The Great War In The Air: Aces Of The Western Front - Part 1/4

you by the summer of 1914 Europe seemed poised on the brink of war the peace that had prevailed for the past 30 years on the continent had long been held together by a thin web of diplomacy trade agreements and alliances On June 28th the heir to the austro-hungarian throne Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated in the streets of Sarajevo in Bosnia the Archduke's assassin a man named Vincent was seeking to gain sovereignty the tiny Balkan nation that had been swallowed up six years earlier by the austro-hungarian Empire over the next month the diplomatic situation continued to unravel the death of the Archduke is blamed on Serbia a sovereign balkan nation the austro-hungarians considered to be agitators as the Empire threatened military action Russia with their own designs in the Balkans began to mobilize troops Germany an ally of austria-hungary demanded the Russians to halter mobilization and three days later issued a proclamation of war against her because there existed an alliance between Russia and France Germany demanded France to define her position in the developing situation the French agreed to appease the Central Powers by pulling her own troops back six miles from the franco-german border but Germany we've long been looking for a reason to attack saw this as the opportunity began moving westwards on August 2nd the kaisers troops poured into Luxembourg a tiny nation strategically located at the junction of Germany France and Belgium an attack on France would have to be launched through Belgium and when that country declared herself mutual deny passage to the German forces shichi was invaded immediately upon the invasion of Belgium England declared war on Germany an assassin's bullet and the obscure nation of Sarajevo had set in motion events that would lead to the greatest conflict yet seen on the planet five years later nearly 10 million people would lie dead in a war that it would engulf most of Europe and reach into both Africa and Asia World War one had begun the Great War began on the continent of the staccato sound of marching feet on August 4th 1914 as troops of the Imperial German army began flooding into Belgium it was in accordance with the Schlieffen Plan a document drawn up in 1905 by the general bearing the same name within six hours of the initial invasion some 1.5 million of Kaiser Wilhelm's troops were on the move towards the western frontier the French following a plan devised in 1913 by General Joseph Joffre immediately hurled it survived armies towards Metz the ancient fortress city situated east of Verdun the joffrey plan was a relatively simple one mustered three-quarters of a million men in the eastern corner of France and then drive them over the German border and towards the Rhine unfortunately the French army was woefully short of artillery and remarkably unprepared for the consequences of advancing soldiers across open fields into the face of machine-gun fire accompanied by the blare of bugles the French infantry hurled itself again and again against the German guns in a slaughter that claimed a quarter million French casualties in the opening weeks of the war as the French offensive ground to a halt in Alsace Lorraine the German army moved swiftly in the north the Schlieffen Plan called for the massive Wheeling of their forces through Belgium and down into Paris the small Belgian Army vastly outnumbered and equipped from an earlier time offered little resistance the German invaders we'll easily overrun their positions and continued the drive south into France British troops and equipment pouring into the port of Austin managed to check the German advance westwards towards the English Channel but by the first week of September the kaisers troops stood thirty miles outside of Paris and positioned along the Marne River as the French government fled the capital for the safety of Bordeaux 120 miles to the south their army prepared for the battle that would decide Frances fate Paris's huge fleet of buses delivery trucks and taxicabs were quickly , dared to rush every able-bodied soldier to the defense of the city in what would later be called the miracle of the Marne the German army was hurled back from the outskirts of Paris and their advance finally halted four days after the outbreak of war the citizens of Dover England were awakened to the sight of a convoy of trucks rolling through the streets of their seaside town less warlike vehicles could hardly be imagined hastily requisitioned from the streets of London they came in blazing with advertisements for sauces teas biscuits and other popular products of the day in place of their usual cargoes they carried a miscellany of canned food water bottles small stoves tents airplane struts carburetor spark plugs piano wire and tools of every description this motley convoy represented the fledgling Royal Flying Corps first preparations to go to war on a large grassy plain on the outskirts of town red flags will be implanted along the ditches that bordered the field even as the first airplanes began to arrive the hastily erected air drum would serve as a staging point for RFC squadrons two three four and five preparing to make the cross channel hop Continent the aircraft that would eventually fly to France tolled 37 machines were mixed collection of averroes French built Henry farm ins and marine parasols and royal aircraft factory b-2s well the afros and farm ins were at best suited for training purposes the b2 was England's most advanced flying machine at the time designed by Geoffrey de Havilland the plane was both frail and heavy but was nevertheless easy to fly and could carry a crew of two men at speeds up to 70 miles an hour the first British squadron to land in France was RFC number two which left the coast in their b-2s at half-past six in the morning of August 13 and touched down near army ends