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Often, today, one hears amazement expressed at the gigantic strides taken in military aviation during World War II. Those strides, which took us from the somewhat haphazard dropping of high explosives to the accurate delivery of fission bombs, were admittedly remarkable. But was such progress, in actual fact, any more remarkable than the progress made during the world war that preceded it?
Between 1914 and 1918, the weight of aircraft increased from 1,000 lbs. to 32,000 lbs. During these eventful years, as air warfare stepped, or sometimes stumbled awkwardly, from puberty to maturity, horsepower of engines rose from 80 to 420. Armament changed from pistols and rifles to Lewis and Vickers guns and small cannon. Hand-dropped rifle-grenades were replaced by 1,200-lb. bombs and the Aldis hand- carried signal lamp gave way to wireless telegraphy. Finally, two small internal units of Britain's Navy’ and Army merged to form a third service.
Royal Naval Air Service aircraft first extended sea power into the skies. It may surprise many, however, to learn that the "ancestor of bombardment aviation generally, including the Bomber Command of the Second World War, was also the RNAS. Indeed, the first "strategic” bombing mission in British history was made by a naval aircraft, when a Sopwith Tabloid dive-bombed and destroyed Zeppelin Z-9 in its shed at Dusseldorf on 8 October 1914.
The Tabloid that did the trick was based at Antwerp- Belgium. From the earliest days of World War I, several naval squadrons based along the Belgian coast specialized in carrying out bombing operations against Germany, and after the RNAS and the Royal Flying Corps were amalgamated in April, 1918 (diehards said the deed was done on April Fool’s Day) to form the Royal Air Force, they continued their efforts. Indeed, when the Independent Air Force—the world’s first purely strategic air force—was born in June 1918, it was buih
around the nucleus of naval airmen who were the most experienced bombing aircrews in the world.
At first, the single-seaters had no armament. Pilots ^egan by carrying revolvers, which they could not reload because the unstable aircraft needed one hand °n the controls at all times.'The first specialized air- k°me armament device was a wooden block with a ^°le in it into which the pilot could stick the muzzle to break the pistol open and thus reload it with one hand—the Webley revolvers in use were hinged near the trigger.)
Tw o-seaters, which were armed with Lee-Enfield rifles c°mplete with bayonets (bayonets, being part of a rifle, ^te always issued with them) were fitted with another type of specialized equipment—rowlocks, fastened to sides and rear of cockpits so that the observer could ^st his rifle in them. One of the naval technicians at unkirk was a warrant officer named Scarfe, who deigned the famous "Scarfe ring” (a rotatable hoop with
Strategic bombers were to change a lot from the Sopwith Tabloid (1) that flew the first strategic bombing mission in history on 8 October 1914■ Four years later, as two mechanics prepared to hurl an R.E. 8 skyward (2) the addition of a "Scarfe ring” permitted the observer to bring the Hun within the sights of his Lewis gun—and the bulls-eye roundel was an unanticipated aid to German marksmanship. The Henri Farman (3), to which a 500-lb bomb was being attachedwas a mainstay of the RNAS effort, and the Avro 504B (4). having just returned from an attack on a German airship on 17 May 1915 was, as a wag observed. "rewarded by being permitted to graze awhile. ”
UNLESS OTHERWISE CREDITED. ALL PHOTOGRAPHS ARE COURTESY OF THE IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM
a Lewis gun mounted on it) which was the ancestor of the power turret fitted to World War II bombers.
One weapon used against Zeppelins (not very successfully) was the rifle-grenade, fired from the observer’s trusty Lee-Enfield or dropped onto the big gas bag by hand. Guns often froze at altitude, but this was corrected by running them dry, or scrounging anti-freezing oil intended for torpedoes from the nearest dockyard. The ingenuity of the naval engineers was also demonstrated when they fitted rifle grenades to long pieces of piano wire with which to troll for airships hiding in the clouds in which they often took refuge to avoid fighters and shells, navigating by means of gondolas lowered on cables. Skyrockets, mounted on the struts of the attacking aircraft, were used against kite- balloons. It is interesting to note that, although they were the ancestors of today’s rockets, they were not brand new, since a rocket battery fought at the battle of Leipzig in 1813 and two years later, at Waterloo.
