f
PART
I.
THE
R.F.C.
1.-Early
Days.
The Royal Flying Corps, which accompanied the
E.F.
to
-
France
at
-the beginning of thc war, consisted~of foursquadrons and one Aircraft Park,
all
under
a
singlecommsnder and working directly under
G.H.Q.
The AircraftPark undertook the repair
of
aeroplanes and engines, and thesupply
and
issue of stores and spare parts.Tho squadrons consisted of
a
heterogeneous collection.
of
all the machines available
at
the time, and squadrons, andeven flights, were equipped with several different types
of
machine.The work
of
the
R.F.C. consisted at first solely
of
rcconnaissance, and aerial fighting only took place, and thatvery occasionally,
as
an
incident of reconnaissance work.
,
There was no idea of keeping machines, much less .flights,
for
the primary purpose
of
fighting.Observers carried
a
rifle
or
an automatic pistol, but
no
aeroplanes carried
a
machine gun at.this time.
A
dctailed scheme for co-operation with artillery had beenworked out prcvious to the outbreak of war, but the systemwas in the
earl5-
expcrimcntal stage, and very little artilleryobservation was done.Wireless had not been adapted toaerial
work
at this time, and observations were signalled bycolourcd lights, smoke bnrsbs,
or
by movements
of
themachine.Aerial photography
was
in its infancy, and although
*
photographs
of
the German cntrenchments were taken
on
theAisne they wcre not regarded
as
of much interest.
,
Bombing,
as
now understood,
was
non-existent, thoiighpilots occasionally threw out
a
few bombs in the coursc oftheir reconnaissance.
~.
During the battleof the Aisne flights were attachedto. Corps, but were regarded
as
detachments from
G.H.Q.,
whehcc they were controlled.As soon
as
the opposing forcessettled down to trench
wauiare,
the organization under
one
commnnd.was found to be too centralized and squadron8 weredefinitely allotted to
Corps.
On tho formation
of
Armies thesquadrons with each Corps belonging to
;m
Army wcrc
1
grOUpcd into
a
Wing un&r
Lltc
cornitland of
LL
Lieutenant-Coloncl.The expansion
of
the
R.F.C.
now began, and ibn additionaltiqoadron
was
formed
nt
48
hours' notice irnd dcspatchcd
LO
Ostend to co-opomte with the Antwerp expedition.
One
flight of special fighting machines arrived
in
October,
1014,
and
was
assigned
a
purely defensive
role,
iiamely,
toprevent hostile irerial rcconnaissance.As the
R.E.F.
grew larger and gradually took over moretrench line,
and
as
co-operation with tho artillery became
niorr
spstomatimd and
more
general,
the
necd
for
furtherexpansion became
inow
and
niorc
ibpparent,
;~nd.
in tlic
?.umrner
of
1915
it
\>-as
dccided that the following at Ii:ast
were
III:CCSS~I
I
.
-
Ono sqondron to
cnch
Army
Corps
for
artillcrywork
arid
close rcconnnissance, including photography.
One
squadron per Army,
and
at
lensl.
onc
for
C.H.Q.,
for
reconnaissitricc work.One squadroil
per
Army
for
special work, such
as
bombing
raids.
Aerial fighting still took place on
a
minor scale only, hutwas gmdually increasing,
26
fights taking place
in
May,
1915,
32
in June, and
47
in
July.
Many more than this often
occur
in
one
Jay
in present conditions.
It
miis
already apparent,however, that fighting would
be
necessary on an
cvcr-
increasing scale to secure liberty of action for our artillery
and
photographic machines, and to interfere with similar work
on
the part
of
the enemy, and the need
for
the provision
of
purely
fighting squadrons was
realized.
The enemy's anti-aircraft gun8 had by the summer
of
1015
bccomc
very troublesome, and the necessity
for
a
largeincrease in our
own
A.A.
artillery was also recognized.
It
is
interesting to note that arrangements wcrc made forco-operation between eeroplancs and infantry very much onthe lines of the present contact patrol
in
connection with an
a1
tack south of ArmentiOrcs
in
Mny,
1915.
Little expcrimice
wais
gaincd, however,
as
the attack was not succossful.
Ry
the autumn of
i915
the necessity
of
specislization hadbecome
still
more
apparont,and tho division
of
the
R.F.C.
withcach Army into two Wings
mas
decided upon, one Win foroffensivc action and rcconiiaissance, and the other
for
artiflerywork, trench rcconnaissance and photography.
A
consider-able increase to the number
of
G.R.Q.
quadrons was
also
approved, and these were formed into
a
Wing
curly
in
191G.
2
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