nearly two hours later squadrons three and four also flew to France that day with their contingent of ground personnel equipment and supplies arriving on the continent later by trawler serving in number three squadron was mechanic first class James mccuddin a native of Kent Houdin listed in the Royal Engineers back in 1910 to serve as a bugler following his older brother he transferred into the Flying Corps in 1913 where he'd been trained as an aircraft mechanic at Farnborough number three squadron was equipped with barman's and marine parasols the slow-moving farm and biplanes were an antique collection of struts and wires nicknamed the flying bird cage the farm ins odd nickname derived from more than just its ungainly appearance the planes rigger would sometimes place a sparrow inside the mass of wires holding the wings of the plane together and as the bird managed to escape it was evidence of a missing wire when he caught up with a squadron at any ends mccuddin found the air crews busy attaching wooden racks along the sides of their parasols the racks would be used to hold grenades for dropping on the enemy number three had also received some flechette steel darts designed by the French which were intended to rain down on the heads of the German troops as mccuddin observed the odds against actually hitting someone with one of these darts was unlikely and even the results would be at best dubious squadron number five ferried the Marines and farming's over to France on August 14th but one of the pilots lieutenant Lewis strange didn't make the trip until a day later because he'd been complaining of engine troubles there was in fact nothing wrong with his motor strange had spent most of the night Lewis machine gun to the front cockpit of his farman and when he arrived in France the following day is was the only armed airplane in the Royal Flying Corps three days after their arrival in the front the pilots and observers of the Royal Flying Corps began their assigned tasks of reconnaissance operating at first from their base at Amiens as well as an airfield near monks in Belgium they patrolled the entire area of the German advance and were able to provide some valuable information concerning the movements of the enemy as the German drive progressed during those first weeks of war the British air crews found themselves living a nomadic existence and constant retreat ahead of the advancing German army still the catastrophic effect of the German invasion would have been far worse and if not for the information provided from the air during the opening days of the first world war in Belgium and they'd been a flying machine that had spotted the Germans attempted flanking maneuver around Mons and as a result the British Army had staged an effective retreat that had both saved many British lives and halted the German thrust to the channel overnight a new dimension had been added to the concept of 20th century warfare and the reconnaissance value of this new tool had immediately proved itself indispensable it did not take long for the German air force to make its presence known either at the start of the war the flag or troop was able to deploy a total of 180 aircraft along the Western Front some 60% of which was Talbot type machines like their British counterparts the German Airmen concerned themselves primarily with observation duties in most German aircraft of the day it was typical that the pilot often an enlisted man acted as little more than the chauffeur for the officer observer who commanded the plane unlike the British however the generals of the German army remained skeptical of reports filed by their pilots and observers schooled in an earlier time and distrustful of these machines to frighten horses any advantages they might have gained from using these new contraptions when mostly unexploited in those first weeks of the conflict most people had assumed that this world would be fought in pretty much the same manner as the previous wars with massed cavalry charges across open fields and that the new weaponry being used would it best serve in minor supporting roles nothing could be further from the truth as the French offensive to push the German army back from Paris began to lose momentum troops on both sides started digging in and the war began to settle down to the stalemate that would characterize the next four years one such officer who believed the war would be fought on horseback was Manfred von Richthofen born in 1892 in the town of Breslau in the prussian province of silesia von Richthofen had grown up at his family estate where he'd spent his childhood engaged in athletics horseback riding and in what would remain the love for the rest of his days hunting Manfred's father Albrecht von Richthofen had been a career military officer serving in the old Hans the elite cavalry unit of the army and rising to the rank of Major the von Richthofen is in fact had a long history of military service and it was expected that young man furred and his brothers would follow in the family tradition in 1903 at the age of eleven he entered the military academy at valle staad where he would remain for the next six years until being accepted in the advanced Craig Shula outside of Berlin after receiving his commission the old Hans lightning von Richthofen joined his cavalry unit not far from the family home he continued to spend his spare time riding and hunting on the first day of world war one von Richthofen found himself leading a patrol across the prize and river into russian occupied poland here was the moment the 22 year old manfred had spent half his life preparing for leading men into the glory of battle that first patrol turned out to be as peaceful as a ride in the country with no enemy to be found but five days later the young ruler on met with real excitement when he rode his unit into an ambush set up by Russian Cossacks although Manfred and his men were able to escape