Aviation in World War I
While the impact of airplanes on the course of the war was mainly tactical rather than strategic, the most important role being direct cooperation with ground forces (especially ranging and correcting artillery fire), the first steps in the strategic roles of aircraft in future wars were also foreshadowed.
The early years of war
At the 1911 meeting of the
At the start of the war, there was some debate over the usefulness of aircraft in warfare. Many senior officers, in particular, remained skeptical. However the initial campaigns of 1914 proved that cavalry could no longer provide the reconnaissance expected by their generals, in the face of the greatly increased firepower of twentieth century armies, and it was quickly realised that aircraft could at least locate the enemy, even if early air reconnaissance was hampered by the newness of the techniques involved. Early skepticism and low expectations quickly turned to unrealistic demands beyond the capabilities of the primitive aircraft available.[3]
Even so, air reconnaissance played a critical role in the "war of movement" of 1914, especially in helping the Allies halt the German invasion of France. Aircraft were first used in Alexander von Kluck's German First Army during the Battle of Mons to target its guns on British II Corps positions.[4] On 22 August 1914, British Captain L.E.O. Charlton and Lieutenant V.H.N. Wadham of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) reported von Kluck's forces were preparing to surround the British Expeditionary Force, contradicting all other intelligence. The British High Command took note of the report and started to withdraw from Mons, saving the lives of 100,000 soldiers. Later, during the First Battle of the Marne, observation aircraft discovered weak points and exposed flanks in the German lines, allowing the allies to take advantage of them.[5]
In Germany the great successes of the early Zeppelin airships had largely overshadowed the importance of heavier-than-air aircraft. Out of a paper strength of about 230 aircraft belonging to the army in August 1914 only 180 or so were of any use.[6] The French military aviation exercises of 1911, 1912, and 1913 had pioneered cooperation with the cavalry (reconnaissance) and artillery (spotting), but the momentum was, if anything, slacking.[7]
The United Kingdom had "started late" and initially relied largely on the French aircraft industry, especially for aircraft engines. The initial British contribution to the total allied airwar effort in August 1914 (of about 184 aircraft) was three squadrons with about 30 serviceable machines. By the end of the war, the British Armed Forces had formed the world's first air force to be independent of either army or naval control, the Royal Air Force.[8] The United States Armed Forces air services were far behind; even in 1917, when the United States entered the war, they were to be almost totally dependent on the French and British aircraft industries for combat aircraft.[9]
The Germans' great air "coup" of 1914 was at the
Early Western Front reconnaissance duties
By the end of 1914 the line between the Imperial German Army and the Allied powers stretched from the North Sea to the Alps. The initial "war of movement" largely ceased, and the front became static. Three main functions of short range reconnaissance squadrons had emerged by March 1915.
The first was photographic reconnaissance: building up a complete mosaic map of the enemy trench system. The first air cameras used glass plates. (Photographic film had been invented by Kodak, but did not at this stage have sufficient resolution).[11]
Artillery "spotting" enabled the ranging of artillery on targets invisible to the gunners. Radio telephony was not yet practical from an aircraft, so communication was a problem. By March 1915, a two-seater on "artillery observation" duties was typically equipped with a primitive
"Contact patrol" work attempted to follow the course of a battle by communicating with advancing infantry while flying over the battlefield. The technology of the period did not permit radio contact, while methods of signalling were necessarily crude, including dropping messages from the aircraft. Soldiers were initially reluctant to reveal their positions to aircraft, as they (the soldiers) found distinguishing between friend and foe problematic.
Reconnaissance flying, like all kinds, was a hazardous business. In April 1917, the worst month for the entire war for the RFC, the average life expectancy of a British pilot on the Western Front was 69 flying hours.[12]
Early bombing efforts
Typical 1914 aircraft could carry only very small bomb loads – the bombs themselves, and their storage, were still very elementary, and effective bomb sights were still to be developed. Nonetheless the beginnings of strategic and tactical bombing date from the earliest days of the war. Notable are the raids by the RNAS on the German airship sheds at Düsseldorf, Cologne and Friedrichshafen in September, October and November 1914, as well as the formation of the Brieftauben Abteilung Ostende.
The dawn of air combat
As Dickson had predicted, initially air combat was extremely rare, and definitely subordinate to reconnaissance. There are even stories of the crew of rival reconnaissance aircraft exchanging nothing more belligerent than smiles and waves.
