Winged Lancers

LXXVII

World War I began suddenly and unexpectedly at the end of August 1914. On the first day of the war, foresighted commanders on both sides of the conflict recommended using "aerodromes" (the word soon shifted meaning from the craft themselves to their storage areas) or “aeroplanes” (as the word was spelt in 1914) for reconnaissance over enemy lines. More hidebound Generals objected, and cavalry were detailed to the task, as they had been since time immemorial.  Cavalry, it was felt, still had the advantage of greater mobility.

German Uhlans ("Lancers") on patrol. Tasked with ground reconnaissance, many were killed in uneven battles with modern technology. Manfred von Richthofen, Germany's "Red Baron" was a Uhlan in the earliest days of the war

But this was not Jeb Stuart’s war. The cavalryman of World War I found himself facing not rifle-carrying pickets but squads of infantry with machine guns. By the end of the first week of the war, the losses in men and horseflesh were so horrifying to the respective High Commands (though they would be forgotten in the shadow of the mass butcheries to come) that pilots were designated to undertake the task of spying out enemy positions. Cavalry regiments were disbanded. Many former cavalrymen --- known for their dash and daring --- applied to become pilots.

Early World War I pilot training was slipshod. Said British ace Albert Ball: “When I left flight school I didn’t even know I had to land into the wind.”

 

A Bleriot IX. These planes were used "as is" for air reconnaissance at the beginning of World War I. They were essentially the same plane that Bleriot piloted across the English Channel in 1909 and crash-landed. The French Air Service continued to use them (unarmed!) well into 1916. Assignment to a Bleriot squadron after 1914 was a death sentence

Although no one was shooting at them --- yet --- the first pilots in the First World War faced odds of death not much better than the cavalrymen they had been and had replaced. 

The average two-seater aircraft of 1914 could be counted upon to have two seats, at least two wings, a fuselage, a tail, and a motor and a propeller, any of which might come apart from the others in a stiff breeze. They were noisy and cold and didn’t fly very high or very fast. But there was camaraderie up there. Allied and Central Powers pilots felt themselves to be members of an elite, and greeted each other with a friendly wave.

It was not until 1915 that the air war became ugly. The first fliers who tried to kill other pilots were Frenchmen, and their earliest attempts were more laughable than dangerous, proving true General “Stormin’” Norman Schwarzkopf’s Gulf War I adage that “Going to war without the French is like going into outer space without your accordion.” 

In an early attempt at destruction, a French pilot unravelled a mace on a long chain from his cockpit hoping to foul the propeller of an oncoming German. The chain got caught up in his own slipstream, wrapped itself around his plane’s wing structure, and the mace on the free end brained his observer.  

The B.E.2 "Quirk" was the most reliable British plane of 1914, which meant that it could take off and land intact. An observation plane, it was slow, low-flying, and difficult to control (hence the nickname). Putting machine guns on a Quirk was like putting teats on a boar

In another attempt, a French pilot, imagining himself to have an arm like a Roman catapult, tossed brickbats at German pilots. Throwing rocks at the enemy doesn’t precisely qualify as high-tech war, but as any seven year old can tell you, it will earn you a spanking. This, of course, is not anathema to the French (for more information, please reference 120 Days of Sodom by the Marquis de Sade).  

A third attempt at air war occurred when a French pilot fired his service revolver at a nearby German observer plane. This met with some small measure of success. He managed to hit his own plane, breaking a strut, which snapped some wires, and he crashed. 

A fourth attempt occurred when an observer fired a rifle in midair. No one was hurt, but the German pilot noticed the gun flashes, and a complaint was filed with the Allied authorities (!). 

Bombing runs with early planes were just as laughable (and just as French):

An early attempt at bombing was made with "soup can" grenades dropped from the plane. They airburst harmlessly before they reached the ground.

Another improvised bomber couldn't get airborne because of the weight of the bomb on board, forcing the aircrew to try again and again with lighter and lighter bombs. When they finally got into the air and tried clumsily to heave the explosive overboard they nearly blew themselves up.

Fortunately for French history and unfortunately for stand-up comedians, the names of these hapless pilots have been forgotten. None of them won the Croix de Guerre.