the young officer learned a valuable lesson on that day and resolved to never allow himself to be ambushed again by the end of August 1 rich Kaufman's cavalry unit had been sent to France where they would carry out reconnoitering duties for the army at first the work was exciting and fairly dangerous but as the war ground to a standstill Manford quickly found his outfit assigned to tasks more mundane in nature although he didn't realize it yet the days of cavalry charges were gone forever before the world was finished Manfred von Richthofen would find his glory in combat not on the back of a horse but in the air and with an airplane serving as his mount his lifelong training of sports leadership and most importantly shooting would combine in such a way that these qualities would make von Richthofen the most famous name in the history of air fighting for the time being however the young Prussian hadn't yet begun thinking about aviation one young German who was thinking about flying with Oswald Volkov born in 1891 in the province of Saxony he was one of six children whose father a school teacher had seen to it that all his children had received a proper education against the wishes of his father Bokke had decided on a military career and upon completing school had enlisted as an officer cadet then transferring to aviation shortly before the outbreak of hostilities outgoing and likable he'd easily passed through the flying school at Halberstadt where he received his flyer certificate by the first week of October immediately posted to a combat unit bulk of blue two-seater biplanes assigned to carry out an assortment of duties that mostly entailed reconnaissance and artillery spotting before the month was completed Oswald would be decorated with the Iron Cross second class awarded for observation work performed over the French lines another flier who distinguished himself late in 1914 was maximum an Immelmann had completed his pilot's training in November and found himself posted to FA 62 the same unit volca was serving in a year older than balke Immelman was born the son of a wealthy factory owner in the city of Dresden and had studied mechanical engineering before enlisting in the Armed Forces because of his love for machines it was only natural that he'd applied for transfer to the aviation branch where along with volka he quickly established himself as one of his you stop scouting pilots both Immelman and Volker would soon become names forever associated with the greatest Flyers of the first world war especially volca who would eventually penned his famous dictum a set of rules and fighter tactics that would come to be adopted by pilots of every nation for the time being though both these men would continue with their observation duties as the weapon that would lead them to fame had not yet been invented when occasionally it would happen that enemy aircraft met in the air the event would usually be observed with a friendly wave exchange between crews the enemy were after all fellow Airmen and whether the machine carried a cross were around elements wings was chiefly a matter of politics it did not take long to realize however that depriving the enemy of their ability to gather information from the air would render a tremendous advantage to either side and so observers began carrying pistols and rifles aloft if this turn of event had taken on a rather unfriendly or tone it had not created any threat to be taken seriously to be sure planes were returning to their home bases with the odd bullet hole in the wings or fuselage but beyond that air crews generally went about their work undisturbed a machine gun mounted for the use of the observer seemed to be the obvious solution of the problem but as of yet no adequate weapon existed he's in it's strange the pilot who'd arrived in France with a machine gun mounted on his airplane had quickly discarded the weapon the added weight had bogged down the performance of his farm in to the point that he'd been unable to catch up and maneuver on any German planes still to everyone involved it was understood that a proper weapon would be needed for the air crews and so both sides were working at developing lighter machineguns the first weapons being affixed to planes were basically modified versions of the guns being used by the soldiers on the ground the French began experimenting with the Hotchkiss gun will the British Armed some of its planes with the Lewis an air-cooled weapon that took its feed from a magazine carousel neither of these machine guns were particularly well-suited for hair craft being heavy and prone to frequent stoppages there was also considerable interest in developing the airplane as a weapon to drop bombs in the opening weeks of the war German Zeppelin's had been used to drop bombs on targets in Belgium and France although they did manage to kill some civilians the raids had caused little damage to any military targets and three of the attacking airships had been destroyed by ground fire for bombs the Raiders had used artillery shells but the nose is weighted but most of them had failed to explode on impact it was not an encouraging start for the Zeppelin's at war the first bombing raids with aircraft were carried out by the Royal Naval Air Service in Great Britain the Sopwith aviation company had unveiled the tabloid a single place scouting machine based on a pre-war racing design sturdy and easy to fly the tabloid could reach a speed of 90 miles an hour and stay aloft for three hours it was the first in an excellent line of aircraft that would culminate four years later with the Sopwith sniper on September 22nd a royal naval flight of four tabloids had been sent from their base in Antwerp to bomb the Zeppelin sheds in Dusseldorf only one machine piloted by flight lieutenant our LG Marik's had managed to make the hundred-mile flight to the German target after circling once over the huge hangars used to