CHAPTER II

AVIATION

1. Its military beginnings. Its increasing importance.

2. Its use and scope.

3. Different kinds of aircraft. Battle-planes. Bombing-planes. Observation--or scout-planes. Employment of scout-planes for the direction of artillery-fire and the movements of infantry. Aviation during a battle.

4. Hydroplanes.

5. Balloons, Zeppelins.

=1. Its military beginnings, its increasing importance.= At the beginning of the war, Germany alone possessed a military flying corps. She was the only nation who desired war. She was the only one prepared, in this as in other respects. Her foresight was duly rewarded.

Though still few, her aviators found themselves the masters of the air. They made themselves very useful to the German Command by observations that enabled them to locate the principal French forces. They rendered also great services to their artillery during the actual fighting. A German machine, while clumsily flying some 3000 feet above the French batteries, would send up a rocket, and a few minutes afterwards 150 mm. shells would begin to fall on the spot thus indicated.

If, at the time, the Germans had been as expert as they are now in pointing their guns, these air-directed bombardments would have had more efficacious results, but even as it was, they invariably produced a deplorable impression on the morale of the troops who felt themselves at the mercy of a shell-fire which the French artillery could not return for want of howitzers.

Aviation had developed itself mostly among the civilians in France. Overnight, as it were, our civilians became military aviators. They showed great bravery and a few at once proved themselves remarkable. Their machines, though speedy, as speed was reckoned in those days, were in many ways inadequate for the purposes of war, but they were none the less extremely effective.

Since 1914, all the belligerents have, with more or less success, considerably developed the scope of their aviation.

In France there was too much indecision as to what types should be adopted.

The production of standardized machines encountered serious difficulties. Construction was slow. Factories either lacked machinery entirely or were insufficiently supplied with it.

Till the autumn of 1915, Germany retained the supremacy in the air. From that time on the situation gradually altered in favor of France, and since the arrival of a large contingent of British machines, the Allies have maintained a marked superiority on the Western Front. When the American air-corps has added its strength to the French the end of the German aviation will be close at hand.

It is well nevertheless to note that the Germans, fearing the advent of the American airmen, are now making a powerful effort to double the number of their planes; and, aided by a careful study of the Allies’ machines which have fallen in their lines, are busy constructing more and more formidable examples. The Allies, in the meantime, are daily improving their own, and the Americans have lately had the occasion to see that Italy, one of the most recent aviation recruits, has nearly reached perfection in aircraft construction.

In order to render promptly the anticipated aid, the United States should, at the beginning at least, adopt thoroughly tested types of aircraft, of easy control in the air; and should construct several standardized motors.

After trial _on the French front_ some types may have to be modified, but only after the American aviation corps has made sure that, in any event, it will have a sufficient number of aircraft in France while awaiting the arrival of the new models.

Airplane construction has been hitherto, and will continue to be, constantly progressive. An improvement much needed is a device for the protection of the gasoline tank, which on most of the existing types is too vulnerable and too frequently set on fire. Very often the Germans aim at the tanks rather than at the pilot, as the former are easier to hit and the result is the same.

=2. Use and scope of aviation.= Our opinion is that during the present war no real success can be obtained without the help of numerous and daring aviators. During the days preceding an attack (in the trench war) or in order to hide the movements of the troops (in the open field) it is of the utmost necessity to maintain the supremacy in the air. The enemy’s aviation must be entirely blinded. Not one enemy machine must pass over the lines. The captive balloons must be destroyed. In brief, the aviation must be powerful enough to prevent the enemy from having any knowledge of our preparations, and above all from ascertaining the exact point whence the main attack will be launched.

Besides the work it will have to do on the front (with which we will deal hereafter) the aviation of bombardment will, during the period of preparation, have to make numerous raids on the enemy’s rear, hurl destruction upon the aerodromes, and into the camps of the staff and reserves, blow up the important ammunition and food stores, attack the trains, destroy the railway lines, especially at the junctions, set the stations on fire, and attack all detachments and convoys on the roads.

Briefly, the aviation should, during the preparation for an attack supplement at the rear the disorder created at the front by a prolonged bombardment. If these desiderata are complied with by sufficiently numerous and powerful aircraft, the enemy will find themselves in evident inferiority at the moment of attack.

=3. Different kinds of aircraft.= There are several kinds of airplanes:

BATTLE-PLANES. The importance of the fighting aviation far exceeds that of the other kinds, owing to the fact that whatever their mission, the latter cannot keep the air either on the front or during the raids back of the enemy lines unless they are protected against the attacks of the opponent’s aircraft by a sufficient number of lighter, swifter, and more easily manœuvred battle-planes. The organization of the fighting aviation ought, therefore, to claim the principal and most careful consideration of the commanding officer in charge of all the different services of the flying corps.

