Sky fighters of France, aerial warfare, 1914-1918

Contents

Introduction, by Captain Heurtaux, Captain de Kerillis,

Captain Roeckel, and Lieutenant Partridge . . . ix

I. The Storm breaks 3

II Why do we Bombard?

To bring home to the Boches the anguish, the suffering, and the sorrow of war; to make their sufferings hke our own ; to avenge our women, our innocent children assassinated by them — to kill, to kill many !

To paralyze their industrial life; to quench the life of their factories; to strike the workman at the anvil; to strike terror into their workshops ; to block them in the air — to destroy, always to destroy !

To reduce their aerial force ; to dominate them in an attack ; to hold them on the defensive ; to fight them and to conquer them at home ; to have the mastery of the air, their air and ours — to strike without ceasing !

fVhy do we bombard ^

In order to save ourselves.

fVhy do we bombard ^

So that in their ruined towns, they also shall remember !

DE Kerillis

III July 31, 191 My dear FARRi

You have asked me for something on army corps aviation, and more especially on aviation in connection with the control of artillery fire. I am going to give you, as far as I am able, all I know about this in a few words.

As a general rule, people know nothing about this class of aviation

[ xii ]

work. Whatever may be the special employment of the aviator, be it fire-control, photography, bombarding, or reconnaissance work, he is invariably asked these questions : Have you brought down your Boche ? How many Boches have you brought down ? Where is your Croix de Guerre ? The knowledge of most people is limited to those questions.

As to the simple fighter, who is a spectator every day of the work of planes of every kind, he sees them — these gallant fire-control planes — right over him and not very high up either, proceeding easily and in all tranquillity, seemingly moored to the particular patch of ground over which they are working; but this regular going and coming becomes very monotonous to the onlooker.

It requires a little pursuit plane — swift and handy to bear down on them, to place them in the limelight. Sometimes a few shots of 105's, bursting at the height of these control planes, will lend a little interest to the scene, and the spectator amuses himself by following their slow evolutions in and out in the midst of those small black-andwhite tufts of smoke. He guesses the point at which the next shell will be placed, and watches to see how close it will burst to the plane, and this affords him a considerable amount of interest. But what matters it to those who are high in the air, what the interest is of those watching them from the earth! Of what interest is it to them, when shells are bursting, which every now and then come close and burst even within the range of the wings of the machine ! They see nothing but the little patch of earth to which they are anchored. The chasing plane looks toward heaven; he forgets the earth and that which is passing on the face of it.

The army corps plane looks toward the earth ; he looks at the game like the artilleryman, and he controls it. He is the only one who takes it in at a glance. He knows so well his own corner of ploughed ground — trenches, roads, and pits — that he considers it his own special part of the earth. He is proud of his duty, and it is just pride; like a god,

C xiii ]

he commands the lightning and projects it from his batteries to whatever point he will. There are three things on the ground that must atti act his attention :

1. The antenrice of the T.S.F. who listens to him, replies to him, and interrogates him with the help of great white panels.

2. The battery for which he is working (strictly speaking, he should not bother himself about it) .

3. The point of aim — whether it is a trench, a battery, or a shelter — his wiU for destruction concentrates upon that.

Whether our artillerymen fire too slowly, whether the special enemy batteries are firing too quickly for him, he is never discouraged ; he must attain his end, and he does not fail.

Is his work finished? The fire-control plane comes tranquilly back to the aviation field ; the pilot reports a few shot-holes in the wings, and the observer makes his report.

Pilot N Observer N

Concentrated Battery X upon such a point ; observed effective fall of shot ; three shot-holes in the machine.

And that is all. They have nothing further to say of the work ; they begin again on the morrow, and again on the day after the morrow, and so on forever, unless surprised in the midst of their work by some enemy chasing plane, or — struck by a 1 05 — the gallant plane finds, one day, a glorious end.

If the end only appears glorious to the vulgar, you can understand that those who fly may well be proud during their lifetime of the greatness of their role — so proud that they may indeed care little for the opinion of others.

I am happy, my dear Farre, if I have given you, in this letter, not only a look-in on fire-control aviation, but a little of the sentiment of its modesty and at the same time of its importance.

[ xiv ]

Please feel assured that this class of aviation will indeed contribute its full share to the next great success in which it shall take part. In this happy hope, I beg you to accept my very cordial regards.

ROECKEL