Chapter VI: The War: the Royal Flying Corps From Mons to Ypres (1)

The German war of the twentieth century, like the German wars of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, was carefully planned and prepared by the military rulers of Prussia. To elucidate its origins and causes will be the work of many long years. Yet enough is known to make it certain that this last and greatest war conforms to the old design. The Prussians have always been proud of their doctrine of war, and have explained it to the world with perfect frankness. War has always been regarded by them as the great engine of national progress. By war they united the peoples of Germany; by war they hoped to gain for the peoples of Germany an acknowledged supremacy in the civilized world. These peoples had received unity at the hands of Prussia, and though they did not like Prussia, they believed enthusiastically in Prussian strength and Prussian wisdom. If Prussia led them to war, they were encouraged to think that the war would be unerringly designed to increase their power and prosperity. Yet many of them would have shrunk from naked assault and robbery; and Prussia, to conciliate these, invented the fable of the war of defence. That a sudden attack on her neighbours, delivered by Germany in time of peace, is a strictly defensive act has often been explained by German military and political writers, never perhaps more clearly than in a secret official report, drawn up at Berlin in the spring of 1913, on the strengthening of the German army. A copy of this report fell into the hands of the French.

'The people,' it says, 'must be accustomed to think that an offensive war on our part is a necessity.... We must act with prudence in order to arouse no suspicion.'

The fable of the war of defence was helped out with the fable of encirclement. Germany, being situated in the midst of Europe, had many neighbours, most of whom had more reason to fear her than to like her. Any exhibition of goodwill between these neighbours was treated by German statesmen, for years before the war, as a covert act of hostility to Germany, amply justifying reprisals. The treaty between France and Russia, wholly defensive in character, the expression of goodwill between France and England, inspired in part by fears of the restless ambitions of Germany, though both were intended to guarantee the existing state of things, were odious to Berlin. The peace of Europe hung by a thread.

On Sunday, the 28th of June 1914, the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria, and his wife, the Duchess of Hohenberg, paid a visit to Serajevo, the capital of Bosnia, and were there murdered by Bosnian assassins. It has not been proved that Germany had any part in the murder, but she was quite willing to take advantage of it. The Kiel canal, joining the Baltic with the North Sea had just been widened to admit the largest battleships, and the German army had just been raised to an unexampled strength. The gun was loaded and pointed; if it was allowed to be fired by accident the military rulers of Germany were much to blame. They were not in the habit of trusting any part of their plans to accident. But the excitement caused by the Archduke's murder was allowed to die away, and an uneasy calm succeeded. On the 23rd of July the Austrian Government, alleging that the Serajevo assassinations had been planned in Belgrade, presented to Serbia, with the declared approval of Germany, an ultimatum, containing demands of so extreme a character that the acceptance of them would have meant the abandonment by Serbia of her national independence. Serbia appealed to Russia, and, acting on Russia's advice, accepted all the demands except two. These two, which involved the appointment of Austro-Hungarian delegates to assist in administering the internal affairs of Serbia, were not bluntly rejected; Serbia asked that they should be referred to the Hague Tribunal. Austria replied by withdrawing her minister, declaring war upon Serbia, and bombarding Belgrade. This action was bound to involve Russia, who could not stand by and see the Slavonic States of southern Europe destroyed and annexed. But the Russian Government, along with the Governments of France, Great Britain, and Italy, did their utmost to preserve the peace. They suggested mediation and a conference of the Powers. Germany alone refused. Alleging that Russia had already mobilized her army, she decreed a state of war, and on Saturday, the 1st of August, declared war upon Russia. France by her treaty with Russia would shortly have become involved; but the German Government would not wait for her. They judged it all-important to gain a military success at the very start of the war, and to this everything had to give way. They declared war on France, and massed armies along the frontier between Liege and Luxembourg, with the intention of forcing a passage through Belgium. England, who was one of the guarantors of the integrity of Belgium, was thus involved. At 11.0 p.m. on the 4th of August, Great Britain declared war on Germany, and the World War had begun.

The events of the twelve days from the 23rd of July to the 4th of August, when they shall be set forth in detail, will furnish volumes of history. Those who study them minutely are in some danger of failing to see the wood for the trees. The attitude of the nations was made clear enough during these days. When Austria issued her ultimatum, many people in England thought of it as a portent of renewed distant trouble in the Balkans, to be quickly begun and soon ended. It was not so regarded in Germany. The people of Germany, though they were not in the confidence of their Government, were sufficiently familiar with its mode of operation to recognize the challenge to Serbia for what it was, Germany's chosen occasion for her great war. The citizens not only of Berlin, but of the Rhineland, and of little northern towns on the Kiel canal, went mad with joy; there was shouting and song and public festivity. Meantime in England, as the truth dawned, there were hushed voices and an intense solemnity. The day had come, and no one doubted the severity of the ordeal. Yet neither did any one, except an unhappy few who had been nursed in folly and illusion, doubt the necessity of taking up the challenge. The country was united. Not only was the safety and existence of the British Commonwealth involved, but the great principle of civilization, difficult to name, but perhaps best called by the appealing name of decency, which bids man remember that he is frail and that it behoves him to be considerate and pitiful and sincere, had been flouted by the arrogant military rulers of Germany. Great Britain had a navy; her army and her air force, for the purposes of a great European war, were yet to make. The motive that was to supply her with millions of volunteers was not only patriotism, though patriotism was strong, but a sense that her cause, in this war, was the cause of humanity. There are many who will gladly fight to raise their country and people in power and prosperity above other countries and other peoples. There are many also among English-speaking peoples who are unwilling to fight for any such end. But they are fighters, and they will fight to protect the weak and to assert the right. They are a reserve worth enlisting in any army; it was by their help that the opponents of Germany attained to a conquering strength. The systematic cruelties of Germany, inflicted by order on the helpless populations of Serbia and Belgium and northern France, are not matter of controversy; they have been proved by many extant military documents and by the testimony of many living witnesses. They were designed to reduce whole peoples to a state of impotent terror, beneath the level of humanity. The apology made for them, that by shortening resistance to the inevitable they were in effect merciful, is a blasphemous apology, which puts Germany in the place of the Almighty. The effect anticipated did not follow. The system of terrorism hardened and prolonged resistance; it launched against Germany the chivalry of the world; it created for use against Germany the chivalry of the air; and it left Germany unhonoured in her ultimate downfall.

