rmany was reckoned to be of the first
importance, Wing Commander Samson, who was ordered to take charge of the
flight, had to give up three of the best machines he had.

It was believed at that time that Antwerp would not fall. When the
British army was moved north from the Aisne to Ypres, the original idea
of the Allied strategy was resuscitated. That idea had been to take the
offensive in Belgium and to repel the German advance or to make a flank
attack on it. But the German blow had been too heavy and too quick for
this plan to develop, and in the effort to save Paris the British army
had been driven far southwards into France. Paris was saved at the
Marne, and now that the Germans had entrenched themselves in a corner of
France it was hoped that an attack upon their communications would
compel them to retreat. Again the Germans were beforehand. When things
came to a standstill on the Aisne, they concentrated a large force in
Belgium to make a push for the Channel ports. The British naval
division, arriving at Antwerp on the 5th of October, could do no more
than delay the fall of Antwerp by a few days. The Seventh Division of
the British army, under Sir Henry Rawlinson, which was disembarked at
Ostend and Zeebrugge on the 6th of October, found that its task was not
an assault on the German flank but the defence of the Channel ports from
a furious German assault.

Nevertheless, the Naval Air Service carried on. Two attacks were made on
the airship sheds at Duesseldorf and Cologne. The earlier of these was
made on the 22nd of September by four aeroplanes, two for each place.
There was a thick mist extending from the river Roer to some miles east
of the Rhine, and only Flight Lieutenant Collet succeeded in finding his
objective. He glided down at Duesseldorf from a height of 6,000 feet, the
last 1,500 feet through the mist, and came in sight of the shed when he
was a quarter of a mile from it at a height of 400 feet. One of his
bombs fell short; the others probably hit the shed, but failed to
explode. Germans ran in all directions. All four machines were back in
Antwerp by one o'clock in the afternoon.

The second and more successful attack was made on the 8th of October,
during the evacuation of Antwerp. Antwerp was being bombarded, the
panic-stricken retreat of the population had begun, but the Naval Air
Service stuck to its aerodrome, and carried out the first notable
air-raid of the war. On the 7th of October the