UNPRECEDENTED AIR BATTLE
The story of the air battle of March 23-24 reads like one of the most extraordinary adventure tales ever imagined. The struggle began with squadrons of airplanes ascending and manoeuvring as perfectly as cavalry. They rose to dizzy heights, and, descending, swept the air close to the ground. The individual pilots of the opposing sides now began executing all manner of movements, climbing, diving, turning in every direction, and seeking to get into the best position to pour machine-gun fire into enemy airplanes. Every few minutes a machine belonging to an allied or German squadron crashed to the ground, often in flames. At the end of the first day's fighting wrecked airplanes and the mangled bodies of aviators lay strewn all over the battlefield.
All next day, March 24, the struggle in the air went on with unabated fury. The allied air squadrons were now on the offensive and penetrated far inside the German lines. The German aviators counterattacked whenever they could, and more than once succeeded in crossing the French lines. But at the close of the second day victory rested with the allied airmen, and during the next five days scarcely a German airplane took the air.
The nature of the military operations on the earth below during these five days, (March 25-29,) favored the allied airmen and permitted them to secure important results in attacking infantry. The Germans were advancing through the valley of the Oise and across the Picardy plains, while the Allies were endeavoring bring up sufficient reserves to hold back the advance. The fighting was now in the open, and except for walls, trees, and ditches there was practically no cover of which the Germans could take advantage. This was exactly what suited the allied air squadrons as they sallied forth to harass and hamper the advancing German columns, which they attacked by day and night. Many German units were completely destroyed by showers of bombs, others were dispersed and demoralized, and there is no doubt that the allied squadrons, unopposed for the time by German aviators, did much to retard the advance of the enemy columns. The allied airmen literally swarmed in the air, but in carefully organized formations, so that their attacks would reap the largest possible gain.
ARTILLERY COLUMN SHATTERED
Some of the separate episodes illustrate the advantage of unopposed aerial operations. On March 25, for instance, a German artillery column moving along the road between Guiscard and Noyon, was attacked by French airmen and entirely dispersed. The machine gunners in the airplanes killed or wounded many horses which either fell down in their harness and blocked the road, or, panic-stricken, bolted in all directions, leaving the roads and adjoining fields covered with dead men and animals, wrecked guns, caissons, and wagons. Bodies of infantry were similarly broken up, dispersed, or demoralized. Showers of bombs from the airplanes created a barrage, and entire companies of German infantry were annihilated. In addition, railroad stations were damaged, transports blocked, and military works and depots of all kinds destroyed or put out of commission. At no previous time in the war did armies suffer so severely as did the German forces during the five days, March 24-29, 1918. The allied airmen did not come out unscathed. Many were killed by rifle fire, and many machines were lost. But the Allies held the mastery of the air and turned it to the fullest advantage, while the Germans were organizing new aerial squadrons.
On the fifth day of this period of allied air supremacy German airplanes began to appear once more, and with the organization of new enemy squadrons, the Allies' ascendency was no longer uncontested. Richthofen and other German air commanders came on the scene with their squadrons, and from March 30 onward there was continued fighting in the air between the opposing forces.
OFFICIAL DESCRIPTION
A day-to-day story of the air fighting on the Western front would vary little in its recital of duels and raids and battles between opposing squadrons. But on some days there was more intense fighting than usual. Such a day was April 12, when the Allies achieved the feat of destroying or bringing down ninety-three enemy airplanes.
That day's work is described in Sir Douglas Haig's report from British Headquarters:
On the 12th inst. atmospheric conditions were favorable for flying, and a great concentration of our airplanes was effected by us on the battlefront. Large numbers of low-flying machines were employed in bombing and sweeping with machine-gun fire roads packed with the enemy's troops. Thirty-six tons of bombs and over 110,000 rounds of ammunition were fired by us.
While these attacks on ground targets were in progress, other formations, flying at a greater height, engaged the enemy's airplanes, which were extremely active in this sector. Other machines reconnoitred the battle area, bringing back information as to the positions of our own and the enemy's troops.
On the remainder of the British front the usual work in co-operation with our artillery was carried out, and a very large number of photographs taken.
In air fighting forty German machines were brought down by our airplanes, and twenty other hostile airplanes were driven down out of control. In addition, two of the enemy's machines were shot down by anti-aircraft-gun fire. Three hostile observation balloons were also destroyed. Twelve of our airplanes are missing.
After dark the incessant bombing carried out by us during the previous twelve hours was continued until dawn. Over twenty-two tons of bombs were dropped on different targets, including the Don and Douai railway stations, two important railway junctions between Mazières and Rheims, and roads leading up to the battlefront in the neighborhood of Estaires.
Sir Douglas Haig's report next day stated that low-flying machines reconnoitred the battlefront during the day and dropped over 1,200 bombs on the enemy's troops on roads leading to the front. The numbers of German airplanes destroyed on various days evidence the intensity of the air fighting. Thus, reports of successive days showed these totals: 21, 53, (two days;) 55, 21, 30, 97, (four days.) On May 25 it was stated that many more German airplanes had been added to the total of 1,000 machines recorded as having fallen to earth, or having been sent down out of control since the opening of the drive on March 21.