The naval air station at Dunkirk was established to support a naval brigade which was fighting in Flanders, as well as to serve as an outpost of the defenses of London. At first, the squadrons based there limited their activities to reconnaissance and to attacking Zeppelins on their way to or from London. Later, they attempted to destroy them in their hangars, which put the Navy in the strategic bombing business.
The first bombs were tin cans wound with rope and filled with gasoline or kerosene. Before long, however, the technicians began to attach fins to 18-pounder artillery shells for use against submarines. Originally they were carried loose in the cockpit in imminent danger of becoming tangled in the occupant’s feet bun in 1915, a bomb-release gear was invented. It consiste of tying the bombs together in pairs with a small rope and hanging them over the fuselage in front of tbe pilot, one on each side. The pilot would cut them looSe over the target with a jackknife. This development
5°on followed by installing bomb-racks under the fuse- tage and releasing them by means of quick-release hooks actuated by wires that ran to the cockpit.
As the war went on, ten-pound, 20-pound, 50- P°und, 112-pound—i.e., a British hundredweight—and 550-pound bombs were produced. By 1918, the original dambusters” were attempting to put the Zeebrugge- bruges p;ana] out 0f operation by dropping 550-pound 0rnbs between the lock gates and relying on water c°mpression to burst them. An 1,100-pound bomb was evised because the 550-pounders were not heavy Cri°ugh. They closed the canal.
The first bombsights were the pilots’ "seamen’s eyes.” Later the Wimperis vector bombsight appeared a°d, by the end of the war, a course-setting bombsight, °n which aircraft height, wind velocity, and airspeed set, very much like the Mark IX CSBS which was Sti» >n service in 1944.
^hen World War I broke out, the Navy and the
Army had little idea of how aircraft could be used. Nevertheless, since both possessed a few aeroplanes, they began to cast about for ways in which to employ them in conjunction with standard Navy and Army equipment. A fantastic series of experiments ensued. Before describing them, however, let us devote a few words to some of the aircraft.
The Morane monoplane, lacking fin, stabilizer, and elevators, was controlled by a balanced rudder, balanced stabilizer, and warping wings, all of which made it as sensitive as a race horse. The Bleriot’s high swivelling wheels made cross-wind take-offs and landings, though possible, often amusing. The Voisin was equipped with a four-wheel undercarriage, and the Farman’s elevators were located in front of the pilot’s seat. The "Box- Kite” (a term applied to several different aircraft, usually Caudrons or Voisins), with its little open seat about three feet forward of the wings, left the pilot with the feeling of being very much alone in the sky.
Light aircraft usually relied on dive-bombing. The bombs were usually released at low altitudes, and this compensated for the inaccuracies of both the bombs and bombsights.
Instruments were as crude as the bombsights. 1° 1915, aircraft were equipped with an airspeed indicator, an engine-oil pulsometer indicator, and an engine RP&* meter. Later aircraft were given horizontal cross-levels to indicate bank, and then a compass. The compass was first nestled in horsehair rather than suspended m alcohol, and pilots believed that compasses spun as soon as the aircraft entered clouds. (It would have worried the pilots unduly to know it was actually the plane that was spinning.) Altimeters and compasses were firs1 worn like wristwatches, and did not form part of rhe flying panel until a year after the war started.
Crew comfort was, of course, nonexistent, since all aircraft had open cockpits, and crews would be hair- frozen on their return from a long raid—it was four
five hours to and from a target such as Ghent. The toiler suit” was gradually developed and became standard; it was not until half a century later that it Was transfigured into a snowmobile suit. Even the Slnaple business of eating presented a difficulty on aircraft without trim tabs. Drinking was solved, however, °y a brilliant officer named Wing Commander Spencer-Gray, who devised a rubber tube with a baby’s n'Pple attached to a thermos flask. The standard liquids ere contained in three flasks; one for hot tea if you ere cold, one for ice-water if you were drowsy, and °ne for pilot’s choice (often beer.)
