R. F. C. H. Q., 1914-1918

M^ <r$. "fiuJk

. £/

R.F.C. H.Q

I9i4'i9i8

By the same Author ;

WHAT I SAW IN RUSSIA

AN OUTLINE OF RUSSIAN LITERATURE

THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE

DEAD LETTERS

DIMINUTIVE DRAMAS

LOST DIARIES

THE GLASS-MENDER

ROUND THE WORLD IN ANY NUMBER OF DAYS

COLLECTED POEMS

POEMS 19 I4-I9 I 7

R.F.C. H.Q

I9I4 < I918

By

MAURICE BARING

~-*^

LONDON
G. BELL AND SONS

MCMXX

q. Bell and Sons Ltd., Tortugal Street, London, W.C^z

ERRATUM

P. 196, line 9 from foot, for " Puccini " read " Piccini."

Dedicated

to

R.F.C. H.Q.

Make a note of that, Baring.
Fhing Corps Saying.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER. PAGE

i " Also Doch ! " 3

ii Farnborough to Maubeuge via " Port B." 12

in The Retreat and the Advance 23

iv Fere-en-Tardenois 41

v The Move to the North and St. Omer 52

vi With the First Division 69

vii St. Omer up to the First Push 79

viii Another Entr'acte at St. Omer & Another Push 88

ix St. Omer once More, and Italy 96

x St. Omer and Another Offensive 107

xi London and Back Again 125

xii Preparations for the Somme Battle 140

xiii Fienvillers — the Battle of the Somme 154

xiv Further Operations on the Somme 171

xv The End of the Battle of the Somme & After 1 85

xvi St. Andre Again — The Spring Offensive 201

xvii Preparations for the Summer Offensive 218

xviii The Summer Offensive 227

xix The Second Summer Offensive 234

XX St. Omer — Fienvillers — St. Andre 244

xxi The Independent Air Force 271

xxii The French Counter-Offensive and After 286

PART I.
1914

B

CHAPTER I
"ALSO DOCH!"

May-August, 1914.

IN May, 19 14, I was travelling in Russia with a
Russian friend of mine. When we reached Warsaw
station, where you not only used to change, but
where the railway itself continued on a different gauge,
my friend talked of the military and strategical causes
of this change of gauge, of further railway changes
that were contemplated, and from this the talk veered
to the European situation.

We talked of the Entente, of the Balkan situation, of
the Russian army, of the German army, of the policy
of the German Government, and my friend developed at
some length his views on the European situation, and
as to what would happen in the immediate future in
the Balkans and elsewhere.

At one moment I interrupted him and said : " But
if you are right in your diagnosis of the situation a
European war is inevitable."

" I think there will be a European war," my friend
answered, " this year."

Then we talked of other things. We parted com-
pany at Moscow. He went north, and I went south ;
and I did not give a thought to this conversation till some
weeks later. I went to the country ; and the European
situation faded from my mind.

R.F.C., H.Q. [June

That was the first inkling of the possibility of an
immediate war which appeared on the horizon of my
consciousness.

I entirely forgot it during the whole of the month
of June, which I spent in peaceful solitude in the
centre of Russia, undisturbed and unvisited by any
newspapers.

The second inkling I had of the possibility of war
was at the Friedrichstrasse station at Berlin, where
I arrived on June 30th at six o'clock in the morning
from Russia. I bought a newspaper, and there printed
in black letters, isolated, and taking the whole front
page, was the sinister news that the Archduke Ferdin-
and had been assassinated. I stayed at the Hotel Bristol
and saw several acquaintances, Russians and others,
and they all seemed to think the news was ex-
ceedingly serious, but when I arrived in London the
whole population appeared to be thoughtless and gay,
and rumours of war were forgotten. Nevertheless,
every now and then one was reminded of the small
cloud which refused to dissipate on the horizon. One
was vaguely conscious that it was there.

In London the first startling thing I recollect was
the Austrian Ultimatum to Serbia ; I forget on which
day that was published in London, but I remember
placards in the Strand bearing the ominous headline
" To Hell with Serbia." and about the same time
meeting a man in the street who said that somebody in the
Foreign Office had told him that Austria did not mean
business, and that there would be no war. I remember
going to the Russian Embassy, where the impression
was different.

My first idea was that the War might possibly be
limited to the Balkan States. A Slav War, a War be-
tween Austria and the Balkan Principalities. It was

1914] "Also Dock!"

difficult to see that Russia would not be dragged into
this, but a Slav War of some kind seemed to be a
certainty. Basing themselves on that hypothesis, or
rather on what seemed to be that certainty, some
friends of mine had the idea of organising a Red Cross
Unit which should go to Serbia. We looked about for
an available doctor to take charge of this Unit. On
Tuesday, July 21st, I went to talk to a doctor who
lived in Vincent Square, and proposed to him that he
should take charge of this Unit. I have forgotten his
name. He was not an Englishman. When I suggested
to him that he should go to Serbia, he said he would
gladly go to war on the Austrian side. " But," I ob-
jected, " in a week's time we shall be at war with
Austria, because if Germany comes into the war Austria
is bound to be on the same side as Germany." " Per-
haps," he said, " you have special information ? " I
said I had no special information, but it seemed to
me purely a matter of common sense. " Whether
England is dragged into the War or not," he answered,
" depends entirely on Russia."

The conversation lasted two hours, going round
and round in a vicious circle, the doctor repeatedly
saying he was willing to go to Austria but not to Serbia,
and therefore it came to nothing, as I was equally
convinced that, should a war come about, there would
be no question of being on the Austrian side.

The next thing that I remember was that I deter-
mined to go to Russia. The difficulty was how to get
there. The Empress Marie was in England, and was
going home to St. Petersburg. I obtained leave to
travel in her train. Her train was to start finally, after
the journey had been put off once or twice^ on Satur-
day, August 1 st. In the meantime the political situ-
ation was obscure. Was England coming into the War

R.F.C., H.Q. [july

or was she not ? In this week of turmoil two occasions
stand out with startling vividness in my mind. One
was a ball given at the Savoy Restaurant, and one was
an evening at the Russian Opera at Drury Lane. I
cannot remember the date of either of these occasions,
but both of them could be placed if one took the trouble
to refer to the newspapers of the time. At the ball I
had supper at the table at which, together with Lady
Diana Manners and Claud Russell, there was a young
German. I did not know then and I have never since
ascertained his name. That evening in the newspapers
there had been accounts of the excitement in Berlin
of crowds shouting " Down with Serbia ! " and " Hoch,
England 1 " At our table Claud Russell asked the
German (who seemed a pleasant young man) why the
crowd in Berlin had shouted " Hoch, England ! "
The German said that he supposed the reason
was that the people there thought that England
would remain neutral during the war. I remember
saying to him that the German people would have
a rude shock of disappointment, as I felt certain
that we should come in, but as a matter of fact I
was being, from our point of view, a great deal too
optimistic.

The night at the Russian Opera I imagine to
have been Friday night July 24th, or possibly Monday
July 20th. Chaliapin was singing. I went with some
friends. We had a box. They had invited Mr. Lloyd
George, who was anxious to hear this Russian music.
Mr. Lloyd George arrived rather late, and a lady, who
was sitting in the box next to ours, who was handsome
and formidable and covered with jewels, made a
demonstration of protest at the arrival of the Minister
by standing up in the box, turning her chair round
with her back to him and stamping it on the floor,

6

)>

i9i4] " Also Dock !

and then sitting down with a stiff, forbidding cast-
iron, inflexible, uncompromising back to him.

On Friday night, July 31st, I dined at the Russian
Embassy. Count Benckendorff took me aside after
dinner and advised me not to go in the Empress's
train to Petrograd. I should arrive, he said, if we did
not go into the war, at a moment of terrific disap-
pointment and disillusion, and the situation might be
unpleasant. He advised me not to risk this.

On Saturday morning (August 1st) there was, I
remember, an atmosphere of great hopelessness about
the situation. In the afternoon I went down to the
North of England and remained there till Monday
morning. On Monday morning I was much frightened
by the tone of the press in the North of England. So far
from there being any enthusiasm for the war, there
seemed to be a strong and decided feeling against it.
The question still seemed to be regarded as a lot of
fuss about Serbia. Nobody seemed to realise the funda-
mental facts of the situation.

On the journey back there was a German woman
in the restaurant car. She cried without stopping.

I arrived in London late on Monday evening. That
afternoon Sir Edward Grey made his famous state-
ment in the House of Commons which changed the
whole situation. One began to breathe freely. England
was not going to make, so one hoped, the great refusal.

The events of the next week are in my mind a
crowded chaos, dark with the shadow of an intolerable
nightmare.

I remember going to the House of Commons and
hearing Mr. Asquith's statement, and late in the night
in St. James' Street meeting someone who told me
that we were at war with Germany.

He reminded me of Moltke saying, when the news

R.F.C., H.Q. [August

of the final declaration of hostilities in 1 870 was brought
to him, " Also, doch."

I went to bed with those words ringing in my ears,
" Also, doch." On Wednesday morning the news of
the war was in the newspapers.

From that moment I was absorbed by the thought
of how to get to the war. There were two possibilities,
to go to Russia or to go out with the British Expedit-
ionary Force ; the second alternative, which was the
more attractive was by far the more difficult.

I went to see Sir David Henderson at the War
Office. He was then Director of Military Training, and
a very old friend of mine. I had known him since 1897.

I told him I wanted to go to France as an interpreter.
I said I knew seven modern languages, and he said
he would send in my name officially stating that I
knew four or five languages. He said he would
do what he could, but he thought that if I were taken I
would be employed in an office at home. I was con-
vinced I could be of little use in an office, and I thought
I could be of positive use at the front in France, as I
could speak the language fluently, and knew the habits
of the French.

General Henderson held out slender hopes, and he
made me no empty promises, but he told me to hope
for the best.

I remember walking past a post office one morning
during this week in Southampton Street when some-
body who was walking with me said : " They are putt-
ing up wire on the buildings against Zeppelins. The
first night there is a south-east wind the Zeppelins
will be over."

There was an oppressive feeling of nightmare abroad.
Everybody was discussing whether the war would be
long or short. " Are the Germans mad ? " someone

8

J)

1 914] "Also Dock !

said, " or have they invented some new powerful ex-
plosive which will destroy the world ? " Most people
seemed to think the war would be a short one. Some
people said : " We ought to send no troops to France,
but only help with the Navy."

The question of Lord Kitchener's return was being
discussed everywhere.

I went to the City. A rumour was about, which
proved to be untrue, that Germany had declared war
on Italy. A man in the City said to me : " It would be
very curious if Germany had to fight the whole world
and won. It is the sort of thing that does happen in
history." This remark made me profoundly uneasy.

I remember an evening with the streets crowded
with people, and a sullen roar that rose and fell every
now and then from the crowds cheering the King out-
side Buckingham Palace.

A man, slightly intoxicated, in evening clothes,
waving a flag, made a speech on the top of a taxi in
Trafalgar Square. I met a few friends in the crowd
outside Buckingham Palace. The crowd was cheering the
King, and all this was like a sultry, oppressive dream.
As day succeeded day I grew more and more doubtful
as to my prospects of getting to France with the British
Expeditionary Force, and my hopes were finally dashed
by getting a letter from Sir David Henderson saying
my name had been put on the waiting list. I thought
of the Russian alternative, and someone advised me
to go and see Sir" Hanbury Williams, who was going
to Russia.

I did this, and he said he was willing to take me to
Russia. I told him I had already applied to Sir David
Henderson, and that if Sir David were able and will-
ing to take me I would go with him, otherwise I would
gladly go to Russia.

9

R.F.C., H.Q. [August

And then, suddenly, on Saturday, August 8th, when
I had given up all hopes of going to France, I got a
note from General Henderson at 6 o'clock in the after-
noon saying I was to go to France with him, and telling
me to report at the War Office next morning.

It was too late to get any uniform, as the shops were
shut ; but I had already with some foresight ordered
some khaki on which it was only necessary to put
badges of rank in order to make it into a kind of uni-
form.

Early the next morning (Sunday, August 9th) I
went to the War Office for orders. There I saw Major
Salmond, Colonel MacDonough, and various other
officers belonging to the Intelligence, and I signed a
paper and was informed I was a Lieutenant in the
Intelligence Corps attached to Headquarters R.F.C.
They told me I must not communicate with the Press.
I went to Downing Street to say good-bye. The news
of a great battle in Alsace had been received, in which
the casualties on either side were said to be between
13,000 and 15,000. The French were said to have
gained the victory. This news was apparently be-
lieved.* Everybody was still discussing whether the
war would be a long war or a short war. Most people
seemed inclined to think it would be a short war.

My uniform was far from satisfactory. Six people
endeavoured to put on my putties ; none of them were
entirely successful, except finally in the evening, Sir
David Henderson. In the afternoon various people
came to No. 32 Queen Anne's Gate, where I was
living. Among others Conrad Russell. He was in the
Yeomanry, and was mobilised but was not going to
France. He said it was unfair that he and Bron
Lucas, who had been in the British Army for over

* It was quite untrue.
10

i9i4] " Also Dock ! "

seven years, should not be going to France whereas I,
who had not been in the Army at all, was going off at
once. " We are now," he said, " both of us two little
cog wheels in an enormous machine, and if scraps of
dust get on to us we retard the working of the machine."
We talked of the Germans. " We must be careful of
one thing," I said. " Not to be made prisoners, for in
that case the Germans will kick us on the head."

" How can you," he answered, " you, who know the
Germans well and have lived in Germany, talk such
rubbish ? "

Major Salmond came to fetch me after dinner at
9 o'clock at 32 Queen Anne's Gate, and we started in
a motor to Farnborough. We slept in the Queen's
Hotel, in a billiard room which was full of officers.

11

CHAPTER II

FARNBOROUGH TO MAUBEUGE VIA
" PORT B."

August, 1 9 14.

THE next morning I got up at half-past five,
and went into a remote and secluded part of
the country to put on my putties at my leisure.
This, although a long operation, was not entirely suc-
cessful as, when it was finished, they were so tightly
bound I could scarcely walk, but I did not dare undo
them again.

We had breakfast, and after breakfast Captain Long-
croft arrived, and we three started off as an advance
party to make arrangements for the arrival of the
Flying Corps in France. But at the time I knew noth-
ing. I did not know where we were going nor what we
were going to do. I only knew we were bound for
Port B., but even this was not referred to. I did not
exactly know who these officers were. I knew that we
were connected with the Flying Corps, and that was
all. I did not know what the Flying Corps was or that
there was a Flying Corps. Colonel Sykes came to see
us off at Farnborough Station.

Salmond's canvas bath was discarded from his kit
at the last moment, and thrown on to the platform, as
it was considered to constitute excessive weight. We

12

1 914] Farnborough to Maubeuge

went by train to Redhill. The conversation was Greek
to me. Longcroft and Salmond talked the whole time
of " bumps," " pan-cakes," " stalling," " taxi-ing,"
and I did not dare ask a question. On the platform at
Redhill I put a penny into the penny-in-the-slot
Fortune Teller and the figure pointed at the following
saying : " Do not trust appearances : keep up a
stout heart." What appearances, I wondered ? I went into
the town and bought a pair of gaiters to use instead of
putties, but Longcroft and Salmond said they would
never do ; they disapproved both of their cut and
their colour, so I had to keep on my excruciating putties.

We arrived at Newhaven at 1 o'clock. We asked
when the boat was to start for Port B — . The railway
transport officer to whom we put this question seemed
altogether weary of life. He had evidently been asked
this same question many times already this same day.

In the afternoon I bought in a booth a pair of black
naval gaiters, but again Longcroft and Salmond said
these would not do either. We bathed in the dazzling
sea, the last bathe and the last piece of real leisure for
a long time. We dined outside the town at a place
called Seaford, I think. The waiter was a German,
and he took the gloomiest view of the war, looked at
from the English side that is to say, and the most cheer-
ful view looked at from the German ; in fact he was
bubbling with optimism.

We slept in the railway station attached to the R.F.C.
in a railway carriage. A Daimler car arrived with its
driver, whose name was Northcourt, from the Works.
It was to go to France with us.

The next morning (August nth) my uniform was
fixed up. There was some discussion as to whether I
was a Lieutenant or a Second Lieutenant. It was
settled that I was a Lieutenant, and a tailor on the

13

R.F.C., H.Q. [August

pier was told to sew on to my coat the necessary badges
of rank, which he did.

We spent many hours at the pier watching trains
and material being checked. Finally we were suddenly
told we were to sail in a boat called " The Canter-
bury " at 3.30 p.m., which we did. A small party of
mechanics went with us. In mid-channel we passed
nine French men-of-war. As we neared Boulogne in
the darkness a great deal of signalling and hallooing
went on, and a small tug came to examine us. Ulti-
mately we got into the harbour. It was low tide, and
we had to climb up a slippery ladder on the face of a
wall to go ashore. As soon as we got ashore we asked
for news. " The French have retired from Mulhausen,"
was the answer. " It's of no military importance," said
someone, a phrase we were destined to hear many
times during the next four years. We slept on board
the boat.

When we woke up the next morning (August 1 2th) in
France early, between four and five, we all became aware
of a startling new impression. All the nightmare cloud
which had hung over the last few days in London
seemed to have been blown away. Everybody was brisk,
cheerful and optimistic. This was so throughout the war.
Whenever one used to come back to London on leave
one felt at once conscious of being plunged back into
an atmosphere of gloom and depression, and when-
ever one came back to France from England one
seemed to step from a dark room into a bright one.

We got up at five and started at seven for Amiens
by train. The train was crowded, and every station
was crowded, partly with soldiers being mobilised
and partly by crowds of French people, who shouted
" Vive TAngleterre," and threw flowers and fruit at
us.

14

i9I4] Farnborough to Maubeuge

In the railway carriage with us there was an elderly
Frenchman, who explained to us, with the aid of a map,
the German plan of campaign. He said he had gone
into the matter carefully, and that the Germans would
be beaten this time and quickly. They had made a
miscalculation. It was not the same as in 1870.

The French, he said, had been doubtful as to whether
the English were going into the war, but he, who
knew the English, was convinced they would do so.

If we hadn't come in and he shook his fist and

laughed. When he heard that Salmond and Long-
croft belonged to the Flying Corps he said :

" Ah ! les aviateurs ils n'ont pas besoin d'aller a la
guerre pour se faire casser la geule ceux la."

We arrived at Amiens at 12 o'clock and reported to
the French authorities. Longcroft wanted to go up to
the Aerodrome at once. This upset the French authori-
ties, who said they had not yet had their dejeuner.
Here for the first time we came into contact with one
sacred, almost appalling fact that, whatever happens,
the French nation must not be disturbed during the
hour of their mid-day meal. Whatever happens they
must have their dejeuner at the appointed hour, and
the rite must not be disturbed nor curtailed. It was
said later that when General Foch was offered the
supreme command of the Allied Armies, he only
made two conditions ; the first was that he should
take over the command at once, and the second was
that whatever happened he should never be disturbed
during the hour of dSjeuner. We learned this lesson
on August 1 2th. Longcroft and Salmond, in spite of
their impatience to get to work at once, were obliged
to wait until the hour of ddjeuner was over.

After luncheon we went up to the Aerodrome and
found out what it was necessary for us to get. We had

15

R.F.C., H.Q. [August

to arrange for many things. Water carts had to be
obtained, pegs for the aeroplanes and many other
things, also a certain consignment of B.B. Oil had to
be found in the station. We spent that afternoon in-
terviewing various people, who promised to get what
we wanted, and various officials at the railway stations
(there were two stations) on the subject of the B.B. Oil.

We slept in our valises on the grass on the Aero-
drome. We awoke with the dawn and bathed in the
dew. A small crowd watched the operations and
cheered.

Amiens was bedecked with flags, and everywhere
we were greeted by enthusiastic crowds. There was a
man driving about in a motor car, which was covered
with Union Jacks. He asked us if he could be of any
help. We said we wanted some wood. He said he had
a friend who had plenty of wood. He drove us to his
friend's house in the car. He said he was an English-
man and came from Birmingham. I said I knew Bir-
mingham, just for something to say. When we arrived
at his friend's house he disappeared, and we never
saw him nor his car again. I believe him to have been
a German. The friend was an enormously tall and
very big man. He said he was not able to serve as a
soldier because he had sprained his ankle, which was
bandaged. He had a large supply of petrol, wood and
other necessaries, of which he was willing to sell us
any amount. I afterwards ascertained that he belonged
to a German business firm. He asked a lot of questions
about English military matters.

I spent the next morning (August 13th) checking
boxes of some kind of material which were being hauled
out of a train by a company of French soldiers who were
under my command. They pulled out the boxes from
the train on to the platform, and an English Corporal

16

1 9i 4] Farnboroiigh to Maubenge

checked what was taken out in a small note-book.
Never had I before the war thought I should spend a
day at Amiens station checking goods with the help of
a company of French soldiers and an English Corporal.

The first three squadrons of the R.F.C. (which con-
sisted only of four squadrons) flew over from England
and landed at the Amiens Aerodrome early. The first
pilot to land was Harvey- Kelly* in B.E.2 A. machine.
Salmond and Longcroft on the journey out had both
prophesied that he would be the first pilot to land. The
second pilot to land was Burke.f who commanded No.
2 Squadron.

In the afternoon Prince Murat, the Liaison Officer,
reported for duty, and said he was attached to our
Headquarters.

General Henderson, Colonel Sykes, Barrington-
Kennett, and Colonel Brooke-Popham, arrived from
England. We moved from the Aerodrome into the
Hotel Belfort.

The whole of the rest of the day was spent between
two stations chasing officials and looking for the B.B,
oil cases.

Early, at 5.30, the next morning (August 14th) I
went to Mass in Amiens Cathedral ; I stood between
two soldiers, a Frenchman and an Englishman. This
is where Edward III heard Mass on the way to
Cr^cy.

Later in the morning Sir John French came up to
the Aerodrome to see the Squadrons.

I had luncheon with some French people at Amiens
at the Hotel du Rhin. They were intensely depressed

* Subsequently a Squadron Commander and killed fighting in
the air.

t Subsequently a Wing Commander, then Commander of the
Central Flying School, and finally killed fighting gallantly in the
Infantry.

17

R.F.C., H.Q. [August

and absent-minded. They appeared to be looking into
the distance. They kept on repeating the war would
be a very long business. They said that a million
German soldiers were already in France. They said it
would be long, very long. " Did I think the Russians
would be able to help — to give a coup de main ? " This
was the first note, not of pessimism, but of uneasi-
ness I heard expressed in France since the war began.
They said little, but there was no doubt about their
anxiety. They evidently thought matters were very
serious, and that they were in for a long, long war.

Sitting at the same table was a young cavalry officer.
He was expecting to go to the Front the next day.
Halfway through luncheon he received a telegram
saying that the Commanding Officer of his unit had
been killed, and he was to go and take over the com-
mand at once. He started up, said good-bye, and went
off then and there. The other Frenchmen kept on
absent-mindedly looking into the distance. They
appeared to see things I could not see ; they kept on
saying every now and then : " They have got a million
men — Cela sera dur, trfo dur, — long, tres long."

The next day (August 15th) we were to start for
our next destination. I did not know where we were
going, but I started at 4.30 in a car with Brooke-
Popham and Captain Buchanan, the signalling officer.*

It was a strange, uncanny drive. During the early
part of the journey it poured with rain. Later it cleared
up, and we drove along a straight road through acres
of deserted country, rich cornfields all ready to be
reaped, but nobody to reap them. Everything was
silent and deserted. Women and children came out to
look at us, to cheer us, but no men were to be seen
anywhere. It was like driving through a country of the

* Afterwards killed.
18

1 914] Farnhorough to Maubeuge

dead. At one place we were stopped, and a capable,
but suspicious, woman, who spoke English perfectly,
came out and cross-examined us narrowly in order to
find out whether we were really Englishmen, as we
said we were, or Germans in disguise. Several Ger-
mans, she said, had driven past already. However, we
satisfied her. We arrived at 9 o'clock at Bussigny
Station. There was no accommodation, but, after
some talk, the lady who managed the Railway Res-
taurant allowed us to sleep on the floor in a room next
to the Buffet.

Early the next morning we went on to Maubeuge
to get ready the Aerodrome there. It was a long and
busy day of incessant work from 5.30 a.m. to 8 p.m.
We had to get billets and make everything ready.
Brooke-Popham worked like a slave. He did every-
thing himself.

He told me to draw a map of the Aerodrome, but I
didn't know what to mark on it. The result was pic-
turesque rather than useful.

I dined in the town at the hotel. An immense crowd
of officers, English and French, various billeting
parties — one officer told me his life was spent in say-
ing Ddbarassez mot cette cour, or pigstye or barn as the
case might be. There was some excitement because a
spy in French uniform had been arrested owing to the
indiscretion of his remarks and the sharpness of the
demoiselle behind the bar. It was a marvel how one
got food, but one got it.

General Henderson and Colonel Sykes arrived at
Maubeuge on August 17th.

Our complete staff consisted of General Hender-
son, Colonel Sykes, Chief of the Staff, Major Sal-
mond, who looked after operations (G), Colonel Brooke-
Popham, D.A.A. Q.M.G., who dealt with the transport,

19

R.F.C., H.Q. [August

Captain Barrington-Kennett, the Adjutant, who was
responsible for personnel, discipline, etc., (A), and
Major Cordner, the Medical Officer.

Besides these there was a wireless officer, Lieutenant
Lywood, a signalling officer, Captain Buchanan, and
myself ; and a French liaison officer, Prince Murat.

Our office and mess consisted of a little tin shed at the
Aerodrome, on one of the walls of which there was an
enormous French map.* Near the Aerodrome there was a
large brick French airship shed, containing two airships.

The squadrons arrived, and I had my first experi-
ence of billeting — with Cogan.

We measured rooms to see how many men could
sleep on one floor. In the afternoon an officers' fatigue
party was summoned. We took off our tunics and
hurled boxes on to a lorry ; what for I don't know.
We dined in the mess for the first time. The menu
consisted of warmed, or, rather, tepid bully beef and
biscuits, whisky and sparklets. It was incredibly nasty.

I slept on the Aerodrome in my valise.

On the edge of the Aerodrome there was a small estatn-
inet. Therein the early dawn I used to get a cup of French
coffee as the mess coffee left a great deal to be desired.

I went to the French Staff Headquarters at Mau-
beuge to get various staff orders for the day, fodder for
horses, billets, etc. I had a long conversation with one
of the staff officers. He showed me the situation on the
map. He said the war would be a very short war. I
said that up to now wars had always got longer and
longer, for instance, the South African War and the
Manchurian War. He said that was because those
wars were fought in countries where there were very
few railways. But in a country of this kind where there
was a network of railways a long war, he said, would

* We were foolish enough to leave it behind.
20

i9i4] Farnborough to Manbeuge

be impossible. In spite of this, he was not particularly
optimistic. The impression was that the Germans
were coming on in heavy formation against the line of
Namur, which was being very lightly held by the
French owing to the extreme strength of the position.
It was hoped that the Germans would come up against
us and take a knock.

Someone suggested that we should get a piano for
the mess, which shows that we expected to be a long
time at Maubeuge.

On Wednesday, August 19th, I was woken up
early by the sound of voices. A quarrel was going on —
a quiet, slow, deliberate quarrel between the mess
cook and one of the mess servants. It proceeded in
slow waves till it almost reached a culminating crisis.
Then it would subside and begin all over again. Every
now and then the crisis, when it came to blows, seemed
to be on the verge of being reached , especially when one of
the quarrelers said : "In my regiment," and the other
(who was an ex- Coldstream Guardsman) answered : " In
your regiment ! " in a tone which would have exasperated
St. Simon Stylites ; but the crisis never was reached.

Forage was wanted for horses. It was said that it was
impossible to get it, and that we should have to scour
the villages. I went to the French H.Q. in the town,
and a man gave me a pink ticket which got us all that
was necessary.

The weather was fine and hot. There was no
excitement. Life was like a cheerful picnic. People
talked of being in Germany soon. I met Basil Black-
wood in the town of Maubeuge, and we dined to-
gether. He told me about the time he had had getting
over from England to France in the Intelligence Corps.
The manual labour was terrific, he said. Four or five
of the other people who had been in the same situation

21

R.F.C., H.Q. [August

as himself eventually struck, and complained to the
officers. The officers asked them if they had any com-
plaints. They said " yes," and detailed their griev-
ances. They were at once sent home. Basil was asked
also if he had any complaints. He said " None what-
ever," and he remained. He intended to exchange into
the Cavalry.

The days were spent so far as I was concerned in
buying every sort of conceivable article : clothing,
food, maps, wood, fodder, cloth for landing T's. In
one of the shops a Frenchwoman alluded to B.K. to
me as Monsieur votre fils. A girl in one of the shops
gave me a little medal to wear round my neck.

A mechanic came from Renault's to look at the
Renault engine. I interpreted. Something was wrong
with a sparking plug. What is the French for a spark-
ing plug ? Bougie. I found this out before he came —
as it is impossible to guess the French for sparking
plug if you don't know it.

On Sunday, August 23rd, we heard guns firing in
the morning and the afternoon.

Murat, who had driven to Namur, said it was being
heavily shelled. Lywood showed me some of the inter-
cepted German wireless. In the midst of a long cipher
message there occurred a short poem :

Immer leste

1st es beste

Schlagen feste,

An die weste.
Further on came the sentence, Ich bin miide.

In the afternoon I went out into the fields, and we
heard the noise of guns distinctly — the pilots said that
villages were on fire — Louvain is reported to be burn-
ing— somebody (not in the R.F.C.) is reported to have
said it must have been a haystack.

22

CHAPTER III
THE RETREAT AND THE ADVANCE.

August- September, 1914.

ON Monday, August 24th, early in the
morning, between five and six, I woke up and
heard somebody talking to Brooke-Popham
about the fighting. The somebody said that they
had gone back. " Who — the Germans ? " asked
Brooke-Popham. " No," said the other man, " we
have gone back." I went to the little estaminet and
found the girl, who looked after it, in a great state of
trepidation. " Were we going to leave them ? " Yes.
But we would come back ? We hoped so. At 9 o'clock
we got orders to leave. I went with Brooke-Popham
to Birlaimont in the Daimler at the head of a great line
of transport lorries and light tenders. The lorries were
of all shapes and sizes — one came from Maple's. It
was black, and had Maple painted on it in large gilt
letters. Brooke-Popham chose an Aerodrome, and the
lorries came charging down the road into it : one went
into the ditch. Scarcely had the arrangements begun
to take shape when we got orders to leave and to go to
Le Cateau. We arrived at Le Cateau about four
in the afternoon, and established an Aerodrome
there outside the town. I had had nothing to eat all
day.

23

R.F.C., H.Q. [August

General Headquarters were at Le Cateau.

I went to see Guy Brooke, who was on Sir John
French's Staff, and he gave me some poached eggs.
He was busy ciphering a telegram. Later in the
evening I went into the town. Everybody was gathered
together at a cafe.

We slept, and when I say we, I mean dozens of
pilots fully dressed, in a barn on the top of and under-
neath an enormous load of straw.

We spent an expectant morning at Le Cateau.
Everybody was quite cheerful, especially the pilots.

On this day there was the first fight in the air. A
German machine was brought down. There were
two other fights beside this, and Harvey- Kelly brought
down a German, who got out of his machine, chased
him in the wood and shot him.

A German aeroplane flew over us quite low. Every-
body fired at it. Nobody hit it.

Some French cavalry arrived. They bivouacked on
the road and spent the whole morning there. We were
standing by.

I went to the Commander-in-Chief's house to see
Guy Brooke. He made me stay for luncheon. In spite
of the disquieting symptoms of the situation, Sir John
French seemed to be in good spirits. They were
all packed up and ready to go.

In the afternoon we started for St. Quentin, and
arrived there between 4 and 5. We occupied a small
house with a garden, which was stocked with sun-
flowers, and we slept in the misty garden. There was
nothing for dinner because the people who managed
the mess forgot to buy the food. I went to G.H.Q.
with David Henderson. He went inside and I waited
at the door of the hall of the hotel which G.H.Q. had
occupied. The door was guarded by a Scottish sentry

24

1914] The Retreat and the Advance

in a kilt. Streams of people came in and out — with
passes. It was raining. I had got on a Burberry. Pres-
ently a fat man with curly black hair came along in
khaki without any badges of rank. The sentry stopped
him and asked for his pass. The fat man got angry,
and said he didn't need to show a pass. By his inton-
ation, gesture, expression, diction and handling of the
English language I perceived he was . . . not English.
He didn't say who he was, but he gave us all to under-
stand he was a man of immense importance. The
Scottish sentry was quite inflexible, and wouldn't let
him go in if he refused to show his pass.

He tried to force his way past. The sentry inter-
posed his solid body. This made the fat man explode
with rage. He said : "Do you know who I am ? "
Then I — no doubt unwisely — intervened. I said :
" The sentry is quite right to ask for your pass." His
wrath was then diverted to me.

" Who was I butting in ? Was I an officer ? " " Yes
I was." " He didn't believe it." " Did I know who he
was ? " The sentry then tried to calm him, and patting
him on the back said : " Don't take on so."

" How dare you touch me ? " said the fat man.
" You think I'm a private — I'm not a private."

I said (still unwisely) : " There is not the slightest
danger of your being mistaken for a British private."

This made him more angry than ever, and he said
he would have me sent back to the Base. But he did
show his pass.

B.K. slept next to me. In the middle of the night
somebody woke him up to do something. He woke up
and stood up automatically and said : " I will do it."

The next morning (August 26th) General Hender-
son came back from Headquarters saying that every-
body was intensely gloomy, unnecessarily so, he said.

25

R.F.C., H.Q. [August

One officer had come up to him with a very long face
and said : " Cambrai has fallen." He answered :
" What has it fallen on to ? " He himself was abso-
lutely calm, and kept everybody else calm. He never
showed the slightest sign of anxiety for one single
moment. Some of the pilots reported columns of Ger-
mans miles long, and said their maps were black with
lines showing columns of German troops.

A great chase at the Aerodrome took place after a
woman spy, whose conduct was thought to be sus-
picious. She was not caught, however.

The afternoon was rainy, and we started for La
Fere. We arrived there late in the evening. I drove
with B.K. He was intensely depressed. He had
heard, so he said, bad news. The news was not so
bad as he thought it was. He thought the Guards
had been defeated. " This has never happened in his-
tory," he said. " They have never been beaten," but
what he had really heard was the news of the splendid
fight at Landrecies, which reached us in the vague
garbled form of a rumour of a big defeat.

The pilots landed all their machines in the rain
without a crash. We were billeted in an hotel. As we
arrived we met a party of French cavalry officers who
were arriving also. They had had no news for weeks,
and were rather astonished at our being where we
were. I went to Burke's billet after dinner. When I got
back, about 10.30, I found Brooke-Popham asleep on
the stairs. I said : " Surely you have got a room ? " "Oh,
it doesn't matter," he said. I went upstairs and found that
his room had been appropriated by two of the drivers. I
turned them out. They said they thought it was too good
to last, and Brooke-Popham had a night's rest in a bed.

On Thursday (August 27th) we started at 6 o'clock
in the morning and halted just outside La Fere along

26

1914] The Retreat and the Advance

the road. Pilots landed with their maps showing long
black lines of German troops on every road. The re-
mains of a broken division was said to be arriving. It
did arrive, and it was supplied with food by our trans-
port officer, St. John. How he did this was a miracle.
These men arrived in a state of the greatest exhaust-
ion, but it was curious how quickly they recovered.
One man, who seemed to be in a state of utter collapse,
as soon as he had been given some food, produced a
small hand looking-glass, which he put up on the lorry
and began to shave. As soon as he had shaved he said
he felt quite restored. I spent the day guarding a small
new portmanteau which was full of gold, and which
belonged to Brooke-Popham. A machine crashed in a
turnip field.

A naval officer, who was attached to us, walked up
and down the road saying we would sell our lives
dearly.

That morning we realised the full seriousness of the
situation. Rumours kept flying in that the whole of the
British Army had been surrounded.

That morning, up to half-past ten, I expected to see
German helmets coming over the edge of the turnip
field every moment. Towards mid-day more reassur-
ing news came, I know not where from.

At the end of the road there was a village and a
chateau. The chateau was looked after by an old care-
taker, who was most inhospitable. He consented, how-
ever, to let the General have some coffee early the next
morning.

On Friday (August 28th) we started at four in the
morning for Compiegne. I went in Murat's car. As
soon as we arrived we went to see the Mayor, and
Murat got us billets in a school : about the best billets
in the town.

27

R.F.C., H.Q. [August

We had luncheon at the hotel, and went up to the
Aerodrome afterwards, which was on the top of the
hill beyond the railway. This was inconvenient, be-
cause one was held up at the level crossing. In the
evening Colonel Sykes told me to go and order dinner
•for him and the General at the Hotel at 8. At 6.30 I
asked for transport to do this. B.K. said he would take
me. We started, but just as we were starting it was
reported that some troops — some of the stragglers
whom we had picked up at La Fere — had set their
hut on fire. So we went down to the bottom of the
ground, and B.K. harangued the men most effectively.
But this all took time. Then we were held up at the
level crossing. The result was by the time we got to
the hotel we were late. It was crowded, and with great
difficulty I got a table. We had a very late dinner.
General Huguet, the head of the French mission,
attached to G.H.Q., was sitting at one of the tables.
It was said one could tell the state of affairs by whether
his face was gloomy or not. I thought it was more
cheerful. It was settled that I was to go to Paris the
next day with Brooke-Popham. Our school was crowded
with pilots, who were in tearing spirits.

The next day (August 29th) I went with Brooke-
Popham to Paris. We went to Bleriot's firm and bought
a machine, to the Gnome factory, and to the Embassy.
We also went to Daimler's. Northcourt, the driver,
wanted some " sleeves." What was the French for
" sleeves " (the sleeves of a Daimler car) ? Not manches.
I didn't know and Northcourt didn't know, but the
man in the factory understood by his gesture and ex-
pression that he wanted " sleeves," and produced
them. (The word turned out to be manchon). Such is
the free-masonry of craft. Language between two of
the same craft is quite superfluous. We also bought

28

1 914] The Retreat and the Advance

some tyres and some car head-lights, which Brooke-Pop-
ham paid for in gold, to the intense astonishment of the
shopman. " Les Anglais sont epatants," he said.
People in Paris were entirely without news. They had
no idea where we were. They thought we were still at
Mons. We went to the Magasin du Louvre to buy
some things, and when I thanked the lady who was
serving us for the trouble she had taken to get us what
we wanted, she said : " C'est nous au contraire, Mon-
sieur, qui vous remercions."

While we were away the Germans dropped the first
bomb of the war on our Aerodrome. It was a little tiny
bomb, which did not do any damage at all. It fell quite
close to my valise.

The next morning (August 30th) we started from
Compiegne in the morning mist, and before starting
we waited a long time at the roadside. A regiment of
French Territorials was also waiting. One of them said
it was absurd for the English to have sent troops to
France. This started a vehement argument. I was very
hungry and one of the French soldiers gave me some
wine.

After a long and dreary wait in the cold mist,
I started with Brooke-Popham in the Daimler car,
and we halted about n o'clock at a tableland over-
looking a small village called Sailly, which nestled
below in the valley.

This tableland B.P. said would be the Aerodrome,
and we carried sheafs of corn about and made the
necessary arrangements.

In the meantime the mist had lifted and the sun
had come out. I walked down from the plateau in the
valley to the village with a sergeant, who it appeared
had been educated at Odessa and spoke Russian.
Never have I seen a more lovely village, with its little

20

R.F.C., H.O. [August

white houses basking in the August sunshine. Was
there any water ? Yes, there was a beautiful spring. A
labourer came from a cottage and invited me to his
mid-day meal.

He gave me an omelette, some soup and some cider.
It was delicious. I went back to the plateau, and we
had just got the camp fires burning, ready to cook the
men's dinners, when they arrived, and everything
ready for the reception of the Squadrons, when we
were told to go off at once. We drove through beauti-
ful woods, and the people threw flowers and fruit at
us. This latter gift was of a dangerous kind, because
an apple which hits you when you are driving in a fast
Daimler is an unpleasant missile if it strikes your cheek.

We drove on and on till it grew dark. We were
bound for Senlis. This was not easy to find, and we
were heading the whole line of transport, and we had
to shepherd it to its destination. B.P. had to go on
ahead, and so as to ensure the transport not going
astray, he took with him a small party of men, shedding
one at a time at every cross-roads, with instructions
to tell the transport to go to the right or to the left as
the case might be. In spite of this, at one cross-roads
the man told the transport to go to the right when he
should have told it to go to the left, so we had to go
back, catch it and get it on to the right road again.

It grew dark, and a large moon rose over the misty
fields. The poplars looked spectral, and the landscape
had the silver witchery of a Corot picture. During the
day we had said several times :

" Fancy being at war on a day like this ! " and now
we said : " Fancy being at war on a night like this ! "

We did not get to Senlis till 8.30.

I went into the town to get some food. In one of
the small hotels, which was burnt two or three days

30

The Retreat and the Advance [i9i4

later by the Germans, I found a lot of pilots having
dinner, and among others Harvey-Kelly, Walrond, and
Corballis.

I dined with Walrond and Corballis at a little table.

Harvey- Kelly wanted a glass, so he asked the lady
in charge of the hotel for a profonde assiette pour le vin,
pronounced to rhyme with bin. She understood.

He said he had great difficulty with the French
language. He had wanted to buy a looking-glass, he
said, and had been sent to a shop for stained glass
windows, having used the word " vitraille." A lady at
the table said to a French officer : " Dis done, Hubert,
as-tu eu des aventures en aeroplane ? ' This tickled
Corballis, who christened me " Hubert " on the spot.

I slept at the hotel at Chantilly.

The next morning (August 31st) I got up at 6 and
went back to Senlis, in a squadron tender. I bought a
bell for the mess at Senlis, a beautiful brass resounding
bell.

In the afternoon we started with Colonel Burke and
Captain Crosbie. I was given a map and told to direct
the proceedings. I didn't know how to read a map. At
the first cross-roads I was appealed to. I looked wise
and made a rapid decision. It was the wrong road, and
after much parleying and going backwards and for-
wards, stopping and inquiring at many villages, we
at last got to Damartin and thence on to Juilly, where
we established ourselves in an ecclesiastical college, a
large building in a large garden.

After a peaceful day at Juilly and a nice bathe in a
great pond which was in the college grounds, in the
evening (September 1st) there was a sudden panic.
About half-past nine the whole of Headquarters, away
at Damartin about two miles from where we were,
got the alarm that they were cut off by the Germans,

31

R.F.C., H.O. [September

and started off at full speed with, as Harvey- Kelly put
it, a motor cyclist looping the loop in front of their
Rolls-Royce cars.

The panic began in the evening. I was sent down to
the School to fetch the General's kit in his car. There
I found his servant and Colonel Sykes' servant having
a gorgeous tea. I told them we must go at once. The
kit was put in the car, but Colonel Sykes' servant
evidently had some more things he wanted to bring
and said he must fetch them. I said I couldn't wait
any longer. Colonel Sykes' servant said he supposed
it didn't matter, but the things he wanted to fetch were
important despatches. He went to fetch them and came
back with them. The important despatches consisted
(I noticed) of several tins of jam and some potted meat.

The question was what was to happen to the Flying
Corps. The machines could not fly at night then.
There was nobody to guard us. Finally a troop of North
Irish Horse were sent to look after us, and some
French Territorials. The Aerodrome was in a field by
some cross-roads. Troops were disposed so as to
defend it. On one road Murat's car was placed. He
put on his helmet, which he only did on great occasions.
The helmet was shorn of its splendour by having a
cloth covering it. He stood next to it all night, armed
to the teeth. We lay down by some stones in the road.
We were armed to the teeth also. I had a revolver but
no rifle, but B.K. said " I will defend you." Some of
the North Irish Horse kept on champing up and down
this road all night and disturbing us. One of them
kept on treading on me. Uhlans were supposed to be
about three miles off. In the middle of the night a
lady arrived in the village with a large bag, which was
flung down on the road. This, she said, was the post.
" La Poste " — and she disappeared. No Germans

32

i9i4] The Fxtreat and the Advance

appeared in the night. The German cavalry, as it
turned out afterwards, were themselves cut off. When
the dawn came we looked rather bedraggled, and
Salmond's face was white as chalk from the dust which
he had gathered sleeping on the road.

We started the next morning (September 2nd) as
soon as it was daylight. We arrived at a place called
Seres. General Henderson and myself had luncheon
in a farmhouse with a prosperous family. Near the
house was a beautiful, well-stocked garden, full of
fruit and flowers. It was a pleasant hot September
day. There was a smell of cider in the air. We had an
excellent luncheon, omelettes and delicious Burgundy.
A great discussion was going on between the different
members of the family. A fat old man with a beard,
with the assistance of his wife and cousin, was trying
to persuade his mother-in-law, the old lady to whom
the house belonged, to go away. The old lady said she
had been through the 1870 War and that she con-
sidered one ought to stay in one's house till the end.
Householders and priests should never, she said,
desert their posts. The son-in-law said this was ridicu-
lous, and everything was packed up in a great hurry
and a cart was harnessed. At the end they persuaded
the old lady against her will that she must really go.
It is not, they said, like in 1870. The Germans are
much worse than they were then, and they are now
five miles off. They will burn the village, everything.
It would be madness to stay. " Les Prussiens," he
said, " deferlent comme une vague " (are unfurling
like a wave). The old lady gave in to their arguments,
and when everything was packed and the cart was
harnessed, she went out by herself and sat in the
garden — the well-stocked, pleasant, prosperous garden
in which the fruit trees were all laden with fruit — and

33

R.F.C., H.O. [September

she sat on a seat, and as she looked about she
laughed bitterly, her face grim and scornful under
her neat black bonnet.

In the afternoon I went for a very long drive with
Brooke-Popham to look for a possible Aerodrome. At
one place where we stopped an old woman came out
of the house and greeted us in German. " Wie geht
es ? " she said. In the evening a Zeppelin was seen in
the distance and chased, but in vain.

The next morning I drove with B.K. to Paris. We
passed great entrenchments and masses of troops. I
went to the Embassy and saw the Ambassador,
who told me he was thinking of burning the
archives preparatory to leaving Paris. I also went to a
bank, where everyone was intensely pessimistic. We
got back late at night not to Seres, but to a place
called Touquin. The Aerodrome lay between two
villages, Touquin and Pesarches. In the village of
Touquin we occupied a little garden, ajardin de curS
full of flowers. There we slept in our valises.

The next morning (September 4th) news came from
the air of the south-eastward move of the German
troops. General Henderson said to me, as we walked
up and down the garden : "In twenty years' time
people will be lecturing at the Staff College and in-
stancing this move — that is to say, the moving of an
army from one front across to the front of another —
as one of the great mistakes of the war."

News also came that the Germans were preparing
a raid on the Flying Corps in armed motor-cars. We
packed up and left hastily and went to Melun. The
population of the village were extremely alarmed at
our departure. We tried to reassure them, but they
said the Germans would be there and the place would
be destroyed.

34

1 914] The Retreat and the Advan e

We slept in a field near the Aerodrome, ; ust outside
the town. In the middle of the night it p ured with
rain. My valise proved to he quite rainproof, but B.K.
and Salmond were soaked.

We established our headquarters in a little house at
the end of the Aerodrome. When I say house I am
grossly exaggerating. It was a passage open to the four
winds with a yard behind it and a road in front of it.
It was full of flies, and dirty linen was being washed in
the yard, making a terrible smell. There was no door.
A small child in a field hard by kept on playing a tin
trumpet until Murat could stand it no longer
and went and took his trumpet away. He then started
to scream, and continued to scream for the rest of the
day.

The squadrons were billeted in an empty girls-
school in the town. There I found a comfortable and
quiet bedroom.

The next morning (Sunday, September 6th) was
the day the battle of the Marne began.

General Henderson said that the tune of a Te Deum
kept on ringing in his head.

Although the battle had begun, to us it was a day
of waiting. At 6.30 in the evening we had a general
parade, and Legions of Honour were distributed to
the pilots and medals to the mechanics.

I slept again in the girls-school, where some of the
squadrons were billeted. A pillow fight on a gigantic
scale took place. The pilots dressed themselves up in
the girls' night shirts, and one of the dormitories was
invaded from the outside by a herd of pilots and,
though valiantly defended, it was finally taken.

The next day we moved in the afternoon back to
Touquin. Since our departure it had been occupied
by the Germans. We had a new house. The shops had

35

R.F.C., H.O. [September

been looted, but no atrocity had been committed.

On September 8th I went to Paris with B.K.
to get some maps from the French War Office.
The French Government had gone : the Em-
bassy also, except the Ambassador's coachman
who refused to leave Paris. We had luncheon at a
restaurant. Sitting next to us was a man in a French
uniform who plied us with questions. He asked whether
the English officers had suffered heavy casualties. He
also asked whether we considered there was any truth
in the rumour of the arrival of the Russian troops in
Flanders. I said : "In war one must believe every-
thing and — nothing. "This rumour was at that moment
current everywhere. Some colour seemed to be lent
to it in Paris by the arrival of a great many Russian
immigrants, and outside the War Office there was
a large notice written in Russian telling Russians
to go to the right or to the left.

The officer who sat next to us said that his mother
was English, and came from Birmingham. He said
Von Kluck's move was admirable, " d'une audace
enorme." He spoke French with an accent. He said he
was employed at the Paris H.Q., but this, as we after-
wards learnt, was not true. After the first few minutes'
conversation I was convinced that this man, although
wearing a tight-fitting, light-blue French tunic, was
not a Frenchman. In the first place, a Frenchman
whose mother vaguely comes from Birmingham is an
oddity. In the second place, he was a gross feeder.
He ate a cold pate in hunks. In the third place, he
protested too much, and his questions were not the
kind of questions a French Staff Officer would ask.

He asked us, for instance, if we knew Colonel
Stewart, who had been imprisoned in Germany for
espionage, and he supplemented the question by asking

36

1 914] The Retreat and the Advance

whether, when Colonel Stewart had been arrested
he really was spying. We said no, it was only an in-
stance of the crass stupidity of the German General
Staff, which he must know was the stupidest in the
world. (Colonel Stewart happened at that moment to
be in Paris, and we had seen him that morning at the
French H.Q.). After the conversation had lasted a
few moments I conveyed my suspicions to B.K., who
caught on without raising an eyelash, and then we had
great fun. We both of us with one accord, and without
consulting each other (which in the circumstances
would have been, of course, impossible), set about to
make him angry. This we did by talking about naval
matters and the German fleet. We told him we were
sincerely sorry for the German fleet, and that it must
indeed be a bitter humiliation to every German sailor
to think that the " Goeben " had been obliged to slink
for shelter to the Turks. We said that the British fleet
was not only superior to the German fleet in quantity
but in quality. In fact, we said a string of things which
were calculated to annoy a German, but which, if he were
pretending to be French he would have to agree with.

He did not seem to like it at all. He got up presently
and left. We then asked the proprietor of the cafe about
him. He told us that the night before our friend had got
very drunk and had expressed violent pro-German sym-
pathies, and had abused everything French, and ex-
pressed the greatest contempt for the French nation.
So that even if he was not a German he was certainly
not a good citizen. We reported the matter to
Headquarters, and found that no man of his name or
use was employed where he had said he was employed
at the H.Q. in Paris.

In the evening we arrived back at Touquin. All this
time our mess had got nastier and nastier. That

37

R.F.C., H.O. [September

evening there was scarcely anything to eat, and General
Henderson struck, and said he could bear it no longer.
The Mess President was deposed, and B.K. was
made Mess President in his stead.

The next morning (September 9th) we moved to
Coulomniers. This was an exciting moment, as it was
the first tangible step in the advance. We were arriving
at a place which the Germans had left in a hurry, and
which bore all the outward and visible marks of a
German occupation.

There was no food in the place. A great number of
the shops had been looted, and some of them were
gutted. Inscriptions in German, written in white
chalk, were on the shutters. We were billeted in a
large empty school, and the Aerodrome was outside
the town on the top of a hill.

While I was waiting on the steps of the G.H.Q. a
soldier came up to me and said he wanted some butter
for General Snow, who had had a fall from his horse.
He said there wasn't any butter to be had in the whole
town, and when I asked him whether he knew the
French for butter he said he did not. I went with him
to a shop and we bought some butter together.

With some difficulty I raised some dinner for the
General in a little hotel, which was kept by an old lady,
who told us a great many stories about the Germans.
She dwelt a good deal on their dislike for the English.
" Ah ! ils ne vous aiment pas," she said.

During the Manchurian War I used to carry with
me a pocket edition of Dante. I began to read it at the
beginning when I arrived in Manchuria, and I finished
it in 1905 when the war came to an end.

I had the same book with me now, and at Coulomn-
iers, the first night we got there, before going to sleep,
I began to read it again in bed, and I made a rule that

38

1914] The Retreat and the Advance

whenever I should begin I would read a whole
Canto. I also made a second rule that I should
only read it when I had absolutely nothing else more
readable at hand. And I registered the hope
that by the time I got to the end of the Paradiso the
war would be over. As it turned out, by keeping to my
rule I reached the end of the last Canto of the Para-
diso the night before the Germans asked for an armis-
tice, or rather the night the news of the German request
reached Paris in 191 8.

Every time I read a Canto I marked it with the date
and place. I made this plan on September 9th, but I
fell asleep before I had read two lines. It was not till
the night of September 10th that I read and finished
Canto 1 of the Inferno. That evening there was a
gorgeous sunset, and out of the golden clouds an
aeroplane appeared and did a slow spiral. It was the
first time I had witnessed this magical performance.

We only stayed one day longer at Coulomniers.
Our stay there was quite uneventful. All I remember
about it, is that one felt vaguely hungry the whole time ;
General Henderson certainly never had enough to
eat. He used to arrive at luncheon rather late, and by
the time he got there everything had been wolfed up.
Even the little back room in the hotel which we had
discovered was not very liberal in its food supply. The
only other thing I remember is catching sight of a
bound copy of " Monte Christo " in the Mairie, and
being seized by an insane longing to steal it. I did not
steal it, however.

We left Coulomniers on September 12th. The
Maple lorry, which carried all our Headquarters im-
pedimenta, stationery, typewriters, etc., was always
overloaded, as all the Headquarters clerks used to
get into it or on to the top of it. On this occasion one

39

R.F.C., H.Q. [September

clerk too many got into it and it broke down irre-
vocably just as we were starting.

We started in the morning and arrived in the after-
noon at Fere-en- Tardenois, the new G.H.Q. The
Aerodrome was beside a road, outside a village
called Saponay. We were billeted in two villas
just outside Fere-en-Tardenois.

These two villas were elegant little houses, full
of pretty china and neat furniture, the sort of villa
in which I imagined Madame Bovary might have
lived.

The Germans had left them in an indescribable
state of filth. They had not broken much, but they
had emptied all the drawers, scattered all the clothes
on the floor, and broken the children's toys to bits.
The caretaker who looked after these houses told us
they had been occupied by officers who, after drinking
heavily, had left in a great hurry.

The work of cleaning and tidying them up was long
and onerous, but it was successfully accomplished
before dark. Many of the shops in the little town had
been looted, and some of them bore on their shutters
the word " schonen " written in chalk.

Food was difficult to get, and we obtained with
difficulty a piece of horse from the butcher.

40

T

CHAPTER IV

FERE-EN-TARDENOIS

September-October, 1914.

HERE were a lot of wounded men everywhere
in the neighbourhood, more than the transport
of the R.A.M.C. could then deal with ; and
one doctor sent in to us on Sunday (September 13th)
to know whether we could lend him any cars or lorries
to take the wounded from a village to the hospital at
rail-head. We were able to provide a motor-ambulance
and two other cars besides. I drove with them and
with our doctor to the village, which was about seven
miles from our headquarters.

We reached the place where our help was need-
ed ; a white village basking in the heat and the
peculiar stillness of a hot autumnal Sunday afternoon,
broken only by the crowing of cocks and the buzzing
of flies. There we found a large crowd of children and
old men and women gathered together in the street out-
side a farmhouse and pressing round what was appar-
ently an object of interest. This turned out to be two
stretchers, on which were two bodies : two German
soldiers, each covered with a blanket, their waxen
faces covered with pieces of pink gauze.

I thought they were dead ; but the doctor who met
us, and who was in charge there, said they were

41

R.F.C., H.Q. [September

severely wounded. In the yard of the farm and round
about the gateway were groups of wounded English
soldiers. The doctor suggested sending the two Ger-
mans off in our ambulance at once, as they were the
two worst cases ; but as they were lying still, and the
English soldiers were impatient to get away, these
were packed into the ambulance and the cars, which
were sent off to the hospital and told to come back
again as soon as possible.

We carried the two Germans into the yard. The
doctors went into the farm. I spoke to one of the
Germans in German.

He said he was very cold. Indeed, underneath his
thin blanket he had but little on, and his chest was
bandaged. He had been wounded in three places. The
doctors came out again, and between us we lifted the
two Germans up and put warm blankets beneath
them and over them ; but they still said they felt cold,
so we settled to carry them into the stable where the
horses were.

