AIR CO-OPERATION WITH AN ARMY To gain information about one's enemy has always been one of the first preoccupations of a military commander, for, until he has accurate knowledge concerning the strength and dispositions of his opponent, it is difficult for him to evolve an effective plan to bring about the defeat of his enemy.
It did not need a very great stretch of imagination in 1903, when Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first successful flight in an aeroplane, to realize that it would be possible to obtain a great deal of the essential information concerning an enemy by flying over his positions. The practical realization, however, was slow, owing both to conservatism and technical difficulties. By the time the World War broke out in 1914, the French, Germans and British all had military aeroplanes; the latter were able to send out four squadrons of twelve aeroplanes each, with the original Expeditionary Force. The stage reached in technical progress was that aeroplanes and engines were sufficiently reliable to enable flights of 5o miles into the enemy's country to be under taken. Although all the pilots and observers of these aeroplanes were Army officers, and many of them had passed the Staff col lege, it is fair to say that British military leaders were still rather sceptical as to the value of the information which could be obtained by this means. The one idea underlying the employ ment of the aeroplane at that time was that they should obtain information. The aeroplanes did *not carry any armament, and only two had been fitted with wireless for experimental purposes.
As a result of the first few weeks of the War several new ideas emerged:— (a) Several combats in the air took place during those weeks, revolvers and rifles being taken into the air for the purpose; and in some cases enemy aeroplanes were actually forced to land in Allied lines. In consequence it was realized that aeroplanes should be equipped with machine guns for the sole purpose of fighting enemy aeroplanes. For this, special • mountings were required. It was also realized that the easiest way to fight another aero plane would be to point your own aeroplane straight at it, and be able to fire a machine gun straight out through the propeller. Actually, the first purely fighting aeroplane which achieved this was the German Fokker, which made its appearance in May 1915. Our first fighters were pushers (i.e., they had the engine behind the main planes) . It was not till i 9 i 6 that the Allies produced rons. One brigade was allotted to G.H.Q. This brigade had two wings, one of bombing squadrons and one of fighters. These bomb ers were used for carrying out long distance reconnaissance and bomb raids under G.H.Q. orders ; the fighters were utilized to rein force the brigade allotted to each army, according to the require ments of the situation. These brigades usually consisted of one wing of bombers, one of fighters, and one corps wing. From early in the war, one squadron had been attached to each corps (these squadrons are now called army co-operation squadrons). These squadrons operated under the orders of the corps to which they were attached, and carried out reconnaissance up to a depth of about eight miles, photography of the whole corps front, and sup plied all the observation for the artillery. All aeroplanes working for the artillery were equipped with wireless telegraphy. Those carrying out reconnaissance duties, in addition to making out a written report on their return to the aerodrome, used to drop messages on the headquarters for which they were working. In addition to these allotments, special provision was made to pro vide co-operation for the Tank corps, one corps and one fighter squadron being allocated for this work.