Frederick William Lanchester

“ Any superficial observer asked to report on the innovation might have been tempted to say, "By means of this new machine work may be undertaken which could not, commercially speaking, be done previously; it does not, however, show any promise of replacing to any extent the older forms of machine-tool, and can only be regarded as useful for doing the special work for which it has shown itself of unique value." ”

“ It is quite true that the aircraft of the attacking force may be of considerable use in reporting the nature and strength of the defences, and so may disclose the points of weakness at which the chances of successful assault are the greatest: but this will only in a very small degree compensate for the premature disclosure of the whole plan of attack to the defenders, a disclosure which, if we may judge from experience so far gained, appears to be little short of complete. ”

“ It is an undeniable fact that the aeroplane has, in the present war, been able to give information of the positions and movements of the enemy such as would have been otherwise unobtainable, and in a few cases it has enabled points to be attacked which could not have been reached by any other means. ”

“ Employment of Aircraft in Large Bodies. Air Tactics. In some of the previous Chapters (Chapter VII., et seq.) the question of aircraft fighting—i.e., aeroplane versus aeroplane—has been considered, and matters such as armament have been fully discussed. We shall now deal with the employment of the armed machine in its fighting capacity, not as a single unit, but as part of a force whose function is the destruction of the armed air fleet of the enemy, and the crippling of his reconnaissance service. ”

“ It is difficult to gauge what the total consequence of defeating the enemy in the air will be. It is unlikely that it will entirely prevent his aerial reconnaissance; his scouts will doubtless manage to run the gauntlet and continue to keep him sufficiently informed. On the other hand, he will be deprived of all those uses of the Aeronautical Arm in which some more direct and definite purpose is involved, such as the direction of gun-fire, defence of stores, protection of cavalry, etc. He will require to submit to aeroplane attack without possibility of effective counter ”

“ The foregoing applies more particularly to warfare in which large bodies of troops are engaged over a great extent of territory; evidently where fighting is on a small scale, and the whole of the movement constituting a concentration and attack can be executed between sunset and sunrise, the operations can be considered to be of a purely tactical character. It may be emphasised that it is by destroying the strategic advantage hitherto enjoyed by the attack that aeronautical reconnaissance gains its especial value as an aid to the defence. ”

“ The object of the practice of tactical exercises will be to enable an air fleet to manoeuvre to defeat the enemy in detail, and, if his numbers are superior, to prevent him from bringing his whole concentrated fire to bear by the adroit handling of the weaker numbers, and so to neutralise the advantage of his numerically superior force. ”

“ In other words, the depth of the line has been increased by the greater range of small-arms, and it may to-day be increased almost indefinitely by the employment of artillery of heavier and heavier calibre, with correspondingly increased range. Such increase in the depth of the line only becomes of general value when, as in the present war, the number of men per mile of front is great, and more men are available than can be effectively employed in the trenches or infantry supports. ”

“ The command of the air opens up possibilities in the direction of raiding of a kind and with a scope not hitherto known in warfare. To what extent it will be found possible for aircraft to detach themselves from their base, and execute extended raids in territory ' held by the enemy, only the future can determine. ”

“ It may, for example, usually be assumed that one or the other of the combatant forces is seeking, and the other endeavouring to avoid, battle, or at least is only willing to accept battle under conditions deemed favourable; thus it may be that the enemy can be only brought to battle by virtue of superior speed. In other cases it will be possible to force the enemy to give battle by attack upon some vulnerable point connected with his land forces ”

“ Without attempting to predict exactly what röle the aeroplane will take in this regard, it is safe to say that if, during a battle, it is found practicable to conduct air raids and air attacks systematically over a considerable belt of territory in the rear of an enemy's lines, this belt will require to be defended, and (if the air forces employed are of numerical strength comparable to the other Arms) the belt will actually become a measure of the depth of front. ”

“ Total Defeat in the Air an Irreparable Disaster. From the foregoing it would appear to be at least doubtful whether in future warfare an army which has been deprived of its aircraft, or has to admit the air supremacy of an enemy, will find itself in a position to carry on a campaign. ”

“ It is evidently necessary to assume that the enemy in his turn has prepared an armed air fleet, and that the problem to be studied is the handling and bringing to battle of the two air fleets in their struggle for supremacy. ”

“ Question of Depth of Fighting Line. It is of interest to note that, previously to the arrival of the aeroplane, most of the improvements of weapons and armament have tended to favour the attack and to render defence more difficult. During the last three or four centuries we have seen the value of permanent defences gradually diminish, as constructional improvements and scientific methods of usage have rendered the Artillery Arm more and more deadly. ”

“ These, together with that all-important item—the tactical scheme—are the more weighty of the material factors on which the question of victory or defeat will turn. The relative importance of the different items is not by any means always the same. ”

“ It is equally true that, so far, it has not seriously encroached by its employment on the duties of the other Arms—it has not replaced cavalry in any measurable degree, neither has aeroplane bombardment been found effective as a .substitute for gun-fire. ”