We carried the men through a barrier of restive,
kicking cart-horses into an empty stall which formed
the corner of the building, and laid the stretchers
down upon the straw. They said they felt warmer. I
sat down on the straw between the two stretchers.
One of the men was fair, with blue eyes and yellow
white skin. He looked dead, but for an occasional
flicker of the eyelids. The other had been wounded in
the head, in the forehead over the eye, as well as in the
body. One of his eyes was swollen like a dark plum,
and he looked as if he had been stung by a wasp. His
head was bandaged. He was the worse of the two, and
could hardly speak. The conversation which follows
came in short, faint sentences, with long pauses be-
tween them. The fair man said he was glad of the

42

1 9 1 4] Fere-en- Tardenois

warmth after the cold they had been through — the
cold and the wind of long marches at night with noth-
ing to eat. The weather had seemed to us tropically
hot all the week, but he had not felt this. He kept on
murmuring that the cold had been terrible (furchtbar),
terrible .... the marching terrible . . . the wind
terrible. . . . He spoke in short sentences, and after
every sentence relapsed into silence and shut his eyes.
He asked if he would be taken to England. When I said
yes, he said : " Is that certain ? " (1st dass bestimmt?)

I went to the doctor's and asked if I might give the
men some tea. They said yes. I brought them some tea
in a china cup with a spout. The fair man said :

" Has the doctor allowed it ? " (Hat der doktor dass
erlaubt ?)

I said yes. They both drank a little. I sat down again
between them. After a long silence, the fair man said :

" Sie sind ein sehr netter Herr." (You are a very
nice man).

The other man opened his one eye, smiled, and said
" sehr nett."

Then there was another long silence. They shut their
eyes. The fair man suddenly asked me if I was a soldier
by profession. I said no. He said he was not a soldier
either, but a post-office employe at Diisseldorf.

I said Diisseldorf was a pretty place.

He said "Yes,butlife there is very dear," and he sighed.

I, for something to say, said :

" Life is very dear everywhere now, but dearer than
everywhere in America."

" America ! " said the fair man, and he heaved a
deep sigh and stopped and shut his eyes.

" In America," I went on, " a dollar which corres-
ponds to four marks doesn't go further there than one
mark does in Germany."

43

R.F.C., H.O. [September

The fair man opened his eyes and murmured :

" Eine mark fiinf und zwanzig." (One mark twenty-
five). Then he shut his eyes once more. The ambul-
ance came back. Both men were lifted into it. Neither
of them spoke another word.

The next morning I went to the clearing hospital.
Neither of the wounded Germans was there.

The squadrons were now comfortably established
at Saponay : No. 2 commanded by Major Burke ;
No. 3 by Major J. Salmond ; No. 4 by Major Raw-
leigh ; No. 5 by Major Higgins.

Most of the pilots were billeted in the village. One
Squadron (No. 3) was billeted on the Aerodrome it-
self, the messes being in kind of dug-outs made in
haystacks.

Headquarters were billeted in the two little villas I
have referred to already. I shared a bedroom with
B.K. Our office was in a little tin house. Our chairs
consisted of boxes. Everything was still primitive. We
still expected to be perpetually on the move. In the
meantime the battle of the Aisne was proceeding.

Warfare in the air was still in the gentleman-like
stage, and I have a note in my diary under September
15th that No. 5 Squadron call the anti-aircraft gun
(there seemed to be only one which gave them trouble
in those days) Archibald. This was the origin of the
word archie which was soon to be adopted by the
British Army and to pass into the language.

The Headquarters of the first Corps were at Bourg ;
those of the second at Muret ; and those of the third
at Ecurie. To go to a Corps Headquarters seemed in
those days like going to a promised land. To reach
Bourg you passed our gun emplacements, which were
in position on a high plateau. We also had some ad-
vanced machines there, and one even had the chance

44

! 9j4j Fere-en- Tardenois

of being shelled on the roads between this plateau and
Bourg.

This September was a beautiful still golden month,
and I used to spend a great deal of time with the Squad-
rons. There was nearly always something which they
wanted done. The Mayor of Saponay gave a good deal
of trouble at one time. He complained of the men
stealing his fruit. He made difficulties about the billets.
In fact, he complained of everything. Finally Murat,
who was wonderful at bringing Mayors to reason, dealt
with him, and threatened that he would be court-
martialled and shot, a fate which he was careful to
point out had already overtaken several recalcitrant
Mayors. After that this Mayor gave no more trouble.

We spent a good deal of time in buying provisions.
There was no canteen in those days, and cigarettes
were scarce. Sometimes one bought a turkey, some-
times a sheep. We used to get these from the neigh-
bouring farms. One of them had been occupied by
the Germans, who had evidently been satisfied with
the inhabitants there as they had written on the door
" Gute Leute."

On September 18th the first experiments with
dropping bombs from the air were made by Major
Musgrave. One bomb was dropped, and it exploded
but not exactly where nor how it was expected to
explode.

Newspapers used to arrive fairly regularly, but we
were very much in the dark as regards the general
situation. I had no idea, for instance, there had been a
big battle at Tannenberg, although I knew the Russians
had suffered a reverse. We used to see the accounts of
great victories in the German wireless, but in those
days one paid no attention to that source of news. It
seemed so extremely biassed. Yet I have no doubt the

45

R.F.C., H.Q. [September

greater part of it was accurate. Our optimism was rosy.
The impression was that the Germans had bitten off more
than they could chew (which was a correct impression),
and that the war would probably be over in May.

On September 19th we heard that Rheims cathedral
was on fire.

On the 20th I went to Epernay with B.K.
to buy some wine. When we got into the town
we drew up in a side street, and a French officer asked
us to let him have an indiarubber tyre, which we did.
He then asked us where we came from, and many other
questions ; where our General Headquarters were,
etc., etc., and went away. We suspected him after-
wards of not being a Frenchman.

We went to the Champagne factories. Being a
Sunday nearly everything was shut. We got in, how-
ever, to one of them and bought some wine. Epernay,
they told us, had been occupied by the Germans, but
there had not been much looting. They were only there
three days, and left in a hurry, but, said the man who
was showing us around, they knew exactly what to
ask for — the best brands — and exactly where to find
what they wanted. They would not look at the inferior
wine, but they went straight up to the shelves where
the good wine was and said " Give us that."

In the meantime the Flying Corps was growing.
When it had flown to France it had left behind a nuc-
leus consisting of an administrative Wing, which was
to form a larger force. This administrative Wing was
in charge of Major Trenchard, at Farnborough, and
he afterwards told me that all the nucleus consisted of
was one clerk and one typewriter, a confidential box
with a pair of boots in it, and a lot of unpaid bills in-
curred by various officers in the Flying Corps during
the rush to the front. Major Brancker was working at

46

! 9 ! 4] Fere- en- Tardenois

the War Office. Lord Kitchener was already planning
and legislating for a force of fifty Squadrons. It is im-
possible to make people understand now how fantastic
that seemed then.

Lord Kitchener's Army seemed the most wild of
dreams. " Where," people used to say, " are you
going to get the officers from ? " And the expansion of
the Flying Corps seemed to the outsider the experi-
ment of a lunatic.

Nevertheless, General Henderson had decided on a
policy of expansion, and for that purpose, in order to
form new Squadrons in England, some of our
officers were sent to England. Longcroft, who was
attached to No. 2 Squadron as an extra officer, left us
I think, on the 23rd, and I remember his departure
causing the greatest consternation in our small circle.
Of course we knew nothing of what was going on at
home, nor of the policy that was in the minds of the
high authorities. Everyone was indignant. Some people
said : " They are trying to start a rival show in
England. They are taking away our best men."

But in small ways the expansion began to
make itself felt. Two wireless officers came to
us and photographs were taken from the air. Our
mess soon became too big for the little villa where
we had our meals, and B.K. decided to split it
up into two messes and make an A Mess and a
B Mess. The members of the prospective B Mess were
disinclined to shift, and although the arrangements
were made, and the orders given, the days passed, and
nothing happened. At last, on September 23rd, B.K.
told the Mess Sergeant to lay dinner for B. Mess in
the second villa which we occupied, and A. Mess were
able to sit down to dinner eight instead of sixteen in
one small room.

47

R.F.C., H.Q. [September

B. Mess, however, were at first a little bit sore.

On September 23rd masses of French troops
streamed through the village, and passed the Aero-
drome. They had marched over sixty miles, and were
in splendid form, although hungry for tobacco. Just
about this time it was reported that two Germans were
hiding in a forest in the neighbourhood. Murat organ-
ised an expedition to hunt them and round them up,
but he came back without any Germans but with a
brace of wild duck. He used to say that our G.H.Q.
was not properly guarded, and that he would under-
take to kidnap Sir John French and the whole of his
staff with one armoured car.

There was a rumour one day — whether it was true
I don't know — that someone had walked in to G.H.Q.
one evening while the staff were at dinner and stolen
all the papers he could lay hands on.

In those days, before the trench barrier stretched
from Switzerland to the sea, it was not impossible for
Germans to drive about behind our lines, and one
day a party of Belgian officers, who had spent a little
time near our Aerodrome, were discovered at the next
place they halted, Villers-Cotterets, which was occupied
by the French, by mere accident not to be Belgians at
all but Germans, and were shot.

I remember a curious incident which happened at
this time. A detachment of French Red Cross doctors
visited the Aerodrome one afternoon. We talked to
them. They looked round, and one of them came
across a copy of The Daily Telegraph which was lying
about. The Daily Telegraph described the battle as
going well for the English and badly for the Germans.
One of the doctors took it up and read it. He flew then
into a violent passion ?nd said he had always thought
English newspapers spoke the truth, and it was quite

48

1914] Fere-en-Tardenois

untrue to say that the Germans were in such a bad
position as this. The whole thing was grossly exagger-
ated. The doctors then went away in a huff. There was
no further explanation of this incident. It is unlikely
that the whole of this detachment could have been
Germans in disguise, but why they should have been
indignant at anti- German literature I do not know.

During all this time we used to hear little of
the German fliers, but one day (September 25th) a
German machine flew over Fere-en-Tardenois, and
was fired at without effect.

A tragic incident occurred I think about this
time, but I have no definite record of the date.
One of the pilots was practising signalling and dropp-
ing lights. He was flying quite low over our trenches
backwards and forwards. The machine, as so often
occurred later during the war, was thought to be be-
having in a " suspicious manner " and was fired at
by our troops, and before the men could be stopped
firing it was brought down amid the cheers of the men.
When the machine crashed they saw that the pilot was
an Englishman and that he was dead.
_ On Monday (September 28th) there was great ex-
citement in the camp. Georges Carpentier arrived in a
car to get some petrol. The mechanics were extremely
excited. I asked one of them if he knew Carpentier.
He said : " No, but I have studied his career." He
was invited to dinner by B. Mess.

B.K. had got news two days previously that his
brother, in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light
Infantry, was missing and wounded, and wanted to go
to an advance hospital to get news. He also wanted
to find out something about some anti-aircraft guns.
On the same day that Carpentier visited us I went
with B.K. to Braine, Bourg, and beyond. On the

49

B

R.F.C., H.Q. [September

way we passed Sir Douglas Haig on horseback with
his escort. He stopped us and asked where we were
going. B.K. satisfied him. After a long and very round-
about drive we came to a small field hospital. B.K. went
in and I waited outside. As I was waiting a shrapnel shell
burst in the middle of the road we had just left. After
a short interval a second shell burst in the field beyond
the hospital, and then a third somewhat shorter.
B.K. came out. I said, laughing, " We are being
shelled." Then I saw he had just received news that
his brother had been killed. He had been buried in
the little cemetery a few yards off. We went to look for
the grave and found it. His grave, with some others,
was just freshly dug ; flowers on it and a neat wooden
cross. B.K. saluted. I left him there alone two or three
minutes by himself ; then we drove away. A third shell
burst on the road.

Looking back on those days at Fere-en-Tardenois,
one remembers the time passing in a golden haze.
Never was there a finer autumn. And the French land-
scape, and especially that region of France where we
were then, seemed to bask in the richness and the tints
of that fine September.

The little gardens were laden with fruit, and the
reaped fields were bathed in a calm light. How, one used
to wonder, were they reaped, and by whom ? The
country seemed deserted, save for an old woman here,
a child there, and a stray white horse, and yet silently
and surely the work was done. In the distance you saw
brown ricks, and great long shadows played over the
plain.

I remember the heat of the stubble on the Saponay
Aerodrome : pilots lying about on the straw ; some
just back from a reconnaissance some just starting,
some asleep, some talking of what they would do after

50

1914] Fere-en- Tar denots

the war ; the blazing farmhouses where we used
to buy eggs, and chickens, and once a goose. The
smell of cider ; the courtesy of an old farmer's wife,
the proud scorn which lit her face when she said that
whatever the Germans might destroy they were in-
capable by their nature of building a gable or an arch
like those of her farm or carving a panel like those in
her kitchen. " lis n'ont pas de gout ! "

There was a chateau quite close to Fere-en-Tard-
enois, where we went one day, one of the saddest and
most beautiful places I have ever seen. In the garden
there were great avenues of trees and a large Re-
naissance viaduct. Everything was buried in gold and
crimson leaves ; and Death seemed to be holding a
quiet revel there, like a king who commands a private
performance in a secluded retreat for a few friends,
far away from the theatres of carnage where his public
actors were performing daily with so much sound and
fury.

In the church at Fere-en-Tardenois, Mass used to
be said to a congregation huddled in the chancel,
while the aisle was full of wounded and a faint smell
of iodoform pervaded the place, and a hospital orderly
made the Cure laugh by saying the place would be
much better ventilated if the stained glass windows
could be broken.

I remember the clicking of the typewriters in our
little improvised office, and a soldier singing " Abide
with me " at the top of his voice in the kitchen. And
then the beauty of the Henry Farmans sailing through
the clear evening, " the evening hush broken by
homing wings," and the moonlight rising over the
stubble of the Aerodrome, and a few camp fires glow-
ing in the mist and the noise of the men singing songs
of home.

5i

CHAPTER V

THE MOVE TO THE NORTH AND ST. OMER

October-November, 1914.

THE first time I had a rumour of a move north-
wards was on September 30th. A little French
boy told me in a shop in the village that the
British Army was about to move northwards and
would probably go. He said he had heard this on the
highest ai "hority. During the next few days the news
became more definite.

On Oct >ber 2nd we knew the move to the coast had
begun. 0# October 7th, a German left a card on us,
pour prendre conger, from the air. He dropped a bomb
on the Aerodrome. It fell in the field, on the opposite
side of the road to where No. 5 Squadron were estab-
lished. Theoretically, it was a beautiful shot, prac-
tically it hit a turnip. And this was the case with many
bombing efforts in the future

Our move took place on October 8th. We got up at
cockcrow, and the work of packing began. Everything
was hurled into lorries. I remained behind with
B.K., who toiled like a slave to get everything
off. B.K. had very strong principles about leaving
a billet as you found it. Here it was a case of leaving
it in a state very different indeed from that in which
we found it. We had found the billets — our two little

52

1914] Move to the North and St. Omer

villas — like pigsties — we left them spotless and dustless,
with newspapers neatly folded up on the table. We
started at 9 a.m. in the Daimler, and motored through
Senlis and Clermont, where we had luncheon at a small
hotel. As we were getting towards Abbeville the car
broke down. We were held up for hours, B.K. slaving
and toiling on his stomach under the car, and as it
grew darker and darker the driver got keener and
keener on pulling every bit of the engine to pieces.
Finally we were towed into Abbeville by an ambul-
ance, and arrived after 8 and went to the Hotel
de France, thoroughly exhausted and hungry. We
found the hotel crammed with officers, who had just
finished dinner. I ordered dinner for B.K. and
myself, and we were just going to begin to eat it when
someone told B.K. he was wanted. Someone or some-
thing had gone astray, and, leaving his untouched
dinner, he went out in search of it. We were billeted
in the town in delightful panelled rooms near the
cathedral. The room had curtained beds, polished
tables and no electric light. An ideal bedroom.

The next morning we moved outside the town to a
chateau called Moyenneville. The squadrons were
billeted in Moyenneville village, and there was an
aerodrome close by. Our billet was an oblong red
brick rather dilapidated chateau, which stood in a
faded, rustling park and a dishevelled garden.

The trees were not yet bare, but all of them were
red and yellow, and the garden was full of d jad leaves.
Inside there were dignified grey-panelled rooms,
covered with old English sporting prints of racehorses.

I spent a day of unremitting shopping in Abbeville,
and I have noted that on October 10th I 1 ought 500
kilogrammes of wood, one field of potatoes, one pound
of butter, one pot of honey, one pound of biscuits,

53

R.F.C., H.Q. [October

three cheeses, three chickens, 10 pears, one brass alarm
bell.

On Monday, October 6th, we got orders to move
again. We got up at 6. The concttrge of the chateau
made a'great de?l of fuss about some petrol which he
said had been stolen. He was given some more petrol.
We didn't start till i. I went with B.K. and three
pilots. We stopped at Hesdin and had luncheon at the
hotel.

We arrived at St. Omer at 8.30, and took up our
residence in a small chateau on the hill between the
town and the aerodrome. We didn't expect to stay
there long, so no real steps were taken to make our-
selves comfortable at the start. The chateau was a
modern stucco building, red and white. Downstairs
there were two drawing-rooms, a dining-room, and
one bedroom, and a small sitting-room. The small
sitting-room was Colonel Sykes' office. One of the
drawing-rooms was made into an ante-room, the
other into the office. The bedroom downstairs was
Brooke-Popham's. Upstairs General Henderson had
one big bedroom and a small office. Salmond, B.K.
and I shared a second, Murat had a third, and the
fourth was to be occupied by other members of the
staff.

We sadly overcrowded this house. In the office B.K.
used to sit at one table (a card table), Salmond at
another very rickety piece of furniture. Brooke-Pop-
ham had a second small card table for his work, which
soon became littered with papers. The Sergeant-Major
sat on a box in front of other boxes. A bevy of clerks
filled the room. Each clerk had a typewriter, and each
clerk's box had about a dozen candles stuck on to it
burning and guttering. The atmosphere was quite solid.
We thought on arriving that we were going to stop here

54

1914] Move to the North and St. Omer

a few days. As it turned out this little chateau was the
R.F.C. headquarters until 1916, and again in 1917, and
until the end of war it was always occupied by an R.F.C.
staff.

The morning of the day we arrived, the Germans
dropped a bomb right in the middle of the school
occupied by G.H.Q., but before G.H.Q. arrived. The
bomb knocked down Murat's cousin and an old lady.
This, which must have been a pure accident, was talked
about as an instance of the miraculous divination of
the German Secret Service, and their uncanny know-
ledge of the movements of the British Army. The
squadrons were established on a fine aerodrome on
the top of the hill, once a steeplechase course, where
there was still a tin Tellier shed. The four squadrons
were drawn up in line along the road : No. 5, No. 4,
No. 3, No. 2.

The first thing to do was to get all the billeting
arrangements made, and for this purpose we went to
see the Mayor of Longuenesse, a village just outside
St. Omer ; and Murat had several interviews with the
owners of the small villas and chateaus that cluster
round St. Omer, in one of which the notorious Wain-
wright spent a few weeks planning his most successful
murder.

Directly we arrived at St. Omer the weather became
damp and raw, and when I think of St. Omer now it
seems to me like a city of perpetual damp and inces-
sant rain.

On October 15th, a cold, grey day, I made the first
of very many visits to Hazebrouck with General
Henderson and Colonel Sykes. I waited in the square
while they went into Corps H.Q. While I was waiting
some lorries full of German prisoners drove past on
their way to the station. One of the lorries halted. It

55

R.F.C., H.Q. [October

was soon surrounded by an angry crowd, which began
to boo and hiss, and someone began throwing things.
I addressed the crowd. " Le Grand Napoleon a dit,"
I said, " qu'il n'y a rien de plus lache que de maltraiter
les prisonniers." He may have said so. I hope he did.
In any case the effect on the crowd was immediate. I
talked to one of the prisoners, a bearded Bavarian.
He said our men treated them very well, but that they
had been stoned by the crowd. He complained of the
bitter injustice of this. " The allied prisoners," he
added, " when they get to Germany are given cakes
and even chocolate (sogar shokolade), and we are
stoned. Das ist unmenschlich." Then the lorry drove on
to the station.

At St. Omer quite a new kind of life began for us.
The war began to settle, although we were unaware
of the fact, for when we got there the race to the sea
was not over, and the battle of the Yser had not yet
been fought. But everything became more regular ;
books used to arrive. And a great quantity of guests
used to stream through the house. In fact, someone
said our chateau was exactly like a Dak Bungalow,
whatever that may be. It was certainly like a damp
bungalow. Pilots, observers, staff-officers, adminis-
trative officers, experts, etc., used to arrive from
London, and sometimes from Paris, and sometimes
from the sky, and stay the night. They used to sleep
on the floor of our bedrooms in their valises. Sometimes
there were as many as five officers in one bedroom.
It was no place for those who like privacy. Personally
I enjoyed this perpetual ebb and flow of guests.

I shared, as I have already said, a bedroom with
B.K. and Salmond, and we often had a guest or two
sleeping on the floor. After going to bed we used to
brew tea in a small kettle, and we used to talk and talk

56

1914] Move to the North and St. Omer

till late in the night. We used to get up about seven,
and we always sang songs while dressing.

An interminable series of billet troubles soon began.
A Flight of one of the squadrons lived in a little cottage
which belonged to a man who was once a soldier
in the Foreign Legion. He was an admirable house-
keeper and an excellent cook, and he said he liked
having the officers living there. " Mais Oh ! les ordon-
nances," he used to say with a sigh.

One of the first and most serious of the billet troubles
happened like this.

Some mechanics belonging to one of the squadrons
had been billeted in an outhouse belonging to a villa
inhabited by a local lady. The lady had sent a message
to say that the men had left the building in a filthy
state. This aroused the anger of B.K., and we set off
to strafe the squadron in question. Before doing this
we went to the billet. There we were met by the gar-
dener's wife. We told her our errand. She at once said
the story was untrue. The men had left the billet per-
fectly clean. She took us to see the billet, which was
just as it had been left, she said, and was, as she said,
perfectly clean. The whole thing was a piece of spite
on the part of her mistress, " whose husband," she
said, " had been taken to the war forcibly between
two gendarmes." We then went to interview the lady
of the house. She repeated the story and the allegations,
and said the squadron had left the place in a filthy
state. Then she sent for the gardener as a witness to
corroborate the story. Now a dramatic incident
occurred. The gardener flatly contradicted his mis-
tress and denied the whole story. So she stood con-
victed of deliberate slander against the Allies. She
stamped her feet with rage, and we departed in dignity.

A few days later we had further trouble with this

57

R.F.C., H.Q. [October

angry lady. Murat went with B.K. and myself to
see her. The word politesse being mentioned, Murat
said : " Ce n'est pas une question de politesse,
Madame, c'est la guerre." She did not like people
being billeted there. I was reminded of Bonaparte-
Wyes 's poem :

" Dear Nicolas, dear Marie, I am quite
A seeming fixture in your villa white."

This lady thought the officers were becoming seeming
fixtures in her villa, and she resented the fact.

During all these days the battle of Ypres was going
on, or rather, those operations which Sir John French
speaks of as the " Battle of Ypres-Armentieres," which
he says opened on the fifteenth of October.

One heard the news in snippets.

One day at luncheon General Henderson told us
that three Germans, with a machine gun, had held up
in a little house a great quantity of our men a whole
morning. Finally, two of the Germans were killed, but
the third went on fighting after he was covered with
wounds, and succeeded in holding our men up till he
at last was killed himself.

" He deserved to live," someone said.

" He deserved to die," said the General.

I remember also his telling us of some German
volunteers who marched into the Yser arm in arm
singing the Wacht am Rhein, and that the whole of the
first wave of these boys was mown down. But a second
wave of boys came on singing the second verse of the
song, and they, too, were mown down. I see in Sir
John French's book that this must have happened on
October 23rd. On October 25th, St. Crispin's day, the
anniversary of the battle of Agincourt, I went to Mass
in the cathedral at St. Omer. One could not help

58

i9i4j Move to the North and St. Omer

thinking that Henry V had heard those very same
words spoken in the very same way just before the
battle of Agincourt. That battlefield was not an
hour's drive from St. Omer. Now, in the cathedral,
French and English soldiers were praying for victory
against a common foe. That same afternoon I went to
one of the stationary hospitals in the town, and had
some talk with a German prisoner who was being
treated. He was a young medical student. He told me
Warsaw had been taken. I knew this to be untrue,
and said so. " Ah, you have not been told that yet," he
said. He spoke at great length, and with great frankness
about the war. He admired the British troops and the
British equipment and the horses, the saddles, etc.
He spoke slightingly of the French for wearing red
trousers. He said it was fortunate that there would
be no more British troops in great numbers ; fortunate
that conscription would not come about in England.
Nor would it affect the question if it did, he added,
as any child could see it was much too late in the day
to improvise the cadres, let alone the units of a great
army. I did not argue the point. I said something
about the Belgians. " Dass sind nicht Menschen,"
he said. (They are not human beings), and he told me
strings of stories of atrocities committed by the Belgians
on German soldiers. He was serenely and completely
confident in the final victory of the Germans. This
was the first and last time I had any conversation
with a German officer throughout the war.

On the 28th of October, just after the second phase
of the battle of Ypres had begun, I went with General
Henderson to Ypres itself. No. 2 Squadron was estab-
lished just beyond the town. The headquarters of the
first Army were at the chateau of Hooge, and thither
the General went. I waited for him in the /garden.

59

R.F.C., H.O. [October

While he was inside, a German machine flew over
and dropped a bomb in a field just behind the chateau.
There was at once a great racket of machine guns.
Shortly afterwards a Morane-Parasol belonging to the
French flew over. This was a newfangled machine
in those days, and it was plentifully shot at, but
luckily without effect. When the General had finished
his business we drove into the town, and I went to
see the Cloth-Hall and the Cathedral, which were still
both of them intact. We had luncheon at an hotel, and
I remember the General saying : " It's lucky the
Germans were just too late to get to Ypres."

The next day I went to Dunkirk for the first time
with Brooke-Popham. We visited a naval squadron.
Carpentier was attached to them, and all defaulters
were made as a punishment to box five minutes with
him. This punishment combined being a great honour
and privilege and hurting very much indeed.

In the meanwhile the operations at Ypres were
becoming momentous. Sir John French says in his
book that he regards the fighting during the period
between October 27th and October 31st as more
momentous and fateful than any which he directed
during the time he was Commander-in-Chief. Turning
to my diary I find nothing more exciting than this :

Friday, October 30th— St. Omer. — Another billet-
drama. In a house belonging to two old maids near
the Aerodrome, where two officers are billeted, a
cupboard has been broken open. B.K. and I went to
investigate, and were treated to an immensely long
Sherlock-Holmes-like story about a lock. We didn't
make head or tail of the matter. Nothing of any value
nor of any possible use to any man or woman appears
to have been stolen, and the lock is to be repaired by
the squadron.

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i9l4] Move to the North and St. Omer

Saturday, October 31^. I spent the whole day in
the aerodrome. Dinner with No. 2. Squadron, B Flight,

On Sunday night B.K. and I dined at the Hotel du
Commerce. It was the first — and last time — he dined
out during the whole period he was with us. Colonel
Seely joined us, and told us he had spent the day with
the French troops at Wytshaete, and that the shelling
had been appalling. But he thought the crisis was over.
He offered to take me out with him the next day.
On that Sunday, November 1st, we knew at Headquar-
ters that the situation was critical, but we none of us
mentioned it.

The next day was a perfect Autumn day. We started
about 9. Colonel Seely drove. I held the map and
refused to give any definite opinion as to what was the
right and wrong way. We drove to Cassel. From Cassel-
hill the whole landscape looked like a mellow Dutch
picture : the straight trees, the villages and the blue
fields and plains bathed in calm, luminous sunshine.
Colonel Seely said he thought the war couldn't last
very long, because the different nations would get
tired of paying the gigantic bill not only in money —
for money, he admitted, never stopped a war beginn-
ing nor made it end— but in men and loss of property
the bill was too big. I said I thought nations in this
respect were like boys at a private school who suddenly
said : " We are going to strike ; we are not going to
do a stroke of work to-day," but when the master came
into the room they went on and all talk of strike was
forgotten.

We drove through Poperinghe to a place about three
miles from Dixmude. Dixmude was being shelled by the
Germans, and defended by the incomparably gallant
French Marine Corps. We halted near a small field
hospital, which was established in an estaminet. The

61

R.F.C., H.Q. [November

people asked us to put our car out of the way. In front,
beyond a low field, men (marines) were lying in the
trenches. There was a dull intermittent noise of
shelling — and over Dixmude a rather more lively series
of bursts.

We walked across a field into a small tumble-down
house and went upstairs ; but there was nothing to
see, only the dull misty distance and occasional muffled
noises ; sometimes the crack of a rifle. We walked
back to the estaminet. A Belgian officer arrived in a
car and walked into the estaminet. A motor then turned
up, heaven knows where from, bearing a lady, two
chauffeurs, two doctors (Red Cross, English), and a boy
scout. One of the doctors said he knew nothing about the
lady or the other people. There were no wounded in
the village, and the French marines begged us to take
the cars out of the way, as this cavalcade attracted fire,
which we did. The doctor wanted to go to Dixmude.
Colonel Seely borrowed a Belgian officer's car and
took him there, leaving me behind. Colonel Seely
brought the doctor back about ten minutes later. We
went on past the French guns through a village which
was deserted and empty, and where the church steeple
had been hit by a shell. We had luncheon in the
village. Then we went through the deserted country
till we came to a French headquarters, where we in-
terviewed a French General. He went out with us and
walked across two fields. The trenches were occupied
by cavalry ; and I recognised and spoke to an officer
whom I had last seen at Le Cateau. Colonel Seely
said he wanted to go to Langemark. The French
advised him not to. As we were walking back across
the field to the H.Q. office, which was in a cottage, a
large Black Maria burst at some distant from us.
" Grosse Marmite," said the French General. We

62

I9i4] Move to the North and St. Omer

went on to Langemark. We got there just after sun-
set. The place was deserted but for a French battery,
whose officers were occupying the shell of a chateau
next to the church. There was nothing left of the
church except a cross and a tower. The churchyard
was pitted with Black Maria holes. We went into
the chateau and talked to the officers. They were
cheerful. They said the Germans had been shelling
them day and night, but lately had confined them-
selves to shooting at noontide and just before sunset.
They told us some astonishing stories about hecatombs
of dead Germans who had been mown down in the
recent fighting. There was one pit hard by, they said,
which was filled with hundreds and hundreds of dead.
The French trenches were not far from the chateau. We
left these officers. We started to drive back with a man to
guide us to show us the holes, as the road was full of
holes. We reached the road we had come by, which
led from one village to another. When we had driven
up it, it was quite quiet. Now it was moonlight, and as
we started to drive down this road the Germans began
to shell it. The shells burst in the field beyond the
road. Presently the road came to an end and we reached
a village where there was another French headquarters.
There we were arrested. The French thought Colonel
Seely was a spy. Presently a French Colonel arrived
from his dinner. I got out and showed him our papers.
I said that Colonel Seely had been Minister of War.

"Oh, yes," said the French Colonel, " Ulstaire."
Then all was settled and we drove to Ypres, where
someone told me my brother Hugo had been wounded.
Thence we proceeded through masses of troops, which
were moving backwards and forwards, home to St. Omer.

The next day I went to Poperinghe to try and find
my brother in one of the hospitals there. The search

63

R.F.C., H.O. [November

was fruitless. I went to three or four hospitals, all of
them crammed with wounded, officers and men. It
was an inferno of suffering. A dark inferno, too. One man
was moaning for more morphia. He had had one dose,
and he had just got to the stage when nature imper-
atively cries out for another.

There was now a slight lull in affairs : the final
phase of the first battle of Ypres lasting from Novem-
ber nth- November 21st. Referring to my diary I find
the following entries :

Saturday, November yth, 1914 — St. Omer. — Our
transport officer went to get some coal this morning.
He drove down to the place where there was coal and
filled his lorry with it. Just as he had finished doing
this the man who looked after the coal — to whom it
belonged— an officer, arrived on the scene. Our T.O.
said to him : " Can I give you a lift ? " and he drove
him on the box of the lorry which was full of his own
coal, where he wanted to go to.

Sunday, November 8th, 1914 — St. Omer. — Went to
mass in the cathedral. Further billet now at the Red
Villa, inhabited by the difficult lady. We went to see
her in the morning — B.K. and I. While we were dis-
cussing bedrooms a German aeroplane flew over,
white in the azure sky. The Archies fired at it — aimed
carefully but missed it — and the lady, in a state of
great excitement, called out : " lis ne l'auront pas, ils
ne l'auront pas ! " Why ?

Rather a solemn dinner.

At the end of dinner, in a pause of tense silence, one of
the guests said : " I was the last man to leave Maubeuge."

" I was the first," I said, and this was true, because
Brooke-Popham and I headed the great retreat.

Monday, November ()th,\ 9 1 4 — St. Omer. — Went to see
the Mayor about a billet in the village of Longuenesse.

64

1914] Move to the North and St. Omer

We had words. On the floor of his drawing-room I
found a German ten-pfennig piece, which I held up
triumphantly. As I walked away from the village a
gendarme came galloping after me to assure me that
the Mayor of Longuenesse was not a German spy.
Further billet trouble at the farm.

Just about this time an exciting incident happened
on the Aerodrome. In the long line of transport which
was drawn up along the Aerodrome on a road fringing
the top of a wooded hill, there was a closed lorry,
which was then used as a bomb store, and was full of
bombs. Bombs in those days were not the formidable
instruments they became later. They were comfort-
able pocket bombs. One night, I forget at what time,
a miscreant threw a live bomb at the bomb- lorry and
it went off. The whole lorry did not blow up, but an
explosion was caused, wounding, I think, five men,
one of whom died in hospital. A court of inquiry was
held, but the matter was never explained and the
miscreant was never found.

A few days later someone threw a bomb through the
bedroom window of one of the squadron billets at
Bailleul, but no harm was done. We all went to the
funeral of the man who had been killed by the bomb
on November 10th. He was buried in the cemetery half-
way up the hill beyond our garden. It was a grey, damp
day, the grave was muddy ; an infinitely sad spectacle.

Lord Roberts arrived at St. Omer on the nth, and
I saw him as he walked round the aerodrome one
bitterly cold afternoon. I am not certain which day he
came to see us. On Friday he caught cold, and on
Saturday evening he died. The Prince of Wales paid a
visit to the aerodrome about this time.

Lord Roberts ' funeral was on Tuesday, November 1 7th.

65

R.F.C., H.Q. [November

The Flying Corps was continuing to expand, and
it was now settled that it was to be organised into
Wings. There were to be two Wings and one Head-
quarters Wing.

On the 1 8th, at luncheon, I was told I was to go and
fetch Colonel Trenchard, who was arriving from
England, where he had been in charge of the adminis-
trative Wing at Farnborough since the war began. He
was coming to take over the command of the First Wing.
1 had never seen Colonel Trenchard and I wondered
how I should recognise him. I arrived at Boulogne.
I went to the Fish Market and bought fish. Then
I waited for the boat. The boat came in about
half-past four. Standing quite by himself on the
deck of the boat was a tall man, with a small
head and a Scots Fusiliers cap on. That, I said to
myself, must be Colonel Trenchard. It was. He had
brought a car with him but no petrol. We had to get
petrol. Where from ? A sailor volunteered information
that petrol could be got from a particular spot. He went
off with the driver and disappeared into the night. I
thought they would never come back, but they did —
with the petrol. We started for St. Omer ; it was quite
dark. In going out of the town we took the wrong
turning, and sped on in the night towards Calais, the
opposite direction to St. Omer. Colonel Trenchard
asked me a great many pertinent questions, few of
which I could answer. A certain intuition warned me
after a time that we were going the wrong way, and
when we came to a barrier where there were some
French soldiers I got out and asked the way, and
it turned out we were going swiftly and directly
in the opposite direction to St. Omer. They put us
right, and after a few more stops and looking at
sign-posts and questioning of inhabitants, we got on

66

i9i4] Move to the North and St. Omer

the right road once more. But all this made us late,
and we didn't arrive at H.Q. till eight o'clock. Colonel
Trenchard slept on the floor of the guest room.

Our Headquarters had kept time with the expansion
of the Flying Corps, and was growing apace in the
way of clerks. Our office was fuller than ever, and the
number of candles — for we still had neither lamps
nor electric light — would have done honour to a
cathedral.

In looking at the mess accounts for December,
which were kept at that time by B-K, and which
are now in my possession, I see that during
the month of December twelve officers were sent a
messing bill. But of these only seven officers belonged
to our H.Q. permanently. The rest were visitors who
stayed more than a week. I also note that our messing
cost three francs a day, including wine, which was
remarkably cheap.

My time at St. Omer was drawing to a temporary
end. General Henderson told me he was going to take
over the First Division, and asked me if I would like
to go with him as Intelligence Officer. I said I should
like nothing better.

My main recollection of that first period of St.
Omer is a stuffy office, full of clerks and candles and
a deafening noise of typewriters. A constant stream of
pilots arriving in the evening in burberrys with maps
talking over reconnaissances ; a perpetual stream of
guests and a crowd of people sleeping on the floor ; a
weekly struggle, sometimes successful and sometimes
not, to get a bath in the town, where there was always
a seething crowd of suppliants, and a charming, capa-
ble lady in charge who used to call one " Mon tres
cher Monsieur " ; hours spent on the Aerodrome,
which were generally misty ; and small dinners in the

67

R.F.C., H.Q. [November

Flight messes in the various billets round Longuenesse
and almost every day some inquiry or dispute, with
regard to a billet.

Then a few expeditions along abominable roads to
Bailleul, Poperinghe, and Hazebrouck ; an occasional
visit to Boulogne and Dunkirk, and a tense feeling the
whole time that the situation was not satisfactory, but
that it would somehow or other come all right in the end.
At the same time, life was becoming more normal
and more settled. One already felt that one had lived
at St. Omer all one's life, and that one would be likely
to spend the remainder of it there also. Books began to
arrive. But the only books I find mentioned in my notes
of this period are Cramb's the Germany and England,
and a book by J. Allen called Germany and Europe. I
remember that at this period I found it quite impossible
to read any modern novel. The pilots, on the other
hand, used to cry out for books.

At the end of my notes and diaries, which cover this
first period at St. Omer, I find the following entry :

X (name unreadable) said : " German warfare is
like Wagner's music. The Germans use every possible

accessory spies .... Zeppelins, flame-throwers

.... smoke screens .... just as Wagner uses every
accessory .... scenery . . . lights .... over and above
the music to heighten the effect of the music."

To this remark I had added the comment that the
result, as far as music is concerned, is less effective with
all these adventitious aids than that achieved by men
like Beethoven or Schubert by the use of simpler
means, and I expressed the pious hope that the result
would be the same as far as the war was concerned.
These remarks are followed by the entry : " Bought a
lobster."

68

CHAPTER VI
WITH THE FIRST DIVISION.
November — December, 19 14.

ON Sunday, November 22nd in the afternoon
Hilaire Belloc arrived at our headquarters on a
visit, and the next morning we got up at six and
went with Murat to Bailleul, and thence to one of the
squadrons. I remember one of the pilots, one of the most
gallant and brilliant of the pilots, who was afterwards
killed, Lewis, later a Squadron and then a Wing Com-
mander, asking Belloc why the newspapers abused the
Germans in such a foolish manner. A machine went up
from the snowy ground while we were there, and we
then went on to Nieppe, where we saw the big gun,
" Grandmother." Belloc left us after luncheon, and
in the afternoon I left H.Q. R.F.C. for the headquart-
ers of the First Division, whither General Henderson
had already preceded me.

The headquarters of the First Division were billeted
in a small village called Merris, between Hazebrouck
and Bailleul. The office was situated in a large con-
vent. The General had a room in a little house in the
village ; the rest of "A" Mess, to which I was attached,
shared a second small house.

General Henderson was taking over from General
Landon.

69

R.F.C, H.O. [November

" A " Mess consisted of Colonel Jeudwine, Colonel
Gordon, Major Lefroy, Major Webber, a French in-
terpreter, and two A.D.C's., MacCready and Rycroft.
I lived in the house allotted to " A " Mess. It was
quite small. There were two little rooms on the
ground floor. One was used as an ante-room, the other
as a dining-room. The house belonged to a crusty old
man, who possessed an excellent cellar of wine.

Here a new epoch began for me and a totally
different mode of life.

The first thing which struck one after living with
the R.F.C. was the absence of transport. Instead of
having either a light tender or a lorry or a Daimler
at one's disposal, one had either to ride or to walk.
And life with the R.F.C. spoils one for walking.
The weather was disagreeable, a thaw following on
a snowfall had made the roads into sticky stretches of
mud. One had the usual feeling on arriving at a new place
of being like a new boy at a private school ; but the Staff
were so exceedingly friendly that this feeling wore off
almost immediately. During my stay with the First
Division I reflected a good deal on the nonsense talked
about Staffs in general, both in this war and in other wars.
Of course, if you accept this nonsense as a convention and
talk of the idle brass hats and the drones and the pompous
red tabs and the booted and spurred Generals who do
nothing, well and good, I am perfectly willing to join
in ; as long as it is understood that you know that it is
a convention, and you know that I know that it is a
convention, and you know that I know that you know
that I know that it is a convention. Then we understand
each other. But when other people who do not share
this unexpressed understanding, Members of Parlia-
ment, for instance, talk in this way it makes me tired and
angry. They have not the faintest, remotest idea of what a

70

1914] With the First Division

Staff does, nor of what Staff-work consists, nor what
the men are like who do it, or how they do it. And
when they say glibly : "Of course the Staff- work
was, as usual, very bad," it is just like hearing a totally
unmusical person complaining of a composer's coun-
terpoint. Half the Army, I used to hear it said, do not
know how the other half live. If this is true, much
truer still is it that the outside public knows still
less how that other half lives. In the first place, a
Divisional Staff is engaged for the greater part of the
time in incessant hard work of the most harassing
and responsible nature. In the second place, the men
who form such a Staff would nearly always be giving
their eyes to be elsewhere : to be at the front.
They are there because they have got to be there,
and they are determined to do the best they can.
The work has got to be done, and somebody has got
to do it. But because they are on a Staff they don't
change into supermen or into angels, and a pompous
man will remain pompous on a Staff or become possibly
more pompous, and an unpretentious man will re-
main unpretentious or become more unpretentious.
And if the man who is at the head of the Staff is a
good man he will get rid of drones, but he will also
make the best of the material available and not com-
plain because every Staff officer is not a heaven-born
genius. When people talk of other professions they are
not so unreasonable. If they go to see a play acted, they
will be satisfied if the acting is up to a good average
level, and they will be surprised and delighted if in
the company there is, say, one actor of outstanding
talent. They will not expect a cast consisting entirely
of stars of genius, because stars are necessarily rare.
Yet in talking of the Army, and especially of the
new Army, the Army which was improvised and

7*

R.F.C., H.Q. [November

organised and created while the war was actually
being fought, they used to be pained if every Staff
officer was not a budding Napoleon.

What amused me throughout the war was the spec-
tacle of men who had deservedly earned brilliant reputa-
tions in other walks of life handling a piece of ordinary
Staff work. They often did it very well, but not so well
— and they were the first to admit it — as the ordinary
soldier who had no brilliant reputation to point to and
fall back upon. This particular Staff consisted of a
fine set of officers, all of whom had either previously,
or did subsequently, distinguish themselves in the
field, and of some who, alas, were killed later.
Moreover, the actual routine of their life since they
had been formed had been varied and adventurous
and perilous in the highest degree, and one of the
Generals commanding them had already been killed
by a shell which had fallen in his headquarters.

We had fallen on a period of calm.

On the 27th of November we received news that
the Russians had surrounded the Germans, who were
in the situation of the Boers at Paardeberg. This was
true as it turned out. Unfortunately the situation did
not last, and the Russians, by bringing up a division
instead of a corps, were unable to keep the circle closed,
and the Germans got away. But when the news came
we were greatly elated, and the verdict of " A " Mess
was that we ought to shove.

" Now is the time to shove like hell," was what
everybody was saying. The news came from one of
the Ambassadors. On the 28th the Commander-in-
Chief, Sir John French, came to inspect the Division.
I saw him inspect the Guards' Second Battalion, and
in speaking to the men he told them the Russian news.
That same day I got a letter in which the writer

72

1914] With the First Division

spoke of the coming invasion of Germany and the
destruction and violence which was likely would attend
it. A story was also going about of a letter which came
from Berlin with a message in it saying " look under
the stamp. " The receiver of the letter looked and
found the words : " The Germans are in a panic."

So altogether prospects seemed cheerful. Yet I re-
member well, while we repeated to each other this news
and discussed it from every point of view, we did not
at the bottom of our hearts feel greatly exhilarated.
We thought it was too good to be true. The French
interpreter, who had been away for some days, came
back with an amusing story.

He told us that the soldiers in the French trenches
had put a top hat on the end of a stick and promen-
aded it up and down while a gramophone played the
" Marseillaise," and the Germans, thinking it was
the President of the Republic, had fired at it for all
they were worth.

On November 30th the General told me he might
possibly have to leave the First Division and go back
to the R.F.C. ; this would naturally be a most cruel
disappointment for him. By December 1st the Russian
news had already faded into the realm of" as you were."
The Germans, we were told, had been surrounded, but
some gap had occurred in the iron circle. Considering
the way we were douched with alternate sprays of
good and bad news, I think we were extremely patient.

On December 3rd the King paid us a visit. We were
paraded in the village street, and the villagers were in
a great state of excitement ; but it rained and the cold
was intense, and the ceremony was spoilt by the sleet,
the cold and the mud.

The capacity for reading a book returned to me at
Merris, although reading, except in bed, was difficult,

73

R.F.C., H.Q. [December

as our ante-room was lit solely by a lamp, which worked
by water, and made a whistling noise and emitted the
most sickening, nauseating stench, but it was a choice
between this lamp and semi-darkness.

I read nearly all Moliere's plays, which someone had
kindly sent me from Paris in penny editions. But
the only trace of this reading I find in my notes is
one line from " Les Femmes Savantes."

" Ce sont petits chemins tout parsemes de roses."

I used frequently to walk or ride into Bailleul to see
the squadrons which were there, and although I was
very happy with the First Division, I suffered the
whole time from R.F.C. sickness.

Colonel Burke, who commanded the Second Wing,
had his headquarters at Bailleul, and I used often to
go and see him. Sometimes he would drive me back
in his car. He was training a new driver in map read-
ing. This process consisted in telling the driver to go
with the aid of a map to a place he didn't know. The
driver then lost the way. Then you got out, looked at
the sign-posts and asked the way of the first inhabitants
you met. The favourite amusement of the A.D.C.'s in the
First Division was to go out shooting pheasants in the
dark with two pistols and an electric torch. They shot
no pheasants. We were a very happy family, and
Webber and Lefroy and the others used to tell us
thrilling stories of the adventures of the First Division
during the last months. I shared a servant called
Prentice with Macready. The Mess was looked after
by a sergeant, who was a great character. One morning,
as I was looking out of my bedroom window, I saw
him cleaning the boots in the little backyard. The
girl who belonged to the house came up to him and,
pointing to the field boot he was polishing, said ;

74

1914] With the First Division

" Blacking, blacking, " Oui, oui," he answers,

" Voulezvous ,"but I will leave to French scholars

the pleasure of reconstituting the phrase with which
he expressed his goodwill. On December 10th Macready
and I accompanied the General on an inspection ride
to the batteries, and my pony jumped a ditch without
my falling off, which surprised me considerably. We
went to see some experiments with arquebus shooting.

A large instrument which looked like the kind of
thing the Romans and the Carthaginians are shown as
using in picture books, shot a heavy missile into the
air, which would be meant to fall in a German trench.
It fell in this case on the foot of a friend.

On December nth there was a Brigadiers' Confer-
ence. The Brigadiers came to our Mess and stayed for
luncheon. Rumours of an impending attack were in the
air. On the 12th we began to get excited : the attack ap-
peared to be going to be a kind of large demonstration. On
the 1 3th we heard that fighting had begun. I read the sec-
ond Canto of Dante's Inferno. The next day, the 14th, we
got orders to stand by to move at a moment's notice.
Everything was packed up, but nothing happened.
There was a shortage of boots in the Division, and
boots were not procurable, so I went into St. Omer
with our Q. Officer to try and raise some boots. That
evening, before going to sleep, I read Canto three of
the Inferno ; the last time I had read it was in the train,
so my book told me, between Sofia and Bucharest, on
March 31st, 1914.

On the 17th we had news of a bombardment. The
lady who owned the General's billet wanted him to
do something for her — I forget what — so she bribed
him by giving him a bottle of 1870 Burgundy. This
incident occurred on Saturday, December 19th. I
note also that I had reached and finished Canto eight of

75

R.F.C., H.Q, [December

the Inferno. So I was getting on. I noted the phrase :

" Vedi che son un che piango."

I had dinner that night at the Guards' Mess, which
was at Strazeele, in the house belonging to the Cure.
The Cure" made a speech about the Colonel (Colonel,
now General, John Ponsonby), in which he said that
he was as good as gold.

On December 20th a German machine flew over
Merris in the morning, and was attacked by a British
machine. We witnessed the fight in the air. We heard
shots, and the German machine went off. This was a day
of great excitement. We got definite orders that the move
was to take place. We were to move that night. The
General also heard that he had to go back to the R.F.C. ;
General Hakin was to take over the First Division. This
was a bitter disappointment. Everyone was miserable at
General Henderson going. And it was particularly cruel
for him to have to leave the Division just as it was going
into action.

All the H.Q. Staff moved off after tea. There was a
great deal of scurrying, final packing and banging of
doors, and bustle, but no confusion. We were left
alone at six o'clock in our little house. The General
told me I could stay with the Division if I liked or go
back with him. I had no hesitation in going back.

Before going to bed I read Canto nine of the Inferno,
and came across this line, which was only too appro-
priate to a Flanders field :

" Simile qui con simile e sepolto."

I dined that night with the second echelon Mess, who were
not to start till the next day. The next morning I went
back with the General and Macready to the R.F.C. Head-
quarters at St. Omer. The day after, the 26th of Decem-
ber, I started at six in the morning for London, on leave.

76

PART II.

1915

I

CHAPTER VII

ST. OMER UP TO THE FIRST PUSH

January — March, 191 5.

ARRIVED back at St. Omer with General Hen-
derson on the 1 st of January, 191 5. The Mess
consisted of the same people as before, namely,
Colonel Sykes, Major Salmond, Major Barrington-
Kennett, Prince Murat, and Captain St. John. There
was an addition in the person of Captain Hughes
Hallet, a G.S.O., 2 or 3 (I am not certain when
he arrived), and Evan Charteris, who was staying in
the house on the way to taking up his duties with a
Wing. There was also Macready, the A.D.C. who
now took charge of the Mess. We still paid three francs
a day for our food.

On the 2nd of January I went to Ypres, Furnes,
Pervyse, and Dunkirk. The damage at Ypres was much
greater than I expected to find, but the shops were still
open. Pervyse was right on the edge of the inundated
country, and we watched the grey floods from a rickety,
shot-riddled little building. I never looked on a more
desolate scene. It was pouring with rain, and the world
seemed to have been first destroyed and then flooded.
I still shared my same bedroom with Salmond and
B.K., and we resumed the habit of making tea before
we went to bed.

79

R.F.C., H.Q. [January

On January 9th I went to Paris with the General
and Brooke-Popham. In Paris I saw and consulted
Doctor Gosset, the celebrated surgeon, with regard
to some trouble brought on owing to an old operation,
and he prescribed a course which kept me in Paris
until January 21st. I saw a certain amount of French
people, and my impression, comparing the way they
talked of the war with the way people talked of it in
London, was this : the public in Paris, the man in the
street, the people you met at dinner, although they
often said and believed much more fantastic things
than the English, understood a great deal better what
war was and what in war was possible and impossible.

While I was in Paris we lost one of our best flying
officers — Chinnery — in a tragic manner. He was
flying a Voisin machine which he had come to Paris
to fetch, and the machine crashed on the banks of the
Seine, and he was killed.

On January 20th I met Doctor Dillon at luncheon.
He told me he was surprised at the general optimism
which seemed to prevail with regard to the bad econ-
omic plight of the Germans. He was convinced all
their food precautions were dictated by prudence and
were not a sign of want. Monsieur Flers, the play-
wright, and Monsieur Joseph Reinach, were at the
same luncheon. They none of them appeared to me
to be unduly optimistic, but rather confident and quite
extraordinarily short of news. They had not the re-
motest idea what was going on at the Front.

I got back to St. Omer on the 21st of January.
Salmond was going home to start a new squadron. We
had a farewell feast the night before, with oysters.
There were sixteen people at dinner : among
others, Colonel Swinton, of tank and Eye-Witness
fame.

80

1 9i 5] St. Omer up to the First Push

Looking through my notes of this period they reveal
nothing but a monotonous routine of life at St. Omer
between the town and the Aerodrome, varied by occa-
sional excursions to Dunkirk, Boulogne, and Amiens.

On the 2nd of February the first Voisin machine
arrived, which caused a good deal of excitement. On
the 5th of February I spent a night with No. 2 Squad-
ron at Merville, then commanded by Major Dawes.
We had a good deal of music after dinner, and the
pilots sang a song called :

" It's a long way to 8000."

Billet troubles continued ; Archie batteries arrived ;
almost every evening we played chess after dinner, at
which Murat was a great expert. He had a dashing
Napoleonic touch in his play, and he very often opened
the game by playing King's rook pawn to King's rook
fourth. He sometimes won.

On February 7th B.K. caught influenza, and had to
stay in bed, but he insisted on doing his work in bed,
and continued working up till midnight. This illness
was destined to have tragic consequences for him and
for us. On the 8th he was moved into the hospital.

On the 10th we had experiments in bomb-dropping
on the Aerodrome. Longcroft went up and dropped a
bomb ; it fell in a slightly unexpected place, and went
off as it was supposed to do with a bang. That evening
a pilot, whose name I have not recorded, told me that
he thought flying was a very soft job compared to
what the infantry had to go through in the trenches,
and that he felt he was not really in the war. Another
pilot asked me to get him some books by Arnold
Bennett or Compton Mackenzie.

B.-K.'s work was taken on by Major Reynolds.
B.K. came out of the hospital on February nth.

81

R.F.C., H.Q. [February

The next day I drove into Boulogne with him to
see him off on leave. He was still weak, but tried
to carry his own bag. This, however, he was not
allowed to do. The next day I went with Brooke-Pop-
ham to Strazeele to draw a pump from the R.E. Stores
for draining the Aerodrome. There was a shortage of
pumps, but we got one, and it seemed comic in later
days to look back on the day when we went to get one
pump.

On the 15th I went for my first flight in the air.
Longcroft took me up in B.E. 2 C. I was so tightly pack-
ed into the machine that I could not move. We flew over
St. Omer, but it was a grey day, and the country seen
from the air looked like an uncoloured photograph.
With Longcroft piloting one did not feel a single jerk
or bump, and he made a beautiful landing.

On the 21st I went with General Henderson to Aire,
to the Headquarters of the First Wing, where we had
luncheon with Colonel Trenchard. The house was
steam heated and like an oven. The billiard table was
boarded over, and had maps on it. Every kind of
newspaper seemed to be taken in. When we came
away the General said to me : "It's extraordinary
how happy they are in that Mess."

On the 25th we had a second visit from Hilaire
Belloc. I went with Evan Charteris to fetch him at
Boulogne, and we arrived back at midnight. The next
morning we all three of us went to Hazebrouck, where
we had luncheon with Colonel Burke at the Second
Wing Headquarters. After luncheon we went to see
the Squadrons at Poperinghe, on our way to Ypres.

We visited Ypres, but we got blocked on the way
back, and had to go back by Cassel. Belloc and I had
been invited to dine with Sir John French, and we
only got back just in time.

82

i9i5] St. Omer up to the First Push

On the way back from Ypres, Belloc sang a good
many songs ; some of them were about bishops.
When we got home, and the car was waiting to take
us to the Commander-in-Chief's house, while we
were washing, someone asked the driver who he was
waiting for. The driver said : " Two officers and a
clergyman." The clergyman was Belloc. I should men-
tion he was wearing a broad wide-awake hat. We had
dinner with Sir John, but I have no record of the
conversation.

The next day Colonel Sykes took Belloc and myself
to Plugstreet, where we saw the trenches, and to
Neuve-Eglise, which was visited by a shell while we
passed through it. Belloc went away at 5.30, having
had a satisfactory experience of Flanders mud.

My first visit to the real trenches — the trenches
which were like catacombs — was on March 3rd. For
although Plugstreet was in the front line, the trenches
there, being in a wood, were exceptional and not
typical.

I went with Grant, who was at that time a liaison
officer, by Aire and Bethune to Cuinchy. We walked
through a labyrinth of catacomb-like trenches made
of mud, and saw the brickfields. One of the trenches
was called Kissing Lane, another Judy's Passage.

I looked through a periscope, but could see nothing
at all except grass. A soldier in the trenches gave us
an amusing lecture on the service rifle. All it was fit
for, he said, was to be cleaned in the trenches.

In my diary there is an entry on March 4th to the
effect that during the last two days 16 glasses, 10 tumb-
lers, 12 coffee cups, 12 liqueur glasses, and 1 soup
tureen had been broken in the Mess.

On March 6th Murat left us. He had to go to Paris
to undergo a serious operation ; indeed, what turned

83

R.F.C., H.Q. [March

out to be a series of operations. He was a very great
loss to us. All through the retreat he was suffering
from internal troubles, which made this operation
necessary (fortunately it cured him), but he never re-
ferred to them, nor ever let anything interfere with
the unflagging zeal with which he served our interests.
Nobody could deal with an obstinate mayor or a peev-
ish householder as well as Murat.

