ing 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.

[Illustration: Movements of the Royal Flying Corps from Aug. 16th to
Oct. 12th 1914.]

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