Aerial Warfare The Battle For The Skies Ledwidge Full Chapter PDF

Aerial warfare : the battle for the skies.
Ledwidge
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://ebookmass.com/product/aerial-warfare-the-battle-for-the-skies-ledwidge/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...
Aerial Warfare: The Battle for the Skies Frank Ledwidge
https://ebookmass.com/product/aerial-warfare-the-battle-for-the-
skies-frank-ledwidge/
The Battle for Markgraaf Hive Justin D Hill
https://ebookmass.com/product/the-battle-for-markgraaf-hive-
justin-d-hill/
The Battle for Britain: Crises, Conflicts and the

Conjuncture John Clarke
https://ebookmass.com/product/the-battle-for-britain-crises-
conflicts-and-the-conjuncture-john-clarke/
Crimson Skies Jaymin Eve
https://ebookmass.com/product/crimson-skies-jaymin-eve/
Fight for the Final Frontier: Irregular Warfare in
Space John Jordan Klein
https://ebookmass.com/product/fight-for-the-final-frontier-
irregular-warfare-in-space-john-jordan-klein/
Suffrage and the City : New York Women Battle for the
Ballot Lauren C. Santangelo
https://ebookmass.com/product/suffrage-and-the-city-new-york-
women-battle-for-the-ballot-lauren-c-santangelo/
Sparks: China's Underground Historians and their Battle

for the Future Ian Johnson
https://ebookmass.com/product/sparks-chinas-underground-
historians-and-their-battle-for-the-future-ian-johnson/
A Great Disorder: National Myth and the Battle for

America Richard Slotkin
https://ebookmass.com/product/a-great-disorder-national-myth-and-
the-battle-for-america-richard-slotkin/
Falling Rocket: James Whistler, John Ruskin, and the

Battle for Modern Art Murphy
https://ebookmass.com/product/falling-rocket-james-whistler-john-
ruskin-and-the-battle-for-modern-art-murphy/
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 26/12/2017, SPi
AERIAL WARFARE
EBSCO Publishing : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 1/12/2019 9:44 AM via FORDHAM UNIV
AN: 1729685 ; Ledwidge, Frank.; Aerial Warfare : The Battle for the Skies
Account: s8944763
P R A IS E F O R A E R I A L W A R F A R E
‘Arguments surrounding the role of air power alongside land and sea
power have raged for a century. The rise of digital networks and putative
cyber power adds a new and urgent dimension. Ledwidge writes with
compelling good judgment, a stylish energy, and panache.’
David Betz, Professor of War in the Modern
World, King’s College London
‘Frank Ledwidge’s short and concise Aerial Warfare ties strategy, tactics,
and technology neatly together. It is a first-rate survey of the evolution,
impact, and relevance of air power: past, present and future. Highly
recommended.’
Colonel John Andreas Olsen, PhD., Royal Norwegian Air Force
‘A concise and up-to-date account of the evolution of air power and its
various roles over time that is insightful and comprehensive. “Aerial Warfare”
will appeal to anybody interested in contemporary strategic studies.’
Bettina Renz, Associate Professor in
International Security, University of Nottingham
Account: s8944763
Account: s8944763
3
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX DP,
United Kingdom
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of
Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries
© Frank Ledwidge 
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
First Edition published in 
Impression: 
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the
prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted
by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics
rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the
above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the
address above
You must not circulate this work in any other form
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
 Madison Avenue, New York, NY , United States of America
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
Library of Congress Control Number: 
ISBN ––––
Printed in Great Britain by
Clays Ltd, St Ives plc
Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and
for information only. Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials
contained in any third party website referenced in this work.
Account: s8944763
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements vii
List of Illustrations ix
List of Abbreviations and Acronyms xi
 Foundations 
 Beginnings: The First World War – 
 Theory and Practice: The Interwar Years – 
 The Second World War: Air Operations in the West 
 The Second World War: The Air War in the Pacific 
 Cold War – 
 The Apotheosis of Air Power – 
 Aerostats to Algorithms – 
 Per Ardua ad Astra? 
References 
Further Reading 
Index 
Account: s8944763
Account: s8944763
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Over the course of researching and writing this book many

