d out
during the most intensive period of air effort, but by the end of the
war most of these objects had been attained without jeopardizing the
close co-operation with the Army and Navy. Co-operation with the Naval
and General Staffs and with naval and military formations was, in fact,
improved, independent action was beginning to bear fruit, and we
possessed an Air Force without rival.

CHAPTER III

PEACE

THE FUTURE OF AERIAL DEFENCE.

In the evolution of aviation during the war the conclusion has been
reached that the most remarkable lines of development at the Armistice
were in the direction of ground and night fighting, torpedo attack and
long-range bombing, exemplifying respectively the three spheres of air
operations--military co-operation, naval co-operation, and the strategic
use of aircraft. It must be remembered that this progress in tactics and
strategy, in the machine, and the airman's skill, was made in the short
period of four years, and that every war has started with a great
advance in scientific knowledge, accumulated during peace, over that
obtaining at the close of the previous war. We may therefore assume,
provided the danger is averted of a retrograde movement from recent
scientific methods to pre-war conditions--sabres, bayonets, and
guns--that by the outbreak of another war on a large scale, which we
hope may never occur, the knowledge of Service aeronautics will have
increased immeasurably since 1918, and may be, not a contributory, but a
decisive factor in securing victory.

The period since the Armistice has been employed in the reduction and
consolidation of the Royal Air Force. In England the cadre system has
been adopted, while abroad the greatest concentration of effort is aimed
at, with Egypt, at present the most important strategic point in the
Imperial air system, as the centre of activity. Iraq is being handed
over to the control of the Royal Air Force, whose share in the policing
of overseas possessions is likely usefully to grow provided any tendency
to the concurrent building up of a large ground organization is
withstood. The advantages of aircraft for "garrison" duties lie, under
suitable geographical conditions, in their swift action and wide range,
their economy, and, during disturbances their capacity for constant
pressure against the enemy without fear of retaliation. One of the main
problems is at present that of personnel. Service flying is restricted
to comp