The German plan of campaign, it was rightly believed, was a swift invasion and disablement of France, to be followed by more prolonged operations against Russia. By this plan the German army was to reach Paris on the fortieth day after mobilization. There was no promise that Great Britain would help France, but the attitude of Germany had long been so threatening that the General Staffs of the two countries had taken counsel with each other concerning the best manner of employing the British forces in the event of common resistance to German aggression. It had been provisionally agreed that the British army should be concentrated on the left flank of the French army, in the area between Avesnes and Le Cateau, but this agreement was based on the assumption that the two armies would be mobilized simultaneously. When the principal British Ministers and the leading members of the naval and military staffs assembled at Downing street on the 5th and 6th of August, we were already behindhand, and the whole question of the employment and disposition of the expeditionary force had to be reopened. It was expected by some soldiers and some civilians that the little British army would be landed at a point on the coast of France or Belgium whence it could strike at the flank of the German invaders. The strategic advantages of that idea had to yield to the enormous importance of giving moral and material support to our Allies by fighting at their side; moreover, there could be no assurance that the coast of Belgium would not fall into the hands of the Germans at a very early stage in the campaign. Accordingly, it was agreed to ship our army to France, and to leave the manner of its employment to be settled in concert with the French.

The original British Expeditionary Force, under the command of Field-Marshal Sir John French, began to embark on the 9th of August; by the 20th its concentration in a pear-shaped area between Maubeuge and Le Cateau was complete. It consisted of the First Army Corps, under Lieutenant-General Sir Douglas Haig; the Second Army Corps, under Lieutenant-General Sir James Grierson, who died soon after landing in France and was succeeded by General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien; and the Cavalry Division, under Major-General E. H. H. Allenby. The Germans made no attempt to interfere with the transport of the expeditionary force from England to France. They had many other things to think of, and there is evidence to show that they viewed with satisfaction the placing of that admirable little force in a situation where they hoped that they could cut it off and annihilate it. That they were disappointed in this hope was due not a little to the activity and efficiency of the newest arm, numbering about a thousand, all told, the Royal Flying Corps.

The Royal Flying Corps took the field under the command of Brigadier-General Sir David Henderson. It consisted of Headquarters, Aeroplane Squadrons Nos. 2, 3, 4, and 5, and an Aircraft Park. Fairly complete arrangements, thought out in detail, had been made some months earlier for its mobilization. Each squadron was to mobilize at its peace station, and was to be ready to move on the fourth day. On that day the aeroplanes were to move, by air, first to Dover, and thence, on the sixth day, to the field base in the theatre of war. The horses, horse-vehicles, and motor-bicycles, together with a certain amount of baggage and supplies, were to travel by rail, and the mechanical transport and trailers by road, to the appointed port of embarkation, there to be shipped for the overseas base. The Aircraft Park, numbering twelve officers and a hundred and sixty-two other ranks, with four motor-cycles and twenty-four aeroplanes in cases, were to leave Farnborough for Avonmouth on the seventh day. Instructions were issued naming the hour and place of departure of the various trains, with detailed orders as to machines, personnel, transport, and petrol. On the second day of mobilization a detachment from No. 6 Squadron was to proceed to Dover, there to make ready a landing-ground for the other squadrons, and to provide for replenishment of fuel and minor repairs to aircraft. Squadron commanders were urged to work out all necessary arrangements for the journey. How carefully they did this is shown by some of the entries in the squadron diaries. In the diary of No. 2 Squadron (Major C. J. Burke's) a list is given of the articles that were to be carried on each of the machines flying over to France. Besides revolvers, glasses, a spare pair of goggles, and a roll of tools, pilots were ordered to carry with them a water-bottle containing boiled water, a small stove, and, in the haversack, biscuits, cold meat, a piece of chocolate, and a packet of soup-making material.

The programme for mobilization was, in the main, successfully carried out. The headquarters of the Royal Flying Corps left Farnborough for Southampton on the night of the 11th of August, their motor transport having gone before. They embarked at Southampton, with their horses, and reached Amiens on the morning of the 13th. The movements of the Aircraft Park, though it was the last unit to leave England, may be next recorded, because it was in effect the travelling base of the squadrons. The personnel and equipment were entrained at Farnborough during the evening of Saturday, the 15th of August, and travelled to Avonmouth. Of the twenty machines allotted to them only four, all Sopwith Tabloids, were actually taken over in cases. Of the other sixteen (nine B.E. 2's, one B.E. 2 c, three B.E. 8's, and three Henri Farmans) about half were used to bring the squadrons up to establishment; the remainder were flown over to Amiens by the personnel of the Aircraft Park, or by the spare pilots who accompanied the squadrons. The Aircraft Park embarked at Avonmouth very early on the morning of the 17th, arriving at Boulogne on the night of the 18th. They disembarked, an unfamiliar apparition, on the following morning. The landing officer had no precedent to guide him in dealing with them. Wing Commander W. D. Beatty tells how a wire was dispatched to General Headquarters: 'An unnumbered unit without aeroplanes which calls itself an Aircraft Park has arrived. What are we to do with it?' If the question was not promptly answered at Boulogne it was answered later on. The original Aircraft Park was the nucleus of that vast system of supply and repair which supported the squadrons operating on the western front and kept them in fighting trim.