people with great knowledge of air power and its history have
given vital help. It is always difficult to do justice to everyone, but
here goes.
My colleagues at RAF Cranwell have been superb, sharing their
academic and operational knowledge. Dr Andrew Conway, Wing
Commander (retd) Mal Craghill, Group Captain (retd) Chris Finn,
Carl Hartford, Dr Ben Jones, Dr Peter Lee, Sqn Ldr Aggi Morrison,
Dr Steven Paget, Dr Matthew Powell, and Maj. Rob Spalton were
good enough to read all or part of the text and make corrections
or suggestions, as was Dr Eitan Shamir of the Begin-Sadat Center
in Israel. I’d also like to thank the superb library staff at Cranwell
for their kindness, refuge, and good advice. Dr Ed Burke and
Dr Bettina Renz at Nottingham and Dr Vladimir Rauta at Stafford-
shire were extremely helpful and kind. Colonel John Andreas
Olsen, the doyen of air-power scholarship was characteristically
extremely helpful and encouraging.
Shashank Joshak and Justin Bronk, two of the Royal United
Services Institute’s leading commentators and experts looked over
a section each, something beyond the call of duty and I am very
grateful.
I would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for Oxford
University Press and also the book’s patient editor Jenny Nugee,
Account: s8944763
viii Acknowledgements
the production team led by Clement Raj, copy-editor Brian North,

and proofreader Rebecca Bryant. Everything they suggested was
constructive and helpful and has made this a far better book.
Where there are errors, they are mine.
I must also mention the RAF officers and officer cadets at
Cranwell, the home of the Royal Air Force. I have learned a very
great deal from them over the years and I have tried to incorpor-
ate some of that in this book. Their expertise has ranged from the
complexities of layered air defences during the Cold War to how
hand-held drones assist in contemporary combat.
The help and advice of all these remarkable people was invalu-
able; where mistakes have been made it is because I have ignored
that advice.
Finally, my family—Nevi and James—have endured many
evenings when I grumpily told them ‘don’t you know I’ve a
book to write?’ Enough of that for now!
Account: s8944763
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
 ‘L’Entreprenant’ at the Battle of Fleurus  

Wikimedia Commons
 An Italian aircraft dives on Turkish troops 
© Alfredo Dagli Orti/REX/Shutterstock
 Reconnaissance photograph of the village of Allaines 
Chronicle/Alamy Stock Photo
 Gotha VII Bomber 
Imperial War Museums (Q )
 Giulio Douhet 
© Tallandier/Bridgeman Images
 ‘Young people, take to the air!’ 
Courtesy of sovietart.me
 Supermarine Spitfire Mark II and Hawker Hurricane Mark I 
Ministry of Defence (Open Government Licence v.)
 ‘Guernica’ by Picasso 
© Succession Picasso/DACS, London . Photo © Fine Art
Images/age fotostock
 The Luftwaffe’s ‘Operational Air War’ in action 
Bundesarchiv, Bild I---. Photo: Richard Opitz
 Flight of P- Mustang fighters 
© PhotoQuest/Getty Images
 WW in the Pacific took place over vast distances 
Frank Ledwidge
Account: s8944763
x List of Illustrations
 The USS Essex 

National Archives photo no. -G-
 The world’s first nuclear attack 
National Archives photo no. 
 The Russian Tupolev Tu strategic bomber 
© Sebastian Sowa
 Algeria  
© Reporters Associés/Getty Images
 Soviet-supplied SA- anti-aircraft missile 
© Hulton Archive/Getty Images
 Royal Navy Sea Harrier 
© Trustees of the National Museum of the Royal Navy
 The OODA Loop 
 Warden’s Rings 
Adapted from J. Warden, , The Air Campaign: Planning
for Combat
 The F- Stealth fighter 
US Air Force
 A Norwegian C- 
© Antoine Gyori/Corbis/Getty Images
 Back to the future 
US Army Photo
 A Royal Air Force Typhoon fighter next to a BAE
Taranis drone 
Courtesy of BAE Systems
Account: s8944763
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS
As with most military topics, air power is replete with acronyms

and abbreviations. The following are used in this book:
AAR air-to-air refuelling
ABM Aerospace Battle Management
ACTS Air Corps Tactical School
AEW airborne early warning
AWACS airborne [early] warning and control system
C command and control
C command, control, and communications
CAS close air support
ECM electronic countermeasures
FAA Fuerza Aerea Argentina, the Argentine Air Force
GBAD ground-based air defences
GPS global positioning system
IADS integrated air defence system
IAF Israeli Air Force
IDF Israeli Defence Forces
JSTARS joint surveillance target attack radar system
MEDEVAC medical evacuation
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization
NLF National Liberation Front
NVA North Vietnamese Army
OCA offensive counter-air
OODA Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act
PGMs precision-guided munitions
Account: s8944763
xii List of Abbreviations and Acronyms
RAF Royal Air Force

