AERIAL WARFARE

As the war progressed the use of aeroplanes of all kinds became more and more extensive. This was due chiefly to the wonderful progress which had been made in aeronautics, the full story of which will not be told until the end of the war has come. Not only have aeroplanes, since the beginning of the war, become safer, but they have also become marvelously swifter and more powerful. As this is being written news comes from Washington that some recently imported very big and powerful Italian aeroplanes have made successfully a flight from Newport News to the Federal capital—a distance of some 150 miles—at the rate of 135 miles per hour and carrying ten passengers. This is typical of the recent development in the science of flying.

The result of this development has been the more varied uses to which aeroplanes are now being put. Not only do they continue to act as observers of hostile positions and movements and as guides to artillery operations, but they have also come into vogue as offensive weapons. With increased carrying capacity and extended radius of action it has become possible to utilize aeroplanes extensively for the bombardment of important positions or localities far behind hostile lines. Even for the purpose of hunting down and destroying submarines aeroplanes are being used to-day, and frequently they cooperate with naval forces in strictly offensive operations.

The six months' period covering February, 1917 to August, 1917, therefore, shows the greatest activity of the various aerial forces since the beginning of the war. On the other hand there has been a greater lack of news and an extreme scarcity of details concerning aerial operations than ever before. However, in spite of this latter condition, it is possible to state that aeroplanes were used more frequently and more extensively than ever before on all fronts, especially the western front. From such reports as are available it appears that the combined English and French aerial forces have become superior, both in number and in efficiency, to those of Germany. The latter, however, have maintained a remarkably high standard.

It is impossible from the reports which are available to give anything like a complete history of aerial warfare during the period from February to August, 1917. Throughout February, 1917, English, French, German, Italian, Russian, and Austrian aeroplanes were extensively employed wherever and whenever conditions permitted. Furnes in Flanders was one of the places frequently bombed by German aeroplanes, while British planes with even greater frequency visited the harbor of Bruges (Zeebrugge) where heavy damage was inflicted on German torpedo boats, docks, and railway lines. Zeebrugge is the German submarine base in Belgium.

On February 10, 1917, aeroplanes were especially active on the western front. German machines unsuccessfully attacked Nancy and Pont St. Vincent. During the same night French air squadrons visited many places in Lorraine and bombed factories at Hauts Fourreaux, La Sarre, Hagodange, Esch, and MeziÈres-les-Metz. A fire was caused in the neighborhood of the Arnaville station. The aviation ground at Colmar and the fort of Zeebrugge were likewise bombarded.

February 13, 1917, was an especially active day for Russian aeroplanes on the eastern front. They dropped bombs on the Povursk railway station, east of Kovel, and on the depots north of the Povursk station. Bombs were dropped on the station at Rodenrois, east of Riga; on the little town of Lihinhof, in the vicinity of Friedrichstadt; on Valeika, the village of Sviatica, north of Vygonov Lake, south of Kiselin; on Radzivilov, and in the regions south of Brody. On the same day French and German aviators were busily attacking many places on the western front. A German aviator dropped bombs on Dunkirk. There were no victims and no damage was done. In the vicinity of Pompey, Meurthe-et-Moselle, bombs were dropped. Two civilians were killed and two were wounded. Nancy, too, was visited. During the night French air squadrons dropped projectiles on aviation grounds at Etreillers (Aisne), and Rancourt (Somme), on the railway stations at Athies, Hombleux, Voyenne, Curchy, St. Quentin, and Ham; and also on manufactories east of Tergnier, where several explosions occurred.

Similar activities were reported almost daily, and of course observation flights were made continuously by the aerial forces of all the belligerents.

On February 25, 1917, a French dirigible was shot down by German antiaircraft guns near Weelferdingen, west of Saargemund, in Lorraine. It was completely destroyed and its entire crew of fourteen perished.

On February 28, 1917, the German admiralty made the following announcement:

"In the northern Ægean Sea a German seaplane successfully dropped bombs on a hostile transport. Notwithstanding the fact that it was fired on by artillery and pursued by two enemy aeroplanes, the seaplane returned safely."