house the dirigibles mariksa tossed his 220 pound bombs over the side of his plane and immediately been rewarded when one of the sheds went up in a fireball the l9 a brand-new airship was destroyed and the British pilot flew home with the knowledge that another military use for the airplane had been confirmed the first air-to-air victory had occurred during October when the French pilot Joseph France and his mechanic observer Louis Cano came upon a German biplane over the town of Reims France and queneau were flying in a voice on a sturdy pusher type machine where the observer and pilot sat in in a Cell at the front of the plane rinoa daunted a Hotchkiss gun stripped of its heavy cooling skirt on a tripod in the front cockpit and they'd spent two weeks trying to catch an enemy machine on the 15th they finally did meet up with an unarmed German two-seater probably in a vo-tech they'd maneuvered in close a couple of times and proceeded to empty two clips of ammunition into it before had rolled over onto its back and plunged into the ground within days France had been awarded the lesion to honor and queneau bestowed with the module militare in 1916 France would go on to become the chief test pilot for the Voisin Company and surviving the war continued flying well into his 70s if a chance meeting with an enemy in the air presented little threat flying was still a dangerous business aircraft and crews were being lost both by enemy fire and in accidents planes were occasionally being brought down by ground fire the soldiers looking up as these fragile machines passed overhead the opportunity to pot away at them was irresistible and if the pilot or some vital part of the engine could be hit it was a good chance the craft would fall by the end of the year anti-aircraft batteries at first machine guns and then later explosive shells were being deployed along the front airplanes were often poorly marked and it was not an uncommon occurrence for them to be fired upon by overzealous friendly forces accidents were by far claiming the highest number of flying casualties virtually all the aircraft serving were of pre-war designs and the rigors of daily flying rapidly began to take its toll on these flimsy machines Motors failed undercarriage is collapsed and wings buckled with alarming regularity the air crews found themselves operating for makeshift fields often unsuitable for the demands required in aviation and takeoff and landing accidents were commonplace on both sides of the lines engineers and designers were scrambling to improve the reliability and performance of their airplanes before the end of the year some new types have been introduced and hurried to the front the British and colonial airplane company unveiled the Bristol Scout a trim single-seat biplane of surprisingly modern design with a top speed of nearly 100 miles per hour the Bristol was ahead of its time and could have been a first-class fighting machine except for the fact that there was no way to effectively arm it the Bristol's would remain in front-line service until the end of the following year when they would be relegated to a training role the German aircraft makers offered improved versions of their albatross a vo-tech DFW and rumbler two-seaters well the French were able to introduce more advanced models of their farm ins and voisins in Great Britain a camera had been designed for aerial photography the flying corps had assigned three of its officers to the task of creating a new photographic unit working closely with the thornton picard manufacturing company a camera had been developed that could take decent pictures from the air and have its film be quickly processed in the field in the coming year as the ground war dragged on photographs taken above the frontlines would prove invaluable as 1914 drew to a close troops on both sides hunkered down in the trenches facing each other across a no-man's land that extended from the Swiss border to the English Channel massed machine guns and miles of barbed wire made sure that nobody was going anywhere too quickly well artillery fire made it remarkably unpleasant to sit still during that first dreadful winter of the war more soldiers in the trenches would die by pneumonia than by bullets or bombs while the Western Front lay frozen and under snow the generals occupied themselves with drafting plans for springtime offensives everyone seemed resolved to the fact that the war would continue for another year and so it was that 1915 would see some of the bloodiest fighting in the history of mankind with the spring thaw came the first allied offensive of 1915 beginning on March 10th the first army of the British Expeditionary Force under the command of General Douglas Haig began its assault in the town of Nouveau chapel in northwestern France the attack had originally been planned as part of a wider offensive in the art toy region but when large numbers of the British troops were diverted to Turkey to take part of the campaign on the Gallipoli Peninsula it was decided to go ahead and carry out the attack with the more modest objective of reducing the small German salient immediately east of Lille the battle began with 350 British guns unleashing a half hour long bombardment along a two kilometer stretch of the line RFC crews sent aloft using wireless radios and Morse code to direct the artillery fire played no small measure in the success of the barrage and 40,000 British and Indian soldiers of the 1st army rapidly broke through the German lines and captured Nouveau Chapelle when the battle ended on march 13th it had cost the Allied command some 13,000 men to regain two kilometers of land originally lost in October of 1914 German losses were roughly the same on the day World War one began a French aviator named Roland Garros had found himself in the awkward position of being stranded in Berlin Garros had been one of the more famous names from the early days of