RAP recognized air picture
RDF radio direction finding (after  better known as radio
direction and ranging: radar)
RFC Royal Flying Corps
RPAS remotely piloted aircraft system (also known as UAV
or drone)
SAM surface-to-air missile
SEAD suppression of enemy air defences
UAV unmanned aerial vehicle (also known as RPAS or drone)
USAAC United States Army Air Corps (which became the USAAF
in )
USAAF United States Army Air Force (which became the USAF
after )
USAF United States Air Force
USSBS US Strategic Bombing Survey
WW First World War
WW Second World War
Account: s8944763

Foundations
‘Air power is the use of air capabilities to influence the behaviour

of actors and the course of events’; this Royal Air Force definition
is as good as any. For decades air power has been the primary tool
used by major powers to coerce recalcitrant opponents. Those ‘air
capabilities’ are almost as likely to be wielded today by unmanned
aircraft or a guided missile as they are by an aeroplane with a crew
dropping bombs. The principles of the deployment, the grammar
as it were of air power, have changed little over the last one hundred
years or so. Only the technology, the vocabulary, has altered. In
, oil-streaked aircrew in open cockpits flew fabric-covered
biplanes over shell-pocked First World War battlefields. In 
their great-grandchildren, gazing at computer screens in cabins
humming with technology, pilot drones over dusty villages thou-
sands of miles away. The roles they carry out are broadly the same.
As a dominant, if not the dominant military technology over
the last century, air power has developed extraordinarily quickly.
In one sense, of course, aircraft are simply another military tech-
nology like firearms or submarines, both of which have greatly
Account: s8944763
 Foundations
influenced military conflict. However, air power has several unique

qualities. First, it has the potential of ubiquity. Giulio Douhet
(–), one of the early ‘prophets’ of air power, wrote in
 that ‘the airplane has complete freedom of action and direc-
tion; it can fly to and from any point of the compass in the shortest
time—in a straight line—by any route deemed expedient’.
Secondly, it may do so at great height permitting extensive
observation. Third, it has reach which applies over both land and
sea; geographical obstacles are not relevant. Finally, aircraft may
operate at great speed acting generally far more quickly than
ground- or sea-based vehicles. Aircraft also operate with limita-
tions, notably impermanence. Even today, with the advantages
of air-to-air refuelling and very long endurance, no aircraft can
remain indefinitely over its objective. An aircraft cannot hold
territory nor can it substitute for ‘boots on the ground’, although
that has not stopped military planners from trying to make them
do exactly that.
At the tactical level, which is to say in support of armies and
navies, there is no question that aircraft have fundamentally
changed the conduct of war on land and at sea. However, since
aircraft achieved the range to cross enemy lines and strike at an
enemy’s cities and bases, there has been a strong current of
thinking that air power can be more than just another military
capability, and that it can have strategic effect and achieve political
goals alone. It is this hope that drives contemporary politicians
in many countries to see air power as one possible solution to
extremely difficult political or security problems. The argument
as to whether aircraft can indeed achieve strategic results runs
throughout this book.
Account: s8944763
Foundations 
Vast resources have been and are spent on the development