Roland Garros with his specially-adapted Morane-Saulnier

It was not until 1915, when Roland Garros invented a special deflector sleeve that attached to his propeller, that the war in the air became real. The deflectors allowed Garros to fire a machine gun through the whirling disc of his plane’s propeller (bullets that hit the sleeve ricocheted off at harmless angles). Soon, Garros was knocking Germans out of the sky. 

Garros and his plane were eventually captured intact by a German unit, and the inventive propeller sleeves were examined. The Dutch-born German aircraft designer Anthony Fokker decided that Garros’ invention was worthless. Instead, Fokker invented an “interrupter” that allowed a machine gun to fire only when the blades of the propeller were clear of the stream of gunfire.  The first plane outfitted with the interrupter was the German Eindecker (“Monoplane”), and it decimated the Allied air forces. 

The Eindecker E.IV wasn't much more of a plane than the Bleriot IX, but it had a synchronized machine gun that allowed it to fire through its propeller disc and made it a weapon of mass destruction

Without a copy of Garros’ invention to work from, and without the technical know-how to develop an interrupter of their own, the Allies were forced to divert a great deal of energy into creating aircraft capable of engaging in head-on battle with German planes. This led to the development of clumsy-looking “pusher” planes with rear-facing propellers. The difficulty with “pushers” was that they were inherently limited by their design. A German pilot seeking to take down a “pusher” had only to fire from six o’clock low to turn the plane’s tail boom into kindling.  It took nearly an unimaginably long year of wartime for the Allies just to develop interrupter technology. In the interim, throughout 1915 and 1916, new, more advanced German designs were rolling off the assembly lines with regularity. German air superiority was a given well into 1917. 

A typical "pusher" plane of 1915-1916

The German Albatros was an example. This speedy, rugged, maneuverable fighter plane was the first aircraft to be designed with fairings, and the first aircraft to be truly streamlined. It was the best plane in the air well into 1917, and contributed intensely to the Allies’ “Bloody April” that year. In that one month, the British lost 275 planes downed and 205 pilots killed to the Germans’ losses of 66 aircraft. 

The German Albatros series were deadly aircraft with low drag coefficients, especially for World War I Zweideckers (biplanes). They were among the most feared aircraft of World War I

It was not until the summer of 1917 that new Allied warplanes began appearing in the skies over Europe. Among the planes flown by the Allies were the tough S.E.5a, the smaller, faster Sopwith Camel, and the French SPAD series. 

The big, rugged and tough S.E. 5a was the "Flying Fortress" of its day, and a match for any German fighter. Almost 6,000 were built in 1917-1918

The famous Sopwith Camel was fast and effective and small

American plane production was disappointing. A late entrant (April 1917) to the war, the United States was not fully geared up for war until early 1918. Of the few American military aircraft designs created during World War I, none made it into combat in Europe. The only plane built in any numbers for the U.S. Air Corps was the Curtiss Jenny, a trainer. 

A Curtiss Jenny trainer. The U.S. Government found itself with thousands of Jennys at the end of the war and sold the $5,000 airplane for $500. This was the favorite plane of the post-war barnstormers: It was inexpensive to maintain, easy to fly, stable as a table, and could do things its designers never imagined. Replacement parts were easy to find, too

The Fokker D.VIII "Flying Razor" was supposed to turn the war around, but the war ended before this advanced aircraft was produced in sufficient numbers

In September of 1918, the Germans introduced the Fokker D.VIII. This “parasol” monoplane had a tubular steel frame and a parachute system for the pilot, making it doubly unique. An aircraft design superior to any other in the war, the D.VIII was intended for wide use during the planned Autumn Offensive of 1918; ultimately, the Autumn Offensive was cancelled due to the Spanish Flu pandemic, and Germany suddenly capitulated on November 11, 1918, ending the war. 

A Fokker Dreidecker (triplane) Dr.1. The Dr.1 is most famous as the aeroplane of Manfred von Richthofen, "The Red Baron" who was the best ace of World War I, with eighty kills. However, the Red Baron (who was all of 25) mostly flew a red Albatros during the war. He was flying a Dr.1 when he was shot down on April 21, 1918