Evolution of fighter aircraft
The pusher solution
As early as 1912, designers at the British firm
Machine gun synchronisation
The forward firing gun of a pusher "gun carrier" provided some offensive capability—the mounting of a machine gun firing to the rear from a two-seater tractor aircraft gave defensive capability. There was an obvious need for some means to fire a machine gun forward from a tractor aircraft, especially from one of the small, light, "scout" aircraft, adapted from pre-war racers, that were to perform most air combat duties for the rest of the war. It would seem most natural to place the gun between the pilot and the propeller, firing in the direct line of flight so that the gun could be aimed by "aiming the aircraft". It was also important that the breech of the weapon be readily accessible to the pilot so that he could clear the jams and stoppages to which early machine guns were prone. However, this presented an obvious problem: a percentage of bullets fired "free" through a revolving propeller will strike the blades, with predictably destructive results. Early experiments with
The
Other methods
Another method used at this time to fire a machine gun forward from a tractor design was to mount the gun to fire above the propeller arc. This required the gun to be mounted on the top wing of biplanes and be mounted on complicated drag-inducing structures in monoplanes. Reaching the gun so that drums or belts could be changed, or jams cleared, presented problems even when the gun could be mounted relatively close to the pilot. Eventually, Foster mounting became more or less the standard way of mounting a Lewis gun in this position in the R.F.C.:[17] this allowed the gun to slide backward for drum changing, and also to be fired at an upward angle, a very effective way of attacking an enemy from the "blind spot" under its tail. This type of mounting was still only possible for a biplane with a top wing positioned near the apex of the propeller's arc: It put considerable strain on the fragile wing structures of the period, and it was less rigid than a gun mounting on the fuselage, producing a greater "scatter" of bullets, especially at anything but very short range.
The earliest versions of the Bristol Scout to see aerial combat duty in 1915, the Scout C, had Lewis gun mounts in RNAS service that sometimes were elevated above the propeller arc, and sometimes (in an apparently reckless manner) firing directly through the propeller arc without synchronisation. During the spring and summer of 1915, Captain Lanoe Hawker of the Royal Flying Corps, however, had mounted his Lewis gun just forward of the cockpit to fire forwards and outwards, on the left side of his aircraft's fuselage at about a 30° horizontal angle. On 25 July 1915 Captain Hawker flew his Scout C, bearing RFC serial number 1611 against several two-seat German observation aircraft of the Fliegertruppe, and managed to defeat three of them in aerial engagements to earn the first Victoria Cross awarded to a British fighter pilot, while engaged against enemy fixed-wing aircraft.
1915: The Fokker Scourge
The first purpose-designed fighter aircraft included the British Vickers F.B.5, and machine guns were also fitted to several French types, such as the Morane-Saulnier L and N. Initially the German Air Service lagged behind the Allies in this respect, but this was soon to change dramatically.
In July 1915 the
The first successful engagement involving a synchronised-gun-armed aircraft occurred on the afternoon of July 1, 1915, to the east of
By late 1915 the Germans had achieved
The number of actual Allied casualties involved was for various reasons very small compared with the intensive air fighting of 1917–18. The deployment of the Eindeckers was less than overwhelming: the new type was issued in ones and twos to existing reconnaissance squadrons, and it was to be nearly a year before the Germans were to follow the British in establishing specialist fighter squadrons. The Eindecker was also, in spite of its advanced armament, by no means an outstanding aircraft, being closely based on the pre-war Morane-Saulnier H, although it did feature a steel tubing fuselage framework (a characteristic of all Fokker wartime aircraft designs) instead of the wooden fuselage components of the French aircraft.
Nonetheless, the impact on morale of the fact that the Germans were effectively fighting back in the air created a major scandal in the British parliament and press. The ascendancy of the Eindecker also contributed to the surprise the Germans were able to achieve at the start of the Battle of Verdun because the French reconnaissance aircraft failed to provide their usual cover of the German positions.
Fortunately for the Allies, two new British fighters that were a match for the Fokker, the two-seat F.E.2b and the single-seat D.H.2, were already in production. These were both pushers, and could fire forwards without gun synchronisation. The F.E.2b reached the front in September 1915, and the D.H.2 in the following February. On the French front, the tiny Nieuport 11, a tractor biplane with a forward firing gun mounted on the top wing outside the arc of the propeller, also proved more than a match for the German fighter when it entered service in January 1916. With these new types the Allies re-established air superiority in time for the Battle of the Somme, and the "Fokker Scourge" was over.
