Transcript Early Flight

World War I
The War to End All Wars
Chapter Four
Why Did War Begin?
 Reasons for war
– Alliance system in Europe
– Imperialistic objectives
– Militarism
– Nationalism
 Devotion to one’s nation and a desire to secure one’s
national interests over the interests of other nations
 Own national agenda competed
– Economically
– Diplomatically
– Militarily
Why Did War Begin?
 Assassination of heir to Austria-Hungary
– Austria-Hungary blames Serbia
– Declares war on Serbia
 Germany declares war on Russia
– Germany allied with Austria-Hungary
– Germany declares war on Russia
 Russia allied with Serbia
– Germany declares war on France
 France allies with Russia
– Britain declares war on Germany
 Germany invades Belgium
War Begins
Troops moved by:
Train, truck, car, horse, on foot
Aircraft
Observed situation
Reconnaissance
Recorded position and reported
Trench warfare
German Airships & Dirigibles
 German Zeppelins
– Pride of German people
– Mostly reconnaissance, occasionally bomb
– Vunerable
 Large
 Highly visible
 Low-flying
 Slow-moving
German Airships & Dirigibles
 Flew about 250 Army missions
– England first bombed 1915 – Yarmouth
 20- 24-hour round trip
 Weather over seas
 Searchlights
 Anti-aircraft guns
 Airplanes
 Wire nets
 Weather/ mechanical problems
– Downed more than enemy
 Army dismantled program - 1916
German Airships & Dirigibles
 Navy continued program
– Over 1,000 reconnaissance missions
– Couple hundred bombing missions
– Technology increased
– 6 weeks to build
– Cost
 80 airships to one battleship
– Required
 Large facilities
 Large ground crews
German Airship Effectiveness
 Army
– Lost 26 of 52 airships
– 52 men
 Navy
– Lost 53 of 73 airships
– 389 men
 Damage
– 52 raids
– 0ver 500 lives
 Effectiveness?
Allied Airships & Dirigibles
 France
– All Army at start of war
– Reconnaissance/artillery ranging
– Suspended use for awhile
 Instances of damage by friendly fire
 Didn’t recognize nationality of airships
– 63 missions/ then transferred to Navy
– Navy
 Dirigible division
 Protection for naval vessels
 37 when war ended
Allied Airships and Dirigibles
 British
– Used as naval weapons
– Reconnaissance/surveillance of sea coasts
– Designs based on down German Zeppelins
– 103 airships at war end
Drachen Balloon
 Kite balloon
– Tethered to ground or naval vessel
– Direct telephone line with ground
– Very effective
 Observation
 Sector reconnaissance
 Battery ranging
 Artillery spotting
 Verification of demolition
– Later equipped with parachutes
Balloons
 Modified Drachen Balloon
– Barrage Balloon
 Linked by horizontal cables
 Additional cables dangled
 Free Balloons
– Bombs
– Bombsights
– Drift indicators
What damage was done?
Shelters For All !
Night after night during the bombing
raids shleter became very much a
necessity.
The air raid siren would sound - the
children would be woken and
hurriedly ushered from their beds, and
half asleep they would trudge wearily
to the garden to spend yet another
night huddled on some make shift bed
in a dark, damp cold shelter - waiting
for the all clear to sound and praying
that the nearby explosions would not
come any closer.
