Reconnaissance aircraft

“ Ten years before the most dashing scouts would have clattered off to the front and would have required a day, perhaps more, to complete the necessary reconnaissance. But though (p. 005) of all nations, except of course the utterly negligent United States, Great Britain had least developed her aviation corps, there were attached to General French's headquarters enough airmen to meet this need. In a few minutes after the disquieting news arrived the beat of the propellers rose above the din of the battlefield and the airplanes appeared above the enemy's lines. ”

“ Over in this corner is a large reconnaissance machine, with pilot and observer, waiting to ascend. It is one of a squadron that will fly over the German lines to take photographs of the enemy's positions. With its rapid-firing machine guns it is prepared to give battle to the swifter enemy craft that will flash out to challenge its onward flight. Its rôle is a difficult one. It cannot climb to safety as the fighting machine can do and then swoop down on its enemy from a favorable height. Its duty is to bring back accurate views of the territory on the other side of No Man's Land. ”

“ An airship is much more costly than an aeroplane, whether to construct or to work, and when it flies at a moderate height for the purposes of military reconnaissance, it is much more vulnerable. This, no doubt, was the consideration which determined the severance of the airships from the army. Yet the airships, during their brief period of service with the Military Wing, had demonstrated in the most convincing fashion the enormous value of aerial reconnaissance, and, more important still, had put the whole Flying Corps in their debt by adapting wireless telegraphy to the uses of aircraft. ”

“ AEROPLANES are of the greatest value for reconnaissance and inter-communication, and not only obtain, and return to their base with, information of the highest value, but facilitate personal reconnaissance of the battlefield by commanders and staff officers. Their offensive and defensive action is also very great and the moral effect of their offensive action is of the highest value. Although aeroplane squadrons are mobile units they lose efficiency if the units are moved too frequently. The action of aircraft in various phases of fighting is dealt with throughout the Lectures. ”

“ 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. ”

“ To give a rough idea of the amount of work carried out, it is sufficient to mention that during a period of twenty days up to September 10 a daily average of more than nine reconnaissance flights of over 100 miles each had been maintained.
The constant object of our aviators has been to effect the accurate location of the enemy’s forces, and incidentally—since the operations cover so large an area—of our own units. Nevertheless, the tactics adopted for dealing with hostile aircraft are to attack them instantly with one or more British machines. ”

“ We hear frequent reports of the work done by German aircraft, and particularly the effective tactical reconnaissance of the German aeroplanes, which appear to be continuously employed during the course of every engagement for locating our gun positions, directing gun-fire, following up bodies of troops in retreat, etc. ”

“ 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. ”

“ When one is spotted they dash out after it, pursue it back to its lines and prevent it from performing its mission of reconnaissance. Nor are they satisfied merely to drive it off, they follow and give fight. Over there against the sky you see a little puff of smoke and flame that goes shooting down to the horizon. It is an enemy plane that will never again come spying upon Allied troops. ”

“ There are many important problems which the Navy and the Air Service ought to work out together. A fleet without aircraft will be a fleet without eyes, and aircraft will, moreover, be necessary, not only for reconnaissance work, but for gun-spotting, as well as, possibly, for submarine hunting. Air power is regarded by many officers of wide practical experience as an essential complement to sea power, whatever future the airship and aeroplane may have for independent action. ”

“ So long as neither air force possesses any marked superiority in the matter of speed, and so long as neither army has at its disposal more machines than are reasonably necessary for the reconnaissance and other services mentioned, we cannot anticipate that the results of such aerial combat will be decisive in any sense. ”

“ Germany's achievements in setting up and developing the framework needed for aerial warfare can be considered as impressive, At the beginning of the war, German airplanes were slow and unarmed, intended only to be used for aerial observation and reconnaissance of ground forces. After changing the way aircraft could be usefulness in a war scenario, the armed forces were reorganized to efficiently incorporate the new weapon, The aircraft production in 1912 topped 136 units, which is a considerable increase from just 24 built in 1911. ”

“ Air Tactics. It may be laid down that the independent air fleet, in order that it shall be capable of fulfilling the duties assigned to it, must be strong by virtue of numbers. In order to destroy—i.e., not merely to drive away—the active aircraft of the enemy, it must be of decisively higher speed, so that the enemy, whether reconnaissance or fighting machines, will be compelled to surrender or give battle. ”

“ To sum up, the technical development of aircraft has taken place, and will continue side by side with the evolution of the uses to which aircraft can be put. While due attention was paid to problems connected with the anticipated duties of aircraft ancillary to that of reconnaissance, owing to the short space of time between the formation of the Royal Flying Corps and the outbreak of war, to the difficulties connected with the engine, and to causes inseparable from peace conditions, development had been more or less confined to evolving a stable and reliable machine with a good field of view. ”

“ So long as hostile aircraft are hovering over one's troops all movements are liable to be seen and reported, and therefore the first step in war will be to get rid of the hostile aircraft. He who does this first or who keeps the (p. 227) last aeroplane afloat will win, other things being approximately equal.... The airship, as long as she remained afloat, was of more use to me for strategical reconnaissance than the aeroplanes, as, being fitted with wireless telegraphy, I received her messages in a continuous stream and immediately after the observations had been made.... ”