The Fokker E.III, Airco DH-2 and Nieuport 11 were the very first in a long line of single seat fighter aircraft used by both sides during the war. Very quickly it became clear the primary role of fighters would be attacking enemy two-seaters, which were becoming increasingly important as sources of reconnaissance and artillery observation, while also escorting and defending friendly two-seaters from enemy fighters. Fighters were also used to attack enemy observation balloons, strafe enemy ground targets, and defend friendly airspace from enemy bombers.
Almost all the fighters in service with both sides, with the exception of the Fokkers' steel-tube fuselaged airframes, continued to use wood as the basic structural material, with fabric-covered wings relying on external wire bracing. However, the first practical all-metal aircraft was produced by
1916: Verdun and the Somme
Creating new units was easier than producing aircraft to equip them, and training pilots to man them. When the Battle of the Somme started in July 1916, most ordinary RFC squadrons were still equipped with planes that proved easy targets for the Fokker. New types such as the Sopwith 1½ Strutter had to be transferred from production intended for the RNAS. Even more seriously, replacement pilots were being sent to France with pitifully few flying hours.
Nonetheless, air superiority and an "offensive" strategy facilitated the greatly increased involvement of the RFC in the battle itself, in what was known at the time as "trench strafing" – in modern terms,
The first step towards specialist fighter-only aviation units within the German military was the establishment of the so-called Kampfeinsitzer Kommando (single-seat battle unit, abbreviated as "KEK") formations by Inspektor-Major Friedrich Stempel in February 1916. These were based around Eindeckers and other new fighter designs emerging, like the
Allied air superiority was maintained during the height of both battles, and the increased effectiveness of Allied air activity proved disturbing to the German Army's top-level
1917: Bloody April
The first half of 1917 was a successful period for the jagdstaffeln and the much larger RFC suffered significantly higher casualties than their opponents. While new Allied fighters such as the
This culminated in the rout of April 1917, known as "Bloody April". The RFC suffered particularly severe losses, although Trenchard's policy of "offensive patrol", which placed most combat flying on the German side of the lines, was maintained.[23]
During the last half of 1917, the British
1918: The Spring Offensive
The surrender of the Russians and the
In the air, the battle was marked by the carefully coordinated use of the Schlachtstaffeln or "battle flights", equipped with the light CL class two seaters built by the Halberstadt and Hannover firms, that had proved so effective in the German counter-attack in early October's Battle of Cambrai.[25] The new German fighter aircraft, notably the Fokker D.VII, that might have revived German air superiority in time for this battle had not however reached the Jagdstaffeln in sufficient numbers, despite its own premier on the Western Front in the mid-Spring of 1918. As with several offensives on both sides, thorough planning and preparation led to initial success, and in fact to deeper penetration than had been achieved by either side since 1914.[26] Many British airfields had to be abandoned to the advancing Germans in a new war of movement. Losses of aircraft and their crew were very heavy on both sides – especially to light anti-aircraft fire. However, by the time of the death of Manfred von Richthofen, the famed Red Baron, on 21 April, the great offensive had largely stalled.[27] The new German fighters had still not arrived, and the British still held general air superiority.
The month of April 1918 began with the consolidation of the separate British RFC and RNAS air services into the
Readying for battle
1918, especially the second half of the year, also saw the United States increasingly involved with the allied aerial efforts. While American volunteers had been flying in Allied squadrons since the early years of the war, not until 1918 did all-American squadrons begin active operations. Technically America had fallen well behind the European powers in aviation, and no American designed types saw action, with the exception of the Curtiss flying boats. At first, the Americans were supplied with second-rate and obsolete aircraft, such as the Sopwith 1½ Strutter, Dorand AR and Sopwith Camel, and inexperienced American airmen stood little chance against their seasoned opponents.
