ence. At the same
time the construction of the Central Flying School was started at
Upavon, under Captain G. Payne, R.N. With regard to the other squadrons
provided for, the nucleus of No. 4 Squadron was formed the same year,
and that of No. 5 Squadron the following year, of Nos. 6 and 7
Squadrons in 1914, while No. 8 Squadron was not started until after the
outbreak of war.

Records of the progress and growth of the Corps were left at Farnborough
when the Headquarters and four squadrons went to France in August, 1914,
and have been lost. This is particularly unfortunate because without
them it will be difficult for the historian of the Corps adequately to
describe the beginnings and to assess the value of the work then carried
out.

The task of forming the new service, which was to do much to assist the
Army in saving England, was begun. The time was very short. A great
energy had to be brought to the work. As with all things new, it had to
contend with apathy and opposition on all sides. There was no precedent
to help. The organization of the Corps to its smallest detail of
technical stores, supply and transport had to be thought out. The type
of machine required; the method of obtaining it from a struggling
industry; its use and maintenance; the personnel, its training and
equipment; these, and a thousand other aspects of the question, required
the employment of a large staff of experts. But the experts did not
exist and the duties were carried out almost entirely at Farnborough,
where in addition time had to be found to compile the official training
and other text books and regulations required for an entirely new arm.

In addition to the innumerable problems inherent in the organization,
growth and training of the Military Wing, the two years between its
inception and the outbreak of war were strenuously applied to solving
the problems of air tactics and strategy. Until the South African War
the British Army had been drilled under the influence of stereotyped
Prussian ideas. Perhaps the South African War led too far in an opposite
direction, but it taught us one thing, which was to prove of such
importance in 1914--the value of mobility; and we realized in aircraft
the advent of the most mobile arm the world has yet seen.

All was new. A new Corps. A new element in which to work. New conditions
in peace akin to those in war. And there had to be developed a new
spirit, combining the discipline of the old Army, t