He always got us the best billets, and he did every-
thing promptly and efficiently. Besides this, every-
body liked him, and whenever I went to a Squadron
later, the first person the pilots asked after was always
Murat. Later on he came back to us for a short time,
and, although General Trenchard made every effort
with the French Authorities then, to keep him, we
were not allowed to do so.

On March 7th I saw Julian Grenfell at his billet
in Belle Hotesse. He was in tearing spirits. Rumours
of fighting were in the air.

On March 8th the Headquarters of the Third Wing,
which was commanded by Brooke-Popham , and stationed
in a small white chateau on the top of a hill near Long-
uenesse, decided to give a dinner party, and to invite
the owner of the chateau and his wife, who were living
in the town while their chateau was being occupied.

In the morning I went with Evan Charteris, who
was attached to this Wing, to buy provisions for the
feast. We bought some sweet and dry champagne and
some lettuce for a salad, and various other delicacies.

The owner of the chateau, an extremely courteous
gentleman, and his charming wife arrived punctually.
But, unfortunately, the Mess Sergeant (an absolutely
exemplary man) and the other servant in the house
both got drunk from the excitement and strain of pre-
paring the dinner. The Mess Sergeant could not walk,

84

I9I5l St. Omer up to the First Push

and he stood stiffly leaning against the door like the
Tower of Pisa. The soup fell down the lift with a
crash. There was a long pause. Finally, after a certain
amount of scurrying and discussion and " business
without," we got some cold chicken. But the salad
arrived boiled and steaming, and looking like a solid,
spongy pulp of green seaweed.

The guests made a vain endeavour to get some of
the dry champagne, which they evidently preferred
to the sweet brand, but the hosts insisted on plying
them with the sweet brand, which they politely, but,
no doubt reluctantly, were obliged to accept.
As dinner went on we realised that the cook was
drunk too. Towards the end of the dinner one of the
hosts, who was fearfully overworked, went to sleep,
and we had to pinch him to wake him up. The guests
appeared to be quite unruffled by the various catastro-
phes, and said they had enjoyed themselves very much.
They said they thought the war would last a long time.

On March ioth we established an advanced Head-
quarters at Hazebrouck for the Neuve Chapelle push.
We started early, and arrived about 8 in the morning.
A terrific bombardment was going on at Neuve
Chapelle, in which more shells were fired than during
the whole of the South African War, but we did not
hear a sound. Our Mess was at the Headquarters of the
Second Wing, a brick Queen- Anne house with a moat
round it. In the evening we got news of the prisoners
taken. This was the first time during the war that
aircraft co-operated with artillery in battle. Some of
of the pilots were up nearly all day sending wireless
messages. The weather was bad. On the nth I saw a
pilot crash on the Bailleul Aerodrome on landing. Both
the pilot and the observer were taken out unconscious
and sent to the hospital.

85

R.F.C., H.Q. [March

On the 1 2th General Henderson was laid up, and
had to stay in bed.

On the 14th one of the pilots I knew best, Barton,
had a bad crash. He went out on a night bombing
expedition, and apparently flew into a tree. He was
found walking about a field. The bombs, luckily, did
not go off.

On the 14th there was a terrific bombardment in
the evening, which we heard this time. I suppose this
must have been the German counter-attack at St.
Eloi, which the Germans took, and which we re-took
almost entirely.

On the 15th I went to Belle Hotesse again to search
for Julian Grenfell. I found him. His regiment was all
ready for a move, which had just been cancelled. He
was lying asleep in a barn on a large sheaf with his
greyhound. I woke him up gently. He said : " Shall I
kill you ? " Then he took me into the Mess and we
had tea. He showed me a poem he had written (about
an A.D.C.), and gave me a copy. He told me he had
written lots of poems. This was the last time I ever
saw him.

On March 17th we left Hazebrouck, and came back
to St. Omer. The push was over. The General was up
again, but the doctor said that he must go to the South
of France.

On the 1 8th I went with General Henderson and
his A.D.C., Captain Barrington-White, to Paris. They
left Paris for Nice on the 20th. That night there was a
Zeppelin raid (the first) over Paris, but not of any
importance.

On the 22nd I dined with some Russians, and we
drank to the victory of Przemysl. The news of the cap-
ture by the Russians of that puzzlingly named city had
just been received. There was a Zeppelin alarm at

86

1915] St. Omer up to the First Push

nine o'clock, and the city was plunged into darkness,
but no Zeppelins came. I walked home through
dark and absolutely deserted streets.

On the 23rd I got back to St. Omer, and I note that
I reached on that date Canto 22 of the Inferno, which
seemed to show the war making a little progress.

The spring had come, and the evening of the 26th
was full of delicate promise. In the twilight the dewy
trees were soft against a green and lilac sky. In the
East great snowy cold clouds were piled one on to
another, faintly reflecting the glow in the West.

87

CHAPTER VIII

ANOTHER ENTR'ACTE AT ST. OMER AND
ANOTHER PUSH.

March — May, 191 5.

THE first day on which the spring made itself
felt that year was on March 24th, a lovely
afternoon. The birds were singing and there
was a soft spring rainbow in the feathery clouds.

Our life had entirely gone back into its normal ruts.

Murat had been succeeded by Lieut. Philonneau,
Captain Festing, from the Northumberland Fusiliers,
arrived to take over Barrington-Kennett's duties
(D.A.A. and Q.M.G.) Salmond had come out again
with No. 1 Squadron, and in this squadron was
Victor Barrington-Kennett, Basil Barrington-Kennett's
younger brother.

I saw him shortly after his arrival, and he told me
that he had given a lecture to the men, and at the end
of it had asked them some questions. Among others :
" Who commands the R.F.C. ? " There was a silence,
and then a man answered : " Colonel Seely." A flying
school had been started at Le Crotoy on the coast.

I can find no further record of anything in the month of
March except that, having complained to the mechanic
in charge of the Mess that the accounts were rising
higher and higher, stale bread was given to us at

88

igi5] At St. Orner, another Push

luncheon and no coffee for breakfast the next day,
and when I asked the A.M. the reason he said : "It's
too expensive."

One evening in April, just as we were finishing
dinner, one of the motor cyclists flung open the dining-
room door and said, in breathless, dramatic tones :
" Sir, a Zeppelin has been reported flying towards St.
Omer." We went up to the Aerodrome, but save for
a^display of searchlights, nothing happened. Furse, a
gunner who had been wounded as an observer early
in the war, came to us as a Staff- Officer.

He understood the possibilities of aircraft and
artillery from both sides, and what should be the
nature of their co-operation. On April 7th I went with
him to see various battery Commanders. We found
the gunners quite extraordinarily sticky with regard
to the co-operation of aircraft with artillery. They
seemed to have no belief in it at all. And all Furse 's
arguments fell on deaf ears. It is intensely trying to
have to deal in war-time with a new weapon.

On the 16th I went to Bethune to find B.K.,
who had gone back to his regiment, the Gren-
adier Guards. When he had recovered from his
bad attack of influenza the doctor had told him that
office work was bad for him. So he applied to go back
to his regiment. He was offered the command of a
squadron, but he was unwilling to accept this as he
thought a Squadron Commander should fly himself.

B.K. had been one of the first pilots in the Flying
Corps before the war. It is impossible to state too
strongly what a loss his departure was to the whole
Corps. He had himself laid the foundation of a certain
tone ; he had always been keen about instilling a cer-
tain spirit, and although there was nobody less of a
martinet, he had always insisted on the extreme

89

R.F.C., H.Q. [April

importance of discipline. He had recruited from the
guards a nucleus of excellent non-commissioned
officers, and had thus established a solid frame-work
of tradition and sound principles, which in a new
Corps dealing with a new weapon, and a weapon such
as the aeroplane and with all the qualities and defects
which flying must necessarily entail, was, of course,
of vital importance.

His influence was great, and time and again I heard
pilots say : " B.K. says we ought to do this or that."

B.K. was out when we arrived at the billet. But we
waited till seven o'clock, when he came in. We had a
long talk. He wanted to know how to cook a cauli-
flower. This was the last time I was to see him.

On the 19th General Henderson came back from
Nice, restored to health and looking quite a different
man. On the 20th I went, with Festing, to Dickebush,
and we climbed up a hill with a name which I have
never managed to spell correctly, and watched Ypres
being shelled. The counter-attack on St. Eloi was
going on. On the 22nd I went to London with General
Henderson, and stayed there till the 28th. The day
after we came back was at St. Omer one of the
loveliest days I can remember. The large beech-
tree in the garden was on the point of coming out.
There were no leaves on it, but the buds were on the
point of bursting. Against the light blue sky the reddish
branches looked pink and feathery. The magnolia
tree in the garden was half out, and the cuckoo was
calling. Far away there was a faint booming ; perhaps a
spring thunderstorm, perhaps guns. May was a beau-
tiful month.

The day Hill 60 was taken and re-taken (May
6th), the nightingales sang themselves hoarse and
the cuckoo never stopped. In the evening, Gould,

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i9i5] At St. Omer, another Push

the finest Mauriqe-Farman pilot in existence, took me
up in his machine. And neither coat nor cap nor goggles
was necessary. Like all great artists, he seemed to
do nothing at all, and to let the machine fly itself.

On the 8th I moved, with General Henderson and
Barrington- White, to advanced Headquarters at Haze-
brouck. This meant another push. We occupied a large
white villa with a beautiful garden full of lilac and
laburnum, near the station. WTe heard the news of the
sinking of the " Lusitania," and in Canto 26 of the
Inferno, which I read that night, I marked this appro-
priate line :

" E per lo Inferno il nome tuo si spande."

The next day (Sunday) was the feast of Joan of Arc.
I went to Mass in the morning. The church was full
of wounded soldiers, some of whom had been gassed.
The church windows rattled from the noise of shell-
ing in the distance, and the Cure spoke of the Cure
of Bailleul, who had just been killed, par un eclat
d'obus.

On the 10th I went into Bailleul and saw Edward
Horner, who had been severely wounded, and was in
the hospital there. The nth was a gorgeous day, and I
went in the morning to Cassel with General Henderson.
He wanted to see General Plumer, who was living in a
square white chateau in a wooded garden at the foot
of Cassel Hill. Nightingales were singing in the garden,
and while I was standing by an artificial pond, General
Plumer strolled out and talked to me, and fed the ducks
with some bread. I have no record of the fighting in the
air which took place during this push. I was told after-
wards that the weather conditions were perfect. It was
perhaps the only day on which a big battle was fought
during the whole war that the conditions for the work

9i

R.F.C, H.Q. [May

of aircraft left nothing to be desired, and yet
everything, so I am told, went wrong ; that is to say,
as far as results on the ground were concerned.

On the 13th we received news of the big French
fight at Lens, and it was either on this day or one of
these days that the French Commander-in-Chief
came to Hazebrouck. I had some talk with one of the
officers who was with him, who said to me - " C'est le
commencement de la fin." He said that the Germans
had dropped a bomb on the French G.H.Q. at Chantilly,
which he described as the despairing bite of a mad dog.

The Italian situation was causing a good deal of
anxiety at this moment. Otherwise there was a tem-
porary wave of optimism ; among the people I saw, at
least.

On the 17th May, I went with General Henderson
to General Trenchard's Fleadquarters at Merville,
and there we had news of the Festubert fighting.

On the 19th I got news that Julian Grenfell had
been wounded, and on the 20th General Henderson
sent me into Boulogne to see if I could see him but
he was too ill to see anybody.

That night, in the middle of dinner, Barrington-
White said there was a rumour that B.K. had been
killed. The next day the rumour was confirmed.

If ever a man deserved a soldier's death, to die
leading his men and the men of his own regiment into
battle, it was B.K. But of all the bitter losses one had to
bear throughout the war, it was, with one exception,
this particular loss I felt most, minded most, resented
most, and found most difficult to accept.

He was not an old friend of mine. I had never seen
him before the war. But he was bound up with every
moment of my life during the first months of the war,
and I had got to know him intimately and to admire

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i9i5] At St. Omer, another Push

him more than others and to delight in his company
more than in that of others. He had left the Flying
Corps, and I should probably not have seen much
more of him, unless as would have perhaps been
possible later, he had returned to it. But when this
particular piece of news came I felt the taste of the
war turn bitter indeed, and apart from any personal
feelings, one rebelled against the waste which had
deprived, first the Flying Corps and then the x\rmy,
of the services of so noble a character. He was the
most completely unselfish man I have ever met : a com-
pound of loyalty and generosity and a gay and keen
interest in everything life has to offer.

Not long ago I heard a little boy of eight years old
asked if he knew what the word gentleman meant. He
said, " Yes, of course." On being pressed for a defi-
nition he said :

" A gentleman is a man who loves God very much
and has beautiful manners." This definition exactly
fitted B.K.

Here is the last letter but one I received from him
which I kept. His last letter I have lost. (It was about
cooking cauliflower.) It was written before I went to
see him at Bethune :

N.B.—

2nd Bn. Grenadier Guards, c k Br- de\ and

4th Guards Brigade, «^ Batt'n !

2nd Division. " j forget it!

i34-I5-
My dear Maurice,

Your honesty is only equalled by your benevolence,
for I feel convinced that the Mess debt to me did not amount
to the sum you sent. If at a later date you find that your
mathematics were at fault, mind apprise me, and I will
refund the erring francs. Well-a-day I find this life most

93

R.F.C., H.Q. [May

pleasant and full of incident. One's days pass in a rich
succession of interludes — eating, sleeping, designing en-
trenchments, drainage-improvements, dug-outs, etc., spy-
ing, sniping, night-patrolling, and last but by no means
least, constant gingering. Our pastimes consist of reading,
writing and (when counting up dead Germans) arithmetic
— chess, bridge, patience, and the discussion of a nice point
or two. Altogether life is quite pleasant if only one could
eliminate the constant stream of rifle-bullets, Jack John-
sons, bombs, whizz-bangs, and the like. So far I have not
even been struck by a bullet, much less by one of the more
clumsy missiles. I hope to keep all such at a distance, as I
should hate to forego the opportunity of quaffing a nice
glass of wine with you when our foes have been reduced
to a state similar to that I once reduced Brewster* — my
request was he should make an omelette.

Don't fail to pay me a visit and that right early. Enquire
my whereabouts (2nd Bn. G.G.) from 2nd Division H.Q.
at Bethune, and if you can, bring some literature. By the
way, I left one or two of my books behind . Jorrocks, Lamb's
Essays and Macaulay's Essays amongst them. Also, when
you come bring some cigarettes for the men if there are
any surplus at R.F.C. H.Q. There used to be as a rule.
My brother Victor was over here yesterday for an hour or
so. He seems fit and enjoying himself. Is the H.Q. pretty
lively these days, plenty of quibs and digs in the ribs ?
Bring your latest spy-spotting monocle when you come, as
the folk here are not above suspicion. Greetings to all, in-
cluding the H.Q. Staff. I can hear the tic-a-tic interspersed
with an occasional ping. — Yours, B.K.

That day I went with General Henderson and saw
his son, Ian Henderson, who had joined his father's
old regiment, the Argyll and Sutherlands. That night
I read Dante's Inferno, Canto 33, and noted this line .

" E se non piangi, di che pianger suoli ? "

Belloc had been invited to visit us again, and it was

* The original cook at H.Q.

94

i9i5j At St. Omer, another Push

suggested that he should lecture to the R.F.C. I went
into St. Omer to arrange about a lecture hall for him. In
the meantime, no better news of Julian Grenfell ar-
rived, and all those I saw who knew him seemed intensely
anxious about him. Belloc arrived at St. Omer on the
26th, and the next day I drove with him to the battlefield
of Agincourt, near Hesdin, and he explained the battle
and the battlefield to our driver. He lectured in the
afternoon on the Russian front, and it was a most in-
teresting and lucid lecture. That evening an unfortun-
ate incident happened at dinner. I had, knowing there
was mutton for dinner and that Belloc hated mutton,
bought some ecrevisses in the afternoon, and explained
carefully to the cook, who was now a Frenchman (whom
we had obtained from the French Army, as a great
favour), how they were to be cooked, namely, a la Bordel-
aise. They were to be served to Belloc when we ate
the mutton. Everything seemed to be clear. But when
the mutton was brought in the Mess Corporal brought
in the Ecrevisses in a separate dish and handed them
round as a vegetable, and, in spite of my protests, every
one took one. So there were only two left for our ex-
tremely hungry lecturer.

Late after dinner that night a man brought me a
letter from Boulogne telling me that Julian Grenfell
had died of his wounds in the hospital on the afternoon
of the 26th. That night I read the Purgatorio, Canto
three, and was struck by this line, which is extraordin-
arily appropriate to Julian :

" Biondo era e bello e di gentile aspetto."

whom I had known ever since he was a little boy with
golden curls and little green knickerbockers before he
went to school. The next day our advanced Head-
quarters moved back to St. Omer. The push was over.

95

CHAPTER IX.

ST. OMER ONCE MORE, AND ITALY.

May — August, 191 5.

ON May 20th I went to No. 1 Squadron at
Bailleul, commanded by Geoffrey Salmond. I
had along talk with Victor Barrington-Kennett.

The last push and its failure had had a depressing
effect on the pilots and everyone else, especially on
those who had lost those whom they most cared for.

On May 31st I spent the night with No. 4 Squadron
at Bailleul, commanded by Longcroft. They were
living in tents in the aerodrome on the side of the
Nieppe road.

Dinner was ready in a large tent, and we had scarcely
sat down when a Zeppelin was reported on the hori-
zon. Longcroft jumped into a scout, flung a handful
of bombs into it, and in a moment was soaring into
the sunset. We walked up on to the hill, and we could
see the Zeppelin a thin, black mark on the low
horizon. Longcroft was not away long, because
directly he got up into the air he said it was impossible
to see anything for the mist. In the meantime the sun
had thoroughly set, and it grew dark. Flares were lit
on the aerodrome, and soon we heard Longcroft's
machine buzzing in the air. He flew in through two
trees, and made a perfect landing in the dark.

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1915] St. Omer once more, and Italy

Then we sat down to dinner, which turned out to
be one of the gayest feasts I have ever attended.
Speeches were made and songs were sung, and all the
glass was broken. Then we went quietly to sleep in
our respective tents.

On June 2nd, which was a lovely day, I was sitting
in the office at St. Omer censoring letters, when
Simpson, a gunner who had stayed with us, walked
in and asked me to go with him to Felix Potin and
help to buy some whisky. He wanted to take some out
to a battery, and they would not let him have any. We
went to Felix Potin and bought the whisky success-
fully. Fie asked me whether I would like to go with
him to the batteries, and I said I would. So we started
for Ypres.

We went first to one battery and then to another,
and doled out whisky. Then we thought it would be
interesting to drive into Ypres. When we got beyond
a certain point on the Ypres road, there was a sudden
silence : that peculiar hush which falls when you get
beyond the line where, instead of the ordinary business
of life men are carrying on the silent business of fight-
ing.

Presently we met some troops clattering down the
road at a sharp trot. I felt that something a little
unusual was going on. We turned off to a side-
road on the left. We met a sergeant, and we
stopped and spoke to him. " It's very warm up there,
sir," he said. We felt we would have done better to
stick to the main road, as there were a good many
shrapnel shells bursting about the place, and, after
we had passed, some high explosive. We went on,
however, and we got into Ypres, which was quite
deserted. After we had looked round a little, we went
to a battery on the Dickebush road and doled out more

97

H

R.F.C., H.Q. [June

whisky, and thence vid Neuve-Eglise and Plugstreet
to Armentieres, which was also deserted. There we
found another battery, and gave the officers what
remained of the whisky. Then we drove home at a
tearing rate.

The day after this I went to Bailleul and stayed the
night with Geoffrey Salmond at No. i Squadron. The
director of the lunatic asylum had dinner with us.

At this period there were great discussions going on
as to the organisation of the co-operation of aircraft
with wireless with artillery, the system of signalling,
etc., and the next day I went to General Trenchard's
Headquarters at Choques, where an immensely long
conference took place on this subject.

On Sunday I spent an afternoon in the trenches. I
went with Reynolds to see his brother, who was with
the Canadian Brigade commanded by Colonel Seely
at Beuvry, a village near Bethune. We found his brother
and we walked to the trenches. While we were walking
across the field a large Black Maria went off at the end
of the communication trench ; we were well out of
reach. We walked up to the front line trench and
stayed there till eight. I had a long talk with a soldier.
He talked a great deal about two snipers, whom he
said gave trouble regularly. They were called Hans and
Fritz. We looked through a periscope, but saw nothing.
As soon as it grew dark star shells began to go off. It
was a beautiful sight, like fireworks on the fourth of
June at Eton. Reynolds went down into a mine. I did
not. We walked back to Reynolds' brother 's billet and had
dinner in the yard of a cottage. We drove home in the mist.

On June 9th I received a telegram saying that a great
friend of mine, Pierre Benckendorff, the second son of
Count Benckendorff, who was Ambassador in London,
had been killed in action.

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1915J St. Omer once more, and Italy

I had seen him off at Moscow station when he
started for the Manchurian War. And I had found
him in Manchuria when I arrived there. Shortly after-
wards he had disappeared in a reconnaissance and had
been reported missing. The news of his death was
even officially confirmed to me. But somehow or other
I did not believe then that he had been killed. This
time I had no doubts. A soldier, who was with him,
said he had just time to smile and then he fell back.

When I got this news I felt what, alas, one was so
often called upon to feel during the war, that the death
of a particular person meant the end of a whole chapter
of one's life, which was different from other chapters,
and could never be repeated.

" All that is ended." That is what I felt when I
heard the news of Pierre's death, and I should like in
these pages to pay a small tribute to his memory. He
was connected more nearly than anyone else with the
happiest days I had spent in Russia. He was one of the
most naturally intelligent human beings I have ever
met. Completely unambitious, devoted to outdoor
life, and shooting, and every kind of outdoor expedition
and adventure.

He refused to speak English, although he under-
stood it quite well, and could pronounce it perfectly,
arid he successfully concealed the fact that he knew
French till he was nineteen. He was fond of reading
Gogol's stories, Russian translations of Sherlock
Holmes, and German translations of Mark Twain.
He used to make me read Mark Twain (in German)
aloud to him for hours, and laugh uncontrollably, partly
at the stories and partly at my un-teutonic rendering,
delivery and accent. He had the most satisfactory of
all senses of humour, that kind of sense of humour for
which nothing is too silly and too foolish. He would

99

R.F.C., H.O. [June

riot in the silliest games and occupations. One could
spend hours drawing pictures with him that meant
nothing, or inventing tunes on the piano. But
he was happiest out of doors ; shooting duck in
the early morning, or waiting for wolves in the snow.
The year before the war he was sent to Italy, after a
severe illness, and there he no longer concealed his
flair and his appreciation for the works of art of
antiquity, and all epochs.

The only time he ever went to London I asked him
what sights or public buildings or Museums he would
like to see, and he said Sherlock Holmes' house. So we
drove to Baker Street, and we agreed that Sherlock
Holmes' house (according to the story of Colonel
Moran in the Return of Sherlock Holmes), must be on
the right hand side of the street as you drive towards
Regent's Park. This is the sort of thing you could
discuss with Pierre for hours. We once collaborated
in a story I published called " Sherlock Holmes in
Russia," in which most of the subject matter was due
to him.

He was a good officer, and once when he asked one
of his men why he hadn't cleaned a rifle which was
dirty, and the man said he had cleaned it, Pierre
answered : " Then you deserve double punishment
for cleaning it badly." He had the eye that sees every-
thing at once, and the mind that understands without
any explanation, and need not bother to learn.

In an article on foreign politics, which appeared in
a provincial Russian review, discussing the European
situation, the writer, a well-known professor, with
reference to one of the many Balkan crises before 19 14,
said : " The reason why we escaped having to go to
war was because we had as ambassador in London the
first gentleman in Europe." Pierre was not unworthy

100

i9i5] St. Omer once more, and Italy

to be the son of a father about whom such a thing
could be said from so (as all who know Russia will
understand) disinterested a quarter. And he had some-
thing also entirely his own, which I have already tried
to indicate : a God-gifted naturalness by reason of
which it was impossible for him not to understand
anything or to strike a wrong note in thought, word
or deed, or to be anything other than what he was.

He was more completely devoid of any kind of pose
than anyone I have ever met. I remember his rollick-
ing amusement when a young lady told him at Nice one
day that he was " beau comme un Dieu." I was at St.
Petersburg just before the Japanese declared war on
Russia in 1904, and I often saw a troop of his regiment,
the Chevalier Gardes, riding by over the hard snow;
their breastplates and helmets and golden eagles and
white tunics glinting in the sunshine under a blue sky, all
the brighter for the snow on the ground. One day, a
lady told me she was watching this sight, which was
as common as seeing the Life Guards ride up St.
James's Street, and as she was looking at the dazzling
troop she noticed one officer younger than the rest
and different ; and, although she knew Pierre quite
well, and was, in fact, his first cousin, she did not at
once recognise him " with his beaver on," but she
asked herself who is this apparition ? and she told me
she thought at once of Shakespeare's description of
Prince Harry :

" All furnished, all in arms,

All plum'd like estridges that wing the wind,

As full of spirit as the month of May,

And gorgeous as the sun at Midsummer. . . ."

I never saw Pierre with his beaver on ; but
when he started for the Manchurian War it was

101

R.F.C., H.Q. [July

difficult to believe that he would ever come back. He
seemed to be of those on whom the gods have set
their fatal seal. But a nobler fate was reserved to him
than to fall in an adventurous war brought about by
bungling and intrigue, and alien to the hearts of his
fellow-country-men. He was felix opportunitate mortis,
not only because the circumstances of his death were
fitting, but also because, as subsequent events proved,
his grief would have, must have, lain onward ; his joy
behind.

On the nth I was ill with malaria, and I stayed
with No. 1 6 Squadron, who were living in a large
chateau at Choques, with a moat round it. We had a
great pillow fight in the middle of the night, and all
my bed clothes were thrown out of the window. I
came back the next day to St. Omer entirely cured.

On the 14th a happy afternoon was spent destroying
useless bombs on the aerodrome at St. Omer. You
threw them from the edge of the aerodrome into a
gravel pit, where they went off and fizzed harmlessly.
But before throwing them you had to knock the pin.
One of them went off prematurely, and set fire to the
heather, and to our horror a wave of flame rolled to-
wards the shed where the bombs were stored. And
the wind was fanning the flame. We summoned a whole
army of mechanics, and the fire was put out.

On the 13th I went with General Henderson to a
whole series of Squadrons, and on the 19th I started with
him for London, stopping two nights in Paris on the way.

I was due in London to start back on July 1st, but
while motoring back from the country my driver ran
me in the mist into a hedge, and I was projected through
the windscreen, and cut my head. The result of this
mishap was that I stayed in London till the 21st of
July, when I arrived back at St. Omer.

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1 915] St. Omer once more, and Italy

When I got back General Henderson told me I
should very likely have to go to Italy in the immediate
future as someone who could speak Italian was wanted
to go there on business connected with aircraft with
Captain Valentine, our representative in Paris.

On July 28th the Germans dropped three bombs on
St. Omer town at midnight.

They also dropped a message to say that they were
going to bomb the town daily throughout the next
week until it was destroyed. An idle threat. The damage
done was slight. One baker's shop was wrecked and
one other house damaged.

On July 30th the Germans again dropped three
bombs on St. Omer, this time at 5.45. The slight thud
in the air woke me up.

I went to Ypres again with Victor Barrington-
Kennett, and had a real leisurely exploration of the
place. I spent some time in the ruined cathedral. The
organ was still intact, but the staircase leading up to
it was destroyed. Our batteries stationed just on the
fringe of the town barked all the while. The town itself
was deserted and silent. In the sacristy of the cathedral
there were a lot of books and missals quite
intact. A harvest of souvenirs for those who wanted
such things. I had no inclination to take even a chip
of a brick away. I dined with No. 1 Squadron that
night at Bailleul, and stayed the night.

It was now definitely settled that I was to go to Italy
and to start at once. I started after dinner the next
evening, and broke the journey at the First Aircraft
Depot at Candas, a village which is on the way to
Amiens.

The next morning I resumed the journey, and halted
at Vert Galant, on the Amiens road, where we had
some Squadrons. I arrived in Paris in the evening. The

103

R.F.C., H.Q. [August

next morning I saw the Ambassador, and had a long
talk with him, but I kept no record of it. The next day
I spent walking about Paris, and on the evening of the
4th I started with Valentine by the night express for
Turin.

We arrived at Turin on August 5th about two o'clock
in the afternoon, and proceeded at once to the Aviation
Headquarters, which were in a barracks. Thence we
went at once with a Captain de la Polla to see piston
and propeller shops. The object of our mission was to
see the Caproni machine ; to find out whether it could
carry the Beardmore engine ; and if it was advisable
to order one for the R.F.C. Before starting I learnt
all the Italian technical terms I could.

The next day we went in a military motor, driven
at an incredible speed, to the Fiat motor works , and
after luncheon by train to Milan, where we were met
by one of the Gaetani family. We dined in a cafe in
the big arcade, and one of the guests was a disting-
uished actress belonging to the Comedie Francaise.
The next day we went to Malpensa, the Italian flying
school, and there we saw the Caproni machine. We
had luncheon at Gallerata, and drove from thence to
the Isotto-Fraschini works. A great deal of conver-
sation was poured through me, but I have no recollect-
ion of what it was all about. The nett result was that a
Caproni machine was ordered. The next day we visited
the Dion works, and in the evening we started for Rome,
as it was at Rome that our business had to be settled.

We went to the War Office, and saw General Morris,
who was in charge of the Italian aviation. He said one
thing which stuck in my mind, and which made me
laugh a good deal internally, although I kept an abso-
lutely grave countenance. He said : " What I am
going to say to you will be absolutely unintelligible

104

i9i5] St. Omer once more, and Italy

and unthinkable to you as Englishmen, but I regret
to say that here, in Italy, it is a fact that there exists a
certain want of harmony, a certain, occasional, shall I
say, friction ? between the military and naval branches
of our Flying Service." We murmured " impossible."

That night we drove to St. Peter's and to the
Coliseum. They both looked singularly beautiful in
the velvet darkness. The city was dimly lit for fear of
air-raids, but there were numbers of blue lights which
heightened the majesty and the mystery of the stately
Roman buildings.

The next morning I went to the Palatine. While I
was there, basking in the gorgeous colours and the
blazing sunshine, a small boy drove by in a large cart
with two mules. I was smoking. Catching sight of me,
he leapt from his cart, lit a cigarette at mine, and then
drove on in silence with a lordly swagger, like a Prince.

In the evening we started back for Turin. At Turin
we had more business at the Aviation Office and at
the Francia Works. We started for Paris in the after-
noon, and a man met us at the station with a parcel
of steel obdurator rings.

On the 13th Valentine drove me back from Paris in
his racing Panhard. We left Paris at 4.15, and we
arrived at St. Omer at 7.20. Valentine drove at a terrific
speed, but with consummate skill. He would calculate
accurately what a man in a cart about three-quarters
of a mile ahead would be likely to want to do . . . and
not give him time to do it.

When we arrived we found that General Henderson
had gone to London for good, and General Trenchard
was commanding the R.F.C. in the field. I was filled with
consternation at finding General Henderson gone. Hav-
ing been with him since the beginning of the war, I looked
upon his presence as a matter of course, apart from all

I05

R.F.C., H.Q. [August

such questions as old acquaintance, friendship, and
my appreciation of what he had been and done, and
of his indescribable kindness to me personally, and of
all the qualities which everyone who came into close
contact with him felt and knew.

Apart from all that, I felt adrift, like a stranded
bondsman face to face with a new Pharaoh, and a
bondsman who felt he had no qualifications.

106

CHAPTER X.
ST. OMER AND ANOTHER OFFENSIVE.

August — December, 191 5.

THE day after I arrived in Italy, Valentine told
me I would be most useful to him in his Paris
office, so I gathered this move had been sug-
gested. The last thing I wanted was to go to Paris.

General Tren chard sent for me, and told me he was
willing to keep me for a month. He would see by
that time whether I would be of any use to him, and
if I was of no use I should have to go. He told me
whatever I might have heard to the contrary, he was
not so bad a person to serve under.

He then asked me if I should like to stay on. I said
I should like to go to London and talk things over with
General Henderson. I also said that I should hate to
go to Paris. He told me I might go at once, and I
started that afternoon. I saw General Henderson, and
he told me I had much better stop with the R.F.C.
There was nothing I could do at the War Office. So I
went back, and, stopping on the way in Paris, I reached
St. Omer on the 20th.

When General Trenchard took over, the R.F.C.
consisted of three Wings and a Headquarters. The
first thing he wanted me to do was to make notes for

107

R.F.C., H.Q. [August

him. The General's system of note-making was like
this. He visited Squadrons or Depots or Aircraft Parks
as the case might be and took someone with him who
made notes (for the next four years the someone was
myself) of anything they wanted. In the evening the
notes used to be put on his table typed, and then he
would send for the various staff officers who dealt
with the matters referred to in the notes, and discuss
them. The first thing he would ascertain was if the
matter mentioned in the note had a real foundation ;
for instance, whether a Squadron which complained that
they were short of propellers had not in fact received a
double dose the day before. If the need or the com-
plaint or the request was found to be justified and
reasonable he would proceed to hasten its execution
and see that the necessary steps were taken. If the
requests were found to be idle or baseless the Squad-
ron or the petitioner in question would be informed
at once. But where the General differed from many
capable men was in this : he was never satisfied with
investigating a request or a grievance or a need or a
suggestion. After having dealt with it he never let the
matter rest, but in a day or two's time he would insist
on hearing the sequel. He would find out whether
Squadron B had received its split pin or what Mr. A.
had answered from England when asked for it. This
did not conduce to our repose, but it did further the
efficiency of the R.F.C.

The first long expedition I went with him was on
August 22nd to the Third Army, where we visited
No. 8, No. 4 and No. 12 Squadrons. But the first notes
that I can read were made the day after, when we
visited the first Wing. I have down in my note-book
for that day that the General wants some Oxford
marmalade for breakfast, that the road near No. 3

108

1915] St. Omer and another Offensive

Squadron is too dusty, and steps must be taken to
remedy this. That the first Wing are not to press at
present to send home observers to learn to fly. That
Christie wants some more double clips for the elevator
control. There is also something not quite legible
with reference to R.A.F. wires and Crossley spare
axles. The General never referred again — that year at
least — to his initial talk with me as to whether I should
be of use to him or not, but when on the 24th of August,
the day after he said he liked Oxford marmalade, there
was Oxford marmalade for tea, he said to me, looking
at it : "I see you have got a memory ; I shall use it."

We all missed General Henderson very much, and
the General told me he missed his influence with the
armies. The Coldstream Guards were billeted quite
close to us on the road to Boulogne at this time. And
one night my nephew, Dermot Browne,* who was in
that regiment, came to dinner with us, with John
Ponsonby, who almost immediately after this became
a Brigadier, and one night I had dinner at his Head-
quarters.

On September 2nd I went with the General to Paris.
I was furnished with a note that we must bring back
some paper felt washers for the induction pipes of the
Le Rhone engine. We went to the Paris Aviation
Office and afterwards to Darracq's Works. The next
day the General had an interview with General Hirs-
hauer, who commanded the French aviation then, but
he went with Colonel Leroy-Lewis, our military
attache, and I was not present. We also went to the
Morane factory. We got back to St. Omer on the 5th,
stopping at one of the Squadrons on the way.

In those days we only had one Aircraft Park to
supply the needs of the Squadrons. It was scattered

* He was killed at Loos on September 29.
IO9

R.F.C.y H.Q. [September

about in various places at St. Omer. The General's
idea, which he carried into effect shortly after this,
was to have one Aircraft Park for the Squadrons serv-
ing each Army — what were afterwards the Brigades.
We went over the Aircraft Park on the 8th. I have it
on record that the Banjo clearances were wrongly
adjusted when they came out.

The next day the two Wing Commanders, Colonel
Ashmore and Colonel Brancker, came to luncheon,
and we went to the Aircraft Park with them.

On the 5th I went for my first long fly with Major
Beatty in a B.E.2.C. We meant to go to Dunkirk, but
we went somewhere near Calais and back. It was a
lovely day. We went up to about 5,000 feet. There
were no clouds, and we stayed up about an hour and a
half.

Our staff now consisted of Brooke-Popham as
G.S.O. 1, Festing as D.A.A. and Q.M.G., Major Beatty,
who managed the Q. side, and Major Pope-Hennessy,
G.S.O. 2.

Another push was coming on, and on the 18th a
Wing Conference took place in a little school at Hinges,
when the flying arrangements for the coming battle
were discussed.

At this conference the three Wing Commanders
(Colonel Ashmore commanding the first Wing, Colonel
Salmond commanding the second, and Colonel
Brancker commanding the third) were present, and
their staff officers, Brooke-Popham, Pope-Hennessy,
and myself.

The main points discussed were the number of
gallons of petrol to be kept at rail-heads in case of an
advance, the landing of agents behind German lines,
the question of bombing trains, the supply of machines,
etc.

no

I9I5] St. Omer and another Offensive

On the 2 1 st the bombardment began. I went with
the General to all the Squadrons in the first Wing. We
visited seven Squadrons, two Wing Headquarters,
and one Aircraft Park. It was an exhausting day, and
produced a harvest of notes. Here a few out of the
multitude : No. 3 Squadron wants Ball-race No. 25 x 55
x 21^ for false nose. No. 2 have no V-typed under-car-
riages in the Squadron. No. 10 leave their machines out in
the sun. One machine, which was shot, is hung up for
a cross-tube, under the fuselage, holding the sockets
of the bottom-plane. No. 16 want fish-tail clips, and
hot air-pipes for the Zenith carburettor. No. 1 want a
Le Rhone false nose-plate, complete, with pinion and
ball-bearing. No. 6 want oval tubing-steel, | — §, and
a front left-hand top-centre section of Fish-plate for
a F.E. 2.A.

On the 22nd arrangements were made about wire-
less, dealing more especially with valve-prefixes, short-
wave-tuners, the tactical call, the sterling-set trans-
mitter, the short-wave tuner, etc. On the 23rd there
was a heavy bombardment going on, and very heavy
firing during the night of the 24th ; and on the morn-
ing of the 25th, we sat in the office and waited for
news. Rumours came of good news about the French
offensive in Champagne. It rained all the afternoon.
At sunset, about 5.45, a large rainbow appeared in the
East. I saw the light suddenly in the office window. I
walked down through the garden on to the road and
a little way up the hill towards the aerodrome. The
sun had set. The west was all a blaze of watery gold,
but it was still raining, and the rain drops pattered on
the leaves of the trees. The fields on the right of the
road were burnished by the sunset. Two white horses
were ploughing, but it was too dark to see the plough-
man. In the East, against great soft cotton- wool-like

in

R.F.C., H.O. [September

masses of white and dull cloud (faintly tinged by the
sunset) the little grey town with its red roofs stood out
in clear outline, and the cathedral which dominates it,
looked like a bird protecting her young. A man in
khaki went up the road, whistling. And near the
churchyard, on the left of the road, a woman dressed
in black was holding a wreath of everlasting flowers.
It seemed to me more like sunrise in a dream than like
sunset ; no, not like a sunset or a sunrise, neither
Autumn nor Spring, but the unearthly dawn of a new,
strange season. I thought it was perhaps the presage
of victory, but victory mingled with tears.

All this last page I have transcribed from my Diary
word for word, but what I also remember happening
and what is not in my diary, so that I don't know whether
it happened that morning or the morning after, is a
breathless period of excitement after we received the
first favourable news of that battle.

Someone rushed into the office and said we would
be off to Bethune in a few hours' time, and I drove
down to the town and bought whole stacks of tinned
meat to be ready for all emergencies. Then time went
on ; the news began to seem a little less good, and
nobody said anything, but one realised that there was
no need for extra rations of bully beef, and one felt
that one would soon be settling down to the old routine
— and that we were only going through what had
happened already before.

The next morning everyone was in a state of alarm
owing to the news in the German wireless which had
been mis-translated and misunderstood. I went to the
second Wing to get news, and heard that 8 guns, 1,200
officers and 10,000 men had been taken. When I got
back I found everyone rather depressed. Things did
not appear to be going so well. After luncheon I went

112

1 915] St. Omer and another Offensive

to Hinges, to the first Wing. There the news seemed
better. I climbed up a tower, from which Messines is
visible, to see the battle, but I could see nothing.

On the 29th we got news that the French had
broken through the German third line. This turned
out afterwards, if true, to have been unavailing.

On October 3rd, 191 5, life resumed its normal
course. During a push our life was not normal. In the
first place, in the office there was a table on which all
the telegrams from the different Wings and Armies
were arranged in order, and everyone was standing by
in case of a move.

On the 4th I went with the General to look for his
old regiment, the Royal Scots Fusiliers. They were sup-
posed to be near Poperinghe, but we could not find a
trace of it. We stopped just outside Ypres, and walked
into the town. Every house by this time was smashed.
A German machine came over while we were there,
only one, but constant whistling for people to take
cover went on the whole time we were there, when
there were no German machines in sight.

On the 8th of October, 191 5, General Henderson
came out and stayed till the nth. We went the round
of the Squadrons with him.

On the 9th of October, in the afternoon, we had a
glorious exhibition of machines. Each squadron sent
a machine fitted up with its pet gun, mountings, and
gadgets — and one got the prize. The following quest-
ions were dealt with : —

Bomb sights.

Camera.

Incendiary bomb-tubes.

Wireless reel.

Bomb-barrier fittings (standard position close to

fuselage).

"3

R.F.C., H.Q. [October

Release gear (cam gear for releasing bombs).

Gun mountings.

Ammunition.

Wireless accumulators.

Wireless instruments.

Signalling keys (they must be inside).

Heating of carburettor.

Holes in planes.

Colour of cowl.

And, if extra tanks are carried, petrol, oil, pump,
instruments, control pillar.

Map case.

On the 2 1 st of October I went on leave, and stayed
in London till the 28th, when I got back to St. Omer
again. Justat this time the Fokker scourgewasat itsheight.
The Germans had made an exact copy of a French
machine, namely, the Morane monoplane, and were
using it with deadly effect against our B.E.'s, which
were continuing to do the work of the Army. The
Germans were not continuing to do the work of their
Army on our side of the line.

By this time our Flying Corps was so used to doing
what it wanted in the air without serious opposition
that not enough attention was paid to this menace,
and the monoplane, in the hands of a pilot like Im-
melmann, was a serious, and for us a disastrous,
factor.

But the point is that our work never stopped in
spite of this. The work of the armies was done, Fokker
scourge or no Fokker scourge. It may be asked why
we had not got the equivalent of Fokkers* in great
quantity by this time, and the answer is that in avi-
ation during the war everything was a compromise
between progress and supply. As it took more than

• For offensive purposes; as a defence against Fokkers they
would have been useless.

II4

1915] St. Omer and another Offensive

nine months for anything new in the shape of a machine
or an engine to be available in any quantity, it gener-
ally happened that by the time a machine or an engine
or the spare parts of both were available in sufficient
quantities the engine or machine or spare parts in
question by that time were out of date.

In spite of this difficulty, in spite of all the disad-
vantages we suffered from, which were caused initially
and fundamentally by the broad 'fact that when we
went to war we had only a partially ready Flying Corps
and that a great deal of the most important mech-
anical factors of the Flying Corps had been made in
Belgium or in Germany — in spite of this neither then
nor at any time later did the work which the armies
asked the Flying Corps to do for them relax whenever
flying was possible.

You often hear it said that had the authorities in
England been more prompt and judicious and enter-
prising in their choice of the machines they ordered
we should, at the outset of the war, have had an over-
whelming mechanical preponderance over the Germans
in the air. It is said, for instance, that we might have
had the Vickers fighter in 1914 instead of in the summer
of 1915, in which case our pilots could have shot
down the Germans like sparrows. I remember hearing
a friend of mine, who was himself an excellent pilot,
exposing this fact. It was true we might have had the
Vickers machine in 19 14, so I ascertained ; but what
the pilot omitted to say, because he did not know it,
was this : that the Gnome monosoupape engine, which
was the engine of the Vickers fighter, was not in 19 14
a reliable engine. It was only by the spring of 191 5
that it could be used safely.

Another thing few people realise is that till the out-
break of the war we had got all our magnetos from

us

R.F.C., H.Q. [October

Germany. We not only had to make magnetos when
the war broke out, but to learn how to make them.
The French were in the same predicament as our-
selves.

In London people were beginning to become
alarmed at our air casualties. Up till this moment there
had been very few casualties in the air, less than in peaee
time. Also the name of Immelmann captivated the pub-
lic. Everyone one met said : " When are they going to get
Immelmann ? " In France, too, people began to say it
was nonsense to talk of our supremacy in the air, when
German machines were seen to be doing what they
liked over our lines. And just at this period a senior
infantry officer complained of a shoal of German
machines that bothered him every evening near
Poperinghe. Somebody was sent to see this shoal, and
they turned out to be Maurice Farmans quietly going
home to roost.

On the 30th of October, 191 5, a startling incident
happened, of which the General, Colonel Ashmore,
and myself were witnesses. The King was in France,
and machines were forbidden to fly in the area over
his billet. I was driving with the General to Aire, and
we passed quite close to the King's billet, when sud-
denly we saw a Henry- Farman machine flying low
without marks, right over the King's billet. We had
no Henry-Farman machines at that moment.
Telegrams and messages were sent all over France
to trace the machine without avail. The French
knew nothing of it, neither did the Belgians. The
explanation was that it was the French liaison officer
who used to fly backwards and forwards from France
to England.

On November 2nd the General had to go to London
for a day. I note that we passed a wet stable, in which

116

I9IS] St. Omer and another Offensive

a lot of men were billeted. They put a placard outside
their billet, on which were written the words :

" Chateau Rue Matique."

The problem of how to fire through the propeller
was engaging everyone's attention at this time. The
question was solved for the moment by having a de-
flector on the propeller, off which the bullet ricochetted,
when it would, without a deflector, have hit the pro-
peller. This system was invented by Garros, the
French pilot, and copied by the Germans. They then
adopted a gun which fired through the propeller, by
virtue of an interrupter gear, a system which was
definitely proposed by the Royal Aircraft Factory before
the war, although it did not then get as far as the
drawing stage. Our synchronising gear first came into
existence in 191 6.

On November 7th, 191 5, the first Morane biplane
arrived at St. Omer, and was flown against a Bristol
scout. The General watched the two machines go up.
It was rather cloudy, and after they had been up about
half an hour he began to grow uneasy. Like all people
who have an intimate experience of aircraft, he hated
watching flying, and hated still more waiting for people
to return. However, both the machines returned safely.

On the 8th I went with the General to London. We
returned on the 15th. Nothing particular happened
during the next few days, except that the first Wing
was made to disgorge a clerk from their surplus, and
arrangements for Christmas were made.

On the 22nd of November, 191 5, I went with the
General to watch experiments of bombing from the
air in the Third Army, which General Allenby was
commanding. We watched bombs being dropped from a
machine, which went off satisfactorily and at a reasonable

117

R.F.C., H.Q.

[November

distance from the target. When we got back the
following letter was written to the third Wing, which
I quote as an example of the kind of work which used
to be done.

H.Q., 3rd Wing.

With reference to the questions raised by various officers
in your Wing during my visit to-day, herewith the follow-
ing remarks :

Questions.
No. 3 Squadron.
V-type landing gear.
2 End sockets for strut tube
rear 5408-ii wanted.

Machine 4793 sent from St.
O. with bomb release handle
outside.

No. 13 Squadron.
Flexible petrol tubing for
extra tank.

No spare V. under carriages.

P's. promotion.

No n Squadron.
10 cwt. cable.

Wing H.Q.

Copy of letter sent by G.H.Q.

to Armies re A.P.

Reserve petrol. How much
supplied per flight per H.Q.

Answers.

Ordered. Further inform-
ation later.

Being inquired into.

Telegraphed for.

Being hastened from Eng-
land.
Col. Brancker written to.

Ordered and hastened.

Herewith.

An order will be issued
later.

On the 24th there was a concert on the aerodrome,
given by the mechanics of No. 12 Squadron. A sergeant

118

1 9i 5] St- Omer and another Offensive

in the Artists' Rifles sang " I want to go back to Mich-
igan " in a way which showed he was an artist indeed.
He sang without emphasis or exaggeration, and his
song was thoroughly appreciated. Mr. Kennerley
Rumford also sang. It was a most amusing concert.
News came that Furse, who had been on our Staff,
and wounded in the head during the battle of Loos,
when he was out on some wireless expedition, was
seriously ill at a hospital. His servant was with us and
desperately miserable. He received from his wife
accounts so minute that they covered every moment of
the day, of the course of Furse 's illness. He was sent
home on leave. Furse got well this time, but only,
alas, to be killed later.

On the 27th of November, 191 5, I went with Brooke-
Popham to the Headquarters of the French Aviation
Staff beyond Amiens. It was the first time I had
luncheon with a French mess. Speeches were made,
and I had to reply.

On December 2nd Sir William Robertson came up
to look at the aerodrome and the Aircraft repairing
section. We were told beforehand he would be sure
to ask one question which the person asked would not
be able to answer. This did occur. He asked someone
what a particular propeller was made of, and the man
didn't know, but had to refer to someone else.

So with almost daily visits to the Squadrons
we reached Christmas. The Mess servants had
their Christmas dinner at three. The drivers of the
transport, the cyclists, etc., had theirs at six, in the
stables. They had decorated the place magnificently.
I went to see the decorations, and was given a huge
glass of whisky. Our dinner took place at eight. Hugh
Cecil dined with us. He now belonged to our Staff,
but messed with B. Mess at Longuenesse. We had a

IJ9

XV..F.C) II. ^J, [January

long discussion about the war and the political situ-
ation. Hugh Cecil said if the war were to stop to-morrow
England would not be worse off than she was before
the war. The General said : " What about Antwerp ?"

The next day a Vickers scout was flown over from
England and made a forced landing in a ploughed
field. The General had it rescued and flown off at
once.

I was told I had to go to Italy again with a pilot
called Cooper, who was our flying liaison officer with
the French, the object of the visit being to get the
Caproni machine we had ordered in the summer and
to make arrangements for its being flown or sent back.

I started the next day with Cooper, and we arrived
at Paris in the evening and at Turin on the following
day about two. We went straight to the Aviation
Headquarters, and found that no arrangements had
been made about the Caproni machine. It was settled
we should go to Milan.

January ist, 191 6. — From a letter :

. . . " I returned from Italy last night. It was one
of the most exhausting journeys I have ever done.
We motored all day to Paris, then we rushed to the
Gare de Lyons, and thence rushed to Turin. Then the
next morning we got up at five and went by train,
changing five or six times, to Vezzola, with two Italian
officers, who discussed a point of higher mathematics
during the journey. We got out at Adine, hired a
motor, drove across the Ticino, and for all I know the
Rubicon, and the Tiber, and Lake Maggiore, through
Lombarda, and Novara and Arona, to Gallerata,
where the Italians learn to fly. There we inspected the
Caproni machine in a shed, and saw Pinsuti, the stunt
Caproni pilot, and thence we drove to Malpensa,
where Dante was born and Virgil died, and there we

120

1 9i 6] St. Omer and another Offensive

were introduced to 45 flying officers, who each one
said his name and use and clicked his heels. Then we
had luncheon with the Flying School, which was
commanded by Captain Falchi. At the end of luncheon
the Captain made a speech about delicious England
and the adorable English people, and I made a speech
about divine Italians, quoting Browning, Dante, and
D'Annunzio. Then an Italian pilot called Pellegrini,
Cooper and myself went up into the sky. Into the grey,
misty, sunless, lampless, sullen, unpeopled sky. And,
as the machine climbed, the curtains of heaven were
rent asunder, and through and over oceans of mist
and rolling clouds, naked, majestic, white, shining
and glorious, rose the Alps, like a barrier ; and at our
feet, dark as a raven's wing, loomed the waves of Lake
Maggiore, fringed with foaming breakers ; and the
earth was outspread beneath us like a brown and
purple carpet. And we climbed and banked, and
banked and climbed, and far beneath us a little Maurice
Farman fluttered like a white dove. Then suddenly
the three engines stopped buzzing, and we turned and
banked and turned and banked and turned and banked
and dived and turned sheer and steep till we gently
rolled on to the ground.

Then we spent a few hours in technical conver-
sation, and then we went by train to Milan and dined.
After dinner we nearly missed the train, and finally got
back to Turin at midnight. The next day we started for
Paris. A Frenchman sitting next to us in the train whom
I knew said : ' II y a seulement quatorze personnes
qui voyagent en temps de guerre et on est sur de les
rencontrer. Vous etes l'une des quatorze.' General
de Castelnau was also one of the quatorze.

We reached Paris the next morning, and thence
hither in the fastest motor in the world."

121

PART III

1916

CHAPTER XL

LONDON AND BACK AGAIN.

January — July, 191 6.

AS the prospects of receiving the Caproni mach-
ine, should it ever be dismantled, seemed remote,
it was settled that the machine should be flown
over from Italy by Valentine. It was flown in the
course of several months as far as Dijon, where, after
many vicissitudes, it finally crashed.

On January 3rd, while the General and I were out
Squadron visiting, the bomb store on the aerodrome,
which was crammed with explosives, caught fire ;
Newall, who commanded the Squadron on the St.
Omer aerodrome (No. 12), saw the smoke, and with
one corporal, broke into the shed from the outside and
put out the fire. Some of the small incendiary bombs
were already alight. Their boots were burnt. We went
up to the aerodrome at once, and found the bomb store
still smouldering. Newall received the Albert Medal
for this action.

On the 4th, General Henderson came over from
England, and on the 5th an S.E. propeller was found
in an F.E. box. We did some Wing and Squadron
visiting. General Henderson left us on the 9th. On
the 5th we had an exhaustive and exhausting field day
with the third Wing, and spent the night there. I

135

xv..r.C, ti'S2' [January

reached Canto 22 of Dante's Purgatorio. The next
day we started for Paris, stopping on the way at
Chantilly, where we had luncheon. We went to Villa
Coublay in the afternoon to see machines fly.

The next morning we went to Darracq's factory.
While we were having luncheon the General got a
telegram saying I was to go to London at once and
report to the Foreign Office for duty. He was a good
deal upset, because we had more business to do with
the French, and he was without an interpreter. He
said : "Of course if they really want you at once it
would be criminal not to let you go." A wire was then
sent asking if the duty I was required for was per-
manent or not. In the afternoon we went to Puteaux
and Issy. That night we dined out. I sat next to

X . The General was on the other side of the table.

My neighbour asked me in French whether the General
wasn't very young to be a General and what his
name was. I said I would write it down presently on
the menu, as, although he was supposed not to under-
stand French, he would be certain to hear. Then we
talked of other things. Later on during the dinner I
wrote the General's name down on the menu. He leant
across the table and said : "I hope they will be able
to read my name in your handwriting."

We got back to St. Omer on the 13th of January. A
telegram came from London saying the duty I was
wanted for was permanent.

The next day I started after luncheon for Boulogne,
and only just caught the boat after the fastest drive to
Boulogne I ever had (49 minutes). I arrived in London
at 7, and went straight to the War Office to report.

The directorate of military aeronautics was at that
time occupying a loft right at the top of the War Office
called Zeppelin Terrace. Of course I should have

126

1 9i 6] London and Back Again

known better than go at that time of the evening, and
expect to find someone. I tramped up empty resound-
ing corridors and echoing and equally empty stair-
cases till at last I did find an officer, and asked what it
was for that I had been sent for so urgently. " Oh 1"
he said, " they want you to run some movies in Russia."
That night I met at dinner an old friend and colleague
of mine, O'Beirne, who had been for years at the
Embassy at St. Petersburg, and was afterwards drowned
with Lord Kitchener.

He asked me if I was going to Russia, and he said :
" All I ask of you is not to say ' no ' before you have
thought about it at all." Mr. Balfour was at the same
dinner, and he told me they wanted to send someone
to Russia to organise propaganda. He was immensely
kind, and said he thought I must be more useful there
than where I was now. The great misfortune of the
war, he said, was that there were so many square pegs
in round holes. He was sure that was the case now
with me. " At any rate," he said, " think over it."

The next morning, directly after breakfast, I went
to see General Henderson. The first thing he said to
me was : " You need not go to Russia if you don't
want to." They couldn't make me go unless he ordered
it. We discussed the question fully. He said he thought
I was right in wanting to stick to my present job. Then
I went to the Foreign Office. First I saw one of the
Secretaries. He said : " Well, we hope you are going
to Russia." I told him I didn't want to. Then I was
shown into Lord Robert Cecil's room, and he made
me a forcible appeal. The gist of his argument was
that it stood to reason I must be more useful in Russia
than I could be in the Flying Corps. " Do you expect
anybody," he said, " to believe that you are of more
use in the Flying Corps than you could be in Russia ? "

127

iv.Jr.Lt., ii.^J. [January

I said I didn't expect anyone to believe it, but I
believed it nevertheless to be the case, that I was far
more useful in the R.F.C. than I should be organising
propaganda work in Russia. I confined myself to one
point. That we had a great deal of important work to
do with the French, the French aviation Staff and
French manufacturers and directors of supply. That
General Trenchard could not speak French, and that
it was highly desirable for him to have someone as
an interpreter who had some idea of what was being
discussed, and who knew exactly what he meant. He
was not convinced, nor was I. And so the interview
ended. But I should like to say, with regard to
this latter point that what I said was truer even than I
knew at the time. Later on I listened to conversations at
conferences at Versailles and elsewhere on the subject
of aviation, when a fluent interpreter who understood
English perfectly would nevertheless translate a phrase
relative to aviation in such a way that it meant the
exact opposite of what was being said, simply from
ignorance of the subjects that were being discussed.
Luckily there was always someone else present, who
pointed these slips out to the General and the mis-
understandings were rectified, but it showed one how
fatally easy it was for a conversation of this kind to go
wrong when the interpreter knew French and English
but did not know aviation.

