William J. Claxton - The Mastery of the Air
required for the Corps - the schools and flying grounds, the training and activities of the mechanics, the
workshops and repair shops, the storage of spare parts, the motor transport, As in other departments of
the Service, women have come forward and are doing excellent and most responsible work, especially in
the motor-transport section.
A very striking feature of the Corps is the extreme youth of the members, many of the most daring
fighters in the air being mere boys of twenty.
The Corps has the very pick of the youth and daring and enterprise of the country. In the days of the old
army there existed certain unwritten laws of precedence as between various branches of the Service. If
such customs still prevail it is certain that the very newest arm would take pride of place. The flying man
has recaptured some of the glamour and romance which encircled the knight-errant of old. He breathes
the very atmosphere of dangerous adventure. Life for him is a series of thrills, any one of which would
be sufficient to last the ordinary humdrum citizen for a lifetime. Small wonder that the flying man has
captured the interest and affection of the people, and all eyes follow these trim, smart, desperadoes of the
air in their passage through our cities.
As regards the work of the flying man the danger curve seems to be changing. On the one hand the
training is much more severe and exacting than formerly was the case, and so carries a greater element of
danger. On the other hand on the battle-front fighting information has in great measure taken the place of
the system of men going up "on their own". They are perhaps not so liable to meet with a numerical
superiority on the part of enemy machines, which spelt for them almost certain destruction.
For a long time the policy of silence and secrecy which screened "the front" from popular gaze kept us in
ignorance of the achievements of our airmen. But finally the voice of the people prevailed in their
demand for more enlightenment. Names of regiments began to be mentioned in connection with
particular successes. And in the same way the heroes of the R.F.C. and R.N.A.S. were allowed to reap
some of the laurels they deserved.
It began to be recognized that publication of the name of an airman who had destroyed a Zeppelin, for
instance, did not constitute any vital information to the enemy. In a recent raid upon London the names
of the two airmen, Captain G. H. Hackwill, R.F.C., and Lieutenant C. C. Banks, R.F.C., who destroyed a
Gotha, were given out in the House of Commons and saluted with cheers. In the old days the secretist
party would have regarded this publication as a policy which led the nation in the direct line of "losing
the war".
In the annals of the Flying Service, where dare-devilry is taken as a matter of course and hairbreadth
escapes from death are part of the daily routine, it is difficult to select adventures for special mention; but
the following episodes will give a general idea of the work of the airman in war.
The great feat of Sub-Lieutenant R. A. J. Warneford, R.N.A.S., who single-handed attacked and
destroyed a Zeppelin, has already been referred to in Chapter XIII. Lieutenant Warneford was the second
on the list of airmen who won the coveted Cross, the first recipient being Second-Lieutenant Barnard
Rhodes-Moorhouse, for a daring and successful bomb-dropping raid upon Courtrai in April, 1915. As
has happened in so many cases, the award to Lieutenant Rhodes-Moorhouse was a posthumous one, the
gallant airman having been mortally wounded during the raid, in spite of which he managed by flying
low to reach his destination and make his report.
A writer of adventure stories for boys would be hard put to it to invent any situation more thrilling than
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