On the 21st of August the Aircraft Park moved up to Amiens, to make an advanced base for the squadrons, which were already at Maubeuge. Three days were spent at Amiens in unloading, unpacking, and setting up workshops. Then, on the 25th, they received orders to retire to Le Havre. The retreat from Mons had begun, and Boulogne was being evacuated by the British troops. How far the wave of invasion would flow could not be certainly known; on the 30th of August, at the request of the French admiral who commanded at Le Havre, the machines belonging to the Aircraft Park were employed to carry out reconnaissances along the coast roads; on the following day German cavalry entered Amiens. There was a real danger that stores and machines landed in northern France for the use of the Royal Flying Corps might fall into the hands of the Germans; accordingly a base was established, for the reception of stores from England, at St.-Nazaire, on the Loire. The advanced base of the Aircraft Park moved up, by successive stages, as the prospects of the Allies improved, first from Le Havre to Le Mans, then, at the end of September, to Juvisy, near Paris; lastly, in mid-October, the port base was moved from St.-Nazaire to Rouen, and at the end of October the advanced base left Juvisy for St.-Omer, which became its permanent station during the earlier part of the war.

The squadrons flew to France. No. 2 Squadron, at Montrose, had the hardest task. Its pilots started on their southward flight to Farnborough as early as the 3rd of August; after some accidents they all reached Dover. Their transport left Montrose by rail on the morning of the 8th of August and arrived the same evening at Prince's Dock, Govan, near Glasgow, where the lorries and stores were loaded on S.S. _Dogra_ for Boulogne. No. 3 Squadron was at Netheravon when war broke out; on the 12th of August the machines flew to Dover and the transport moved off by road to Southampton, where it was embarked for Boulogne. The squadron suffered a loss at Netheravon. Second Lieutenant R. R. Skene, a skilful pilot, with Air Mechanic R. K. Barlow as passenger, crashed his machine soon after taking off; both pilot and passenger were killed. No. 4 Squadron on the 31st of July had been sent to Eastchurch, to assist the navy in preparations for home defence and to be ready for mobilization. From Eastchurch the machines flew to Dover and the transport proceeded to Southampton. By the evening of the 12th of August the machines of Nos. 2, 3, and 4 Squadrons were at Dover. At midnight Lieutenant-Colonel F. H. Sykes arrived, and orders were given for all machines to be ready to fly over at 6.0 a.m. the following morning, the 13th of August.

The first machine of No. 2 Squadron to start left at 6.25 a.m., and the first to arrive landed at Amiens at 8.20 a.m. This machine was flown by Lieutenant H. D. Harvey-Kelly, one of the lightest hearted and highest spirited of the young pilots who gave their lives in the war. The machines of No. 3 Squadron arrived safely at Amiens, with the exception of one piloted by Second Lieutenant E. N. Fuller, who with his mechanic did not rejoin his squadron until five days later at Maubeuge. One flight of No. 4 Squadron remained at Dover to carry out patrol duties, but a wireless flight, consisting of three officers who had made a study of wireless telegraphy, was attached to the squadron, and was taken overseas with it. Some of the aeroplanes of No. 4 Squadron were damaged on the way over by following their leader, Captain F. J. L. Cogan, who was forced by engine failure to land in a ploughed field in France.

No. 5 Squadron moved a little later than the other three. It was delayed by a shortage of shipping and a series of accidents to the machines. When the Concentration Camp broke up, this squadron had gone to occupy its new station at Gosport. On the 14th, when starting out for Dover, Captain G. I. Carmichael wrecked his machine at Gosport; on the same day Lieutenant R. O. Abercromby and Lieutenant H. F. Glanville damaged their machines at Shoreham, and Lieutenant H. le M. Brock damaged his at Salmer. The squadron flew from Dover to France on the 15th of August; Captain Carmichael, having obtained a new machine, flew over on that same day; Lieutenant Brock rejoined the squadron at Maubeuge on the 20th; Lieutenants Abercromby and Glanville on the 22nd. Lieutenant R. M. Vaughan, who had flown over with the squadron, also rejoined it on the 22nd; he had made a forced landing near Boulogne, had been arrested by the French, and was imprisoned for nearly a week.

The transport of the squadrons, which proceeded by way of Southampton, was largely made up from the motor-cars and commercial vans collected at Regent's Park in London during the first few days of the war. The ammunition and bomb lorry of No. 5 Squadron had belonged to the proprietors of a famous sauce: it was a brilliant scarlet, with the legend painted in gold letters on its side--_The World's Appetiser_. It could be seen from some height in the air, and it helped the pilots of the squadron, during the retreat from Mons, to identify their own transport.

The names of the officers of the Royal Flying Corps who went to France, the great majority of them by air, deserve record. They were the first organized national force to fly to a war overseas. The following is believed to be a complete list up to the eve of Mons, but it is not infallible. Officers and men were changed up to the last minute, so that the headquarters file, having been prepared in advance, is not authoritative. The squadron war diaries are sometimes sketchy. Even when surviving pilots set down what they remember, the whole war lies between them and those early days, and their memory is often fragmentary. The following list is compiled, as correctly as may be, from the diary of Lieutenant B. H. Barrington-Kennett (a careful and accurate document), the war diaries of Squadrons Nos. 2, 3, 4, and 5, which were kept in some detail, the headquarters' records, and the reminiscences of some of the officers who flew across or who travelled with the transport.

HEADQUARTERS

Brigadier-General Sir David Henderson, K.C.B., D.S.O.; Commander,
Royal Flying Corps.
Lieutenant-Colonel F. H. Sykes, 15th Hussars; General Staff Officer,
1st Grade.
Major H. R. M. Brooke-Popham, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light
Infantry; Deputy Assistant Quartermaster-General.
Captain W. G. H. Salmond, Royal Artillery; General Staff Officer, 2nd
Grade.
Lieutenant B. H. Barrington-Kennett, Grenadier Guards; Deputy
Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster-General.

