organization of our Air Forces during the war.

I had recognized the great difficulty of mobilizing with the clockwork
precision of older units and, in the belief that war was coming, had
ordered a provisional mobilization of the Corps some days before it was
actually declared. Thanks to this step and to the work done at our
Concentration Camp at Netheravon in June, 1914, the greater part of the
Royal Flying Corps was enabled to concentrate without hitch at our
aerodrome at Dover, and the machines flew via Calais to Amiens on August
13th.

CO-OPERATION WITH THE ARMY.

_Reconnaissance._

In the event of France and England declaring war concurrently against
Germany, the strategic plan agreed to by the British and French general
staffs before the war had been that the British Expeditionary Force
should be moved to the Le Cateau, Maubeuge, Mons, area and take up a
line on the left flank of the French Army near Mons. But England had
withheld her declaration until three days after the French, and on
landing in France the first words I heard said by a Frenchman were:
"Oui, l'armee anglaise arrive mais on a manque le premier plan." It was
not until after the arrival of G.H.Q. at Amiens on August 14th that,
although late, it was decided that the advanced line should be taken up.
The Royal Flying Corps moved by air and road to an existing aerodrome
outside the antique defences of Maubeuge 12 miles from Mons on the 16th.
On the 19th the first reconnaissance was carried out, and the entire
country over which the German armies were advancing, as far as Brussels
and Louvain, was kept under observation. One of the best reconnaissances
ever made was that of August 21st, which discovered the 2nd German Corps
moving from Brussels through Ninhove and Grammont.

From Maubeuge we had to retire on the 24th to Le Cateau, on the 25th to
St. Quentin, on the 26th to La Fere, on the 28th to Compiegne, on the
30th to Senlis, on the 31st to Juilly, on September 2nd to Serris, on
the 3rd to Touquin, on the 4th to Melun, where we were thankful at last
to get orders again to advance on the 7th to Touquin, and on the 9th to
Coulommiers, reaching Fere-en-Tardennois on the 12th for the Battle of
the Aisne.

Of the many recollections of the early days one which will remain
longest in my mind is the terrible sadness of the flocks of refugees, of
the poor people we left behind. And the glare of villages burning by the
hand of the Boche. It was in