GREAT BRITAIN.

From the "London Gazette," January 12th, 1915.
WAR OFFICE, January 12th.

REGULAR FORCES.-Establishments.-Royal Flying Corps (Military Wing).--The undermentioned appointments are made : Flying Officers-Dated December 22, 1914: Lieutenant E. O. Grenfell, 5th Battalion the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry; Second Lieutenant Cyril M. Crowe, Special Reserve; and Second Lieutenant Geoffrey H. Eastwood, Special Reserve.

SPECIAL RESERVE OF OFFICERS.-Royal Flying Corps (Military Wing). Frank Bernard Halford, Aeronautical Inspection Department, to be an Inspector of Aeronautical Material, for employment with the Royal Flying Corps, and is granted the honorary rank of lieutenant whilst so employed. Dated December 18th, 1914.

The undermentioned relinquish their temporary commissions. Dated January 13th, 1915: Roy Holdsworth Dore and James Henry Herbertson.

His Majesty the King has been graciously pleased to promote by brevet the undermentioned officers :

To be Lieutenant-Colonels-Major (temporary LieutenantColonel) Hugh Montague Trenchard, C.B., D.S.O., Royal Scots Fusiliers, wing commander, Military Wing, Royal Flying Corps, and Major (temporary Lieutenant-Colonel) William Sefton Brancker, Royal Artillery, Assistant Director of Military Aeronautics, War Office.

REGULAR FORCES. Establishments.-Royal Flying Corps (Military Wing).-The undermentioned appointment is made: Second Lieutenant Hugh C. Tower, Special Reserve, to be flying officer. Dated October 15th, 1914.

SUPPLEMENTARY TO REGULAR UNITS OR CORPS.-Royal Flying Corps (Military Wing).—The undermentioned second lieutenants

Apparently German aeroplanes have been very active lately in Northern France, for certain of the Naval Air Service machines which were out on Monday, January 11th, were quite busy fighting German machines in the air. One Naval officer tackled three different Germans in the course of the morning. A Naval machine was out over Ostend dropping bombs on various positions there, and on the railways, and engaged another German machine on the way back. One bomb, at any rate, smashed the railway line. The machine was under heavy fire while operating, and was hit in nine ploces without either the pilot or the passenger being damaged.

The following letter, dated January 11th, from a FlightLieutenant R.N.A.S. appeared in the "Morning Post" on January 18th, and apparently describes the same incident :— "I must tell you something about the beano we had yesterday. It was a day! Engaged with three Taubes in the morning, and in the afternoon and I went and dropped eighteen bombs and six grenades over various works and railway at Ostend-with incidentals. Another scrap with a German machine by the way. Hope we tickled them up, and gave them hell at Ostend. We've got 'em scared stiff—absolutely. It's a great game entirely. I hope we get to know what damage we did at Ostend, though I'm afraid it's improbable. I know I got the railway with one bomb-a clinking shot, right in the middle." I tell you, they let us have it, the machine hit in nine places."

made our way northward. During the forenoon we met three seaplane-carriers, and they fell in with our flotilla. About 10.30 a sub arine was sighted, so we opened out, and the and a destroyer proceeded to attack. It was one of our own, so we proceeded across to the German coast.

"Nothing happened during the night till about 5.30 on Christmas Day, when we lowered hydroplanes (sic), and they all, with the exception of two, made off to Cuxhaven. We then steamed away for a couple of hours. Fifteen minutes after the hydroplanes had gone a Zeppelin and a Taube aeroplane were sighted, so we all got rifles. The Maxim was manned. The anti-aeroplane guns were manned, and we waited for them. The Zeppelin disappeared for a time, but the Taube came on, and finally got overhead. The rifles were going 'crack, crack,' and the steady 'rip, rip, rip,' of the Maxim was heard, together with an occasional bang from the aeroplane gun. He was going very fast, and was such a height that we couldn't hit him. He dropped a bomb, which fell a few yards short of

the

"We thought we had hit him once, and a cheer rose up. I clapped my hands, and a chief stoker yelled out, 'Good shot! Give him another as he comes down.' But he did not come down-making off as fast as he could. The Zeppelin came in sight again, looking grand with the sun behind, but he was a few miles off.

"The first attack was made at eight o'clock. At nine a.m. the Taube came aloft, attacked one of our submarines, dropping six bombs in succession. The splash caused by them rose about twenty feet. He came over us again, and I managed to get a shot, but missed. When the Zeppelin came within a mile of us we opened fire with shrapnel from our 6-inch guns. The did the same, but it was too high to be hit, and kept going higher. It was very fine to watch the shrapnel burst in the air just underneath the big airship, and every time one did it always seemed close, and the old 'Zep' mounted higher to get a safer distance from us.