and production of military aircraft. This continues, now as much
as ever. The most expensive military procurement project in
history, indeed possibly the most expensive public procurement
project of any kind, is the current F- Lightning II, a multi-role
fighter-bomber aircraft designed for service into the s. This
will cost taxpayers in the countries it is designed to equip, particu-
larly the USA, well in excess of $ trillion. Questions concerning
the development, deployment, and potential of air power, whether
they like it or not, are everyone’s concern; aside from any other
consideration, everyone is paying for it.
Since the very beginning it was clear that the new technology
would have military applications. The Wright brothers, who
made the first powered flight in , were not the homespun
bicycle-makers of legend, or rather were not only that. They were
very familiar with complex aeronautical mathematics and engin-
eering theory, just as today’s aircraft engineers must be. It was
clear from the start that aircraft would have a military dimension,
and the Wright brothers were explicit that they were looking for
military contracts to continue their work, which they eventually
received. In , Lord Northcliffe, a British newspaper magnate
sent a telegram: ‘aeroplane primarily intended war machine stop’.
The First World War (WW), which we will examine in Chapter ,
demonstrated that aeroplanes would indeed be war machines,
and very formidable ones. Whilst it was never a decisive arm on
any WW front, all the elements of its future deployment were
present with the exception of its potential for mobility. By the
end of the war, the combatant nations had thousands of aircraft
in their inventories with their attendant administrative and
Account: s8944763
 Foundations
logistical structures. The world’s first independent air arm, the

Royal Air Force, had been formed. The years after WW, exam-
ined in Chapter , saw theorists looking at how this promising
new military dimension might be deployed most effectively.
These theorists argued that the nature of war itself had now
changed, that all elements of a nation might now be in the front
line. Air power could win wars alone, they said, either by terroriz-
ing citizens to the extent that they would force their governments
to capitulate or through demolishing a state’s industrial capability
to sustain a war. This was and is termed ‘strategic bombing’,
although there is rarely anything ‘strategic’ about it. Most import-
antly, air power offered the possibility that future conflict might be
cheaper than the ‘old’ wars, both in lives and money.
Not all air forces bought into these ideas; the pre-Second World
War (WW) German and Soviet Air Forces saw their roles pri-
marily as supporting the army by attacking the enemy’s deployed
forces. All of these ideas and many more were put to the test in
WW and will be dealt with in Chapters  and . Whole cities
were devastated by bombing: Dresden, Hamburg, Hiroshima,
Nagasaki, and Tokyo being only the most well-known amongst
dozens of others. Whilst arguments still rage as to the strategic
effectiveness and indeed the morality of these operations, there
is no dispute that aircraft were vital to battlefield success in both
the war in Europe and North Africa. In the Pacific, US industrial
power created a vast and highly efficient aircraft carrier fleet, with
the aircraft and trained crews to man them.
Chapters  and  deal with the Cold War period after WW by
examining the ‘small wars of peace’, many of which were any-
thing but small or peaceful. More bombs were dropped during the
Account: s8944763
Foundations 
Vietnam War than all of WW, causing great damage but having
questionable effect, to say the least, on its political outcome.
Other conflicts from South Asia to the Middle East, from Africa
to the South Atlantic saw aircraft as decisive on the battlefield.
The end of the Cold War was marked by what appeared to be
something of a shift. Some new thinking brought air power once
again into play as a possible ‘war-winner’ in the First Gulf War of
 and the Balkan Wars. Even here the truth is more nuanced
than air power enthusiasts might wish to believe.
Chapters  and  bring us into today’s world of the wars on
‘terror’, drones, and cyber-war, and consider briefly what air
power may look like in the future.
Like any other field of military activity, air warfare has pro-
duced an alphabet soup of acronyms. There is, I am afraid, no real
way of avoiding them entirely. Terms are given in full at first
usage along with the acronym and subsequently acronym only;
there is a complete list of abbreviations at the start of the book.
Before embarking on the story of military air power, we will visit
an air base near a conflict zone today, where a mission is being
prepared to attack a target in enemy territory.
Anatomy of an Air Strike