Fighting machines must be very numerous, and piloted by cool, competent aviators, masters of their machines and possessing what, in France, our soldiers call “Cran”; _i. e._, Pluck.

At the present moment there is an obvious tendency to abandon monoplanes in favour of small, very handy biplanes flying 220 kilometres an hour. Our renowned “aces,” such as the late Captain Guynemer and so many others, have, until now, fought single-handed, piloting and shooting at the same time. We are returning to the idea of placing two men on these fighting machines.

Some of these are already fitted with two very light and extremely accurate machine-guns, the front one being fixed so as to shoot through the screw. This result has been obtained by the use of a device so marvellously accurate that the ball at its exit from the barrel of the gun never hits the blades of the screw speeding at more than one thousand five hundred revolutions a minute.

For a long time, our French aviators operated separately, but the Germans having taken the habit of flying in groups, our aviators, in most cases, fly now in squadrillas so as to be able to help one another.

The battle-plane aviators fly at great heights, hiding themselves behind the clouds, and, when they see an enemy machine below them, they drop on it with all speed and attempt, while keeping above it, to shoot it down.

When they are attacked, they try to rise and gain the advantage of position. Their tactics, in brief, consist in getting as much as possible out of an enemy’s range, and in attaining such a position as will enable them to reach him.

Some of these fights last ten, some fifteen minutes.

When the weather allows flights, there ought always to be several battle-planes in the air to protect the other kinds of airplanes.

One must lay down as a rule, and we here repeat the opinion expressed by famous aviators, that every attack, whether by a single machine or by a squadrilla, must always be carried out with the utmost vigour. The Germans seem, indeed, to have received orders to fly away whenever they feel themselves inferior.

An important function of the battle-planes is to escort and protect the scouting or raiding squadrons during their operations, so as to allow the latter to fulfil their mission without having to guard against any possible attack of the enemy.

During these expeditions the battle-plane is to the other airplanes what the destroyers are to the ships they convoy. In order that they may afford efficient protection to the ships, the destroyers must be very fast and manageable; likewise the chasing airplanes must of necessity be more rapid and manageable than those they are sent to protect.

BOMBING-PLANES. The number of machines composing a squadrilla of bombardment varies. Several squadrillas often start together to accomplish a mission, forming an aërial army. The machines thus detailed must be able to carry a heavy load of ammunition, also a provision of gasoline sufficient to allow them to remain a long time in the air.

To realize the progress made in the construction of such machines one has but to remember that, on the 15th of last October, an Italian airplane carrying a great weight in addition to its supply of gasoline, covered the distance from Turin to the English coast in ten hours.

The Italians have now at Washington a machine carrying twelve persons. All the Powers are building large airplanes intended to make bombardments more and more deadly.

At first, ordinary bombs were dropped from airplanes, but they are now supplied with special bombs filled with the most powerful explosives known (winged torpedoes), and also incendiary and asphyxiating projectiles. Special devices have been constructed which increase the accuracy of the aim, when dropping bombs.

These bombing-planes are armed with quick-firing guns, but are less handy and manageable than the battle-plane, whose protection, therefore, they require.

We are confident that our American friends will develop to the extreme limit their aviation of bombardment, and will train a great number of their aviators for long-distance flights by night or day. Very many of the most important military establishments in western Germany are within reach of our blows. Up to now the insufficiency of our material has been the sole reason of the failure of our aviation to attempt the destruction of her plants at Essen, Cologne, Manheim, Metz, etc. Certain expeditions have proved that all these places are within the reach of fairly good machines piloted by well-trained aviators.

What would become of the Essen works the day that 1200 or 1500 airplanes attacked them in groups of 30 or 40, following each other at ten-minute intervals; some bombarding the works with high-power torpedoes, others with incendiary bombs, others with suffocating projectiles, utterly demoralizing the workmen and spreading terror in their midst?

Certainly there would be losses, for the Germans have surrounded their works with numerous anti-aircraft guns, but would the more or less complete destruction of the Essen works be too dearly bought by the loss of a number of machines? Moreover we do not believe that a raid on their big plants, if well prepared and well carried out, would be very costly.

The use of aviation to destroy the enemy’s munition plants will, in our opinion, greatly hasten the end of the war, and spare a large number of lives.

If the war lasts, the long-distance aviation will have to be employed very extensively during the summer to set fire indiscriminately to the harvest in the enemy’s country, and even in the territory which they occupy as invaders, since there is no reason to spare the invaded sections as long as the natives are not allowed to have their share of the crops. Furthermore, devices will have to be invented to facilitate this work of destruction.

