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Aviation History
1940
1940 - 1572.PDF
494 MAY 30, 1940 to their guns on the ground. They supervised their loading. "They tested their alignment. They practised shooting en the ground and in the air; war provided plenty of ground^targets for the latter practice. During the last war there was considerable change in types oi lighters. The earliest fighters were just small scouts with a Lewis gun mounted on the centre-section of the upper plane. Then came the D.H.2 pusher, with the pilot seated in a small nacelle in front of the wings, and his gun mounted upon an upright and capable of being swivelled independently of the machine. That period was followed by single-gun types like the Nieu- port, with its Lewis gun on a Foster mounting on the centre section. This enabled the gun to be pulled down to shoot upwards. In the Sopwith Pup and Triplane there was a single Vickers gun firing through the airscrew. These gave place to the Camel, the S.E.5 and the Snipe. The S.E.5 had a Vickers gun firing through the airscrew and a Lewis gun on a Foster mounting; the Camel and Snipe carried two Vickers guns that fired through the airscrew. The Two-seaters Two-seater fighters were the Vickers Gunbus, the F.E.2D and the Bristol Fighter. The fighting of the two- seaters came into a different category. They were usually employed on Army duties, and were often engaged on long reconnaissance work. But those machines did carry out many offensive patrols also, when fighting was the main reason for their taking the air. Nevertheless, their work was almost all formation flying, and the famous fighting pilots all aspired to fly single-seaters, and all got single-seaters eventually. Every fighting pilot of the last war, after he emerged from the elementary stage of inexperience, began to evolve his own special tactics. As a rule, they were the result of his own experiences. But one and all had the same factors: Surprise, Power of Manoeuvre,-and the Effective Use of Weapons. Different pilots went about things in a different way. Some of them (Ball and Barker were of that order) achieved surprise by the boldness of their action in going bald-headed for the enemy the instant he was sighted. Others sought to achieve surprise by the art of stalking (Bishop's method). On one occasion Bishop got within fifteen yards of a German aeroplane and shot him down without being seen, because three Germans were intent on the destruction of one British plane. Both Bishop and Barker adopted the direct attack on the enemy aero- drome to get machines as they came up off the ground. Others manoeuvred with care to get the advantage of height, or to be screened by the sun. All avoided being silhouetted against cloudbanks. The Advantage of Height At the low speeds then obtaining in aeroplanes, the advantage of superior height was great. The ability to dive not only enabled the attacker to press home his attack and prevent the escape of the pursued, it also reduced the time in which the opponent could adopt counter measures for defence, and gave the attacker superior power of manoeuvre as a result of the speed gained in the dive. Often superior height enabled the attack to be made by surprise, thus helping to ensure that the attack was pressed home to victory. It enabled one machine to attack a formation. It enabled a smaller formation to attack a larger one with success. Every famous pilot employed power of manoeuvre to get into the best position to shoot, and upon occasion to escape from a dangerous situation. All paid great atten- tion to the shooting power of enemy machines and to their effective fields of fire when thev were multt-seaters. Some pilots endeavoured to get into the blind spot of two-seaters, under their tail or three-quarter front; others came down on the tail in a dive and shot the observer out of action first. The single-seater was always attacked from the rear. At some time or other every famous pilot got himself into a tight corner. Barker's single-handed encounter with sixty German planes was the tightest of all. When that happened, a combination of power of manoeuvre and use of weapons was required to escape. To attempt to run away was to court death. To fight a retreat was the one safe method to adopt, turning, twisting in a homeward direction, with every now and again a bull- dog rush at an enemy plane to upset the attack plans of their superior numbers. Even a lone pilot usually got away because the attackers employed mob tactics instead of leaving two machines to close in and so shoot straight. The master pilots of the last war were deadly shots. I have known one to shoot down an enemy in flames with ten rounds, and to crash an enemy with only four bullets. The novice, on the other hand, would blast away hun- dreds of rounds with no apparent effect. Occasionally, when circumstances demanded it, the crack pilot might open fire at long range—say, two hundred yards. But as a rule the closer the range the better he liked it. For at really close range—from thirty to five yards—there was less chance of missing with the first burst of fire. And it was that first burst which was usually so deadly when experts pressed the triggers. They Were Individualists Seldom did the pilot in the enemy cockpit know he was up against a far more practised foe until it was too late for him to do anything about it. All the records of the great fighter pilots show that, once they got into position to shoot, the enemy was as good as doomed. And just as he knew that, the expert knew also that he must never allow himself to be caught with an expert of the enemy on his tail. The art of successful air fighting was contained in the axiom that it is more blessed to give than to receive. The fighter pilot's skill was all attuned to that end. He was prepared to take risks, but had no intention of wilfully committing suicide. And in war he had the great advantage of being an individualist. A duellist rather than a soldier, he could pick his adversary, and if he were sufficiently skilful he might pick his conditions for the duel also. Having done that, whether he rode to war alone or with a consort of pilots behind him, he pressed home his attack to the uttermost with daring, with tremendous concentration of purpose, alertness of mind, complete absence of confusion of thought, and deadly accuracy of fire. The most famous aces were born because the spirit was in them. But more than that was required. Train- ing to fly, to shoot; knowledge to see that aircraft, engine, guns and sights were tuned always to perfection ; patience to attend to the details in person; ability to conquer fear in its early stages ; luck to survive the early days and so learn to recognise enemy from friend. And then steady, relentless training for air combat alone or in formation ; power of leadership ; inspiration ; courage ; belief in the cause for which the war was being fought; coolness in the tightest corners; terrific concentration for a fraction of time while the target centred in the sights and the thumbs pressed the triggers gently so that the plane did not swerve one iota from its course. Those were the qualities which the aces of the last war pos- sessed or cultivated. And they were qualities which made other men look up to them and admire them, and in recognition of which mechanics toiled ungrudgingly night and day so that the aeroplane they tended would never let its pilot down if they could help it.
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