Intelligence officers and imagery analysts have pored over images
taken from manned reconnaissance aircraft, drones (also known
as RPAS, ‘Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems’ or UAV, ‘Unmanned
Aerial Vehicle’), and satellites. They have selected the target; lawyers
have confirmed that hitting it conforms with international humani-
tarian law, the law of war, and senior officers or even politicians
Account: s8944763
 Foundations
have approved the mission. Engineers have ensured that the two
aircraft are airworthy, and armourers have placed the correct
bombs and missiles (known as ‘ordnance’) onto the bomb-racks
and loaded the guns. Flight operations personnel fuel the aircraft.
Fire-crews and medical personnel are on constant stand-by.
A ‘combat search and rescue’ team is briefed; the team will go in
by helicopter and ‘extract’ aircrews who are shot down and eject
over enemy territory. All are fed and sustained by a highly complex
and usually smoothly functioning administration and logistics
system, which itself benefits from the advantages offered by trans-
port aircraft (mobility) which can move supplies or personnel
anywhere in the world very quickly.
The crews flying the aircraft in the mission (which is sometimes
called a ‘strike package’) are briefed with the latest imagery and
information on the enemy’s defences. They enter their cockpits,
complete their own checks ensuring the aircraft software is cor-
rectly updated and communicating with other elements of the
mission. When the time comes for take-off, air traffic control
ensures airspace ahead of the strike package is clear. If neutral
territory is to be overflown, diplomats may have obtained clear-
ances. Once aloft Aerospace Battle Management (ABM) teams
take over and ensure the mission is coordinated with allied forces
in the area.
ABM is sometimes based in large aircraft packed with radars and
detectors which range the electronic spectrum; as well as surveying
the ‘battle space’ looking for enemy activity they also ‘deconflict’
with other nations’ aircraft which may also be operating in the area.
A ‘quick-reaction alert’ (QRA) fighter element is on standby to
protect us and deter curious or indeed hostile attention. There is
Account: s8944763
Foundations 
also likely to be an ‘electronic countermeasures’ (ECM) aircraft,

packed with powerful jamming equipment in support. The ECM
crew will be trying to jam the enemy’s radars and perhaps disrupt
his electronic networks. All the time the strike package is itself
using an extensive suite of electronics to detect possible threats
from the ground, or indeed in the air, in the form of missiles. All of
these activities are intended to ensure that there is adequate control of
the air to enable the mission to proceed. ABM will also co-ordinate
any air-to-air refuelling (AAR) that may be required on a long-
range mission.
Upon entering the enemy’s airspace the strike aircraft will need
to avoid enemy air defences, and both fighters and ground-based
air defences (GBAD). Friendly fighters will assist in eliminating an
air threat. As for anti-aircraft missiles (surface to air missiles
(SAMs)), another strike mission may have been ordered to deal
with those and their controlling radars—if ECM has not already
managed to neutralize them. This is called ‘suppression of enemy
air defences’ (SEAD). Low-level flying skills can also help with this.
Once the aircraft arrive at their objective, the target may be
‘marked’ with a laser. In some circumstances troops on the
ground, probably special forces, will mark the target, or global
positioning system (GPS) co-ordinates may be used to achieve
great precision for the strike. Either way, it is imperative that in
hitting the target the mission avoids, to the greatest extent pos-
sible, civilian casualties, as ‘collateral damage’ may impair the
overall war effort by reducing its legitimacy. The aircraft returns
to base, with all elements remaining vigilant.
This is not the end for this attack mission. Satellites or other
aircraft must now do a battle-damage assessment to see if the
Account: s8944763
 Foundations
bombs have done the intended damage. They will also conduct
the baleful task of assessing whether there has been collateral
damage in the form of civilian deaths. The system then begins
again and gears up for another attack.
That was a very simple example of a relatively straightforward
mission. The reader will appreciate that there are very many
‘moving parts’ in such a simple operation, as well as very many
acronyms! The reader might consider it worth recalling as we go
on to look at the history of air power that many missions were
orders of magnitude more complex than this one. Imagine the
preparation for a WW thousand-bomber raid over Germany in
the dark, opposed by a ferociously efficient enemy with fighter
aircraft and anti-aircraft guns directed by radar. The technology
has improved but the four fundamental roles of military aircraft—
control of the air, attack, reconnaissance and mobility remain the same.
The Four Roles of Air Power: Control of the Air

The four roles of air power (Box ) are interdependent and to an
extent they are labels of convenience. Some operations may
involve all four roles, and indeed may incorporate other compo-
nents of air power such as command and control.
Without a significant degree of control of the air, the other
three elements are impossible to achieve. It is the key enabler for
the other main roles of air power. If a commander cannot be
assured of air control, the shape of operations will change greatly.
Control of the air is not only gained by other aircraft (e.g. fighters)
as GBAD may also be highly effective. For example, in the Vietnam
War,  per cent of US air losses (helicopters and strike aircraft)
Account: s8944763
Foundations 
B  The Four Roles of Air Power

