o those tactics, where the field artillery dashes up to a position,
discharges a number of rounds in rapid succession, or indulges in rafale
firing, and then limbering up, rushes away before the enemy can reply.

As is well known the Farman biplanes possess high endurance qualities.
They can remain aloft for many hours at a stretch and are remarkably
reliable. Owing to these qualities they are utilised for prolonged and
searching reconnoitring duties such as strategical reconnaissances as
distinct from the hurried and tactical reconnaissances carried out by
fleeter machines. While they are not so speedy as the monoplanes of the
German military establishment, endurance in this instance is preferable
to pace. A thorough survey of the enemy's position over the whole of
his military zone, which stretches back for a distance of 30 miles or so
from the outer line of trenches, is of incalculable value to a commander
who is contemplating any decisive movement or who is somewhat in doubt
as to the precise character of his antagonist's tactics.

The French aerial fleet has been particularly active in its work of
raiding hostile positions and submitting them to a fusillade of bombs
from the clouds. The machine which is allotted this specific task is
the Voisin biplane. This is due to the fact that this machine is able to
carry a great weight. It was speedily discovered that in bomb-raids
it is essential for an aeroplane to be able to carry a somewhat large
supply of missiles, owing to the high percentage of misses which attends
these operations. A raid by a machine capable of carrying only,
say, half-a-dozen projectiles, is virtually a waste of fuel, and
the endurance limitations of the fast machines reacts against their
profitable use in this work. On the other hand, the fact that the Voisin
machine is able to carry a large supply of bombs renders it an ideal
craft for this purpose; hence the official decision to confine it to
this work.

So far as the British efforts in aerial work are concerned there is no
such display of rigid selection as characterises the practice of the
French and German military authorities. Britain's position in the air
has been extensively due to private enterprise, and this is still being
encouraged. Moreover at the beginning of the war Britain was numerically
far inferior both to her antagonist and to her ally. Consequently it was
a wise move to encourage the private manufacture of machines which had