Aviation in World War I
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One of the many innovations of World War I, aircraft were first used for reconnaissance purposes and later as fighters and even bombers. Consequently, this was the first war which involved a struggle for control of the air, which turned it into another battlefield, alongside the battlefields of the land and the sea[1]. Yet given the early state of development of aircraft at the time, aerial combat missions played a relatively small part in determining the outcome of the war. It would take another world war before military aircraft would be used to their full potential.
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[edit] History
[edit] Prewar development
About ten years after the Wright brothers made the first powered flight, there was still much to be improved upon. Because of limitations of the engines of the time, aircraft could only afford a certain amount of weight and therefore were made of mostly of hardwood (braced with steel wires) and canvas doped with flammable liquid[2]. Aside from these primitive materials, even the rudimentary engineering of the time meant aircraft might suffer a structural failure pulling out of dives, resulting in shedding the wing or tail.
As early as 1909, these evolving flying machines were recognized to be not just toys, but weapons:
The sky is about to become another battlefield no less important than the battlefields on land and sea.... In order to conquer the air, it is necessary to deprive the enemy of all means of flying, by striking at him in the air, at his bases of operation, or at his production centers. We had better get accustomed to this idea, and prepare ourselves.
– Giulio Douhet (Italian staff officer), 1909[2]
In 1911 Captain Bertram Dickson, the first British military officer to fly, also correctly prophesized the military use of aircraft. He predicted that aircraft would first be used for reconnaissance purposes, but that this would develop into each side trying to "hinder or prevent the enemy from obtaining information", which would eventually turn into a battle for control of the skies. This is exactly the sequence of events that would occur several years later.[2]
[edit] The early years of war
[edit] The dawn of air combat
Aircraft were initially used as mobile observation vehicles[3] with the responsibility of mapping enemy positions below. This was an improvement over previous observation vehicles such as the Zeppelin, which was too large and slow moving (and therefore an easy target) and the observation balloon, which had to be tethered to the ground and wasn't very mobile.
As Dickson predicted, both the Entente and Central powers first used aircraft only for observation purposes. When rival observation planes crossed paths, the aviators at first exchanged smiles and waves[3]. This soon progressed to throwing bricks, grenades, and other objects, even rope, which they hoped would tangle the enemy plane's propeller.[4] Eventually pilots began firing handheld firearms at enemy planes[3]. Once the guns were mounted to the aircraft, the era of air combat began.
[edit] Aircraft
Aircraft of this early period included the Maurice Farman "Shorthorn" and "Longhorn", D.F.W. BI, Rumpler Taube, B.E. 2a, A.E.G. BII, Bleriot XI, and the Penguin.
Even with their mechanical problems and technological limitations, observation planes played a critical role in the battles on the ground in 1914, especially in helping the allies halt the German invasion of France. On August 22, 1914, British Captain L.E.O. Charlton and Lieutenant V.H.N. Wadham reported that German General Alexander von Kluck’s army was starting to prepare to surround the BEF, contradicting all other intelligence. The British High Command listened to the pilots’ report and started a retreat toward Mons--destroying morale but saving the lives of 100,000 soldiers. Later during the First Battle of Marne, observation planes discovered weak points and exposed flanks in the German lines, allowing the allies to take advantage of them. [5]
[edit] Problems mounting machine guns
Another major limitation was the early mounting of machine guns, which was awkward due to the position of the propeller. It would seem most natural to place the gun between the pilot and the propeller, so they would be able to aim down its sight as well as service it during a gun jam. However, this gun position presents an obvious problem - the bullets would fly directly into the propeller.
Frenchman Roland Garros attempted to solve this problem by attaching metal deflector wedges to the blades of his propeller, which he hoped would guide bullets away. Garros managed to score several kills with his deflector modification, yet it was still an inadequate and dangerous solution, as when Germany tried this, their steel-jacketed bullets shattered the wedges. The French Hotchkiss machine gun (as well as the Lewis gun) used by the Allies used more conventional copper- and brass-jacketed ammunition.
One of the remedies at this time was to mount the gun to fire above the propeller. This required the gun to be mounted on the top wing of biplanes and to be propped up and secured by complicated, drag inducing mounting in monoplanes. Because the gun could not be reached, it could not be serviced during a gun jam, nor could ammunition belts or drums be changed. Eventually the excellent Foster mounting became more or less the standard way of mounting a Lewis gun in this position in the R.F.C. - this allowed the gun to be slid back for drum changing, and also to be fired up at an angle - a very effective way of attacking an enemy from the "blind spot" under his tail. But this type of mounting was still only possible for a biplane with a top wing positioned near the apex of the propeller's arc - it put considerable strain on the fragile wing structures of the period, and it was much less rigid than a gun mounting on the fuselage - producing a greater "scatter" of bullets, especially at anything but very short range.