flying after seeing the Brazilian pioneer santos dumont demonstrate his fourteen beasts outside of Paris Garros had abandoned his studies in classical music and taken up flying by 1911 he'd set the world's altitude record been the first man to fly across the Mediterranean and then had spent the next three years performing exhibition flights that had taken him all over the European continent and even to America and so in August 1914 well German troops were pouring into Belgium the Frenchmen sat under house arrest in his Berlin hotel room faced with the prospect of internment Garros had simply climbed out a bathroom window in the middle of the night and walked to the exhibition field where his airplane sat after stowing a couple of gasoline cans onboard he taken off into the darkness and flown himself home back in Paris Garros immediately reported for service and was attached to Escadrille M s number 23 a squadron whose personnel included many of France's most famous pre-war fliers Garros was a welcome addition to the group M s number 23 followed the French system of designating its squadrons the M s standing for marine sound ler the type of aircraft the group flew Escadrille 23 flew the type n a single-seat monoplane powered by an 80 horsepower known rotary engine although the plane was one of the best performing machines at the time it was hampered by its lack of armament the French had begun experimenting with their Newport biplanes mounting a Lewis gun on the top wing to fire over the arc of the propeller this arrangement did show some promise but it also presented its own set of problems it would be both difficult to aim and even harder to reload in flight with the monoplane garrow's flew there was no way to mount a gun and he grown increasingly frustrated with his inability to fire at the Germans he was encountering over the front time after time he'd flown up directly behind the unarmed enemy to Cedars and could only sit and watch through the seemingly invisible discs of his propeller the idea occurred to Garros that if a machine gun were fired directly through the spinning propeller most of the bullets would miss it but not all of them and the propeller would ultimately be shot away could it be reinforced in some way to withstand those bullets that would inevitably strike it Garros took his idea to the aircraft designer Robert Siler and in March of 1915 returned to his Escadrille with a brand new type n machine boasting a pair of important modifications one of these modifications was the Hotchkiss machine gun mounted directly in front of the pilot the other was a pair of steel deflection wedges bolted to the section of the propeller where the bullets would strike and tests on the ground the idea had basically worked the propeller remained intact but they quickly realized that the unpredictable nature of the ricocheting bullets would be an ongoing concern it was on April fools day when Garros finally got to test his new weapon in battle he caught up with a flight of four albatross to Cedars above the French lines and had quickly maneuvered himself into position on the tail of the rear most machine one can only imagine the astonishment of the German observers face when a burst of machine-gun fire blossomed from behind the spinning arc of the Frenchman's propeller and slammed into the albatross killing the pilot and leaving the machine to careen towards the ground below Garros quickly latched on to the tail of a second ship which after receiving a short burst from his gun caught fire and fell earthwards incinerating it's horrified crew the surviving two German planes raced for home their crews pale and unnerved over what they just witnessed over the next 18 days Garros destroyed three more German airplanes the psychological effect that this lone French monoplane had on the enemy fliers at the front was immense German crews were terrified with the prospect of encountering this new weapon and began fleeing at the sight of any allied single seater Garros already somewhat of a household name in his country was lauded in all the papers declaring him an ace indeed following the example set by Roland Garros defeat of downing five enemy airplanes with forever after bestow upon a flyer the status of ace on the German side of the lines there was much speculation about this new secret weapon the German air crews were suddenly facing the secret was revealed on April 19th when Garros was forced to land behind the lines with a failed engine he'd been sent to bomb the railroad siding at core try when his motor had quit and once on the ground had been unable to burn his machine before being taken captive and so the Germans now knew how their airplanes were being shot down and this knowledge would lead to the next great technological advance in aerial combat two and a half years later when Roland Garros was to finally escape from a German prison camp and rejoin the fighting it was to a very different world he returned doing no small part to events he himself had set in motion on April 22nd the German army launched an offensive to capture the town of Ypres in the northwestern corner of France this would be their only major attack on the Western Front in 1915 the Second Battle of Ypres is opened with a brief artillery bombardment delivered by howitzers which was then quickly followed up by a new weapon the Germans were testing chlorine gas canisters containing 168 tons of the poison were released at sunrise an avail of the yellow greenish mists could soon be seen rolling across no-man's land towards the French trenches the effect of the gas attack was immediate within the first 10 minutes of the attack some 5,000 Allied troops were dead due to asphyxiation with another 5000 men left blind as the German troops advanced wearing primitive respirators they found the forward trenches deserted from where the mostly Algerian and other colonial troops had fled in terror so surprised with