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Aviation History
1916
1916 - 0594.PDF
shot down five enemy aeroplanes—one near Nieuport, two near Cambrai, two near Bapaume—and two captive balloons, one on the Somme and the other on the Mease. Senior-Lieutenants Wale and Gerliet bare put out of action their fourth, Lieutenant Leffer his fifth, Lieutenant Parschau his eighth opponent. The Emperor has bestowed upon the last-named the Order of Merit. " German aeroplanes successfully attacked enemy dug-outs east of the Stokhcd." Austrian. Vienna, July 9*1. " North-west of Dubno our airmen dropped bombs on a group o± farms occupied by the Staff of a Russian Army Corps. The enemy immediately hoisted the Geneva flag on the threatened houses." Turkish. Constantinople, July 8M. " A French aeroplane mother-ship appeared before Haifa. Two From Other Some idea of the part played by the Royal Flying Corps in the great advance is furnished in the accompanying resume from Renter's special correspondent at the British Headquarters :— " When the history of the Battle of the Somtne comes to be written in its true perspective, I think it will be found that one of the most brilliant facets in this whole lustrous chapter of our military story is tht share which our airmen bore in the fighting, and the influence they exercised upon the course of it. "There is no need to wait upon history, however, to pay a fitting tribute to the Royal Flying Corps. Never at any time has the mastery of the air been so completely in the hands of our men as it is to-day. What was achieved by British aviators on July 1st and in the subsequent fighting has been no mere spontaneous result, but rather the culmination of weeks of arduous devotion and gallantry. How far this is true may be best illustrated by the circumstance that not a single German aeroplane crossed our lines during the opening attack between Gommecourt and the Somme. nor is it at all clear lhat any enemy kite balloons were in the air during that eventful morning, although I counted eight of our own from the Albert Ridge, where I viewed the bombardment. "The truth is that the destruction of nine German 'sausages'— siv in one coup—within the past few weeks has had a demoralising effect upon the Boche airmen. Prisoners admit this and go further, stating that their gunners are considerably handicapped by the mischief we have wrought with their aerial reconnaissance, and that so venturesome have our ' plane squadrons' become that their men in the trenches often get the 'jumps' at night and blaze away with machine-guns at machines which are 'asleep' in their aerodromes miles away. " It is unquestionably due to the magnificent work of our airmen, which so largely neutralised the enterprise of the enemy aviators, that the Germans remained in doubt, until the attack actually came, as to where the present offensive would really develop. By sheer daring and perseverance our fliers rendered it so difficult for the hostile machines to get a view of the ground behind our lines that they were unable to get any correct intelligence of our concentra tions and gun positions. They were literally harassed night and day. It was British aeroplanes that brought down the enemy kite-halloons, swooping to within 150 ft. of them with a cool dis regard for the showers of ' Archies' which they drew around them, and then bankirg clear of the exploding hulk when the missiles had found their mark. ''Small wonder that the German observers hesitate to court a similar fate at the hands of such intrepid foes. And here I may say that the risks which our Flying Corps have had to face throughout the present offensive have been greatly accentuated by the bad weather conditions, necessitating flying at very low altitudes well within machine-gun range from the ground. " Apropos, I see that the German wireless issued last night claims that only seven Boche machines have been brought down during the month of June. I put the question as to how far this tallied with our information to one well-qualified to give an accurate answer. After referring to certain records, he totalled the number at twenty- one (most of them certain crashes, and all of them he described as * sitters ') to the credit of the British airmen alone, without reference to what the French—who are bracketed in the modest German claim—have accounted for. " So completely have the Royal Flying Corps now established domination of the air over the length of the front that our machines virtually are never molested now during their reconnaissance flights save by anti-aircraft guns. The one-time redoubtable Fokker nowadays keeps well within her own boundaries, and in the last recorded fight with this type, when a squadron of British aircraft were bombing an important station to keep the Germans occupied in these parts while our offensive was beginning southward, no less than twenty of them came buzzing around our machines, and the only result was that two of them bit the dust violently, while all ours JULY 13, 1916. - • seaplanes went up, one