Finally, all in authority were agreed to adopt the policy of letting other countries buy their experience and to profit from it at a later date. Had the war been postponed for another twenty years all might have been well, and we should have reaped the benefit, but most calamitously for ourselves it arrived when we were utterly unprepared, and having, as we repeat, only three airships of any military value. With these three ships, Astra-Torres (No. 3), Parseval (No. 4) and Beta, the Navy did all that was possible. At the very outbreak of war scouting trips were made out into the North Sea beyond the mouth of the Thames by the Astra and Parseval, and both these ships patrolled the Channel during the passage of the Expeditionary Force. The Astra was also employed off the Belgian coast to assist the naval landing party at Ostend, and together with the Parseval assisted in patrolling the Channel during the first winter of the war. The Beta was also sent over to Dunkirk to assist in spotting for artillery fire and locating German batteries on the Belgian coast. Our airships were also employed for aerial inspection of London and other large towns by night to examine the effects of lighting restrictions and obtain information for our anti-aircraft batteries. With the single exception of the S.S. ship, which carried out certain manoeuvres in France in the summer of 1916, our airships were confined to operations over the sea; but if we had possessed ships of greater reliability in the early days of the war, it is conceivable that they would have been of value for certain purposes to the Army. The Germans employed their Zeppelins at the bombardment of Antwerp, Warsaw, Nancy and Libau, and their raids on England are too well remembered to need description. The French also used airships for the observation of troops mobilizing and for the destruction of railway depots. The Italians relied entirely at the beginning of the war on airships, constructed to fly at great heights, for the bombing of Austrian troops and territory, and met with a considerable measure of success.