the Germans with the effectiveness of this terrible new weapon that they were unprepared to exploit the gains that could have made on that first day of the battle the Allies were able to shore up their defenses with an influx of British troops and the German advance was halted after three kilometers the battle was to continue right on up until the end of May and the Germans unable to accomplish the original goal of capturing Ypres eventually settled on the plan of reducing the town to rubble through artillery bombardment air crews from both sides were in abundance throughout the battle and a report filed by Lieutenant WB Rhodes Morehouse of number 2 squadron had been instrumental in securing a victory for the British over a concentration of German troops about moving up to the front unfortunately and gathering the information needed Rhodes Morehouse had been forced to fly solo over the enemy positions that he had sustained multiple wounds from ground fire although he did return to his home base with both his airplane and the information he died the following day of his injuries for his valor Rhodes Morehouse was posthumously awarded Great Britain's highest honour the Victoria Cross it had generally been assumed that the first German airships would be deployed against England and by the time of the first Zeppelin raids in January of 1915 German propaganda had made the British population nervous with their boasts that they would bomb England into submission the first such raids were carried out on the night of January 19th when the l3 and l4 dropped 15 or so high-explosive bombs on and around Yarmouth the results were less than impressive with four civilians killed in a railway power station hit but the British government feeling the need for improved home defense began installing searchlights and guns around their key cities in southeastern England London was bombed for the first time in early May and again no significant damage was reported in the following months more raids against London were attempted by the German Giants but these had had best a psychological effect on the English population and no real military value on the night of June 6th L Z's 37 38 and 39 took off from the Zeppelin base at avere Belgium and set out for the trip to London after barely heading out to sea LZ 38 developed engine troubles and returned to its home shed at about the same time the airships had lit out for their nights attack several British aircraft of the Royal Naval Air Service had been dispatched to bomb the Zeppelin sheds at avere and st. Agatha LZ 38 was destroyed in its shed when flight lieutenant JP Wilson scored a direct hit after dropping 365 pound bombs from his Henry farm and biplane another British pilot sub-lieutenant Reginald Warner furred and a marine parasol abandoned his plans to bomb the sheds at st. haggis when he stumbled upon LZ 37 cruising in the fog above the coastal town of Ostend for three-quarters of an hour Warner fruit stalked the German giant straining to gain the advantage of height over his adversary when he finally obtained a position from which to carry out his attack Warner furred traversed the length of the Zeppelin released his six 20 pound bombs 150 feet below the Englishman the dirigible erupted in a great explosion and nearly tossed the parasol from the air the roaring metallic Inferno fell earth words spilling men and equipment before crashing to the ground a mass of twisted and blackened girders only one crewman survived the destruction of LZ 37 after he fell through the roof of a convent and landed in a nun's bed the loss of the two airships that night was the cause of much dissertation amongst the Zeppelin commanders and as a result the forward bases were abandoned and the remaining airships relocated to northern Germany the High Command still believing that raids against Great Britain would prove to have strategic value stepped up its pressure for more attacks against the enemy homeland and ordered the chief of naval airships Captain Peter Strasser to continue his bombing missions and so for the time being the Zeppelin attacks on England would continue Manfred von Richthofen the young cavalry officer had grown more and more frustrated with his duties at the Western Front the glory that must surely accompany leading men into battle now seemed a remote concept as he was daily saddled with increasing administrative duties the war had ground to a great stalemate and von Richthofen realized that aviation offered an escape from the boredom that had become his career in a letter to his commanding officer requesting a transfer Rustam had written that he did not go to war to gather cheese and eggs but for another purpose and at the end of May he was officially reassigned to the flooger troop rapidly passing through the observers course at the aviation school in Cologne von Richthofen was assigned to flee gap he along 69 a reconnaissance squadron flying TCD albatross machines on the Russian front the albatross b2 was an adequate machine but not particularly well-suited for observation work as the observer sat in the front seat and had to peer out through a mass of struts and wires between the wings Kristof its pilot lieutenant yoga zumba shared the young Russians thirst for adventure and the pair provided some of the best reports to come back from over the lines they routinely flew extremely low and daringly over enemy installations to get the information they needed Zoomer was in fact stricken with tuberculosis and knowing that his days on earth were limited his reckless attitude made him an ideal combat pilot when Zoomer was transferred to the Western Front von Richthofen was paired with a new pilot Eric Count von Hulk a flyer of exceptional abilities who was far less reckless than Zoomer but no less brave von Richthofen was to fly with Count von Hulk until August of 1915 when he himself received a post into a bombing squadron stationed in