d the aims and difficulties of the other
branch. The headquarters flight was intended to serve as a link between
theory and practice. Major Musgrave gave special attention to wireless
telegraphy, and with the assistance of Lieutenants D. S. Lewis and B. T.
James, both also of the Royal Engineers and both pioneers of wireless,
he made good progress in its practical application to the needs of the
Flying Corps. When the war came, the headquarters flight was broken up
in order to bring the four original squadrons up to strength, but the
wireless section was attached for a time to No. 4 Squadron, and in
September 1914 a headquarters wireless unit was formed at
Fere-en-Tardenois in France, with Major Musgrave in command. From this
unit the whole wireless telegraphy organization of the Royal Flying
Corps was gradually developed. In December 1914 the unit was enlarged,
and became No. 9 Squadron stationed at headquarters. Having worked out
all details for the supply of wireless machines to the squadrons in the
field, Major Musgrave in March 1915 left the Royal Flying Corps to take
up duty with the staff of the army. He was severely wounded in August
1916. Almost two years later, on the night of the 2nd of June 1918,
having persuaded a battalion commander to let him accompany a patrol, he
was killed by a rifle grenade, inside the German lines. He desired no
personal advancement, and would have thought no other honour so great as
to die for his country. Such men, though the records of their lives are
buried under a mass of tedious detail, are the engineers of victory.

When the airships were handed over to the navy, it became necessary to
reorganize No. 1 Squadron as an aeroplane squadron. This was put in hand
on the 1st of May 1914, and was not completed when the war broke out.
The senior aeroplane squadrons of the Military Wing were, therefore, No.
2 Squadron under Major Burke, and No. 3 Squadron under Major
Brooke-Popham.

The officers of these squadrons, to whom it fell to set the example and
to show the way, were a remarkable group of pioneers. Some of them were
accomplished flyers, who took delight in the mastery of the air. But
none of them practised the art for the art's sake. They were not
virtuosos, bent on exhibiting the heights to which individual skill can
attain. They did not play a lone hand. The risks that they took were the
risks, not of adventure, but of duty. They were soldiers first. One and
all they were imp