On the 22nd I had a final interview at the War
Office. General Henderson said he was not going to
order me to go to Russia, and I said I wouldn't go
unless I was ordered. So the incident was closed, and
I started back with General Henderson on the 23rd
for France.

We stopped on the way at Dover and saw a Squad-
ron, and had luncheon with it. Just as we were sitting

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igi6] London and Back Again

down the alarm was given, and a German machine
was reported. A machine went up, and there was a
good deal of firing but no results. The next day we
crossed to France, met General Trenchard at Bou-
logne, and went by train all together to Amiens, where
General Trenchard and I got out. General Henderson
went on to Paris. In the train the two Generals had a
long discussion about the future of the R.F.C. The
idea was that General Trenchard should go home as
Director of Military Aeronautics and that General Hen-
derson should go out to France and take command there.

On the 25th a new French liaison officer arrived vice
Philonneau, called Lt. Duclos. The next two days
we spent in going round Squadrons. At one
Squadron one of the pilots showed us an elaborate gun-
mounting of the Christmas tree kind, distractingly
ingenious but a definite hindrance and handicap to
the fighting efficiency of the machine, as a surprise.
When the General saw it he said : " I never saw such
ridiculous nonsense."

On the 28th Raymond Asquith came to dinner with
us. He asked the General what the truth was about
some air incident about which there had been a question
in the House of Commons. The General told him that
in the answer given in the House the facts of the case
had been stated.

" Oh," said Raymond, " it was true ! I thought as
it was stated in the House of Commons it couldn't
possibly be true."

The General, on his birthday (February 3), spent
a happy day visiting the Squadrons in what was now
the Third Brigade.

The R.F.C. had now expanded from Squadrons to
Wings and from Wings to Brigades. A Brigade had
two Wings : a Wing of fighting Squadrons and a Wing

129

R.F.C., H.Q. [February

of Artillery Squadrons. A Wing was to be elastic, and had
a smaller or a greater number of Squadrons according to
circumstances. But every Corps was to have an artillery
Squadron to serve it. We started at 8.30 a.m., and for
an hour and a half neither of us spoke one syllable.
We were now expecting to go to London, and on
the 4th the General gave a farewell dinner. Hervey-
Kelly, Pretyman, Thompson, Webb-Bowen, Birch,
and Lawrence came to dinner. The following lines
were written on the menu :

A was the Albatross caught in the lurch,

B was the Bullet and in it was Birch.

C was the Curtiss that went for the Zep,

D was the Delicate dangerous Dep :

E was for Essen the home of the guns.

F was the Fokker, the pride of the Huns.

G was for Garros, interned by the Spree,

H was for Hawker, who got the V.C.

I was for Immelmann somewhere in Heaven,

J was the Joyride from Dover to Devon.

K was the Kamshaft (if spelt with a K),

L was the Lorry that got in the way.

M was the Martinsyde merry and bright,

N was the Neutral too haughty to fight.

O was the Oleo supple and strong,

P was the Pilot who thought it all wrong.

Q was the Question denoting the Square,

R was the Rouget which sent it to Aire.

S was the Sopwith that fell on the floor,

T was for Thompson, who sent it to store.

U was the U boat employed by the Hun,

V was the Voison that carried some gun.
W's Webb, that is Bowen I mean.

X*

Y was the Yokel preparing to sup,

Z was the Zooming that made him sit up.
* I forg-et X.

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1916] London and Back Again

On the 6th we had a visit from Lord Curzon, who
went up in a machine, and on the 8th a party of Russian
pilots visited us. We showed them round, and the
General arranged for them to be given some Lewis guns.

On the 9th we started for London. As we were
getting near Folkestone the boat stopped. A trawler
had been blown up by a mine. Lord Curzon was on
board, and talked of the necessity of having an Air
Ministry and an Air Minister. A man, as he said, on
whose broad back the slings and arrows of outrageous
criticism would fall harmlessly. As we were leaving
Boulogne the General got a telegram saying the French
Air Minister had resigned. The next day I went to
the War Office, and that night we dined with General
Henderson, who gave a farewell dinner at the Naval and
Military Club to Commodore Paine, General Trenchard,
Longcroft, Webb-Bowen, etc. But in spite of this, all
plans seemed likely to be changed, and General Hen-
derson would probably remain in England.

We went back to France the next day, and the plan
of General Trenchard being Director of Military
Aeronautics and General Henderson going out to
France did not take effect.

On the 20th of February, 191 6, Commandant Du
Peuty, of the French aviation, came to see us, and
brought with him a French officer, who was to be
henceforth our liaison officer with the French aviation.
La Ferriere came from the French Flying Corps. His
services to us proved invaluable, as he not only under-
stood English but the English, as well as aviation, and
pilots, both English and French, and he did almost
more than anyone to bring about the good feeling
between the French and English services.

Commandant Du Peuty was originally a cavalry
officer. He learnt to fly after the war began, and he

131

R.F.C., H.O. [February

soon proved himself to be one of the most daring of
pilots and the soundest of flying officers and organ-
isers. Our debt to him was incalculable, as I shall try
to show later on.

Commandant Du Peuty left La Ferriere with us.
The latter spoke English like a native. The next day
the General and I went to Paris. We resolved this time
to drive to Amiens and to go from Amiens by train.
This part of the journey was not a success. In the first
place, the train was half an hour late, and crammed to
overflowing when it did arrive. An extra second-class
carriage was added to it, and into this we squeezed
ourselves. It was full of chattering women, and a small
dog barked intermittently from the rack. The General
was miserable. We were more than 35 minutes late,
and the car got to Paris before us.

The next day we went to see Colonel Regnier at
the French Aviation Office, and had a long talk. After-
wards we went to Villa Coublay and Puteaux.

The next day we drove back home through blinding
snowstorms, and when we arrived at St. Omer we
were greeted with the news of the Verdun fighting.
Another piece of news was that a pilot, who had had
his leg hit by an archie after bringing his observer
safely down, had his leg cut off with a pair of scissors.

A Zeppelin was announced to be arriving at 9.30,
but it was shot down on the way.

There was thick snow on the ground now, and
every day news arrived from Verdun, which kept us
anxious.

I went to see Ian Henderson, who was in a hospital
at Lillers and was recovering after a slight attack of
pleurisy. In the same hospital I saw a small child, who
had been wounded by a bomb, being bandaged. She
was holding a wooden sheep, and was very brave.

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I9I6] London and Back Again

Here are some entries from my Diary and from
letters during March :

March ist. — From a letter : " A British pilot shot
down a German Albatross to-day with his cross-bow.
The German was so sure of being shot down that he
brought his luggage with him, which consisted of a
Schnurbartbinde and a small doll's portmanteau." The
new type propeller should have its nose painted
green. Three of them were not so painted in No. 10
Squadron.

March 2nd. — Went to 15, 5, and 6 Squadrons.
Wypers Bluff taken and counter-attacked. There ap-
pears to be a lull at Verdun. A Morane biplane has
arrived. F., in talking about General de Castelnau,
said every one had attacked him throughout his career.
" Mais on n'a jamais pu trouver rien contre lui sauf
que c'etait un homme tres remarquable."

No. 6 has no gun-mounting on the top plane of the
Bristol.

March yd. — The news from Verdun is less good.
The Germans have retaken Douaumont. Verdun is
expected to fall. No. 21 has only three sheds.

March \th. — The news is better. Distilled water is
being issued for compasses and accumulators. Nine
Lewis guns are to go to the French.

March $th. — Giboulees de Mars. Went to Mass. A
French bomb expert came to luncheon. Zeppelins
reported to be about. No. 3 Squadron said a Morane
pilot was lurking in 20 or 25 flying an F.E. He is to
be given to No. 3 at once.

March 6th. — We have got a new machine. It did its
trials and climbed 6,000 feet in two minutes.

March jth. — Conference at Aire at first Wing H.Q.
It snowed all the afternoon. Heavy fighting still going
on.

133

R.F.C., H.Q. [March

Raymond Asquith came to dinner. My typewriter
wrote this :

BLIGHTY.

I want to go to Blighty, for I do
Love Blighty more than any foreign land ;
I want to see the shingle and the sand,
And Battersea, Vauxhall and Waterloo.
I want to hear the noises of the Strand ;
Through the red fog I want to see a barge
Move slowly down the river looming large ;
I want to hear the music of the band.
I want to see the children at their play,
Feeding the ducks upon the Serpentine ;
I want to hear the barrel-organs bray,
When the wet sunset in a narrow mews,
Reflected, makes the pavement puddles shine ;
And ragamuffins yell the football news.

March 8th, 191 6. — In the afternoon we went up to
the aerodrome to see experiments made with tracer
bullets. The Aerodrome was covered with snow. The
sun sank an enormous ball of fire ; the sky was dyed
with a soft blush. Higher up it was blue ; but very
cold-looking and pure.

In that frozen space an R.E.7 suddenly appeared,
and the sunlight caught it, and it glowed and glistened
like a fire opal. It looked like a gigantic magical bird.

March gth. — A terrible domestic crisis. One of the
men told the French cook he was a robber. The sergeant
said the cook was filthy. The cook was told we could
get dozens of other cooks. The sergeant was told he
was there to prevent rows.

March nth, 1916. — Lord Derby came to see the
General. In the afternoon we went to the Aircraft
Park at Hazebrouck. We went in by the back way
through a bicycle shed. This had a roof of green

134

1 9i 6] London and Back Again

Willesden canvas, worth, the General said, its weight
in gold. Scandal.

As we were driving back from Hazebrouck we passed
a lot of lorries parked along the road. The General
said if the war is still going on this time next year, put
a note on my table in a year's time, but not before, that
these reserve lorries must be cut down. " Puis se
reprenant avec sa lucidite" ordinaire," as Taine said
about Napoleon, he added : " No, not next year, but
at the end of next November, but not before."

March 12th, 1916. — The General showed the Depot
and the Stores to General Butler, and after luncheon
the Aerodrome.

From a letter :

" The Hispano-Suiza did 90 on the pitot tube. It is
hoped the Le Vasseur Nieuport propeller will arrive
to-morrow.

They say the engine with the silencer is faster. This
is difficult to believe, but I do believe it.

She missed badly as Bettington was flying across,
so he had to shut off.

The fan in the acetone dope room is out of order, so
the men were told to knock off work there. In future
no R.A.F. signalling lamps are to be kept at the 2nd
A.P. The doping room there was not satisfactory. They
were repairing a plane there, which is against orders,
as it was laid down that only doping is to be done there.
In the motor transport they were making water trailers
for the Wings. Unnecessary ! "

Received from the London Library the complete
works of Barry Pain.

March i^th, 1916. — The spring has arrived. A
lovely day. A machine was reported to be down near
Aire. I went there with the General and then to
Brouay.

135

R.F.C., H.Q. [March

The uncovered wings of the De Haviland scout
are straight as far as the outside strut, and then swept
back.

Reading the Octave of Claudius, by Barry Pain.

March i\th, 191 6. — News that Victor Barrington-
Kennett is missing. The third brother in this war.

March 15^, 191 6. — From a letter:

" To-day the Hispano got the legs of the Martinsyde
with the Lang propeller.

The le Vasseur propeller absorbs the power, but
not the efficiency, and with it the Hispano on the B.E.
beat the Bristol on the climb, but not on speed.

The pitot-tube not having been calibrated, it was
not reliable.

An LVG, an Aviatik, and an Albatross have all
found a happy home in our lines."

March 16th, 191 6. — WenttoBailleul, No. 1 Squadron.

From a letter :

" In the back gun-mounting of the Morane biplane
in A. Flight of No. 1 the taper-peg of the gas-regulator
had no packing. A sergeant is to go and put it right.

Also the shock-absorber on the drum of the Lewis
gun, which is round, is being changed for a flat and
weak one ; if this turns out to be reasonable the change
must be adopted generally.

No. 7 still paint their tail planes, which is unneces-
sary, and makes the machine heavier.*'

March ijth, 1916 (St. Patrick's Day). — One bicycle
from the 3rd Aircraft Park, was found in the Motor
Transport sheds in a filthy condition.

March iSth, 1916. — Some Russian newspaper cor-
respondents came to see the Aerodrome at St. Omer.
They went up in two F.E's. Some new parts arrived
from Dunkirk. Had dinner at the Correspondents'
billets with the Russians. Wilton, formerly Times

136

I9I6] London and Back Again

Correspondent in Petrograd, was there. After dinner
they all went to see some show, except Joukovsky,
who stopped to talk with me. He quoted Swinburne
by the yard. He said he did not much care for the
Georgian poets : they seemed to him no different
from minor Victorians.

March igth, 191 6 (St. Omer). — Game arrived. He
is to be G. S.O.i. He comes from a Divisional Staff,
and is furious at being sent to the R.F.C.

On March 22nd, 191 6 we went to Paris via the
Fourth Army.

The next morning, at 9.30, we went to the Air
Ministry. Then to Nieuport's works, and after luncheon
back to Nieuport's again to see the Acland deflector
propeller device tried on a machine. It was hours
before the engine started. As soon as it started, it jammed
owing to the mechanic being too nervous, and the
cartridges came out intact the wrong end. The General
said the device would be dangerous in the air owing
to the chain.* We then went to Villa Coublay, where
we saw Morane and Saulnier.

We started back on the morning of the 24th of
March. The roads were covered with snow. We stopped
at Bertangles chateau, where the owner, M. de Cler-
mont Tonnere, let one of our Wings have a lodging.
It is a beautiful house at the end of a large, long avenue.
The walls are covered with faded tapestry, and there
is a fine stone staircase with a wrought-iron banister.
We got home about five ; it was appallingly cold.

It has now been settled that we should move into
another Headquarters further south.

March 25th, 1916. — From a letter :

" It froze hard in the night, and I was woken up
three times by the cold and once by a mouse. When I

* Which it proved to be.
137

R.F.C., H.Q. [March

came down into the cold, frosty and yet stuffy
dining-room, someone, who was eating a fried egg,
said : ' It does one good to feel alive.' These
sentiments happened to be the opposite to mine."
I went to see our new chateau with Festing. It is called
St. Andre, and is about three miles beyond Hesdin.
It is a fine, massive chateau, with a long row of lime
trees in front of it. It stands in the middle, and although
by itself and separate from any other buildings, forms
one side of an immense stable yard, in which there are
trees. The stable buildings form the other three sides
of the huge square. They are built in the purest Louis
XIII style : low pink brick buildings, with stonework
let into the walls, and grey slate roofs, beyond which
there are hornbeams. Up to now it has been used
as a hospital for French soldiers, and looks dirty at
present. The walls are immensely thick. There are
two stories. The house is not very wide, so the rooms
are narrow and high. Upstairs the bedrooms, most of
which will be turned into offices, are small, and paved
with bricks. On the other side of the house there is a
large garden and a kitchen garden, also an orchard.
In the garden there are some fine trees. Some of the
rooms have been used for diphtheria patients. There is
an aerodrome not far from the chateau. You go in
under a fine archway, where a coat of arms had been
mutilated in the revolution. Under the house there
is a deep vaulted crypt.

On leaving our present abode we are going to present
the owner with a silver goblet. Read To Ruheleben and
Back, by Pyke. A thrilling tale, beautifully written.

March 28/A, 1916. — The cold is indescribable. It is
windy, cutting, gusty, cloudy, and raw.

A French doctor (but not an unmixed Frenchman)
from the hospital came to dinner. He said he wanted

138

I9I6] London and Back Again

to see an English Mess. He evidently thought the
English were strange animals. As the dishes were
cooked by a Frenchman there was from his point of
view nothing of interest. At the end of dinner he said
with relief : " Mais les cigares sont tout-a-fait bons."

All the following days were taken up with arrange-
ments for the great move. The household thoroughly
enjoyed these preparations. The General, not satisfied
with our reports, visited the chateau himself, and went
into every room. Every now and then someone
would rush in and say : " What about extra sheets, and
a leaf for the dining-room table ? "

March 30th was the day of the great move to St.
Andre\ The whole house was upside down. All the
clerks were busy flinging maps into cases, hammering
boxes, ripping, tearing, rending canvas and other
stuffs, and hurling packing cases into a lorry. Bates,
the General's shorthand-clerk, went to him with a
screw-driver instead of a pencil. The General, in order
to escape the turmoil and confusion of the move,
wisely settled to spend the day out. But before starting,
we bought two stoves and two carpets for St. Andr6
in the town. Then we went a tour of Squadrons, and
arrived at St. Andre at six, where we found everyone
buzzing like bees, and the house quite comfortable.
An immense stove had been put in the hall, with a pipe
which went right through the house. The General's
office was upstairs with an escalier dhobi leading from
it to the ground floor. You could also reach it by the
main staircase. I finished Racine's Iphiginie. Noted
these lines :

" Songez, Seigneur, songez a ces moissons de gloire,
Qu'& vos vaillantes mains pr^sente la victoire."

(Act V., 2.)

139

CHAPTER XII
PREPARATIONS FOR THE SOMME BATTLE
St. Andre, April— July, 191 6.

ABOUT this time one of the periodical air agita-
tions was going on among the politicians. The
worst of these agitations was that they were
too late to be of any use. It is no use making an agita-
tion for obtaining in a few days time what it takes a
year or more to make. The nett result as far as we were
concerned I tabulated as follows in my diary on April
8th:

Results of Air agitation :

A. Positive. Not the hastening of one bolt, turn-

buckle, or split-pin.

B. Negative. 1. General hindering of operations in

France.

2. Danger of spread of alarm and
despondency among the younger personnel of
the R.F.C.

This last factor was one which never seemed to occur
to anyone in England.

G.H.Q. were now at Montreuil, and Sir Douglas
Haig lived in a little chateau on the road to Montreuil,
not far from the town. We used to drive in to
G.H.Q. nearly every morning except when we were

140

1 9 1 6] Preparations for Somme Battle

going for some long expedition. Raymond Asquith
was employed at that time in the Intelligence, and
while the General was interviewing the higher authori-
ties, I used to sit in his office.

On the 8th of x\pril there was great excitement because
a Fokker was reported to have made a forced landing at
Renescure. The Fokker was brought to St. Omer the
next day. The General went there by air, and I met him
in the car. He inspected the Fokker, which turned
out to be an exact facsimile of the Morane monoplane.
One of our best Wing Commanders was killed in the
air just at this time, namely, Lewis. He was taking up
someone to show him the line, and was brought down
by a direct hit from an archie just on the other side of
the line. Lewis was one of the pioneers of wireless in
the R.F.C., and one of the most gallant of pilots,
besides being an excellent organiser and leader. He
was a very great loss. Only the day before he had asked
the General whether he minded him going up. With
the Fokker which had made the forced landing there
was a German pilot. In the course of time he was
brought to St. Andre and interrogated by Brooke-
Popham. The pilot said he supposed we should copy the
Fokker, in which case he would be shot as soon as the
war was over. In the course of a conversation I had
with him after his interrogation was over, he said that
of course British pilots were paid for going up, and he
seemed surprised and a little bit incredulous when I
told him this was not so. He said the Germans had
never used a Fokker with a stationary engine during
the war. This was interesting, and, no doubt, true.
And yet a great many pilots were convinced that they
had flown past a Fokker with a stationary engine,
which shows how deceptive appearances are in the air.
This man was a native of Berlin, a clerk in ordinary

141

R.F.C., H.Q. [April

life. He had mistaken the junction of a road and a
canal, lost his way, and run short of petrol.

From a German machine captured shortly afterwards
by the French we copied and adopted the disintegrating
link for machine guns. One of the great difficulties ex-
perienced with the machine guns in the air was dis-
posing of the empty canvas ammunition belts. When
the gun was firing in the air the empty portion of the
belt was liable to get blown about and thus affect the
unused portion of the belt, and so stop the firing.

This difficulty was ingeniously overcome by building
up a belt of separate metal links, which were only held
together by the cartridges. As each cartridge was
withdrawn from the belt by the action of the gun, the
link in front of it, having nothing to hold it to the rest
of the belt, simply fell off, and whether it was caught
by the wind or not, could have no effect on the work-
ing of the unused portion of the belt. Such was the
device invented by the Germans which we copied.
This is the only device we ever copied from the Ger-
mans in aircraft throughout the war. The Fokker
machine had a parabellum gun which fired through
the propeller, but already in February of this year our
synchronising gear known as the Scarf-Debowsky gear
was in existence.

April 13th, 1916.- — Navarre, the French pilot, has
brought down four Huns in one day — the record so
far. He is a genius. He makes rings round everyone
else, and spirals down nose-diving. But he has the
defects of genius in an alarming degree. That is to say,
from a disciplinary point of view he is difficult to deal
with in the extreme.

April i\th, 1916 (St. Andre). — We went twice to
G.H.Q. in the morning. I saw Raymond Asquith. He
lent me the " Spoon-River Anthology." He said he

142

1916] Preparations for Somme Battle

thought the New Statesman was about the only read-
able newspaper left. He said one of the reasons people
became agitated and hysterical about politics and the
war in England was that the only thing which kept
people quiet was a torrent of rhetoric, and that the
ministers were now too busy to stump the country
and dispense that necessary torrent.

April i$tht 191 6. — We went on a long expedition
to the Third Army, which was not without untoward
incidents. At the first Squadron we arrived at there was
a galaxy of Brigade Staff Officers. This the General
cannot endure when he goes to see a Squadron. He
likes getting straight at the people without any bar-
riers. Then we lost the way, or rather, we thought we
were on the wrong way when it was really the right
way. Reading the " Spoon-River Anthology."

April 16th, 191 6. —The Fokker machine has been
flown to the Second Aircraft Depot at Candas, and
Commandant Fort and other French officers of the
French aviation were invited to come and look at it.
The General and I went to Candas by air in two
R.E.7S. ; the R.E. 7. is a nice comfortable, roomy
machine. It was a lovely day and the flight was enjoy-
able. Patrick flew over, and ran into the General's
machine on landing. He had had the most amazing ad-
ventures in the Fokker, being chased by one of our mach-
ines in the mist, and having to land in the French lines.

April iSth, 1916. — The General has got an A.D.C.
called Pelham who has arrived. This means that in
future I shall not have to keep the Mess Accounts.
Pelham proved one of the most valuable members of
the Staff we ever had, and the most devoted, untiring
and thoughtful A.D.C.

April i<)th, 191 6. — Le Prieur, a French naval officer,
a genius, has arrived. He brought with him an

H3

R.F.C., H.Q. [April

extraordinarily ingenious gun-sight, which we are going
to adopt. I translated a German brochure on how to
erect the Fokker, and wrote three long letters about
bomb sights in French. Here is one of them :

Head Quarters,

Royal Flying Corps. April igth, 191 6.

Mon Cher Colonel,

Le Capitaine le Prieur a eu la bonte de venir nous
trouver a notre Quartier General pour nous montrer son
viseur. Nous en sommes enchantes et nous d^sirons vive-
ment en procurer 300 .

Nous sera-t-il permis d'en faire une commande pour ce
nombre ? Nous ne comptons naturellement pas les recevoir
tout de suite mais le plus tot possible.

J'ai envoye" au Capitaine Innes-Ker des renseignements
precis sur le modele qui nous est n^cessaire, afin qu'il
puisse faire la commande aussitot que vous nous en donn-
erez la permission.

Nous voudrions en meme temps obtenir un ou deux des
nouveaux Bi-plans Bleriot avec moteur Hispano. Pouvez
vous nous accorder la permission d'en commander trois ?
et pouvez vous nous livrer encore deux nouveaux moteurs
Hispano, afin que nous puissions les monter vers le milieu
du mo is de Mai ?

Nous avons bien les trois quevous nous avez donnes, mais
on est en train de les utiliser a des essais en Angleterre que
nous ne voudrions pas entraver a moins que ce ne soit
absolument n^cessaire.

Agreez, Mon Cher Colonel, l'assurance de mes senti-
ments bien devoues,

Le Colonel Regnier,
Directeur de I ' Ae'ronautique Frangaise.
Boulevard St. Germain,
Paris.

April 20th, 1 91 6. — The road past the Aerodrome at
St. Andre has not been tarred. Lorry No. 21542 was
seen to be driving furiously.

144

191 6] Preparations for Somme Battle

April 21st, 1916. — IbetHoare 10 shillings that some-
one would occupy Bagdad before two months elapsed.

April 2yd, 191 6. — The window of the General's
car was broken by my shutting the door of the car too
vehemently. To-night there was one of the most
wonderful sunsets and twilights I have ever seen. The
sky was green and luminous. Over the roofs of the
farmhouses across the wide yard you could see from
my window the tall, bare trees (hornbeams). One star
in the sky turned the grey slate roofs to silver, so that
they looked like the wing of a mysterious bird.

April 25th, 191 6. — We had a fine exhibition of flying
at Candas. Sir Douglas came to see it. Also Morane
and Saulnier from Paris. Morane flew to Candas from
Paris, and made a terrifically fast landing in a Morane-
Parasol. A lot of hair-raising flying was done, notably
by Patrick.

April 26th, 1 91 6. — Patrick brought down an Albat-
ross on our side of the line from 14,000 feet.

April 2jth, 1916. — The apple tree in the yard is
green, but the elms are still bare. Read The Sinews of
War, also La Jeune Fille Violaine and UEchange, by
Claudel. The French have driven the Germans out of
the air at Verdun.

April 29th, 191 6. — The road at the St. Andre Aero-
drome is still not yet tarred. There is too much denting
in the Morane cowl. The archies must be warned that
the Morane bullet is going to be flown home. It is
indistinguishable from the Fokker in the air.

April 1,0th, 191 6. — In No. 12 Squadron the cowls
on the R.A.F. engines break at the tip.

May 1st, 191 6. — The wind-screen on the Morane
bullet is not satisfactory.

May 2nd, 191 6. —Expedition to the Fourth Army.
We took luncheon with us. Experiments were meant

H5

R.F.C., H.Q. [May

to come off in the afternoon with aeroplanes and flares
on the ground, but the rain prevented them. La Ferriere
has got the Military Cross. The unsatisfactory wind-
screen in the Morane bullet must be mentioned to
Morane when we go to Paris.

On the 6th we started for Paris ; we went via Pont
de l'Arche, which is just outside Rouen. Nothing can
describe the beauty of the drive through Normandy.
At Pont de l'Arche we had a large engine repair shop
which was one of the most efficient, well-organised,
smoothly running and hard-working establishments
of the whole war. We arrived there at u, and spent
the rest of the morning going over it. In the afternoon
we went on to Paris along the Seine. In Paris we did
business, and on the way back we stopped at Clermont,
where the General gave Du Peuty his D.S.O.

On the 7th we went to London. It was arranged
when I was in London before that I should be attached
to the Russian Parliamentary Mission when it should
come over to London on a visit. The mission had now
arrived, and was being entertained in London. Among
the Russian representatives was the notorious Pro-
topopoff, who did a good deal of mischief later, and
was laigely instrumental in bringing the revolution to
a head. I met him several times, and on one occasion
I asked him if the ban on vodka would continue in
Russia after the war. " God forbid," he said. " We
have suffered enough from it already." One night a
large banquet was given to the Russians at Lancaster
House. Lord Kitchener was there. It was just before
his departure on his last fatal journey. I got back to
France with the General on the 14th of May.

May 16/A, 191 6. — I dined at the Hotel de France,
Montreuil, with Raymond Asquith. It was a lovely

146

1 9i 6] Preparations for Somme Battle

evening. A full moon and a pink sunset, over which
there were melting belts, gently fading one into the
other, of light green, purple, blue, green, blue-grey,
lilac and blue. Finished Purgatorio, Canto 28.

"Un, aura dolce, senza mutamento." Appropriate for
this evening.

The next day we made a strenuous visit to the First
Aircraft Depot at St. Omer, and to a number of Squad-
rons. We had now two large stationary Depots where
stores were kept and aeroplanes repaired. One, which
fed the northern Armies, was at St. Omer ; the other,
which fed the Southern Armies, was at Candas, on the
way to Amiens. Besides these, each Army had an Air-
craft Park, which was a mobile unit and was capable
of moving at two hours' notice and dealing out supplies
on the way to wherever it was going. All its stores
were kept in portable, moveable boxes, which could
be packed and put on lorries or a train at a moment's
notice. To give a kind of idea of the work we did during
a full day's inspection, I will transcribe the account of
our expedition on May 17th in full.

May ijth, 1916 (St. A?idre).—\Ye started for St.
Omer at 9 for the First Aircraft Depot. We arrived about
an hour later. One Bristol is now ready, and will be sent
with overhead top gun-mounting to No. 11. Squadron.
This news was wired from the First A.D. Another
wire was sent asking whether they can send us from
home one of the Sopwith interrupters. The Nieuport
seat is to be altered — for an eccentric one. The wire-
less transmitter is to go at the back of the observer's
seat if the lip can be cut away. There were many other
notes made at the Depot, and still more at the Squadrons.

No. 29 Squadron. The Squadron had been mixing
French and English gear in the Monosoupape engine

M7

R.F.C., H.O. [May

Not having all English gear they put in all French
gear. This practice is to cease. But how and why did
they get French gear ? That is the question. The
Squadron didn't know whether the parts were English
or French. No French spares are to be used unless
they have no English ones, and then the G.O.C. is to
be informed. All French gear is to be returned. Spark-
ing plugs are giving trouble. The First A.D. was wired
to for English cam-gear. French spares, which had not
been indented for, had been sent. Satellite-wheels
which were really English were sent out as French.
Bronze obdurator rings were wanted instead of brass
ones. An endurance test for the tankage of the De Hav.
is to be done at once.

At No. 6 Squadron the Le Rhone engine, No. 531 1,
was not working well. R.A.F. wires were reported
almost invariably bent when new.

At No. 1 the question of putting fabric over the
hinges of the planes (as in the Morane biplane) was
discussed. They have only one Le Prieur sight. What
has happened to the 19 others ?

No. 7 Squadron were one machine short. Other
points that cropped up were the throttling of the no
Le Rhone ; Lorry 12,508, which arrived at 11 a.m.,
without a shelter. The lack of aerial winches in 13 and
12 ; parachute flares that failed to go off ; split pins
that were not supplied when asked for ; and the
lamentable case of a Bristol that was sent to No. 13
Squadron and put every bullet into its propeller with
the Vickers gun, lit not having been fired at the Depot, and
another sad case of a machine which was received from
the Depot yesterday, rigged completely wrong, and in
which the engine vibrated badly; but this is not nearly all.

We had luncheon in the car. Then to Abeele to No.
29 Squadron and No. 6. At Bailleul (No. 1 and No. 7)

148

1916] Preparations for Somme Battle

Longcroft met us. We went back by Merville and
Aire. A tyre burst on the way back, and a second one
burst just outside Hesdin. We had to walk back. We
met a motor cyclist on the way. The General told him
to go and order a car to fetch us. He said he had orders
to go on and demurred ; but the General sent him
flying. It was a lovely evening : the young corn very
green, and partridges running about in couples (one
doesn't say couples but what ? Clutches, braces ?) The
sky all lilac : the sun a blazing red ball, and the moon
a tawny round shield ; and cockchafers buzzing like
small aeroplanes.

May iSth, 19 16. — A domestic crisis has occurred.
The Mess Sergeant has had a fearful row with the
French cook, who has a fiery temper. I have no doubt
it was the cook's fault. On the other hand, the rest of
the household are determined to get rid of the cook.
If they do so they will be foolish, as he is a good cook,
and they will probably quarrel with any cook, at least
they always have done so up to now, and the General
will think it is the Mess Sergeant's fault. The blue on
the rings of the Morane have been painted too light.

May igth, 1916. — To-day's great thought : Two
acetyline welders are wanted for the Motor-transport.

May 20th, 1 91 6. — The parachute flares have again
failed to give satisfaction in No. 10 Squadron.

May 2yd, 1916. — I have been made a Staff Officer.

May 2\th, 191 6. — There are only four full tubes of
hydrogen in the balloon store. The terminal of the
electric accumulator is being painted.

May 26th, 191 6 :

I killed a beetle in the night

That soared in spirals round my bed.

Do yon agree that I did right ?

I killed a beetle in the night.

149

R.F.C.y H.O. [June

It would persist with all its might
In soaring round and round my head,
I killed a beetle in the night
That soared in spirals round my bed.

It was a cockchafer but beetle scans better.

May 27 th, 191 6. — The General sent me on a special
mission to Paris. I came back the next day.

May 29th, 1916. — Light tender No. 24,133 was
seen driving furiously.

May 30th, 191 6. — We all went to Muret-Plage to
see experiments with phosphorous bombs. We stood
on the top of a small house and a machine went up and
dropped the bombs, aiming at a disused piece of rail-
way line. The bombs went off with eclat. Never have
I seen such a firework display. After this was over I
bathed in the sea. The sea, as usual, was boiling
hot.

June is/, 1916. — The First Aircraft Park report a
shortage of potassium metabi sulphite.

June 2nd, 1916. — When we got to G.H.Q. we heard
the news of the battle of Jutland. I had not noticed it
in the official German wireless which I translate every
day. When I got home I found it described at length
in the Nauen Press, which used generally to be full of
nonsense. Cowls are coming out painted like canaries,
and the grass on the Fienvillers Aerodrome is to be
cut.

On June 7th, 191 6, the General and I went to
London. We stayed there till the 9th. The day after
we came back experiments were carried out in drop-
ping phosphorous bombs on a balloon. Nobody hit a
balloon.

June i^th, 191 6. — Wrote the following poem while
waiting for the General in Intelligence G.H.Q. :

150

1 9i 6] Preparations for Somme Battle

Zeppelin, Zeppelin, burning bright
Over Dover in the night ;
Sometimes over Folkestone too,
What is there 'twixt me and you ?

Zeppelin, Zeppelin, how I wish
You were but a silver fish ;
Swimming like a submarine,
Underneath the ocean green.

Zeppelin, Zeppelin, your delight
Is in dropping bombs at night ;
How I wish that you and I
Were dropping bombs on Germany !

June i$th, 1916. — Several 5000 round- Webb -
ammunition-belts are wanted at once. 1 F.E. 2D arrived.
The Rolls-Royce radiator is too large and can't keep
the engine warm enough. The Rolls-Royce expert
who is here says the service tank can't feed the car-
burettor properly.

June 16th, 191 6. — I heard the following conversa-
tion to-day between a pilot who was waiting in the
ante-room and a young sailor who is going to pilot a
Blimp, and who looks like a cherub :

The Pilot : " You are going up in a gas-bag ? "

The Sailor : " Yes."

The Pilot : " You will go a pop when they hit you.
I should like to be there."

June, iSth, 191 6. Anniversary of the Battle of Water-
loo (Sunday). — Went to High Mass at Montreuil. The
priest in his sermon said : " On a dit qu'on peut etre
bon patriote sans etre catholique ; on ne peut pas etre
bon catholique sans etre patriote."

Reading La Fontaine's Fables.

" Flore aux regards riants, aux charmantes manieres."
The rubber rings on the induction pipe cylinder head
in the new R.A.F. engine are too hard.

l5l

R.F.C., H.Q. [June

June igth, 1916. — My new flannel shirt, which
is made of good flannel, not shrinkable an sich, and
which has never shrunk before after being washed
several times, has to-day come back from the wash all
lumpy with tiny sleeves. Will it ever recover ? A medium
nose-piece is necessary for all Clerget engines.

June 20th, 191 6. — Colonel Barres, commanding the
French aviation, and Commandant Pugo, General
Barres' Staff Officer, came to luncheon. We had a
conference with the General on future operations, La
Ferriere and I interpreting. No. 27 are short of batmen.

" II ne r^gnera plus sur l'herbe des prairies." (La

Fontaine.)

June 22nd, 191 6. — A lovely and really hot day. We
went for a long tour. The birds sang and the poppies
flared in the wine-coloured clover, and tethered cows
made a sleepy noise munching. Clips are wanted
for the clock-mounting on the F.E.2B. Longcroft was
shot at while he was in a kite balloon by a Lewis gun,
and I suppose someone must have let off the gun.

June 2yd, 191 6. — Visited some Squadrons with
Sir Walter Lawrence, who is staying with us.

" Le long d'un clair ruisseau buvoit une colombe,

Quand sur l'eau se penchant une fourmis y tombe ;"

(La Fontaine.)

Everything is ready for the new push.

June 25th, 1 91 6. — We went to Fienvillers, which is
going to be our advanced H.Q. There we met Pugo
and La Ferriere. A simultaneous attack was made on
all the German kite balloons by the French and English.
This was the General's idea, and it was settled when
Pugo and Barres came the other day. The General bet
Pugo a franc we would bring down more than the

r52

1 9i 6] Preparations for Somme Battle

French. We heard news of the bag at 4.30. ; 15 Kite
balloons were attacked and six were brought down.

June 26th, 1 91 6 (St. Andre.) — News of three more
kite balloons brought down yesterday. The Third
Army have received a telephone message saying that
the wire-cutting is going on satisfactorily on the
Gommecourt salient.

I53

CHAPTER XIII
FIENVILLERS— THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME

July, 1 91 6.

ON the 27th of June we had moved to a little
village called Fienvillers. This was our ad-
vanced Headquarters. The main bulk of our
H.Q. remained behind at St. Andre. Fienvillers is a
small village not far from Candas on the road to Amiens.
Our Headquarters were in a little square house which
stood at the meeting of five cross roads, with three rooms
and a kitchen downstairs and six bedrooms upstairs,
four of which were turned into offices. The advance
Staff consisted of Game, Gordon, Corballis, myself,
Pelham, and the wireless officer, Major Smith. I was
billeted in the village in a Notaire's house just opposite
our Headquarters. Beyond the village was the Second
Aircraft Depot and Aeroplane Repair Section, which
had now assumed gigantic proportions. There was
also another Aerodrome, on which two Squadrons
were stationed, Nos. 27 and 21. These formed the H.Q.
Wing, commanded at this time by Major Dowding.
G.H.Q. was in a village called Beauquesne, about half
an hour's drive in a car. Sir Douglas Haig lived in a
chateau just outside that village.

On the evening of the 20th the R.E's. started on a
long bombing raid. And the next morning at dawn

J54

iqi6] Fienvillers— Battle of the Somme

the raid was repeated. I heard the machines starting at
four in the morning, and went up to look at them. The
assault took place early that morning, and all the morn-
ing telegrams came pouring in. The General sent me
to Vert Galant to see No. 60 Squadron ; to wait there
and bring back their news in the evening. No. 60 was
commanded by Ferdy Walrond, one of the pilots who
came out in 1914, and were flying Morane bullets.
The Morane bullet was a beautiful machine to fly, a
monoplane, and very fast. It was the machine of which
the German Fokker was an exact copy. And the General
had ordered a Squadron of these machines against his
better judgment because the pilots had implored him
to. He proved right and they proved wrong, because
although the machine was a beautifully fast flying in-
strument, it suffered from the defect of all monoplanes:
you could not see out of it except by banking, and a
pilot cannot be banking the whole time. This machine
proved to be the most expensive in pilots and cost us
more in casualties than any other during the whole
war. And the Squadron which had these machines was
the only Squadron which had to be taken out of the
line for a prolonged period.

I spent all that first afternoon at Vert Galant. I had
luncheon with one of the Flights, and after luncheon,
with Walrond and Smith-Barry, I saw the pilots start
and then one waited, and waited. . . . Who would
come back ? Who would not come back ? At 4.30
Ferdy Walrond came back with his machine riddled
with bullets. I went home at 4.30 and reported to the
General, and then went back again at six, and stayed
till 6.30. This time I saw a lot of pilots hot from the
fighting and in a high state of exhilaration as they had
had a grand day. Here are some of the stories trans-
cribed as they told them me in their own words :

l5S

R.F.C., H.O. [juiy

July ist, 1916. — Scott, in No. 5, said : " I saw a
train about four miles from Cambrai on the Cambrai-
Douai line, going towards Douai. I opened from 7,000
feet at it. When it saw me coming it pulled up and started
going backwards to Cambrai ; when I was at 1,000
feet I released my bombs. The train pulled up. Sud-
denly one of my bombs fell 30 yards in front of rear-
coach, destroying the line, and preventing the train
going back to Cambrai. Another bomb fell on the
embankment. When about 300 feet from the train I
came under heavy machine-gun fire. Flying wires,
longeron, petrol-tank were shot, and several holes in
the machine."

Gordon-Kidd, in No. 7, dived on a train. He saw it
at 3,000 feet, side-slipped so as to save time, to 2,800
feet, and then came down to 700 feet and dropped his
two bombs. One hit the cutting ; the second one got
the train plumb, and, as it was full of ammunition, it
went off with a pop. All the other machines saw the
train ablaze. Another bomb was dropped on the tail
of the train.

Smith saw 9 L.V.Gs. going in formation to Bapaume.
A lot of trains were seen between Cambrai and Bapaume.

It was a great strain waiting for Smith-Barry to
come back ; but he turned up all right, late.

The excitement about the fighting in the air during
these first days of the battle was intense. St. Quentin
Station had been bombed by four machines, all of
which failed to return. The pilots, however, came
down safely. But the damage they did was beyond all
hopes, as they happened to hit an ammunition train
in the station and a Brigade was entraining at the
moment. All these men were scattered to the four winds.
An indescribable panic ensued. It took the Germans
hours to collect the scattered remnants, and then they

156

191 6] Fienvillers — Battle of the Somme

could no longer be sent to the front. We knew nothing
of this at the time, but heard it much later, first from
German prisoners, then from refugees, and lastly, from
the pilots themselves who did the deed, and who were
prisoners.

Here is an account by a German prisoner of this raid:
" At the end of the month of June the 22nd Reserve
Division was at rest in the neighbourhood of St.
Quentin. On the 1st July the Division was warned to
proceed to the Somme front. About 3.30 p.m. the
first battalion of the 71st Reserve Regiment, and the
nth Reserve Jaeger battalion were at St. Quentin
Station ready to entrain, arms were piled, and the
regimental transport was being loaded on to the train.
At this moment English aeroplanes appeared over-
head and threw bombs. One bomb fell on a shed which
was filled with ammunition, and caused a big ex-
plosion. There were 200 waggons of ammunition in
the station at the time ; 60 of them caught fire and
exploded, the remainder were saved with difficulty.
The train allotted to the transport of troops and all
the equipment which they had placed on the plat-
form were destroyed by fire. The men were panic-
stricken and fled in every direction. One hundred and
eighty men were either killed or wounded. It was not till
several hours later that it was possible to collect the men
of the 71st Regiment. It was then sent back to billets."
Gordon- Kidd, on the 3rd, dived on a train which was
leaving the station half a mile S.W. of Abancourt, and
proceeding to Cambrai from Douai. Both bombs were
released together at 700 feet, and both exploded. They
fell short of the track. The second bomb was released
by accident simultaneously with the first. It would
undoubtedly have hit the train. Recrossed the line
under heavy machine-gun and anti-aircraft fire.

157

R.F.C., H.Q. [july

All the fighting during these days and throughout
the whole battle of the Somme took place far beyond
the German lines, and a German machine scarcely
could put its nose this side of the line. Here is an
extract from the Diary of a German infantry soldier
written about this date (or probably a little later) :

"Tagesiiberkannman sich kaumin Graben sehen lassen
wegen der englischen Flieger. Dass sie einen nicht aus den
Graben ziehen ist ein Wunder, so tief gehen Sie. Von un-
seren deutchen Helden- Flieger ist keiner zusehen. Und
doch das glanzende Verhaltniss 81 : 29. Dass die Englander
tausendmal wagemutiger sind war nicht crwahnt."

"Everyday one can scarcely show oneself in the trenches
owing to the English airmen. It is a wonder that they don't
come and pull one out of the trenches so low do they fly.
Not one of our German air heroes is to be seen. And yet we
are told of the brilliant proportion 81 : 29. The fact of
the Englishman being a thousand times bolder was not
mentioned."

The man was being, without knowing it, extremely
unfair to his Flying Corps, because if his German air
heroes were doing their duty, they ought not to be seen
by their infantry ; they ought to be seen by us. And
although not now, but not much later, this was the
kind of thing our infantry in all sincerity would say
about our Flying Corps, sometimes at the very time when
their work was being most arduous and most successful.

On the 3rd of July I went to Vert Galant again, and
again I saw Ferdy Walrond go up. But this time he did
not come back.

Smith-Barry took over his Squadron. Every morning
I used to go into Beauquesne with the General. During
the first days of the battle we had an extra office in that
village, which consisted of a room with a telephone

158

191 6] Fienvillers — Battle of the Somme

and nothing else : not even a Bradshaw to read.
But later on I used to wait at G.H.Q. in the Operations
office, which was supplied with a plentiful library of
detective stories and novels. The entries in my Diary
of this period are scanty in the extreme. Here are a
few :

June 28th, 1916. — In the orchard where No. 27
Squadron live in tents, three small boys were found
stealing lace handkerchiefs with Ypres lace on them,
cigarette cases, tobacco and cigarettes from officers
and mechanics. They were arrested by the sentry and
marched into a tent, where they howled for hours,
each saying and proving categorically that the other
had done it. Finally gendarmes arrived, and they were
condemned to spend the night in the tent and to be
whipped the next morning by their parents.

July $th, 1916. — Beauquesne in the morning, and
Beauquesne again in the evening.

" Dans le cristal d'une fontaine
Un cerf se mirant autrefois."

(La Fontaine.)

Read Dante's Paradiso (waiting at Beauquesne in the
office,) Cantos 1 and 2.

July 10th, 1916. — Luncheon at Beauquesne with
General Charteris, General Walters, and some Russian
officers. I went with General Belaieff to No. 60 Squad-
ron. Smith- Barry showed him round. Read Great
Snakes.

" Ce monde d'allies vivant sur notre bien."

(La Fontaine.)

July nth, 1916. — The Germans in the trenches
put up a notice the other day saying : " Tell your

Flying Corps to leave us alone. We are Saxons."

As it happened, they were Bavarians.

159

R.F.C., H.Q. Uulj

July 12th, 191 6 :

I went into a provincial town to-day

To buy a box of matches.

The air was sweet with smell of new-mown hay ;

I went into a provincial town to-day,

And on the road I thought of how Edna May

Wore on her chin two patches ;

I went into a provincial town to-day

To buy a box of matches.

On the 13th July, 191 6, I had an exciting
experience. This is how I described it at the time in
a letter written in error, half to one person and half to
another. Both halves, however, were returned to
me ultimately :

July 14th, 191 6. — Yesterday I had the first whole
holiday I have had since last August. How did I employ
it ? I employed it thus : In the morning I went to No.
27 Squadron and spent the time in gossip. I must
mention that the weather made all serious flying im-
possible. Then I went home. But on the way I met on
the road Smith- Barry, who commands No. 60 Squad-
ron. He took me in his swift car to luncheon with one
of the Flights (of his Squadron). Then we had luncheon
with Jimmy Tower. What did we have for luncheon?
We had tongue for luncheon, and potatoes, and salad,
and a salad made of fruit. Then Smith- Barry said :
" As it's a dud day and flying is out of the question,
let us go and visit a French Squadron." I assented.
First of all it was necessary to go and see the Mayor of
the village to arrange with him to cut the laurels in his
field. And when I say laurels I mean certaines herbes,
which were in the way. So we went to see the Mayor.
He was at home, and took us into his parlour. He was
not at all like the Mayor of Sheffield, nor was he like
the Mayor of L , who was shot for being a German,

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1 9i 6] Fienvillers — Battle of the Somme

which he was, nor was he like the Mayor of Saponay,
who was a disagreeable old man, but he was like a
farmer, and like the kind of farmer you read about in
the tales of Maupassant.

After a conversation the matter of the certaines
herbes was settled satisfactorily. Then Smith-Barry
put on his field-boots and his flying jacket. Then he
ordered the Morane biplane. Then it began to rain.
Then we walked to the Aerodrome. As it was raining
the machine was put back in her shed. And we waited
and looked at the map, and Jimmy Tower showed us
on the map where the nearest French Aerodrome was.
Then the rain stopped, but it was still cloudy, grey
and gloomy. Then I put on a leather coat and flying
cap and climbed into the Morane biplane. Then the
engine was started, and at once began missing because
there was too much oil somewhere. Then Smith- Barry
turned round and said to me: "I am afraid we must
give it up." However, some mechanics came and
Addled, and presently the engine began to bizz and
buzz and off we went. We had not flown very far, and
were scarcely off the ground, before the machine tilted
sharply left wing down. But of that more later. Then
we zoomed up with a terrific yank and jerk. After a
few bumps we got into a more or less calm area, and
we flew right on till we got immersed in a great white,
wreathy woollen cloud, and we dived out of it. Presently
we saw the river (the Somme). Not long after we saw
sheds beautifully camoufles, but beautifully visible
also, and we dived down and landed (fairly well). A
lot of Frenchmen swarmed round us. We got out. It
began to rain again, and the machine was put in a shed.
I had a long talk with an Observer. Then the Squadron
Commander, Commandant Villemain, came and took
us to the Popote, where we drank tea and ate a tarte aux

161

M

R.F.C., H.Q. [juiy

/raises, which was delicious. During tea, Smith- Barry
told us that at the start, in getting off the ground, we
had as nearly as possible crashed, because his left wing
was an inch off the ground . He had never flown a Morane-
biplane before, and he was not used, he said, to its
lateral control, or rather, to its want of lateral control
(he said it had none, otherwise it was a charming
machine) ; nor to the effect of a passenger being in it.
As soon as it stopped raining we flew home. And for a
little time we — that is Smith- Barry — lost the way (no
maps), and we suddenly found ourselves over the
trenches. We made a demi-tour and soon returned safe
to our landing-ground, on which we steeply swooped.
The people who met us — Sommers, Portal, etc. — said
that our start had been the most terrifying thing they
had ever witnessed. The weight of one pencil on the
plane and we should have crashed, which shows how
lucky it is not to know and not to understand too
much ; as I had noticed nothing, or rather, / had
noticed but thought that was the star way to fly. What
would have happened if that machine had crashed, or
if anything had happened to Smith- Barry, who is a
star pilot ? Jimmy Tower told me he had learnt Ger-
man at Hildesheim, at Professor Timme's, the same
family where I had learnt German.

On the l^th of July there was a further advance,
and the next day more news and more bombing. I
saw the machines come back.

July 16th, 191 6. — Finished Dante ; Paradiso, Canto 4.

" Come desiri, ti faro contento."

July iyth, 1916. — Bron Lucas has got a Squadron in
England. The French cook has gone. This is what
happened. The General said there was a smell of cook-
ing, which there was. Gordon's servant repeated this

162

191 6] Fienvillers — Battle of the Somme

to the cook. The cook hit Gordon's servant on the
nose and made it bleed. Gordon spoke to the cook.
The cook was rude. The cook was sent away. So now
we have got a new cook.

July iSth, 191 6. — Du Peuty came to see us. The
R.E. 8. is at the A.D. It's camera needs a larger case.
The machine is to be kept a fortnight so that the gun
mounting and camera can be altered to what we want.

July 21st, 1916. — The General sent the following
telegram to No. 24 Squadron : " Well done, 24
Squadron, in fight last night. Keep it going ; we have
the Hun cold." Cooper, in 21 Squadron, was killed
by a direct hit from an archie.

July 2yd, 1916. — Lord NorthclifFe came to luncheon.

July 2\th, 191 6. — I went with the General and
Toe Smith to Fricourt, where the fighting has been,
to see the ground wireless stations and mechanics.
We drove along the Albert road to Fricourt. The
country at the back of the line looks like Hampstead
Heath on Bank Holiday, a mass of horse traffic and men.

July 2<\.th, 191 6. — From a letter : " I have been all
day on the battlefield through the German trenches,
which we took the other day. It is like a moonscape
sprinkled with poppies and dead Germans' great coats,
and here and there a gas mask. Shells were bursting
in the distance, and our guns were firing, and there
was a scream of whistling metal in the air everywhere.
Troops swarming, aeroplanes flying about ; the sky
quite grey, so that one wondered if one were awake or
not. I think on the whole not. The village of Fricourt
is entirely destroyed, and that of Mametz is annihil-
ated, and there is nothing left of it but crumbling
stones."

July 25th, 1916. — From a letter : " The sight of
the battlefield is amazing. It is one of destruction on a

163

R.F.C., H.Q. [juiy

larger and more systematic scale than has ever occurred
before. It is difficult to see in the villages where the
houses were. The ground looks as though it had had
streams of lava pouring over it for days out of a red-
hot volcano. It is pitted with countless craters ; some
of them are bright yellow, with picric acid. And the
noise goes on without stopping. In the further distance
you see a column of shell smoke stationary in the air
like a permanent geyser, only black. Was ever a battle
like this fought in the world before ? The answer is in
the negative."

July 26th, 1916. — Sopwith No. 5721 is to be struck
off strength and made into spares. The Second Brigade
are not using the pannel for signalling with the gunners.

July 28th, 1 91 6. — Finished La Famille Valadier and
U autre aventure d'un joyeux garron, by Abel Hermant.

July 31^, 19 1 6. — As we were coming back from the
Chief's house, the steering-gear of the car broke and
we alighted in the ditch. Later in the morning the
General made a speech to the Air Mechanics in the
Depot, who have been working like slaves ever since
the battle began. They were all paraded in front of the
shed, hundreds of them, and they marched and
wheeled and formed different things so well that the
General, when he began his speech, told them he
thought they were the Guards. That pleased them.
Then he told them how well he knew how " fed up "
they must be with the work they were doing at such
high pressure, how disheartening it must be some-
times owing to the way aviation had of letting you
down. But they were keeping the Squadrons up to
strength and beating the Germans. They enjoyed the
speech immensely, and I nearly cried.

August 1 st, 1 91 6. — The General sent me to the 2 A.D.
to find out answers to the following conundrums.

164

1 9i 6] Fienvillers — Battle of the Somme

I saw Meade, who is in charge of Aircraft Repair
Section :

These were the

Questions :

i . How did the test of the
1 60 do yesterday ?

2. How many hours has it
done now ?

5. Strengthening the carri-
age of the 1 10 Morane-
Scout. Just above the
wheels.

(a) Put down your sug-

gestions.

(b) Gun ought to have
swan-necked feed so
as not to flap about.

\. How is the Sopwith
getting on ?

5. When will there be any
Nieuport Scouts ready
for use, and how many?

3. Morane-Parasol. Have
they taken off the Alcan
device.

This will also need a

and these were the
Answers :
All right.

It had to come down yes-
terday because of the air-
pump ball-race. It did
about 2 1 hours yesterday.
Probably 18 altogether
and 2 this morning.

Machine ran into a hangar,
Will send in report.

Noted.

Still a lot of work to be
done.

2 can be ready for issue. 1

certainly.
2 by mid-day to-morrow.

Yes.

Noted.

swan-neck feed.

August 2nd, 1 91 6. — The Zeppelin sheds at Brussels

were bombed by No. 27 Squadron. Two electric power

houses were bombed at 800 feet. People were seen

scurrying. Smoke was seen coming out of the engine

165

R.F.C., H.Q. [August

sheds, and a bright red flame. Three trains were seen
and any amount of rolling stock. Four trucks were
blown up. Boyd dropped one bomb on to a train in
the shunting yard. The trains were full of coal. No
actual fire was observed. The second bomb fell in a
field just south of the road. Four cows were killed.
Smith dropped one bomb on the electric power house,
Y., and one on sheds, X. The engine-sheds were
sending up smoke and flame. Forbes dropped one
bomb on the yard between two trains and blew up
four trucks. The first bomb hit the main line and
flattened a house on one side of it. There were no
Archies.

August 2nd, 1 91 6: From a letter. — Three or four nights
ago a Highland regiment was billeted in our village. Its
Colonel lodged in my billet. Their Mes9 was in the
dining-room or parlour which was next to my bed-
room. They had to leave for the front before dawn.
About two in the morning I was awakened by the noise
of boxes being nailed and valises being strapped and
by various hammerings, knocks, and by general bustle.
Presently I heard sounds of conversation. The officers
of the regiment's H.Q. were having some cacao before
starting. They didn't talk much. The voices stopped.
I thought they had all gone, but I all at once heard the
voice of the lady of the house, a grey-haired M6nagere,
who had got up to say good-bye to them. She was
talking to the Colonel. He was an oldish and mild
grey-haired man. I had just caught sight of him the
day before. He spoke French with great difficulty, not
with a very bad accent, but he evidently didn't know
many words. He was thanking her. He said : " Beau-
coup amuse ici." And she told him that she had been
delighted, and that his men had behaved so well,
especially the cook. He understood that and said :

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1 9i 6] Fienvillers — Battle of the Somme

" Oui 17 ans soldat." Then she said something simple,
I think about the weather, which he didn't understand,
and he repeated the word several times and the con-
versation got into a tangle. She asked him if he was
married, and he said " Pas famille " and something
else which I didn't hear. Then he added : " Terrible
guerre." And she said " oui c'est une terrible guerre."
And he repeated " Terrible Guerre." Then I heard
nothing more and fell asleep, but I awoke again almost
immediately because the regiment was passing the
house, the whole Brigade . . . there wasn't a glimmer
of light . . . and horses, guns, carts, ambulances,
men . . . men and men . . . went by for hours on
their way to the Somme, to go into the line.

