The Old Malt House,
Marlow,
August 13th, 1916.
Dear Lord Fisher,
Having given us splendid craft to fight on and under the sea, I wish you would take up the provision of an air fleet. There is going to be a great development of air navigation in the future and all nations will be at it. With our resources and wealth we can take and keep the lead if we like.
As a modest programme to start with we might aim at 100 air battleships and 400 air cruisers: all on the “lighter than air” principle.
I met a young fellow who had been in the Jutland action and asked him how the 15-inch guns did. “Splendidly,” he said—“They did nearly all the real execution.” I hear the Germans have got 17-inch guns which is what I anticipated, but they won’t get ahead of us in that time tho’ we can’t yet snuff out their Zepps, thanks to you know who.
Yours sincerely,
(Signed) S. Eardley Wilmot.
Note.—More than a year before I got this letter I had got a 20-inch gun ready to be built for a new type of Battle Cruiser!
Aged 19. Lieutenant.
In temporary command of “Coromandel” in China.