of which fell into the sea. The pilot and observe were rescued by the other seaplane. We brought the fallen seaplane, which was undamaged, to the coast, and found in it bombs, a machine-gun and munitions." Constantinople, July gth. "Last Friday a British aeroplane parent ship and a French torpedo-boat arrived off Beirut. An aeroplone ascended from the ship and dropped bombs in the vicinity of the port, wounding three civilians." Bulgarian. Sofia, July 4th. " An enemy aeroplane appeared for a short time over Sofia at 8 o'clock yesterday morning, and dropped eight bombs on various parts ol the town without doing any damage. As soon as it was fired at by anti-aircraft guns it fled." Sources. returned. This fine incident may well stand as typical of the domi nance which the British have attained. " But let it not be supposed that the aviator has nothing more to do than jump into his seat, take off, and scurry away in quest of fresh glory, in order to maintain his reputation. There is no branch of the British Army which works harder. For the past week the mechanics of the Royal Flying Corps have been kept busy every livelong night, not because the aeroplanes have received any abnormal degree of damage, but in o'.der to keep things at the concert pitch of proficiency. As a result I honestly believe that our air squadrons are actually stronger to-day than they were before the beginning of the offensive, which is tantamount to saying that they are stronger than ever they were before. " Not only are the airmen the ' eyes' of the gunners, but of late they have co-operated with the infantry so successfully and to such a degree that the co-ordination between the two is rapidly develop ing into a regular thing. Indeed, it has become quite a matter of course with more thin one battalion to look out for its own particu lar aeroplane. But if the aircraft can be invaluable to infantry— as manifestly it can—it can also prove a deadly visitor. A day or two ago, as a battalion of the Prussian Guards were marching up to reinforce the hard-pressed enemy, one of our 'planes dropped to within 300 ft., and the observer, depressing his gun, emptied several drums of ammunition into the close ranks, enfilading the whole length of the column with telling effect before the crescendo of rifle fire caused him to sheer off'. An officer of this same regiment who was subsequently captured said that the combination of this fierce fusillade and the barrage from our guns behind inflicted at loss of at least 50 per cent, of the strength of the battalion before it reached the shelter of its destination. "The growing practice of employing aeroplanes in squadrons instead of singly lias caused the adoption of a system of (actical evolutions not dissimilar to those followed in the Royal Navy. For example, in cruising, the machines are spread out in " V " forma tion. For bombing purposes they form into line-ahead, and as the British machines have dropped more than 20 tons of explosives upon sundry selected spots of the German positions of late, it stands that they are getting pretty proficient in the line-ahead manoeuvre." The Morning Post correspondent, writing on July 8th, says :— "I have in various recent despatches commented on the com parative inactivity of the air service of the enemy in contrast with the extraordinary energy and valour of our own flying-men. The Germans are seeking to cover up their deficiencies in the air by circulating officially deliberate inventions intended to minimise their own losses and grossly exaggerate ours. Thev claim that through out the entire month of June they lost only seven machines at the hands of the French and ourselves. I do not know what the record of the French airmen may be, but it has been very satisfactory. So far as we are concerned, we claim to have brought down 21 German machines during last month. Our airmen are most careful in their observations, and it may be accepted without question that this figure 21 represents the number of 'sitters' or machines that we know have been brought to earth. One of the remarkable feats in yesterday's operations was accomplished by a British aviator, who swooped down close to the Prussian Guards when they wer: in sore straits and peppered them with his machine-gun. " It is now known that on the first day of our ' push' thirty-five combats took place in the air, that five hostile machines were brought down on the enemy's side of the line, and that at least five others, of which two were seen to be damaged, were driven down. One of our officers attacked no fewer than four of these machines single-handed, broke up their formation, and scattered them in all directions. The first machine he tackled was hit between the pilot and the observer, and returned to its aerodrome. The second was hit and managed to land in its own lines under control. When attacking the third, the officer was wounded in the leg, but gallantly continued firing until he got within ten yards of his enemy. He then 594
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