isible track
of its flight, and of the incendiary bullet, which sets fire to anything
inflammable that it hits.

At the outbreak of war the only effective weapon for attacking the
Zeppelin from the air was the Hales grenade. Of two hundred of these
which had been manufactured for the use of the Naval Wing many had been
used in experiment; the remainder were hastily distributed by Lieutenant
Clark Hall among the seaplane stations on the East Coast.

The Naval Air Service experimented also with the mounting of
machine-guns on aeroplanes. On this matter Lieutenant Clark Hall, early
in 1914, reported as follows:

'Machine-gun aeroplanes are (or will be) required to drive off enemy
machines approaching our ports with the intention of obtaining
information or attacking with bombs our magazines, oil tanks, or
dockyards.... I do not think the present state of foreign seaplanes for
attack or scouting over our home ports is such as to make the question
extremely urgent, but I would strongly advocate having by the end of
1914 at each of our home ports and important bases at least two
aeroplanes mounting machine-guns for the sole purpose of beating off or
destroying attacking or scouting enemy aeroplanes.'

From what has been said it is evident that the Naval Wing of the Royal
Flying Corps paid more attention than was paid by the Military Wing to
the use of the aeroplane as a fighting machine. This difference
naturally followed from the diverse tasks to be performed by the two
branches of the air service. The Military Wing, small as it was, knew
that it would be entrusted with the immense task of scouting for the
expeditionary force, and that its business would be rather to avoid than
to seek battle in the air. The Naval Wing, being entrusted first of all
with the defence of the coast, aimed at doing something more than
observing the movements of an attacking enemy. Thus in bomb-dropping and
in machine-gunnery the Naval Wing was more advanced than the Military
Wing. Both wings were active and alive with experiment, so that after a
while experimental work which had originally been assigned to the
factory and the Central Flying School was transferred to the Wing
Headquarters. During the year 1913 wireless experiments were
discontinued at the Central Flying School, and were concentrated at the
Military Wing. There was a valuable measure of co-operation between the
two wings. This co-operation was conspicuous, as has been seen, in