d
party that loaded up the stores and transport on board H.M.S. _Empress_
and the attendant collier. The aeroplanes flew by way of Dunkirk, where
there was a slight haze and they landed. Lord Edward Grosvenor made a
faulty landing, and crashed his Bleriot beyond all hopes of repair. This
accident, which would have been treated as insignificant if it had
occurred on the way out, proved important enough to delay the aeroplanes
for three days at Dunkirk. During this time General Bidon, who commanded
the French troops at Dunkirk, and Mr. Sarel, the British vice-consul,
made urgent representations to the British Foreign Office, pleading that
the squadron should be permitted, for military and diplomatic reasons,
to co-operate with the French. Meantime, two of the aeroplanes carried
out a reconnaissance towards Lille and Douai. On the 1st of September a
telegram came from the Admiralty ordering that the squadron should
remain at Dunkirk, to operate against Zeppelins and enemy aeroplanes,
and to carry out reconnaissances as required by the French general. The
policy that was now adopted was subsequently explained at greater length
in an Admiralty telegram to the French Ministry of Marine:

'The Admiralty considers it extremely important to deny the use of
territory within a hundred miles of Dunkirk to German Zeppelins, and to
attack by aeroplanes all airships found replenishing there. With your
permission the Admiralty wish to take all necessary measures to maintain
aerial command of this region. The Admiralty proposes therefore to place
thirty or forty naval aeroplanes at Dunkirk or other convenient coast
points. In order that these may have a good radius of action they must
be able to establish temporary bases forty to fifty miles inland. The
Admiralty desires to reinforce officer commanding aeroplanes with fifty
to sixty armed motor-cars and two hundred to three hundred men. This
small force will operate in conformity with the wishes of the French
military authorities, but we hope it may be accorded a free initiative.
The immunity of Portsmouth, Chatham, and London from dangerous aerial
attack is clearly involved.'

So this little naval force began at once to operate from Dunkirk,
carrying out reconnaissances by aeroplane, and using motor-cars for
raids on the flank of the German communications. It gave assistance to
the French and put heart into the much-tried civil population of
Belgium. Most of the work at first was done