o was responsible
for aeroplane and seaplane design, and Squadron Commander W. Briggs, who
was responsible for engines--were officers of the original Royal Naval
Air Service. Most of the newly appointed administrative officers had no
previous knowledge of aircraft or aircraft operations; what they were
chosen for was their power of organization, their strict sense of
discipline, their untiring energy, and their pride in the ancient
service to which they belonged. The senior naval officer who was
inexperienced in the air was promoted over the heads of the pioneers of
naval aviation who were junior in the navy.

There is no unmixed good on earth. The debate between discipline and
progress can never be settled dogmatically one way or the other. Those
who have to lead men into battle are agreed that without discipline
progress is useless. A crowd of undrilled men of science could not stand
the push of a platoon of common soldiers. On the other hand, it is
all-important that the higher command in war shall be susceptible to
science, and it has been maintained, not without evidence, that the life
of discipline and loyalty which procures promotion in a public service
does not usually increase susceptibility to science.

The immediate practical advantages which were aimed at by the
reorganizers of the Naval Air Service were attained. In place of the old
scattered training stations a central training depot was set up at
Cranwell in Lincolnshire, and a complete system for the instruction and
graduation of pupils was instituted. A designs department was set up at
Whitehall; the airship service was taken in hand and developed for
anti-submarine patrol work. What may be called the most important unit
of the Royal Naval Air Service was created by the amalgamation under
Wing Commander Lambe of the squadrons which had their bases at Dunkirk
and Dover. This unit, later in the war, became the famous Fifth Group,
under the same command. The arrangements made at the time of change
continued in force up to the time of the union of the military and naval
air services, and progress was continuous. In January 1916 the Admiralty
approved that the overseas establishment of the Royal Naval Air Service
should have three wings, each wing to have two squadrons, and each
squadron two flights, with six machines to a flight. One of these wings
was based at Dunkirk; for the others two new aerodromes were
established, in the spring of 1916, at Coudekerq