General
Leading up to the Battle of Saint-Mihiel, The US Air Service under Maj. Gen. Patrick oversaw the organization of 28 air squadrons for the battle, with the French, British, and Italians contributing additional units to bring the total force numbers to 701 pursuit planes, 366 observation planes, 323 day bombers, and 91 night bombers. The 1,481 total aircraft made it the largest air operation of the war.[30][31]
Impact
The day has passed when armies on the ground or navies on the sea can be the arbiter of a nation's destiny in war. The main power of defense and the power of initiative against an enemy has passed to the air.
— Brigadier General Billy Mitchell, November 1918[32]
By war's end, the impact of aerial missions on the ground war was in retrospect mainly tactical; strategic bombing, in particular, was still very rudimentary indeed. This was partly due to its restricted funding and use, as it was, after all, a new technology. On the other hand, the artillery, which had perhaps the greatest effect of any military arm in this war, was in very large part as devastating as it was due to the availability of aerial photography and aerial "spotting" by balloon and aircraft. By 1917 weather bad enough to restrict flying was considered as good as "putting the gunner's eyes out".[33]
Some, such as then-Brigadier General Billy Mitchell, commander of all American air combat units in France, claimed, "[T]he only damage that has come to [Germany] has been through the air".[34] Mitchell was famously controversial in his view that the future of war was not on the ground or at sea, but in the air.
During the course of the War, the exact number of German, British and French planes destroyed is unknown. However, the Luftstreitkräfte suffered enormous losses, so much so that seeing a German plane was considered a rare towards the end of the war.
Anti-aircraft weaponry
Though aircraft still functioned as vehicles of observation, increasingly they were used as a weapon in themselves.
This need for improvement was not limited to air-to-air combat. On the ground, methods developed before the war were being used to deter enemy aircraft from observation and bombing.
Anti-aircraft artillery defenses were increasingly used around observation balloons, which became frequent targets of enemy fighters equipped with special incendiary bullets. Because balloons were so flammable, due to the hydrogen used to inflate them, observers were given parachutes, enabling them to jump to safety. Ironically, only a few aircrew had this option, due in part to a mistaken belief they inhibited aggressiveness, and in part to their significant weight.
First shooting-down of an aeroplane by anti-aircraft artillery
During a bombing raid over
Bombing and reconnaissance
As the stalemate developed on the ground, with both sides unable to advance even a few hundred yards without a major battle and thousands of casualties, aircraft became greatly valued for their role gathering intelligence on enemy positions and bombing the enemy's supplies behind the trench lines. Large aircraft with a pilot and an observer were used to scout enemy positions and bomb their supply bases. Because they were large and slow, these aircraft made easy targets for enemy fighter aircraft. As a result, both sides used fighter aircraft to both attack the enemy's two-seat aircraft and protect their own while carrying out their missions.
While the two-seat bombers and reconnaissance aircraft were slow and vulnerable, they were not defenseless. Two-seaters had the advantage of both forward- and rearward-firing guns. Typically, the pilot controlled fixed guns behind the propeller, similar to guns in a fighter aircraft, while the observer controlled one with which he could cover the arc behind the aircraft. A tactic used by enemy fighter aircraft to avoid fire from the rear gunner was to attack from slightly below the rear of two-seaters, as the tail gunner was unable to fire below the aircraft. However, two-seaters could counter this tactic by going into a dive at high speeds. Pursuing a diving two-seater was hazardous for a fighter pilot, as it would place the fighter directly in the rear gunner's line of fire; several high scoring aces of the war were shot down by "lowly" two-seaters, including Raoul Lufbery, Erwin Böhme, and Robert Little. Even Manfred von Richthofen, the highest scoring ace of WWI, was once wounded and forced to crash land from the bullets of a two-seater, though he did survive the encounter and continued flying after he recovered.
Strategic bombing
The first aerial bombardment of civilians occurred during World War I. In the opening weeks of the war, zeppelins bombed Liège, Antwerp, and Warsaw, and other cities, including Paris and Bucharest, were targeted, In January 1915 the Germans began a bombing campaign against England that was to last until 1918, initially using airships. There were 19 raids in 1915, in which 37 tons of bombs were dropped, killing 181 people and injuring 455. Raids continued in 1916. London was accidentally bombed in May, and in July, the Kaiser allowed directed raids against urban centres. There were 23 airship raids in 1916 in which 125 tons of ordnance were dropped, killing 293 people and injuring 691. Gradually British air defenses improved. In 1917 and 1918 there were only eleven Zeppelin raids against England, and the final raid occurred on 5 August 1918, resulting in the death of Peter Strasser, commander of the German Naval Airship Department. By the end of the war, 54 airship raids had been undertaken, in which 557 people were killed and 1,358 injured.[39] Of the 80 airships used by the Germans in World War I, 34 were shot down and further 33 were destroyed by accidents. 389 crewmen died.[40]
The Zeppelin raids were complemented by the
It has been argued that the raids were effective far beyond material damage in diverting and hampering wartime production, and diverting twelve squadrons and over 17,000 men to air defenses.[41] Calculations performed on the number of dead to the weight of bombs dropped had a profound effect on attitudes of the British government and population in the interwar years, who believed that "The bomber will always get through".