_Attached._

Captain R. H. L. Cordner, Royal Army Medical Corps.
Captain C. G. Buchanan, Indian Army.
Lieutenant the Hon. M. Baring, Intelligence Corps.
2nd Lieutenant O. G. W. G. Lywood, Norfolk Regiment (Special Reserve);
for Wireless duties.

NO. 2 SQUADRON

_Squadron Commander._

Major C. J. Burke, Royal Irish Regiment.

_Flight Commanders._

Captain G. W. P. Dawes, Royal Berkshire Regiment.
Captain F. F. Waldron, 19th Hussars.
Captain G. E. Todd, Welch Regiment.

_Flying Officers._

Lieutenant R. B. Martyn, Wiltshire Regiment.
Lieutenant L. Dawes, Middlesex Regiment.
Lieutenant R. M. Rodwell, West Yorkshire Regiment.
Lieutenant M. W. Noel, Liverpool Regiment.
Lieutenant E. R. L. Corballis, Royal Dublin Fusiliers.
Lieutenant H. D. Harvey-Kelly, Royal Irish Regiment.
Lieutenant W. R. Freeman, Manchester Regiment.
Lieutenant W. H. C. Mansfield, Shropshire Light Infantry.
Lieutenant C. B. Spence, Royal Artillery.
Captain A. B. Burdett, York and Lancaster Regiment.
Captain A. Ross-Hume, Scottish Rifles.
Lieutenant D. S. K. Crosbie, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.
Lieutenant C. A. G. L. H. Farie, Highland Light Infantry.
Lieutenant T. L. S. Holbrow, Royal Engineers.
2nd Lieutenant G. J. Malcolm, Royal Artillery.

_Supernumerary._

Major C. A. H. Longcroft, Welch Regiment; Squadron
Commander.
Captain U. J. D. Bourke, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire
Light Infantry; Flight Commander.
Captain W. Lawrence, 7th Battalion, Essex Regiment (Territorial
Force); Flight Commander.

_Attached._

Lieutenant K. R. Van der Spuy, South African Defence Forces.

NO. 3 SQUADRON

_Squadron Commander._

Major J. M. Salmond, Royal Lancaster Regiment.

_Flight Commanders._

Captain P. L. W. Herbert, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment.
Captain L. E. O. Charlton, D.S.O., Lancashire Fusiliers.
Captain P. B. Joubert de la Ferte, Royal Artillery.

_Flying Officers._

2nd Lieutenant V. H. N. Wadham, Hampshire Regiment.
Lieutenant D. L. Allen, Royal Irish Fusiliers.
Lieutenant A. M. Read, Northamptonshire Regiment.
Lieutenant E. L. Conran, 2nd County of London Yeomanry.
Lieutenant A. Christie, Royal Artillery.
Lieutenant A. R. Shekleton, Royal Munster Fusiliers.
2nd Lieutenant E. N. Fuller, Royal Flying Corps, Special Reserve.
Lieutenant W. C. K. Birch, Yorkshire Regiment.
Lieutenant G. F. Pretyman, Somerset Light Infantry.
Lieutenant W. R. Read, 1st Dragoon Guards.
2nd Lieutenant A. Hartree, Royal Artillery.
Lieutenant V. S. E. Lindop, Leinster Regiment.
Lieutenant G. L. Cruikshank, Gordon Highlanders (Special Reserve).
Lieutenant W. F. MacNeece, Royal West Kent Regiment.
2nd Lieutenant L. A. Bryan, South Irish Horse.
Major L. B. Boyd-Moss, South Staffordshire Regiment.
2nd Lieutenant E. W. C. Perry, Royal Flying Corps, Special Reserve.

NO. 4 SQUADRON

_Squadron Commander._

Major G. H. Raleigh, Essex Regiment.

_Flight Commanders._

Captain G. S. Shephard, Royal Fusiliers.
Captain A. H. L. Soames, 3rd Hussars.
Captain F. J. L. Cogan, Royal Artillery.

_Flying Officers._

Lieutenant P. H. L. Playfair, Royal Artillery.
Lieutenant K. P. Atkinson, Royal Artillery.
Lieutenant R. P. Mills, Royal Fusiliers (Special Reserve).
Lieutenant T. W. Mulcahy-Morgan, Royal Irish Fusiliers.
Lieutenant R. G. D. Small, Leinster Regiment.
Lieutenant W. G. S. Mitchell, Highland Light Infantry.
Lieutenant G. W. Mapplebeck, Liverpool Regiment (Special Reserve).
Lieutenant C. G. Hosking, Royal Artillery.
Lieutenant H. J. A. Roche, Royal Munster Fusiliers.
Lieutenant I. M. Bonham-Carter, Northumberland Fusiliers.
2nd Lieutenant A. L. Russell, Royal Flying Corps, Special Reserve.

_Wireless Flight._

Lieutenant D. S. Lewis, Royal Engineers.
Lieutenant B. T. James, Royal Engineers.
Lieutenant S. C. W. Smith, East Surrey Regiment (Special Reserve).

_Attached._

Captain D. Le G. Pitcher, Indian Army.
Captain H. L. Reilly, Indian Army.

NO. 5 SQUADRON

_Squadron Commander._

Major J. F. A. Higgins, D.S.O., Royal Artillery.

_Flight Commanders._

Captain D. G. Conner, Royal Artillery.
Captain G. I. Carmichael, Royal Artillery.
Captain R. Grey, Warwickshire Royal Horse Artillery (Territorial Force).

