THE TACTICS OF AIR COMBAT Types of Aircraft.—From the point of view of air fighting, aeroplanes fall into two categories—first, aeroplanes designed solely for air fighting, and, secondly, aeroplanes designed primar ily for some other duty, such as reconnaissance or bombing.
Aeroplanes in the first category are called "fighters" (U.S. "pur suit planes"; Fr. "avions de chasse") ; they are usually single seaters of great speed and climbing power, armed with two fixed machine-guns firing straight ahead through the propeller by means of a synchronizing gear.
Among aeroplanes not designed solely for air fighting there is a wide variety in design and lay-out. Broadly speaking, however, they fall into two main classes—single-engine and twin-engine aeroplanes. The modern single-engine machine is usually a trac tor biplane of medium size carrying a crew of two, or less fre quently three, men. The pilot is seated in front of the gunner, and is armed in the same way as the pilot of a fighter aeroplane with one or two fixed machine-guns firing straight ahead. The gunner or obseTver sits behind the pilot, facing backwards, and is armed with one or two light machine-guns on a swivelling mounting.
In the case of twin- or multi-engine aeroplanes two gunners are carried; one sits in the very front of the aeroplane's fuselage and covers the forward arc ; the other sits behind the pilot and covers the rearward arc.
The Manoeuvres Preliminary to an Air Combat.—When two hostile aeroplanes meet, the higher of the two has the ad vantage. The reason for this is that an aeroplane can descend more quickly than it can ascend. The higher of the two aero planes can dive down to its opponent's level in a few seconds ; whereas the lower will take sev eral minutes to climb up to the other's height. This is why in air fighting a pilot is constantly striving to outclimb his oppo nent, since superior height gives him the power to attack at once or to avoid combat altogether, just as he wishes. This also ex plains why speed and climbing power are such vital factors in "fighter" aircraft, since, if they lack these characteristics, their natural prey, the enemy's bomb ers and reconnaissance aircraft, will, by coming over high up, be able to avoid combat.
The Tactics of Attack.—A fighter pilot therefore, when on patrol, will always try to get above nis opponent. He will then dive to close quarters and attack.
His method of attack now re quires explanation.
Referring to fig. 1, the first fact to be grasped is that it is easier for the pilot of the aero plane depicted to hit a target with a gun firing along the line A–B (either forwards or backwards) than with one firing along any other line (e.g., the line C–D). The reason for this is that, when firing along the line A–B, he does not have to take into account the speed of his own aeroplane or the direction in which it is moving with reference to the target. This is an im portant consideration in view of the high speed of aeroplanes. Generally speaking, therefore, the most effective way to attack a hostile aeroplane is for the pilot to fly towards it and shoot at it with a gun fixed so as to fire straight ahead parallel to the path of his own aeroplane, since by doing so he has to make no allowance for the speed and direction of flight of his own aeroplane.
Now if the enemy aeroplane was a stationary object that could not shoot back the problem of attack would be simple. The attacking pilot would simply fly straight at his target, aiming his gun at it by steering his aeroplane. But the target is not sta tionary ; it is moving in three dimensions at a speed of anything up to i8om.p.h., and can moreover shoot back. The attacking pilot has therefore two objects—first to attack in such a way that the enemy aeroplane presents a reasonably easy target, and sec ondly to attack in such a way that the enemy cannot shoot back effectively.
A glance at fig. 2 will show that the easiest target for the pilot the attacking aeroplane (marked A in the diagram) is an aeroplane flying directly ahead of him and in precisely the same direction as himself.
It will be seen that when the attacking pilot is flying directly behind, and in the same direction as the aeroplane he is attacking, and is shooting at it with a fixed gun firing straight ahead, not only does he have to make no allowance for the speed and direction of flight of his own aeroplane, but he also has to make no allowance for the speed and direction of flight of the enemy aeroplane. In fact he gets a straight shot at the enemy over open sights. It is true that he himself is exposed to a straight shot over open sights from the enemy gunner, firing to the rear. But this can usually be avoided by the attacking pilot placing his aeroplane in such a position (slightly below and to the rear of the enemy aeroplane) that he is concealed from the view of the enemy gunner by the tail-plane of the enemy aeroplane.
While therefore a pilot may attack from any direction—from the front, flank or rear—to confuse an opponent or to break up an enemy formation, he will generally, when he wishes to fire for effect or deliver the coup de grace, fly directly behind the enemy aeroplane, and shoot at it over open sights.
The reasons why the "vee" is the most suitable shape for a formation of aircraft are first, that all pilots can see the leader in front and so conform readily to his movements; secondly, that each pilot can fire in a forward direction without hitting one of his fellow-pilots, while in the case of two-seaters the gunners can obtain a good concentration of fire in a rearward direction ; and lastly that no aeroplane is flying in another's propeller wash.
A formation is usually "stepped" upwards in height from front to rear, i.e., the leader's aeroplane is the lowest; the pilots on either side of him fly slightly higher; while the rear rank of the formation flies higher still.
A formation must not be so small as to be easily overwhelmed by superior numbers, or so large as to be unwieldy. Fifteen aero planes are about the maximum number that can be handled in one formation. When greater bers than this are required for an operation, it is usual to form two or more separate formations which work together in close operation.
The first essential of fighting in formation is that the forma tion should hang together, and not be split up. Once the forma tion becomes disintegrated, each aeroplane is liable to be set upon separately by superior numbers and defeat in detail results. Fur ther, the concentration of gun fire that an organised formation of aeroplanes can bring to bear is far more likely to achieve re sults than the spasmodic gun-fire of the same number of single aeroplanes working independ ently of each other.
A consequence of this is that when one formation of planes meets another (e.g., a formation of fighters meets a formation of bombers), the first object of the attacking formation (the fighters) is to break up the bombers' formation. Once the bombers' formation is broken, each bomber can be dealt with separately by a superior concentration of fighters. Conversely, the bombers' object is to avoid having their formation broken. For this they will rely primarily not on manoeuvre, but on the concentration of fire that their gunners can bring to bear on the fighting formation, as it dives in to attack. In other respects the principles of fighting in formation are similar to those already alluded to in the case of combat between indi vidual aeroplanes.
It is probable that the calibre of the guns carried in aircraft will increase. The chief obstacle to this is the great increase in the weight of the ammunition involved in even a small increase of gun calibre.
It is possible that aeroplanes will be armoured. But here again considerations of weight apply.
Finally, radio telephony, which enables pilot to speak to pilot in the air, will undoubtedly make for better co-operation in a fight ing formation. Combined tactics of a more elaborate nature will be possible when the commander of a formation can give orders to his pilots by means of the spoken word. By this means also the size of the formation that can be controlled by one man will tend to increase.
These two books are the personal reminiscences of two of the most successful fighting pilots of the war 1914-18, one an Englishman, the other a German. They contain accounts of air combats which give a good general impression of air combat in the late war. See also Major Oliver Stewart, M.C., A.F.C., The Strategy and Tactics of Air Fighting (1925), a technical treatise on the tactics of air combat.
(W. S. D.)