshafen to this
year's successful attacks on German munition works, in conjunction with
the French, and the countless trips from Dunkirk that are making the
Zeebrugge-Ostend-Bruges sector such an unhappy home-from-home for
U-boats, destroyers, and raiding aircraft. Meanwhile the seaplane
branch, about which little is heard, has reached a high level of
efficiency. When the screen of secrecy is withdrawn from the North Sea,
we shall hear very excellent stories of what the seaplanes have
accomplished lately in the way of scouting, chasing the Zeppelin, and
hunting the U-boat.

But from the nature of its purpose, the R.F.C. has borne the major part
of our aerial burden during the war. In doing so, it has grown from a
tiny band of enthusiasts and experimentalists to a great service which
can challenge comparison with any other branch of the Army. The history
of this attainment is intensely interesting.

The few dozen airmen who accompanied the contemptible little army on the
retreat from Mons had no precedents from other campaigns to guide them,
and the somewhat vague dictum that their function was to gather
information had to be interpreted by pioneer methods. These were
satisfactory under the then conditions of warfare, inasmuch as valuable
information certainly was gathered during the retreat, when a blind move
would have meant disaster,--how valuable only the chiefs of the
hard-pressed force can say. This involved more than the average
difficulties, for as the battle swayed back towards Paris new
landing-grounds had to be