......................................................................................
() Control of the Air: ensuring that it is you, not your enemy that has
the freedom of the air. The ultimate aim is ‘air supremacy’ which
is unchallenged control. ‘Air superiority’ is next best, where
enemy challenge is reduced to a minimum. Control of the air
is usually gained with the use of fighters; it can also be chal-
lenged by effective ground-based anti-aircraft missiles or guns,
or indeed by taking or attacking airfields—an approach termed
‘offensive counter-air’.
() Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance, also termed Intelligence
and Situational Awareness: finding the enemy and learning as
much as you can about him. Very commonly, reconnaissance
is carried out by dedicated and specially equipped aircraft and
satellites, as well as troops on the ground. The acronym ISTAR
is commonly used for this function (‘intelligence, surveillance,
target acquisition, and reconnaissance’).
() Attack: otherwise known as bombing. Attack is enabled by
control of the air and good intelligence. It is the primary
means by which air power is exercised on land or at sea.
There are three primary forms: tactical bombing is applied to
targets on the battlefield; interdiction attempts to ‘seal the
battlefield’ from supplies and reinforcements; strategic bombing
is directed against the industrial or civilian base of a country.
() Mobility: the ability to use aircraft to transport equipment or
people—sometimes termed logistics. This can act as a ‘force-
multiplier’ for ground forces whether carried out by helicopters
at the battlefield or tactical level, or huge transport aircraft
which provide ‘strategic lift’. Operations can also be sustained
by the use of AAR.
Account: s8944763
 Foundations
were sustained from ground fire. ‘Offensive counter-air’ (OCA)

involves attacking an enemy’s bases; clearly if an aircraft cannot
take off, it is of no use. This is an example of how one role, attack,
can act to achieve another, control of the air. Possibly the best
example of this took place on  June  when the Israeli Air
Force destroyed much of the Egyptian Air Force on the ground in
a surprise attack (see Chapter ); for the rest of the Six Day War,
Israeli aircraft ranged relatively freely over the battlefields.
Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance

The oldest function of air power reflects the old military adage
that a commander needs to ‘see the other side of the hill’. The
earliest demonstrations of the potential of aircraft were simple
attempts to use balloons to acquire sufficient height to see behind
enemy lines. In , just eleven years after the Montgolfier broth-
ers had flown the first manned hot air balloon, the French Army
Aerostatic Corps was formed—twenty-five soldiers were selected
for their expertise in chemistry and other relevant fields; com-
manded by Captain Jean Marie Joseph Coutelle, they were the
world’s first air arm.
In June  at the Battle of Fleurus, pilots of the Corps flew the
‘Entreprenant’—a tethered hydrogen balloon (Figure ). They were
able to inform the French commanding General Jourdan of the
movements of Austrian troops by dropping messages and using
semaphore. The battle was a significant victory for the French and
established their superiority in the Revolutionary Wars of the
period, although the Aerostatic Corps was rarely used again—it
was disbanded in . The first years of the American Civil War
Account: s8944763
Foundations 
Figure  ‘L’Entreprenant’ at the Battle of Fleurus 
Account: s8944763
 Foundations
saw both sides deploy balloons to no decisive effect and they

were also seen in the Franco-Prussian War of –. Since ,
reconnaissance has usually involved the use of powered aircraft
utilizing control of the air to observe the enemy and find targets
for attack. Again, this can involve using aircraft on or near the
battlefield (tactical) and deep behind enemy lines (strategic).
Since the early s satellites have played an ever-increasing
role, particularly in providing strategic intelligence. Since the late
s many reconnaissance aircraft have been unmanned.
Attack
Attack is the application of explosives or other forms of ordnance
from the air against enemy forces or indeed civilians. It too has a
long pedigree. On  November , nd Lieutenant Giulio Gavotti
of the Italian Army air battalion, based in Libya, took off in his
flimsy single-seat aircraft and dropped four grenades on Turkish
troops just outside Tripoli. He was the world’s first bomber pilot
(Figure ). Exactly one hundred years later, North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) bombers soared over the same Tripoli
skies. The first raid on a civilian target by a heavier-than-air
aircraft was on  October  during the First Balkan War
when a Bulgarian aircraft flown by Captain Radul Milkov dropped
two small bombs on Adrianople (now Edirne). No casualties were
reported in either operation.
Attack is often used in the interdiction role, denying the enemy
resupply or reinforcement. For example, during the Ardennes
Campaign of , better known as the Battle of the Bulge, Allied
air forces had almost entirely stopped the flow of fuel to German
Account: s8944763
Foundations 
Figure  An Italian aircraft dives on Turkish troops
Account: s8944763
 Foundations
army tank units. If a tank cannot move due to lack of fuel it