Navigation was done by the pilot, who used Admiralty charts and Ordnance maps. He avoided clouds, e*cept when one of the clumsy two-seaters was being y. ased by a fighter. No parachutes were carried, and ^ a tractor aircraft caught fire, the only recourse was sideslip away from the flames to the ground.
The first bombing raid en masse was made early in
Initially, compasses were womi like wristwatches but, by 1915, the Alark ll (1) which looked like it belonged on board ship, had evolved. Two years later came the Type 5/17 (2). The puddle in the foreground (3) holds no terrors for Puddlejumper #5573 nor for the Handley-Page night bomber, largest landplane generally used by the Allies. The very first such monster was captured when, on its ferry flight to France, it landed at a German aerodrome. Prepared for such an eventuality was pistol-packing Wing Commander C. R. Sampson, one of the most colorful of RNAS’s officers, seen beside his Nieuport Scout on the island of Tenedos, off Turkey.
2
Their two 360-b.p. Rolls Royce Eagle VIII engines roaring behind them, the sea rolling below, and they themselves perched up there like hood ornaments, (1) the crew of an F.2A reconnaissance flying boat had every opportunity to be airsick and seasick simultaneously. The 16-ton Handley-Page V-1500 (2) boasted 132 feet of wingspan and four engines back-to-back. Never defeated because it never fought, it was completed too late to bomb Germany as it was designed for. Readied to challenge the Atlantic in 1919, it was bested in that effort by a Vickers Vimy, about half its size.
1915, when 17 to 20 aircraft (of which no three were of the same type) bombed a German concentration of troops in a forest. A Bleriot, a "box-kite,” a Maurice Farman, some Shorts, a Sopwith, and several French Air Force machines made the raid. Some even had bombs, while the rest dropped rifle grenades or bricks. All returned.
The German antiaircraft organization along the Belgian coast became so good that any precision daybombing was impossible. This led to the formation of night-bombing squadrons controlled for landing and take-off by Very pistols and Aldis lamps from a "bandstand” (the father of the control tower):
As the war went on, the twin-engined nightbombing squadrons using Handley-Page aircraft would on ordinary nights make two trips and sometimes three. Problems of reloading and refueling were solved by using power pumps instead of hand-powered ones, by bringing bombs from the dumps on small trolle>'s running on narrow-gauge tracks leading under the aircraft, and then jacking them up to the bomb-racks. Depending on the target, aircraft would carry one 1,200-pound bomb, two 550-pounders, or the equivalent in 112-pound bombs.
The Germans appreciated the RNAS efforts enough to retaliate by sitting over stations with their bombers and attacking the aerodromes after the squadrons had left, thus forcing the returning aircraft to use emergency fields or to land on the beaches. The diversion fields were operational, however, and business went on as usual. Operations were carried on almost every nighf the weather allowed, and became known as "the shuttle.” The main targets were the enemy’s submarine bases. Day-bombing squadrons operated with single' engined aircraft carrying a crew of two. If heavy opp0' sition was expected, escort was provided by fighter squadrons. Some of the squadrons got pretty far afiel > Tenedos off Turkey being an example.
How effective was the bombing? One answer can
him
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anywhere he wanted to go, provided he flew only yisual Flight Rules weather, although the term VFR not been invented yet. The gunners—front, rear,
be obtained from the German reaction. They covered the Belgian coast with excellent searchlights, antiair- eraft guns, and fighter squadrons, and continually bombed the Dunkirk area where most of the RNAS squadrons were based. At various times they made a three-pronged attack on the area by air with bombs, by sea with gunfire and torpedoes from hit-and-run destroyers, and by land with 18-inch shells from behind the lines.
The bombing operations, performed by the Royal Navy in conjunction with the Royal Flying Corps, showed enough promise to lead to the establishment °f a strategic force, the Independent Air Force, which came into existence in June, 1918.
