s telegraphy,
signals, night flying, photography, bomb-dropping, workshops, stores,
meteorology, transport, shifting of camp and aerodrome, supply and
maintenance of units in the field, etc.--in fact the whole organization
essential to the efficiency and cohesion of a Flying Corps, under
conditions as similar as possible to those expected on active service.
Very valuable experience was obtained from the work carried out. The
necessarily wide gaps in our knowledge were brought home in more
concrete form. It was also evident that the force was very small. But
within three months it was proved under the strain of war that the
organization and training had been laid down on sound principles.

_The Naval Wing._

As in the case of the Army, it was to airships that the Navy first
turned its attention, and the birth of naval aviation may be said to
date from July 21st, 1908, when Admiral Bacon submitted proposals for
the construction of a rigid airship, the ill-fated "Mayfly" which was
destroyed on her preliminary trials. The Admiralty thereupon decided to
discontinue the construction of airships, the development of which was
left to the Army until May, 1914, when it was decided that all
airships--that is No. 1 Squadron of the Military Wing--should be taken
over by the Naval Wing. This was partly the result of a report by two
Naval Officers, who visited France, Austria and Germany, as was the
purchase of two vessels of the Parseval and Astra Torres types, and a
small non-rigid from Willows. The construction of a number of other
airships was ordered, but for various reasons was delayed or never
completed up to the outbreak of war.

Although at first sight the functions of the Naval Wing--coast defence
and work with the Fleet--seemed hardly more difficult to perform than
those of the Military Wing, in practice, as I was to find later from
personal experience when in command of the R.N.A.S. at Gallipoli, they
were more complicated, while the slowness of the Admiralty in evolving a
clear scheme of employment and a definite objective made itself felt.
Before the war the achievements of the Naval Wing were due rather to
individual effort than to a definite policy of organized expansion. It
was the pilot and the machine rather than the organization which
developed.

As already stated, Eastchurch was chosen by the Short Brothers for their
experiments in aeroplanes in 1909, but it was not until 1911 that the
Admiralty bought two