IX. BEHIND THE FIRING LINE 61 X. THE FIRST TRIP ACROSS THE LINE 66 XI. SOME ANECDOTES 74 XII. SPORT EXTRAORDINARY 81 XIII. A BALLOON-TRIP BY NIGHT 85 XIV. THE BATTLE OF THE WOOD 92 XV. A TIGHT CORNER 97 XVI. AN AIR FIGHT WITH A HUN 108 XVII. A GREAT RAID 114 XVIII. A DAY-DREAM 123 XIX. A MID-AIR BATTLE 127 XX. A BATTLE FROM ABOVE 132 XXI. A TRUE STORY OF THE WAR 136 XXII. HEROISM IN THE AIR 144
XXIII. THE EVOLUTION OF THE AIRSHIP 151 XXIV. LAWS OF THE AIR 161 XXV. AERIAL COMBAT 166 XXVI. THE AIR--THE WAR--AND THE FUTURE 170
In writing of modern aviation it is to be regretted that the sport or science, call it what you will, was developed more in two years by the war than would have been possible in twenty-two years under normal conditions. Prior to 1914 we did not look upon aircraft and aviation with the degree of interest that their useful qualities warranted. Instead we were apt to regard them rather in the manner of a sporting spectacle, in much the same light as a football match, or a boxing entertainment, or as the _pièce de résistance_ of the showmen; thus aircraft, the greatest and most potential discovery of all the ages, had to prove their worth in the maiming of humanity and the destruction of property.
Quietly and unobtrusively they were introduced into the plans of war; it must be admitted greatly despised and with a strong feeling of repugnance. Gradually--so gradually as almost to be unnoticed--they began to prove their worth.
From the very first days of the war it began to be realized that we must have aircraft. Our large Navy was in desperate need of seaplanes to hunt the enemy warships from their lairs and his merchantmen from the seas. In the same way our tiny Army required aeroplanes, but for a somewhat different reason: to be prepared against all enemy surprises, which in those desperate days of early 1914 would have been fatal.
As the war developed, the various belligerents began to settle down, to restore order from the chaos, and to prepare for a long and arduous campaign. Then the cry came for aircraft, more and more aircraft. In England the great engineering shops and factories were peremptorily ordered by the Government to abandon their work and to construct aeroplanes as fast as they were able. Meanwhile the enemy, who had long been prepared, began to obtain an overwhelming mastery of the air--it will always remain a mystery why he did not use his aircraft to better effect at Mons and the Marne. After four and six months, fresh craft came out from England, and it was then the enemy, in his turn, was driven from the air. For some time we were allowed to retain that mastery, then the enemy came along with a rush with the new and powerful Albatross and Aviatik, and again we retired into the background for a time. Meanwhile, aeroplane factories were springing up all over the country, and the production of machines was going up by leaps and bounds;--undeniable proof this of the value such craft were to the military commanders. Thus the mad race went on. Fast, graceful, single-seater scouts, slower and larger reconnaissance craft; huge, powerful-engined battle-planes made their appearance in quantities hitherto undreamt of, and were dispatched in never-ending stream across the Channel, there to play their part in the war.