"One fellow only was then missing. I don't think they did any damage, as there was a dense fog over the ground they had to attack, and the men didn't see where they were going to. They dropped bombs on a submarine and destroyer, but missed; so, on the whole, we were as successful as the Germans. The enemy dare not send any ships out after us. It would be a case of 'come out and go under,' and they don't like risking it."

Mr. Justice Madden, sitting at the Four Courts, Dublin, on January 14th, heard an application by Hugh William Armitage Moore, J.P., of Castlewellan, Co. Down, for liberty to apply for probate of the will with codicil of Earl Annesley, of Castlewellan, Co. Down, dated September 16th, 1909, and to presume the death of the testator. The affidavit set out that after the outbreak of the present war the testator applied for and received a commission as sub-lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (Air Department), and left his residence on September 7th, to proceed on active service with the British Expeditionary Force in France and Belgium. He returned home to Castlewellan on short leave on November 3rd. He left the following day for England, with the intention of returning to France from England by aeroplane on November 5th. A few days after the testator was officially reported as missing. It appeared that Flight Lieutenant Beevor, R.N., with the testator as passenger, left Eastchurch on machine No. 1,220 at 3.15 p.m. on November 5th en route for Dunkirk, but did not reach their destination. Inquiries were at once made at Dunkirk and Calais, and the coast was searched, but without result. On November 20th testator's wife was officially in

formed that he must be presumed to be dead. It further appeared that since the last-mentioned date German prisoners reported that in the beginning of November a biplane with two Englishmen was brought down over the German lines near Lille, and that both aviators were killed. The affidavit further referred to letters received from the Royal Naval Flying School at Eastchurch to the effect that at the time of the departure of the aviators the weather conditions were good, and the intention was to proceed to Dover and cross the Channel. Mr. Justice Madden said he had sufficient evidence to say that the testator had died in the service of his country. He referred the question of the granting of probate to the registrar for the present.

[The first reports stated that the machine was shot down at Dixmude, and there appears to be some mystery about how it came to be at Lille. Early reports also stated that the machine was a Sopwith gun-carrier, but it is now stated to have been a Bristol tractor.-Ed.]

Apropos the recent submarine raid on Dover, the "Central News" correspondent says, "Directly after the guns from the harbour breakwater opened fire a searchlight from an aircraft swept the skies. After half an hour the aircraft disappeared."

[Almost impossibly a light (of sorts) from a seaplane, and more improbably still from a Naval airship, seeing that it was a "dirty night." It was probably a star shell from a howitzer and more probably an ordinary searchlight from the cliffs.-Ed.]

One is glad to hear that the damage done at the Eastbourne Aerodrome by the gale a week or so ago is not so bad as was originally reported. Sheds No. 1, 2 and 4 were blown down, and three school box-kites belonging to the Eastbourne Aviation Co., together with a brand new Maurice Farman, were involved in the wreck. The latter machine was on its way to France, piloted by an officer of the R.F.C., who came down for shelter just before the rise of the gale.

Various minor damage was done to other of the sheds, but fortunately the workshops stood up to the wind, so that the delivery of the machines which are being built there will not be delayed more than is usual with anything built to R.A.F. design by any contractor. One gathers that the whole plant at the present works is shortly to be moved to a new workshop at the seaplane station. The new shop is 180 ft. by 60 ft., and when fitted out it will make a fine building.

School work has of course been somewhat disorganised, and the Probationary Flt. Sub-Lieuts. in training at Eastbourne have not had any flying since the school machines were destroyed. However, a resident Naval Instructor and an exN.C.O. of Marines nave now been attached to the school, so they have been kept busy with other branches of their training.

It is a great pity the school should have been deprived of its machines just when everything was progressing so well, and though every effort is being made to get business into working order again, of course school machines are difficult to obtain quickly at the present time, but no doubt a little official help in this direction will expedite matters considerably. On Tuesday and Wednesday last, Mr. Fowler of the E.A.C. was at Hendon putting a new H. Farman type machine through its tests for the Admiralty.

The R.N.A.S. Comforts Fund is now reaching quite useful proportions, but good use can be made of any further contributions friends of the Service would like to send. Most generous contributions of garments have been received from Lady Beatrice Pretyman, Captain E. Reeves, R.N., H.M.S. "Liverpool," the Hon. Mrs. Morgan, Lady Lloyd, Mrs. Penny, Lady Peirse (wife of the Commander-in-Chief East India Station), also from the British and Foreign Sailors Society. A useful addition to the stock of garments has been obtained by exchanging khaki garments sent to the R.N.A.S. Comforts Fund for blue ones sent to the R.F.C. Comforts Fund.

Special attention is now being paid to supplying the needs of the R.N.A.S. men on the seaplane-carrying ships, who are