“ The “speed scout” is always a small machine, usually a single-seater, with a gun in front that fires over or through the propeller. In the early part of the Great War it was most often a monoplane, but the [148] smaller biplane took its place, because, with practically the same speed, it combines greater stability.
The planes of the speed scout are very flat as compared with those of the reconnaissance craft. This airplane must carry machine guns, photography apparatus, radio, and a pilot, an observer, and often a gunner. ”

“ Evidently it can be only a matter of time before the specialised fighting-machine is called into being. We may admit that the first and more immediate step will be to render the tactical reconnaissance type capable of taking the offensive, so that it may establish its ascendency over the similar craft of the enemy. ”

“ Cavalry, unless retained, as I think they should be, in the form of mounted machine-gunners, will, I think, disappear in European warfare, but infantry will remain, and it will be the object of aircraft to assist their advance by reconnaissance, ground attack, artillery and tank co-operation, and the destruction of the enemy's supplies and communications. In this connection ground tactics and air tactics must develop pari passu and commanders of Corps and Armies must work out during peace training the fullest schemes for the most intimate co-operation between air and land forces. ”

“ The Flying Corps has in France hundreds of aeroplanes, scores of squadrons, and a dozen varying duties. Earlier in the war, when army aircraft were few and their function belonged to the pioneer stage, every pilot and observer dabbled in many things—reconnaissance, artillery observation, bomb raids, photography, and fighting. But the service has since expanded so much, both in size and importance, that each squadron is made to specialise in one or two branches of work, while other specialists look after the remainder. ”

“ When all has been said, differentiation of type must, from the Service standpoint, be looked upon as an evil, only to be justified when, and to the extent that, service conditions prove it to be necessary. So far even the broad distinction between machines for strategic reconnaissance and for tactical operations has scarcely been drawn or received recognition. ”

“ This has been the method employed by Great Britain and France. During the present149 war we hear of the British and French machines flying at 6,000 feet, where they are fairly safe from gun-fire. The Germans often appear to fly considerably lower. This probably accounts for the loss of so many German machines from gun-fire. It has been stated that at the time of writing British aviators have already brought down seventeen machines. But there have been instances of the aëroplanes of the Allies also making reconnaissance at lower levels. ”

“ Although opposed by extremely intense and accurate antiaircraft-artillery fire which actually hit his aircraft prior to the bombing run, he courageously continued to operate both the attack navigation radar system and the electronic countermeasures equipment in his aircraft while coaching his pilot in dive angle, airspeed, and altitude. ”

“ One of the great inventions of the War was the synchronisation of engine-timing and machine-gun, which rendered it possible to fire through the blades of a propeller without damaging them, though the growing efficiency of the aeroplane as a whole and of its armament is a thing to marvel at on looking back and considering what was actually accomplished. As the efficiency of the aeroplane increased, so anti-aircraft guns and range-finding were improved. ”

“ Reconnaissance work developed, so that fighting machines went as escort to observing squadrons and scouting operations were undertaken up to 100 miles behind the enemy lines; out of this grew the art of camouflage, when ammunition dumps were painted to resemble herds of cows, guns were screened by foliage or painted to merge into a ground scheme, and many other schemes were devised to prevent aerial observation. ”

“ Reconnaissance, or observation, can never be superseded; knowledge comes before power; and the air is first of all a place to see from. It is also a place to strike from, but, speaking historically, offensive action in the air, on any large scale, began, as had been anticipated, in the effort of the conflicting forces to deprive each other of the opportunity and means of vision. As the British expeditionary force grew, more squadrons of reconnaissance machines were required to serve the armies, their principal duties being to observe for the artillery and to photograph enemy positions. ”

“ Aeroplane reconnaissance was a daily spectacle. Our airmen would go aloft and have a good look at the enemy's position. The enemy's guns would boom out all the time, and shrapnel shells would burst all round the 'plane without ever seeming to hit it. We thought it was great sport watching the white puffs of smoke where the shells burst. Then the aeroplanes would drop bombs on the Turks for spite—"throw-downs" we called them. Sometimes the position was reversed, and the Germans dropped bombs on us. Two can play at the same game in war. Take the hand grenades. ”

“ To the side having command of the air the plans and activities of the enemy are an open book. It is true that more is heard of combats between planes than of the routine task 17of collecting information, and the public mind is more apt to be impressed by the fighting and bombing aspects of aerial warfare. Nevertheless, the fact remains that the chief use of the airplane in war is reconnaissance. ”

“ In a minute dated the 26th of October 1913 the First Lord of the Admiralty sketches a policy and a programme for the ensuing years. Aeroplanes and seaplanes, he remarks, are needed by the navy for oversea work and for home work. He recommends three new types of machine: first, an oversea fighting seaplane, to operate from a ship as base; next, a scouting seaplane, to work with the fleet at sea; and last, a home-service fighting aeroplane, to repel enemy aircraft when they attack the vulnerable points of our island, and to carry out patrol duties along the coast. ”