August \th, 1 91 6. — I went with La Ferriere to see
Du Peuty at Moreuil, beyond Amiens. We had luncheon
at his Mess. After luncheon we went to two of the
French Squadrons. One of them was at Cachi, where
the sheds are beautifully hidden in a forest of trees.

August $th, 19 1 6. — I heard that Bron Lucas had
flown over from England to St. Andre\ So I asked the
General for leave to go and have dinner there, which
was given. I found Bron at St. Andr6, and we sat in
the garden after dinner and tired the moon with
talking.

August 6th, 1 91 6. — No. 70 Squadron arrived at
Fienvillers. They have Sopwith two-seaters, com-
monly called " one and a half strutters."

August yth, 1 91 6. — The Martinsydes want cellon
for their lower planes.

August 8th, 1916. — A French journalist came to
luncheon. Finished reading La Guerre, Madame :
the best war book I have read so far.

August 10th, 1916. — A wonderful night. The clouds
looked like furrows of pearl in the moon-rise. The

167

R.F.C., H.Q. [August

sky was like a sea of delicate skeins of foam being
softly unravelled by some unseen magician.

August nth, 1916. — General Henderson arrived to
stay with us for a few days. We had a lot of people to
luncheon. He stayed two or three days, and one day
we went for tour of Squadrons together.

August ijth, 1916. — Visited the Fourth Aircraft
Park with the General, and found some scandals,
notably that the bootmakers were mending and making
boots. This, although it sounds reasonable, is really a waste
of labour, as the boots can and should be sent in to the
place where boots are mended by the score, and the boot-
makers can do something more useful in an aircraft park.

August 18th, 1916. — A happy day at the Depot and
Repair Section. The Parasol gun-mounting : had they
got it higher, had it been flown ? The answer was the
rear gun-mounting was completed late yesterday. The
no Le Rhone was flown by Busby, and was found to
be very fast : to run along after landing and to want
space. Another big attack has come off. It is going well.

August 2.0th, 191 6. — A new R.E. 7. arrived : a huge
machine with a 200 Rolls-Royce engine carrying a
crew of three.

August 21st, 1916. — Du Peuty came to luncheon.
In the morning he watched the trial flights of the new
R.E. Du Peuty flew away home afterwards, and shortly
after he had started, G.H.Q. rang up and said a German
was flying so low over their offices that they could not
hear to work. This was Du Peuty, who was greeting
them from the air. Someone else met him on the road,
and he did a spinning nose-dive, which made the car
driver lose his head and run into a ditch.

August 2yd, 1916. — We went to the Depot at St.
Omer. There was found to be no swivel gun-mounting
on the F.E. and none in reserve.

168

1 9i 6] Fienvillers — Battle of the Somme

August 2\th, 1 91 6. — Mons was bombed.

August 26th, 1 91 6. — Finished reading Behind Bolted
Doors, by Arthur Macfarlane.

August 27th, 1916. — Colonel Barres came to luncheon
and Commandant Pugo. Pugo gave the General a
beautiful silver franc for losing his bet about the kite
balloons. They have renewed the bet for next time.

August 2W1, 1 91 6. — Dined with Cruikshank at
No. 70 Squadron. There was a Zeppelin alarm before
dinner, and all the lights were put out, but it proved
to be a false alarm. Finished The Blind Eyes, an ex-
citing book.

August 29th, 1916. — Had my eye-glass mended by
a skilled mechanic.

August 1,0th, 1916. — Received news that Mr. Corn-
ish, the Vice-Provost of Eton, had died. This will
sadden those in the Army who were his old pupils. I
was not his pupil, but I owe him more than any pupil
ever owed to any master. He pulled some of the weeds, or
did his best to, out of my mind and taught me the things
which were worth knowing and liking. He had the widest
and most catholic mind I have ever come across ; the
gentlest irony, the serenest wit : there was nothing he did
not understand and appreciate and enjoy ; the northern
counties of England, sunsets in Egypt, German
storks, French cathedrals, Devonshire lanes, and
Indian vistas evoked by Mr. Kipling ; a football
match ; a meet of foxhounds ; a picnic on the Thames;
a pencil game, a charade ; and, as for literature, his
taste was unerring and his field of appreciation appar-
ently unlimited. No one carried learning so lightly.
He would enjoy himself and feel at home equally
with Walter Scott or the Russian novelists, with Heine
or Trollope ; with Crabbe or Baudelaire ; with Miss
Austen or Villon. One never had the feeling : "It

169

R.F.C., H.O. [August

is no use talking of that, it is too new — or too this or
too that " :

11 What is best
He firmly lights on, as birds on sprays."

He was just the same about music and the other sister
arts, and the most enduring picture of him that remains
with me is his sitting at the piano and playing the seren-
ade in the Seraglio of Mozart with absolute distinction.
That night I read Dante . . . and who knew Dante
as well as the V.P. ? . . . and came across this line :

" Voi mi date a parlar tutta baldezza ;
Voi mi levate si, ch'io son piu ch'io."*

(You give me full courage to speak ;

You uplift me until I am more than myself.)

He used indeed to make us all do and be better than
our best.

August 315/, 1916. — We went to see the first ex-
periments with the Tanks. A machine was sent up to
see what a tank looked like from the air. One of the
tanks walked calmly through a wood, knocking trees
down right and left. I am reading O. Henry, and came
across this :

" I will do anything but I won't kill and I won't
wear pink pants at a cotillon."

September 2nd, 191 6. — Several people came to
luncheon. They talked about Bron Lucas, who had
been given a Squadron in England, but who had
applied to go back to be Flight Commander, because
he wouldn't have a Squadron in France (although he
had been flying in Egypt) without being a Flight
Commander first in France. The General said he knew
very few people who would do that.

* Paradiso Canto 16.
170

CHAPTER XIV

FURTHER OPERATIONS ON THE SOMME.

September, 191 6.

DURING all the operations which had hitherto
taken place our supremacy in the air had been
undisputed, and the General used to say that
if the war were to come to an end now we should go
down to history in a blaze of glory. He was none the
less uneasy as to the future, for he felt certain that the
Germans would not accept this situation lying down.
It was highly probable they would change their present
policy for a more aggressive one, or at least strain
every nerve to achieve this result. And in order to
achieve this result the first thing they would do would
obviously be to aim at an improvement in machines.
This gave rise to two disquieting thoughts : Firstly,
should the Germans improve in Moral and material
should we be able to keep pace with them in improved
machines ? Secondly, if the Germans were to follow
our example and adopt a more aggressive policy, the
first thing which would happen would be a clamour
for defensive measures from the whole Army. Now,
the General was convinced that a defensive policy in
the air could only spell ruin.

I think it was during the month of August, possibly
before, that Du Peuty sent us a long and beautifully

171

R.F.C., H.Q. [September

written memorandum in which he summed up the
result of his experiences at Verdun. The result of his
experience coincided with the General's ideas, which
were also based on his past experience, and which he
had more than once stated in black and white. But the
question was, would the R.F.C. be strong enough to
resist the pressure of other arms which was certain to
be exercised in asking for defensive measures ? Such
were the thoughts suggested by the trend of events
happening in the air. And as each stage of the oper-
ations succeeded the other these ideas were confirmed,
notably after the fighting that took place on Septem-
ber 15th.

But before I say more about this I will gather up
the thread of the minor matters that happened before
that date. During the first days of September we had
several visitors, among others, Lord Derby, Mr.
Asquith, and Mr. H. G. Wells. I took Mr. Wells to
see the Aircraft Repair Section, but I had too little
time to show him all that was really of interest.

On the 8th we had a Conference of Brigadiers, at which
questions dealing with future operations were discussed.

On the nth September, 1916, Guinchy was taken,
and on the nth an Army Order was published, accord-
ing to which the shaving of the upper lip was made
optional in the future.

On the 1 2th a Kite Balloon Conference took place,
attended by all the Kite Balloon Commanders. I made
detailed notes of what happened at this Conference.
They are worth quoting as an instance of the kind of
things that have to be dealt with in modern war, the
kind of way work is done and the extraordinary number
of small details that have to be attended to.

September 12th, 191 6. — The Kite Balloon Con-
ference, at the Third Brigade, was attended by the Kite

172

1916] Further Operations on the Somme

Balloon Commanders : Cleaver, Boyle, Byng, Mac-
Neece, and Wyse. Following is a brief summary of
the Conference :

Object of the Conference.

To get into closer touch with the Kite Balloon Squadron
Commanders.

To point out that as the War continues, and the scale of
work increases, individualism, which has been a good thing
and unavoidable in the past, will have to give way to uni-
formity. This does not mean that progress will cease, but
that progress will work towards one uniform standard.

Points Discussed.

Rigging.

Boyle thought guides ought to be made of cotton rope
instead of hemp rope, because cotton ropes are easier to
handle. He preferred the Caco Balloon to the old one. It
can go up in a stronger wind, and is steadier.

Byng also preferred the Caco Balloon. He said it is stead-
ier, and can work in a rougher wind, even in a 16-mile
gusty wind. He considered the guides were not long enough
and would like them thicker, not merely for the sake of
comfort, but for safety. (Boyle here gave us to understand
that this is what he had meant to say.) He did not care if
they were changed to cotton. He said the Caco Balloon
had done 4,800 feet with two passengers and ballast.

Cleaver had had no experience as yet of the Caco Balloon,
(which should be spelt Caquot.) But he thought it was better,
more stable and had a better lift. He was in favour of adopt-
ing the Caquot. He had nothing to say about the rigging.
With regard to the handling ropes, he thought they could
be shortened and a long cotton rope added to them. The
G.O.C. suggested the pushed Bell handle rope. Squadron
Commanders deprecated this as being likely to suffer from
wet. Cleaver did not like the curve on the basket. He thought
the lead on the metallic V might be shortened.

173

R.F.C., H.Q. [September

MacNeece thought the handling ropes should be softer
and thicker. He agreed about the basket with Cleaver. He
liked the Caquot.

Wyse thought the basket suspension too short. This
could be remedied by putting slots (?) ; he also approved
of cotton ropes for handling guides. He wanted ropes to
be in one piece.

Byng wants a hole cut in the back of the Balloon to let
the air out quicker when on the ground.

Boyle raised the question of valve lines.

Cleaver used aeroplane cable on his suspension car, and
preferred it as he said it doesn't chafe. This question does
not arise in the Caquot balloon.

Byng wants a spare bar or hoop as the case may be .

Winches.

Cleaver was in favour of the Delahay winch. He didn't
know its power, nor its power compared with the Scammel.
He thought the Scammel was not sufficiently powerful to
pull down the balloon he has got now. Being asked by the
G.O.C. whether he ever pulled down his balloon at top
speed he said : " No, never except on a fine day."

MacNeece did not know the power of the winches either.
He had hauled down at top speed.

Wyse had never had a Delahay winch. He knew nothing
of their power.

Byng didn't think the Scammel powerful enough. He
thought the Caquot needed a more powerful winch. Asked
why, he said because it works in a stronger wind and at a
greater height.

Byng and Boyle agreed in thinking one should be able
to pull down the balloon at top speed or 8,000 feet a minute
in a 30-mile wind.

Cleaver thinks the Scammel winch too heavy and not mo-
bile enough. He would like a Caterpillar. He didn't care how
slow he moved. The Scammel, he said, needed a metal road.

MacNeece thought a Caterpillar would not stand a long
advance. He advocated chains. He said the Scammel was
more mobile in a wind.

174

1 9i 6] Further Operations on the Sonnne

Wyse said if winches are too light they are towed by the
balloon. He said the Scammel loses ground going round
corners. He was strongly against a Caterpillar.

Byng would like a petrol electric winch for changing
gear while hauling down. He thought the most mobile
winch would be the horse-drawn one. He was against a
Caterpillar.

Boyle was in favour of chains and against a Caterpillar:

Telephones.

Should they be in the hands of Squadrons or of Signals ?

Cleaver voted for signals.

Wyse for Signals.

Boyle for Squadrons.

Byng, who had had experience of both, was indifferent.

Parachutes .

Byng did not like the cap, which he said comes off too
quickly.

Wyse said the rubber band perishes.

MacNeece thought the parachute ideal, if the packing was
all right.

Cleaver thought the rubber rings were not good.

No definite allowance of spare rubber bands is laid
down. This was noted by Currin and Brooke-Popham.

The majority thought the parachute should not be fast-
ened to the Balloon and to the observer, but ready for the
observer to fasten completely at the last moment.

Boyle thought all fastening should be done, and that
the only reason the observers were against this was because
they were afraid of the parachute coming out, and being
blown out themselves. He thought the rubber rings were
not to be relied upon in all circumstances.

Boyle raised the question of the supply of gas. He said
he had to send 40 miles each way for it. He suggested an
advanced Depot at Fricourt. ,

Byng raised the question of red arrows being no longer
painted on the tubes. This gives a lot of extra labour.

175

R.F.C., H.Q. [September

Boyle says his establishment is too small for the amount
of paper work he has to do. He has no clerks, only one cor-
poral. He wants typewriters.

On the 14th September, 1916, the General made a
speech to the mechanics in the morning, and after
luncheon he spoke to all the officers of the Squadrons
belonging to the Ninth Wing, who were assembled in
a shed. He told them about what was going to happen
next day, that a big offensive was going to be made,
that tanks were going to be used for the first time,
and a great effort was going to be made to strike a
decisive blow. The effect of this speech is well describ-
ed in "An Airman's Outings," by a pilot who was pres-
ent, and who writes under the name of " Contact."

During the night machines were sent out with orders
to drop bombs on the enemy's billets, railway junc-
tions, aerodromes, and any other targets. This was
done from every aerodrome in the Somme area. In
the morning, before dawn, Ian Henderson left from
No. 19 Squadron for special Contact patrol work — to
follow and report on the movements of the infantry.
He landed two hours later, his machine riddled with
bullets, and came straight to our Headquarters. His
face was glowing with excitement, and black with oil.
He had seen our troops leave the trenches and go ahead.
Only a few, he said, were held up. Selous, the son of
the famous big-game hunter, took Ian Henderson's
place. In the afternoon Selous came back with news
of the tanks, and Ian Henderson was sent out again.
He was a long time coming back from this second ex-
pedition, and we began to grow uneasy, but he landed
all right with several wires and struts shot, and even
his engine hit. He had seen one of the tanks capture
a village at the head of a column of men walking be-
side it, cheering and waving to him as he flew over.

176

1 9i 6] Further Operations on the Somme

It was a terrific day in the air. It was not before
a year passed that so much flying was done
in the air again ; i ,308 hours of flying were done ; 24
German machines were brought down and 2 kite
balloons. The troops on the Bapaume-Albert road
and on the Bapaume-le Transloy road were scattered
by machines flying low ; Velu and Bapaume Stations
were bombed and Provins Aerodrome Eight tons of
explosives were dropped on Bapaume Station from a
height of 200 — 300 feet. Near Cambrai, a bomb was
dropped from 500 feet and blew up an ammunition
train. I went to three Squadrons in the morning and
to three in the afternoon. The Artillery Squadrons
worked just as hard the day before.

September 16th, 1916. — Minding, a pilot in 34, had
his main spar shot by a shell. Two-thirds of the main
spar were shot out and the whole length cut. He sig-
nalled : " Have been stung by a wasp."

On September 14th, No. 34 never had less than six
machines in the air : most of them did seven hours.
Holt got bored with his registering, so went down to
1,300 feet and machine-gunned the battery.

Artillery co-operation had never been so great in
volume, nor so effective.

In the Third Wing, on the 15th September, 191 6,
96 shoots were carried out, including 70 on batteries ;
43 batteries were engaged under the area call ; 22
destructive shoots carried out on batteries. All the
batteries engaged were active except two. Baines and
Green (No. 3) went down and strafed a battery from
1,000 feet. This battery was firing four guns 300 yards
from our infantry. They silenced the battery. Lynch
did the same sort of thing. Roberts dropped a Hales
bomb on a wrecked machine, scattering the people :
when they collected again he strafed them with a

177

R.F.C., H.Q. [September

Lewis gun. Sommers dropped two bombs on troops
on the road : the men were in file. Transport was
seen moving on the 16th from Pys to Grevilliers. Zone
calls sent down, but they were out of range of any-
thing but 6-inch. An observer came down low to strafe
it with machine-gun.

On the 16th of September, 1916, the General sent
me to No. 70 Squadron to take out anyone who wanted
a rest for the day. The Squadron Commander (Law-
rence) picked out a man called Drenon, and I took
him to a round of Squadrons.

On the 15th we suffered one very sharp loss in
the shape of Cruikshank, one of the most gallant
pilots who ever flew. He was not only as brave as a lion
but absolutely untiring. He had been fighting ever
since the beginning of the war. And I think there was
no one in the Flying Corps ever did so much work at
a stretch. He had a sublime and, alas ! as it proved, a
mistaken belief that nothing could touch him or hurt
him. He had told me himself a few days before he was
missing that he knew he couldn't be killed in battle.
When he saw a German machine he would see red,
and pounce down on it nose-diving, whatever the
circumstances. He was a great pilot, and we all loved
him.

On the 17th, while I was showing a party of Russians
round the Aerodrome, someone casually told me that
Raymond Asquith had been killed.

''EtVe T*?, H/oa/fXeiTe, Teov /uopov,
What a waste people said, when they thought of his
brilliant brain, his radiant wit, his mastery of language,
his solid scholarship, and all his rare gifts. But it wasn't
a waste, and never for one moment did I think so.

Raymond's service at the front was the crown and
purpose of his life. A purpose fulfilled to a noble close.

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1 9i 6] Further Operations on the Somme

He loved being in the Army as much as he had hated
being at the Bar. He went on with his life in the Army
where he had left it off at Oxford, and he died in a
second miraculous spring ; and by being in the Army
and being what he was, and doing what he did, in the
way he did it, he made it a little easier for us to win
the war.

On the 19th I heard Tower had been killed, who
was one of the gayest and sunniest of pilots.

On the 20th of September, 191 6, I went with the
General to see a crack French Squadron at Cachi.
There we saw Guynemer, the famous French pilot,
who looked just like a young eagle. The General pre-
sented Commandant Pugo with his D.S.O., and from
there we went on to another French Aerodrome at
Villers-Bretonneux. While we were there in the office
a young observer arrived straight from an artillery
shoot, and marked in the line on the map. The General
was immensely impressed with the precision and
straightforwardness of his work, as he also was with
the whole organisation of the French photography
and registration.

On the 23rd of September, 19 16, a pilot in the
Martinsyde charged a German and sent him to the
ground like a stone, but in doing so his own ailerons
were cut away. He got back over our line, but couldn't
land and ran into a tree. He dislocated his shoulder.
The fight had happened over Cambrai.

The fighting in the air which formed part of the big
attack on September 15th made the General more and
more anxious about the future. It would be strange if
such a situation could last. So a memorandum was
written which embodied the General's views. This
memorandum was afterwards printed and circulated,
and parts of it embodied later in a pamphlet called

179

R.F.C., H.Q. [September

Offence and Defence. As it contains the main principles
of our policy in the air, I quote it here. It contains
nothing technical :

Since the beginning of the recent operations the fighting
in the air has taken place over the enemy's line, and visits
of hostile aeroplanes over our lines have been rare. It is to
be hoped that this state of things may continue, but as one
can never be certain of anything in war, it is perhaps an
opportune moment to consider what policy should be
adopted were this state of affairs to change, and were the
enemy to become more enterprising and more aggressive.

It is sometimes argued that our aeroplanes should be
able to prevent hostile aeroplanes from crossing the line,
and this idea leads to a demand for defensive measures
and a defensive policy. Now is the time to consider whether
such a policy would be possible, desirable and successful.

It is the deliberate opinion of all those most competent
to judge that this is not the case, and that an aeroplane is
an offensive and not a defensive weapon. Owing to the un-
limited space in the air, the difficulty one machine has in
seeing another, the accidents of wind and cloud, it is im-
possible for aeroplanes, however skilful and vigilant their
pilots, however powerful their engines, however mobile
their machines, and however numerous their formations,
to prevent hostile aircraft from crossing the line if they
have the initiative and determination to do so.

The aeroplane is not a defence against the aeroplane.
But the opinion of those most competent to judge is that the
aeroplane, as a weapon of attack, cannot be too highly
estimated.

A signal instance of this fact is offered to us by the oper-
ations which took place in the air at Verdun.

When the operations at Verdun began, the French had
few machines on the spot. A rapid concentration was made,
and a vigorous offensive was adopted. The result was that
superiority in the air was obtained immediately, and the
machines detailed for artillery co-operation and photo-
graphy were enabled to carry out their work unmolested,

1 80

191 6] Further Operations on the Somme

but as new units were put into the line which had less ex-
perience of working with aeroplanes, a demand arose in
some quarters for machines of protection, and these
demands were for a time complied with. The result was
that the enemy took the offensive, and the French machines
were unable to prevent the hostile raids which the enemy,
no longer being attacked, was now able to make. The
mistake was at once realised and promptly rectified. A
policy of general offensive was once more resumed, and
the enemy at once ceased to make hostile raids, all his time
being taken up in fighting the machines which were attack-
ing him. Superiority in the air was thus once more re-
gained .

On the British front, during the operations which began
with the battle of the Somme, we know that, although the
enemy has concentrated the greater part of his available
forces in the air on this front, the work actually accom-
plished by their aeroplanes stands, compared with the work
done by us, in the proportion of about 4 to 100. From the
accounts of prisoners, we gather that the enemy's aero-
planes have received orders not to cross the lines over the
French or British front unless the day is cloudy and a
surprise attack can be made, presumably in order to avoid
unnecessary casualties. On the other hand, British aviation
has been guided by a policy of relentless and incessant
offensive. Our machines have continually attacked the
enemy on his side of the line, bombed his aerodromes,
besides carrying out attacks on places of importance far
behind the lines. It would seem probable that this has had
the effect so far on the enemy of compelling him to keep
back or to detail portions of his forces in the air for defen-
sive purposes.

When Lille station was attacked from the air for the first
time no hostile aeroplanes were encountered. The second
time, this place was attacked our machines encountered a
squadron of Fokkers, which were there for defensive pur-
poses. This is only one instance among many.

The question which arises is this : Supposing the enemy,
under the influence of some drastic reformer or some

181

R.F.C., H.Q. [September

energetic leader, were now to change his policy and follow
the example of the English and the French, and were to
cease using his aeroplanes as a weapon of defence and to
start a vigorous offensive and attack as many places as far
behind our lines as he could, what would be the sound
policy to follow in such a case ? Should we abandon our
offensive, bring back our Squadrons behind the line to
defend places like Boulogne, St. Omer, Amiens and Abbe-
ville, and protect our artillery and photographic machines
with defensive escorts, or should we continue our offensive
more vigorously than before ? Up to now the work done
by the Germans compared with that done by our aero-
planes stands, as we have seen, in the proportion of 4 to
100, but let us suppose that the enemy initiated a partial
offensive in the air, and that his work increased, compared
with ours, to a proportion of 30 or 50 to 100, it is then quite
certain that a demand for protective measures would arise
for protective Squadrons and machines for defensive
patrols.

One of the causes of such demands is the moral effect
produced by a hostile aeroplane, which is out of all pro-
portion to the damage which it can inflict.

The mere presence of a hostile machine in the air in-
spires those on the ground with exaggerated forebodings
with regard to what the machine is capable of doing. For
instance, at one time on one part of the front whenever a
hostile machine, or what was thought to be a hostile machine,
was reported, whistles were blown and men hid in the
trenches.

In such cases the machines were at far too great a height
to observe the presence of men on the ground at all, and
even if the presence of men was observed it would not lead
to a catastrophe. Again, a machine which was reported in
one place would certainly, since it was flying rapidly, be
shortly afterwards observed in another part of the lines
and reported again, but the result of these reports was
often that for every time the machine was sighted a separate
machine was reported, leading at the end of the day to a
magnified and exaggerated total.

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1 9i 6] Further Operations on the Somme

The sound policy, then, which should guide all warfare
in the air would seem to be this : to exploit this moral
effect of the aeroplane on the enemy, but not to let him
exploit it on ourselves. Now this can only be done by
attacking and by continuing to attack.

It has been our experience in the past that at a time
when the Germans were doing only half the work done by
our machines that their mere presence over our lines pro-
duced an insistent and continuous demand for protective
and defensive measures.

If the Germans were once more to increase the degree
of their activity even up to what constitutes half the degree
of our activity, it is certain that such demands would be
made again.

On the other hand, it is equally certain that, were such
measures to be adopted, they would prove ineffectual. As
long as a battle is being fought, any machine at the front
has five times the value that the same machine would have
far behind the lines.

If the enemy were aware of the presence of a defensive
force in one particular spot he would leave that spot alone
and attack another, and we should not have enough machines
to protect all the places which could possibly be attacked
behind our lines, and at the same time continue the in-
dispensable work on the front.

But supposing we had enough machines both for offen
sive and for defensive purposes. Supposing we had an un-
limited number of machines for defensive purposes, it
would still be impossible to prevent hostile machines from
crossing the line if they were determined to do so, simply
because the sky is too large to defend. We know from ex-
perience how difficult it is to prevent a hostile vessel, and
still more a hostile submarine, from breaking a blockade,
when the blockade extends over a large area. But in the air
the difficulty of defence is still greater, because the area of
possible escape is practically unlimited, and because the
aeroplane is fighting in three dimensions.

183

R.F.C.j H.Q. [September

The sound policy would seem to be that if the enemy
changes his tactics and pursues a more vigorous offensive,
to increase our offensive, to go further afield, and to force
the enemy to do what he would gladly have us do now. If,
on the other hand, we were to adopt a purely defensive
policy, or a partially offensive policy, we should be doing
what the French have learnt by experience to be a failure,
and what the rank and file of the enemy, by their own
accounts, point to as being one of the main causes of their
recent reverses.

Moreover, in adopting such a policy it appears probable
that the Germans are guided by necessity rather than by
choice, owing to the many fronts on which they now have
to fight, and owing also to the quality and the quantity of
machines they have to face on the Western Front alone.
Nevertheless, one cannot repeat too often that in war noth-
ing is certain, and that the Germans may, either owing to
the pressure of public opinion, or the construction of new
types of machines, or the rise of a new leader, change their
policy at any moment for a more aggressive one.

September 22nd, 191 6.

As we shall see later, the General's prophecy proved
to be correct, for the Germans, both by the rise of a
new leader and the construction of new types of
machines, did change their policy for an aggressive and
very effectually aggressive one.

184

CHAPTER XV

THE END OF THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME

AND AFTER.

ON the 22nd September, 191 6, on our way to
G.H.Q., we were kept waiting a long time at
the Candas level-crossing, by trains, and on
our return journey we found a block, and a seething
confusion caused by two batteries, a column of in-
fantry, a line of R.F.C. transport, a number of lorries,
light-tenders, and touring cars and motor cyclists, all
going in opposite directions. They had been
there three-quarters of an hour. The General got out
and gave a few orders, and made some of them
stop and others move, and halt and move again, and
in five minutes' time the tangled skeins of traffic were
disentangled and moving on once more.

Further news of fighting came in the afternoon. We
spent some hours at the Depot, where we were told
that the hand starter epicyclic-gearing on the R.E.7,
with the 250 Rolls-Royce engine, had gone wrong.

From a letter : September (undated). A sailor told
me that when the zeppelin was captured in the Thames
a dead German who was found inside it was given a
naval burial in the rather shallow waters, and the
parson was told (if he could) to say a few words of
German. Some days after this burial the Petty Officer

185

R.F.C., H.Q. [September

who carried out these instructions came to the officer
in charge and reported as follows :

" Please, Sir, the 'Un's a-flood."

September 2yd, 191 6. From my Diary : Three
French officers came to the Depot in the afternoon.
Talking of the different makes of the Hispano engines,
they picked out one maker as being the only good one.
It was the one our pilots say is the only bad one, and
the engine they clamour for is the one the French said
was the worst.

September 25th. — Our wireless officer, Major Smith,
has been made a Park Commander. I have addressed
him the following lines on the subject :

I hope one day Toe Smith will be

Sir Vincent Toe Smith, K.C.B.,

He thoroughly deserves the rank

For fitting wireless on a Tank :

For talking on a telephone

From Paris to the torrid zone,

From Lundy Isle and Salisbury spire

To Rome, without the aid of wire ;

For making a transmitter weigh

A pound less than a pound of hay ;

For making a receiver less

Than Staunton's pocket-book of chess.

For these and for all other things,

Toe Smith deserves the thanks of Kings.

But as there are no Kings to hand,

He'll get an Aircraft Park Command ;

Commander of an Aircraft Park ;

This comes of fiddling with a spark.

September 27th, 1916. — Fighting at Thiepval.
September 28th, 1916. — The shock-absorber on the
tail-skid of the Morane is too fierce.

186

i^id]End of Battle of Somme and After

September 30th, 1916. — Reading Pliny's Letters. He
says that you often give offence in a letter by writing
something which, if you said it in conversation, would
give no offence at all. Conversation being helped out
by look, gesture, and expression.

October 2nd, 191 6. — The Maxim gun on the Aero-
drome has no washers.

October yd, 1916. — Tour round the Kite Balloon
Sections. In No. 1 the gland for taking pressure in
the balloon is unsatisfactory. The rope on the Caquot
is different from the rope they repair it with.

October \th, 191 6. —Reading King Lear.

October 6th, 191 6. — Finished Dante's Paradiso, Canto

17:

" Giu per lo mondo senza fine amaro."

Just about this time Bron Lucas arrived in France,
and was made a Flight Commander in No. 22 Squad-
ron. The first time I saw him after his arrival was on
the 7th of October. He had already flown his new
machine, an F.E. 2.B. He wanted three valve rockers
(old type) for the 120 Beardmore engine. We were able
to provide him with these immediately, which sur-
prised him, after being in England, where he said it
was difficult to get a split pin out of anybody. Here in
France, he said, you felt that everyone was out to help
you. The next time I saw him was on October nth.
He had been over the line, and had been archied and a
bit of his propeller had been shot off. His Squadron
Commander said they could not keep him out of the air.

On the 14th he came to luncheon with us, and stayed
the whole afternoon. We went to the Aerodrome and
watched the Sopwith machines flying. He had flown
over the barrage lately, and he said it was the most
marvellous sight he had ever seen.

187

R.F.C., H.Q. [October

On the 1 6th, Ridley, who had been a pilot in No.
60, arrived. He had landed in the German lines near
Cambrai, where he had remained concealed for some
weeks. He had then walked to Belgium, where he was
once actually arrested on a tram. He hit the policeman
in the face and jumped off the tram. He had walked
about in the guise of a man with an earache. He couldn't
speak French or German. He had a passport with his
photograph on it given him by the German authori-
ties. He gave me this photograph, which looks like the
picture of an Englishman without a collar. He walked
five miles to the frontier wires carrying a ladder ; when
he got there he climbed over into Holland. He had
been away since August, and I had spent the morning
with him before he started on this expedition. The
Chief gave him the D.S.O.

On the 22nd Mr. Balfour paid us a visit, and on the
24th I went with Neville Lytton to see Bron Lucas in
his Squadron. Afterwards I went on to Amiens.

October 27th, 191 6. — From a letter : This after-
noon we went to see the new naval Squadron, and it
was very wet and windy. A southerly gale blew all
day, with drifts of gusty rain and ragged, fluttering
clouds careering across the sky. We got back about
four, and at half-past four, just as I was sitting down to
typewrite, I noticed that the dark office was flooded with
light, so I went out of doors to see what had happened.

We live at the meeting of five cross-roads, and at
their juncture there is a roadside chapel, and the roads
are bordered with rows of trees. Through the trees
and over the flat fields I saw that what had happened
was this : the curtain of storm in the west had been
lifted just a little, and underneath it and behind it,
there was a sea of liquid light partly pale gold (the
lower part) and partly a luminous sea green, and in

188

i9i6] End of Battle of Somme and After

this sea there were low islands and rocks and reefs of
blazing fire.

But all this was nothing compared to what was
happening in the East. Here the thick grey cloud was
turned to purple by the reflected sunset, and right over
all of it reaching from the earth to the zenith's height
and then down again to the earth was the tallest and
most perfect rainbow I have ever seen, all incandescent
in the glory of the sunset and glistening in the rain.
A marvellous sight. This is the second time I have
described it to-day — I take it a symbol of hope, vic-
tory and peace — so much did it strike me. One seldom
sees a perfect rainbow going all the way round and
making an arch over the whole world.

Bron Lucas, who was flying over from St. Omer,
crashed on the Candas Aerodrome. It was a cold and
gusty day. He came in to tea with us, where he found
Colonel Seely and Prince Antoine D 'Orleans.

On the 29th we had a long and important con-
ference with Colonel Barres, Commander of the
French aviation. The question of ordering Hispano-
Suiza engines was discussed, also long distance bomb-
ing raids into Gennany. Colonel Barres said he in-
tended to bomb the German towns, and did not want
us to do it. His idea was to prolong the French long
distance bombing. Rombach had already been evacu-
ated. His aim was to force the Germans to evacuate
all the factories on the Rhine. He thought bombing
would not only put an end to war, but would finish
the war. He said this was not a dream.

I finished Coriolanus and Timon of Athens. Besides
these, during this month I have read Hamlet, Othello,
Macbeth, and Twelfth Night.

On October 30th, 191 6, I went to Bertangles and
saw Bron Lucas. We walked across the Aerodrome to

189

R.F.C., H.Q. [November

Hawker's mess. It had poured with rain all day, but
in the evening the clouds lifted over the horizon, leav-
ing a low gold wrack, against which the sheds stood
out black. Above there was a great tumult of clouds
drifting and streaming and reflecting the light below,
with here and there a rift. I said to Bron that it was
like one of my pictures. He laughed and said " yes." I
wondered what it meant.

On the 31st we were visited by the King of Monte-
negro, who wanted to fly over the line, but wasn't
allowed to ; and on the 2nd of November by the
Prime Minister of New Zealand.

On the 3rd I went out with the General for a long
tour round the Squadrons. We went to see seven
Squadrons. The wind was strong high up, but not on
the ground. Just as we started he told me that Bron
Lucas wras going to be given a Squadron at once, and
that he had written out the necessary telegram. We
got back late, and for some reason I didn't look, as was
my usual habit, at the table, where a whole array of tele-
grams told one the news from the Brigades and whether
any machines were missing. After dinner the General
told me Bron was missing.

The next day Mr. McKenna came to see us, the day
after Commandant Du Peuty, and the day after that
Mr. Leo Maxse, and on the 9th a large party of French
journalists, and on the 10th Sir Douglas Haig came to
see the flying. Here are a few extracts from my Diary
at this time :

November nth, 1916. — We went to the Naval Squad-
ron which is now attached to us, and which is on the
same Aerodrome as No. 32. They said they would like
the oil used by No. 32 for machine-guns. It was better
than their own naval oil. We then went on to No. 32.

190

i9i6] End of Battle of Somme and After

They asked if they might have the naval oil, which
they said was better than their own military oil. When
the matter was investigated later there was found to be
not the slightest difference between the naval and the mili-
tary oil. The naval Squadron was short of gudgeon pins.

" Le feu se transforme en mouvement et le mouve-
ment en feu et c'est la le monde." (Heraclitus.)

November i6th> 191 6. — Lord Milner and General
Rawlinson came to the Aerodrome.

November iSth, 191 6. — Conference at the Third
Army. Herds of Generals. I am reading The Mabino-
gion, translated from the Welsh by Lady Charlotte
Guest, lent me by Lawrence in No. 70 Squadron, and
about King Arthur.

Somebody sent me a list of qualifications for a man
who wanted to join the R.F.C. I threw the envelope
into the fire before I read the letter, which said at the
end : " I enclose his qualifications." I plunged my
hand into the fire and rescued the qualifications, a
little bit charred, but still readable and only partially
destroyed. I took them downstairs to show someone,
and left them for three seconds on the chimney-piece.
During these three seconds, while I glanced at a news-
paper, Corballis came in and threw the paper into the
fire. I looked up and the deed was done. The quali-
fications were irremediably destroyed.

November 20th, 191 6. — A German prisoner wrote
a letter to ask another pilot to say he was all right. This
letter was translated by the Wing, and then sent vid
the Brigade to the Corps and then to the Army. The
Army have sent it back here to be translated. The Wing
Commander who originally sent it knows German
better than he does English.

On the 21st we began to make arrangements for
moving back to St. Andre. The battle of the Somme

191

R.F.C., H.Q. [November

was over. I took an affectionate leave of the Notaire
and his wife, in whose house I had been billeted. The
Notaire gave a bottle of champagne, and Toe Smith
and I presented them with a pair of bronze candle-
sticks representing victory and France triumphant.

November 2yd, 191 6. — We left Fienvillers for St.
Andre.

" Good night, the old year creeps towards the grave :
There are the young, and almost all the brave."

On the 25th November we went to Cassel and spent
the night with the Second Brigade, but on the way we
stopped at the St. Omer Aircraft Depot, where we had
a strenuous look round at the Repair Section and in
the Stores.

Here are some points which were dealt with : There
were no Sopwiths in cases at the Depot. Four Moranes
were to go home. Throttles were not turned back on
the R.E. The Rhone was short of nose-pieces. Work
was to be stopped on all machines without engines.
The R.E. 8 was to be repaired. Gun drums were found
to be going home with engine parts : they should be
kept separate. There were no R.E. spares and no
cocking handles on B.E. 125. Plug repair, field-
glasses repair, and First A.D. leave were dealt with.
Also the centre section on an R.E.8, which was not
cut out near the fuselage for cellon. Mark 1. tuners
were to go home, and old sets to be cleared out. Wire-
less operators were to be taught German signals. No
instructions had been received about the Hythe
cameras. Camera plate-cases, brass clips, and the
alterations in the new model aluminium camera were
mentioned. A Nieuport had its number on the wrong
side. A man was making washers. Sights for the single-
seater Nieuport were being made at the Depot. Two

192

1916] End of Battle of Somme and After

R.E.8's. were held up for wires and struts. A chute
was being made for the R.E.7. No F.E's. and no R.E's.
were to be repaired in the future if the bottom of the
longeron has gone. Two F.E., 2 D's. were waiting for
engines.

Scarfe gun-mounting and tail skids of Nieuports were
discussed. It takes five hours and two men to clean
the blue paint on the rotary engines. Rankin darts
were to go home. There were 310 yards of Willesden
canvas at First A.D., and 280 at Second A.D. ; 300
cases were sent monthly to Pont de l'Arche. A super-
fluous number of magneto boxes was detected. No. 42
Squadron had asked for and taken 13 boxes of magneto
spares. People add stray items to Gio. 98 (their stand-
ard list of what they should have) ; cushions for lorries
had been indented for by No. 5 unnecessarily; 50 alumin-
ium pistons for 90 R.A.F. came in October 2nd, and
had not yet been used. Three special transmitters had
been in store three weeks without being used. Metal
belts hadn't been sent for. B.E. 2C. tanks were to be
sent away. Twenty-five Kite Balloons were wandering
about the country.

I have written down all these technical details, not
from any hope that the reader will keep them clear in
his mind, but because people used to talk glibly, and
still do talk glibly, of the extravagance of the Flying
Corps. The R.F.C. were extravagant no doubt.
Flying and everything to do with it is an extravagant
matter. The pilot is extravagant, the Squadron is
extravagant, even the Equipment Oificer, even the
Technical Sergeant-Major was sometimes found to be
extravagant but a lot of this extravagance was
inevitable ; what nobody knew or realised was that a
perpetual effort was being made to check useless ex-
travagance, and that even superfluous magneto boxes

193

R.F.C., H.Q. [November

and an unnecessary indent for lorry cushions were
noted.

On the 27th, I put the note about cutting down the
reserve drivers which the General had given me on
March nth on his table. He acted on it immediately,
and the reserve drivers were cut down.

On November 30th, we went to Paris to discuss
questions of guns, machines and engines with the
French. We saw Colonel Regnier on the following day,
and also visited Nieuport's works. The next day we
visited Darracq's works.

I got a telegram in the morning saying that it was
now known that Bron Lucas, who had been missing
since November 3rd, had been killed. As we after-
wards heard, he had been shot in the neck, but had
managed to land his machine and his observer safely.
He was unconscious when the machine landed but still
alive, and he died about six o'clock in the evening, and
was buried near Bapaume. That night I read a Canto
of Dante, and came across this line :

" Ove s'appunta ogni ubi ed ogni quando."

(Paradiso, Canto 29.)
" There where every where and every when is deter-
mined."

And never was there a where and a when more tragic-
ally fit and more mournfully appropriate than in the
case of Bron Lucas's death. So befitting and so appro-
priate that regret was lost in awe and wonder, and grief
was silenced.

Bron was a wanderer by nature ; his heart was
above all things adventurous, and he went on seeking
and finding adventures in spite of every handicap, in
spite of circumstances, till he met with his last adventure
fighting in the sky on his last errand. At Oxford he

194

1916] End of Battle of Somme and After

had rowed two years in the 'Varsity boat. He went
out to the South African War as Times correspondent,
where he was wounded. The wound, although not
serious in itself, was followed by disastrous conse-
quences and complications, and finally he was obliged
to have his leg cut off, and for many months he was
seriously ill. One would have thought this was the
end of active out-of-door life and physical adventure
as far as he was concerned, but not at all.

He was soon as active as ever, and rode and hunted
and shot. Just before the war began he had a bad fall
in a steeplechase. When the war broke out he was a
Cabinet Minister, and I think the most difficult sacri-
fice he had to make in his life was not to throw up his
work as a civilian and go out to France at once directly
war broke out, or at least, prepare to go out. He was
in the Yeomanry.

He stayed in the Cabinet until May, 191 5, when
there were changes. He was then released from his civ-
ilian fetters, and in July he went to Gosport to learn to
be an observer. At first he found the new life very
strange. He told me it was not only like going back to
a private school, but to a foreign school. He was 39
years old, and most of his school-fellows were about
eighteen or nineteen.

People who were with him then at Gosport told me
that his keenness was electric in its effect on all the
others. If a propeller was to be swung he would be
the first to swing it. He learned to be an observer, and
then he was not satisfied till he had learnt to fly. The
idea was that he should have a Staff job in the R.F.C.
when he had learned enough about machines. But this
did not satisfy him. He went out to Egypt as a flying
officer in No. 13 Squadron, and while he was there he
took part in some long distance raids, and had one

J95

R.F.C., H.O. [December

bad crash in the desert. He came back to England,
and, after doing some instructor's work at Dover and
having another bad crash, he was given a Squadron,
with a view to his being sent out to France with a
Squadron later. But this he would not do. As I have
already said, he would not command a Squadron in
France unless he had first done the ordinary work of
a pilot over the lines. And he threw himself into that
work only too well.

These last weeks in France were, perhaps, the
happiest of his life. He was an undergraduate once
more and an active soldier, as active, as athletic in the
air as he had ever been on the ground. His youth had been
given back to him with interest, and for his disabilities
he had received a glorious compensation. Apart from
the work and his interest and whole-hearted keenness
in the war, in his Squadron, in his mechanics, and in
his machine, he enjoyed himself with all the great gift
of enjoyment and fund of gaiety with which he had
enjoyed everything else in his life : his houses, his
fishing, his pony-hunts, his steeplechases, his horses,
his pictures, his dinner-parties, the performances of
the Follies, or, as long ago, the days, whether of strenu-
ous rowing or idle punting on the river at Oxford, and
the musical supper parties at King Edward Street,
where Donald Tovey used to explain the difference
between Gluck and Puccini to a lot of rowing Blues,
while others threw butter at the ceiling and slapped
the ham. They could not keep him out of the air. " He
was too much of a tiger," his Wing Commander said.
And his Squadron Commander said to me : " He is
an air-hog." One could not help thinking with pangs
what a great Squadron Commander he would have
made, but even this regret was swallowed up in the
thought that the most fitting crown to the example of

196

1916] End of Battle of Somme and After

his life was his, the splendour and sacrifice of his
death.

The next day we went back to St. Andre\ stopping
at Chantilly on the way to have luncheon with Colonel
Barres at the Headquarters of the French aviation.

On December ioth, 191 6, we went to London.

197

PART IV
1917

CHAPTER XVI
ST. ANDRE AGAIN— THE SPRING OFFENSIVE

WE arrived back at St. Andre" on the 2nd of
January. We had to prepare for another year
of operations and relentless fighting in the
air. The lessons of the battles of the Somme were
clear to us, and they were also clear to the Germans.

This is what General von Below wrote with regard
to the air fighting during the battle of the Somme, in
a Memorandum dated January, 191 7, and which was
captured later :

" The beginning and the first weeks of the battle of
the Somme were marked by a complete inferiority of
our own air forces. The enemy's aeroplanes enjoyed
complete freedom in carrying out distant reconnais-
sances. With the aid of aeroplane observation the
hostile artillery neutralised our guns, and was able to
range with the most extreme accuracy on the trenches
occupied by our infantry ; the required data for this
were provided by undisturbed trench reconnaissance
and photography.

" By means of bombing and machine-gun attacks
from a low height against infantry, battery positions
and marching columns, the enemy's aircraft inspired
our troops with a feeling of defencelessness against the
enemy's mastery of the air.

201

R.F.C., H.Q. [January

" On the other hand, our own aeroplanes succeeded
in quite exceptional cases in breaking through the
hostile barrage and carrying out distant reconnais-
sances ; our artillery machines were driven off when-
ever they attempted to carry out registration for their
own batteries."

General von Below goes on to state the measures
by which a gradual improvement was attained, and
what measures he suggested should be taken to im-
prove and increase this improvement. What he says
can really be summed up in one sentence. We must
exchange defence for offence, and do to the English
what they are doing to us.

In order to achieve this end, the German air forces
were reinforced, the organisation of defensive patrol
barrages was forbidden, which could only lead, the
General says, to dispersal of strength. " The main
object of fighting in the air," he goes on to say, " is to
enable our photographic registration and photographic
reconnaissance to be carried out, and at the same time
to prevent that of the enemy. All other tasks, such as
bombing raids, machine gun attacks on troops, and
even distance reconnaissance in trench warfare, must
be secondary to this main object. So long as the ex-
ecution of the main task is not ensured, all available
forces must be employed for this purpose. All sub-
sidiary tasks must be abandoned, even when the
enemy's attacks are causing us considerable annoy-
ance."

The Germans had made up their mind to do two
things : to increase and strengthen their Flying Forces
as far as possible and to abandon defensive measures,
and attack. The question was : should we be ready
as far as regards both quantity and quality of machines
to meet their renewed efforts ? should we have enough

202

1917]^- Andre again — Spring Offensive

fast fighting machines to meet the enemy on equal
terms ? If by the time the spring offensive began we
were not well supplied with an adequate number of
fast fighting machines, we should be in a bad way if
the Germans continued to make progress in their
fighting material, and if their tactics in the air became
anything like as vigorous as ours had been during the
battle of the Somme. That the situation was foreseen
clearly will be evident from the following extract
from a Memorandum which was written in the winter,
after the battle of the Somme :

The only way in which this danger can be met is for
our offensive forces to be strong enough to prevent the
Germans from taking the offensive.

During the Somme battle we had the advantage that
any force actuated by offensive policy has over any force
on a purely defensive policy. But now that the Germans
have recognised the necessity of the offensive in the air
and are putting it into practice, the only way to meet the
danger and to. defeat it, is to double the output and to
increase the efficiency of our weapon. In other words, if
we are to fight the Germans successfully in the air during
the coming operations we must have double the number of
our fighting machines. Otherwise we shall be necessarily
reduced to a defensive policy, and our superiority in the
air will be lost. And this will not only mean that our offen-
sive far behind the German lines, which we know had a
deadly effect on the German moral, will cease, and it will
also mean that co-operation with the artillery and the in-
fantry will be seriously hampered, since it has been proved
in all operations so far, whether carried out by ourselves
or by the French, that the only way to ensure this work
being carried out without interference from the enemy is
to be able to attack the enemy in his lines and thus prevent
him from attacking.

It is this principle that the enemy have now realised and
are now acting upon. What toe need to defeat their application

203

R.r.Lt., ti.K^. January

of it is a sufficient quantity of efficient weapons ; that is
to say, a sufficient quantity of fast fighting machines.

As far as we can tell, when the Spring does come, and
with it new operations on a large scale, the policy that will
actuate the German operations in the air will be an offensive
policy and not a defensive one. And what is still more im-
portant, the Germans will have the means of putting such
a policy into effect. They will be equipped with a sufficient
quantity of fast fighting machines. Fighting in the air will,
therefore, be on a larger and more deadly scale than it has
ever been before.

It will be no longer a question of a group of machines
losing one or two machines in a raid, but of a formation
meeting another formation in battle daily and constantly.
If we look back and remember the agitation and alarm
caused by the appearance of the Fokker, which, it should
be remembered, was a fast scout whose activity was con-
fined to the German lines, and which succeeded in bring-
ing down isolated British machines which were slower and
less suitable for fighting, it is to be expected that the alarm
and agitation caused by the appearance of this machine,
which was out of all proportion to its potential mischief
and peril to us, will be as nothing compared with the out-
cry which will come if in the Spring our lines are crossed
day and night by large raiding parties of fast German fight-
ing machines.

If by the Spring the Germans are able to do in the air
one quarter of the work carried out by our air forces during
the first months of the Somme battle, it is to be feared that
the inevitable result will be a universal and irresistible
demand for defence and protection ; the abandonment
of our offensive and consequently the loss of our super-
iority in the air.

If it be asked how It came about, if the situation was
foreseen, that adequate measures were not taken to
meet it, I believe the true answer to be this :

Those who deserve the blame for our being behind-
hand in aircraft production are not the Government,

204

191 7] St- Andri again — Spring Offensive

nor the Air Board, nor this Minister nor that admin-
istrator, but ultimately and finally you and I, the
public : public opinion, which would not have
allowed any Government to spend enough money
before the tvar to enable us by experiment, pre-
paration and plant, to have the means during
the tvar of swift and adequate production. It is a
great mercy we had a Flying Corps at all. And
the nation owes an eternal debt of gratitude to
General Henderson and to those who fought the
battle for the adoption of the aeroplane as a
military weapon before the war, and to all .those
who organised the original Squadrons of the R.F.C.
and the R.N.A.S. Other things which retarded our
production were the disastrous interruptions and delays
caused by the strikes.

From my Diary, 191 7 :

January yd. — An Army Commanders' Conference
took place at Rollencourt. My India-rubber sponge
has been eaten by rats.

January $th, 1917. — We went to St. Omer to see a
new Vickers single-seater pusher. The machine was
flown. It was not thought to be a success. There was
no view down out of it, and the gun was fixed. The
reserve lorries were found not to be in a fit state, and
there were no sockets for aileron-struts in the Depot.
We drove back from St. Omer to St. Andre in one hour
and five minutes.

January 8th, 191 7. — I went to the Fifth Brigade
with the General, and to 5, 15, 32, 18 and 7 Squadrons.
A long day in the rain, sleet, snow and mud. The
General's cold is better ; but everyone else has caught
it, including the chauffeur. Brigades are to be warned
to have housing ready for the Intelligence Officers
who are about to arrive. No. 15 had no armourer's

205

R.F.d., ti .\) . [January

tools, and only 13 extension posts for double- drums,
and complained of cracked cylinders. ; 32's double-
drums were not satisfactory. No. 7 want back- wheels
for motor-cycles. The Lewis guns at No. 5 fired
directly they arrived. They had no complaints. We
lost the way coming home, because my servant, who
was sitting on the box, got out and asked a man the
way, and the man, a Frenchman, said, I suppose,
gauche, but my servant translated gauche as right,
putting us wrong. (This, as Mr. Pooter would say, is
rather funny.)

January qth, 191 7. — We went to the Third Army
Headquarters, then to Squadrons 60, 13, 12, 11, and
29 ; the Aerodromes were muddy. One man on
a Nieuport did a roll, that is to say, he looped side-
ways. We had luncheon in the car ; the rug got muddy.
I made it muddy by treading on it by accident. No. 60
want four more aircraft-tuners, and their silver dope
has not yet arrived. No. 29 want big galvanisers.

January nth, 1917.— Went to the Fifth Brigade,
Naval Squadron 23, 19, 2 A.D. The Naval Squadron
wants the Aldis sight. No. 19 want vacuum oil for the
Spad. The Sopwith one-and-a-half strutters are to go
to the first A.D.

January 12th, 1917.— Went to the First Brigade
with the General and La Ferriere to 10, 16, 2, 25,
70 Squadrons. No. 16 cameras are not satisfactorily
strung. No. 2 want carburendum stick and have not
got the Norman-sight, and are short of a bicycle.
No. 10 have only got two wireless mechanics. Six
Portuguese officers are staying with them. No. 25
have the 20 inch camera mounted over the top. Nobody
has told them how to fix up the big camera. No. 70
have run out of their supply of aluminium and are
using cast-iron pistons.

206

1917] St. Andre1 again — Spring Offensive

January i^th, 1917. — It snowed hard last night, and
it thawed hard to-day. The result is supremely dis-
agreeable. We went to the Fourth Army. Luncheon
with General Rawlinson, then to La Houssoye Aero-
drome, where he saw Flechaire, a French star pilot,
doing stunts. There was a thick mist, and he couldn't
fly higher than 200 feet. In fact, he flew much lower,
and he did " le tonneau " and other stunts. I was
thankful when it was over. Beck was there and General
Lambton. We took the less good road. I said it was the
less good road. However, the General insisted on
taking it. The result was we took two hours and three-
quarters instead of one and a quarter hours. I looked
patient and said every now and then : " We shan't
be so very late."

January i$th, 1917. — We went to Cassel and Bailleul,
and visited 42, 53, 1, 6, 41, and 46 Squadrons. We
stopped the night at Cassel. It was very cold with
snow. No. 42 have only four new type lighting-sets.

January 18 th, 191 7. — It is thawing, but there is
still a lot of snow on the ground. Nothing is happening,
and we can't go anywhere because of the state of the
roads. The General has caught a fresh cold. William
de Morgan, the novelist, is dead.

January 20th, 191 7. — From a letter :

..." Yesterday somebody asked me out to dinner
by telephone to meet a Pole. I thought the message
came from our Guest-House, the Flying Corps Guest-
House, which is in the near vicinity. I said " yes,"
meaning " no," because it is impossible to say " No "
the first time by telephone. Then, thinking better of it,
I rang up to say I was very sorry, but — . The answer
came that I had never been asked. I then realised that
the message had come from the G.H.Q. Guest-House,
which is 20 miles off. So I rang up the officer in charge

207

K.F.Lt.j tl.\). [January

of guests to say that I regretted but. . . . He was out,
but his subordinate was in, and said he would pass on
the message. He did, but he sent it to the Commander-
in-Chief saying I regretted that a more important
engagement prevented me from accepting his unkind
but well-meant invitation.

" This I was unaware of till this evening at 8.30 a
message came from the G.H.Q. Guest-House to know
whether I had started as they were still waiting, and
the Pole was so hungry that he was eating the matches.
I tried to answer, but was put into direct communi-
cation with Monsieur Briand, who was entertaining
guests at his Guest-House. So I rang off. I then tried
again, and was told that Maurice Guest was out of print
and the only copy on loan. However, I made a final
effort, and the answer was Captain Guest was on
leave. Then I gave it up. These are the advantages of
the Field telephone in war-time."

January 21st, 1917. — I dined with E. Mess. We had
turkey to eat. One of the members of the Mess had
been sent a lot of malt-extract by his mother, who
thought he was run down, so he gave it to the turkey.
The turkey in consequence became fat.

January 22nd, 191 7. — French Headquarters rang
through to the General. He sent for me to find out
v/hat it was about : it was to say he had been made
Commandeur de la Le'gion d'Honneur.

January 2yd, 1917. — The water in my jug was
frozen last night. The 2nd A. Depot are not fitting
any more hot-air pipes. Vacuum-controls are not to
go home. A mouse was nearly caught in the dining-
room.

January 26th, 1917. — From a letter :

..." a tragedy of far-reaching import happened
to-day. Yesterday we started on a tour of a Brigade,

208

1 9i 7] St- Andre again — Spring Offensive

including Kite Balloons, and incidentally we slept
in the coldest house I have ever endured. The water
froze while one waited. There was central heating and
hot water pipes, but there was no coal, and the pipes
had burst in the frost, being full of cold water. The
floors and staircase were of solid stone. The doors of
glass, and the windows of fine old cracked glass. The
bedrooms, which had no fireplaces, had not been lived
in since the twelfth century, and then only by serfs.
There was no coal in the house, and a very little thin
firewood such as is used by housemaids to lay a fire
with. The house stood on the banks of a frozen river,
in point of fact, the Somme. On the other side of the
house was a marsh. The ground was covered with
frozen snow. The wind cut like a razor. The ther-
mometer registered 14 degrees of frost centigrade and
47 degrees according to something else.

" Nevertheless, I enjoyed the outing. And, by
drinking enough boiling whisky before going to bed,
I was sufficiently unconscious to lose sight of the cold.
The next day we spent looking at balkjorrev On our
way back — and this is the tragedy— our luggage fell
off the Rolls-Royce, the General's suit-case made of
Willesden canvas, containing his razor, his new coat,
his trousers, his shoes, his favourite buttonhook, and
an advance copy of the News of the World, and my
little en tout cas bought in St. Petersburg, which has
been round the world and all over the Balkans, twice
to Constantinople, and through the length and breadth
of Russia, and the Central Empires. Messengers have
been despatched to look for it, and I have hopes of its
being found, as I have invoked St. Anthony, who has
never failed me yet."

