re for the air forces of the British Empire,
and how, until the Germans were held in France, all other purposes had
to be postponed.

Official returns show that with the four squadrons there went to France
105 officers, 755 other ranks, 63 aeroplanes, and 95 mechanical
transport vehicles. At home there remained 41 officers, 116 aeroplanes,
and 23 mechanical transport vehicles. But these latter figures are
misleading. All the experienced officers at home were fully employed on
necessary work, and the hundred and sixteen aeroplanes were impressive
only by their number. About twenty of them, more or less old-fashioned,
were in use at the Central Flying School for purposes of training; the
rest were worn out or broken, and were fit only for the scrap-heap. By
the time that the war was a month old, the efficiency of the machines
which had gone abroad was threatened by the progress of events at the
front. The B.E. 2, which was generally reckoned the best of these
machines, had been designed for the purposes of reconnaissance; it had a
fair degree of stability, and gave the observer a clear view around him
and beneath him. So long as it was not interfered with in the air it was
an admirable machine for the reconnoitring of enemy dispositions and
movements. But the process of interference had begun. During the months
of October and November fighting in the air became fairly frequent. This
fighting had been foreseen, but only as a speculative possibility.
Major-General Seely, speaking on the Air Estimates for 1919-20, told the
House of Commons that he had witnessed the first air combat in France,
one of those referred to in Sir John French's first dispatch, and that
Sir David Henderson had said to him: 'This is the beginning of a fight
which will ultimately end in great battles in the air, in which
hundreds, and possibly thousands, of men may be engaged at heights
varying from 10,000 to 20,000 feet.'

A call for fighting machines soon followed these early combats. On the
4th of September 1914 General Henderson wired home: 'There are no
aeroplanes with the Royal Flying Corps really suitable for carrying
machine-guns; grenades and bombs are therefore at present most suitable.
If suitable aeroplanes are available, machines-guns are better
undoubtedly. Request you to endeavour to supply efficient fighting
machines as soon as possible.' A day or two earlier a request had been
sent home for nine aeroplanes to replace losses, and for