time Chief of the Staff in India, and a
numerous company of staff officers. Next morning the aeroplane was
attached to the northern force at Aurangabad, whose task was to drive
back the rearguard of a southern force retreating towards Jalna. Captain
Brancker and M. Jullerot made a flight of about twenty-seven miles at a
height of 1,100 feet, and the hostile rearguard was accurately located.
A full report was in the hands of the commander of the northern force in
less than an hour and a half from the time of his demand for
information.

Subsequent flights were less successful; indeed, the next morning the
aeroplane crashed from a height of a hundred feet; the two aviators
escaped with a few scratches, but the machine was reduced to matchwood.
Nevertheless, the first thorough performance by a military aeroplane of
a really practical military mission deeply impressed General Sir O'Moore
Creagh, the then Commander-in-Chief, and, had it not been for lack of
money, he would have started a flying organization in India a year
before the Flying Corps in England came into being.

Not long after his return to England, Major Brancker was employed at the
War Office under General Henderson. As soon as the opportunity presented
itself, he learned to fly. He took the short course at the Central
Flying School and was appointed to the Royal Flying Corps Reserve. In
October 1913 he succeeded Captain Ellington on the staff of the Military
Aeronautics Directorate. He continued to fly. The first really stable
aeroplane, the B.E. 2c, was produced in June 1914; and Major Brancker,
who describes himself as 'a very moderate pilot', flew the first of the
type from Farnborough to Upavon, without the use of his hands except to
throttle back the engine before alighting; during the flight he wrote a
full reconnaissance report.

These then, Lieutenant-Colonel Trenchard and Lieutenant-Colonel
Brancker, were the two officers on whom fell the chief burden of
responsibility at home for the maintenance and increase of the Flying
Corps. Others gave invaluable help; but these were the prime movers. The
maintenance of the squadrons in the field, that is, the replacing of
wastage in pilots and machines, was all that was originally expected of
them by the command of the Royal Flying Corps in France. When, just
after the outbreak of war, Lord Kitchener took control of the War
Office, the creation of new squadrons at once became a question of the
first importa