January 27th, 1917. — The wind cut like a knife.
To-day there was an Army Conference which lasted

209

R.F.C., H.Q. [January

till 2.30. Our luggage was found on the road where it
fell. Finished The Ivory Child and The Holy Flower,
by Rider Haggard ; likewise The Red Morn, by Max
Pemberton.

February yth, 191 7. — The clock in the office struck
over 250. Nobody could stop it.

From this time onwards we had a series of visitors.
On the 28th of January a party of Russian officers
arrived. They were shown the Depot at Candas, and
they played gipsy songs on the piano after dinner.

The day after a party of French journalists came and
had a long talk with the General.

The only items I have on record for the month of
January are, firstly, that the last captured German
machine was not thought to be an Albatross because
it had V shaped struts and a radiator on the centre-
section and not on the sides as on the Albatross scout.
It was therefore thought to be a Halberstadt. And
secondly, that the Spad pump spindles in No. 19
Squadron were broken.

In February, 1917, we had more visitors, an Italian
officer, Mr. Holt Thomas, H. Belloc, and Louis Belloc,
his son, whom the General sent for from the line to
dine and sleep, while his father was here. The General
said that Louis Belloc was one of the few people he
had met who talked sense about aeroplanes and ob-
served points of real interest.

On the 17th the French Commander-in-Chief,
General Nivelle, held an investiture and a review. So
dense was the fog that the Army was invisible, and
seemed like an army of ghosts marching past to phan-
tom pipes and an unearthly " Marseillaise." The
General was decorated with the Croix of Commandeur
of the Legion d'Honneur. General Nivelle pinned on
the decorations himself and kissed the Major-Generals.

210

igi7] St. Andre again — Spring Offensive

On the 20th of February, 191 7, we went to Beauvais
to see General Nivelle and to discuss future operations.

February 20th 191 7. — From a letter :

" His ante-room or anti-chambre was heated to
fever heat. We waited standing a long time while
various A.D.C's. flitted in and out of the room. Then
a very nice sub-General came in and made conver-
sation and was pleasant. Then an A.D.C. came and
whispered to me where I was to sit at table. Then
suddenly the General came in from an unexpected
door and said ' How do you do ' naturally and with
energy, but did not break my fingers in the saying of it.
Then another door was thrown open and a white-
jacketted soldier said that the General was served, and
in we went. I sat next to the other General. A lame
Minister was also present. The General sat on General
Nivelle 's left and the Minister on his right."

The Minister asked General Nivelle what was
exactly the Crise de V aviation. General Nivelle said
that as long as there was aviation there would always
be a crise in it. After luncheon we proceeded to
business and maps, and had a most satisfactory dis-
cussion ; and he gave the General a free hand with
regard to future operations and thoroughly endorsed
the offensive policy. Afterwards we saw Colonel Du
Peuty, who was at that time practically commanding
the French flying.

On the 25th of February, 191 7, the General and I
had luncheon with Sir Douglas, and went on to
London. We got back on March 3rd.

March 6th, 1917. — Interviewed a Russian prisoner.
He said he had been starved, but otherwise reported
nothing of interest. To-day the weather was spring-
like. The snow has melted. The first message of spring
was whispered.

211

R.F.C., H.O. [March

March Jth, 1917. — The First Aircraft Park have
no Vickers sparklets. No. 43 said their last machine
came with packing in the cowling. No. 40 said their
gun was never fixed but always loose.

March nth, 1917. — A spring day, which began with
a slight shower. Then it cleared and the air became
warm, soft and grey, with fitful glimpses of sunshine.
We drove to Beauvais, where we attended an Aviation
Conference with Colonel Du Peuty and Commandant
Pugo. We had luncheon there. Du Peuty said he
always dressed up his observers as gunners. If they
had to go and interview a gunner, he put a red stripe
on their trousers. The gunners then believed what the
observers said. The drive back took three hours and a
half. It was a lovely evening : a soft sunset, with faint,
pink clouds, and the trees bare against a silver twilight.

March 13th, 191 7. — Bagdad has been taken.

March 15th, 1917. — The French Minister of War
has resigned.

March 16th, 191 7. — The Emperor of Russia has
abdicated. One machine in No. 20. Squadron has
been waiting three weeks for back centre-section struts.

March iyth, 1917. — Bapaume has been evacuated.
A Zeppelin, that is to say reports of its movements,
disturbed our sleep last night. , It was brought down
in flames at Compiegne.

March iSth, 1917. — Peronne has been taken.

March 20th, 191 7. — Finished the Awkward Age,
by Henry James, and reading some of his shorter
stories. " Things," he says, " that involve a risk are
like the Christian faith : they must be seen from the
inside."

March 2\th, 1917. — From a letter :

" Yesterday . . .1 took the opportunity of going
to the dentist. He was an English dentist who had the

212

I9I7] St. Andrd again — Spring Offensive

reputation of being the best dentist in Paris. He is
now doing his bit. But it is a very different thing to go
to a good dentist in war-time and to a good dentist
in peace-time. In peace-time the good dentist is
careful to hurt you as little as possible ; in stopping
a tooth he makes the hole gradually, using a whole
series of files and drills, one finer than the other, and
growing fine by degrees, and gradually less ; and his
conduct of the steel spike is nice. He says : ' A little
tender there ? ' or ' Hold up your hand directly I hurt
you.' He knows well if he does hurt you he will lose
your valuable custom. In war-time how different.

" Seizing hold of your head, he inserts a broad drill
into your tooth, and goes on boring a hole with all his
force, till the hole is made. No matter how much you
struggle and scream and kick. I did all three, but it
was no good. Holding my head in a vice, he dug the
drill deeper and deeper into the tender tooth till the
hole was finished. Of course, instead of taking half an
hour it only took a few minutes, and that, when it is
over, is an advantage."

March 25th, 191 7. — General Henderson is staying
with us. Basil Blackwood came to dinner.

March 26th, 1917. — Colonel Du Peuty came to have
luncheon with Sir Douglas, but as he was late he had
luncheon with us, and went to the Chief's house later.

March 28th, 1917. — Finished Barine's Life of Alfred
de Musset. " Avec un esprit tres gai, il avait l'ame
saignante et desolde ; association moins rare qu'on
ne pense." Musset has, she says, " des vers de haut
vol, de ceux que le genie trouve et que le talent ne
fabrique jamais, quelque peine qu'il y prenne."

March 2gth, 1917. — The following description of an
eminent personage : " She has been told everything
in the world, and has never perceived anything, and

213

R.F.C., H,Q. [March

the echoes of her education respond awfully to the rash
footfall — I mean the casual remark — in the cold Valhalla
of her memory." (Henry James, The Death of the Lion.)

March 30?/?, 1917. — A finer morning. We drove
Philip Sassoon back from G.H.Q. to the Chief's
house. He said to the General : " I never saw
you look so well." The General was scarlet. (The truth
was he was sickening for an illness. ) Bron Lucas'
grave has been found intact near Bapaume (Map sheet
57, C.S.W.).

March 31^, 1917. — The General has got German
measles, which is a relief as we all thought yesterday
he was seriously ill.

April yd, 1917. — There was a violent snowstorm
in the night, and snow drifts to-day. The General
came down to luncheon. Reading Pope :

" A strong expression most be seem'd to affect
And here and there disclosed a brave neglect."

April 4th, 19 17. — The Chief's doctor came to see
the General, and insisted on his going to bed ; he says
he is to stay in bed to-morrow. The Germans have
cut down every rose-tree and every fruit-tree in the
country ; they spoiled the chairs with red-hot pokers.
From a military point of view this surely must have
been waste of time. German prisoners are now em-
ployed clearing up Nesle, which was left in a terrible mess.

April $th, 1917. — Fighting in the air has begun.
The General stayed in bed in the morning, but as
soon as we were safely down at luncheon he got up
and had a good rummage in the operations office.

April 6th, 191 7. — The General stayed in ; he has
still got a very bad cough.

" In vain may heroes fight and patriots rave
If secret gold sap on from knave to knave." (Pope.)

214

igiflSt. Andre again — Spring Offensive

There is an air agitation going on in England in
Parliament, etc. It cannot do us any good. No amount
of agitation will give us one extra machine for the
coming battle. It is too late. But it does do a lot of harm
to the young pilots. And this occurs to nobody.

On April 7th the General sent me out by myself to
see a lot of Squadrons. The battle was now upon us.
Fighting in the air on a battle scale had begun. We had
not got the necessary number of fighting machines. One
gap was, fortunately, filled by the French. DuPeuty gave
us enough Nieuports to supply a whole Squadron. It
was evident that we should not get through the battle
and do the work of the Armies without severe loss.'

On the 8th of April the General decided to make a
tour of the Squadrons, and as there would not be time
to visit all those he wished to see by road, he decided
to go by air. He still had a touch of bronchitis, and did
not seem fit for a journey by air. The doctor said it
might either do him good or kill him. However we
went. The General in an R.E.8 and I in a B.E.2.C. We
saw eleven Squadrons altogether. The General talked
to all the pilots. While we were at the Le Hameau
Aerodrome, Ball landed there, having followed us
from Vert Galant. He wanted the General to let him
keep his Nieuport machine instead of the S.E.2.5 he
was now flying. Afterwards he was very glad to have
the S.E.2.5. Harvey- Kelly, whom we saw at Vert Galant,
said the Germans he met in the air now were like
floating meat.

On April 9th, 1917, the battle of the Vimy Ridge
began. There was snow and rain, and the weather
from the flying point of view was abominable. I went
to St. Eloi in the afternoon.

The next day, which was intensely cold, with snow
showers worse than the snow showers of March, we

ai5

R.F.C., H.Q. [April

got news that 10,000 prisoners and 50 guns had been
captured on the Vimy Ridge. I went to see the artillery
Squadrons at Brouay, which had done grand work
during the fighting. The work of the Army had been
done in spite of the weather, in spite of our inferiority
in machines, and in spite of the casualties.

April 10th, 1917.— In No. 16, Flight Commanders
Bird and Perryman, in one machine, sent down artillery
targets for three hours in the snowstorm, sometimes
they were as low as 300 feet in our barrage. Stewart
and Strut (?) did much the same thing on contact-
patrol. The infantry let off all their flares at once and
soon had none left.

The Corps was pleased with No. i6's work. The
neutralisation of fire was excellent.

" All sly, slow things with circumspective eyes."

(Pope.)

Our casualties were heavy, and had it not been for
the indomitable pluck and spirit of the pilots we
should not have been able to stand this ordeal.

On the 13th Ball came to tea with his Squadron
Commander, Bloomfield. The General was delighted
with Ball, and is giving him two machines : the S.E.2.5
for his ordinary work and a Nieuport for his individual
enterprises. On one of these days, when he came home
late after some strenuous fighting, he said it was lucky
he was in his S.E.2.5 as the Nieuport would not have
got him home.

Du Peuty wrote the General a magnificent letter,
which was afterwards circulated in the Squadrons ;

10.4. 17.
Dear General,

I do not know how to express to you all the admir-
ation I feel, and the whole French Flying Service feels,
for the British Flying Corps.

216

1917] St. Andre again — Spring Offensive

These results have not only contributed to the great
success of your armies, but in close co-operation with our
own efforts they have relieved us of a large part of the
German aviation.

I hope to be able to teach what is left of the German
aviation that the French intend to apply the same methods
and to follow the same principles in the same manner. I
would be grateful if you would let the troops under your
orders know the admiration which the French Flying
Service feels for them, as well as the feeling of comrade-
ship they have for them.

Please accept my devoted respects,

Du Peuty.

It was especially in artillery machines that our
casualties were heavy, because we had not got enough
fast fighting machines to deal with the fast fighting
machines of the enemy. We had been lent some Naval
Squadrons, and these did splendid work, and had
among them some of the best pilots we have ever had.
In spite of our inferiority I can only repeat again that
the work of the Army during the battle was done, and
our casualties in the air, although heavy, saved thou-
sands of casualties on the ground, for there was no
break in the artillery work. The enemy's batteries
were registered, and his trenches were photographed
unremittingly. The spirit of the Flying Corps was
undefeated.

217

CHAPTER XVII

PREPARATIONS FOR THE SUMMER OFFEN-
SIVE

APRIL 16th, 1 91 7. —The Naval Squadron at
Auchelles want Aldis-sights. Reading Faguet's
history of French literature. He says about
Gautier :

" Si un auteur n'etait qu'un ecrivain, Gautier serait
un de nos plus grands auteurs, mais il ne faut jamais
oublier qu'un auteur doit etre un ecrivain et aussi
autre chose."

April 20th, 1917. — With the General to the 13th
Corps. Luncheon with General Haldane. Stopped at
No. 13 on the way back. Powell says that A.C.N.F.
(artillery signal meaning German battery firing) is
better than Q.N.F. Du Peuty's letter is going to be
circulated in the Squadrons. There are shy clouds in
the sky, and the buds are beginning to open, and there
is a blackcap's nest in the garden.

April 2.1st, 1 91 7. — Cloudy. One tent party has
arrived. Where are the two French Clergets for No.
70 ? A coarse-pitched propeller has been put on the
Spad. Nobody knows why.

April 22nd, 1 917. — We went to Laverville by air.
The General in an R.E.8 and I in a B.E. 2. C. My pilot
was Henley. When we got over the Aerodrome, Henley
wasn't sure which Aerodrome the General had landed

218

1 9i 7] Preparations for Summer Offensive

on, as he got there before us, the R.E.8 being faster
than the 2. C. We circled round. Then the General got
impatient and fired Very lights. We went by air to
23 — Leighton's Squadron ; then to Fienvillers, where
we landed with a bump. No. 23 say the valve comes
off the water-regulator. Baldwin (at 55) said the D.H.4
had no ash longerons, only spruce.

April 2yd, 1 91 7. — From a letter :

" I went to look at the Boche machine that was so
properly punished for circling over our garden this
morning. The captured pilot said he thought our
house was Buckingham Palace. That, he was told,
was no excuse. When I say the captured pilot, there
were three of them, two engines, a foot- warmer, a
telescope, a periscope, a pack of patience cards, a
concertina, a small printing press, for printing menus,
a cocktail shaker, a bijou typewriter, and a green parrot,
which says ' Hoch ' and ' Gott strafe England,' if you
scratch its head. They set fire to their machine on
landing, or rather on being forced to land, and as the
machine was full of bombs

They being of the dangerous sort
Exploded with a loud report,

and the machine was partially burnt, but only par-
tially ; a lot of it survived. Ball has brought down
another machine to-day. I believe that makes forty.
.... There is a blackbird in the garden who is learning
to sing quite nicely, but he can't, poor thing, learn to
fly — he has no talent for aviation and always sideslips,
do what one may. However, it has been settled that
he shall be a recording blackbird and live in a nest."

April 24th, 1917. — We flew to Abeele. The fields
were green, the woods were brown. Little puffs of cloud
kept on arising out of nothing and disappearing, and

219

R.F.C., H.O. [April

then, at the edge of the world, a mysterious grey girdle —
the sea ? The General said that flying over my machine on
this clear day it was impossible to see the marks on my
planes. In the afternoon I flew to Candas with Norris. At
Candas I saw a pilot, who told me he was " fed up " with
flying. He had done 500 hours. He had had enough. He
was sick to death of it. He didn't care. Then he paused
and said : " But the General's a damned fine man to serve
under." Reading Horace — Eheu! fagaces — Horace, Bk. II.

Oh, Posthumus, the stealthy years, alas !
The years, Dear Posthumus, they pass, they pass . . .
Not all thy virtues will prevent
Old Age, nor bid cold Death relent.
Though hecatombs be slaughtered thrice a day,
Yet Pluto, the untearful, claims his prey,

Who holds in his dominion

The triple-headed Geryon,
And Tityos by the melancholy floss,
Which all who taste the fruits of earth must cross ;

Though mighty monarchs they should be

Or painful sons of husbandry.
In vain we shun the grievous wounds of war,
The angry Adriatic's surge and roar ;

And from the hot Sirocco hide,

That threatens us at Autumntide.
We must behold thy tide creep on apace,
Cocytus, and the shameful Danaan race,

And Sisyphus condemned to ply

A hopeless task eternally ;
And bid farewell for ever to the earth,
To wife and home, the land which gave us birth ;

Of all thy trees none follow thee

Except the hated cypress-tree.
A worthier heir shall drain to the last lees
Those casks now guarded by a hundred keys,

And drench the floor with wine more rare

Than priests for festal days prepare.

220

1 9i 7] Preparations for Summer Offensive

April 25th, 1917— Flew to the Fourth Army. My
pilot was Buckridge, machine a B.E.2.C. The fields
are scarred and charred up by shell fire, and the
devastation on the ground beyond the Somme is past
belief. Every single tree has been methodically cut
down, every Virginian creeper. The damage to the
roads has been for the greater part repaired.

We heard two shots in the air on the way there ; on
the way back, just as we were this side of the Somme,
over the shelled area, a kite balloon was shot down and
floated down into the river. We were looking at this ;
at that moment a scout appeared in the sky, and came
swooping towards us. Buckridge pointed to the ground.
I thought it was a German, and that we were going to
land ; looking down at the shelled condition of the
ground I was terrified. It turned out to be an S.E. He
told me afterwards he thought it was a German
machine at first. It took us one and a half hours to fly
back. It was bitterly cold : the earth looked like a
photograph : a war photograph.

April 26th, 1 91 7. — I cannot read any more, not
another line of the Golden Bowl, by Henry James, after
reading about half of it. Aladin the Russian and Bar-
zani, the Italian correspondent, visited us.

April 28th, 1 91 7. — The garden is full of oxlips and
cowslips. The trees are red with sap. The hedges are
budding.

April 2gth, 1917. — We went to Vert Galant to see
Harvey- Kelly, who commands No. 19 Squadron.
When we got there we were told he had gone up by
himself and one other pilot for a short patrol. We
stayed there all the morning. By luncheon time he had
not come back. He was due and overdue. When we
went away the General said : " Tell Harvey- Kelly I
was very sorry to miss him," but I knew quite well

221

R.F.C., H.O. [April

from the sound of his voice he did not expect this
message would ever be delivered. Nor did I.

Harvey- Kelly never came back. He was the gayest
of all gay pilots. He always took a potato and a reel of
cotton with him when he went over the lines. The
Germans, he said, would be sure to treat him well if he
had to land on the other side and they found him provid-
ed with such useful and scarce commodities. He was the
first pilot to land in France, as I have already described.

April 20th, 1917. — Went to St. Omer by air in the
afternoon with Buckridge. Nearly crashed in the trees
getting off.

May 2nd, 1917. — The trees are feathery and some
of them slightly green. The pear blossom is out on
the sun-baked wall in the kitchen-garden.

Reading Horace:

" O Fons Bandusiae "

Spring of Bandusia,

Red wine and festal garlands are thy meed ?

Tomorrow I shall offer thee a kid ;

His waxing brow, his budding horns, prophetic,

Are ready for the war that goes with love ;

But all in vain ; the blood of this wild offspring

Thine icy waters must incarnadine.

The dogstar, and the incandescent days
Can parch thee not ; and weary of the plough,
The oxen, and the silly sheep astray
Shall find in thee delicious, cool retreat.

Thou shalt be numbered amongst famous springs ;
The rocks, the ilex, whence thy ripples fall
Tinkling, shall live forever in my verse.

May yd, 1917. — Beverley, the H.Q. carpenter,
blew up his hands by opening a bomb which someone
had brought back as a souvenir. It was not his fault.

222

i9i7] Preparations for Summer Offensive

He was told to do it. It has blown off three fingers and
a thumb from one hand and his thumb from the
other. He was an admirable carpenter. It is most tragic,
but it is to be hoped they may be able to make him
artificial fingers at Roehampton. Reading Homer's
Iliad with the help of Butcher and Lang (a crib). In
many respects it is like a first-hand account of this
war, or indeed of any war.

May 6th, 1917. — We got news that Ball is missing.
This has cast a gloom through the whole Flying Corps.
He was not only perhaps the most inspired pilot we
have ever had, but the most modest and engaging
character. His Squadron, and indeed all the Squad-
rons, will feel this terribly.

May 7 th, 1 91 7. — A Conference of Army Com-
manders.

May 8th, 1917. — Van Reyneveld now is command-
ing No. 45 Squadron, which fly Sopwith two-seaters.
He has only one Ross-interrupter gear. The cowls on
the 130 Clerget have been cut away because the pilots
can't get at the plugs.

May gth, 1917. — We flew to Vert Galant in the
afternoon ; I on the oldest B.E. in the world, which
had been struck off strength. The engine cut out near
Vert Galant, but recovered and we landed all right.
The General's landing was terrifying to look at. The
General went on to Fienvillers. My machine couldn't
function ; so I got another and went on to Candas.
This second machine was likewise in a state of decay.
I came home by road. The General got uneasy, and
telephoned to know where I was. The Wing sent back
a flippant but reassuring message.

May 10th, 1917. — To Auchelles with the General to
see 25 and the Naval Sopwiths. The "Spads" have been
fighting the Sopwiths in the air : this has led to an

223

R.F.C., H.Q. [May

acrimonious correspondence. Matters were smoothed.
No. 25 are hard up for observers. Brommet (Naval) is
two under strength. G.H.Q. (I) report that German
captured documents speak of a new machine exactly
like the Nieuport.

May 12th, 1917. — I went with Orpen to Auchelles.
We saw five Squadrons altogether. At the Naval Squad-
ron the Nieuport was flown against the German Albat-
ross ; unfortunately the Albatross radiators burst.
Little did some wonderful stunts on the Sopwith
triplane and a tremendous dive. Orpen is going to
paint the General, and some of the pilots.

May iph, 1917. — Orpen came in the morning and
painted the General. The sitting took an hour and a
half. The General went on working during the sitting,
organising a bomb raid. There was never, I suppose, a
stranger sitting.

The garden is thick with dandelions. The lilac is
out, and the first lilies-of-the- valley. A hot thunder-
storm made all this still more spring-like and beautiful.

May i^th, 191 7. — General Henderson and Sir
William Weir arrived at 1 1 . We took them to the Depot
at Candas.

"ei/ Tpo'fl cnroXovTO, ^/X^? a-rro irarpiSo? aitft.

" They perished in Troy far away from their dear
native land." (Homer, Iliad, Book II., line 163). ..

May 1 5 /A, 191 7. — General Henderson and Sir W.
Weir went away. The General and I had luncheon
with Sir Douglas Haig at Babincourt.

I went to Fienvillers late in the evening and slept
at Candas at 2 A.D. Mess, to be ready for the visit of
a herd of Italian Generals who are to arrive to-morrow.
Reading the Lawton Mystery.

May 16th, 1917— The Italian Generals were
expected to arrive at 8, but they didn't arrive till 11.

224

i9i7] Preparations for Summer Offensive

On arriving they were given breakfast. They then went
to the Aerodrome Repair Section and to the Stores,
the 9th Wing, and the Squadrons. They were enter-
tained at luncheon at the 9th Wing Headquarters
sumptuously. After luncheon the General came. Flying
stunts and some perilous low flying took place, although
the pilots had been entreated to do nothing of the kind.

May 17th, 1917. — We are staying at Avesnes, which
we reached via Arras, where we were blocked by the ar-
rival and passing of the King of the Belgians. After an ex-
haustive tour of Kite Balloon Sections we reached our
billet.

May igth, 191 7. — From a letter :

" A German was frightened down in the lines this
morning. In his pocket he had a theatre ticket admitt-
ing him to a private box in the Theatre Royal, Cam-
brai. This he was on the point of destroying when the
Intelligence Officer, with an eagle eye, noticed it and
snatched it from him and had it translated into English.
I am reading Partners of the Night."

May 20th, 1917. — We are back at St. Andre. Colonel
Grant, an American officer, came to luncheon. Every-
one is disturbed about the Russian news. Someone
has written to me asking me to suggest a Latin motto
for the Tanks. I suggested Nihil obstat.

May 22nd, 1 91 7. — A day with the Kite Balloons
in the Second Army. The weather bad all the morn-
ing, but it cleared at 1 and the balloons rose into the air.
"^£2? <f>a.To' tous S rjSt] Ku.Te.yev (pv<ri£oos ala,
tv Aa/ceSai/uLovt avOi, <f>t\{i ev irarrpiSi yain

(Iliad, Book III, 213).

" So spake she ; but they slept beneath the earth far

away in Lacedaemon, in the dear land of their fathers."

H. Belloc came to stay with us on the 20th. After

dinner there was an interesting discussion about the

225

Q

R.F.C., H.Q. [May

war. Belloc said that one fine day the Germans would
crack. Someone else said the strength of the local
defensive was so great in modern war that we should
never break through the German line. Belloc said,
but supposing by their expenditure in men they were
left with one man in their trenches, we should then get
the better of the local defensive powers of that one man.
Just about this time I received optimistic letters
from the Russian Army without a hint in them of
future trouble. Uneasiness about Russia was none the
less being felt.

May 29th, 1 91 7. — The General saw some asparagus
and radishes in a shop window at St. Pol as we drove
past. He said we must have some for our Mess.

May 30^, 191 7. — Thirteen pilots did 87 hours
flying in one day in 46 Squadron. We hear that the
people at Hythe have stoned the air mechanics because
of the German raid. There is not one machine at
Hythe capable of getting within reach of a German
machine. They are school machines.
June 1st, 1 91 7. — A visit from some M.P's.
June 2nd, 191 7. — From a letter :
" A certain Corps complained of some machines
flying low over its line. So Bishop, a Canadian pilot,
was given a free hand to deal with the matter as he
thought best. He went to a Hun Aerodrome and there
he saw the Hun machines all spread out ready, start-
ing their engines. This was very early in the morning.
He flew down low as if he was going to land. He shot
one mechanic, who was starting an engine, dead, and
disposed of that machine. Another, which had just
got off, he drove into a tree, where it crashed ; a third
he brought down a few hundred yards from the Aero-
drome. Then he came home. He went down to about
20 feet. Think of the audace of it."

226

CHAPTER XVIII
THE SUMMER OFFENSIVE
St. Omer,June — July, 191 7.

ON the 3rd of June we moved back to our original
chateau at St. Omer. This became our ad-
vanced Headquarters. The remainder of the
Staff and the bulk of clerks remained at St. Andre. Quite
close to us were the Ninth or Headquarters Wing,
which was not attached to any Army, but was detailed
for special fighting and directly under the orders of
Headquarters. It consisted of three Squadrons of fast
scouts, Nos. 56, 19 and 70, which were stationed at
Estrees-Blanches or Lietre, quite close to us, and of
two Squadrons of fast two-seaters, which were sta-
tioned at Boisdighem.

It was a hot June. The fourth was celebrated by Old
Etonians.
June $th, 1 91 7. — From a letter :
" Last night there was an Old Etonian dinner at
the Lord Roberts Memorial Hall. There were three
hundred Old Etonians present. I knew about five by
sight. All my contemporaries were Lieutenant- Generals
They sang, accompanied by the Coldstream Band,
and after dinner everything in the room was broken :
all the plates, all the glass, all the tables, the chand-
eliers, the windows, the doors, the people. A bomb

227

R.F.C., H.Q. [June

raid was nothing to it. Lord Cavan presided, and
made a very good speech in Latin. It was answered
by someone else, a scholar, in bad Latin. The guests
spoke English. There was not one representative of
the Julian and Billy Grenfell generation. They have
all been killed. The rest were either much older than
me. Or much younger than the war.

June $th, 1917. — Baldwin (No. 55 Squadron) has
only got six blast taps for the Lewis gun.

" The calm
And dead still water lay upon my mind
Even with a weight of pleasure, and the sky
Never before so beautiful, sank down
Into my heart, and held me like a dream."

(Wordsworth, Prelude, Book II).

June \th, 1 91 7. — From a letter :

" I was awakened this morning by the deafening roar
of archies. In vain they shot. The Hun escaped them.
One seldom gets a night's rest now, what with the
telephone reporting penny balloons floating in the
air near Dunkirk and the motor cyclists chatting in
the yard, and the mosquitoes and the horse flies and
the tapping of the telephone operator."

June jth, 1917. — From a letter :

" *Fighting is proceeding as you will have read in
the newspaper two days before you receive this letter,
and great things are being done in the air. One pilot
flew down below the tents on the Boche Aerodrome
and fired into the tents."

June 8th, 191 7. — From a letter :

"... You will have read the splendid news in the
newspaper. It all went like clockwork, and the air
reports read like a fairy tale. I think the Boches must

* This was the news of the successful operation at Messines
and Wytschaete.

228

1 917] The Summer Offensive

be thinking long and bitter thoughts. The mine was
like an earthquake. Or rather, the mines went up
punctually at 3.15 a.m., and made no noise, but the
hill of Kemmel shook. Punctually to the minute the
barrage began, and aeroplanes went straight for the Boche
aerodromes and fired into their sheds. No artillery mach-
ines were interfered with at all. It is all very gratifying.
' To-day we are having a little peace and quiet
after the stress of the last few days, which have been
beyond all understanding. It is hot, stuffy, and muggy.

June gth, 191 7. — From a letter :

" As further news comes in about this victory the
larger the event proves to be. It is the finest day in the
air we have ever had. Our people entirely prevented
the Boche Flying Corps from working, and our artillery
work in co-operation with aircraft went without a hitch.

" It is hot. The summer is arriving in great strides,
bearing in one hand a poppy and in the other a basket
full of strawberries."

From my Diary :

June 10th, 1917. — The German prisoners were
greatly astonished. They were told to hold the ridge at
all costs. Basil Blackwood came to luncheon.

June iT)th, 1 917. — A new machine, The Dolphin,
arrived and did its trials.

June i^th, 1917. — No. 2 Squadron tried the oblique
camera which came from St. Omer. It was a failure.

June 15th, 1 91 7. — Du Peuty and two other French
officers visited us.

June 16th, 1917. — We had a crowd of people at
luncheon. Among others two pilots who had escaped
from Germany.

" And in the meadows and the lower grounds
Was all the sweetness of a common dawn."
(Wordsworth, Prelude, Book IV.)

229

R.F.C., H.Q. [June

June ijth, 1917. — I went with the General to Calais
and crossed in Sir Douglas Haig's destroyer with the
the Chief, the C.G.S., etc. We proceeded to London
in a special train.

June 26th, 1917. — We arrived back at St. Omer.

June 28th, 1917. — We had a Conference of Briga-
diers in the morning.

June 28th, 1917. — One of the points discussed at the
Conference referred to our artillery machines in the fu-
ture. The General said that views on what artillery mach-
ines should be used in a year's time must be discussed
now. After the Conference I went to the Fifth Brigade
where I spent the night. Towards seven the Germans
shelled the place. I saw two shrapnel shells burst, too
high to do anyone any harm. Then it rained. Then a
German machine flew over and was chased by five or
more triplanes, but they could not see each other on
account of the mist. Then we had dinner.

July 3rd, 1 917. — A Russian pilot came here, and
spent a happy morning at the Depot. Finished Bourget's
latest book, Le Sens de la Mort, a good story, spun out
with needless comments. The Russian news is splendid.

Jidy \th, 1917. — At No. 55 Squadron we learnt
that the oxygen apparatus for pilots is not turned on
till a height of 5,000 feet is reached, and then it makes
the throat dry.

July $th, 1917. — From a letter :

" I have been made a Major. I part with the title of
Captain. A Captain is supposed to combine the fire
of the subaltern with the discretion of the Field-Officer.
Good-bye to the fire of the subaltern. The Queen
came up to the Aerodrome with Lady Airlie. Sloly
did stunts. I sat up late in the Depot Mess listening
to music. In the distance parachute flames shone on
the horizon."

230

1917] The Simmer Offensive

July 6th, 1 91 7. — Conference with the Belgians and
the French.

July jth, 1 91 7. — The King visited the Aerodrome
at 12. London was bombed by the Germans. We
heard that Basil Blackwood was missing. There is a
chance of his being prisoner or wounded.

These hopes turned out to be ill-founded. I had
known Basil Blackwood since 1884. We were at the
same private school. He had been wounded in 1914,
and had to go home. Then he joined the Guards
Brigade, in which he was a 2nd Lieutenant. He was
killed on a patrol. He was an incomparable com-
panion, and, as everyone knows who has read the books
illustrated by B.T.B., The Bad Child's Book of Beasts,
Cautionary Tales for Children, etc., an artist in black
and white, of infinite humour and originality.

July gth, 1917. — Monsieur Painleve came to the
Aerodrome in the morning and was shown the wire-
less in deep detail. Being a mathematician, he under-
stands what an oscillation means. The great mystery
of propellers was discussed. Why does a propeller
propel ? Sloly and others did stunts.

July nth, 1917. — Du Peuty came and spent the
night. The question of German air-raids in England
and how to deal with them was discussed. Du Peuty
said that the only thing which would stop the Germans
raiding London would be to raid their towns.

July 12th, 1917. — M. Pidou, who writes excellent
war articles in the Journal des Debats, came to see the
General. He was three-quarters of an hour late, and as
the General had another appointment at 6, the officer
who brought M. Pidou was bitten.

July \\th, 1917. — Went to Dunkirk. The Naval
Squadron alter the Cowper-gear on the Camel in a

231

R.F.C., H.O. [Juiy

different way. There are six French Nieuports at
Dunkirk for the defence of the port, but they are not
under Du Peuty's orders.

July 16th, 1 91 7. — An exhaustive visit to the Ninth
Wing : Squadrons 66, 70, 19, 56. The Sopwith Pups
in 66 are short of integral propellers. On the Camels
the cables for the elevators are going through the steel
eye ; in other words, the Camel is passing through the
eye of a needle — a rare occurrence.

July ijth, 1 91 7. — We went to see No. 1 Naval
Squadron. Two Lighting-Sets have been offered by
the Army to the Squadron in the Second Brigade. An
excellent article in last week's New Statesman about
the bomb-raid on London.

July iSth, 19 1 7. — I went with the General to the
French Aerodrome at Bergues. We saw the pilots and had
tea with them. The French like Joly plugs on the His-
pano-Suiza engine. They don't think the Eclair propell-
er is good above 5,000 feet, unlike the Gallia propeller.

July igth, 1 91 7. — I dined with No. 56 Squadron.
Ian Henderson, Bloomfield, Maybery, Bowman, Max-
well, Coote, Marson and Rhys-Davids were there. The
Squadron band played during dinner. The Sergeant who
conducted was before the war an important factor in the
Palace Orchestra. The oboe belonged to the Coliseum
in happier days. They played Mendelssohn's " Spring
Song." One of the pilots said it was being played too
slowly ; and the conductor thought he said it was not
being played slowly enough, and said : " Mendelssohn
was played sprightly."

July 24th, 1 91 7. — From a letter :

" Yesterday we visited two French Squadrons. The
day before yesterday the Commander-in-Chief of the
American Army and his Staff visited us. They were
shown the Aeroplane Repair Section, the Stores, the

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1917] The Summer Offensive

Balloon Stores, and three Squadrons. Sloly, the pilot,
flew to them, and did a spin down to within 40 feet of
the ground. I felt sick. It was an accident. He was
calculating by glazomer* and not by the instruments. But
all is well that lands well. The day before yesterday,
Ian Henderson's propeller came off in the air, jammed
the controls and he had to plunge into the earth, having
no control of his machine. It was broken into little
bits. He himself received no scratch."

One of General Pershing's Staff, as we were driving
through a cloud of dust, said : "I think I know the
taste of this landscape now."

July 27th, 191 7. — The Zeppelin sheds at Brussels
were bombed by No. 27 Squadron. The pilots who did
this came to tea.

July 29th, 1 9 17. — A French pilot who bombed
Essen came to luncheon. He said he enjoyed bombing
Essen, but it took him two months from the day he
began making preparations until the day he started.
These preparations were necessitated partly by the
engine and the machine, and partly by calculations of
distance, time, drift, etc., it was necessary to make,
and other kinds of practice.

* A Russian word meaning measuring- by eye.
233

CHAPTER XIX
THE SECOND SUMMER OFFENSIVE.
July — October, 191 7.

WE were on the eve now of another great
offensive, and were all of us watching the
weather with intense anxiety. The weather
prophet's reports and charts were favourable and pro-
pitious, so was the glass. Nevertheless July 31st was a
dull day.
July 31st, 1 91 7. — From a letter :
" It has been a thoroughly misty day, cloudy, that
is to say, no sun and some rain, and in spite of this the
machines of the Brigade flew down low through the
clouds on to the Boche Aerodromes, and shot at
people driving in harmless motor-cars and killed them.
They also shot German machines in German Aero-
dromes. In fact, they thoroughly enjoyed themselves,
and if you could see the weather you would indeed
wonder. Pritt, in No. 66, who claims to be 19, but
looks more like 12, and is called the War-Baby, shot
a fat German dead in his motor car. The German had
previously threatened him with a pistol, but in vain."
August ist, 1917. — The rain continues to fall and
fall in slow, thin torrents. This is most annoying from
every point of view. It hampers the work which should
be done.

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1 917] The Second Summer Offensive

August 2nd, 191 7. — It is still raining.

August yd, 1 917. — The rain is devastating. It goes on
and on, stopping everything, especially aviators and
aviation. They say there is a heat wave in America, and
that people are dying of heat there.

August ^tht 1917. — Last night's dinner at the Com-
munication Pilots' Mess on the Aerodrome was great
fun. No. 56 brought their band. Bowman played a solo
on the drum. We sang and danced. Ian Henderson
came. There is a faint hope of its clearing up, but it
rained in the night and in the early morning.

August yth, 1917. — Copied the following from a
novel by A. D. Sedgwick : " He was clever ; but there
are some things cleverness cannot reach. What he failed
to feel by instinct he tried to scorn. It was not the
patrician scorn, stupid yet not ignoble, for something
hardly seen, hardly judged, merely felt as dull and in-
significant ; it was the corroding plebeian scorn for a
suspected superiority."

On the 8th of August, 1917, the General, General
Webb-Bowen, and myself went to see the Messines
Ridge and Wytschaete. We wore steel helmets and
took gas-masks with us.

August gth, 1 917. — From a letter :

" The moment you walk into the battle zone the
first thing that strikes you, or rather me, is the instant
and sudden silence broken only by the noise of shells.

" We walked to Messines, and as we walked the
Boches were shelling some batteries to the right of
us, and some batteries behind us, and the shells whistled
over our heads like little trains. As or when we reached
Messines itself the shells were falling on it, so we made
a strategic movement to the left.

" All the ground is pitted with huge holes, but it is
all overgrown with tangled weeds and wild vegetation

235

R.F.C, H.Q. [August

of every kind, mangel-wurzel and hemp and grass and
concertina-wire, and every now and then a dead
Boche's boots and bones. In one place there were the
remains of what once had evidently been a garden.
There was a fragment of a pergola lying about, and one
rose tree in flower. In another place we came across a
charred and derelict tank. We wandered on through
devious ways to Wytschaete itself, now a heap of
rubbish, and up a hill where a lot of bricks are, which
were once a church. There we sat and watched big
shells falling into Ostaverne Wood in front of us. Our
batteries retaliating noisily also. All this was the quiet
daily hate of an off-day as no fighting proper is going on
there.

" Then the shells . . it was a grey day, and no
observation being possible . . . the Boche was just
doing a round of registered targets . . . veered in
our direction, and we retired in time to retire with
dignity and not in an undignified fashion ; and only
just in time, as we watched from the other side of the
road the shells falling on the place where we had just
been sitting. Then we had luncheon at the roadside,
and, after inspecting one of the vast mine craters, we
returned once more to the land of the living."

August nth, 1917. — From a letter :

" There is a bird here which begins singing at dawn.
It sings three notes wide apart, and at a sharp angle
over and over again. The other birds follow its ex-
ample. So far so good. You say how charming, but
very soon motor bicycles join the concert, and aero-
planes and lighting-sets, and then the noise becomes
irksome.

" Yesterday a French Colonel came here and pinned
the Cross of the Legion of Honour on to my breast. It
has two long and very sharp pins. He dug them into my

236

1 917] The Second Summer Offensive

not too solid flesh. Ibore the pain for one second, but
as I noticed that he was pressing the pins deeper and
deeper into my breast I finally uttered a shrill squeak.
Then he let go."

This Colonel was Colonel Duval, who had been
appointed Inspector of the French Flying Corps.

August nth, 1917. — I went with the General to see
the French Squadrons at Provins and Droglands. We
saw the new Salmson machine. The French pilots
asked the General if he would like to see it flown. He
said no, on no account, as he knew that when a new
machine is shown off something always happens.
However, it went up. The engine cut out immedi-
ately, but it landed all right in a neighbouring field.
We had, nevertheless, an anxious moment.

August 16th, 19 1 7. — From a letter :

" The War-Baby has been functioning freely this
morning early. He visited some Boche Aerodromes,
set a shed on fire, destroyed two aeroplanes that were
just getting off the ground, and silenced a machine-
gun, besides attacking several trains. The glass is going
up, and gleams of sunshine are struggling through the
fluffy clouds. I am reading Northanger Abbey, by Miss
Austen. I feel in the air the beating of the wings of
Peace, but Peace is and always was a slow flier. The
sun is at this moment actually shining through the
clouds. Its rays can reach my head and illumine the
keys of the typewriter."

August iSth, 1 91 7. — Fairly fine, but clouds covered
the sky after an early promise of a fine day. To-day's
great thought :

" Le temps passe, tout meurt, le marbre meme s'use,
Agrigente n'est plus qu'une ombre, et Syracuse
Dort sous le bleu linceul de son ciel indulgent."

(HenMias.)

237

R.r.C, H.Q. [August

Reading the Confessions of Alphonse — Barry Pain.

August igth, 1917. — It was fine all day, but the
strong west wind is disastrous to our air tactics and
favourable to those of the enemy, for it enables his
machines to fly home quickly. Reading The Loom of
Youth, by Alec Waugh.

August 21st, 1917. — Commandant Marmies came in
the afternoon to give a Croix de Guerre to a pilot who
had attacked Guynemer in the air. Guynemer had in-
stantly shot back before he saw it wasn't a German,
and wounded the observer in the leg. Guynemer flew
home at once and reported that he had shot a British
observer. I went to the hospital with Marmies. Finished
N orthanger Abbey. I am reading Persuasion, besides
the Iliad, The Prelude, and Pitman's Shorthand.

August zyrd, 1 91 7. — From a letter :

" It is raining after a very sultry and hot day yester-
day and a stifling night. Last night after dinner a Boche
machine came over and bombed. The Archies banged
at it. The searchlights flitted round it ; the summer
lightning flickered in the distance. We did not know
till this morning that any bombs had been dropped,
and I don't know now where they fell.

" This morning I broke inadvertently the window
of our motor car, a Rolls-Royce. The window was
half up, and I shut the door too emphatically. I did
not bang the door, but the window vacillated and
finally collapsed into a thousand fragments. Now we
must needs get a new window, and this in war-time,
as you know, is very difficult. Let us hope for the best.
The sun is shining through the rain."

August 2$th, 1917. — The bombs they dropped the
other night demolished some small houses. Du Peuty
told us some interesting things about the battle at
Verdun, where he had been. The quality of the

238

1917] The Second Summer Offensive

prisoners taken, he said, was bad. One French division,
on being asked why they had taken no prisoners, said :
" Nous n'avons pas l'habitude d'en prendre."
August 27th, 191 7. — The weather is atrocious.

" I wept not then, — but tears have dimmed my sight,
In memory of the farewells of that time,
Domestic severings, female fortitude,
All dearest separation, and terrestrial hope,
Encouraged with a martyr's confidence ;
Even fates of strangers merely seen but once
And for a moment, men from far with sounds
Of music, martial tunes, and banners spread,
Entering the city, here and there a face,
Or person, singled out among the rest,
Yet still a stranger and beloved as such."

(Wordsworth, Prelude, Book IX.)

August 28th, 1917. — A gale from the South-West
has been blowing night and day, hurling the trees
down like ninepins and scattering the telegraph wires
like branches of honeysuckle over the fields and across
the roads. The weather prophet says a new gale from
the North is expected. We went to the French Squad-
rons at St. Pol, and the General presented Guynemer
with his D.S.O. Guynemer was covered with medals.
He was natural and easy, but looked tired and ill.

August 315/, 191 7. — Lord Cowdray arrived last
night.

September 2nd, 191 7. — It is as showery as in April,
with rainbows and grey clouds.

September yd, 191 7. — Last night there were three
bomb raids over St. Omer. One bomb fell in the Depot
Mess and killed three officers. The danger from fall-
ing anti-aircraft shell was greater than that from ex-
ploding bomb.

239

R.F.C., H.Q. [September

September 4th, 191 7. — In the afternoon I went to
Lietre, and had tea with No. 56 Squadron. No. 70 are
very keen about going out on scouts against Germans at
night. I told the General this. The General went at
once to the Archie battery just outside St. Omer and
asked them whether, if two of our scouts were to come
over, they would be able to recognise them by the
sound and not to shoot. They said it would be im-
possible for them to confuse the noise of a British scout
with that of the twin-engine Gotha. We might think
it easy to make a mistake, but they were trained by
nightly experience. Nevertheless, the General told
them he would then and there have a Sopwith Pup
with a Clerget engine flown over the battery. This was
done at once. We went to G.H.Q. It was arranged
that the General should have control over the A.A.
Battery from 8 till 11 ; that they should not fire till
he gave orders. The Squadron was then told that they
could send two scouts over St. Omer. At 9 o'clock the
General took charge of the A.A. Battery, which was
in direct communication by telephone with our Head-
quarters. Newall came over to dinner. All our lights
were put out. The General sat at the telephone. Very
shortly afterwards the two Sopwith Pups flew over.
Newall said : " That's a Clerget engine," but every-
one else thought it was a Gotha. Telegrams poured in :
" Hostile machine over Hazebrouck," " Enemy air-
craft over this," " Enemy Aircraft over that." Some-
one said the throb of the twin-engine Gotha was
unmistakable, but the General refused to take any
action till 1 1 , when he handed over the command to the
Archie Battery. As 1 1 struck a deafening barrage began,
which was repeated three times during the night.

The next morning there were 120 holes in the Bes-
sonneau sheds on the Aerodrome from the splinters

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i9i7] The Second Summer Offensive

of anti-aircraft shrapnel, but apparently only one Ger-
man came over late in the night and dropped nothing.
When the events of the night began La Ferriere was
astonished at the silence in the house. He said : " This
shows your discipline. If this had happened in our
Flying Corps nothing would have prevented people
chattering like magpies."

September $th, 19 17. —We were bombed again last
night, and one bomb fell in a field opposite to the gate
of our approach.

September 6th, 191 7. — There was a thunderstorm
last night, so there were no bombs and no anti-air-
craft, so we were able to get a night's rest.

September yth, 1917. — No. 27 Squadron have no
red label ammunition.

September 10th, 19 17. — I went to London with the
General for one night.

September 20th, 1917. — News of more fighting.

September 24th, 1917. — Voss, the star German pilot,
has been brought down. When we heard the news at
luncheon the General sent me to No. 56 Squadron,
where the pilots had brought him down, to get details.
This was Rhys-Davids' account of the fight as he told
it me himself :

"I saw three Huns attacking one S.E.; one triplane,
light grey and brown, with slight extensions, one red-nosed
V.-Strutter, one green-nosed Scout. I never saw the green
Scout again after the first dive. I then saw four S.E's. fight-
ing the triplane and the red-nosed V.-Strutter. The tri-
plane's top-plane was larger than the middle-plane. The
engine was not a Mercedes, but I thought it was station-
ary. I wasn't sure. It had four guns. I thought the pilot
was wearing a black leather flying-cap. Fired six or seven
times and then went off to change my drum. The Hun
either had armoured plates or else he was very lucky.

241

R.F.C., H.Q. [September

" Last dive but one. I went for him. He came from the
East. Not quite straight behind, fired from a hundred yards
to 70 and emptied a whole drum. The triplane only turned
when 20 yards away. I turned to the right, so did he. Thought
situation impossible, and that there would be a collision.
I turned left and avoided him. I next saw the triplane at
1,500 feet below gliding West. Dived again, opened fire at
about 100. Got one shot out of the Vickers (My Lewis
drum was empty) without taking sights off. Reloaded my
Vickers. Fired another twenty or thirty rounds. He over-
shot and zoomed away. Changed drum, then made for the
red-nosed V.- Strutter and started firing at about 100 yards.
The V.- Strutter was flying at an angle of about 45 degrees
across the front, and I came at him slightly above. We both
fired at each other. He stopped firing. I dived underneath
him and zoomed up the other side. I saw the V.- Strutter
about 600 feet below spiralling North- West. I then lost
sight of him and kept a good look-out low East, but saw no
signs of him. During the whole scrap there were 11 to 14
E.A. higher East who made no attempt to fight."

McCudden said he saw a crash N.N.W. of Zonnebeck.

Maybery said :

" I saw the triplane and went down after it. It was
grey with slight extensions as far as I can remember. It
was followed by a green Scout. Someone came and
shunted the green Scout. After that I saw Rhys-Davids
dive on the triplane, followed by the red-nosed Scout.
I attacked the red-nosed Scout. I zoomed up over him
and couldn't see anything of them. I saw a triplane
going East, but this one seemed to be different and green."

Hoidge said :

" I saw the bright green Hun going down on Maybery 's
tail at about 3,000 feet, and I fired with Vickers and Lewis
at about 100 yards in order to frighten him. When about
30 yards away, the Hun turned South, and was flying
directly in the line of fire. I finished a full drum of Lewis

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1 917] The Second Summer Offensive

gun at about 10 yards from him. He turned right over and
went down in a short dive and turned over again. The last
I saw of him was going straight down in a dive about 800-
1000 feet. I stopped following him because the triplane was
right up above him and I had an empty drum. I flew to
the line climbing, and put on a full drum and came back
and attacked the triplane from the side as it was flying nose
on to McCudden. I attacked him four or five times, but
I didn't see what happened after this. I never saw the red-
nosed Scout at all. The green man didn't get a chance to
scrap.

During dinner we received news that Dunkirk was
being bombed, and that shells had fallen on the engine
repair shed.

September 25th, 1917. — The propellers in No. 9
Naval Squadron (Admiralty design) give more revs.
(1,150-1,350) near the ground, but don't climb as well.
The Fourth Brigade say they have only one 20-inch
focal length camera.

September 26th, 1917. — Yesterday was a splendid
day in the air.

October 1st, 191 7. — Last night there was a heavy
bomb raid on St. Omer. Forty bombs were dropped
on the town and the neighbourhood. Three hospitals
were hit.

243

CHAPTER XX
ST. OMER— FIENVILLERS— ST. ANDRE

October — December, 1917.

THIS is perhaps a suitable moment to pause
and look back on the development of fighting
in the air. On the 23rd of August another
memorandum was written reviewing the principles of
fighting adopted by the Flying Corps since the battle
of the Somme. This was afterwards embodied in a
further pamphlet and circulated to the Armies. I can-
not do better than quote a part of it to make the reader
understand how fighting in the air had developed and
what principles the Flying Corps were following :

At the beginning of this year's operations, the principal
elements in the new situation which we had to face were
these :

(1) The Germans had realised that the offensive was as
important in the air as it was on the ground.

(2) They were resolutely determined to act on this
principle.

(3) They re-organised their Flying Corps and changed
the command of it with this purpose in view.

(4) They increased the output of their machines and
introduced as far as possible a rigid system of stand-
ardisation in types and material.

244

191 7] St* Omer — Fienvillers — St. Andre

Besides this the general development and progress of
aviation introduced several further new factors into the
case which affected all combatants equally.

Firstly, the area of fighting extended upwards. Another
story was added to the warfare in the sky. Aeroplanes fought
at a height of 17,000 — 20,000 feet, as well as at 12,000 feet.

Secondly, as aircraft increased in quantity, formations
took the place of single machines, and single encounters
began to develop into battles of whole formations in the air.

The result of the operations of this year bore out and
confirmed the lessons of the past, and soon a further new
factor became apparent. Fighting not only extended up-
wards, but downwards ; low-flying machines co-operated
with the infantry, and attacked men, guns, trenches, trans-
port, and hostile aerodromes, flying at a very low height.
The Germans were obliged to follow suit. They have not
yet imitated our low-flying raids on hostile aerodromes,
but there is no reason to think they may not do so in future.
They were behindhand in realising the necessity of the
offensive, a year behindhand in realising the value of wire-
less in the air ; but once they did realise by somewhat
costly experience the effect of these tactics, they lost no
time in adopting similar methods and applying them with
thoroughness and energy.

The aeroplane is a new weapon in warfare ; every fresh
development brings with it an element of surprise which
is bound to be looked on by other arms as something ex-
ceptional. Our aeroplanes attacked the enemy low down
during the battle of the Somme. From captured documents
and the reports of German prisoners we know that this new
form of aerial fighting caused the greatest dismay among
the enemy, and led their infantry to blame their flying
forces for letting such a thing be.

The German Command retaliated in the only possible
way. They did the same thing. They attacked our men on
the ground ; their aeroplanes co-operated with their infantry.

They at once realised and published in their orders that
aeroplanes are powerless to prevent the operations of
hostile low-flying aeroplanes. The aeroplane is not a

245

R.F.C., H.Q. [October

defensive weapon even when flying high, owing to the un-
limited nature and the dimensions of their fighting area.
It is still less a defensive weapon against low-flying aero-
planes, owing to the impossibility of manoeuvring at a low
height and the difficulty of visibility.

Defence against low-flying aeroplanes can only be carried
out efficaciously by a well-organised system of shooting
from the ground. But superiority and supremacy over
low-flying aeroplanes can only be obtained by a superior
offensive carried out by our low-flying aeroplanes in the
enemy's area.

Low-flying aeroplanes as time goes on will become more
and more a permanent and integral feature and factor of
fighting. Other arms will in time be no more surprised at
seeing a low-flying aeroplane than they would be by the
explosion of a shell ; and just as no defensive measures
against shells will enable us to master and silence the
enemy's artillery, so no defensive measures either on the
ground or in the air will enable us to defeat the enemy's
low-flying aircraft.

The victory over such low-flying aircraft will be obtained,
as is the case in other arms, by the superiority, the offensive
superiority, of our own weapon. The task which lies before
us now is to obtain that superiority, and the surest means
to attain this end consists in a close and thorough co-oper-
ation between aircraft and other arms, especially the in-
fantry.

The first thing which is essential is that our troops
should be able to distinguish our aircraft from that of the
enemy.

In the case of low-flying aeroplanes, this is comparatively
easy with practice. But it has not always been found easy
by either ourselves or by the enemy. One of our own aero-
planes works low, flying backwards and forwards over the
trenches. The appearance of an aeroplane produces an
instant moral affect. Troops do not know what it is doing.
Supposing, they say, it is an enemy machine flying under
false colours. Would it not be better to be on the safe side
and to fire ?

246

i9x7] St. Omer — Fienvillers — St. A ndre

That the enemy have experienced this difficulty we
know from documents repeatedly captured at different
dates, in which the German Command reiterate that, so
far, there has never yet been a case in which our machines
had been found flying under false colours. Again, on the
part of the pilots, it is essential that they should have a
thorough knowledge of the trench line, especially when that
line is being modified and changed from day to day. And
it is hardly necessary to add that the co-operation of air-
craft with the infantry in attacks can only be successful if
complete harmony between the two arms as to timing, etc.,
is ensured.

Finally, it is important, when the two arms co-operate
that each should realise the possibilities and the limitations
of the other.

The Germans, at the beginning of these operations,
knew they would have to face a powerful offensive on our
part in the air, and they did their best to neutralise that
offensive by doing all they could to try and force us to adopt
defensive measures.

By bombing raids against London and in England they
tried, trusting to their effect on public opinion, and to the
political agitation which was bound to follow, to make us
dislocate our flying forces in the field, and by concentrating
their forces against our Corps machines they tried to per-
suade us to adopt a system of protective escorts on the
battle-front itself.

So far we have been able not only to resist the pressure
which was bound to ensue, but to prove by carrying out
our artillery and photographic work, in spite of every diffi-
culty and disadvantage, that our principles were sound.

But it is still doubtful whether the soundness of these
principles, which are clear to those who have first-hand
experience of fighting in the air, and who are in possession
of all the facts of the case, is realised by the rank and file
in other arms.

They do not see our aeroplanes far over the enemy's
lines. On the other hand, one of our machines which is
brought down on this side of the line has twenty thousand

247

R.F.C., H.Q. [October

spectators ; and a low-flying German machine that appears
over our lines now will naturally be thought to have been
allowed to escape through a network of our aircraft which
does not exist, and never could exist. The remedy for this
is a closer co-operation between the two arms and a more
widely-spread education with regard to the functions of the
newer weapon.

As aviation develops further new factors are certain to
arise. Aeroplanes will not only fight in formation, but form-
ations will be led and commanded by one machine by wire-
less telephone or wireless signals.

But whatever new developments arise, one thing is sure
and certain. The aeroplane is a weapon which has no other
exact counterpart any more than a submarine, a cruiser, a
destroyer, a gun, a tank or a horse ; it has its own definite
limitations and powers, but the principles which guide it
in warfare, in order for it to be successful, are those which
guide all other arms in all other elements of warfare, and
the most important of these is the will and power to attack
the enemy, to force him to fight, and to defeat him.