Observation balloons
Manned observation balloons floating high above the trenches were used as stationary reconnaissance points on the front lines, reporting enemy troop positions and directing artillery fire. Balloons commonly had a crew of two equipped with parachutes: upon an enemy air attack on the flammable balloon, the crew would parachute to safety. Recognized for their value as observer platforms, observation balloons were important targets of enemy aircraft. To defend against air attack, they were heavily protected by large concentrations of antiaircraft guns and patrolled by friendly aircraft. Blimps and balloons helped contribute to the stalemate of the trench warfare of World War I, and contributed to air-to-air combat for air superiority because of their significant reconnaissance value.
To encourage pilots to attack enemy balloons, both sides counted downing an enemy balloon as an "air-to-air" kill, with the same value as shooting down an enemy aircraft. Some pilots, known as balloon busters, became particularly distinguished by their prowess at shooting down enemy balloons. The premier balloon busting ace was Willy Coppens: 35 of his 37 victories were enemy balloons.
Leading aces
As pioneer aviators invented air-to-air combat, the contending sides developed various methods of tracking aerial casualties and victories. Aviators with five or more aerial victories confirmed by their parent air service were dubbed "aces". Their numbers would burgeon, until by war's end, there were over 1,800 aces.
The following aces scored the most victories for their respective air services.
Name | Air service | Confirmed victories |
---|---|---|
Baracca, Francesco | Corpo Aeronautico Militare | 34[42] |
Bishop, William Avery | Royal Air Force | 72[43] |
Brumowski, Godwin
|
Luftfahrtruppen
|
35[44] |
Cobby, Arthur Henry | Australian Flying Corps | 29[45][46] |
Coppens de Houthulst, Willy Omer | Belgian Military Aviation
|
37[47] |
Fonck, René | Aéronautique Militaire
|
75[48] |
Kazakov, Alexander | Imperial Russian Air Force
|
20[49] |
Richthofen, Manfred von | Luftstreitkräfte | 80[50] |
Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon | US Army Air Service | 26[51][52] |
Pioneers of aerial warfare
The following aviators were the first to reach important milestones in the development of aerial combat during World War I:
Name | Date | Country | Event |
---|---|---|---|
Miodrag Tomić | 12 August 1914 | Serbia | First dogfight of the war[53][54] |
Pyotr Nesterov | 7 September 1914 | Russia | First air-to-air kill, by ramming an Austrian aeroplane[55] |
Louis Quénault and Joseph Frantz | 5 October 1914 | France | Pilot Frantz and Observer Quénault were the first fliers to successfully use a machine gun in air-to-air combat to shoot down another aircraft.[56] |
Roland Garros | 1 April 1915 | France | First aerial victory with forward pointing fixed gun achieved while aiming gun with aircraft[57] |
Adolphe Pégoud | 3 April 1915 | France | First flying "ace" and first French ace.[citation needed] |
Kurt Wintgens | 1 July 1915 | Germany | First aerial victory using a sychronised machine gun firing through the propeller arc[citation needed] |
Lanoe Hawker | 11 August 1915 | United Kingdom | First British ace.[citation needed] |
Oswald Boelcke | 16 October 1915 | Germany | First German ace.[citation needed] |
Otto Jindra | 9 April 1916 | Austria-Hungary | First Austro-Hungarian ace.[citation needed] |
Redford Henry Mulock
|
21 May 1916 | Canada | First Canadian ace, as well as first Royal Naval Air Service ace.[citation needed] |
Eduard Pulpe | 1 July 1916 | Russia | First Imperial Russian Air Force ace.[citation needed ]
|
Roderic Dallas | 9 July 1916 | Australia | First Australian ace.[citation needed] |
