The Royal Naval Air Service rescue story begins with pilots deployed near Dunkirk who could see colleagues coming down near the front. Private cars carried armed crews out to recover them, and repeated trips encouraged the addition of armor and requests for purpose-built vehicles. By December 1914, a development instruction and armored-car order were in place. The requested vehicle needed crew space as well as room for rescued airmen. Clarke's retelling names both Rolls-Royce and Bentley, with the car's identity varying in the later version of the story. The comic dialogue about rescuing a friend for dinner is a dramatization of the account. A sergeant's description of a car leaping a trench is also explicitly paraphrased.
Chapter · 45:46-49:22
Naval aviators improvised the Rolls-Royce armored car
A recalled rescue story follows RNAS private cars becoming armed and armored vehicles, then prompting a purpose-built order.