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Aviation History
1915
1915 - 0222.PDF
raid on Antwerp which took place last week, in which Squadron-Commander Ivor T. Courtney and Flight-Lieut. H. Rosher managed to drop four bombs each on the submarines in course of erection at Hoboken, comes to be considered in detail, we may have occasion to record further honours in favour of these successful officers, who, to ensure hitting the objective for which they took iheir hazardous flight, risked their chance of fatal consequences ® ® BRITISH AERIA TIME and again when there have been adverse articles in the Press upon the future of aviation, we have not un naturally strongly protested against the belittling of so great a science, and pointing out the enormous possibili ties which were in store for a British aeronautic industry, if only it were sufficiently encouraged, and in good time. Of course the reply in many cases in those days—now we think there are few who fail to grasp its importance— was that we were prejudiced, and as a rule it had to go at that. But time, and the present European upheaval, have been on our side, and there can be no manner of doubt but that the science of aviation will bring about one of the greatest revolutions in certain directions that the world has ever witnessed. There is little need now for us to sound the trumpet of appreciation. Writers in every direction vie with each other in pointing the moral of the necessity for our supremacy in the air. And we are right glad to welcome this evidence of awakening —even though it has been tardy. These reflections are but an introduction to drawing attention to a remarkable article in the Evening Standard upon the establishment of British aerial supremacy, by Colonel F. N. Maude, C.B., than whom, we are of opinion, there is no more able critic in the daily Press upon the progress and prospects of the present war. Had the opinions emanated from FLIGHT, they would have been regarded by the uninformed man in the street as wildly extravagant. But coming from so eminent an authority as Col. Maude, the expressions of conviction as to the future triumph of the British Air Services, must carry conviction with the general public who have any appreciation of men who know. The following is the main portion of Col. Maude's tribute of about a fortnight ago :— " The situation which exists along the fighting front from Flanders to the Rhine has no parallel in all military history. Even six months ago not the most sanguine believer in the futuie of aircraft could have dared to prophesy what has actually come to pass. "Naturally it was quite clear that if one army was equipped with reliable flying machines while the opponents' were not, the advantages to the former must be very considerable ; but no one expected that as between the Great Powers of Europe, any one l'ower or group of Powers could establish such an ascendancy as to control the air, for all practical purposes, as if no enemy airciaft were to be feared in opposition. Yet this is what is happening in France, and the consequent gain to the Allies is extraordinary. "From the moment that they, in their advance from the Marne, found themselves confronted by an overwhelming number of siege guns, they decided to outbuild and out-class their adversaries, both in number of guns and stores of ammunition, and substantially the time required by the artillery manufacturing establishments has been one of the principal causes of the long delay in turning the Germans out of France and Belgium. " Meanwhile the triumphant reign of our airmen, which increases with every month, .... has completely altered the nature of the problem before us, and has rendered it possible to obtain entire superiority over the enemy artillery. " It is this (actor, which was quite unforeseen, indeed unforesee able, that now dominates everything else, and enabled us to claim, in the words of the French official report published last week, that * recent operations (about Beausejour, Perthes, and so forth under- APRIL 2, 1915. by descending, over a perfect maze of anti-aircraft guns, to 1,000 ft. It is well that the outstanding services of the Royal Flying Corps are thus again quickly acknow ledged, as although war aviation is hardly yet born, it is encouraging to be able to look forward, under the circum stances, with the greatest confidence to its becoming as vast in its own special sphere, and of corresponding im portance to Great Britain, as the Navy hitherto has ranked. 8 ® L SUPREMACY. stood) show that at a given point, and at a given hour, we are free to do what we will.' " It means, briefly, that even while we have been waiting for the accumulation of the stores necessary for our attainment of the desired degree of supremacy, that supremacy itself—unconditional and unevadable—has quietly fallen into our hands, almost without conscious volition. From this time onward we can make the enemy reserves dance to our tune, the power which every general has always desired, but none before has ever obtained. " If we want to draw a German reinforcement from west to east, or vice versa, we have only to develop an attack—as, for instance, between the two points above-named—threatening the lateral lines of communication, and the German Staff must rush up troops to answer our offensive, and go on spending their men in wasteful counter attacks, on pain of a loss which would presently compel a concen tration to the rear. " This has all along been the inner meaning of the almost daily reference in the communiques to ' artillery duels, in which we obtained a superiority,'or similar phrases; but the ultimate conse quences which must ensue from the acquisition of such a complete artillery ascendancy are so overwhelming that one has never quite dared to formulate, even in one's own mind, all the changes in the conduct of warfare on land which must follow what is primarily due to our conduct of war in the air. " The one thing which is certain is that we can never afford to allow this advantage to slip from our grasp. We must go on build ing and perfecting aeroplanes and training pilots with all possible energy, and should red tape and official lethargy intervene, then this is one of the cases where private capitalists might come to the front and find the means to double and treble oui flying squadrons." Last week, Col. Maude returned to his subject when dealing with the all-important question raised by Lord Kitchener on the lack of supplies. After pointing out that no foresight could have foreseen the extraordinary demands which the war has made on Britain, Col. Maude remarks that firstly the bad weather has helped us by giving us time to adapt ourselves to the great upheaval from peace to war, and then continues as follows :— " Next in importance comes the ascendancy gained by our flying men, both French and British-—a factor we certainly never counted upon when our first estimates of the resources of all kinds necessary for the campaign were made. " The effect of this flying conquest must be to diminish enor mously the expenditure of ammunition, great and small, needed to achieve our particular purpose on each and every field of land action, and against this advantage the enemy has nothing efficient to oppose. " The sequence of cause and effect runs as follows : If, thanks to our aeroplanes, we can locate or knock out the enemy's big guns in ten rounds instead of a hundred, we not only save ninety rounds of ammunition, but are free to turn on the enemy trenches the more quickly. Again, thanks to aeroplanes, we can either smash them more completely, because of better shooting for the same number of rounds, or at least overpower the enemy sufficiently for a lesser number of shots and in less time. " A shorter time is here the most important advantage of the two, for the attack then comes more in the nature of a surprise, and the enemy's reserves will therefore probably come up too late to be of any use. " In either case the presumption is that our infantry will use less ammunition and obtain greater results in each particular engage ment. The success of the Neuve Chapelle attack is a case in point. "Good shooting made such a living hell of the enemy position that where not obstructed by wire our men carried their first objective in a few minutes, hardly needing to shoot at all, and they then proceeded to inflict a perfectly teriible punishment on the counter-attacking enemy." 222
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