ations and raids into Germany in the
early days of the war were carried out by the Naval Air Service, units
of which landed at Ostend on August 27th and operated with the Royal
Naval Division from Antwerp. They were subsequently withdrawn to Dunkirk
to form the nucleus of an aircraft centre from which excellent work was
done in attacking the bases established on or near the Belgian coast
from which German submarines and airships conducted their operations.

Just before the Germans entered Antwerp, the first raid was made against
a German town, one machine reaching Dusseldorf, when it descended from
6,000 to 400 feet and dropped three bombs on an airship shed.

From the end of 1914 onwards the activities of the Royal Naval Air
Service in this theatre of operations continually increased, the chief
objectives being the gun emplacements at Middelkerke and Blankenburghe,
the submarine bases at Zeebrugge and Bruges, the minefield and dock of
Ostend, the airship sheds near Brussels, and the dockyards at Antwerp.
The first airship destroyed in the air was attacked over Ghent.

An interesting experiment was the attempt by the R.N.A.S. at the
Dardanelles to sink the heavy wire anti-submarine net, which had been
stretched on buoys across the Straits at Nagara by the Turks, by means
of parachute bombs.

To return to the Royal Flying Corps. During 1915 railway junctions were
the principal bombing objectives, and raids were carried out on an
ever-increasing scale, formations of fourteen to twenty machines taking
part. At the Battle of Neuve Chapelle for instance, the railway
junctions at Menin, Courtrai and Douai were attacked. One officer of No.
5 Squadron, carrying one 100 lb. bomb, arrived over Menin at 3,500 feet,
descended to 120 feet, and dropped his bomb on the railway line. The
first V.C. of the Royal Flying Corps was obtained at the Second Battle
of Ypres by Lieutenant W. B. Rhodes-Moorhouse, who in bombing Courtrai
came down to three or four hundred feet, under heavy fire, but piloted
his machine 35 miles back to Merville at the height of a few hundred
feet, and died a few days later from his wounds.

One of the most instructive features of the Battle of Loos in September,
1915, was the definite co-ordination of bombing attacks with army
operations. Many types of machines, belonging both to Army and Corps
Squadrons, carried bombs in order to destroy dumps, communications, cut
off reinforcements, and the like, while at t