It is materially impossible to give the bombing-machines a speed equal to that of the battle-planes. Great importance however must be attached to the choice of motors and to obtaining the greatest speed possible.

All these machines have two propellers and some are provided with three motors.

The first bombing expeditions were undertaken during the first months of the war. From the very beginning, the Germans realized that airplanes could go far and strike dangerous blows. Paris was bombarded as early as September, 1914. In time, and as the machines were improved, the bombardments became more disastrous. In the course of the first half of 1915, British aviators dropped bombs on Friedrichshaven, the Zeppelin station on the Lake of Constance; French aviators attacked Stuttgart and Carlsruhe; and since the beginning of 1917, the Germans have multiplied their raids on London and the coasts of England.

We believe that bombing aviation, for purely military purposes, will assume an ever-increasing importance in the war.

OBSERVATION OR SCOUT-PLANES. On the French Front the old types of reconnoitring machines are being replaced as quickly as possible. They were too slow and not easy to control in case of an attack.

The services rendered by the reconnoitring airplanes are of the greatest importance. Their observations supply the Command with accurate information concerning everything that is taking place within the enemy’s lines; the condition of his front; the movements of troops in his rear; thus enabling the Chief to foresee his intentions and foil his plans.

In addition to reports of what they observe during their flights, the pilots obtain aërial photographs. This very important adjunct of our modern armies has been considerably improved.

Photos taken at an altitude of 2500 and 3000 metres (8000 to 10,000 feet) reproduce so accurately the configuration of the land with every object on it, that trained officers are able to observe in them the smallest changes that have been made. With this object in view they compare together several photos of the same place taken at different dates.

We include in our volume some aërial photographs of the German lines in the Aisne sector taken at the end of December, 1916, in January, 1917, and in April and May, 1917. The first show merely the enemy’s works before the French bombardment. The pictures taken in April of the same ground give an excellent idea of the progressive effect of the French artillery, and the last photographs, taken during the attacks of the 5th and 6th of May, show the final result of the tremendous shell-fire. In order to compare the changes effected from time to time, it is necessary to use a magnifying-glass, and to note successively each observation on a large-scale map called a “directing map.” This minute, painstaking method alone will enable the Staff to form an idea of the effect of the artillery, and the progressive demolition of the works and trenches of the enemy. Later on we will see that the observations reported by the reconnoitring aviation influence in a great measure the dispositions taken for attack.

The British attach, and rightly so, such importance to a strictly accurate record of the effects of their fire, that they are not satisfied with the usual charts, but construct for their principal staffs large-scale relief-maps including both their own and the German lines, works, and batteries, as revealed to them by photographs taken from airplanes and captive balloons. Officers of the General Staff are specially entrusted with the duty of recording on this relief-map all damage and destruction as fast as it is reported. When the order of attack is given, the British chiefs, knowing as far as it is possible what works they will find destroyed, and what points will offer a more or less stubborn resistance, make their dispositions accordingly.

No attack is possible if the Command is not daily informed by the photographic section. Even after a continuous bombardment it is more prudent to defer an attack if during the preceding days the weather has been so bad as to prevent the use of the aërial cameras.

USE OF SCOUT-PLANES TO DIRECT ARTILLERY FIRE. Special and sufficiently numerous squadrillas must be reserved for the exclusive use of the artillery, and more particularly for that of the heavy artillery in order to supply them with the proper range.

At times, captive balloons can help the heavy artillery in this respect, the gunners preferring them to airplanes; but these balloons are not always sufficiently numerous and cannot always see far enough.

The guiding airplane informs the batteries to which it is assigned of the effect of their shell-fire by means of wireless telegraphy, which has the advantage of not being interrupted by the terrific noise of the bombardment, whereas telephonic communication with a captive balloon is impossible without the use of special “hearing masks.”

Different kinds of rockets can also be employed for indicating the range under certain circumstances.

USE OF SCOUT-PLANES TO DIRECT THE MOVEMENTS OF INFANTRY. The squadrillas of a Division are provided with devices for guiding the movements of infantry.

Their duties are manifold. At all times they are kept hovering over the first lines to watch the enemy and give warning of all unusual moves.

During an assault their principal duty is to secure the indispensable unity of action between the infantry and the field artillery. As we will explain further on, every attack made by the infantry is screened by a terrific barrage fire that advances about one hundred yards ahead of the first wave. In order that such a barrage may continue to be properly effective it must progress at the same speed as the infantry.

For this purpose scout-planes are equipped with a special rocket, that signals, “Increase the range.” Each rocket sent calls for an increase of one hundred metres in the range.