_Flying Officers._

Lieutenant H. F. Glanville, West India Regiment.
Lieutenant F. G. Small, Connaught Rangers.
Lieutenant R. O. Abercromby, Royal Flying Corps, Special Reserve.
2nd Lieutenant C. W. Wilson, Royal Flying Corps, Special Reserve.
Lieutenant H. le M. Brock, Royal Warwickshire Regiment.
Lieutenant R. M. Vaughan, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers.
Lieutenant L. da C. Penn-Gaskell, Norfolk Regiment (Special Reserve).
Lieutenant A. E. Borton, Royal Highlanders.
Lieutenant Lord G. Wellesley, Grenadier Guards.
Lieutenant C. G. G. Bayly, Royal Engineers.
Lieutenant C. E. C. Rabagliati, Yorkshire Light Infantry.
2nd Lieutenant A. A. B. Thomson, Royal Flying Corps, Special Reserve.
2nd Lieutenant L. A. Strange, Royal Flying Corps, Special Reserve.
2nd Lieutenant R. R. Smith-Barry, Royal Flying Corps, Special Reserve.
2nd Lieutenant D. C. Ware, Royal Flying Corps, Special Reserve.
2nd Lieutenant V. Waterfall, East Yorkshire Regiment (Special Reserve).
Captain R. A. Boger, Royal Engineers.
Captain B. C. Fairfax, Reserve of Officers.

_Attached._

Lieutenant G. S. Creed, South African Defence Forces.

AIRCRAFT PARK

_Squadron Commander._

Major A. D. Carden, Royal Engineers.

_Flight Commanders._

Major Hon. C. M. P. Brabazon, Irish Guards.
Captain W. D. Beatty, Royal Engineers.
Captain R. Cholmondeley, Rifle Brigade.
Lieutenant G. B. Hynes, Royal Artillery.

_Flying Officers._

Lieutenant G. T. Porter, Royal Artillery.
2nd Lieutenant C. G. Bell, Royal Flying Corps, Special Reserve.
2nd Lieutenant N. C. Spratt, Royal Flying Corps, Special Reserve.
Lieutenant R. H. Verney, Army Service Corps.

Something must be said of the machines which flew to France. Experience at manoeuvres had favoured the factory B.E. 2 biplane; of the other types most in use the Henri Farman had been found fatiguing to fly, and the Maurice Farman was too slow. Accordingly, in the winter of 1913-14 Lieutenant-Colonel F. H. Sykes had urged the gradual substitution of B.E. machines for the Farmans. Major W. S. Brancker, writing for the Director-General of Military Aeronautics, objected to this proposal on the ground that until a satisfactory type of fighting aeroplane should be evolved, the Henri Farman was the only machine that could mount weapons effectively; and further, that a slow machine had some advantages for observation. The first of these objections was not fully met until firing through the airscrew was introduced; the second was for a long time an accepted idea. The war was to prove that a slow machine, exposed to armed attack, cannot live in the air. The battle of the machines ended, for the time, in compromise. It was judged important that the Flying Corps should have four squadrons ready for war by the spring of 1914, and large changes would have caused delay. In the event, at the date of mobilization, No. 2 Squadron and No. 4 Squadron were furnished throughout with B.E. 2 machines; No. 3 Squadron made use of Bleriots and Henri Farmans, and No. 5 of Henri Farmans, Avros, and B.E. 8's. A single type of machine for a single squadron is a thing to be desired; the squadron is easier for the pilots and the mechanics to handle; but in the early days of the war there was no formation flying; each machine did its work alone, so that uniformity was of less importance.

When the Flying Corps arrived in France they were received by the French with enthusiasm, and had their full share of the hospitality of those days. The officers were treated as honoured guests; the men with the transport were greeted by crowds of villagers, who at all their stopping-places pressed on them bottles of wine, bunches of flowers, fruit, and eggs. At Amiens the transport and machines were parked outside the town, without cover, and the officers were billeted at the 'Hotel du Rhin' and elsewhere. The hardships of the war were yet to come. Lieutenant B. H. Barrington-Kennett, with his mind always set on the task before them, remarks: 'There seemed to be a general misunderstanding amongst the troops as to the length of time during which rations have to last. They were apt to eat what they wanted at one meal and then throw the remainder away. R.F.C. peace training does not encourage economy with food, as the men are financially well off, and can always buy food and drink in the villages.'

On Sunday, the 16th of August, the headquarters of the Flying Corps, the aeroplanes of Nos. 2, 3, and 4 Squadrons, and the transport of Nos. 3 and 4 Squadrons moved from Amiens to Maubeuge. Second Lieutenant E. W. C. Perry and his mechanic, H. E. Parfitt, of No. 3 Squadron, who were flying a B.E. 8 machine (familiarly known as a 'bloater'), crashed over the aerodrome at Amiens; the machine caught fire, and both were killed. There was another accident on the 18th, when the aeroplanes and transport of No. 5 Squadron followed. Second Lieutenant R. R. Smith-Barry and Corporal F. Geard, also flying a B.E. 8 machine, crashed at Peronne; the officer broke several bones, and the corporal was killed. Three of these machines in all were flown over at the beginning; they had been allotted to the Aircraft Park, and were taken on charge of the squadrons in the field to fill vacancies caused by mishaps. The third of them was the machine flown over by Captain G. I. Carmichael.

At Maubeuge the French authorities gave all the help they could, providing blankets and straw for the troops. The Flying Corps were now in the war zone, but for the first two or three days the conditions were those of peace. They saw nothing of the British army till one evening British troops marched through Maubeuge on their way to Mons. 'We were rather sorry they had come,' says Wing Commander P. B. Joubert de la Ferte, 'because up till that moment we had only been fired on by the French whenever we flew. Now we were fired on by French _and_ English.... To this day I can remember the roar of musketry that greeted two of our machines as they left the aerodrome and crossed the main Maubeuge-Mons road, along which a British column was proceeding.' To guard against incidents like this the Flying Corps, while stationed at Maubeuge, turned to, and by working all night painted a Union Jack in the form of a shield on the under-side of the lower planes of all the machines.