And here I will quote the report of a pilot showing
their ordinary routine work to give the reader
an idea of what kind of work was being done in
the air at this time. This report was written by Lieu-
tenant Maybery, in No. 56 Squadron. He was, alas,
killed later on :

Left Estrees Blancheat 4.45 a.m. Crossed the lines over
Ypres at 500 feet just underneath very thick clouds. Got
into the smoke from the artillery barrage, and found it
impossible to see ahead at all. Went South-East and found
myself over Wervicq at 200 feet. Dived down to about 30
feet and flew straight along the road to Gheluwe. From
there I went due East to Bisseghem. I could then see Courtrai
and went North-East to strike Heule, but two German
scouts appeared from over Courtrai and attacked me. I
manoeuvred to try and throw them off, pulling down my
Lewis gun and firing short bursts to try and frighten them

248

1 9i 7] £*• Omer—Fienvillers — St. Andre

away, but they would not be shaken off, so I made West
again. Both Germans followed until I reached the lines
South of Armentieres, when they turned South-East
towards Lille.

I then turned North, striking the Canal at Comines, and
again followed the same route to Bisseghem, when I saw a
" Spad "just South of me firing at something on the ground,
and flying West. It was now getting a little clearer, and I
could see Courtrai more easily though the clouds were still
at 500 feet. From Bisseghem I went North-East and im-
mediately saw Heule Aerodrome. I zoomed up to just under
200 feet. Circling round the Aerodrome, the only sign of
activity I could see was one man lighting two smoke fires
at the Heule end of the Aerodrome. This man looked at
me, but did not seem to take any particular notice. I then
flew East, turned, and came back along the line of the
southernmost sheds and dropped my first bomb, which hit
the third shed from the East and exploded. This caused
immense excitement, and I could see people running about
all round the sheds. Turning sharp to the left, I flew North
along the line of the easternmost sheds and dropped another
bomb, which hit the first shed from the South and ex-
ploded. Turning sharp to the West, I flew straight at the
sheds at the Heule end of the Aerodrome and dropped my
third bomb, which hit the second shed from the East,
and either went through the roof or in at the front, as I
could see smoke coming out of the front and heard and felt
the explosion, but could not see it. Turned North and again
flew down the line of the easternmost sheds from the North.
As I came near a machine-gun opened fire from the back
of these sheds. I pulled the bomb release, but nothing
happened. Flying straight on, and still watching for the
explosion, I found myself approaching Courtrai Station,
so pulled the bomb release again. The bomb fell and ex-
ploded between a goods train and a big shed.

Turned North again to Heule Aerodrome, and the same
machine-gun and another, which I could not locate, opened
fire. I dived at the former, shooting with both guns, and
the crew dispersed. Turning to try and locate the second

249

R.F.C., H.Q. [October

gun, it stopped suddenly. I then flew straight across the
Aerodrome at the southernmost sheds, firing both guns
into the sheds from 20 feet. Changed Lewis drum and flew
straight across the Aerodrome from the West, firing both
guns at the sheds in front and at one time actually touched
the ground. Zoomed over the sheds and flew straight on
to Cuerne Aerodrome, again attacking the sheds with both
guns, driving back a machine which was just being got out.
Leaving the Aerodrome saw two horsemen, who looked
like officers. Attacked them, and their horses bolted. Turn-
ing West, I attacked a goods train going from Courtrai to
Menin via Bisseghem. Saw a column of infantry, about 200
strong, on the road just West of Wevelghem, marching
towards Menin, and attacked them with both guns. They
scattered to both sides of the road. Changed drums. Turned
back East and attacked infantry again ; looking up saw
one German two-seater at about 500 feet, just below the
clouds making East. Zoomed up and got very close under
the German's tail without being observed. Pulled down
Lewis gun and fired half a drum into the German, which
started going down on a steep left-handed turn. The Ger-
man straightened out again, and I followed, firing Vickers
gun. The German crashed just North of the railway, South
of the " G " in Wevelghem. Only one man got out. A small
crowd started to collect, and I dived, firing both guns. The
crowd either ran away or laid down flat. Saw a passenger
train come in (towards Courtrai) and attacked, but Lewis
gun ran out of ammunition and Vickers gun stopped. Flew
West, recrossed the lines, South of Messines, and returned.

(Signed) R. Maybery, Lt.

Here is another report from a pilot in a Naval
Squadron :

Naval Squadron No. 3, attached 22nd Wing, R.F.C.
Sopwith Scout. 26-4-17.

Armament : Vickers Synchronised Gun. 7.15 p.m.
Pilot, Fit. Sub-Lt. Malone. Height 17,000 ft.

Locality: North of Cambrai City to ground.

(Close to Cambrai- Arras Road).

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1917] St. Omer — Fienvillers — St, Andre

Hostile Machine : Albatross Scout.

Flying in formation when leader dived at an hostile air-
craft about 4,000 feet below. When leader pulled away
from the combat with gun-jamb, I continued firing bursts
at hostile aircraft as he dived whenever I managed to get
in range.

At 7,000 feet three more hostile aircraft attacked me
from above, and I could not get out. I tried to get away
by diving, and when down to 3,000 feet was still followed
closely. I decided to drive the hostile aircraft I first attacked
to earth, thinking there was no chance of escape myself.
He was still circling below me apparently going to land.
I dived on him, and gave him a burst at about 60 yards'
range. My tracers were entering the pilot's back and head.
This hostile aircraft nose-dived vertically and crashed head
on in an open field. I was now down to 1,000 feet, and
closely followed by the three hostile aircraft. I headed
West, dodging as much as possible, but could not get away.
I decided to feint a landing. Closing off my motor, I " S"
turned over some tall trees in a field. Just as my wheels
touched the ground I looked back and saw all three hostile
aircraft about to land. One was almost on the ground, and
the others were spiralling. Opening out my motor I climbed
directly into the sun, and was followed by all three hostile
aircraft, who could not catch me up. I crossed the lines at
2,000 feet, and the " Archie " and machine-guns fired from
below and drove off the pursuing hostile aircraft.

(Signed) J. J. M alone,

Flight Sub-Lieutenant.

Our problems and our difficulties, it will be seen
from the above, had changed. We were no longer
behindhand in equipment. But flying had not only
become higher but lower, and another important
problem had arisen. London was being heavily bombed.
The French towns and the places behind our lines
were being heavily bombed also.

251

R.F.C., H.Q. [October

The problem which we had to face and solve now
was how to defend England and how to attack Ger-
many without interfering with the work of the Armies,
without diverting from the Armies of the Western
Front such aircraft as was essential and indispensable
in order to enable them to fight. The object of the
Germans was to force us to disperse our forces, and
to dislocate them, and to attempt to compel us to leave
the work of the Armies undone.

On the 2nd of October the General was summoned
to London to discuss this question. He wanted to be in
London by 12.30, so it was arranged we should go by air.

October 2nd, 1917. — It was a fine day, but slightly
misty. We telephoned to Lympe to know what the
weather was like, and they reported it unfit at 7, at 8,
and again at 9.30. We missed the chance of going by
boat, and we got into communication with Dunkirk
to find out if a destroyer was available.

At 10 o'clock they still reported the weather unfit
for flying in England. The General had a machine
sent up from St. Omer to see what the weather was
like. At 10.30 reports were still unfavourable. About
10.45 tricv reported clear weather at Folkestone and
Croydon, but thick at Hounslow. We went up to the
Aerodrome at once. The General got into one R.E.8,
Mayo piloting, I in a second, Reeves piloting, and
Bates, the General's clerk, into a third.

We flew at about 3,000 feet. It was fine as far
as the coast, but slightly hazy. Over the Channel it
was quite fine as far as Folkestone. We flew along the
railway line. I could see both the other machines.
Then when we got near Tonbridge some small clouds
began to appear in the distance like small pellets of
of cotton wool. More and more of them gathered, until
suddenly we were enveloped in a thick wet blanket of

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1 9i 7] St. Omer—Fienvillers—St. Andre

white cloud. We lost sight of both the other machines
at about 800 feet. Reeves went down quite low, and
trees appeared out of the mist. He went down to 30
feet, reconnoitred the railway line and then went up
again. We soon left the whole bank of cloud to the
South- West of us.

We landed at Croydon safely ; there were no signs
of the General. About a quarter of an hour later the
machine with Bates landed ; there were still no signs
of the General. I telephoned to Hounslow. No machine
had landed there. Then to Lympe ; no machine had
landed there either. Then suddenly the air-raid alarm
was given, and all further telephone communication
became impossible. Machines were turned out and
stood by. I waited about an hour and then I borrowed
a car and motored to London with the two pilots ;
we arrived in a deserted city. The population was
sheltered from the supposed raiders. I went to the
Hotel Cecil ; it was quite empty, partly because of
the alarm and partly because it was the belated luncheon
hour. I could not find a single soul. I went down into
the basement to the telephone exchange and asked if
I could telephone to France. They got me on to our
Headquarters at once. There I learnt the General
had gone back to Lympe. He motored up, and I
found him later at the Army and Navy Club. I was
exceedingly anxious, especially as his clerk told me
he had seen a crashed machine in a field and First Aid
being brought.

The next day we drove back to Dover and crossed
the Channel in a destroyer to Dunkirk. It appeared that
we had caused the air-raid alarm. The noise of our
engines in the clouds gave rise to a report of Gothas.
There were no Germans in the air either near England
or near the Coast.

253

R.F.C., H.Q. [October

It was settled that such machines as we could spare
should be sent to Aerodromes near Nancy and carry
out raids on German towns whenever they could. For
this purpose No. 55 Squadron was sent to the East of
France, where it was joined later by a Handley Page
Squadron and a Squadron of night-flying F.E's.
This was the nucleus of what afterwards became the
Independent Force. Colonel Newall was sent to Ochey
to organise a Brigade and carry out the work of making
Aerodromes, which should be ready to receive further
Squadrons in the Spring.

Preparations were now being made with the utmost
secrecy for the big Tank attack. We none of us had any
idea of these preparations, and the moves of the
Squadrons were made in a way that they thought until
the last minute that quite different purposes were
being aimed at.

During the month of October, 191 7, I saw a great
deal of the Ninth Wing Squadrons at Estrees Blanche,
and especially of No. 56 Squadron, where I had a lot
of friends. There were a number of brilliant pilots
in this Squadron, among others, McCudden, Rhys-
Davids, Maybery, Muspratt, Hoidge, Bowman, Coote
and Maxwell. Ian Henderson and Ball had both
belonged to this squadron.

One day I took Orpen, to visit them. Orpen beat
McCudden at Ping Pong, and arranged to paint
portraits of Hoidge and Rhys-Davids, which he did
in the course of time. Rhys-Davids had only just
left Eton, where he had been Captain of the school.
He was longing for the war to be over so as to go to
Oxford. He had brought down about fifteen German
machines, perhaps more. He told me he always carried
a small volume of Blake's poems in his pocket in case
he should come down on the other side. He also said

254

1917] St- Otner — Fienvillers — St. Andre

to me one day : " The Buddhists have got a maxim,
1 Don't be stupid : ' that is all that matters in life."

I have already alluded to the wonderful string band
which this Squadron boasted of which was recruited
in London by that prince of organisers, Bloomfield,
who commanded the Squadron. Towards the end
of October I dined two or three times with the
Squadron, and on the 24th of October we had a won-
derful evening of music, dance and song. The favourite
tunes of the Squadron at this time were " Hullo, my
dearie," and " Someone has got to darn his Socks."

Shortly after this Bloomfield went home on
promotion, and he came to say good-bye to us on the
27th of October. That same afternoon we heard that
Rhys-Davids was missing. He had told me the last
time I saw him that he was quite certain he would
be killed.

I dined at the Squadron again on the 29th. It was
Bloomfield 's farewell dinner. Everything was the same
except that Rhys-Davids was not there. We kept up
the pretence of saying we were certain he was a pris-
oner and would soon escape. As it turned out he was
not a prisoner, and he was never able to read his favour-
ite Blake on the other side of the line. He was passion-
ately fond of books and poetry, and his mixture of
scholarship, enthusiasm, fun, courage, skill, and air-
manship made one feel that if these were the sort of
pilots we had, whatever else might happen, we should
never be beaten in the air.

On November 4th, two Squadrons started for Italy,
and we went to say good-bye to them.

On the 8th, I started with the General and La Ferriere
for Newall's Headquarters at Ochey, where the General
wanted to see the Aerodromes which had been chosen
for the coming bombing raids on Germany. We

255

R.F.C., H.Q. [November

spent the night at Albert with the Third Brigade, and
the next morning we started at 7 for Ochey, the Gen-
eral and La Ferriere inside, and I on the box. We
started off so fast that the car very nearly got flying
speed. An unperceived level crossing gave us a rude
shock. We drove through Montdidier, Compiegne,
and Coulommiers and had luncheon on the road beyond
Coulommiers, thence through the Champagne country
to Vitry-le-Francois and so to Ochey where Newall's
Squadrons were. We arrived about 3 and went straight
to the Aerodrome, where we saw the Handley Page
Squadron and the night flying F.E's, commanded by
Christie. We then went on to Bainville, a little village
where Newall lived. I was billeted in the village.

The next day we went to the Squadrons, to No. 55,
where we had luncheon, to the Aircraft Park at Vezel-
ise, and then to the French Headquarters, where we
saw Commandant Picard, and the General had an
interview with General de Castelnau, who commanded
the Group of Armies of the East. It was bitterly cold.
When the conversations at the Staff were finished, we
went to Rambervillers, where an Aerodrome was being
made out of what looked like a Scotch moor, with
the help of some Indian troops. The ridge and furrow
was so enormous, the ground so marshy that it did
not seem possible, at this time, that this stretch of
bleak sopping country could ever become an Aero-
drome. It did nevertheless.

The next day we stepped westward again, and
stopped on the way and spent the night at Epernay,
where we were billeted with Monsieur Moet, of Moet
and Chandon, in a palatial house.

November 10th, 1917. — Mr. Moet received us with
the utmost kindness and courtesy, and showed us over
the Moet and Chandon Champagne Factory, where

256

1 9i 7] ^« Outer — Fienvillers — *S*. A ndre

we tasted the embryo vintage of 1917, and the mature
vintage of 1906. Most of the work is being done by
women, and there is a great shortage of bottles. We
had dinner at the hotel. Du Peuty and Ortlieb came.
Du Peuty told us about the Chemin des Dames fight,
where he led his men through the French barrage
and took a farm and a great number of guns and
prisoners. He told us that it was impossible to con-
vince the French infantry that the French morning
patrol of machines were not German machines. This
is the description of what Du Peuty did at the Chemin
des Dames, as it appeared in the Order of the Day :

Citation a l'ordre de l'armee. Le Chef d'Escadron Du
Peuty.

" Officier de Cavalerie et aviateur hors de pair, venu aux
4 Zouaves sur sa demande, a pris a l'improviste, le 23
Octobre, 1917, sept minutes avant l'heure de l'attaque, le
commandement d'un bataillon dont le chef et l'adjutant-
major venaient d'etre blesses.

Sous un violent feu de barrage est sorti le premier de la
tranchee, suivi par tous les Zouaves electrises par sa vol-
onte et sa bravoure ; a conqui d'un seul elan tous les
objectifs assignes a ses unites, fait a la garde Imperiale plus
de 500 prisonniers, capture 17 cannons et de nombreuses
mitrailleuses.

Incomparable entraineur d'hommes, chef de troupe
accompli."

This was the last time we were destined to see Du
Peuty. He was killed leading his Zouaves in an attack
in the operations of March, 191 8, and with him the
French lost a great soldier, and an example of
the finest type of man that France can produce. He
had all the noblest qualities of the French nation, and,
as one of our pilots who knew him very well, said to
me : " It makes one feel a worm to be with him."

257

R.F.C., H.Q. [November

The next day we went from Epernay to Compiegne
via Soissons. At Compiegne we had an interview with
Colonel Duval, the head of the French aviation, and
luncheon at the French Aviation Mess. We stayed the
night at Compiegne with the British Mission. The
Forest of Compiegne was gorgeous with the last tints and
faded glory of the end of autumn. On the following
day we reached St. Omer.

November i$th, 191 7. — From a letter :

" It is cold and the war has not stopped, and minis-
tries seem to be falling like packs of cards, and popu-
lations are peevish and whole armies are surrendering
and Russia is having another revolution ; in spite of
all this I have seldom felt so optimistic. It is strange
but true."

The chief events now were the revolution in Russia
and the attack made by the Third Army with tanks.
Reading Wordsworth's Prelude, I came across the
following passage, which seemed to me completely
appropriate to the situation in Russia :

Glimpses of retribution, terrible,

And in the order of sublime behests :

But, even if that were not, amid the awe

Of unintelligible chastisement,

Not only acquiescences of faith

Survived, but daring sympathies with power,

Motions not treacherous or profane, else why

Within the folds of no ungentle breast

Their dread vibration to this hour prolonged ?

Wild blasts of music thus could find their way

Into the midst of turbulent events ;

So that worst tempests might be listened to.

Then was the truth received into my heart,

That, under heaviest sorrow earth can bring,

If from the affliction somewhere do not grow

Honour which could not else have been, a faith,

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191 7] St. Omer — Fienvillers—St. A ndre

An elevation, and a sanctity,

If new strength be not given nor old restored,

The blame is ours, not Nature's. When a taunt

Was taken up by scoffers in their pride,

Saying, " Behold the harvest that we reap

From popular government and equality,"

I clearly saw that neither these nor aught

Of wild belief engrafted on their names

By false philosophy had caused the woe,

But a terrific reservoir of guilt

And ignorance filled up from age to age,

That could no longer hold its loathsome charge,

But burst and spread in deluge through the land.

On the 21st of November, 1917 we moved our
Advanced Headquarters to Fienvillers again, so as to
be in touch with the operations. Sir John Simon was
now on our Staff, assimilating the problems of aviation
with incredible speed. In all the operations in con-
nection with the tank attack and the subsequent fight-
ing at Bourlon Wood, aircraft paid an active part,
although the weather was foggy and unfavourable in
the extreme. Some of our machines attacking German
Aerodromes came down as low as 20 feet, and some of the
pilots flying low got direct hits on lumber waggons on
the road. One pilot, Browne, had his oil tank, his petrol
tank, and the mainspar of his machine shot away after
obtaining direct hits of this kind. We went the round
of these Squadrons daily while this fighting was going
on.

November 24th, 191 7. —

" Their's is the language of the Heavens, the power,
The thought, the image, and the silent joy."

(Wordsworth, Prelude Book III.)

One day — the 25th — at No. 46 Squadron, a pilot,
who was sitting next to me at luncheon, said he had

259

R.F.C., H.Q. [November

made a forced landing among the infantry the day
Bourlon Wood was taken. It was practically taken by
the co-operation of tanks and aeroplanes. " I suppose
you're pleased with us to-day," the pilot said. " Oh !
are our machines up ? " the infantryman asked. He
said they were very good to him. " They credit us with
all sorts of superhuman things we don't do, and they
at the same time ask us to do the impossible," he said.

Never was a truer remark made. People who do not
know what the possibilities and limitations of aircraft
are, were continually asking the impossible, while at the
same time they credited the pilots with fabulous powers.
For instance, the fact of an engine taking a long time
to start on a cold day would be considered a piece
of carelessness, or due to the want of timely preparation
on the part of the pilot by those who do not know what
an engine is. At the same time a pilot in an aeroplane
would be credited with being able to see from a height
whether or not there were men in a thick wood.

On the 27th I went with the General to London,
but we were summoned hastily back to France on the
1 st of December by the news of the German counter-
attack at Cambrai. We moved back to St. Andre on
the 3rd.

December yrd, 19 17. — From my Diary :

" About the fields I wander, knowing this
Only that what I seek I cannot find."

(Wordsworth, The Excursion.)

December \ih, 1917. — Winston Churchill came to
dine and sleep. He said the war would last a very long
time. " Of course if we gave in we could have peace
to-morrow," he said. Reading Lord Morley's recol-
lections.

260

1 9i 7] St- Omer — Fienvillers — St. Andre

He talks of " The crystal lustre of Leopardi's un-
changeable despair."

December $th, 1917. — Lord Lansdowne's letter is
the great topic. Reading Fantomas, a detective story.

December 8th, 1917. — A Brigadiers' Conference

December nth, 1917. — From a letter :

" So Jerusalem has been taken again after an in-
terval of 733 years, but Belloc says the Christians lost
it in July, and The Times says October. This is the way
historians disagree. It was very tactful of General
Allenby not to shell it, and I expect he will refrain
from all theatrical antics in the manner of his entry,
so as to contrast with the behaviour of the German
Emperor. The weather is again raw and far from
pleasant."

December 12th, 191 7. — From a letter :

" I have just come in after an extensive tour. No-
body appears to have any wooden under-carriages in
the R.E.8 yet, which is perplexing. I have a great long-
ing to go to Jerusalem now that it belongs to General
Allenby. But I suppose you would rather go to great
Seleucia, built by Grecian Kings, or where the sons of
Eden long before dwelt in Telassar. The weather is
cold, but since noon fine."

December 16th, 191 7. — From my Diary : I was in
London for a few hours yesterday, but spent the whole
time at the Air Office, and came back this morning.
We went straight from Boulogne to the Chief's house,
where we saw Sir William Robertson.

December 18th, 1917. — It has been snowing and
blowing. The roads are blocked and difficult. I went
to Boulogne yesterday to fetch Mr. C. G. Grey, the
editor of the Aeroplane, who is coming to stay with us.
I bought a turbot, and waited for the boat which never
came. It did arrive ultimately.

261

R.F.C., H.O. [December

December igth, 1917. — We are not quite snowed up.
Our road is still open. Vehicles everywhere are stuck
in the drifts and the ditches.

1 That God who takes away, yet takes not half
Of what he seems to take ; or gives it back
Not to our prayer, but far beyond our prayer."

(Wordsworth, The Excursion, Book VI.)
There was, at this time, a panic in London about the
Aerodromes at Ochey. It was thought apparently that
not enough energy was being put into the matter.
Gracious heavens, did they but know ! The General
thought he might have to go there, and we were ready
to start. I was summoned hastily back from St.
Omer, whither I had taken Mr. Grey. However,
Commodore Paine was sent out from London to see
the place, and he reported that the Aerodromes would
be ready long before we had one-tenth of the number
of the machines which they were to accommodate,
which proved to be more than true.

December 20th, 191 7. — From a letter :

" The countryside is still bound in snow, but it is
less cold than it was. I foresee a thaw in the dim future
far away and doubtful. I went out for a walk this
afternoon in the snowdrifts and made a snow man. I
then paddled in the snow and paddled on the frozen
road. There was little motion in the air except the
mill wheel's sound."

The Eve of Christmas Eve, 19 17. — From a letter :

" We started at 8 and got to the place where the
Empress Eugenie used to give her famous little parties,
at a quarter to 12. Then, after a quarter of an hour's
conversation. . . . (This was Compiegne, and the
conversation was with Colonel Duval.) we had
luncheon. After luncheon, a Conference, which lasted
till half-past two, and then we started home.

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1917] St. Omer — Fienvillers — St. Andre

" We reached a sharp turning when a Camion
automobile ran into us, but the icy road on which we
skidded saved us from the worst, and the axle was
undamaged and the only damage done was to the mud-
guard. A little further on we met two lorries at right
angles across a steep and slippery hill. We managed
to get round them, but having done so, the wheels of
the Rolls-Royce refused to turn round and we had to
dig in, get stones and sand and chains and spades and
ropes, and persuade the vehicle to go uphill, an arduous
and long task. It was in the end successfully accom-
plished, but the result was we took five hours to get
home. At dinner an allied Major told me a long story,
which was unfortunately interrupted long before the
point had been reached. The cold is beyond all words.

.... To-morrow is Christmas Eve, and one
naturally wonders how many more Christmas Eves we
shall have to endure darkened by the shadow of war
and overhung by the threats of air-raids. Let us hope
not many more. As for me, I am finished. My spirit is
broken, my moral is deplorable, my feet are covered
with chilblains, my fingers are stained with the
nicotine of Virginian cigarettes, my hairs, which are
grey and few in number, want cutting, my shoes, worn
in the evening, have got holes in the soles of them, my
boots pinch me and are as cold as vaults. Apart from
all this, I am in very good spirits, and I think the war
prospects are much better than they were last Sunday.
Why ? I cannot tell."

December zyth, 191 7. — From a letter :

" Christmas is over. We had tepid turkey and cold
bread sauce and flat champagne and port made of
furniture polish. After dinner there was a concert.
The electric lighting was wonderful, as it was managed
by mechanics and the best electricians in the world.

263

R.F.C., H.Q. [December

It was better than Reinhardt or the Moscow Art-
theatre or Gordon Craig. A strong man gave an ex-
hibition of strength. But the assistants, who had ill
rehearsed their parts, nearly killed him by stamping
on the wrong portions of his body when he was trying
to lift a dumb-bell weighing 2,001 lbs.

" The ground is deep with snow. We intend to come
to England for some days in a day or so."

It was now settled that the General was to go home
as Chief of the Air Staff. On the 28th we went to say
good-bye to the Chief, but we were snowed up and
we missed him.

On the 29th we started at 5 a.m. and went to Bou-
logne in the Chief's train, arriving in London at 1.

The next day we took up our abode at the Hotel
Cecil. The R.F.C. and the R.N.A.S. were now to be
merged in one R.A.F.

This is the letter the General wrote to the Squad-
rons on leaving :

All Brigadiers.
Wing Commanders.
Squadron Commanders.
Pilots and observers.
Officers on the ground.
Aerial Gunners.
N.C.O's. and men.

I have been appointed Chief of the Air Staff in England.
This will, undoubtedly, interfere with my close personal
touch with the Flying Corps in France, and therefore I
would like to take this opportunity of thanking you all for
the magnificent service which you have rendered to the
great cause for which we are fighting during the past three
years in which I have been actively concerned in trying to
help and guide the work.

The splendid courage shown by pilots, observers and
aerial gunners has been one of the outstanding features of

264

1917] St. Omer — Fienvillers — St. Andre

this time. The fighting has been intense and hard, and
casualties have sometimes been heavy, but I should like
to put on record and impress upon everyone that what has
been accomplished has been entirely due to the magnificent
spirit shown by all.

The moral, which is a most important factor, has always
been of the highest, and I would like to let everyone know
that it is a great blow to me to sever my close personal con-
nection with the splendid fighting force that I have had
the honour to command.

I am perfectly certain that the honour recently conferred
on me has been entirely due to the exertions of the officers
under me, and I can honestly say that, although I would
like to have continued to have served with you, I will do
my best in my new post to try to help you to the best of my
ability and to bring your efforts to a successful conclusion.

Good luck and good wishes to you all for 191 8. I hope
you will still look upon me as a personal friend who will
do his utmost to help you.
7th January, 1918. H. Trenchard, Major-General.

And here is a copy of an Order of the Day of the
French Army containing a translation of the General's
letter, saying good-bye to the French Flying Corps.
This letter was read out to the French Squadrons on
parade :

Au G.Q.G., 1 le 19 Fevrier, 1918.

Grand Quartier General Des Arm6es
du Nord et du Nord Est.
Iitat-Major Service Aeronautique.

L'Aide-Major Gdne>al , Chef du Service Aeronautique
au Commandant Le Reverend, Commandant ies G.C.
Ofliciers charges de l'aeronautique dans Ies E-M des G.A.
Commandants d'aeronautique d'Armee.
Commandants des groupesde Combat.
Commandants des groupes de bombardement.
Commandants des Eseadrilles.

Le General Trenchard, ancien Commandant de r Aviation
Britannique en France, actuellement Chef d'Etat-Major
du Ministere de lAir a Londree, a envoys a lAide-Major

265

R.F.C.y H.Q. [December

General, Chef du Service Aeronautique au Grand Quartier-
G^neral la lettre ci-apres qui s'adresse a toute 1' Aeron-
autique francaise :
Mon Cher Colonel,

J'avais desire" pouvoir venir vous dire adieu, mais il m'a
ete impossible de le faire.

J'ai ete en relations tres e^roites avec l'Aeronautique
franchise pendant les trois dernieres annees et ce m'est
une vive peine de sentir que ces ^troites relations person-
elles vont etre plus difficiles a maintenir maintenant que je
ne suis plus en rapports intimes avec la France.

Je vous prierais de bien vouloir exprimer a l'Aviation
francaise le sentiment de dette profonde et la reconnais-
sance que j'ai a son endroit pour toute l'assistance qu'elle
me donna pendant que je commandais l'Aeronautique en
France. Je peux dire loyalement que ce fut l'exemple donne
par les aviateurs francais a Verdun et en d'autres grandes
batailles que je m'efforcai de suivre si vigoureusement. Ce
fut aussi des methodes de l'Aviation francaise que je voulus
m' inspirer et la perfection avec laquelle elle accomplissait
les missions d'artillerie et de photographie fut la base sur
laquelle je m'appuyais dans les travaux concernant nos
missions d'artillerie. Je souhaite qu'a tous les soldats de
l'Aviation francaise que j'ai rencontres et connus, on dise
qu'elle peine j'ai a sentir que dorenavant je serai plus loin
d'eux que par le passe" et que toujours je suivrai avec le
plus grand interet et la plus vive sympathie leurs travaux
et leurs exploits.

Je souhaite que quand nous aurons mene* cette guerre a
une fin victorieuse, il me soit donne de venir voir encore
une fois,, en ami, quelques-uns de ceux que j'appelerai mes
anciens amis, et que, si au cours de mon service, j'ai a me
retrouver en France, je puisse avoir l'honneur de voir
quelques-uns de mes amis de 1 'aviation francaise.

Votre sincerement devout,

Trenchard.

L' aeronautique francaise a toujours trouve, aupres du
G^neVal Trenchard pendant qu'il commandait en France,

266

1917I St. Omer — Fienvillers — St. Andre

un concours pr^cieux et la plus cordiale sympathie. Les
sentiments qu'il exprime dans sa lettre en sont un nouveau
t^moignage.

L'Aide-Major G^neVal, Chef du Service Aeronautique
lui a r^pondu en lui exprimant combien ces sentiments
avaient ete apprecies de tout le personnel de l'Aeronautique
et en le remerciant de tout ce qu'il avait fait pour main-
tenir l'union la plus 6troite entre les Aeronautiques alliees.

M. DUVAL

267

PART V

1918

I

CHAPTER XXI
THE INDEPENDENT AIR FORCE
May — July, 191 8.

THE General was appointed to command the
Independent Air Force in May, 191 8. We
crossed over to France on the 16th of May, and
went to the Headquarters of the R.A.F. at St. Andre.

Our old chateau, where he had spent so many months
had been burnt down the night after we had left in
December, 191 7, and the Staff were now living in
huts. We spent two or three days at St. Andre, and on
the 20th we left for Paris, the General, his new A.D.C.,
Captain Ravenscroft, and myself.

May 22nd, 191 8. — From a letter :

Headquarters, 8th Brigade.

" We went to Paris and, of course, the shops were
9hut, as they always are if one goes to Paris for a day
or a few hours. We dined at the Ritz. It was very hot.
The next day we started for this place. Two thermos
bottles were bought before starting, one by me and
one by Ravenscroft. But scarcely had we travelled a
kilometre before my thermos bottle, which was full of
coffee, first began to leak peevishly but firmly, and
finally broke and had to be thrown away. It cost 23
francs. WTe stopped for luncheon at a little dark hotel.
. . . We arrived here about 6.30 ; it is a delicious

271

R.F.C., H.Q. [May

chateau in a garden. In the flower beds there are
potatoes instead of flowers, and it belongs to an old
lady who is 81 and who walks about hale. ..."

May 2yd, 191 8. — From a letter :

" Yesterday we went the round of the Squadrons.
It did not take very long. The lady whom this house
belongs to is 81. That is to say, she was born the year
Queen Victoria came to the throne. Not so very long
ago.

May 26th, 1 91 8. — From a letter :

Headquarters, 8th Brigade.

" This house is delicious with untidy Louis XV
boiseries, Empire furniture, the works of Walter Scott,
and Goethe and faded and dignified classics of the
thirties, and a nice untidy park-garden. Yesterday we
went to look at a new chateau where we are going to
live. Looking round a new house with the General is a
strenuous business, as he insists on seeing everything
and knowing everything.

We saw General de Castlenau too, who is charming.
It has been rainy and cloudy the last three days with
storms."

At this time there were only four Squadrons in
the Independent Force. The Aerodromes which we
had seen in the autumn, and which at that time had
looked like unreclaimable moorland, wore now wide
and smooth surfaces of grass. Thanks to Newall, the
miracle, the impossible had been accomplished, and
further Aerodromes were in the process of making.

The Independent Force was in an extremely
delicate position, as we had not been recognised by
the French Government, and we were neither under
the orders of the Generalissimo nor of Sir Douglas
Haig, therefore our unique and undefined position
depended, as far as practical results were concerned,

272

i9i8] The Independent Air Force

entirely on the goodwill of the French. Luckily this
goodwill was given to us in an overflowing measure
by General de Castelnau, the Commander of the
Group of Armies of the East. He and the General
understood each other at once after their first con-
versation.

General de Castelnau 's name and exploits need
no comment. They will be written, and are already
written in gold, in the history of France, and in the
Gesta Dei per Francos, as the victor of the Grand
Couronne and the restorer of the situation at Verdun.
But it is perhaps permissible to say a word or two
about his personality.

He seemed to belong to a nobler epoch than ours,
to be a native of the age of chivalry, of that time when
Louis IX, who is known as Saint Louis, dispensed
justice under a spreading oak-tree. He had the easy
familiarity, the slight play of kindly irony, the little
ripple of humour, the keen glance, the foresight and
forethought, that polite sse du coeur, that complete re-
moteness from what is common, mean, base, self-
seeking, which are the foundation and substance of
God's gentlemen. His white hair, his keen eyes,
his features, which looked as if they had been cut by
a master-hand out of a fine block of granite, radiated
goodness and courage and cheerfulness, a salt-like
sense, and a twinkling humour. And his smile went
straight to your heart, and made you feel at home,
comfortable, easy and happy. When one had luncheon
with him and the orderly said luncheon was ready he
used to say :

" A cheval, Messieurs,"
and throughout his conversation there was always a
rippling current of good-humoured, delicate and keen
chaff. To hear him talk was like reading, was to breathe

273

R.F.C., H.O. [May

the atmosphere in which classic French was born,
racy, natural, idiomatic, and utterly free from anything
shoddy, artificial or pretentious. He was salt of the
earth, and one felt that if Burke had met him he would
have torn up his dirge on the death of the Age of
Chivalry, for there it was alive and enjoying life and
making others enjoy it.

The French had only to put the slightest spoke
in our wheels, and our work became impossible, since
every square inch of aerodrome, every arrangement
for the transport of each gallon of petrol depended on
their goodwill.

General de Castelnau was a keen believer in the
power of aircraft, and he wrote an interesting memor-
andum on the subject, which he sent to the General.
In this memorandum General de Castelnau advocated
an offensive policy in the air and the utilisation to the
full of American resources in machinery and mechanical
agricultural implements in order to make the necessary
Aerodromes and all else that was entailed by such
an offensive. When London was bombed in the autumn
of 1 91 7 there was at once a clamour for reprisals, but
the public did not realise that what was imperative
was not to make reprisals but to get the maximum
value out of the Flying Corps as it existed at that
moment.

The importance of doing everything possible to
stop the Germans raiding England, and of being able
to carry the offensive in the air into Germany by bomb-
ing German factories or any other targets of import-
ance had been fully realised months before ; but the
whole point of the question was that we could not by
carrying out such raids sacrifice or impair the fighting
efficiency of the Flying Corps at the Front, which was,
of course, what the Germans wanted us to do.

274

1918] The Independent Air Force

We had to be able to carry out these raids without
impairing our efficiency, and in order to do this we
had to have enough machines capable of flying long
distances.

In July, 1917, we had not got enough machines capa-
ble of flying long distances, to carry out raids into
Germany without impairing the efficiency of the Flying
Corps at the Front. That is to say, if we carried out
raids into Germany then we should have to give up
certain work, and this would vitally have affected
the operations in the air and consequently those on
the ground. As soon as we had enough machines we
did both : we carried out raids into Germany without
impairing our efficiency on the ground. Another point
which it was difficult for the public to realise was to
what a degree bomb raids and the possibility of carry-
ing them out depended on the weather.

As I have already said, in the autumn of 191 7 three
Squadrons were sent to Ochey to bomb Germany.
But such was the inclemency of the weather that it
took one of the Squadrons ten days to arrive at the
Aerodrome which was the base of their operations.

The Squadrons arrived at their base on the 16th of
October, and from that day until the end of the month
there was only one really fine day, when it was clear
throughout the day, and besides this, only one day re-
ported as " favourable for operations." On the remaining
days there were snow, rain, haze, mist, fog, strong
winds and banks of clouds. In spite of these circum-
stances, which could scarcely have been more adverse,
13 raids were attempted on factories and stations, out
of which ten were carried out successfully and 12 tons
of explosives were dropped.

And now, although it was summer, and the weather
was to the outward eye fine enough, it was astonishing

275

R.F.C., H.Q. [May

how rarely the circumstances were such as to make a
long raid to Cologne or to Frankfort possible ; and
until the war was over the weather remained the de-
termining factor as far as raids were concerned ; and
the weather will continue to remain the determining
factor as far as flying is concerned until machines are
constructed that can be guided through fogs, are im-
pervious to wind and cloud, and can safely land in a
mist.

On the 20th of May, we started on a long expedition
to the R.A.F. Headquarters at St. Andre. We motored
eleven hours at a stretch. From St. Andre we proceeded
to Paris. On the road we met a long and melancholy
procession of refugees, for the German attack had
begun, and they had retaken the Chemin des Dames
And in Paris on the 31st we heard that the Germans
were ten miles north of Chateau Thierry. We met Sir
Douglas Haig in Paris. An Inter-Allied Conference
was going on. Also, if I remember rightly, an Aviation
Conference, which we attended. As someone aptly
quoted from the classics, we were chattering and the
enemy was at the gates of Rome.

The French were angry with their Intelligence,
who, they said, had expected the attack to be in the
North and had seen no signs of preparations in the
South. But the truth was the Germans had prepared
the attack in the North and in the South simultan-
eously, some months before, and when they were
making these preparations they had been observed
and reported. Then the attack happened in the North
in March, so this had put people off the scent.

Many people thought we should never see Paris
again, and one looked at the beautiful buildings and
the Champs Elysees, and the glittering dome of the
Invalides, and the delicate trees which had just

276

1918] The Independent Air Force

put on their fresh summer apparel, and one wondered
whether in a fortnight's time all this would be one
with Nineveh and Tyre, and Ypres.

General Duval, of the French aviation, told me that
the situation would be restored to normal in three days,
and he was not uneasy, but although one thought this
would be the case, the question which lurked uneasily
at the back of one's mind was, would the troops go on
fighting ? And the French authorities did not seem to
be very confident of this.

On the ist of June Big Bertha shelled Paris in the
morning and in the evening,and a shell hit the Madeleine
but nobody paid the faintest attention.

We started back again on the 2nd of June. The
Germans were on the edge of Villers-Cotterets.

On the 4th of June we were back again at Froville,
the Headquarters of the Ninth Brigade, and on the
6th we moved into our new Headquarters at Autigny-
la-Tour.

Autigny-la-Tour is a lovely little village with square-
squat white houses and red roofs, nested on a hill, and
surrounded by still higher hills in the heart of the
Vosges. Our chateau was right in the village ; its gates
forming part of the village street half-way up a hill. In
front of it was a courtyard, down which there were two
rows of acacia trees, flanked by two mediaeval towers
with pointed roofs, and on one side of the yard an iron
gateway led to stables and houses further up the hill ;
on the other a brick wall descended sheer into the
garden.

The house faced the yard — a seventeenth century
two-storied building — and formed an L, the long
stroke of the L running parallel with a terrace, from
which you went down by stone steps into a kitchen
and flower garden. At the further end of it there was

277

R.F.C., H.Q. [june

a long pond, surrounded by tall trees and full of im-
memorial carp. It was an ideally beautiful spot. The
garden was looked after by an old gardener and his
wife, who worked all day without stopping from six
o'clock in the morning until eight o'clock in the even-
ing.

June nth, 1918. — From a letter :

" We were days without a post. Then Gordon, the
Chief of our Staff, happened to be looking for a map
or a mouse, I forget which, in the attic this morning,
and he found the mail bag, which contained all our
letters and parcels and newspapers which had arrived
two days ago. To-day we are going to have the pond
dragged in case there is another mail bag there. It is
fine and hot after a day's coolness. The Concierge
wound up the cuckoo clock yesterday, ' Pour distraire
le General.' The beauty of our new chateau is great.
It is nested on the top of a white, sun-baked village.
It has a spacious terrace and a long pond, shaded by
huge trees, in which the carp eat any mortal thing you
choose to throw them."

June nth, 191 8. — From my Diary : Four days ago
the gardener said it was la Saint Medard, and that if it
rained it wouldn't stop raining for forty days. It didn't
rain. The Staff is going through the feverish process
of being taught its work.

June 12th, 1918. — We visited our Depot at Courban.
It is a gigantic Depot, bigger than those of St. Omer
and Candas. It is not yet finished. I have finished
Eminent Victorians, by Strachey, and written a letter
to the Spectator on his estimate of Lord Cromer,
which I think is fantastic. He judges him from
the book (Modern Egypt) in which Lord Cromer
calmly looks back on his work years afterwards. He
does not realise that while it was going on the strain,

278

1918] The Independent Air Force

responsibility, anxiety, perplexity nearly killed him ;
also that in those days he had no great prestige or
position to back him, but the book is brilliant.
The springs of the Rolls-Royce broke, and no wonder
considering the pace we had been driving and the roads
we have been driving over.

June 1 ^th, 19 18. — It is hot. After having no
mails for three days, four mails arrived yesterday.
To-morrow we set out once more on a three hun-
dred mile drive —

" Cras ingens iterabimus aequor."

The General's almanac was forgotten. The result was
he dated his letters all wrong.

June \\th, 191 8. — We started at 7 for Headquarters
R.A.F., (St. Andre\) The car broke down as we left
Autigny, so we got into another, and a slower one, and
drove to the station at Gondrecourt, where we waited
for the train. Just before the train started we learnt that
the Rolls had been mended. So we waited for it. It
arrived about half an hour later, and then off we spun,
stopping in Paris for some tea. But as we arrived in the
foodless hours we had to get tea from a Soldiers' Home.
We arrived at St. Andre at 11.30 p.m.

June 15th, 1918 (H.Q., R.A.F.) — I went to see Bow-
manin his Squadron. At tea the pilots were discussing the
new R.A.F. uniform ; one of them asked another why
the tie was black : " It's black because General Trench-
ard has left off being G.O.C. in the R.A.F.," said the
others.

On the 1 6th we stopped the night at the French
G.H.Q. at Provins. A beautiful little mediaeval town
which suffered damage at the hands of the English
Angevin Kings in days gone by.

June iSth, 19 18. — From a letter :

279

R.F.C, H.Q. [June

" One hundred and three years after the battle of
Waterloo was fought. We arrived back last night after
our terrific journeys. It rained yesterday for the first
time for months. This has done a lot of good to the
lettuce and strawberries, not to mention the onions.
The next day we went to see General de Castelnau
and reported to him the results of our journey and
our conversations with the various authorities."

June igth, 1918. — Twelve eggs, four ducks, one
fish, a fox-rug, one doyly, four new blouses, one
petticoat, and a pair of nail scissors have been stolen
from a house in the village. A mechanic was seen leav-
ing the house in the early dawn. A bedroom had been
slept in and a whole candle had been burnt. The thief
was thought, heaven knows why, to be a tramp. Sher-
lock Holmes has been sent for.

June 20th, 1918/ — It rained slightly in the morning.
We spent the day visiting the American Squadrons.
The General threw the end of his cigar into the pond
and a carp ate it. It appeared to suffer from the effects.

From a letter : (date illegible)

" We are having luncheon with General de Castel-
nau to-day. It is very fine. I am cheered by the Italian
news. . . . The carp which ate the General's cigar,
by mistake, is much better. It was able to swim to the
surface of the pond yesterday. Bishop was sent for
by the Canadian Government to go home, so before
starting he went up into the air and shot down five
Germans. Then he took the train for Canada via
London."

June 22nd, 1 91 8. — The mystery of the theft is still
unravelled. The mechanic has accounted for his move-
ments in a satisfactory manner.

June 2yd, 1918. — The stolen articles, with the
exception of the nail scissors, were all put back in a

z8o

1918] The Independent Air Force

parcel in the garden. Translated a memorandum,
written by the General on bombing, into French.

This memorandum dealt with two points :

i. The most propitious time for long distance raids
into Germany.

2. The methods which should be adopted in carry-
ing out these raids.

By the question when is the most propitious moment
to carry out these raids what was meant was this :

" When does it cease to be necessary to concen-
trate all possible aeroplanes on the battle-front, and
when is it possible to divert a certain number of them
in order to bomb the industrial centres of Germany ?"

The answer being : when the flying forces of each
ally were strong enough to hold and beat the German
flying forces in the air. And the further conclusion :
that British aviation was now strong enough to
beat the German aviation in France and to attack the
German centres of industry.

The General said that in June, 1916, he had asked
for a certain number of Squadrons to attack the Ger-
man armies in France and for a certain number of
machines to attack the Germans in Germany. The
machines for attacking the Germans in Germany were
to be considered as a luxury as long as we had not got
a sufficient number of machines for dealing with the
Germans in France. But as soon as we were provided
with enough machines for that work it would then
become a necessity to attack the Germans in Ger-
many. That moment he considered had now come.
One interesting point was made in this memorandum.
I cannot quote it textually, as I have only my French
version available, but it was to this effect :

If to ensure the superiority of a given arm you in-
crease its forces beyond the necessary, you do not get

281

R.F.C., H.Q. [june

the maximum effort from this superfluity of forces,
but the superfluity is used to lessen the effort and to
diminish the work of the forces you have already.

For instance, supposing you have ioo machines
working on the front with an average of work of five
hours per machine per day, and that you suddenly
double this force, the result will probably be that the
number of hours flown per machine will sink to three
hours per day. Whereas if you employed these additional
machines as a separate force for attacking the enemy
from a separate base of operations their average work
would still be five hours per day.

June 25th, 1918. — We had luncheon with General
de Castelnau. He was perfectly delightful. Yesterday
we had a tiring day at Courban. Dealing with various
points such as messmen, spraying machines, for
doping the Handley Page planes ; coloured fabric ; the
mail at Courban ; light railways ; ferry pilots ; test
pilots ; dynamos (30 killowatt), where are they ? work
in the stone-sheds (too much) ; Handley Page sal-
vage ; tractors ; spares from Dunkirk (they want
sorting); Crossley ambulances ; D.R.L.S. to Courban;
tent party.

To-day we received a telephone message from the
R.A.F. Headquarters saying that Ian Henderson had
been killed flying in Scotland.

On the 26th of June we started again on a long
journey to the French G.H.Q. at Provins, where we
stopped the night. We had dinner with General Petain
just outside the town. He looked white and tired.
I thought he was what the French call a pince sans rire.
A man who makes a joke or a cutting remark with an
impassive face, and leaves you to laugh or to feel hurt
as you please, but never bothers to underline, to ex-
plain or to apologise. We discussed during dinner,

282

1 9i 8] The Independent Air Force

quite calmly and entirely theoretically, the advantages
and disadvantages of the interference of civilian author-
ities with military operations at the critical periods of
a great war. We might have been discussing the Punic
War for all the emotion shown. We discussed the
relative merits and demerits of the French and the
English in this respect. Someone said : " After all
we must not exaggerate. After all the worst the politi-
cians do is to make the war a little more difficult."

General Petain was undoubtedly in favour of the
bombing of Germany.

June 29th, 191 8.— From a letter :

" Yesterday Baldwin and Landon, two Squadron
Commanders, as they were driving back from dinner
towards Ochey with two American officers, were fired
at from the air by a Boche machine. The brake of
their car went wrong, and they got out to mend it. As
they were fiddling with it, two bombs burst on the road
knocking them head over heels, wounding Landon
in the head and Baldwin in the knee, smashing the
car, and severely wounding the driver. This, one of
those " little unremembered acts of anger and of hate "
may happen to any of us when we go out to dinner,
whether in London, Paris, Edinburgh, or Nancy.
Such are the curious phenomena of modern warfare.
Should it happen in Grosvenor Square, remember to
lie down."

July 2nd, 19 1 8. — From a letter :

" The night before last we went to see the machines
start and come back from the night expeditions to
Hunland. It is quite uncanny to see the great monsters
fly off into the sunset and disappear, and then you
hear them much later humming in the darkness and
circling round like great moths till they land. . . And
how well they land ! An electric light is turned on for

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R.F.C., H.O. [juiy

a second from the control platform, and there is the
machine safely on the ground."

July yd, 191 8. — From a letter :
' Last night there was a concert at the Y.M.C.A.
tent given by an American lady and an American man.
The man sang very well, and the lady was quite good,
but the audience were a little slow to take her points
as they did not understand them. General de Castel-
nau comes to luncheon with us at midday. To-morrow
we go to celebrate the fourth, not of June but of July,
at the American G.H.Q. Le ciel est couvert. The
strawberries are rapidly fading and the raspberries are
not yet ripe."

July yd, 1 91 8. — The Mess had not understood
that luncheon was to be at 12.30. A panic ensued.
Fortunately the General had a short conversation
with General de Castelnau before luncheon. This gave
them time to cook luncheon.

July 10th, 191 8. — From a letter :
' It rained slightly yesterday after a prolonged spell
of scorchingly hot weather. A tragedy of far-reaching
import happened the other day in Paris. A great deal
of glass had been broken by the German bombs, and
if this were not enough damage done, my eyeglass was
shattered by the string breaking. ... Sir Walter
Lawrence has arrived. . . . We have been to Paris
for one night."

July 10th, 1918. — From my Diary : A happy day
at the Depot at Courban. Some American mechanics
are being trained there, and Acting-Chief Mechanic
Clarke, who is O.C. Carpenters' Machine Shop, had
six men working under him, but no Americans. The
same thing was found to be the case in other shops.
Two coppersmiths were found in the Power-House,
who had not yet been working at their own trade. The

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1 9i 8] The Independent Air Force

assembling of Handley Page planes was discussed and
a quantity of other points.

July i^th, 1 91 8. — From a letter :

" I went to the city of Langres to-day where the
pocket-knives are made and where there are a number
of Renaissance houses. . . . Yesterday one of the
Chinese labourers engaged on making Aerodromes
was delivered of a child. This caused great surprise.
It is unprecedented in the annals of labour and war
work."

285

CHAPTER XXII

THE FRENCH COUNTER-OFFENSIVE AND

AFTER

THE French counter-offensive began on July
15th. We received the good news during the
course of the morning. In the evening at sunset
there was a thunderstorm. An enormous rainbow
appeared with a complete reflection round it. I had
never seen a complete, unbroken reflection round a
rainbow before. I have now seen a rainbow before
each great offensive, but this one was by far the most
perfect and the most hopeful.

We started off on a long expedition either on the
18th or 19th, but I have no record of it. We went to
Paris. What we did and what happened I have for-
gotten, but on the way back, and while the battle was
in full swing, we stopped at Marshal Foch's Head-
quarters, and had an interview with him. This was
probably on the 20th of July, 191 8. We started from
Paris about 9 and motored to Marshal Foch's Head-
quarters. We arrived about 11, and went to General
Du Cane's chateau. He took us to Marshal Foch's
chateau. We saw General Weygand, the Chief of the
Staff, and discussed affairs. Then we were taken into
the Marshal's room. He was most affable. He said to
the General : " Nous savons que vous avez une

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191 8] French Counter-offensive & After

position speciale ; cela nous gene pas. Continuez votre
bon travail." While we were there he got a telegram
to say things were going well, and he gave a cry of joy,
and was for one moment transfigured by excitement,
enthusiasm and hope.

This poem, which I translated from the French of
Phillipe Desportes, came out in the Times of July 18th,
1918 :

Icarus.

Here fell the daring Icarus in his prime,
He who was bold enough to scale the skies ;
And here bereft of plumes his body lies,
Leaving the valiant envious of that climb.
O rare performance of a soul sublime,
That with small loss such great advantage buys !
Happy mishap fraught with so rich a prize,
That bids the vanquished triumph over time !

So new a path his youth did not dismay,
His wings but not his noble heart said nay ;
He had the glorious sun for funeral fire ;
He died upon a high adventure bent ;
The sea his grave, his goal the firmament :
Great is the tomb, but greater the desire.

July 22nd, 1 91 8. — From a letter :
' The Chinese have struck. This is the reason. They
were supplied with American bread. It became im-
possible to supply them with American bread any
longer, so they were given an equal quantity of French
bread, which is better. They then struck because they
said the French bread had holes in it. And therefore
they lost on the transaction. . . . The news is good
on land and sea and sky."

July 2jth, 1918. — From a letter :

" Lord Weir has been staying here and Sir Maurice
Bonham-Carter. They were shown everything in three

287

R.F.C., H.Q. [Juiy

hectic days. General de Castelnau came to dinner on
the 25th. He urged Lord Weir to give us plenty of
machines. It has been pouring with rain, and is very
cold. . . . The news is invigorating."

July 28th, 1 91 8. — The Chinese strike is over. A
man who spoke Chinese came and settled it.

'July 2gth, 1 918. — The General gave a lecture on
aviation and its difficulties to the American Staff
College. We had luncheon with the British Mission.
The lecture was unlike most lectures, and a great
success. General Henderson is staying with us.

July 31^, 191 8. — This morning we had a gloomy
piece of news. No. 99 Squadron lost seven D.H.
machines on a raid. The General sent for me and told
me the news. He was very much upset. We went out
to the Squadron at once. The General spoke to the
pilots, and told them that where we had the advantage
over the enemy was that our spirit was such that we
could face and get over our losses and go on in spite
of them, and that the enemy couldn't. We had luncheon
with the Squadron.

August 1st, 191 8. — From a letter :

" The country is like a ripe plum : golden and
delicious, and there is a slight mist over the wheat. I
have just been for a walk round the village and up the
hill. Wasps and hornets are buzzing about, and the
old gardener has cut the grass in front of the house.
The white raspberries are ripe, but the red currants,
on the other hand, are over. We went to see a French
Squadron yesterday, and this so pleased them that
they photographed us unawares and then sent us a
pilot in a " Spad " to bring us the photograph, which
was ready by tea-time. He flew over the house like a
bird from Noah's Ark."

August yd, 1918 — Soissons was taken.

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1 9i 8] French Counter-offensive & After

Before the end of August five more long distance
bombing Squadrons had arrived. The bombing of
Germany went on now by day and by night whenever
the weather permitted. In July, the longest distance
flown out and back was by day 272 miles, and by
night 300 miles. In August the longest distance flown
out and back by day was 330 miles, and by night 342
miles. Of all the experiences we had in connection
with aviation I thought, personally, there was nothing
more trying, more harassing, and more hard to bear
for those who were responsible than waiting for these
long distance raids to return. The distances were so
great, the possibilities of changes in the weather were
so numerous and so various, the margin of safety was
so narrow, the determination on the part of the pilots
to attempt all there was to be attempted was so certain,
that whenever one knew there was a big and long raid
on hand one could not help being desperately uneasy
till the machines had come back. It was not merely a
question of losing one or two machines. One knew
only too well that a change of weather might occur
when the machines were at a great distance, and one
might quite easily lose the whole formation.

As the General said in his despatch : " On several
occasions machines with only five and a quarter hours'
supply of petrol were out for that time ; in one case a
formation was out for five hours and thirty minutes,
and only just managed to clear the front line trenches
on its homeward journey. A miscalculation of five
minutes would have lost the whole formation."

August 1 2th was a great day in the air for us. Frank-
fort was attacked from the air for the first time by
twelve machines of No. 55 Squadron, under the com-
mand of Captains Silly and Mackay. They were heavily
attacked by 40 Scouts on their way there and

289

u

R.F.C., H.O. [August

throughout the whole of the homeward journey. All the
machines got back safely, but one observer was killed
by machine-gun fire.

On the same day, Quinell, leading a formation of
No. 104 Squadron, had a fight which lasted three-
quarters of an hour, and when they had fought these
Germans out of the air they flew to a German Aero-
drome and destroyed the machines which they saw on
the ground. When Quinell was over the Rhine he
wound up his watch and sang " We'll wind up our
watch on the Rhine." The General sent me to see these
Squadrons. I had luncheon with Quinell. All the pilots
were in tearing spirits.

On the 13th of August we spent a few fevered hours
in Paris. The drive back the next day was very beau-
tiful. The whole country was in the full mellow glory
of summer, with long shadows falling on the golden
corn-fields and an air of ripeness and opulence, and the
broad benediction of the harvest. We had a puncture
— the fourth that day — in a little village between
Chaumont and Neuf chateau. I commemorated the
delay as follows :

August 14th, 1 91 8.

August 14TH.

I hear the tinkling of the cattle-bell

In the broad stillness of the afternoon ;

High in the cloudless heaven the harvest moon

Is pallid as the phantom of a shell.

A girl is drawing water from a well,

I hear the clatter of her wooden shoon ;

Two mothers with their sleeping babies croon,

And the hot village feels the drowsy spell.

Sleep, child, the Angel of Death his wings has spread ;
His engines scour the land, the sea, the sky ;
And all the weapons of Hell's armoury

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1918] French Counter-offensive & After

Are ready for the blood that is their bread ;
And many a thousand men to-night must die,
So many that they will not count the dead.

A large bomb fell in our vicinity that night, shaking
the house.

August 15th, 1 91 8. — From a letter :

" The feast of the Assumption. The church was
crammed. It is boiling hot and beautiful. Gold corn-
fields, large shadows. Gleaners, a haze of heat, a bloom
of summer on everything, faint noises and tinklings."

