letely
stated for the information of the authorities at home. Disappointment
was inevitable; there were hitches and delays in design and manufacture;
conditions changed and machines improved at such a rate that a programme
became an antique almost before it could be completely fulfilled. The
growing pains of the Royal Flying Corps were severe, for the growth was
fast; but it grew under quick supervision, and was shaped by the lessons
of the war. The Flying Corps would take no denial; when the carrying out
of a programme was long delayed, they looked yet farther ahead, and
planned a still larger establishment. On the 20th of November 1917 Sir
Douglas Haig wrote to the Secretary of the War Office. In this letter he
points out that when the programme submitted in 1916 shall be completed,
some eighteen months to two years will have elapsed from the date when
it was first accepted. 'I consider it expedient, therefore, even at the
risk of dislocating existing arrangements, to submit a further programme
to cover the requirements of the British armies in France up to the
summer of 1919, in so far as these can be foreseen at present.'

The approved establishment of the Royal Flying Corps in France, at the
time when Sir Douglas Haig wrote, was eighty-six squadrons, ten of which
were long-distance bombing squadrons. His new demand was for a hundred
and seventy-nine squadrons, that is to say, a hundred and thirteen for
the British armies in France and Italy, and sixty-six long-distance
bombing squadrons for use against Germany. Further, he asks that the
establishment of the fighting squadrons shall be raised to twenty-four
machines. Formation tactics have developed; a squadron commonly goes
into a fight with three flights of six machines each, working in
echelon; to maintain this strength when some machines are temporarily
out of action the squadron must number twenty-four machines.

The Army Council approved of all these demands, and suggested further
additions, so that the programme, when it left their hands, provided for
a total of two hundred and forty squadrons, all told. The coming of the
armistice interrupted the fulfilment of these large plans, and saved the
world from a carnival of destruction.

The expansion of the air force was a long process. The large plans which
were made within a few days of the outbreak of war took years to
achieve. In the early part of the war the first duty of those who were
in charge at home wa