While the Flying Corps remained at Maubeuge and began to carry out reconnaissances over Belgium, the little British army had moved up north to Mons, where it first met the enemy. By the 22nd of August it was in position, on a front of some twenty-five miles, the First Army Corps holding a line from Harmignies to Peissant on the east, the Second Army Corps holding Mons and the canal that runs from Mons to Conde on the west. On the right of the British the Fifth French Army, under General Lanrezac, was coming up to the line of the river Sambre.

The original German plan was broad and simple. The main striking force was to march through Belgium and Luxembourg into France. Its advance was to be a wheel pivoting on Thionville. Count von Schlieffen, who had vacated the appointment of Chief of the General Staff in 1906, had prepared this plan. He maintained that if the advance of a strong right wing, marching on Paris through Belgium, were firmly persisted in, it would draw the bulk of the French forces away from their eastern fortress positions to the neighbourhood of Paris, and that there the decisive battle would be fought. His successor, von Moltke, believed that the French, on the outbreak of war, would at once deliver a strong offensive in Lorraine and so would themselves come into the open, away from the bastion of the eastern fortresses. He must be prepared, he thought, to fight the decisive battle either on his left wing in Lorraine, or on his right wing near Paris, or, in short, at any point that the initial operations of the French should determine. This was not the conception of Count von Schlieffen, who had intended to impose his will on the campaign and to make the enemy conform to his movements. When he was on his death-bed in 1913, his thoughts were fixed on the war. 'It must come to a fight,' were the last words he was heard to mutter, 'only give me a strong right wing.' Von Moltke, though he did not absolutely weaken the right wing, weakened it relatively, by using most of the newly formed divisions of the German army for strengthening the left wing.

The French, when the war came, delivered their offensive in Alsace and Lorraine as had been expected, but not in the strength that had been expected. They were held up, and retired, not without loss, to strong defensive positions covering Epinal and Nancy. Meantime, the advance of the German armies through Belgium was met by a French offensive in the Ardennes, which also failed, whereupon General Joffre ordered a retreat on the whole front, and began to move some of his forces westward, to prepare for the battle in front of Paris.

The successes won by the German left wing and centre against a yielding and retreating enemy were mistaken by the German high command for decisive actions, which they were not. The French armies which had been driven back on the Lorraine front rapidly recovered, and on the 25th of August delivered a brilliant counter-offensive, inflicting heavy losses on the Germans, and in effect upsetting all the German plans. The indecision which marked the movements of the German right wing through northern France had its origin in von Moltke's modifications of von Schlieffen's plans and in the readiness of the Germans to believe that the war was virtually won.[4]

[Footnote 4: This brief summary is based on two admirable articles
in _The Army Quarterly_ for April and July 1921, compiled by the
Historical Section (Military Branch) of the Committee of Imperial
Defence.]

The heroic stand made by the Belgians at Liege purchased invaluable time for the preparations of the Allies. When, on the 17th of August, the last fort of Liege fell, the great wheel of the German northern armies began to revolve. Its pace was to be regulated by the pace of the armies nearest to its circumference; that is to say, the First Army, under von Kluck, and the Second Army, under von Buelow. Three divisions of cavalry were to advance against the line Antwerp-Brussels-Charleroi, moving westward across Belgium in order to discover whether a Belgian army was still in being, whether the British had landed any troops, and whether French forces were moving up into northern Belgium. The Belgian army retired within the defensive lines of Antwerp, and by the 20th of August Brussels was in the hands of the enemy. By the 22nd, von Buelow's army had entered Charleroi and was crossing the Sambre. The repulse of the French centre in the Ardennes left the British army and the French Fifth Army completely isolated on the front Mons-Charleroi. The French Fifth Army began to retreat. On Sunday morning, the 23rd of August, von Kluck's army came into action against the British position at Mons.

The British army had taken up its position in high hopes. It was not a British defeat which began the retreat from Mons, and the troops were not well pleased when they were ordered to retire. But the retreat was inevitable, and the most that the British could do was by rearguard actions to put a brake upon the speed of the advancing enemy until such time as they should be able to form up again in the Allied line and assail him. Much depended on their power to gain information concerning the movements of the enemy, so that they might know their own dangers and opportunities. Von Kluck had at first no definite news of the whereabouts of the British army. As late as the 20th of August the German Supreme Command had issued a communication to the German armies stating that 'a disembarkation of British Forces at Boulogne and their employment from the direction of Lille must be taken into account. It is the opinion here, however, that a landing on a big scale has not yet taken place.' General von Zwehl, Commander of the Seventh Reserve Corps, writing in September 1919, tells how the Germans had no reliable information concerning the British expeditionary force. 'It was only on the 22nd of August,' he says, 'that an English cavalry squadron was heard of at Casteau, six miles north-east of Mons, and an aeroplane of the English fifth flying squadron was shot down that had gone up from Maubeuge. The presence of the English in front was thus established, although nothing as regards their strength.' The first news that reached General von Kluck of the presence of the British forces came to him from a British, not from a German, aeroplane.

