AIR CO-OPERATION MODERN DEVELOPMENTS Since the War 1914-18, rapid developments have been made, and aircraft now form an integral part of a modern fleet. Their em ployment may conveniently be discussed under the headings of carrier-borne aircraft and shore-based aircraft.
Aircraft carriers provide the aircraft for close co-operation with the battle-fleet. Their duties are reconnaissance prior to and during action, observation of gun fire, attacks on enemy ships with torpedo and bomb, and air fight ing. Early and accurate information of the enemy is of para mount importance to a naval commander to enable him to dis pose his fleet. To obtain this information aircraft patrol ahead of and on the flanks of the fleet, and, when action is joined, they observe and report the movements of individual units of the enemy fleet, and control the effect of gun-fire. Only second in importance to the work of reconnaissance is the observation of gun-fire. By reporting the range, course, and speed of the enemy and observing the fall of shot, aircraft enable a fleet to engage a target which, owing to low visibility, smoke-screens, or the long range of modern guns, may be unseen.
Another function of aircraft in carriers is to fire torpedoes and to drop bombs. This is done by torpedo-bombers, aircraft which carry a torpedo or the equivalent weight of bombs. Torpedo-car rying aircraft can be employed against ships at sea or at anchor. Although, at the present state of development, to release their torpedoes the aircraft must fly close to the water and may thus offer a target for gun-fire, nevertheless their high speed, and the possibility of sun, haze, low clouds, or smoke, may enable them to approach undetected, and so provide an invaluable tactical weapon. If bombs are carried, the objective may be ships at sea, ships in harbour, or shore targets. The effect of bombs against modern armoured ships is largely conjectural. Trials against ex German warships have been carried out by Great Britain and the U.S.A., but the results were inconclusive. With the development of armour-piercing bombs, however, this form of attack would appear to offer great possibilities.
A third duty of carrier-borne aircraft is air fighting. In order to provide freedom of movement in the air for aircraft employed on observation or other duties, it is essential to neutralise the action of enemy aircraft. Obviously the most satisfactory way of achieving this is to destroy the sources of enemy aircraft which, in a fleet at sea beyond flying range from shore bases, are the air craft carriers. Since low visibility and the large area involved may render the discovery of enemy carriers impossible, resort is had to single-seater fighters—small, fast, highly manoeuvrable aircraft—to seek out hostile aircraft in the air and to provide \protection for friendly observation aircraft. These fighters may also be employed to attack lightly-armoured ships with machine guns and small bombs.
These, if within range of a naval battle, will be called upon to carry out any of the duties per formed by carrier-borne aircraft, but they will more often be employed to co-operate with a fleet in its function of controlling sea communications, and their work will then consist in recon naissance, anti-submarine patrol, convoy escort, and torpedo and bombing attacks. Reconnaissance may take the form of inde pendent long-distance reconnaissance of enemy forces and bases, trade routes, and focal areas, or of close reconnaissance in co operation with surface craft. Reliable information of enemy movements or defences, confirmed if possible by photographs, will be most valuable. Anti-submarine patrol is perhaps the most important duty falling to the lot of shore-based aircraft. Ship ping of all kinds requires protection from enemy submarines: areas round the coasts and on the, trade routes—particularly in areas where shipping routes converge and in narrow waters—re quire constant patrolling. Such patrols may be carried out by aeroplanes operating independently of ships, but the experience of the War 1914-18 has taught that it is not by one weapon alone that submarines are destroyed but by the cumulative efforts of air, surface, and submarine craft working in close co-operation. Further, convoys of merchant ships lightly escorted by surface craft are very vulnerable to attack by hostile surface, submarine, and aircraft, and will be escorted whenever practicable by air craft in order that they may give warning of the approach of enemy forces, attack submarines, and warn the convoy of the presence of mines. Attack by shore-based aircraft with torpedo or bomb against ships at sea or in harbour will not differ from that on similar targets by carrier-borne aircraft, though it may be necessary to operate from advanced bases to be within flying range. Shore-based aircraft will afford a valuable coast defence weapon.
Under the terms of the Washington Treaty the total tonnage of aircraft carriers allowed to each of the Contracting Powers is limited and is as follows :—British Em pire and U.S.A. 135,000 tons, Japan 81,000 tons, France and Italy 6o,000 tons. At the end of 1927, the aircraft carrier tonnage was :—British empire 69,g00 tons, Japan 27,000 tons, U.S.A. 14,700 tons, France 21,00o tons, and Italy nil.