Ostend in Belgium the new unit was equipped with large twin engined aeg machines capable of carrying 400 pounds of bombs to von Richthofen surprise he was reunited with his old flying comrade York Zoomer also stationed at Ostend and their partnership was immediately resumed at the outbreak of the world war few men would have seemed less likely to achieve eternal glory than George Gina mayor when he turned up at a French military recruiting station in August of 1914 he was all of 19 years old but looked 15 thin to the point of frailty Gina Mir had spent much of his childhood bedridden with illnesses and once war began had been turned down four times by the French army before finally being accepted as an apprentice airplane mechanic determined to fly the young recruit had charmed and pestered the pilot stationed at pro airdrome for lessons and on March 10th Tina Mir made his solo in a marine parasol assigned to a military flying school he finally returned to the front on June 8th with a pair of corporal Chevron's sewn on his sleeves and a posting to Escadrille M s number three under the command of captain Felix Picard Ricard was a capable leader and a man of great patience but when Gina Muir wrote off two of the squadrons parasols in his first week of operation of flying both through clumsy landings Ricard was tempted to ground the young pilot for good given a two-week probation Gina Mir had no more such mishaps and was soon performing regular reconnaissance work with his observer sergeant girder on July 19th the pair attacked an albatross two-seater over slow songs and while Gaeta Mir coolly held a course alongside the enemy plane Gurdurr emptied a drum of ammunition from his Lewis gun into it the German machine crashed in flames and both the Frenchmen were awarded the medal militare for the feet although not a fighter squadron the pilots were still shooting down the occasional german machine and the reputation of broke cars Escadrille was growing as a result m/s number 3 was assigned a variety of special missions many of which enemy are volunteered for on more than one occasion he was to land behind the German lines under the cover of night with the job of delivering a French spy to a deserted field this was considered a very dangerous assignment and the feat of simply landing and taking off again in the darkness would require a great deal of skill concentration and courage at this early stage in his career Georgina Mayer was already showing considerable amounts of these properties Leno Harker was an Englishman who'd been flying continuously since 1910 when he joined the Royal Aero Club to take private lessons after receiving his commission in the RFC he arrived in France in the opening days of the war and had carried out an assortment of flying duties with a variety of aircraft in use by number six squadron in May of 1915 the squadron was equipped with several of the small Bristol Scouts and airplane hawker immediately fell in love with designing his own mounting system to get a Lewis gun up above the top wing Hawker had one of the few fighters serving in the Flying Corps at the time on July 25th Hawker set out alone in the early evening to patrol the area between Passchendaele knee proced in separate encounters over the space of 90 minutes he was to send three German aircraft to their destruction the last one falling in flames and witnessed by thousands of troops on the ground below a month later when presented with the Victoria Cross Harker was already an ace his five confirmed victories Leno Hawker had become the first famous British flyer of the war and on the home front the papers carried the stories of his thrilling exploits in the air 16 months later his name would become well-known to the Germans when he would meet his rendezvous with Manfred von Richthofen in what would be one of the most celebrated aerial duels of the war you by mid-july effe 62 had received its allotment of to fokker eindecker x' which were assigned to the squadrons two best pilots Oswald Boelcke oh and maximum will on August 1st both fliers were scrambled aloft to give chase to a flight of 10 British b-2s that had just dropped bombs on their airfield at do a when they caught up with the English to Cedars near us they immediately pounced on the rear most machines and although Bolger was put out of the fight when his machine gun jammed in women pressed home his attack after pumping nearly 450 rounds into one of the Bombers it went down in a steep glide and came to rest in a field following the British machine down and woman landed alongside his first victory and promptly took its pilot lieutenant Reid of RFC number 2 squadron prisoner upon examining the down v2 and women counted 40 bullet holes the victory had hardly been a case of either advanced tactics or great marksmanship and The Dresden native immediately went to work on improving his performance in both these areas two weeks later Oswald Boelcke a scored his first victory in a nine Decker when he shot down a Bristol scout on his own side of the lines in mid-august the Allies launched their greater our toy campaign along a broad front that included offensives at loose Vimy Ridge Arras and champagne this was to be the largest Allied offensive of the year with British and French air planes kept busy working on the German side of the lines but the new fokker eindecker pilots it was a great opportunity to refine their tactics in the air max Immelman devised a maneuver that would allow him to rapidly change the direction of his aircraft without sacrificing height after making a diving pass on a foe he would pull his plane up as though performing a loop but instead of continuing through the arc would roll out at the top and suddenly be flying at the same level in the opposite direction even today this manoeuvre is known as the Immelman rolled no flier was working harder to pioneer technique scenario fighting than Oswald Boelcke oh and