Raid on Antwerp
Early World War I
Military aircraft
Suitable for reconnaissance and scouting
Bi-planes
Two-seats
Low powered
Limited maneuverability/load-carrying capacity
Aircraft
Germany – 230 airplanes
Russia – 190 airplanes
Austria-Hungary – 110 airplanes
Great Britain – 80 airplanes
United States – 15 airplanes
Aircraft
Germany
15 Army flying schools
Goal of 1,000 airplanes
2 types
Taube - monoplane
Arrow - biplane
Austria-Hungary
Relied on German support
Mixture of monoplanes and biplanes
Aircraft
France
4 military airports
300 airplanes on order
3,500 military aviation personnel
Great Britain
British Royal Flying Corps – 1912
Not state-of-the-art
63 aircraft sent to France
Aircraft
Russia
50 airplanes combat ready
Italy
Small at start of war
Domestic production increased
Combat experience
Italo-Turkish War
Aircraft
United States
Army/Navy
Recruited
Trained
Transported airmen to Europe
Canadian Royal Flying Corps
British Royal Flying Corps
French Foreign Legion
Lafayette Escadrille
Transferred to U.S. Army
Eugene Bullard
 First black American military aviator
Early World War I
Strategic Goal - ports on English Channel
Airfields
Created as they moved
“One night stands”
Expansion
Britain expanded the Royal Flying Corps
Wireless officers (Radio operators)
Reconnaissance photos
German development
Maintained dominant aerial position
Pilots carried pistols
Aviation Developments
Aerial Combat
France – first kill
Voisin biplane
Pivoting Hotchkiss machine gun
Shot down German reconnaissance airplane
Bombing
Consisted of small pocket bombs
Enemy trains were prime targets
Aviation Developments
Communications
Dropping message bags
Wireless communication (radios)
One-way
Sent in code
Radio problems
Weight
Danger of fire (sparks from equipment)
Required radio operator
 Skilled in Morse Code
Lamps
Grubb reflector
Military Aviation Developments
 Aerial Combat
– Pilots carried pistols
– Machine guns mounted on planes
– Hotchkiss Machine gun
Military Aviation Developments
 Forward firing
– French pilot
 Roland Garros
– Metal deflector plates to propeller blades
– Bullets ricochet off deflector plates
– April 1915
 Downed 5 German airplanes
 First ace of war
– Shot down
 Germans captured airplane
Military Aviation Developments
 Forward firing
– Innovation turned over to Anthony Fokker
– Improvement
 Machine gun synchronized with propeller
 Interrupter gear
– Fokker scourge
 Late 1915/Early 1916
– Allies captured German airplane
Aerial Combat
 Gentleman’s Warfare
– Classic dogfight
– Fokker scourge
 Max Immelman – 16 victories
 Oswald Boelke – 40 victories
 Manfred von Richthofen
– 80 victories
– Allies
 Rene Fonck – France (75 victories)
 Edward Mannock – Great Britain (61 victories)
 United States?
– Eddie Rickenbacker – 26 victories
Ace
 The Red Baron
Ace
Eddie Rickenbacker (American Ace)
“Fighting in the air is not a sport. It is a
scientific murder.”
Aerial Combat
 Gentleman’s Warfare
– Pilots dropped message
 News of captured, killed, missing
 Upcoming bombings
 Fighter Planes
– Fly higher
– Climb quicker
– Turn sharper
– Loop, circle, and dive
– Survive and kill
Aerial Combat
 New tactics
– Formation flying - 1916
 Germany first
 Squadrons of up to 10 planes
 Mass attacks
 “Classic” dogfights declined
 April 1917
– Allies lost 83 planes
Military Aviation Developments
Bombing
Artillery spotting
Bomber Still Meant…
Soldier tossing bombs from plane
Enemy Supply Trains main target
Recon to Bombing Missions
Bombers
Sikorsky
Ilya Mourometz (S-22)
Luxury commercial passenger transport
4 engine
Internal bomb bay
Bomb sighting device
Armor added to engines
Defensive weapons
Mythical status
 First loss to 4 fighters
 3 of 4 destroyed
Ilya Mourometz
German Bombers
Gotha
Unique
Steel used in construction
Fuselage, nacelle, landing gear, wings
German Gotha
Allied Bombers
British
Handley Page
One of largest in world
O/400 Model
Carry 1,650 pound bomb
Deployed in force
 Up to 40 in a raid
 Night missions
Established first independent Air Force
Royal Air Force
 Royal Flying Corps
 Royal Navy Air Service
Allied Bombers
France
Breguet XIV
First airplane mass produced
Metal instead of wood in structure
Fast and agile
5,500 produced
Allied Bombers
France
Most bombs dropped during war
Flew en masse
V Formations
3 – 5 planes
Missions involved hundreds
Caudron fighter provided support
Daytime raids
Allied Bombers
United States
None during war
Pilots flew French planes
Suffered heavy losses
Inexperience
Flying Boats/Seaplanes
Patrolled coasts, ports, convoys
Submarines
France
Expanded from 8 planes to over 1,200
Deployed aircraft carrier
Military Aviation Developments
 Artillery
– Battle of Neuve Chapelle
– Artillery Spotting
– Wireless Messages
Military Aviation Developments
 Communications
– Air to ground communication
– Wireless equipment was too heavy
– Danger of fire
– Airborne radio operator had to know Morse
code
– Signaling by lamps/Grubb reflector
Military Aviation Developments
Forward firing
French pilot Roland Garros
First shoot-down by airplane firing through tractor
propeller
Fokker impovement
Synchronization device
Led to Fokker Scourge
German aces
Immelmann – 16 kills
Boelcke – 40 kills
Von Richthofen – 80 kills
http://www.acepilots.com/wwi/main.html
Military Aviation Developments
Early aircraft resembled Wright Flyer
Fighters
New technology
Formation flying -1916 Germans
Bombers
German - Gotha
French – Breguet XIV
Aircraft Production
 War – stimulate to industry
– Demand exceeded prewar capacity
– Government contracts subsidized expansion
 Build new wing on factory
 Leading airplane producers?
