The Great War (1914-1918) was the first of its kind. No other war had involved so many nations for so many silly reasons. Twenty eight nations on six continents were at each other's throat, drawn in to that meat grinder known as World War I. It is estimated that between 10 and 13 million combatants perished and beyond the dead, an additional 21 million persons were wounded. The political egos, entanglements, and intrigues are beyond belief as are the bungling, incompetence, and mismanagement by the military of all the contestants. I need only point to the Gallipoli campaign, where out of date tourist maps were handed to General Sir Ian Hamilton and off he sailed without a plan for invasion. All of this because the British were repaying a favor to Grand Duke Nicholas (Wren, 1971). Of course who can forget General Joffre? This French main man, who insisted on two gourmet meals per day and went to bed promptly at 10 PM. No one dared wake him...Verdun could wait till the morning(Wren, 1971). Thus keeping in tune with the flavor of this history, we embark to chronicle our squadron's history and impact on that little known theater called Egypt/Palestine. When the guns of August 4 1914 were fired and "the lights of Europe went out", we were there.......

Our story really begins in July 1914. It was a dark and stormy night...I mean ..at that time the Ottoman Empire had ordered 15 Nieuport 6H seaplanes from France. These were en-route to delivery in November when the Turks entered the war and sided with the Central Powers(Davilla and Soltran, 1997; Wren 1971). Because the Turks were no longer "friends", six of the N6H's were diverted and transferred to Malta via the seaplane carrier "Foudre". The N6H's were unable to take off at full gross weight and performed miserably. Sooo being totally disgusted with the aircraft, Admirall Augusting Boure de Lapeyere, commander of the Armee Navale decided to get rid of them, some how, some way. Meanwhile in Egypt, Lt. General Sir John Maxwell, commander of the British Forces, and defender of the Suez Canal had need for reconnaissance aircraft to keep an eye on the Turks in the area. Although the total British presence was one Indian Brigade an air reconnaissance base was established in Port Said(Jones, 1935). The Royal Naval Air Service then placed an order for 24 of the new Nieuport 10 two-seaters. As the paperwork caught up to the French Procurement department, and thence to Admirall de Lapeyere, there occurred some acquisition error, and a mix of N6, N10 and 12's were sent to Port Said. The original paperwork allocated serial numbers 3163-3186 as N10 but further research shows the French allocated serial numbers 3170-3173 as N12! (Davilla and Soltran, 1997). Our research suggests that one Jean Ballouer, shipping clerk, and son in law to Admiral de Lapeyere, solved everybody's problem by artfully massaging the bill of lading from the "Foudre". Thus in one fell swoop, he got his father-in-law out of a jam, dumped unwanted aircraft on his personal nemesis, the British, and still managed to supply needed aircraft.

We believe he went on to consult with the US government and founded the General Accounting Office or the IRS, we are not sure, as Jean covered his tracks well. Now to make things more interesting, the N12 that were delivered to Port Said were originally to serve at Imbros, under No. 2 Wing, and scheduled to support the Gallipoli troops. However, when Djemal Pasha and Baron Kress von Kressonstein attempted an attack on the Suez in Feb. 1915, all bets were off. Suddenly the British became very interested in maintaining a presence in Egypt, and materials and troops poured into the area (Baldwin, 1962). Mucking around Cairo during this time was a young archeologist, one T.E. Lawrence. Lawrence had befriended many an Arab whilst digging for artifacts in Egypt and Palestine, and knew the desert like the back of his sandals. He proved to be valuable to Sir John Maxwell and the other commanders who followed. That replacement followed pretty quick, and General Sir Archibald Murray was placed in charge of the Egyptian campaign.

There followed a curious letter from Sir Henry McMahon, British High Commissioner to Cairo, to Husain-Ibn Ali, Serif of Mecca, written Oct 1915.. a Tuesday afternoon. In part it reads:...."Point 2- Great Britain will guarantee the Holy Places.. against all external aggression. Thus the stage was set for the formation of a little known, highly valued reconnaissance squadron, formed under the 111 wing. This squadron, though unknown to most of the western world became the legendary "Lost Squadron".

From Feb. 1915 till June 1916 many adventures befell the "Lost Squadron "or "LS", as they were known to the military intelligence community. Although the period of '15-'16 was a militarily quiescent time in Egypt, many recently declassified reconnaissance missions were flown. The majority of these missions, as will be told, were designed to keep an "eye on the Turk" but most importantly, as dictated by the McMahon letter.. "to protect the Holy Places". Thus charged, our band of fearless reconn flyers stumbled into the backwaters of history.