Air Power in WW1 - Presenter Version

Air
Power
in WW1
Pre-WW1
Establishment of
air arms by
Italo-Turkish War Balkan Wars of
major powers to
of 1911 1913
support their
armies
1914
Battle of Mons
Battle of Marne
Battle of Tannenberg
First Battle of Ypres
Control of the air
Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance
Attack
Mirrored the way their parent organisations behaved

1915
Western Front
Eastern Front →
→
Mainly ISR,
Developments Use of balloons
geographical
in Aerial
issues
Photography
Air arms Battle of Neuve German Fokker

reorganisation Chapelle Eindecker
1916
Control Patrols
Eastern Front → bombing used by Russians
First serious air campaigns conducted
Battle of Verdun
Battle of Somme
1917
Ground attack
Battle of Aisne being added to
Bloody April
and Arras the repertoire
of the air arms
1918
Increasingly used to provide direct support to the infantry in
combat
German Spring Offensive
Allied success in applying tactical air power
Battle of Amiens
Battle of Saint-Mihiel
2nd Battle of Marne
Italian Front
Britain
ROYAL FLYING AIR MINISTRY

CORPS
France
Division Aerienne
Distinct advantage in the production

of engines and aeroplanes
Germany
Air policy and Created a
practise came home air
Luftstrietkrafte to rely on defence
quality over command in
quantity 1916
Major
Created
problems
position of Technological
producing
Kongenluft → advantage
large numbers
October 1916
of aircraft
Ca1 Caproni
Long-range campaign
Italy
against Austria-Hungary
Struggled with
organisational
challenges
Strategic bombing
Created Severely Major Compell Britain Germany Allied
both a limited political ed and ’s bombing
material by impact belligere Germany strategic against
effect technolo in nts’ air raids Germany
and gy Britain arms to against
moral consider Britain
effect and
develop
localised
air
defence
system
Smuts
Report
● In all battles, the
side that was able
Control of
to get and hold
aerial superiority
used it to amplify
their infantry and
artillery attacks
the Air
● Main role of military
aircraft was aerial
reconnaissance in
support of ground
forces Intelligence,
● Aircraft would take
images to show the
Surveillance,
artillery where to
direct their fire
and
 Also used to Reconnaissanc
create maps
● Only means of e
gathering
information beyond
enemy trenches
Harold Taylor explaining what he
looked for
“When you went on reconnaissance
you had to watch for new trenches,
new trains or trains going in any
direction, movement of artillery or
movement of troops. And if you got
back, when we went into the reports
room when we got back the joke was
that we’d exchange what we’d seen.
For instance if I’d seen three trains and
my friend had only got one train I used
to hand him two trains as well. And of
course that meant that everybody had
a decent report.”
Fighter Aircraft
Began when rival aircraft encountered each
other on ISR missions
Dogfights were common
Developed from handheld firearms to fitted

machine guns
War at Sea
Control of the air was at necessary at sea as it was on land
North Sea
Adriatic Sea
Britain led the war in the application of air power in this domain
Development of trade defence
Convoys
April 1917 → Spider Web Patrol
Battle of Jutland
Use in “I used to look up and see these
Propaganda machines flying all over the place.
We moved further down south,
beyond Béthune, and took over
some French trenches. But we found
them absolutely filthy and we spent
most of our time cleaning them out.
For the first time in my life I found I
was covered with lice. It was then
that really made me think that
trench warfare was not for me. I
used to look up with great envy at
these aircraft flying round about, so
I immediately put in an application
to join the Royal Flying Corps.”
● Bombing causing heavy drops in productivity
Reality of air
warfare
● Lack of training provided
● Alcoholism in the troops
“Well I think, not only 40 Squadron, but every RFC

Squadron, the centre of the squadron seemed to be
in the bar. That may offend a lot of people in these
days, but it is perfectly true. And when you think of
these boys, with the tensions they lived through,
through the day, and they came in, in the evening,
and then asked about their best friend, ‘Where’s he?
I miss old George’. ‘Oh, he bought it this afternoon’.
‘Oh, heavens’. Now the gloom would come into a
mess; the morale would die and the reaction
immediately was, ‘Well, come on chaps, what’re you
going to have?’ That was the sort of spirit that kept
going. I still think that it played a magnificent part in
keeping up the morale of our troops generally.”
Historiography
Morrow → suggests air power did not determine the
outcome of the First World War, but the airplane did
establish its very real significance in support of the army
on the battlefield
James Corum → “the use of airpower in World War 1

fundamentally transformed modern warfare”
There is also a discussion of whether World War 1 did

more for air power than air power did for World War 1
→ WW1 could be viewed as more of a developing
opportunity for the potential of air power
Contribution to total war
Some say air power’s

role in the war wasn’t as
fundamental to making
World War 1 a total war:
Bombing as a weapon
The technology was a more
It was a developing necessary to cause the psychological tactic
technology that was kind of massive damage than a more practical
severely limited aircraft could have one as it wasn’t
throughout the war achieved had not yet developed enough to
been developed cause large scale
damage

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Air

First Battle of Ypres

Control of the air

Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance

Mirrored the way their parent organisations behaved

Air arms Battle of Neuve German Fokker

Eastern Front → bombing used by Russians

First serious air campaigns conducted

ROYAL FLYING AIR MINISTRY

Distinct advantage in the production

Dogfights were common

Developed from handheld firearms to fitted

Development of trade defence

April 1917 → Spider Web Patrol

“Well I think, not only 40 Squadron, but every RFC

James Corum → “the use of airpower in World War 1

There is also a discussion of whether World War 1 did

Some say air power’s

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