The first aerial reconnaissances by the Royal Flying Corps were carried out on Wednesday, the 19th of August, by Captain P. B. Joubert de la Ferte of No. 3 Squadron, in a Bleriot, and Lieutenant G. W. Mapplebeck of No. 4 Squadron, in a B.E. They started at 9.30 a.m., and flew without observers. Captain Joubert de la Ferte was to reconnoitre Nivelles-Genappe in order to report what Belgian forces were in that neighbourhood; Lieutenant Mapplebeck was to find out whether enemy cavalry were still in force in the neighbourhood of Gembloux. The machines were to fly together as far as Nivelles, 'so that if one was obliged to descend the other could report its whereabouts'. The machines lost their way and lost each other. Lieutenant Mapplebeck eventually found himself over a large town which he failed to recognize as Brussels. Later he picked up his position at Ottignies, and soon found Gembloux, where he could see only a small body of cavalry moving in a south-easterly direction. After leaving Gembloux he was enveloped in cloud for some miles, came down to 300 feet over Namur, followed the Sambre, missed Maubeuge, and landed near Le Cateau, whence he flew back to the aerodrome at Maubeuge. He had been away from 9.30 a.m. to 12.0 midday. Captain Joubert de la Ferte, whose machine was slower than Lieutenant Mapplebeck's, attempted to steer by compass through the banks of cloud, and after two hours of wandering landed at Tournai. He made inquiries concerning the Belgian army, but nothing was known of them. He left Tournai at 12.15 p.m., lost his way again, and at 2.0 p.m. landed at Courtrai. Here he was told by the gendarmerie that the headquarters of the Belgian flying corps was at Louvain. He left Courtrai at 3.0 p.m. and passed over Ath, Hal, Braine l'Alleud, Nivelles, returning to Maubeuge at 5.30 p.m. He reported occasional trains in the main stations and pickets on the roads to Brussels.

On the 20th Major C. A. H. Longcroft, with Captain U. J. D. Bourke as observer, reconnoitred as far as Louvain and reported a force of all arms moving south-west through Tervueren, and another force moving into Wavre. They also saw an aerodrome just east of Louvain with seven machines on the ground. Lieutenant E. R. L. Corballis, who, with Captain G. E. Todd, flew over the area Nivelles-Hal-Enghien, reported that there was no sign of troops and that all bridges in the area appeared to be intact. The German flood was spreading but was still some distance away. On the following day (an important day of enemy movements) the weather in the morning was too foggy for observation, and in the afternoon was rainy and misty. Three reconnaissances which were made in the afternoon showed that the country immediately in front of the British was very quiet, but in the wood one mile south of Nivelles Lieutenant Corballis reported a large body of cavalry with some guns and infantry (this was later identified as the German 9th Cavalry Division), and another body of infantry moving south on Charleroi. At Pont-a-Celles on the Charleroi canal, south of Nivelles, three villages were seen to be burning.

On the 22nd there were twelve reconnaissances which revealed the presence of large bodies of troops moving in the direction of the British front, and did much to dissipate the fog of war. The first machine to return came in soon after eleven. This was piloted by Captain G. S. Shephard, with Lieutenant I. M. Bonham-Carter as observer. They had landed at Beaumont (about twelve miles east of Maubeuge) for petrol. Here they were informed that French cavalry had encountered German infantry north of the Sambre canal on the previous afternoon, and had had to fall back. The next machine to return came in at 11.50 a.m. with a wounded observer, Sergeant-Major D. S. Jillings of No. 2 Squadron. He was the first British soldier to be wounded in an aeroplane, and this casualty seemed to bring the German armies nearer than a dozen unmolested reconnaissances could have done. The machine, piloted by Lieutenant M. W. Noel, had come under heavy rifle fire first of all at Ollignies, south-east of Lessines, and then, after passing over a cavalry regiment just south-west of Ghislenghien, had been met with rifle and machine-gun fire. Frequent rifle fire was encountered all the way back to Ath, and just south-east of Ath, over Maffle, Sergeant-Major Jillings had been wounded in the leg by a rifle bullet. Confirmation of the presence of large bodies of enemy in this area came from Captain L. E. O. Charlton flying as observer with Second Lieutenant V. H. N. Wadham. They started at 10.0 a.m. and passed over Charleroi, Gembloux, and Brussels without seeing any large movements, but reported that the northern part of Charleroi and many other towns and villages in that area were burning. From Brussels they went on towards Grammont, and landed at Moerbeke, two miles south-east of Grammont, to make inquiries. Here they received information which hastened their departure. They learnt that a force of 5,000 Germans was in Grammont, that cavalry and cyclists were in Lessines, and that cavalry were expected from Enghien to arrive in Ath that evening. When passing over Bassilly, about half-way between Ath and Enghien, they were fired on by enemy troops which they estimated at the strength of an infantry brigade, and they drew further fire from patrols in Ath. They came in with their information at 1.10 p.m.; Lieutenant W. H. C. Mansfield just before this had reported large bodies moving into Enghien and Soignies. Afternoon reconnaissances added little that was new except that there were cavalry and infantry in the area north of the Mons-Conde canal, and cavalry as far west as Peruwelz.

_To face page 303._]

The most important reconnaissance of the day is unfortunately not recorded in the war diary. The value of the report when it came in was recognized at once, and Brigadier-General Sir David Henderson took it personally to General Headquarters. It stated that a long column, whose strength was estimated to be that of an army corps, was moving westward on the Brussels-Ninove road. At Ninove the column continued south-west towards Grammont. This was von Kluck's Second Corps, and the report seemed to show an attempt at an enveloping movement. The same report confirmed what had already been seen, the presence of enemy troops moving along the great Chaussee on Soignies. This column was taking advantage of the trees on either side of the road to shield its movements. This was the first day on which a machine failed to return from over enemy territory. Lieutenants V. Waterfall and C. G. G. Bayly, of No. 5 Squadron, started on a reconnaissance in an Avro at 10.16 a.m. and next day were reported missing. It was the bringing down of this machine, no doubt, which gave the Germans their first assurance of the presence of the British forces. The observer's report, so far as he had written it, was picked up near the wreckage of the machine by some Belgian peasants, and eventually found its way to the War Office in London.

Sir John French on the evening of the 22nd held a conference at Le Cateau, whereat the position of the Germans, so far as it was then known, was explained and discussed. At the close of the conference Sir John stated that owing to the retreat of the French Fifth Army, the British offensive would not take place. A request from General Lanrezac arrived at 11.0 p.m., asking for offensive action against the German right flank, which was pressing him back from the Sambre. This could not be undertaken, but Sir John French promised to remain in his position for twenty-four hours.