Another solution was the use of "pusher" types, widely used by the French and British in the early part of the war. The pusher design had a propeller mouted behind the pilot, facing the rear, and "pushing" rather than "pulling" the plane through the air. This provided the opportunity to optimally mount the gun, which could be fired directly forward without an obstructing propeller, and of course reloaded and repaired in-flight. The drawback was that pusher planes - because of the struts and rigging necessary to hold their tail units, and the extra drag this entailed, tended at best to have an inferior performance to a "tractor" type with the same engine.
The principle of a synchronized gun - essentially allowing the engine to fire the gun at the same speed as the turning propeller and allowing the bullets to pass unimpeded between the blades - had actually occurred to inventors in Britain, France and Germany well before the war, and several gears had been designed. There was however a great reluctance to try the idea out in practice - since it was all too obvious what would happen if the gear were to go wrong! The Fokker concern were the first aircraft manufacturer to "bite the bullet" and actually offer this solution to the German Air Service - producing the famous Fokker Eindecker fighters. Crude as these little monoplanes were, they led in part to a period of German air dominance , known as the Fokker Scourge by the allies because of the losses inflicted by Fokker aircraft. These had a psychological effect that exceeded the material one - the Allies had up to now been more or less unchallenged in the air, and the vulnerability of their older reconnaisance aircraft - especially the British B.E.2 and the French Farman pushers came as a very nasty shock.
The Lewis gun, used on many early Allied aircraft, was very hard to synchronize due to its firing cycle starting with an empty, and open, breech, ready to receive a round. Although some synchronized Lewis mountings were made, especially in the R.N.A.S) these were never entirely satisfactory. The Maxim-style machine guns used by both the Allies (as the Vickers gun) and Germany (as the LMG 14 Parabellum and LMG 08 Spandau guns) had a firing cycle that started with a bullet already in the breech and the breech closed, which meant the firing of the bullet was the next step in the cycle, making synchronizing those Maxim-style machine guns considerably easier.
[edit] 1915: The Fokker Scourge
In 1915, Anthony Fokker designed the synchronizer gear, which turned the tide of war in Germany's favor. This ingenious device mechanically linked the gun to the propeller, allowing it to fire between blades. This was first fitted in the spring of 1915 to the production prototypes of the Fokker Eindekker, known as the Fokker M.5K/MG, making it top-of-the-line in design, maneuverability (although the Eindekker used wing warping for roll control), and most importantly, gun placement. Leutnant Kurt Wintgens, on July 1, 1915, scored the earliest known victory for a synchronized gun-equipped fighter with his M.5K/MG over a two-seat Morane Saulnier Parasol near Luneville, France. The result was devastating for the Allied powers, and gave the Germans almost total control of the air. Soon Allied planes were forced to flee for home at the mere sight of German monoplanes. A solution was needed, and quickly.
The E.III's foil came in the form of the Nieuport 11, a biplane with a tractor prop and, as needed, a cowl gun. The key event which allowed the Allies to reverse-engineer the German technology occurred when a German pilot became lost in heavy fog over France. The pilot and plane were captured when it landed, giving the Allies access to its technology.
Another plane contributing to the end of the Fokker Scourge was the British pusher Airco DH-2. It suffered from mechanical reliability problems, but was far superior to the E.III.
The Fokker E-III, Airco DH-2, and the Nieuport 11 would be the first in a long line of fighter aircraft used by both sides during the war. Fighter planes were primarily used to shoot down enemy planes, mainly the enemy's two-seat planes used for recon and bombing missions. Because of this, another key role of fighter planes was to protect their own two-seat planes from enemy fighters while they carried out their mission. Fighters were also used to attack ground targets with small loads of bombs and by strafing them with their machine guns.
[edit] April 1917: Bloody April
In April the Allies launched a joint offensive with the British attacking near Arras in Artois, northern France, while the French Nivelle Offensive was launched on the Aisne and the air forces were called on to provide support, predominantly in reconnaissance and artillery spotting.
However, the Germans were prepared for the offensive, and were equipped with the new Albatros D-III, "the best fighting scout on the Western Front"[6] at the time.
