communication was improvised for plotting
the course of attacking aircraft and thus enabling squadron commanders
to concentrate machines at the point of attack. By 1918 the
night-fighting aeroplane, assisted by these means, had countered the
night-bombing aeroplane. At first, this had been the result of the
retention of a large number of fighting aircraft and a complete
organization at home.

Meanwhile, night fighting, especially the protection of night bombers by
fighting machines, had become of paramount importance on the Western
Front. The chief feature of activity in September, 1918, was the
successful co-operation between searchlights in the forward areas and
No. 151 night-fighting squadron. This was the first night-fighting
squadron, trained by the 6th Brigade, to be sent to France. It was
proposed to send four more such squadrons and thus form a first line of
offensive defence which would react on hostile raids over England. Thus
once again the old doctrine was gradually observed that offence is the
only true defence, and that purely defensive measures, however
efficient, by keeping men and material from the vital point, are
necessarily expensive out of all proportion to their effectiveness. Both
the Germans and ourselves made the initial mistake of organizing large
local defence systems partly to placate public opinion. During the
German offensive of 1918 a further development of night fighting took
place in the bombing and low strafing of enemy troops and unlighted
transport with the aid of flares.

THE MACHINE AND ENGINE.

Turning now to the machine and engine, the Military Trials held in 1912,
when the Royal Flying Corps was started, represented the first organized
effort to assist the evolution of service aeroplanes in this country and
a brief comparison will be useful to show the performance of the average
machines and engines of that date, at the beginning, and at the end of
the war, and of civil machines of to-day.

At the Military Competitions of 1912, of the eight types--Avro, B.E.,
Bristol, Cody, Bleriot, Deperdussin, Hanriot, and M. Farman--the first
four were British, though only the Avro had a British engine, and the
last four French, fitted with French engines. The average horse-power
was about 83, the average maximum speed 67, and the minimum 50 miles per
hour; the climb to 1,000 feet was effected in 4-1/2 minutes with an
average load of 640 lb., which included pilot, fuel for four hours and