In his book, _A Staff Officer's Scrap Book_, Sir Ian Hamilton, who was attached to the Japanese army during the Russo-Japanese War, has the following entry: 'The Russians are sending up balloons to our front, and in front of the Twelfth Division. Judging by manoeuvres and South African experiences, they should now obtain a lot of misleading intelligence.' Observation from the air, when the war broke out, had still to prove its worth. The Royal Flying Corps, though confident of its own ability, was a new and untried arm. In the early reports there are occasional inaccuracies. Some of the early observers, among those who were hastily enrolled to bring newly formed squadrons up to strength, had not much military knowledge, and were not practised in reading the appearances of things seen from the air. At the time of the battles of Ypres, 1914, observers of No. 6 Squadron, which had prepared itself in hot haste for foreign service, mistook long patches of tar on macadamized roads for troops on the move, and the shadows cast by the gravestones in a churchyard for a military bivouac. Mistakes like these, though they were not very many, naturally made commanding officers shy of trusting implicitly to reports from the air. Yet the early reports of the first four squadrons did show without any possibility of mistake how formidable the German movements were.

Sir John French remained at Mons and was led into fighting a battle in a perilous position against much superior forces. The air reports of the 22nd had given some hints of the success of von Buelow's army in crossing the Sambre, had indicated a possible enveloping movement from the direction of Grammont, and had revealed something of the strength of the enemy troops on the British front. On the following day the attack began on the position at Mons, and pilots and observers were flying over and behind the battle-field looking for enemy movements, and locating enemy batteries.

On the 24th the retreat was in progress. As early as the morning of the 23rd the Royal Flying Corps had begun to shift its quarters from Maubeuge to Le Cateau. The transport and machines of No. 3 Squadron moved southward on that day, and on the 24th headquarters and other squadrons also moved to Le Cateau. 'We slept,' says Major Maurice Baring, 'and when I say we I mean dozens of pilots, fully dressed in a barn, on the top of, and underneath, an enormous load of straw.... Everybody was quite cheerful, especially the pilots.' On the afternoon of the 25th they moved again to St.-Quentin. The rapidity of the retreat put a heavy strain upon the headquarters of the Royal Flying Corps, which had to travel before the retreating army, to select an old aerodrome or to make a new one almost every day, and in the brief hours between arrival and departure to carry on all the complicated and delicate business of ministering to the needs of the squadrons. The places occupied by headquarters during the retreat were as follows:

Sunday, 16th August Maubeuge.
Monday, 24th August Le Cateau.
Tuesday, 25th August St.-Quentin.
Wednesday, 26th August La Fere.
Friday, 28th August Compiegne.
Sunday, 30th August Senlis.
Monday, 31st August Juilly.
Wednesday, 2nd September Serris.
Thursday, 3rd September Touquin.
Friday, 4th September Melun.

In some of these places regular aerodromes were available, in others a landing-ground had to be improvised. Sometimes officers of headquarters would be sent on a long way ahead in motor-cars to select a landing-ground, while another officer in a motor-car was detailed to guide the transport. This he did by taking with him a small number of men and dropping them one by one at the partings of the ways. When the route was very complicated, these guides became so many that they had to be carried in a transport lorry. The transport drivers were not as yet skilled in the art of map-reading, and to lose the transport would have left the Flying Corps helpless. Sometimes the officers who selected the landing-ground moved with the transport, and made their choice when the transport reached its destination. The only recognized French aerodromes which were used by the Royal Flying Corps during the retreat were those at Compiegne, Senlis, and Melun.

Whilst the aerodromes were changing almost daily, the officers carried on reconnaissance, sometimes starting out not knowing whether their aerodrome would be in British or enemy hands by the time they should return. On the 24th, whilst the squadrons were moving from Maubeuge to Le Cateau, the enemy advance as seen from the air looked menacing enough. Captain G. S. Shephard and Lieutenant I. M. Bonham-Carter were watching von Kluck's right wing soon after 4.0 a.m. They returned at six o'clock with news of extensive movement about Ath and Leuze. They reported a broken column nearly ten miles long with its head pointing at Peruwelz. The column branched off the main Ath-Tournai road at Leuze. This was part of von Kluck's Second Corps, and its line of march would take it to the west of the extreme western flank of the British army. The news was not reassuring. Captain H. C. Jackson as observer with Lieutenant E. L. Conran went up at 8.30 a.m. and came back at 12.30 p.m. with information of long enemy columns moving from Grammont through Lessines into La Hamaide and further troops on the Ath-Leuze road. They had flown as far as Ninove and Alost, but found the country there clear. On returning over Lessines at 11.30 a.m. they saw three German aeroplanes on the ground; they dropped a bomb overboard, but missed.

In the evening of the 24th, the first day of the retreat, the position was on the whole not unsatisfactory. The British Fifth Division had not only defended six miles of front, but with the aid of the cavalry and the 19th Infantry Brigade had met and beaten off von Kluck's enveloping attack. But that attack was soon renewed. On the following morning a heavy movement of German troops southward from Marchiennes, with cavalry, guns, and transport, was reported at six o'clock. Marchiennes is almost midway between Valenciennes and Douai, to the west of the British line of retreat. This moving line of troops continued southward through Somain for a distance of about five miles, and then bent in a south-easterly direction, pointing straight at Le Cateau, until it reached Bouchain, where there were mounted and dismounted troops extending over three miles. But Le Cateau was not the objective of these troops. General von Kluck believed that the next stand of the British army, after Mons, would be made on a position running east and west through Bavai, and resting its right on the fortress of Maubeuge. The troops seen at Bouchain were intended to envelop it and take it in the rear. Meantime the British army, having escaped the lure of Maubeuge, was continuing its painful march southward on both sides of the Forest of Mormal; and the claw that was extended to catch it closed upon air.