The month became known as Bloody April by the Allied air forces. The Royal Flying Corps suffered losses so severe it came close to being annihilated. However, they managed to keep the German Air Force on the defensive, largely preventing them from from using their planes on bombing or reconnaissance missions to assist their troops on the ground.
Shortly after "Bloody April", the Allies re-equipped their squadrons with new planes such as the Sopwith Pup, and SE5a which helped tip the balance back in their favor. The Germans responded with new fighters as well, such the Fokker Dr.I but these were countered by the British Sopwith Camel and French SPAD S.XIII. As a result, neither side managed to take a clear technological advantage for the remainder of the war, but eventually the Allies would gain the advantage in numbers and material toward the end of the year.
[edit] Up to 1918: the final years of war
The final year of the war (1918) saw increasing shortages of supplies on the side of the Central Powers. Captured Allied planes were scrounged for every available material, even to the point of draining the lubricants from damaged engines just to keep one more German plane flyable. Manfred von Richthofen, the famed Red Baron credited with around 80 victories, was killed in April, possibly by an Australian anti-aircraft machinegunner (although Royal Air Force pilot Captain Arthur Roy Brown was officially credited), and the leadership of Jagdgeschwader 1 eventually passed to Hermann Göring, future head of Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe. Germany introduced the Fokker D.VII, both loved and loathed to the point that surrender of all surviving examples was specifically ordered by the victorious allies.
This year also saw the United States increasingly involved. While American volunteers had been flying in Allied squadrons since the early years of the war, it wasn't until 1918 when all-American squadrons begin patrolling the skies above the trenches. At first, the Americans were largely supplied with second-rate weapons and obsolete planes, such as the Nieuport 28. As American numbers grew, equipment improved, including the SPAD S.XIII, one of the best French planes in the war. By the end of World War I, four American aviators were awarded the Medal of Honor: Fighter pilots Eddie Rickenbacker and Frank Luke, along with recon pilot Harold Goettler and his observer, Erwin Beckley, a member of the Kansas Army National Guard who had volunteered for aviation duty. Beckley was the first of only three National Guard aviators to be awarded the Medal of Honor during the 20th century.[5]
[edit] Impact
By the war's end, the impact of air missions compared to the ground war was relatively small. This was partly due to its restricted funding and use, as it was, after all, a new technology. Some, such as General William Mitchell, claimed that "the only damage that has come to [Germany] has been through the air"[7]. Mitchell was famously controversial in his view that the future of war wasn't on the ground or at sea, but in the air:
"The day has passed when armies on the ground or navies on the sea can be the arbiter of a nation's destiny in war. The main power of defense and the power of initiative against an enemy has passed to the air."
It took World War II for the rest of the world to be convinced of this. Finally, in 1946, Mitchell was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor, "in recognition of his outstanding pioneer service and foresight in the field of American military aviation".[9]
[edit] Anti-aircraft weaponry
Though aircraft still functioned as vehicles of observation, increasingly it was used as a weapon in itself. Dog fights erupted in the skies over the front lines - planes went down in flames and heroes were born. From this air-to-air combat, the need grew for better planes and gun armament. Aside from machine guns, air-to-air rockets were also used like the Le Prieur rocket against balloons and airships.
This need for improvement was not limited to air-to-air combat. On the ground, methods developed before the war were being used to deter enemy planes from observation and bombing. Anti-aircraft artillery rounds were fired into the air and exploded into clouds of smoke and fragmentation, called archie by the allies, providing enemy aircraft with an obstacle course to fly around.
Anti-aircraft artillery defenses were increasingly used around observation balloons, which became frequent targets of enemy fighters equipped with special incendiary bullets. Because balloons were so flammable, due to the hydrogen used to inflate them, observers were given parachutes, enabling them to jump to safety. Ironically, only a few aircrew had the luxury of parachutes, due in part to a mistaken belief they inhibited aggressiveness (and in part to early aircraft being unable to lift their significant weight).
[edit] Bombers and recon planes
As the stalemate developed on the ground, with both sides unable to advance even a few miles without a major battle and thousands of casualties, planes became greatly valued for their role gathering intelligence on enemy positions and bombing the enemy's supplies behind the trench lines. Large planes with a pilot and an observer were used to recon enemy positions and bomb their supply bases. Because they were large and slow, these planes made easy targets for enemy fighter planes. As a result, both sides used pursuit (fighter) aircraft to both attack the enemy's two-seat planes and protect their own while carrying out their missions.
