At the beginning of the war the R.N.A.S. assumed responsibility for the defence of Great Britain against attacks by hostile aircraft, and a scheme for the defence of London and other large towns was entrusted to an anti-aircraft section of the Admiralty Air Department. Its resources, however, consisting of a few unsuitable and widely scattered aeroplanes, some 1 pdr. pom-poms with searchlights manned by a special corps, were inadequate and it was fortunate that only three small daylight aeroplane raids, mainly for reconnaissance, were made during 1914--the first German machine to visit England dropping a bomb near Dover on December 21st. _Night Flying and Night Fighting._ In spite of continuous action by the R.N.A.S. against German airship bases in Belgium, there were in 1915 nineteen airship and eight aeroplane raids--one by night--over England, and, although the new and powerful Zeppelin L.Z.38, which attacked London on May 31st, was destroyed by an aeroplane counter-attack in its shed near Brussels, no real counter measures were evolved until 1916, when Home Defence was taken over by the War Office. During that year a Home Defence Squadron of B.E.2c's, rapidly expanded to a Wing, was formed; and the systematic training of night pilots, the standardization of night-flying equipment and armament, and the lighting of aerodromes, was taken in hand. A continuous aeroplane and searchlight barrage with night landing grounds was gradually formed between Dover and the Forth; the wireless signals employed to assist Zeppelins in finding their way were intercepted, thus enabling our rapidly improving fighting machines to pick up and attack raiding airships; and the constant attacks to which airship sheds were exposed in Belgium, caused their withdrawal to positions further inland and increased their distance from England. During 1916 there were twenty-two raids by airships, six of which were destroyed, the first being brought down in September at Cuffley by Leefe Robinson. Thenceforward airship raids declined, the destruction of the majority of the largest and latest which raided England on October 19th, 1917, sealing their fate.