August 16th, 191 8. — From a letter :

" There is at the Brigade Head-quarters a very
good-natured interpreter. Yesterday I had luncheon

at the Brigade, and a young officer called X

brought the interpreter a large bottle of Gregory
powder. The interpreter asked what it was, and the
officer said it was a refreshing drink called Sherbet,
and must be taken with soda-water. So the interpreter
took it to his room, and said he would take some before
going to bed."

During this period we had a great deal to do with
the American, the French and the Italian Aviation.
The Italians had a Squadron of Caproni machines
quite close to us.

The Italians paid us a visit on the 22nd, but they
arrived at rather a bad moment. They wanted some
spare wheels for the Caproni. An important raid had
been carried out on Frankfort and Cologne the night
before. The General had sat up all night to see the
machines come back, and had gone to the Aerodrome
at Autreville to meet them without telling a soul, by
himself. He arrived back about five in the morning.
Later on in the morning, just before the Italians
arrived, he heard that No. 104 Squadron had lost
seven machines. He was frightfully upset.

291

R.F.C., H.Q. [August

On the evening of the same day Marshal Foch's
Aviation Officer, Commandant Polo - Marchetti,
arrived from Headquarters to discuss the future of the
Independent Force with the General. At dinner, it
was said that it wasn't the Army or the Navy who
had brought about the existence of a combined Air
Force during the war. It was done in spite of them. It
was never experts who decided things in public or
private affairs. Take marriage, for instance ; experts in
population might be in favour of polygamy, but one
doesn't have it all the same.

The next day there was a bad thunderstorm in the
evening. The machines were out, but they all got back
safely.

On the 26th we went a long tour of the Squadrons,
to Azelot and Xaffrevilliers. A lot of notes were made.
We saw seven Squadrons and three new unoccupied
Aerodromes. Here are some of the notes :

A roller is needed at the Frolois Aerodrome. There
are no drains inside the revetments of the sheds. At
Azelot, the anti-aircraft section is under strength.
Their football-league is to be seen to. No. 55 have no
radiators and no cowling. Baldwin had received no
orders about not bombing Luxemburg. Ashes are
needed in front of the sheds at Azelot. The Gledhill
bomb-gear is incomplete.

Quinell wants 20 suits of Sidcote clothing, and is
short of brackets (104) for baby-bombs.

No. 99 want an Armament Officer. No. 215, at
Xaffrevilliers, want a. Jack for the 1 ,6oolb. bomb ; also an
observer, and gun-layers for Handley Page Squadrons.

No. 97 have not received their Aerodrome Officer.
The petrol system on Handley Page 0400 is cutting
out. They want some well-trained observers. Six of
their big cowls don't fit.

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i9i8] French Counter-offensive & After

On the 27th we had luncheon with General de
Castelnau. Before luncheon the General gave him an
account of the raid on Mannheim, when two machines,
in spite of searchlights and an intense anti-aircraft
barrage, successfully carried out their bombing lower
than the factory chimneys. This was one of the finest
exploits carried out by the Independent Force. On their
way back both the machines passed through rain and
thick clouds, and there were thunderstorms the whole
night. When they were over Mannheim the search-
lights were turned almost horizontally, and the anti-
aircraft batteries fired horizontally across the works
and the factories.

During this month we had a constant stream of
visitors.

September ist, 191 8. — From a letter :
There is a place called Langres where there is a
shop called Guerre. Guerre makes and sells knives.
The knives are cased in tortoise-shell and have sharp
blades. Among the blades they have a curved blade
called serpette, useful and used for cutting flowers.
The other day I went to Langres, and Sir Walter
Lawrence gave me one of these knives.

Three days ago the gardener saw me cutting roses
with my serpette, and he said the process would be
more satisfactory if I used a secateur. I said I was using
a serpette, but that it had become blunt. He said ' I will
have it sharpened for you.' I gave him the knife, and
he bad it sharpened on a whetstone. Yesterday I was
using the back of the blade to cut the pages of a book,
the book slipped from my hand and the blade was
plunged into my thumb. I put five layers of sticking-
plaster on it. And this morning I thought it must be
healed, but to my surprise I found the cut was as fresh,
as deep, and as new as ever, and spouting with blood

293

R.F.C., H.O. [September

as before. So I put on some more sticking-plaster.
Sir Walter Raleigh arrives this afternoon, Sir John
Hunter to-morrow, General Brancker either to-morrow
or the day after."

September ist, 191 8. — From my Diary :

Sir Walter Raleigh arrived at 5.

" And hope, too long with vain delusion fed,
Deaf to the rumour of fallacious fame
Gave to the roll of Death his glorious name."

(Pope's Odyssey, I, 216.)

September 6th, 191 8. — From a letter :

" There was a loud thunderstorm this morning
mingled with hail. My thumb is better, but yesterday
Wing- Commander Landon drove down a wasp on to
my leg and it stung me through the cloth of my
breeches. Blue-bag was administered, but it swelled
to an immense size, and still is a little sore. It is in-
tensely sultry. The news continues to be good."

September 8th, 191 8. — From my Diary :

" I have just heard that Louis Belloc has been miss-
ing since August 26th. He was a pilot in a Camel
Squadron."

September gth, 191 8. — From a letter :

" The luncheon with the Italians was great fun.
The General did not go, but I went with Colonel
Baldwin. After luncheon a man played the violin, and
the tune he played was called the Intermezzo out of
Cavalleria Rusticana. You may have heard of it. He
played it in one time and his accompanist played it in
another time. Out of which grew an argument. The
violinist saying it was four time, and the accompanist
three, or vice-versa. The argument grew fiercer and
fiercer. The pianist, who was a Neapolitan, turned
white with rage, and someone else offered to bet and

294

1918] French Counter-offensive & After

flung all his money on the table. Then the Neapolitan
threatened to go and live somewhere else, but all the
same was careful in the intensity of his fury not to take
the bet. Finally they became calm, and went on play-
ing the tune each in his different way, which was satis-
factory to everyone except the audience.

' After luncheon we were photographed in the pour-
ing rain. This took an hour, because every time every-
thing was quite ready I laughed, because I could not
help it. This made the photographer, who was the
Neapolitan, very angry, not with me, but with the
others, who were standing behind me, because, he
said, they were trying to make me laugh, as indeed
they were. Owing to the pouring rain it was impossible
to take an instantaneous photograph, which everyone
in vain implored him to do."

On September the 12th the American offensive
began. The Americans had been extraordinarily dis-
creet about the actual date of the beginning of oper-
ations. So much so, that the day before we had had no
news of it, and the first intimation we received of the
battle was the arrival of an American officer at 2 a.m.,
who, by a happy fluke, walked straight into the Gen-
eral's bedroom.

About ten in the morning we drove to the Neuf-
chateau Aerodrome to see the French bombing machines
start. The French had sent their Division a^rienne,
which had been formed on the model of our old G.H.Q.
Wing, but it was larger, to take part in these oper-
ations. We left our car on the road and walked across
some fields to the back of the Aerodrome. Thirty-nine
Breguet machines were on the ground, drawn up
ready to start. We found the Squadron Commander
in his office. A young smart Captain called La Verque,
and we strolled out with him and watched the machines

295

R.F.C., H.Q. [September

starting their engines and going up into the air. The
General said to him :

" Doesn't it make your heart beat every time a
machine goes up ? "

" Yes," said the Squadron Commander, " some
people call aviation a sport ; I call it war."

We stayed there watching until all the machines
had started, and then we walked slowly down the bill.
The machines had left the ground and were flying
over our heads. As one machine — one of the last —
came over the General said : " He's going to crash."
The words were not out of his lips before the wingtip
hit the ground. The machine burst into flames at once.
The machine was in a blaze. Somehow or other the
pilot and the observer were out. The machine was
some way down the hill about 200 yards from where
we were. I could not see clearly what was going on,
but I saw the machine blazing like a bonfire. Behind
us there was stillness and nobody in sight. We could
see the observer was running about, and he was crying
out in pain. The General ran down the hill as fast as he
could. I followed him. By the time I had reached the
place I found a small group of men. The observer, the
General, and some mechanics. Nobody had got a
knife, and the General had cut off the observer's fur-
clothing with a small gold Asprey penknife. An am-
bulance then arrived, and the Squadron Commander.
The pilot was lying on the ground insensible. He had
been killed. The observer, when he saw the Squadron
Commander, stood up and said he felt all right ; but
he was badly burnt, and his forehead had no skin on it.
They put him into the ambulance and drove off. We
walked on across the fields to meet our car. The
General said : "If the bombs in the machine go off,
lie down." One of them went off, as we were walking

296

1918] French Counter-offensive & After

towards the road, and as we got into the car the second
bomb went off, making a louder explosion than the
first one. The General's servant was on the box. He
had seen what happened through field-glasses. The
General said to him :

" Aviation is war, Chalcroft, not a sport."

" Seems like it, Sir," said Chalcroft.

The next day I went to see the observer in the hos-
pital ; he had been badly burnt and had suffered
terribly, but he recovered.

On the 13th we heard that the Americans had taken
the Saint Mihiel salient. On the 14th we had luncheon
with Commandant Goys, who commanded the Divis-
ion Aerienne. He had escaped from Germany, after
having made I don't know how many attempts. He
ended by taking the express train to Cologne from
Frankfort and travelling first-class.

On the 1 6th of September, 191 8, we went to the
Flying Hospital at Chaulmes. There was a pilot in
the hospital called Dennis, who had been badly
wounded on a long raid. The bullet had ricochetted
inside him. His observer had been wounded too and
collapsed. When he saw this he said : " I then felt
bitter." He was determined to bring the machine home.
He was 50 miles from the line. He brought the machine
home and made a perfect landing : so much so that
the Squadron Commander, who was looking on, didn't
know that there was anything the matter. The doctor
said he couldn't conceive how he could have managed
to fly home with such a wound. When we arrived at
the hospital he was hovering between life and death.
The General said he wanted to give him the D.F.C.,
and asked if he could see him or whether it was im-
possible. The doctor said it might just pull him
through. The General went in, gave him the D.F.C.,

297

R.F.C., H.Q. [September

and he was intensely pleased. He afterwards re-
covered.

September ijth, 191 8. — From a letter :
"I am re-reading Les Dieux ont soif, by Anatole
France. I came across this remark, which seems to me
profound. ' On n'est jamais assez simplement mise,'
says one lady to another. ' Vous dites bien, ma belle,
mais rien n'est plus couteux en toilette que la sim-
plicite. Ft ce n'est pas toujours par mauvais gout que
nous mettons des fanfreluches ; c'est quelque-fois par
economie.' This is true about food, clothes, art, and
everything else in the world.

' Rien n'est plus couteux que la simplicite.' "
On the 25th we started at 6.15 in the morning for
the R.A.F. Headquarters. We went via Senlis, and
arrived at G.H.Q., Montreuil, about half-past four.
The next day we went to the R.A.F. Headquarters,
and the day after we went to London. The object of
our visit was to discuss the future of the Independent
Force. It was suggested that the General should com-
mand an Inter-Allied Bombing Force. We stayed in
London till the 4th of October, during which interval
Bulgaria withdrew from the war.

On the 5th of October we went to see General
Salmond at his advanced Headquarters, and in the
afternoon we went on to Paris.

October $th, 191 8. — From my Diary (Paris) :
Having nothing else to read before going to bed I
read Dante's Paradiso, Canto 32.

October 6th, 1918. — Arrived at Autigny-la-Tour,
from Paris. In the morning we heard the news of the
German demand for an armistice. We had already
heard of this the night before, as will be seen from the
following letter :

Octobei- yth, 1 91 8. — From a letter (Paris, Hotel Ritz.) :

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1 9i 8] French Counter-offensive & After

" The General and D. Henderson had gone upstairs.
Sommy Somerset came in about 9 and found us. He
said : ' There is a man from the Gaulois who says the
Germans have asked for peace, and the news is going
to be published to-morrow.' I said : ' Where is Belloc ? '
We were expecting him. Belloc arrived and we all went
up to the General's room, where the General and D.
Henderson were talking. (D. H. had been dining with
us). S. said : ' A man from the Gaulois . . . ' Belloc
said : ' Do you know the story of the American who
went to a seance ? ' He told it and we laughed. S. said :
' It appears that the Germans . . . .' The General
said : ' That reminds me of a story they told at the
Air Board . . . .' He told it and we laughed. S. said :
* There is a rumour . . . ' David said : ' Have you
heard the story of the pilot and . . . ? ' He told it
and we laughed. S. gave it up."

On the 10th of October we heard that Le Cateau
had been taken. On the 13th the news came that the
Germans were willing to accept President Wilson's
terms. At three I went with the General to see General
deCastelnau. General de Castelnau thought this meant
peace. We discussed the situation. He asked what
President Wilson's 14 points meant. He was against a
minor armistice followed by another. He was in favour
of one final armistice and our occupying the left bank
of the Rhine and the bridgeheads and letting Europeans
settle their own affairs first.

On the 15th, a pouring wet day, one machine, follow-
ing the river, reached and bombed a German Aero-
drome, to the intense astonishment of its inhabitants,
who stood gaping till a bomb dispersed them. I saw
the machine land in thick, dark rain.

On the 17th we received the false news of the Ger-
man Emperor's abdication, which caused a good deal

299

R.F.C., H.O. [October

of discussion. A party of Japanese officers arrived on a
visit.

October iSth, 1918. — From a letter :

" We have some Japanese gentlemen staying with
us. At breakfast Sir Walter Lawrence did the civil, and
asked them several questions and made comments on
the weather without getting any response from them.
At last he said to one of them : ' Is the coffee to your
liking ? ' The Japanese thought a little while, and
then said : ' It's tea.' The weather has at last cleared up."

On the 1 8th we went to Paris for one night, and
while we were there I finished reading the Divina
Commedia of Dante. So I concluded the war had come
to an end. I saw Monseigneur Duchesne, who said,
talking of the Turks :

" lis sont charitables, bons et hospitaliers, et ils
sont betes, ce qui n'est pas une qualite a negliger."

On the 22nd of October, 191 8, we started once more
on a long journey up North to the R.A.F. Headquarters.
We went through Chalons, Rheims, Soissons, Braine,
Compiegne, and Montdidier. We did not see the
cathedral at Rheims, which was a disappointment.
Compiegne was still deserted and very much in tatters
from air-raids, but we found one small restaurant
open, and had luncheon there. The sandwiches we
had taken with us had been soaked in petrol on the
way. Our route followed a trail of devastated villages
and towns. We arrived at St. Andre about 5. The next
day we went to Dunkirk to meet Lord Weir. And the
day after, to Bapaume, where the advanced R.A.F.
Headquarters were living in a hut settlement made
by the Germans. The next day we went to Paris, and
got back to Autigny on the following day..

October 28//?, 1918. — Commandant Picard, of the
French Aviation, came to see us. He asked me when I

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i9i8] French Counter-offensive & After

thought the war would be over. I said very soon. He
said he didn't think so ; at any rate, he hoped not,
because he was afraid if it was over soon it would mean
that we shouldn't have made a job of it. This con-
versation took place in the General's room. I said
Bulgaria being out of it meant Turkey and Austria must
soon follow suit. While we were having tea in the ante-
room, Sewell rang up from the French G.H.Q. and gave
me the official message saying Austria was out of the War.

On the 9th of October, 191 8, Prince Albert, who
had been attached to the Staff of the Independent
Force, arrived. The next day he paid a visit to General
de Castelnau. On the 31st of October the Italian Minis-
ter of Supply visited us. He was so energetic and hard-
working and efficient, although advanced in years,
that one of his staff officers, who had been working
with him since 2 in the morning as well as travelling,
fainted after dinner. It was now settled and agreed
upon that the General was to command the Inter- Allied
Bombing Force. And some time — now I forget the
exact date — the General was officially informed of
this, and of the acceptance of the Allies.

On the 6th of November the General received an
urgent message from Marshal Foch saying they wanted
to see him at Headquarters. The General guessed what it
was about, namely, a scheme for bombing South Ger-
man towns and centres from Bohemia should the war
continue, and for sending an expedition to Prague.

So when we arrived the next day at Senlis, the
General had all his plans and maps ready. We arrived
at Senlis at 3, and found the German delegates were
expected at 5. They did not arrive, however, until 5 in
the morning.

The next morning we went to Paris. In the after-
noon we went to see the Czecho- Slovak Mission to

301

R.F.C., H.O. [November

arrange about sending machines and pilots to Bohemia.

The Czecho- Slovak Secretary, being asked if we
could have some letters of introduction to the head of
the Government at Prague, said there wasn't a Govern-
ment, but he could let us have letters to the head of
the Movement. We asked him if they had troops there.
He said there were several Gymnastic Societies. We
then asked which was the best way to get to Prague.
He said there were two lines ; one was safe and the
other was dangerous, but the dangerous one was the
more convenient.

The next morning we had an intensely busy time
fixing up the details of this expedition. The people
who were to go there had already arrived from London
with special maps from the British Museum. A French
pilot was to go and take charge. This was the advance
guard : they were to report, and machines would be
flown there if necessary.

We got back to Autigny on the ioth of November,
1 91 8. News of the signing of the Armistice was tele-
phoned to us in the night by the Italians, but it was
not confirmed. The Squadrons did a last bomb raid.
All the machines got back safely.

The next morning we knew the Armistice had been
signed. General de Castelnau came to see us. Prince
Albert was entertained by the Italian Squadron at
luncheon, and by French Squadrons in the afternoon,
and made an excellent speech to them.

On the 1 6th of November we left for Paris at 7.
Everyone came to see us off, and the road in the village
and beyond was lined with officers and mechanics,
who cheered the General.

November nth, 1918. — From a letter :

" A historic day. We returned last night from Paris.
We had been summoned by Marshal Foch to his

302

i9i8j French Counter-offensive & After

Headquarters two days before, and we arrived there
just when the Delegates were expected. As you know,
they were late owing to road trouble. We stayed at the
British Mission one night, and the next day we went
to Paris. Paris was very full. It was most exciting,
with bits of news arriving every minute. We got the
news of the Emperor's abdication there, the day before
yesterday, in the afternoon. In the night there were
manifestations in the streets. Last night we got the
news of the Armistice and the official news this morn-
ing." The Independent Force was at once demobilised.
On the 14th of November its Squadrons came under
the command of the Field- Marshal commanding in
Chief the British Army in France.

303

t

INDEX

AIRCRAFT— Acland deflector, A
137; Artillery Machines, 230 ;
Caproni Machine, 104, 120, 125;
Darracq's Factory, 126, 194 ;
Dion Works, 104 ; Fast Fight-
ing Machines, insufficient, 217 ;
Fiat Works, 104 ; Firing, dis-
integrating link, 142 ; Firing
through the propeller problem,
1 17 ; Fokker " Scourge," 1 14 ;
Fokker and Morane mono-
plane, 141 ; Fokker parabellum
gun, 142 ; Francia Works, 105 ;
German Mechanical manufac-
tures, 115, 116 ; Gnome Mono-
soupape engine, 115 ; Hispano
Engines, 186 ; Insufficient
supply, 215, 217, 275: Isotto-
Fraschini Works, 104 ; Long
distance machines, 275 ; Mag-
netos, German manufacture,
115; Mechanical factors,
difficulties of procuring, 115;
Moranes, 60, 117, 141, 145;
Nieuports, 137, 194, 215 ; Pro-
duction and Finance, 204, 205 :
Salmson Machine, 237 ; Scarf-
Debowsky Gear, 142 ; Tracer
Bullets, 134 ; Vickers Fighters,
115 ; Voisin Machine, 81

Air Craft Guns, Anti— "Archie,"
44 ; Artillery Co-operation, 85,

98, 177
Air Force, Royal — Administrative
Wing, Farnborough 1914, 46;
Amalgamation of R.F.C. and
R. N.A.S., 264; Arrival in

304

ir Force, Royal — cont.
France, 17 : Bourlon Wood
Fighting 1917, 260 ; Casualties,
severe, 116; Chief of Air Staff
Maj.-Gen. Trenchard, 264 ; Co-
operations with Wireless, Ar-
tillery, Signalling, etc,, 85, 98,
177 ; Czech-Slovak Mission to
Bohemia, 302 ; Defence Policy,
252 ; Depots Stationary, 147 ;
Development of Fighting in the
Air, 1917, 244-248 ; Exhibition
of Machines, 113 ; Expansion,
Increased Efficiency, 46, 66,
129, 203 ; Extravagancies, 193;
Independent Force : Command
Gen. Trenchard, 271, Com-
mencement, 254, Demobilised,
303, Depot Courban, 278 ; In-
fantry Co-operation, 244-247 ;
Inspection Notes, 147, 148 ;
Inter-Allied Bombing Force
proposed, 298, 301 ; Kite Bal-
loon Conference, 172-175 ; Le
Cateau Fight, August 1914, 24;
Ministry and Minister proposed
131; Naval Squadron attached,
190 ; Offence and Defence
Policy, 180-184, 252> 274> Office
H.Q.Work, 118; Parliamentary
and Public Agitations 1916,
1917, 140, 215; Parks, Mobile
and attached, no, 134, 147;
Photographs from the Air, 47 ;
Preparation for arrival in
France, 12, 16 ; Raids into
Germany, 275, 281, 289 ;

V

Index

Air Force, Royal — cont.

Recruits from the Guards, 90 ;
Routine of Pilots' Work, 248 ;
School Le Crotoy, 88 ; Somme
Offensive, 176, 177, 201 ; Staff,
19, 20 ; Supremacy in the Air

1916, 171 ; Vimy Ridge Battle

1917, 216 ; Weather difficulties,
275, 276; Wireless, 47, m;
see also Air Craft, Air Raids,
and names of Battles.

Abbeville— Billeted at, 53
Abeele — Visits, 148, 219
Aeroplane, The — Editor, 261
Agincourt Battle— Anniversary,
October 25, 1914, 58 ; Battte-
field near Hesdin, 58, 95
Agriculture — Labour and Work,

5°
Air Raids — Brussels, Zeppelin

Sheds 1916 & 1917, 165, 166,
233; Cambrai-Douai Line 1916,
154-157 ; Compiegne, Zeppelin
brought down, 212; Conference
with French re Bombing
Offensive, 189; Dover 1916,
129 ; Dunkirk 1917, 243; Frank-
fort 1918, 289; London 1917,
231, 232 ; Long Distance Raids
to Germany 1918, 275, 281,
289; Mannheim 1918, 293;
Mons 1916, 169; Offensive and
Defensive, 180-184, 274; St.
Omer, 132, 243 ; St. Quentin
Station 1916, 156, 157 ; Somme
Area, 176, 177, 201 ; Thames,
Zeppelin captured 1916, 185 ;
see also Air Force and names
of Battles

Aire — Conference at, 133 ; H.Q.
First Wing, 82 ; Visits to, 83, 135,
149

Airlie, Lady — Visit with Queen,
230

Aisne — Battle,September 1914,44

Aladin, Russian Correspondent,
Visit, 221

Albert— Air Raids 1916. 177 ;
Visit to, 256

Allenby, General — Command ot
Third Army, 117; Jerusalem
taken December 1917, 261

Alsace — Battle, August 1914, 10

American Army — Flying Corps
Visit, 232; Offensive, September
1918, 295

Amiens -Visits to, 15, 16, 81, 129,
132

"Archie "— Origin of name, 44

Armentieres — Deserted June
1915, 98

Armistice — German Demand
October 1918, 298 ; Signing
confirmed November nth 1918,
302 ; Terms of President Wilson
October 1918, 299

Arqebus Shooting, 75

Arras— Visit to, 225

Artillery co-operation with Air-
craft, 85, 98, 177

Ashmore, Col. — Command First
Wing, no ; References to, 116,
117

Asquith, Mr. — Statement in
House of Commons, August
3rd 1914, 7 ; Visit, 172

Asquith, Raymond — Character
and Service, 178 ; Intelligence
Officer, 141 ; Killed in Action,
178 ; Visits 129, 134, 142

Auchelles, Visits to, 223, 224

Austria — Cessation of Hostilities
October 1918, 301 ; Serbian
Ultimatum June 1914, 4

Autigny — Visits to, 277. 279, 298,
300, 302

Avesnes — iVisit to, 225

Azelot — Visit to, 292

BABINCOURT— Visit to, 224,
Bagdad — Taken March 1917, 212
Bailleul— Cure Killed by Bomb,

91 ; Visits, 68, 69, 74, 91, 96,

98, 103, 136, 148, 207
Baines, R.A. F. Pilot — Somme

Offensive, 177
Bainville — Visit, 256

305

Index

Baldwin, Col. — Reference to, 292,
294 ; Wounded, 283

Balfour, Mr.— Visits, 127, 188

Balkan States. Situation, 3

Ball, R.A.F. Pilot — Boche Ma-
chines brought down, 219;
Missing, 223; References to,
215, 216, 254

Bapaume — Air Raids in district
September 1916, i77;Evacuated
March 1917, 212 ; Line to
Cambrai, 156 ; Visit, 300

Barres, Col. — Bombing Projects,
189 ; Commanding French
Aviation, 152 ; Visits, 169, 197

Barrington-Kennett, Major Basil
— Adjutant Appointment, 20 ;
Arrival at Amiens, 17 ; Charac-
ter, 93 ; Foundation Work for
Flying Corps, 89, 90 ; Grena-
dier Guards, 89 ; Killed, 92 ;
Letter, 93 ; Staff, St. Omer, 79

Barrington-Kennet,Victor — Lec-
ture, 88 ; Missing, 136

Barrington-YVhile, Capt. — Refer-
ences to, 86, 91

Barton, R.A.F. Pilot— Crash, 86

Barzani, Italian Correspondent —
Visit, 221

Bates, Clerk R.A.F., 139

Reatty, Major Flight with, no;
Staff St. Omer, no

Beauquesne — G.H.Q-, 154 ; Visit
to, 158, 159

Beauvais — Aviation Conference,
21 1, 212

Beck — Reference to, 207

Belaieff, General — Visit te Beau-
quesne, 159

Belle Hotesse — Visits, 84, 86

Belloc, Hilaire— Jerusalem lost
and taken, 261 ; Visits, 69, 82,
94, 210, 225, 299

Belloc, Louis — Missing, 294 ;
Visit, 210

Below, Gen. von — Air Force
Allies' superiority, 201

Benckendorff, Pierre — Character
99-102 ; Killed in Action, 98

Bergues — French Aerodrome, 232

Bertangles — Visits to, 137, 189

Bethune — Visits, 83, 89

Beuvry — Canadian Brigade, 98

Beverley, H.Q. Carpenter — Acci-
dent, 222

Birch, R.A.F. — Dinner, 130

Bird, Flight Commander — Vimy
Ridge Fight, 216

Birlaimont — Transport to, 23

Bishop, Canadian Pilot — Hun
Aerodrome, 226

Blackwood. Basil — Intelligence
Corps, 21 ; Killed on Patrol, 231
Visits, 213, 229

Bloonifield, Squadron Command-
er— Organisation, 255 ; Refer-
ences to, 216, 232

Boisdighem — Squadrons at, 227

Bombing — Accidents, 65;Experi-
ments, 45, 52, 81, 117; Phos-
phorous Bombs, 150 ; Raids
see Air Raids

Bonham Carter, Sir Maurice —
Visit, 287

Books, need for, 68

Boulogne — Visits, 14, 68, 81, 82,
261, 264

Bourg — Flying Corps H.Q., 44;
Visit, 49

Bourlon Wood > — Fighting of
Tanks and Air Craft 191 7, 259

Bowman, R.A.F. Pilot- Refer-
ences to, 232, 254, 279

Boyd, R.A.F. PUot — Bombing
Raid Brussels 1916, 166

Boyle — Kite Balloon Commander
Conference, 173

Braine— Visits, 49, 300

Brancker, Col — Command Third
Wing, no; Visit, 294; War
Office Appointment, 46

Brooke, Guy — Sir John French's
Staff, 24

Brooke-Popham, Col — Arrival
at Amiens, 17; Billet, 54;G.S.O.,
1 10 ; Interrogation of Prisoner,
141; Transport, 19; References
to, 18, 23, 26, 34, 60 119,

306

Index

Brouay — Visits to, 135, 216
Brown, R.A.F. Pilot— Fighting,

259
Browne, Derraot — Killed in

Action, 109
Brussels — ZeppelinShedsbombed

1916-1917, 165, 233
Burke.R.A.F. — Arrival in France,

17 ; Killed in Action, 17
Buchanan, Capt. — Staff, 20 ;

Killed in Action, 18
Buckridge, R. A. F.Pilot— Flights,

221, 222
Bulgaria — Cessation of Hostil-
ities, 298
Burke, Col. — Commands, 44, 74;

References to, 31, 82
Bussigny Station — Visit to, 19
Butler, Gen.— Visit, 135
Byng, Kile Balloon Commander

— Conference, 173

CACHI — French Aerodrome,
167, 179

Calais — Visit, 230

Cambrai — Air Fight, 179; Bomb-
ing Raids, 156, 157, 177 ;
Taken August 1914, 26

Candas — Aircraft Depdt, 103,
*43> '47 ; Flying Exhibition,
145 ; Transport Confusion,
185 ; Russian Officers' Visit,
210; Visits, 220, 223

Carpentier, Georges — Visit, 49

Cassel Hill — Visits to, 61, 91,
192, 207

Castelnau, General de — Aircraft,
belief in, 274 ; Armistice
Terms, 299 ; Career, 133 ;
Character and Achievements,
273 ; Command Armies of the
East, 272 ; Interviews with,

121, 256, 272, 280, 282, 284,

288, 293, 302 ; Prince Albert's

Visit to, 301
Cavan, Lord — Etonian Dinner,

227, 228
Cecil, Hugh — Christmas Dinner,

119

Cecil, Lord Robert— Interview

with, 137
Chalons —Visit, 300
Champagne District — Motor

through, 256 ; Offensive, Sept.

1915, in
Chantilly — Bombing, 92 ; Visits,

31, 126
Charteris, Evan — References to,

79, 82, 84
Charteris, Gen. — Lunch with,

159

Chateau Thierry— German Ad-
vance, 276

Chaulmes — Flying Corps Hos-
pital, 297

Chaumont- Motor through, 290

Chemin des Dames — Fight, Oct.
1917. 257

Chinnery, R.A.F. — Killed by
Crash, 80

Choques- Visits, 98, 102

Christie, R.A.F. Squadron

Command, 256

Christmas — 1915, 119; 1917, 263

Churchill, Winston — Visit, 260

Cleaver, Balloon Commander —
Conference, 173

Clermont — Visits, 53, 14b

Clermont Tonnere, M. de — Bert-
angles Chateau, 137

Cologne — Air Raid, Aug. 1918,
291

Compiegne — Billeted at, 27, 28 ;
Devastation, 300 ; Empress
Eugenie's Parties, 262 ; French
Aviation, 258 ; Motor through,
256 ; Zeppelin brought dow'n,
212

Cooper, R.A.F. Pilot — Italian
Visit, 120, 121 ; Killed in Ac-
tion, 163

Corballis, R.A.F. — References
to, 31, 154, 191

Cordner, Maj. — Medical Officer,
20

Cornish, Vice-Provost Eton -
Character, 169, 170 ; Death,
169

307

Index

Coulomniers — Billet at, 38, 39 ;
German occupation, 38 , Motor
through, 256
Courban — American Mechanics
training at, 284 ; Depot Inde-
pendent Air Force, 278 ; Visit
to, 282
Cowdray, Lord — Visit, 239
Crosbie, Capt. — Reference to, 31
Cruikshank, R.A.F. Pilot -Killed

in action, 178
Cuinchy — Trenches, 83
Curzon, Lord — Visit, 131
Czech-Slovak Mission — Air Craft
to Bohemia, 302

DAMARTIN— Panic, Sept. 1914,

31 ; Visit to, 31
Dawes. Major — Command Mer-

ville, 8 1
Dejeuner — Importance of, 15
Dennis, R.A.F. Pilot— Raid and

theD.F.C.

297

Derby, Lord — Visits, 134, 172
Dickebush— View of Ypres

operations, 90
Dillon, Dr. — Opinions, 80
Dixmude — Shelled and Defence,

October 1914, 61, 62
Douaumont — Taken March 1916,

133
Dover — Air Raid, January 1916,

129

Dowding, Major — Command, 154

Drenon, R.A.F.— Rest Day, 178

Droglands — French Squadrons,

2.37

Du Cane, General — Visit, 286

Duchesne, Monseigneur — The
Turks, 300

Duclos, Lt. — French Liaison
Officer, 129

Dunkirk — Bombing Raid, Sept.
1917,243; Naval Squadron. 60;
Visits, 68, 79, 81, 231, 300

Du Peuty, Commandant — Admir-
ation for R.A.F., 216 ; Aviation
Conference, 212 ; Character

Du Peuty, Commandant — cont.
and ability, 257 ; Chemin des
Dames fight, October 1917, 257;
D.S.O., 146 ; Killed in Action,
257 ; Services, value of, 131 ;
Verdun Battle, 172, 238 ; Visits
and References to, 131, 163,
167, 168, 190, 2ii, 213, 229,
231

Duval, General — French Avia-
tion Command, 258 ; Inspector
of French Flying Corps, 237 ;
Interview with, 262 ; Letter re
Maj.-Gen. Trenchard, 266, 267;
Paris situation, May-June, 1917,
277

ECURIE— H.Q., 44

Epernay — ChampagneFactories,

46 ; German occupation, 46 ;

Visits, 46, 256
Essen — Bombed July 1917, 233
Estr^es - Blanches — Squadrons

at, 227, 254
Etonian Dinner, June 4th, 1917,

227
European Situation. May 1914, 3

FALCHI, Capt, — Command, 121

Farnborough Visit, 11, 12

Felix Potin — Whisky Rations

purchase, 97
Fere-en-Tardenois — G.H.Q., 40 ;

German Occupation, Sept.

1914, 40; Wounded Troops at,

41. 5'
Festing, Capt. (North. Fusiliers)

— D.A.A. no; Reference to,

138 ; Staff St. Omer 88

Festubert — Fighting, 92

Fienvillers — Aerodrome, 150 ;
Departure from, Nov. 1916,
192 ; H.Q. Advance post, 154,
259 ; Visits to, 219, 223, 224

Flers, Mons — Opinions, 80

Flechaire, French Star Pilot —
Stunt Flights, 207

308

Index

Flight of Author, Feb. 1915,
82

Flyiny Corps, French— Efficency,
179, see also Air Force, Royal

Flying- Corps, Royal see Air Force
Royal

Flying Force, German — Increase
and strengthening, 202; In-
feriority, 201 ; New Machine,
224 ; Offensive Policy, 180-184,
202, 244

Foch, Marshal — Aviation Officer
Commandant Polo-Marchetti,
292 ; Interviews with, 286, 301

Forbes, R. A. F. Pilot— Bombing
Raid, 166

Frankfort— Air Raid August 1918,
289, 291

French, Sir John — Dinner with,
83 ; Inspection, 17, 72 ; Optim-
ism, 24; Ypres Operations Oct.
1914, 60

French Language — Technical
Difficulties, 128

French Minister of War — Resign-
ation, 212

French Offensive, July 1918, 286

Fricourt— Fighting July 1916, 163

Frolois Aerodrome, 292

Froville— H.Q. Ninth Brigade,
277

Furse, R. A. F. — Wounded Loos,
119

Furze, Gunner — Staff Officer, 89

GALLERATA— Italian Aviation
School, 120

Game, G.S.O., 137, 154

Garros, French Air Pilot — In-
vention, 117

German Emperor — Abdicated,

299» 3°3
Germany — Armistice, see that

title ; Destruction by, wanton,

214,221; Flying Force, German

see that title;Hatred of English,

38 ; Policy and Situation, May

i9'4. 3

Gommecourt — Wire Cutting,

J53
Gondrecourt — Visit to, 279
Gordon, Col. R.A.F., Chief of

Staff, 70, 154, 278
Gordon, Kidd, R.A.F. Pilot-
Bombing Raid, 156
Gould, Maurice-Farman Pilot, 91
Goys, Commandant Aerienne,

297
Grant, Col. American Army —

Visit, 225
Green, R.A.F. Pilot — Somme

Offensive, 177
Grenfell, Julian — Died ox

wounds, 95 ; Visits to, 84, 86 ;

Wounded, 92
Grevilliers — German Transport,

178
Grey, C. G. Mr.— Editor The

Aeroplane, 261
Grey, Sir Edward- — Statement in

House of Commons, August

19*4. 7
Guynemer, R.A.F. Pilot— D.S.O.,

239 ; Fame, 179 ; Fight, 238

HA1G, Sir Douglas -Crossing
to England, 230 ; H.Q. Mont-
reuil, 140 ; Inter-Allied Confer-
ence, Paris, 276 ; References
to, 50, 145, 154, 190, 211, 213,
224
Hakin, Gen. — Command, 76
Haldane, Gen. — Visit to, 218
Hallet, Capt. Hughes — G.S.O.

St. Omer, 79
Harvey-Kelly, R.A.F. Pilot— Air
Fight l.e Cateau, 24 ; Char-
acter, 222 ; First to arrive in
France, 17 ; German Air Force,
215; Killed in Action, 17;
Missing, 221 ; References to,

3*> !3Q
Hazebrouck — Aircraft Park, 134;

German Prisoners, 55 ; H.Q.,

85, 91 ; Lett, 86 ; Visits to, 68,

82

309

Index

Henderson, Gen. Sir David —
Advance H.Q. Hazebrouck,
91 ; Aeroplane as a Military
Weapon, 205 ; Arrival at
Amiens, 17; Billet, 54; Calm-
ness, 25 ; Command First Di-
vision, 67 ; Director of Military
Training, 8 ; Expansion Air
Force Policy, 47 ; Paris, 86 ;
References to, 24, 55, 125, 127,
129, 131, 168, 213, 224. 288,
299 ; Return to England, 105 ;
Staff R.A.F., 19
Henderson, Ian — Accident, 233 ;
Argyll and Sutherlands, 94 ;
Illness, 132; Killed, 282; Re-
ferences to, 232, 235, 254 ;
Somme Offensive, 176
Henley, R. A. F. Pilot— Flight, 218
Hesdin — Agincourt Battlefield,
95; Chateau of St. Andre, 138,
139; Visit, 54
Higgins, Maj. — Command Air

Squadron, 44
Hinges —Wing Conference, 110
Hirshauer, Gen. — Command, 109
Hoidge, R.A.F. Pilot — Fight
near Zonnebeck, Sept. 1917,
242 ; Reference to, 254
Holt, R.A.F. Pilot — Somme

Offensive, 177
Horner, Edward — Wounded, 91
Hughes, Capt.— Staff, St. Omer,

79
Huguet, Gen. — G.H.Q., Com

piegne, 28
Hunter, Sir John — Visit, 294
Hythe— German Raid, 226

IMMELMANN, German Pilot—
" Fokker Scourge," 114, 116

Intelligence Corps- Interpreter
Appointment, 8-10

Issy — Visit to, 126

Italy — Caproni Machine Squad-
ron, 291 ; Generals, Italian,
Visit to H.Q., 224 ; Situation
anxious, May 1915, 92 ; Visits
to, 103, 120

JAPAN — Officers' visit, 300 ;

Russian War 1904, 10 1
Jerusalem taken, Dec. 1917, 261
Jeudwine, Col. Merris Mess, 70
Joan of Arc Feast, May 8, 1915,

9i
Joukovsky— Russian Newspaper

Correspondent, 137
Jutland, Battle of, 150
Juilly— Billet at, 31

KEMMEL HILL— Mine Explo-
sion near, June 1917, 229

King George's Visits to France
1914& 1915, 73, 116

Kitchener, Lord — Army Pro-
posals 1914, 47 ; Flying Corps
Expansion, 47 ; Return August
1914, 9 ; Russian Parliament-
ary Mission, 146

Kite Balloons — Conference, 172-
175

LA FERE, Arrival at, 26

La Ferriere, F.C. French Liaison

Officer — Military Cross, 146 ;

References to, 152, 167, 255 ;

Services, value of, 131
La Houssoye — Aerodrome, 207
Lambton, General — Reference

to, 207
Landon, General — Command,

69;

Reference to, 294 ; Wounded,

283
Landrecies — Fight August 1914,

26
Langemark — Shelled, October

1914, 63
Langres — Visits to, 285, 293
Lansdowne, Lord ■- Letter Dec.

1917, 261
La Verque, Capt. — French

Squadron Commander, 295
Laverville — Aerodrome, 218
Lawrence, Sir Walter — Gift ot

Knife, 293; Japanese Officers,

300 ; Squadron Commander,

178; Visits, 130, 152, 284

310

Index

Le Cateau — Aerodrome and
G.H.Q., 23, 24; Taken Oct.
1918, 299
Le Crotoy — Flying School, 88
Lefroy, Major — References to,

7o, 74

Leg-ion of Honour, Cross of the,
Decoration, 236

Le Hameau — Aerodrome, 215

Lens Fight — May 1915, 92

Le Prieur, French Naval Officer
— Gun Sight, 143

Leroy - Lewis, Col. — Military
Attache, 109

Lewis, Wing Commander —
Killed, 141 ; Newspapers and
the Germans, 69

Lietre — Squadrons at, 227

Lille — Air Raid 1916, 181

Little, R.A.F. Pilot— Stunt Fly-
ing, 224

Lloyd George — Protest against,
6

London — Bombing Raid, July
1917, 231, 232; Visits, 76, 102,
107, 114, 117, 126, 146, 150,
197, 230, 252, 260, 261, 298

Longcroft, Capt. — Bailleul Com-
mand, 96 ; Flight, 82 ; Home
Job, 47 ; Kite Balloon, 152 ;
References to, 12, 131, 149

Longuenesse — Visits to, 55, 64,
84, 119

Louvain — Burning, August 1914,
22

Lucas, Bron — Career and Char-
acter, 194-197 ; Crash, 189 ;
Flight Commander, 187 ; Grave
Bapaume,2i4; Killed in Action,
194 ; Missing, 190 ; Promotion
1916, 170, 190 ; Squadron in
England, 162 ; Visits, 167, 188,
189

"Lusitania" — Sinking of, May

I9'5> 9i
Luxemburg — Bombing orders,

392

Lynch, R.F.A. Pilot — Somme

offensive, 177

Lytton, Neville— Visit to Bron
Lucas, 188

Lyvvood, Lieut— German Wire-
less, 22 ; Wireless Officer, 20

MACREADY, R.A.F. — A.D.C.

79 ; References to, 70, 74, 76
McCudden, R.A.F.— Fight near

Zonnebeck Sept. 1917, 242 ;

Reference to, 254
Mackay, Capt. — Frankfort Air

Raid, 289
McKenna, Mr. — Visit, 190
MacNeece, Kite Balloon Com-
mander— Conference, 173
Malone, Pilot Fit. Sub.-Lt.—

Routine Work, 251
Malpensa — Aviation School, 104,

120
Mametz — Destruction, 163
Mannheim — Air Raid, 293
Marmies, Commandant — Visit,

238
Marne— Battle of the, Sept. 6th

'9'4. 35
Maubeuge — Aerodrome prepar-
ations, 19; French Staff H.Q.,

20
Maxse, Leo — Visits, 190
Maxwell, R.A.F. — References

to, 232, 254
Mayberry, Lieut. — Fight near

Zonnebeck Sept. 1917, 242 ;

References to, 232, 254, ;

Routine Work of Pilot, 248
Meade — Aircraft Repair Section,

165
Melun Aerodrome, 34, 35
Merris — Air Fight Dec. 1914, 76 ;

H.Q.,69
Merville — H.Q. of Gen. Tren-

chard, 92 ; Squadron, 81 ;

Visit to, 149
Messines — Air Fighting, June

1917,228; Battle, Sept. 1915,

112, 113; Shelling, Aug. 1917,

235
Milan — Visits to, 104, 121

3"

Index

Milner, Lord — Visit, 191
Minding, R.A. F. Pilot — Somme

Offensive, 177
Moet, Mons. — Factory of Moet

and Chandon Champagne, 256
Mons — Bombing Raid, August

1916, 169
Montdidier — Visits, 256. 300
Montenegro, King of — Visit, 190
Montreuil — Dinner at, J46 ;

G.H.Q., 140, 298; Mass at,

151

Morane, R.A.F. Pilot— Refer-
ences to, 137, 145

Morgan, W. de — Death, 207

Morris, General — Italian Avia-
tion, 104

Moyenneville — Aerodrome, 53

Miilhausen — French Retreat,
August 1914, 14

Murat, Prince — Billet, 54 ; Ill-
ness, 83 ; Liaison Officer, 17;
Namur Shelled, 22 ; Popularity,
84 ; Staff, St. Omer, 79 ; Visit,
69

Muret-Plage — Bombing Experi-
ments, 150 ; H.Q., 44

Musgrave, Maj.— Bombing Ex-
periments, 45

Muspratt, R.A.F. Pilot— Refer-
ence to, 254

NAMUR— Shelling, Aug. 1914,

21, 22

Nancy Aerodromes, 254

Navarre, French Pilot — Pilot, 142

Nesle — Destruction, 214

Neufchateau — French Aero-
drome, 295 ; Motor through,
290

Neuve Capelle — Bombardment,

85
Neuve-Eglise — Visits to, 83, 98
New Zealand Prime Minister —

Visit, 190
Newall, Col. — Aerodromes for

Independent Air Force, 272 ;

Albert Medal, 125 ; Organising

work at Ochey, 254

Newhaven — Boat for Boulogne,

*3, 14 " [69

Nieppe — "Grandmother" Gun,
Nivelle, Gen. — Interview with,
211 ; Investiture and Review,
Feb. 1917, 210 [220

Norris, R.A.F. Pilot — Flight,
Northcliffe, Lord — Luncheon, 163

O'BEIRNE, Foreign Embassy,

Petrograd, 127
Ochey Aerodromes, 254, 255, 262
Orleans, Prince Antoine D' —

Reference to, 189
Orpen, R.A.F. Pilot — Flight,

224 ; Visit to Estrees Blanche,

2.S4

PAINE, Commodore — Aero-
dromes, Ochey, Inspection
262 ; Dinner. 131

Painleve, Mons — Visit, 231

Paris— Embassy departed Sept.
1914, 36 ; German advance on,
276 ; Government departed
Sept. 1914, 36 ; Pessimistic
atmosphere Sept. 1914, 34 ;
Shelled by "Big Bertha "June
1918, 277 ; Visits to, 28, 80, 102,
107, 109, 120, 121, 126, 132, 137,
146, 150, 194, 271, 276, 284, 286,
290, 298, 300; Zeppelin Raid
March 20th 1915, 86

Patrick, R.A.F. Pilot— Albatross
brought down, 145 ; Fokker
Flight, 143

Pelham, R.A.F., A.D.C.-143,

154

Pellegrini, Italian Pilot, 121

Perryman, Flight Commander —

Vimy Ridge, April 1917, 216
Pervyse — Floods and destruction

79

Pesarches, Aerodrome near, 34
Petain, Gen. — Visit to, 283
Philonneau, Lieut — Staff St.

Omer. 88
Picard, Commandant — Inter-
views with, 256, 300

312

Index

Pidou, M.— Articles in Journal
des Dt/bats, 231

Pinsuti, Caproni Pilot, 120

Plugstreet — Trenches at, 83 ;
Visits to, 83, 98

Plumer, Gen. — Cassel Hill, 91

Polo Marchetti, Commandant —
French Aviation Officer, 292

Ponsonby, Gen. J. — Brigadier
Promotion, 109 ; Praise of, 76

Pont de l'Arche — Engine Repair
Shop, 146

Pope-Hennessy, Maj. — G.S.O.
St. Omer, no

Poperinghe — Visits, 61, 63, 68, 82

Povins — French Flying Corps
H.Q., 282

Pretyman, R.A. F. — Dinner, 130

Prince Albert — Attached to Inde-
pendent Force, 301 ; Enter-
tained, 302

Prince of Wales — Visit St. Omer
Aerodrome, 65

Pritt, R.A.F. Pilot — Flights
against Germans, 234, 237

Protopopoff — Parliamentary
Mission to London, 146 [379

Provins — French G.H.Q., 237,

Przemysl — Capture by Russians,
86

Pugo, Commandant — Aviation
Conference, 212 ; D.S.O., 179 ;
French Staff Officer, 152; Re-
ferences to, 152, 169

Puteaux — Visits to, 126, 132

Pys — German Transport, 178

QUEEN— Visit to Aerodrome,

St. Omer, 230
Quinchy, Taken Sept. 1916, 172
Quinell, R.A.F. Pilot— Air Fight

290

[294
RA.LEIGH, Sir. Walter— Visit,
Rambervillers — Aerodrome, 256
Ravenscroft, Capt. — A.D.C.

appointment, 271
Rawleigh, Maj. — Command Air

Squadron, 44

Rawlinson, Gen. — Visits, 191, 207

Red Cross — Serbia, 5

Regnier, Col.— Aviation Officer,
132 ; Conference with, 194 [80

Reinach, Monsieur J. — Opinions,

Renescure — Fokker Landing, 141

Reynolds, Maj. — References to,
81, 98

Rheims — Cathedral on Fire Sept
1914, 46 ; Visit to, 300

Rhys-Davids, R.A.F. Pilot—
Careerand Character, 254, 255;
Fight with German Pilot Voss,
Sept. 1917, 241 ; Killed, 255 ;
References to, 232, 254 [188

Ridley R.A.F. Pilot— D.S.O.,

Roberts, Lord — Death & Funeral
November 1914.65 ; Inspection
of Aerodrome, St. Omer, Nov.
1914, 65

Robertson, Sir W. — Aerodrome
Inspection, 1 19 ; Reference to,
261

Rollencourt — Army Command-
ers' Conference, 205

Rome, War Office, 104

Rouen — Visit to, 146 [119

Rumford, Kennerley — Concert,

Russia — Aerodrome Inspection,
178 ; Arrival in Flanders Ru-
mour, September 191-4, 36 ;
Beauquesne Visit, 159 ; Dis-
turbing news, May 1917, 225,
226 ; Empress Marie in Eng-
land, 5 ; Germans surrounded,
November 1914, 72 ; Good
news, July 1917, 230 ; Japanese
War, 1904, 101 ; Newspaper
Correspondents visit St. Omer,
136 ; Organised Propaganda,
127; Parliamentary Mission to
London, 146 ; Pilots' Visit, 131 ;
Przemysl Captured, 86 ; Revo-
lution November 1917, 258 ;
Tannenberg Reverse, Sept.
1914, 45 ; Travels in May 1914,
3 ; Visit of Officers, 210

Rycroft, A.D.C— Merris Mess,
70

3J3

Index

SAILLY — Aerodrome, 29

St. Andre^ — Boche Machine cap-
tured, 219; Fokker Pilot, 141 ;
H.Q. R.A.F., 154, 192, 197,
201, 260, 271, 279 ; Visits, 142,
167, 276, 300

St. Eloi — Bombardment March
1915, 86 ; Visit to, 215

St. John, Capt. — Staff St. Omer,

79

Saint Mihiel Salient — Taken by
Americans, Sept. 1918, 297

St. Omer — Aircraft Park, 1 10 ;
Air Raids, 103, 239, 243 ; H.Q.
and Aerodrome, 54, 55, 79, 95,
227 ; Offensive, Sept. 1915, 1 1 1 ;
Visits to, 147, 168, 192, 205, 222;
Russian Newspaper Corres
pondents' Visit, 136

St. Pol — French Squadrons, 239 ;
Visit to, 226

St. Quentin — Bombing- Raid at
Station, 156; G.H.Q., 24

Salmond, General Geoffrey —
Billet, 54 ; Commands, 44, 96,
no; Farnborough, 11, 12 ; In-
terviews with, 98, 298 ; New
Squadron, 80; Staff St. Omer,
19, 79, 88

Saponay — Aerodrome & Squad-
rons, 40, 44 [214

Sassoon, Philip — Reference to,

Saulnier, R.A.F. — References to,

137. *45

Scott, R.A.F. Pilot— Bombing
Air Raid, 156

Seely, Col. — Canadian Brigade
Command, 98 ; Reference to,
189; Shelling at Wytshaete,
Oct. 1914, 61

Selous, R.A.F. Pilot — Somme
Offensive, 176

Senlis — Burnt, Aug. 1014, 30,31 ;
Visits, 30, 53, 298, 301

Serbia — Archduke Ferdinand
assassinated, 4 ; Austrian Ulti-
matum. 4 ; Red Cross Unit
proposed, 5

Seres — Fugitives from, 33

Signalling — Aircraft co-opera-
tion, 98 [289
Silly, Capt. — Frankfort Air Raid,
Simon, Sir John — Aviation Prob-
lems, 259 [231, 233
Sloly, Pilot— Stunt Flying, 230,
Smith, Major Toe — Park Com-
mander, 186 ; Visit to Fricourt,
163 ; Wireless Officer, 154
Smith-Barry, R.A.F. — Bombing
Raid, 156 ; Holiday with, 160 ;
Lunch with, 155 [to, 299
Somerset, Sommy — Reference
Somme, The — Battle of, Air
Fighting, July-Sept. 1916, 156-
158, 162, 163, 176, 181, 201,
244 ; Devastation, 221
Soissons — Taken August 1918,

288 ; Visit, 300
Spies — Paris, 36, 37 ; St. Quen-
tin, 26 ; Villers-Cotterets, 48
Staff Officer Promotion, 149
Staffs— Work done by Divisional

Staff, 70-72
Stewart, Col. — Imprisonment for

Espionage, 36
Strazeele — Guards' Mess, 76 ;
R.G. Stores, 82 [205

Strikes — Air Craft Production,
Swinton, Col. — Tanks, 80
Sykes, Col. — Arrival at Amiens,
17 ; Billet, St. Omer, 54 ; Staff
R.A.F., 19, 79 : Visit to Haze-
brouck, 55 ; Visit to Plug-
street, 83

TANKS — Air Craft co-operation;
Bourlon Wood, 1917, 259,
Attack by Third Army, Nov.
1917, 254, 258 ; Experiments,
Aug. 1916, 170 ; First Action,
Battle of the Somme, Sept.
1916, 176 [45

Tannenberg — Battle, Sept. 1914,
Thames, River — Zeppelin cap-
tured, Sept. 1916, 185 [186
Thiepval— Fighting, Sept. 1916,
Thomas, Holt— Visit, 210
Thompson, R.A.F. — Dinner, 130

3H

Index

Tonquin — German Occupation,
Sept. 1914, 35 ; Visits, 34, 37
Tower, Jimmy, R.A.F. Pilot—
Killed in Action, 179; Lunch
with, 160 [i77

Transloy — Air Raids in district,
Trenchard, General— Command
Farnborough, 46 ; Command of
First Wing Nov. 1914, 66 ;
Command of the R.A.F. in the
Field, 105 ; Chief of Air Staff,
264 ; Croix of Commandeur
Legion d' Honneur, 210 ; Fare-
well Dinner, 130; French In-
terpreter needed, 128; In-
dependent Air Force Command
271 ; Inter- Allied Bombing
Force Command, 301 ; Letter to
Squadrons British and French
on Promotion, 264 ; Note
making method, 108 ; Refer-
ences to, 82, 129, 131, etc.
Trenches — Catacomb, 83
Turin — Visits to, 104, 120, 121
Turks^Characteristics, 300

VALENTINE, Capt. — Italian
Visit re Air Craft, 103

Van Reyneveld — Squadron Com-
mander, 223

Verdun Fighting — 1916 Feb.,
132; 1916 March, 133; 1916
April, 145; 1916 Sept., 180;
1917 Battle, 238

Vert Galant — Visits, 103, 155,
158, 215, 221, 223

Vezelise— Air Craft Park, 256

Vezzola — Visit to, 120

Villa Coublay— Visits to, 132, 137

Villemain, Commandant — Squad-
ron Commander, 161

Villers - Bretonneux — French
Aerodrome, 179

Villers-Cotterets — German Ad-
vance June 1917, 277; Spies
caught, 48 [215

Vimy Ridge— Battle April 1917,

Vitry-le-Francois — Motor thro'
256

Voss, German Pilot — Brought
down Sept. 1917, 241

WALROND, Ferdy— Command,

155 ; Flight, 158; Reference

to, 31 [159

Walters, General — Lunch with,

War — Armistice see that title ;

Declaration August 4th 1914,7;

Rumours and talk etc, 3-7, 9,

10, 20, 18, 80

Warsaw — Railway, 3

Webb-Bowen, General — Dinner

with, 130, 131, 235 [70, 74

Webber, Major — References to,

Weir, Lord — Interviews with, 224,

287
Wells, H.G.— Visit, 172 [286

Weygand, General — Interview,
Williams, Sir Hanbury — Russian
Expedition, 9 [Peace, 299

Wilson, President — Terms of
Wilton — Times Correspondent,

Petrograd, 137

Wireless — Air Craft co-operation,

98 ; Value in the Air, 244 [133

Wypers Bluff — Fight March 1916,

Wyse, Kite Balloon Commander

— Conference, 173
Wytshaete — 1914 Octcber,Shell-
ing, 61 ; 191 7 June, Air Fight-
ing, 228; 1917 August, Shelling,
236

XAFFREVILLIERS
Inspection to, 292

Tour of

YPRES, Battles of— 1914 Oct.,
Ypres-Armentieres, 58, 60; 1914
November u-2ist, 64 ; 1915
January, Devastation, 79; 1915
May, Hill 60, 90, 91 ; 1915 June,
deserted, 98; 1915 October,des-
truction, 113 ; Visits to, 59, 82,
103

ZEPPELIN Raids— Paris, 86
Zonnebeck— Air Fight Sept.1917,
242

315

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