Frederick Libby | 25 August 1916 | United States | First American ace.[citation needed] |
Etienne Tsu | 26 September 1916 | France | First Chinese ace; French Foreign Legion, Escadrille SPA.37.[58][59] |
Mario Stoppani | 31 October 1916 | Italy | First Italian ace.[citation needed] |
Fernand Jacquet | 1 February 1917 | Belgium | First Belgian ace.[citation needed] |
Maurice Benjamin | 27 April 1917 | South Africa | First South African ace.[citation needed] |
Thomas Culling | 19 May 1917 | New Zealand | First New Zealand ace.[citation needed] |
Gottfried Freiherr von Banfield | 31 May 1917 | Austria-Hungary | First night victory and first Austro-Hungarian night victory.[citation needed] |
Dumitru Bădulescu | 21 September 1917 | Romania | First Romanian ace.[60] |
Richard Burnard Munday | 29 September 1917 | United Kingdom | First British night victory, over an observation balloon.[citation needed] |
Fritz Anders | 20 August 1918 | Germany | First German night victory. Anders was first night fighter ace.[citation needed] |
Aircraft
- Aircraft of the Entente Powers
- Aircraft of the Central Powers
See also
- Biggles a fictional WWI aviator
- Biplane
- Dogfight
- Flying ace § World War I
- History of aerial warfare
- History of aviation
- List of American aero squadrons
- List of Royal Air Force aircraft squadrons
- List of Royal Flying Corps squadrons
- Lists of World War I flying aces
Notes
- ^ Spaight, James (1914). Aircraft In War. London: MacMilian and Co. p. 3.
- ^ Spaight, James (1914). Aircraft in War. London: MacMilian and Co. p. 14.
- ^ Terraine, John. P.30
- ISBN 978-1-4058-2471-2.
- ^ "Aerial Reconnaissance in World War I". U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission. Retrieved 6 March 2014.
- ^ Terraine, 1981, p.31.
- ^ Terraine, 1981, p.30
- ^ Terraine, 1982, p.31
- ^ Treadwell, Terry C. America's First Air War (London: Airlife Publishing, 2000)
- ^ Cheesman, E.F. (ed.) Reconnaissance & Bomber Aircraft of the 1914–1918 War (Letchworth, UK: Harleyford, 1962), p. 9.
- ^ a b c An Illustrated History of World War I, at http://www.wwiaviation.com/earlywar.html
- ]
- ^ Great Battles of World War I by Major-General Sir Jeremy Moore, p. 136
- ^ Cheesman (1960), p. 76.
- ^ Cheesman (1960), p 177
- ^ Cheesman (1960), p 178
- ^ Cheesman (1960), p 180
- ^ Sands, Jeffrey, "The Forgotten Ace, Ltn. Kurt Wintgens and his War Letters", Cross & Cockade USA, Summer 1985.
- ^ Guttman, Jon (Summer 2009). "Verdun: The First Air Battle for the Fighter: Part I – Prelude and Opening" (PDF). worldwar1.com. The Great War Society. p. 9. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 3, 2016. Retrieved May 26, 2014.
- ISBN 978-1-84176-997-4.
- ^ Cheesman (1960) p.12
- ^ Fitzsimons, Bernard, ed. The Twentieth Century Encyclopedia of Weapons and Warfare (London: Phoebus, 1978), Volume 1, "Albatros D", p.65
- ^ Johnson in History of Air Fighting blames Trenchard for not changing his approach despite the prohibitive casualties.
- ^ Terraine, 1982 p. 277
- ^ Gray & Theyford, 1970 pp. xv–xxvii
- ^ Terraine, 1982 p.282
- ^ Terraine, 1982 p.287
- ^ Harris & Pearson, 2010 p.180
- ^ Tate, Dr. James P. (1998). The Army and its Air Corps: Army Policy Toward Aviation 1919–1941, Air University Press, p. 19
- ^ Frandsen, Bert (2014). "Learning and Adapting: Billy Mitchell in World War I". National Defense University Press. Retrieved July 13, 2019.
- ^ DuPre, Flint. "U.S. Air Force Biographical Dictionary". United States Air Force. Retrieved July 12, 2019.
- ^ This quote was also mentioned in Time magazine, 22 June 1942 [1], some seven months after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, which Mitchell accurately predicted in 1924.
