id art. The engine is the heart of an aeroplane, but
the pilot is its soul. They succeeded so well that at the opening of the
battles of the Somme, on the 1st of July 1916, the Royal Flying Corps
held the mastery of the air, that is to say, they held a predominant
position in the air, and were able to impose their will upon the enemy.
At the date of the armistice, the 11th of November 1918, the united
Royal Air Force was incomparably the strongest air force in the world.
Most of the pilots and observers who were flying at that time are now
scattered in civil employ, but they will never forget the pride of their
old allegiance nor the perils and raptures of their old life in the air.

It is the business of this history to tell of their doings. But before
recording the appearance at the front of squadron after squadron, it is
essential to tell something of the making of these squadrons. The whole
elaborate system which was the basis of the Royal Air Force, the
production of machines and armament and the training of men, was devised
and put in action during the first year of the war. It was elastic in
character, and was capable of great expansion, but its main outlines
were never changed, even when the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval
Air Service, after a divorce of four years, were reunited in 1918.
Englishmen are much in the habit of decrying their own achievements.
This they do, not from modesty, but from a kind of inverted pride. Even
a fair measure of success seems to them a little thing when it is
compared with their own estimate of their abilities. Before the war the
German power of organization was tediously praised in England, and our
own incapacity for organization was tediously censured. There is truth
in the contrast; the Germans love organization and pattern in human
society, both for their own sake and for the rest and support that they
give to the individual. The British hate elaborate organization, and are
willing to accept it only when it is seen to be necessary for achieving
a highly desired end. With the Germans, the individual is the servant of
the society; with us, the society is the servant of the individual, and
is judged by its success, not only in promoting his material welfare,
but in enhancing his opportunities and giving free play to his
character. We do not readily organize ourselves except under the spur of
immediate necessity. But those of us who are honest and frank will never
again say