Its creation was due to official recognition of the requirement for strategic bombing, coupled with the fact that the means was at last available to do it effec- nvely. By 1918, the Handley-Page Company, which was t0 produce the Bomber Command Hampdens and Halifaxes a generation later, was making the v-1500. This enormous aircraft was fully capable of carrying a respectable bomb-load to Berlin. It had a wing-span °f 132 feet, which was indeed large for a biplane when 11 is considered that a Second World War Lancaster bad a wing-span of only 107 feet, and a B-17 Fortress was about the same size. Its four Rolls-Royce Eagle engines pushed its 16 tons through the air at nearly mph. It was too big to operate from French air- belds. A squadron of 150 men could keep only four Machines flying, which is not surprising when one reflects that the big bird-cages had to be tightened up aber every landing.
Their crews included two pilots, a flight engineer, ar>d three gunners. In addition, a specialized navigator ^as carried. The navigator was given no special train- lng, since it was considered that his naval training in surface navigation, plus a marine sextant, would get anb midship—used Lewis guns, an American-designed yeapon whose inventor could not sell it in the United tates, but did sell it in England.
The Independent Air Force, under the Command General "Boom” Trenchard, had two divisions, the , °rthern and the Southern. The Northern was based n England, and the Southern in France. The Northern aA three of the V-1500 bombers, one being used ^experimental work, while the other two were armed nd based at Bircham Newton in Norfolk. Their main „ UtPose was to bomb the factories of Germany, with s'beglance at Berlin.
Jbe organization set up to operate them looked rPrisingly modern. Weather forecasts were available
every four hours, and refueling bases, all connected to a control room in London by telephone, were established at Martlesham Heath (England), Autigny-Latour (France), and in Northern Italy. Lord Tiverton (the intelligence officer) even made arrangements through the Embassy at Rome for refueling in Austria after an attack on Berlin, thus allowing the bomb-load to be doubled by eliminating the necessity of carrying gas for the return trip.
The Southern Division (mainly wirh twin-engined aircraft) did actually operate against the Ruhr, under much the same conditions of searchlights and flak (or, as it was then known, "Archie”) that Bomber Command had to face a generation later.
The Northern Division was under the command of an aggressive engineer from Montreal, General R.H. Mulock. A few weeks before the Armistice, trained to concert pitch, it was poised to pay a visit to Berlin, when Mulock was called to London. On his arrival, he was astounded to find himself placed under open arrest. The explanation given him later was that, since Germany was about to surrender, no chances were being taken that a man of Mulock’s proved aggressiveness might muddy the international waters by leading a raid on Berlin on his own responsibility. The big bombers were therefore never able to repay the Germans for the raids on London. That task was reserved for the Bomber Command of another war.
The long-range expertise of the bomber crews was honed to some extent on the reconnaissance flying- boats which patrolled the North Sea and out into the Atlantic. Some of these aircraft did not look too different from the aircraft which patrolled the Atlantic in the early days of World War II.
Indeed, by the end of the war, the only aspect of military1 aviation that remained unchanged was the airman’s mascot—whether it consisted of a girl’s stocking or a brick. The flying services had gone a long way from the place they occupied when, in January' 1915, an officer asked a Navy pilot; "Why don’t you get a rifle and do a man s job instead of wasting your time boring holes in the sky?”
Mr. Emmott enlisted in the RCAF in 1937 as a storekeeper. He spent five years in the ranks before assignment to aircrew and service as a navigator in Halifax heavy bombers. RCAF Squadron 433, Group No. 6, out of Yorkshire. Graduating from RCAF Specialist Navigation Course in 1950 and from RCAF Staff College in 1954, he served largely in positions dealing with the development of navigational electronic gear during his last ten years of service. He retired in 1963, with the rank of squadron leader, and has been employed with the aerospace industry in California. He is now a senior applications engineer for Litton Systems. Ltd., at Rexdale, Ontario.