[Nick Forder]

“For some time experiments were carried out with visual appliances but with indifferent success, owing to certain technical difficulties connected with the constant and rapid movement of the (aero)plane. Lamp signalling was tried from aeroplanes near Aire-sur-la-Lys on February, 20th, 1915. From the first, however, wireless was hailed as the obvious means of overcoming the difficulty and, on October 1st, 1914, a wireless mast with receiving apparatus was erected at a battery position. An aeroplane with a small Sterling* transmitter at once carried out ‘spotting’ tests for the guns with conspicuous success. The new invention quickly showed that it had come to stay, and from this date a great organization was built up for this purpose alone, with ramifications which embraced the Signal Service, the RFC, and the Intelligence Branch of the General Staff. Divided authority in this as in all similar cases caused much trouble, but eventually administrative control was vested ion the RFC to whom the sets and men who manned them belonged, while the working of the ‘Ground Sets’, as the sets at the guns were called, was technically supervised by the wireless officer of the formation for which the battery belonged. Much useful work was done by these sets throughout the days of the early development of wireless, small wireless stations in 1914 and early 1915 being confined to the RFC alone. Later, when the attention of the wireless world was fixed more upon the development of small portable wireless sets for command purposes in trench warfare, the RFC sets continued to do good unobtrusive work.” P38-9, Work of the RW in the European War, 1914-1919: The Signal Service (France)