While the two-seat bombers and Recon planes were slow and vulnerable, they were not defenseless. Two-seat planes had the advantage of both forward and rear firing guns. Typically, the pilot controlled fixed guns behind the propeller, similar to guns in a fighter plane, while the observer controlled a mounted machine gun that he could aim with a 180 arc at incoming fighters behind the plane. Furthermore, two-seat planes could dive at very high speeds due to their excessive weight, allowing them to put some distance between them and enemy fighters. Also, pursuing a diving two-seater was hazardous for a fighter pilot, as it would place the fighter directly in the rear-gunner's line of fire. Several high scoring aces of the war were shot down by "lowly" two-seaters, including Raoul Lufbery and Robert Little.
- Bombers of WWI (file info) — Watch in browser
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[edit] Strategic bombing
The first ever aerial bombardment of civilians was during World War I. On January 19, 1915[10], two German Zeppelins dropped 24 fifty-kilogram high-explosive bombs and ineffective three-kilogram incendiaries on Great Yarmouth, Sheringham, King's Lynn, and the surrounding villages. In all, four people were killed, sixteen injured, and monetary damage was estimated at £7,740, although the public and media reaction were out of proportion to the death toll.
There were a further nineteen raids in 1915, in which 37 tons of bombs were dropped, killing 181 people and injuring 455. Raids continued in 1916. London was accidentally bombed in May, and, in July, the Kaiser allowed directed raids against urban centres. There were 23 airship raids in 1916 in which 125 tons of ordnance were dropped, killing 293 people and injuring 691. Gradually British air defenses improved. In 1917 and 1918 there were only eleven Zeppelin raids against England, and the final raid occurred on August 5, 1918, which resulted in the death of KK Peter Strasser, commander of the German Naval Airship Department. By the end of the war, 51 raids had been undertaken, in which 5,806 bombs were dropped, killing 557 people and injuring 1,358. The Zeppelin raids were complemented by the Gotha ER bomber, which was the first heavier than air bomber to be used for strategic bombing. It has been argued that the raids were effective far beyond material damage in diverting and hampering wartime production, and diverting twelve squadrons and over 10,000 men to air defenses. The calculations which were performed on the number of dead to the weight of bombs dropped would have a profound effect on the attitudes of the British authorities and population in the interwar years.
[edit] Observation balloons
Manned observation balloons floating high above the trenches were used as stationary reconnaissance points on the front lines, reporting enemy troop positions and directing artillery fire. Balloons commonly had a crew of two personnel equipped with parachutes: upon an enemy air attack on the flammable balloon the balloon crew would parachute to safety. Recognized for their value as observer platforms, Observation balloons were important targets of enemy aircraft. To defend against air attack, they were heavily protected by large concentrations antiaircraft guns and patrolled by friendly aircraft. Blimps and balloons helped contribute to the stalemate of the trench warfare of World War I, and the balloons contributed to air to air combat among the aircraft to defend the skies for air superiority because of their significant reconnaissance value.
In order to encourage their pilots to attack enemy balloons whenever they were found, both sides counted downing an enemy balloon as an "air-to-air" kill, with the same value as shooting down an enemy plane. Some pilots, known as balloon busters, became particularly distinguished by their prowess at shooting down enemy balloons. Perhaps the most well known was American ace Frank Luke: 14 of his 18 kills were enemy balloons.
