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Aviation History
1934
1934 - 1039.PDF
OCTOBER 4, 1934. FLIGHT. 1041 BOOK REVIEWS "The War in the Air," being the story o] the part played in the Great War by the Royal Air Force. Vol. IV. Bv H. A. Jones. (Clarendon Press, Oxford. 174-. Od.) [Reviewed by Major F. A. de V. Robertson, V.D.] HTHE more one reads of Major Jones' admirable story of the J- war in the air, the more deeply one becomes impressed with the difficulties of the air historian. Despite the appear- ance in the last few months of the war of a so-called Inde- pendent Air Force, which was under the orders of Marshal Foch, the role of the air units throughout was to act as an arm of either the Navy or the Army. Therefore, the air his- torian must give a fairly clear outline of the course of the operations on sea and land in which the aircraft had to take part. In doing so, the air historian must be careful not to trench upon the province of other official historians, and yet he must not be too concise or his own story would become meaningless. The main theme becomes the tactical use of air- craft to attain the objects of the admirals or generals down below. He must also givcas much as possible of the histories of individual squadrons, many of which still exist, but tactically the wings and brigades of the R.A.F. were at the moment more important, and these no longer exist and the reader hardly cares to memorise them. The terms "Corps squadrons '' and '' Army squadrons '' meant a great deal in those days, and now it requires an effort to remember what they did mean. Then there is the technical side of the history. The predominance in air fighting swayed backwards and for- wards according to the success of the latest Sopwith, Fokker, R.A. Factory, "Albatros," etc., machine. Finally, as a sort of bon bouche to both author and reader, come the indi- vidual feats of the great heroes, Ball, McCudden, Mannock, and the rest. To hold the balance between all these aspects of the subject is a difficult task, and Major Jones tackles it with very good judgment. We should like rather more of the technical history, such as the points in favour of each when S.E.5a's fought Fokker Triplanes, but Major Jones is now giving us more of that than he did when he first began his task. THE R.N.A.S. Volume IV of the history covers a great deal of ground in 1917 and 1918. The first three chapters are devoted to the Royal Naval Air Service. A very clear account is given of how the use of aircraft with the Fleet developed until the complete carrier with flying decks came into being. It is in- teresting to note on page 8 that in August, 1915, Lt. G. R. A. Holmes, R.N.V.R., suggested re-shipping seaplanes bv means of a trailing apron, much as is now done when the Dorniers are taken aboard the Westjalen in mid-Atlantic. The author goes on to deal with the development of the flying boat by Col. Porte, the use of gun turrets for flying off warships, kite balloons, airships, the war against the U-boats, and the opera- tions from Dunkirk. The R.N.A.S. had many forms of acti- vity, and this must add to the difficulties of writing its history, but it would be hard to improve on the clear record set down in these chapters. MESSINES In chapter 4 the author returns to the R.F.C. and the land war, starting with the battle of Messines in June, 1917. It was in the air fighting over this battle that Karl Schaefer, a German who had thirty victories to his credit, was shot down by a F.E.2d of No.'20 Squadron, piloted by Lt. H. L. Satchell with Sec.-Lt. T. A. M. S. Lewis as observer. The fight lasted fifteen minutes, and then a burst from the F.E. broke up the red "Albatros." It was also in this battle that Capt. Bishop, of No. 60 Squadron (Nieuport Seoul), won the Victoria Cross. Tactically the battle was of interest be- cause the infantry, in their victorious rush, feared to disclose their own positions to the enemy by displaying signals to the Corps aeroplanes which had been given the task of reporting progress to the Staff. From victorious Messines the narrative turns to the dreary and bloody battles generally known as Passchendaele, about which Mr. Lloyd George has waxed so eloquent in his latest book, portions "of which have appeared in the Daily Telegraph. In this battle, at any rate, it was far better to be in the R.F.C. than in the infantry. The airman was not much con- cerned with the quagmire below. Just before the attack began, the Army was no little perturbed by the order of the Cabinet to send two good fighter squadrons home to help in meeting the German air raids by day. Major Jones remarks, "That a nation might be forced to sue for peace through an air offensive against its most important centres has been put forward as a post-war doctrine, and a study of the results of the (comparatively) slight German daylight raids in 1917 will lend support to this teaching." The support which it lends is slight, for there was no thought in any influential quarter of suing for peace. Rather the lesson is that a sharp division must be made between the aircraft allotted for Home Defence and those allotted for work with the Army. It was intoler- able that one should be able to draw on the other at a moment when the needs of the Army were paramount. It was during these battles that Werner Voss was killed. Capt. McCudden, of No. 56 Squadron (S.E.5a), was in the fight with a flight of his squadron. Voss, who was in a red- nosed Fokker triplane, fought seven British machines single- handed for some ten minutes with magnificent courage and skill, and was finally killed by Sec.-Lt. A. P. F. Rhys-Davids, of No. 56 Squadron. At that time No. 56 Squadron was one of our best fighting units. Before he joined it, McCudden visited the squadron and wrote, " There was a wonderful spirit in this squadron, which was entirely different from any squadron with which I had yet come in contact." Ball had also been in that squadron, and many other great fighters. The squadron is now stationed at North Weald, and is equipped with "Bulldogs." It was the first squadron to be equipped with the S.E.sa, in April, 1917, just before the Passchendaele attack. During the battle, in July, J917, "Camels" were issued first to No. 70 Squadron, and then to No. 45 Squadron. Capt. Norman Macmillan was in the latter squadron, and he has described the delight of the pilots on discarding the out-of- date Sopwith two-seaters and getting a machine which would give them a fair chance against the German fighters. CAMBRAI Cambrai, in November-December, 1917, is the next battle described. It was the first time that tanks were used in num- bers so as to surprise the Germans, and effect a break-through on a narrow front. As sufficient reserves were not available to develop the advantage, the final result was loss rather than gain. In this battle the aircraft were hampered by bad visi- bility, and some essential information about the difficulties of our infantry was not passed back to our guns. So far as the air was concerned, the chief feature of this battle was the development of low-flying attacks by aircraft on the German ground troops. The casualties to the fighters engaged in this were so high that it meant that a squadron had to lie replaced entirely in pilots and machines every four days. The moral effect on the German infantry was considerable, but the con- crete results were not so great. Troops advancing to the attack were delayed, but never entirely stopped. It appears that such tactics are only excusable if the enemy aircraft is not active, and also if provision is made at the same time for con- tinuous observation for the artillery. Artillery can destroy enemy troops far more effectually than is possible by the light bombs and plunging machine-gun fire of fighter aircraft. Air armaments do not include anything to take the place of shrapnel. DEATH OF VON RICHTHOFEN The last chapters of this volume deal with the German offen- sive in the spring of 1918, first on the Somme and then at Bethune. In the hurried retreat numbers of our aircraft had to be burnt as the squadrons moved back, but they were speedily replaced What was more serious was that the re- treating artillery often lost their wireless equipment, and so did not reply when the Corps aeroplanes called for fire on the masses of German infantry which they could see advancing. This lack of co-operation between air and guns probably helped the Germans far more than the low-flying fighters damaged them. It was during this retreat that von Richthofen was killed in a great dog-fight. Major Jones gives a very full and careful account of all the circumstances, examines the claims put forward by machine-gunners on the ground, and concludes, "after a careful examination of these and of all other reports, the official decision was that Richthofen was killed by a bullet from the machine-guns of Capt. A. R. Brown." That should end the controversy. The role of the Air Force in defence was a new study in 1918, and its duties were laid down as " (a) -co-operation with our artillery, the activity of which will probably be increased at
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