– France
– British
– Germany
– Italy
– U.S.
51,700 airplanes
55,092 airplanes
48,537 airplanes
20,000 airplanes
15,000 airplanes
U.S. Production
 Concentrate on one airplane
– De Havilland 4
 British gave free use of license
 French required royalties
– Avoid confusion
– Employed more than 200,000
– Run by inept people
 No experience with aircraft
 Contract awarded to companies without experience
 Failed to place orders with established companies
 Shipped less than 1,400 planes to Europe
U.S. Production
 Curtiss
– Produced 5,221 planes
 1/3 of U.S. production
 JN-4 Jenny trainer
 Spruce production
– Propellers/framework
– Lightness and strength
– Allied government relied on spruce
– Wooblies on strike
– Army established Spruce Production Division
 Mobilized 25,000 men
U.S. Engine Production
 Wanted one engine
– Foreign engines
 Not adaptable to machine tool production
 All American engine
– Compared designs and performances
– First engine completed on 4 July 1917
– “Free of dependence on foreign engines”
– 24,478 produced/23 engine plants
 6,000 to AEF in France
Peace
 Armistice – agreement to stop fighting
– Preliminary to peace
 Negotiations follow
– Series of agreements (Treaties)
 Eastern Front – 8 Nov 1917
 Bulgarian/Macedonian Line – 29 Sep 1918
 Austria-Hungary – 3 Nov 1918
 Germany – 11 Nov 1918
Peacetime Production
 War supplies need disappeared
– Governments cancelled:
 Existing contracts
 Pending orders
 High wartime shortage prices
 Negotiated settlements
–
–
–
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Workers laid off
Factories closed
Companies out of business
Liquidating unneeded assets
War surplus equipment
Peace
 Major peace conference
– Paris Peace Conference
– Big Four Nations attended
 France
 United States
 Italy
 Britain
 Russia—did not attend
Peace
 Treaty of Versailles
– Germany June 1919
 Treaty of St-Germain
– Austria
September 1919
 Treaty of Neuilly
– Bulgaria
November 1919
 Treaty of Trianon
– Hungary
June 1920
 Treaties of Sevres and Lausanne
– Ottoman Empire 1920 and 1923
Treaty Of Versailles
 15 Parts
– Germany accept responsibility for provoking war
 Public humiliation for Germans
– Germany lost:
 Land
– 25,000 square miles
 Colonies
 Money
– Reparations: 132,000 Marks
– Contributed to economic depression
 Rights
 Freedoms
 Alsace and Lorraine to France
Part V. Air Clauses
 Harshest terms of treaty
– German restrictions
 No naval or military air force of any kind
 Max size restrictions of military forces and equipment
 Reduction of men, supplies, ships, aircraft
 Prohibited conscription/all-volunteer force
– Inter-Allied Commissions of Control received
 15,000 airplanes/2,500 airplane motors
 30% each to France and Great Britain
 15% each to United States and Italy
 5% each to Belgium and Japan
Aerial Navigation Clauses
 Temporary restrictions on civil aviation
– Open airways to aircraft of Allied and
Associated Powers
– Enforced until 1 Jan 1923
Summary
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WW I 1914 – 1918
Airships
Race to the Channel
Military Development
Airplane Production
Treaty of Versailles