During the fight the duties of the aviator as watchdog of the infantry do not cease. He has to observe the slightest moves of the enemy, and he is usually able to warn his commanders of the preparation of counter-attacks, of their direction, and of their strength.

The services rendered by the guiding aviation to the artillery and infantry are obviously of capital importance. Its mission, if properly executed, is extremely hard and laborious, hence the necessity, in the future, of increasing the number and efficiency of these squadrillas as much as possible. In order that they may operate successfully they must be closely protected by powerful battle-planes, unless the latter have already cleared the region of enemy machines and left them the mastery of the air.

AVIATION DURING BATTLES. Since the battle of the Somme, the British and French aviation has taken, day by day, a more and more direct part in the actual fighting. The Germans, whose aircraft were originally employed only for scouting purposes, were not slow in imitating them.

During all the recent Franco-British offensives, machines of all types were seen flying down as low as one hundred and even fifty yards above the enemy’s terrain, raking the reserve lines with machine-gun fire, shooting down the gunners of exposed batteries, surprising reinforcements on the march or coming up in troop trains, and spreading disorder everywhere.

In Artois, a moving train attacked by three British machines was wrecked with great loss to its crowded freight of infantry.

It is a pleasure for a Frenchman to pay to the British aviators the tribute well earned by their valour and enterprise. Sportsmen that they are, the English from the very first have taken to aviation as a sport, and have given themselves to it heart and soul. The results they have achieved are wonderful. They might perhaps have accomplished feats equally brilliant with smaller losses; nevertheless we cannot but admire the high courage of their young men, who, scorning death, have bent all their energies to achieve success.

The preceding brief summary of the uses of aviation in the present war justifies what we wrote at the beginning, viz., the side that has the uncontested supremacy in the air, the side that has done away with the adversary’s aviation, will be very near the final victory.

But in order to safely and rapidly reach this result, the Americans should, in the organization of their flying corps, consent, at least in the beginning, to make a sacrifice of their pride as inventors.

It will be absolutely necessary for them to commence the fight in the air with none but planes already successfully tested at the front in the various branches of the aërial service. It matters little what types they select from among the best now in use by the French, British, Italians, and even by the Germans; the important point is the achievement of swift and sure results, and these can be obtained only with such aircraft as have proved their worth in actual warfare.

Otherwise, the Americans would expose themselves, at the start, to the useless loss of numerous planes, and the sacrifice of many precious lives. They would delay for several months the perfection of an arm which is expected to give prompt and decisive results on the Western Front, and thus cause as great a disappointment to the American as to the Allied Armies.

The adoption of such a policy would not, however, prevent the American engineers from improving progressively upon their original aircraft. During the last three years airplanes have been continually modified and improved. Still greater improvements may be expected in the future, and in this line a vast field remains open to the American genius.

=4. Hydroplanes.= A brief mention should be made of hydroplanes, or sea-planes, which, although usually equipped only with the pontoons that enable them to alight upon the water, are equally fitted for a landing on terra firma by the super-addition of wheels. Most of the British attacks upon the German airdromes, encampments, and fortified lines on or near the Belgian coast have been made from hydroplanes. These machines have proved of great value for patrolling the coast against submarines. The aviators can see the submarines at a certain depth under water, and following in pursuit, they attack them by dropping special bombs, which, like those used by destroyers when passing over a submarine, are so constructed as to explode at a certain depth by water pressure even if they do not strike their target. The force of the explosion is sufficient within a radius of many metres to disjoint the plates of the submarine.

=5. Balloons--Zeppelins.= At the outset of the war the Germans had a marked superiority in dirigible balloons. They had then already completed their particular type of rigid dirigible balloon, the Zeppelin, which they have since improved and multiplied to the full extent of their ability. Only at sea have they used them for strictly military purposes, observing very advantageously by their means the British fleet and flotillas. In the fighting on the Western Front they have used their Zeppelins but once, in the course of their attempt upon Verdun, when an effort was made to destroy the Paris-Verdun railroad track. Two days before the attack they dispatched a couple of the great airships on this errand, but one was brought down and the other was driven away before they could accomplish their mission.

All the other Zeppelin expeditions on the Western Front have been made not against combatants but against towns. While they have caused a great many casualties among the civilian population in the Allied countries, a large number of them have been shot down.

France has used for distant expeditions a few non-rigid dirigibles and has lost several of them.

England, for the protection of the Irish sea and the Channel, uses some very swift little dirigibles which are very easily handled and form an excellent submarine patrol, but as fighting units they are worthless and are obliged to flee from hostile airplanes.