This well illustrates the superiority which aeroplanes had achieved when they could, far from their base, successfully attack steamships guarded in every possible way.

During the great advance of the Allied troops in France in March, 1917, unusual activity in the air played an important part. This was especially the case on March 17, 1917, when the British either destroyed or damaged sixteen German planes, the French ten, and the Germans accounted for a total of twenty-two British and French machines. At this time aeroplanes were active not only in reconnaissance work, but even attacked with bombs and machine guns smaller units of the retreating Germans. The British official report covering March 18, 1917, for instance, contains the following passage: "Our aeroplanes did much valuable work yesterday in cooperation with our infantry. Enemy troops were engaged successfully with machine guns, and bombs were dropped on a number of places behind the enemy lines," while the French report says: "During the evening of March 17 and the following night a French air squadron bombarded the factories and blast furnaces at Thionville and in the Briey Valley, as well as certain convoys of enemy troops which were marching in the region of Guiscard."

The same kind of aerial activity was an almost daily occurrence during April, 1917. The last days of that month, however, were red-letter days for military aeronautics. On April 29, 1917, the British claimed to have winged twenty German machines, while the Germans stated that they had shot down during April 28 and 29, 1917, a total of thirty-four British and French planes.

Again on May 7, 1917, the British accounted for fifteen German machines, while the French claimed to have brought down during the week May 1 to 7, 1917, seventy-six German aeroplanes, of which twenty-five were known to have been destroyed.

During the last days of May, 1917, Allied aeroplanes were especially active in Belgium. On May 26 and 30, 1917, Hest, Blankenberghe, Zeebrugge, and Ghent were attacked and considerable damage was inflicted on railway stations, docks, and other buildings of military value.

Again on June 4, 1917, British aeroplanes attacked and severely damaged German vessels in Zeebrugge.

French airmen were busy, too, in June, 1917. The French War Office on June 21, 1917 published the following statement covering their activities:

"Fourteen aeroplanes and a German captive balloon were destroyed on our front in the period from June 8 to 20. Eleven of these machines were brought down by our pilots during aerial combats, and three of them by the fire of our machine or antiaircraft guns. In addition, seven enemy machines seriously damaged fell in our lines.

"In the same period our squadrons effected numerous sorties. They bombarded notably the railroad station at Bensdorf, factories at Hayatge-Jesuf at Moyeuvre, blast furnaces at Burbach and in the Saar Valley, railroad stations at Bethienville, ChÂtelet-sur-Retourne, Bethel, MeziÈres, Charleville, and Molshelm; the bivouacs in Suippes Valley, and munitions depots in the region of Laon, etc. Thirteen thousand kilograms of projectiles were dropped during the expeditions, which caused serious damage to enemy establishments."

British, French, and German air squadrons continued their activities throughout June and July, 1917. July 12, 1917, was particularly successful for the British airmen, who claimed to have brought down near Ypres thirty-one German planes without loss to their own forces.

On the Russian and Italian fronts and in the Balkans and the Near East aerial activities were slightly fewer and less extensive than on the western, due to the difference in conditions, such as the greater scarcity of machines and the greater distance from the source of supplies.

A novel use of aeroplanes was made after the entrance of the United States into the war. On April 4, 1917, it was stated that British and French aviators dropped large numbers of German translations of President Wilson's war message over the German lines and Italian aviators did the same over the Austrian lines.

On a few occasions aircraft violated the neutrality of countries adjoining belligerent territory. In one case a French aeroplane dropped bombs on a Swiss town. A prompt and complete apology on the part of the French Government followed. On March 13, 1917, Dutch troops shot down a German plane which had flown over Sluis in Holland, ten miles northeast of Burges. Before they could capture the aviator, he succeeded in restarting his machine and in making his escape to the German lines. On June 1, 1917, a Zeppelin appeared first over Swedish territory near MalmÖ and then over Danish territory south of Copenhagen. Swedish torpedo boats and Danish troops fired on it successively and it quickly disappeared in a southerly direction.