[edit] Notable aces
| Name | Confirmed Victories | Country | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manfred von Richthofen † | 80 | Germany | The Red Baron, Pour le Mérite |
| René Fonck | 75 | France | Top Allied ace, and all-time Allied Ace of Aces in all conflicts. |
| Edward Mannock † | 73 disputed | UK | Top scoring United Kingdom ace.-disputed |
| Billy Bishop | 72 disputed | Canada | Top-scoring British Empire ace.-disputed |
| Raymond Collishaw | 62 | Canada | Top Royal Naval Air Service ace. |
| Ernst Udet | 62 | Germany | Second highest scoring German ace. |
| James McCudden † | 57 | UK | Victoria Cross, Croix de Guerre. One of the longest serving aces (from 1913 to 1918) |
| Georges Guynemer † | 53 | France | First French ace to attain 50 victories. |
| Roderic Dallas † | 51 (disputed) | Australia | Australian. |
| William Barker | 50 | Canada | |
| Werner Voss † | 48 | Germany | One time friendly rival of Manfred von Richthofen |
| George Edward Henry McElroy † | 47 | UK | Highest-scoring Irish-born ace. |
| Robert Little † | 47 | Australia (serving under Britain) | |
| Albert Ball † | 44 | UK | Victoria Cross |
| Charles Nungesser | 43 | France | Légion d'Honneur, Médaille Militaire |
| Lothar von Richthofen | 40 | Germany | Pour le Mérite, brother of Manfred. |
| Oswald Boelcke † | 40 | Germany | Pour le Mérite Legendary German air hero, killed in 1916. |
| Theo Osterkamp | 38 (32 in WWI, 6 in WWII) | Germany | |
| Julius Buckler | 36 | Germany | Pour le Mérite |
| Francesco Baracca † | 34 | Italy | Top-scoring Italy ace. |
| Karl Allmenröder † | 30 | Germany | Pour le Mérite |
| Keith Park | 30 | New Zealand | Leading New Zealand ace, flying with Australia. Croix de Guerre |
| A. H. "Harry" Cobby | 30 | Australia | Once thought to be highest scoring ace. |
| Eddie Rickenbacker | 26 | United States | Top United States Ace of WW I. |
| Hermann Göring | 22 | Germany | Pour le Mérite, later a main leader of Nazi Germany and commander of the Luftwaffe. |
| William C. Lambert | 21.5 | United States | Second highest scoring American ace. |
| Aleksandr Kazakov | 20 | Imperial Russia | Top-scoring Russia ace. |
| Frank Luke † | 18 | United States | Medal of Honor "Arizona Balloon Buster" |
| Raoul Lufbery † | 17 | United States and France | Leader of the Lafayette Escadrille |
| Max Immelmann † | 15 | Germany | Pour le Mérite |
| Field Kindley | 12 | United States, served under Britain | |
| Indra Lal Roy † | 10 | India | India's only ace. |
| Donald Cunnell † | 9 | UK | Shot down Manfred von Richthofen |
| Lanoe Hawker † | 9 | UK | Victoria Cross. Britain's first ace. |
| Christopher Draper | 9 | UK | "The Mad Major". Croix de Guerre |
| Roland Garros † | 5 | France | First nonstop flight across the Mediterranean Sea (1913). Attached metal deflectors to propellor in order to have a forward-firing gun. |
[edit] Notable aircraft
See also Category:World War I aircraft.
[edit] Popular culture
The highest scoring flying ace, Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron, is the main subject of popular culture. He has had many references in popular culture.
Red Baron and Red Baron 3D were popular flight simulators based on WWI Aviation.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Reconnaissance ballooning existed long before, as it was first used in the American Civil War. However, control of the air played no part in that war.
- ^ a b c Knights of the Air (1980) by Ezra Bowen, part of Time-Life's The Epic of Flight series. Pg. 24, 26
- ^ a b c An Illustrated History of World War One, at http://www.wwiaviation.com/earlywar.html
- ^ Great Battles of World War I by Major-General Sir Jeremy Moore, p. 136
- ^ http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Air_Power/WWI-reconnaissance/AP2.htm [1]
- ^ Fitzsimons, Bernard, ed. The Twentieth Century Encyclopedia of Weapons and Warfare (London: Phoebus, 1978), Volume 1, "Albatros D", p.65
- ^ a b "Leaves From My War Diary" by General William Mitchell, in Great Battles of World War I: In The Air (1966), Publisher: Signet. Pg. 192, 193 (November 1918).
- ^ This quote was also mentioned in the Time Magazine issued on Jun. 22, 1942 [2], some seven months after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, which Mitchell accurately predicted in 1924.
- ^ http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/mohspec.htm [3]
- ^ http://www.wardsbookofdays.com/19january.htm [4]
[edit] See also
[edit] Main articles
[edit] Other articles
[edit] References
- The Great War, television documentary by the BBC.
- Pearson, George, Aces: A Story of the First Air War, historical advice by Brereton Greenhous and Philip Markham, NFB, 1993. Contains assertion aircraft created trench stalemate.
- Winter, Denis. First of the Few. London: Allen Lane/Penguin, 1982. Coverage of the British air war, with extensive bibliographical notes.
- Morrow, John. German Air Power in World War I. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1982. Contains design and production figures, as well as economic influences.
- Editors of American Heritage. History of WW1. Simon & Schuster, 1964.
[edit] External links
- Rosebud's WWI and Early Aviation Image Archive
- Bombing during World War I
- Flyboys - World War I aviation movie
- - Aerial Russia - the Romance of the Giant Airplane - aviation in Russian before and during WWI - online book
Italian Aircraft:
