The Aeroplane in War

by Claude Grahame-White; Harry Harper

Take, for example, the work of discovering the nature of the country over which an army is about to operate. This is a task which is extremely important. But, hitherto, the process of obtaining such information has been painfully slow—painfully slow, that is, when compared with the way the aeroplane will be able to carry out the work.

Here, indeed, will be an ideal opportunity for a long-distance flight. In a three-hour, non-stop journey, a machine should be able to survey at least 150 miles of country, and return with reports of the utmost value.

How important this aerial survey-work will be is instanced by Major J. N. C. Kennedy, who, from his experience in the South African war, states that such disasters as Spion Kop could not have happened, if there had been aeroplanes to fly over and observe the country beforehand.

Here, then, is another practical use for the aeroplane. A squadron of machines, flying ahead of an army on the march, will be able to return with accurate news as to the position of roads, railways, rivers, and bridges. Such information, received in good time, may prove of exceptional value to a Commander-in-Chief.

Apart from general survey work, also, the air-corps will be able to execute highly-important orders in locating the position of an enemy’s supply trains, magazines, and depots.

Thus it can be seen that there will be practically constant use for war aeroplanes during a campaign—apart from their potentialities as weapons of destruction, concerning which notes will be written later.

So highly does he rate the work of aircraft in wartime, for reconnoitring purposes, that the director of the military aviation service of the French army has declared: "Aeroplanes, carrying a steersman, observer, and combatant, will eventually supersede cavalry for scouting purposes."

In this regard, it is interesting to note the opinion of a famous German military expert, who says:—

"They (aeroplanes) will collect much information which would never be accessible to cavalry, and, above all, they will do it over long distances, and in a much shorter time. It is a defect of cavalry reconnaissance that the knowledge which it yields has necessarily, in the great majority of eases, been long overtaken by events. No small gifts, on the part of the General, are necessary to infer, from what was ascertained many hours previously, what is actually the existing situation. The possibilities of error are very great."

Here is another striking tribute to the value of the war aeroplane. What this German expert was particularly impressed by, after observing a series of tests of aeroplanes for reconnoitring, was their wonderful speed, as compared with any other means of obtaining information.