One remarkable enterprise of Russian airmen was reported officially on April 3, 1917, from Petrograd and deserves, on account of its highly adventurous nature, detailed repetition. The statement read: "On the Black Sea on March 27, 1917, during a raid by our seaplanes on Derkas, one of them was hit by the enemy. The petrol tank being punctured, the machine was compelled to descend.

"The aviators, Lieutenant Sergeev and Sublieutenant Thur, seeing a Turkish schooner, attacked it by opening machine-gun fire. The crew thereupon left the schooner. Our aviators, having sunk their machine after taking from it the compass, machine gun, and valuable belongings, boarded the schooner and set sail for our shores.

"They encountered a heavy storm during their adventure, but arrived with the schooner at the Duarlidatch Peninsula, west of Perekop, on Sunday. From this place our aviators returned to Sebastopol on a torpedo boat. The only provisions available on the schooner consisted of a few pieces of bread and a little fresh water."

Naturally interest in the activities of American airmen in the French service continued unabated. They continued to cover themselves with glory. During the second half of May, 1917, members of the Lafayette Escadrille engaged in twenty-five combats with German machines. Adjutant Raoul Lufbery was engaged five times, Sergeant Willis Haviland (Minneapolis) twice, Sergeant Dovell three times, Corporal Thomas Hewitt (New York) twice, and Corporal Kenneth Marr (San Francisco) twice.

As a result of these activities an official report announced the decoration of Adjutant Lufbery with the Military Medal by the King of England, and cited the meritorious conduct of this aviator and also of Sergeant Haviland, Sergeant Charles Johnson (St. Louis), and Lieutenant William Thaw (Pittsburgh).

In June, 1917, the American aviators flying under the French flag were even more active. In the short period from June 10 to 16, 1917, they made fifty-four patrol flights and fought nine air battles, of which Adjutant Raoul Lufbery, Edwin Parsons, and Sergeant Robert Soubiran each fought two, and Stephen Bigelow, Sergeant Walter Lowell and Thomas Hewitt each fought one.

Unfortunately death claimed two American flyers. On April 16, 1917, Pilot Edmond C. C. Genet of Ossining, N. Y., was killed during a fight with a German aeroplane over French territory. Genet was twenty years old and was the great-great-great-grandson of Governor Clinton and the great-great-grandson of Citizen Genet, who was French Minister in the days of Washington. He had originally fought in the Foreign Legion, but had later been transferred to the aviation service.

In March, 1917, Sergeant J. R. McConnell, also a member of the Escadrille, had been killed in action. On May 24, 1917, it was announced that the commander of the Escadrille, Captain de Laage of the French army, had been killed while flying near Ham on the Somme front.

Another death of interest to this country and caused by aerial operations was that of H. E. M. Suckley of Rhinebeck, N. Y., who was in charge of a unit of the American Ambulance Field Service. He was wounded while on duty near Saloniki by an aeroplane bomb and died the following day. He was thirty years old and had been with the Ambulance Service almost from the beginning of the war, first in the Vosges, then at Pont-À-Mousson, and finally with General Sarrail's army.

Regarding the losses suffered by the various aerial forces, authentic information available is very scant and incomplete. Up to February 1, 1917, the Germans claimed to have destroyed 1,002 Allied aeroplanes and to have put out of commission a total of 1,700, valued at $12,500,000. During April, 1917, according to the London "Times," a total of 714 machines was brought down on the western front. These were distributed as follows: German machines, 366; British, 147; French and Belgian, 201. Of the 366 German aeroplanes brought down 269 fell to the British, ninety-five to the French, and two to the Belgians. British airmen accounted for 263 German aeroplanes and antiaircraft gunners for six. On the other hand the Germans admitted the loss of only seventy-four machines, but claimed to have brought down 362 Allied aeroplanes and twenty-nine captive balloons.

During May, 1917, according to London newspapers, 713 aeroplanes were brought down on the western front. Of these 442 were said to have been German and 271 French and British.[Back to Contents]