Aircraft in war

by Eric Stuart Bruce

Those bombs have proved a great success in the war, as they find the enemy’s ranges very accurately. The bomb when dropped leaves a thick, black, smoky line to enable their gunners to take the exact range. We were in a good position but suffered loss. The enemy could not find us until the aëroplane came on the scene. Then we had it rather hot. The gunners had to leave the guns, but later saved them all after being reinforced by other guns.

Another method the Germans adopt is to drop a silver ball. Almost as the ball drops from the range-finding aëroplane, the shrapnel shell bursts over the lines of the opponent.

They also sometimes pull up and down a little disc suspended beneath the aëroplane. A still further variety of signalling is accomplished by the use of lamps that are visible in daylight. Almost every method of signalling can be used for the purpose, such as flag signalling; wireless signals are no doubt especially effective.

I will quote from a recent article by Mr. F. W. Lanchester in “Engineering” as to the German use of the aëroplane in this respect:—

The value of aëroplane work will be relatively greater the longer the range; in fact, it may in future be found possible to employ heavy artillery of long range under conditions in which without the help of the aëroplane it would be comparatively useless. As an illustration, there is nothing to-day to prevent a long-range battery, well served by its aëroplanes, from effectively shelling an enemy without knowing in the least the character of its objective—i.e., whether an infantry force or position, a body of cavalry, or the enemy’s guns. In the present war the aëroplane appears to have been utilised by the German army, as a matter of regular routine, as an auxiliary to the artillery in the manner indicated. It has been reported again and again that the appearance of an aëroplane overhead has been the immediate prelude to the bursting of shrapnel, frequently the very first shell being so accurately placed as to indicate that the method of signalling, and, in fact, the whole performance, must have been well thought out and equally well rehearsed.

3. Offensive operations.

This use might be well subdivided into legitimate and illegitimate offensive operations. There has been, unfortunately, ample example of the use of both airships and aëroplanes for purposes that are illegitimate and barbaric in the present war. To use the advantage of travelling in the air at altitudes for the purpose of the wanton destruction of harmless citizens, and, further, to destroy in cities the amassed wealth of art that only centuries, not years, produce, is an unrighteous use of the science of aërial navigation. Before the war it was condemned by the Hague Convention. Since, it has met with the denouncement of all civilised nations—save the one that has perpetrated the outrages. In the case of the aëroplane raid made into Germany by our own British naval airmen, one party of aviators went to Cologne to try to attack the airship halls there. The city was enveloped with an opaque fog, and it was hopeless to try to locate the position of the airship sheds. Though the British aviators circled over the town for an hour and a half they refrained from discharging any bombs, rather than run the risk of destroying civilian life or property. An example, indeed, of the legitimate offensive use of the aëroplane was the attempt to destroy or put out of action the very kind of aircraft which had been so wantonly used over Paris, Antwerp, Ostend, and other cities.

Perhaps the most important offensive use of the aëroplane is for fighting airship and aëroplane. Mention has already been made about the deadly character of the aëroplane when it encounters an airship. When it meets an aëroplane the chances are more evenly balanced. Success will depend chiefly upon the speed of the respective aëroplanes, their climbing power, their armouring, and the guns with which they are armed. Speed and climbing power are perhaps the greatest protective factors. Several stories have already been told of the pursuit of German aëroplanes by those of the Allies. The climbing power of the machines of the latter has often been the cause of victory. It is the well-directed shot from above to which the airman is exposed that has ended the career of airman and machine.

At the beginning of the present chapter it was pointed out that the British and French aëroplanes generally fly at about 6,000 feet, which is a height fairly safe from gun-fire. While speaking of the offensive work of aëroplanes, a few more words about the attack on them by gun-fire may not be out of place. As Mr. Lanchester has pointed out, an aëroplane is liable to attack by rifle, machine-gun, and shell fire. Ordinary field artillery fire can be put out of the question in the use of so rapidly moving a target as an aëroplane in flight. He has estimated that an aëroplane is absolutely safe from rifle or small-bore machine-gun fire at 7,000 feet, and it would be difficult to hit it a thousand feet lower.

Not only would the velocity become so reduced as to render a “hit” capable of but little mischief, but the time of flight of the bullet, rising vertically to this altitude, would be about eight or nine seconds, and the distance moved by the aëroplane 1,000 feet, more or less. Therefore, it would be necessary to fire into quite a different part of the heavens from that in which the aëroplane was seen.