o
reinforce the naval machines at Eastchurch. Eastchurch, during the
months before the war, had been active in rehearsal; fighting in the
air had been practised, and trial raids, over Chatham and the
neighbouring magazines, had been carried out, two aeroplanes attacking
and six or eight forming a defensive screen. Work of this kind had knit
together the Eastchurch unit and had fitted it for active service
abroad. In the meantime, at the outbreak of the war, attacks by German
aircraft were expected on points of military and naval importance.

Germany was known to possess eleven rigid airships, and was believed to
have others under construction. Our most authoritative knowledge of the
state of German aviation was derived from a series of competitions held
in Germany from the 17th to the 25th of May 1914, and called 'The Prince
Henry Circuit'. These were witnessed by Captain W. Henderson, R.N., as
naval attache, and by Lieutenant-Colonel the Hon. A. Russell, as
military attache. The witnesses pay tribute to the skill and dash of the
German flying officers and to the spirit of the flying battalions. The
officers they found to be fine-drawn, lean, determined-looking
youngsters, unlike the well-known heavy Teutonic type. Owing partly to
the monotony of German regimental life there was great competition, they
were told, to enter the flying service, eight hundred candidates having
presented themselves for forty vacancies. In 'The Prince Henry Circuit',
a cross-country flight of more than a thousand miles, to be completed in
six days, twenty-six aeroplanes started. The weather was stormy, and
there were many accidents; one pilot and three observers were killed.
These were regarded as having lost their lives in action, and there was
no interruption of the programme. Among the best of the many machines
that competed were the military L.V.G. (or Luft-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft)
biplane, which won the chief prizes, the A.E.G. (or Allgemeine
Elektrizitaets-Gesellschaft) biplane, the Albatross, and the Aviatik. On
the whole, said our witnesses, the Germans had not progressed fast or
far in aviation. They were still learning to fly; they were seeking for
the best type of machine; and had given no serious attention, as yet, to
the question of battle in the air. The test that was to compare the
British and German air forces was now at hand.

CHAPTER VI

THE WAR: THE ROYAL FLYING CORPS FROM MONS TO YPRES

The German war of the twen