his tactics would eventually come to be adopted by yog tiger or hunter pilots the world over volca applied a methodical approach to the problem that included equal parts trial error and theory one of both his conclusions was that attacks against enemy planes should always be conducted from behind the enemy and with the advantage of height whenever possible he maintained attacks should be carried out with the Sun to one's back it was a simple but effective rule to be followed and by the end of the year posters began appearing in Royal Flying Corps mess halls reminding the British crews to beware of the Hun in the Sun through the autumn of 1915 both polka and Immelman continued to refine their tactics and by the time the year drew to a close they had each achieved a status having shot down five aircraft apiece volca had by now been transferred to a squadron stationed in Metz and in October he shot down a friend's boys on that had been sent to bomb the city's railway station this victory was won just as the Kaiser himself was arriving by train and the story of this combat was widely circulated in the German newspapers Volga and mo men were fast becoming rising stars in the eyes of the German public in September Escadrille more rain sounder number three commanded by captain bro card was redesignated Escadrille new port number three when the squadron was recounting plane the new port 11 called the baby because of its tiny size with a wingspan of a scant 24 feet the new port was a remarkably nimble little machine that could reach a speed of nearly 100 miles per hour much to the joy of the pilots assigned to number three squadron was the fact that the new port baby also came equipped with a Lewis machine gun mounted on the upper wing to fire over the propeller after nearly a year of serving in the slower-moving two-seat parasol's the french pilots finally had been supplied with a machine truly designed for fighting the new port 11 carried only a pilot and after the squadrons observers were reassigned to other frontline units new port number three was reclassified as a chase as the drill a pursuit squadron shortly after receiving the new airplanes the squadron began painting storks on the side of each machine and the unit was ever after known as Lissa Gomes the storks over time Lissa Gomes would become the most celebrated squadron in France eventually becoming a chase group composed of four separate Escadrille with the re-equipping of the squadron felix broke hard had been given a free hand to begin gathering his country's best pilots to serve under his command for a flyer to be assigned to the storks quickly became a high honor Jorge Gina Mir took to the newport baby with remarkable ease here was an airplane that seemed designed specifically for this frail young man Gina Mir who'd already possessed a gifted touch at the controls of the old Marine Sounders virtually became one with the new craft and he immediately went to work proving the new court in combat in early December he scored his first victory flying the new plane unfortunately because he'd been prowling alone far behind the German lines he wouldn't receive official credit for the kill the French Army's strict rules of confirmation demanded that an observer in the air or on the ground was witnessed the victory for the pilots claim to be accepted undaunted Guinea Mir continued his hunting and brought down not one but two German machines the following week this time both victories were fully observed by the French soldiers on the ground by Christmas Eve keen Amir's 21st birthday he was awarded with the Cross of the Legion of Honour one of his nation's highest medals the attached citation held him as a pilot of great gallantry a model of devotion to duty and courage as 1915 drew to a close it was obvious to everyone concerned there would be no quick ending to the conflict at hand the great Allied offensives above the Somme and in the Champagne region had ended in failure and the war remained a stalemate the millions of men lining the trenches along the shattered muddy landscape that made up the Western Front were faced only with miserable prospects as the war prepared to enter its third year even on the quiet days no fewer than a thousand men were killed hit by stray artillery shells fired by bored Gunners or picked off by snipers in the Far trenches all these deaths accomplished absolutely nothing one area in which the Allied effort had shown progress was their naval blockade of the German Empire Britain with her superior Navy had effectively closed Germany's northern ports and Germany was beginning to feel the pinch as the flow of incoming war materiel slowed realizing that the situation would only grow worse over time the German generals decided that a concentrated massed blow against the French could conceivably bring them to victory in 1916 but it would have to happen soon on the Eastern Front the recent collapse of the Russian army had suddenly made available an additional 1 million of the kaisers troops to use against the French forces the German plan drawn up by General Erich von Falkenhayn a Prussian career officer would rely not on strategic planning and tactical surprise a rather on brute force and attrition as Christmas of 1915 passed and gave way to the new year plans were finalized and the might of the Imperial Army began moving into position against what would ever be known as mankind's greatest success and truly creating a hell on earth the name of this slaughterhouse situated on the Meuse river some fifty miles to the northeast of Reims was to be Verdun you you

Channel: Jan Goldstein

Views: 140,111

Keywords: World War I (Event), richthofen, guynemer, rickenbacjer, mckeever, ball, bishop, mccudden, mannock, fokker, spad, sopwith, nierport, albatros, gotha, handley-page, farman, bleriot, se5

Id: osVFsZ6EUoU

Length: 50min 33sec (3033 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 24 2013