r towing along the road. This demand was never
met. Lastly, the rapid movement of the retreat caused a report to be
sent home that the canvas sheds on wooden frameworks, called Bessoneaux
hangars, were useless. With the coming of trench warfare more stable
conditions prevailed, and Bessoneaux hangars housed the Royal Flying
Corps in great comfort throughout the war.

Incidents like these serve to show how great was the responsibility
which rested on the home command. Fortunately, the home command were
cool and far-sighted. Colonel Trenchard was the last man in the world to
subordinate life to mechanism; and Colonel Brancker knew how to fly
without fidgeting with the controls.

The resources to hand were not many. A certain small number of
aeroplanes, in July 1914, were actually on order, and were being
manufactured in slow and uncertain fashion. These belonged to several
types. The earlier variants of the B.E. 2 machine were of Government
design. Of proprietary designs, on order or in process of delivery, the
most important at that time were the British Sopwith and Avro machines,
and the French Maurice Farmans, Henri Farmans, and Bleriots, which were
erected in England from parts supplied by France. Certain new types--the
F.E. 2 (a pusher biplane), the R.E. 5 (a tractor two-seater bombing
machine), the S.E. 2 (a single-seater tractor scout), the Vickers
fighter, the Bristol scout, and several others--were hardly past the
experimental stage. Some were in process of design; others were
represented by a few experimental machines. In the matter of engines,
the factory was engaged in designing its own, and a few British
proprietary designs had been tried, but without sufficient success to
warrant an order. In fact, the Royal Flying Corps had to depend entirely
on French engines, that is to say, on the 70 horse-power Renault and the
80 horse-power Gnome. Large purchases of these engines were made during
the week before the declaration of war; indeed, the whole of the funds
available were spent twice over in anticipation of further credits.

When the war came, Avros, Farmans, and Bleriots were ordered to the full
capacity of the factories that produced them. Vickers fighters were also
ordered in numbers, though the latest model of the machine was untried,
and though there was no certainty that the necessary 100 horse-power
Monosoupape-Gnome engine could be obtained, or that when obtained it
would run reliably. On the advice