- ^ Terraine, 1982, p. 215
- ^ "Mitchell">"Leaves From My War Diary" by General William Mitchell, in Great Battles of World War I: In The Air (Signet, 1966), pp.192–193 (November 1918).
- ISBN 1-84176-316-0.
- ^ "How was the first military aeroplane shot down". National Geographic. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
- ^ "Ljutovac, Radoje". Amanet Society. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
- ^ "Radoje Raka Ljutovac – first person in the world to shoot down an aeroplane with a cannon". Pečat. 30 September 2014. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
- ISBN 0-370-30538-8.
- ^ a b c Clodfelter, Micheal (2017). Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492–2015. McFarland. p. 430.
- ^ Ben Walsh AQA GCSE Modern World History p296
- ^ Franks, 2000. p. 76
- ^ Shores, 2001. p. 89
- ^ Chant, 2002. p. 90
- ^ Newton, Australian Air Aces, pp. 25–28
- ^ Shores et al., Above the Trenches, p. 110
- ^ Franks, 2000. p. 71
- ^ Guttman, 2002. p. 20
- ^ Franks, 2000. pp. 83–84
- ^ Franks, Bailey, Guest, 1993. pp. 241–242
- ^ Franks, 2000. p. 74
- ^ Franks, 2001. p. 86
- ISBN 978-1-77089-273-6.
- ]
- ^ Guttman, p. 9.
- ^ Jackson 1993, p. 24
- ^ van Wyngarden, pp. 7, 8, 11.
- ^ "L'escadrille_37". Albindenis.free.fr. Retrieved 2015-12-17.
- ^ Laurent BROCARD (1914-08-02). "Flying Pioneers: Vieilles Tiges". Past-to-present.com. Archived from the original on 2008-01-30. Retrieved 2015-12-17.
- ^ Valeriu Avram; Alexandru Armă (2018). Aeronautica română în Războiul de Întregire naţională 1916-1919 (in Romanian). Editura Vremea. p. 51.
References
- Editors of American Heritage. History of WW1. Simon & Schuster, 1964.
- Cheesman, E.F. (ed.) Fighter Aircraft of the 1914–1918 War. Letchworth, UK: Harleyford, 1960
- The Great War, television documentary by the BBC.
- Gray, Peter & Thetford, Owen German Aircraft of the First World War. London, Putnam, 1962.
- Guttman, Jon. Pusher Aces of World War 1: Volume 88 of Osprey Aircraft of the Aces: Volume 88 of Aircraft of the Aces. Osprey Publishing, 2009. ISBN 978-1-84603-417-6
- Herris, Jack & Pearson, Bob Aircraft of World War I. London, Amber Books, 2010. ISBN 978-1-906626-65-5.
- Jackson, Peter The Guinness Book of Air Warfare. London, Guinness Publishing, 1993. ISBN 0-85112-701-0
- Morrow, John. German Air Power in World War I. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1982. Contains design and production figures, as well as economic influences.
- Pearson, George, Aces: A Story of the First Air War, historical advice by Brereton Greenhous and Philip Markham, NFB, 1993. Contains assertion aircraft created trench stalemate.
- Terraine, John White Heat: the new warfare 1914–18. London, Guild Publishing, 1982
- VanWyngarden, Greg. Early German Aces of World War I: Volume 73 of Aircraft of the Aces. Osprey Publishing, 2006. ISBN 978-1-84176-997-4.
- Winter, Denis. First of the Few. London: Allen Lane/Penguin, 1982. Coverage of the British air war, with extensive bibliographical notes.
External links
- Wells, Mark: Aircraft, Fighter and Pursuit, in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
- Morris, Craig: Aircraft, Reconnaissance and Bomber, in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
- Mahoney, Ross & Pugh, James: Air Warfare, in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
- Bombing during World War I at centennialofflight.gov
- Boris Rustam-Bek-Tageev (1916). Aerial Russia: The Romance of the Giant Aeroplane. Рипол Классик. ISBN 978-5-87787-214-1.
- The United States Air Service in World War I – usaww1.com
- The League of World War I Aviation Historians and Over the Front Magazine – overthefront.com
- First World War in the Air at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography
- 1989 WWI aviation documentary featuring interviews with the last three surviving American aces – YouTube