is essentially useless. In modern terminology this is called a
‘mobility kill’.
A  Royal Flying Corps paper authored by the man who was
to become the ‘father of the Royal Air Force’, Hugh Trenchard,
said that ‘ . . . the mere presence of a hostile machine above them
inspires those on the ground with exaggerated forebodings of
what it is capable of doing’. In an age of armed drones, whose
presence may merely be suspected, this is at least as true now as it
was then.
Reconnaissance and control of the air are often used to enable
attack by finding targets and clearing the way for strike aircraft
(bombers or their smaller relatives, fighter-bombers). When sol-
diers call upon aircraft to assist them in battle directly, by attack-
ing other soldiers, this is known as close air support (CAS).
Probably the most ferociously contested controversy in air
power theory concerns the war-winning potential of air power.
One school believes that air power can have a strategic (war-
winning) effect on its own. At the other extreme there are those
who believe that air power has only ever been truly effective in
achieving war aims when it is used as an adjunct to fighting forces
at the tactical (battlefield) level. Most commentators would agree
that the answer depends on which war, or indeed which phase of
a given war, one is discussing.
Mobility
The fourth fundamental role of air power, air mobility, is vital too,
perhaps now more than ever. In ‘expeditionary’ conflicts of the
Account: s8944763
Foundations 
kind we have seen in Iraq or Afghanistan, the air supremacy

enjoyed by the coalition forces was itself dependent on large
aircraft bringing in the supplies necessary to sustain the air
bases. Indeed, the helicopters which flew troops around their
operational zones—providing ‘intra-theatre mobility’ and often
defending these same soldiers from insurgents—are usually them-
selves flown into ‘theatre’ (the operational area) inside very large
aircraft.
Today, mobility is the most immediately visible function of air
power, from the transport of troops to and indeed around oper-
ational theatres as well as evacuation of casualties. One vital
aspect of current mobility operations is AAR. Air forces that
possess this capability enjoy the advantages of greater reach and
operational scope.
Dimensions
As with any other successful dynamic system, military air oper-
ations exist within a number of physical and conceptual dimen-
sions. First and foremost is logistics. US Marine General Robert
H. Barrow famously wrote in  that ‘amateurs talk about
tactics, but professionals study logistics’. All military endeavours
require extremely complicated and extensive supply and support
networks and the systems to organize them, and air forces are no
exception. For a start, all aircraft of all types need bases, requiring
large numbers of personnel to build, run and secure them. During
WW the largest single engineering effort in the UK was the
construction of the vast array of air bases from which the com-
bined US and British bomber offensive was launched against
Account: s8944763
 Foundations
Germany (see Chapter ). At sea, air power is delivered from

aircraft carriers, the most complex and expensive surface ships
in any naval fleet. The largest US warships are aircraft carriers;
these astonishing vessels are  metres long,  metres wide and
tower up to  metres above the waterline. Weighing over
, tons they carry up to one hundred jets and helicopters
and provide a home for , men and women. In addition to
prodigious amounts of fuel and weaponry they also contain a
fully functioning nuclear power station which provides the power
for the ship.
Air bases, both on land and at sea, require vast supplies of fuel
and, when at war, weaponry, both of which necessitate a long,
fragile and highly organized supply chain. This is in addition to
the ‘life-support’ which any military base requires in the form of
basic requirements such as food and clean water. Bases need to be
protected, either by a well-trained guard force or, in the case of
aircraft carriers, other warships equipped to ward off or defeat
attack from surface or submarine forces. Supply networks are
difficult to sustain when under active attack by determined enemies
from the air or aggressive cyber forces.
Aircraft need constant maintenance. For example, the Euro-
fighter Typhoon used by several European countries requires nine
hours of maintenance for each hour of flight. The even more
complex American F- requires forty-five hours. This in turn
implies the need for engineers and technicians usually at least as
highly qualified as the pilots who depend on the engineers for
their safety. This requires a large and extensive industrial and
engineering base. It was only in  that man first engaged in
powered flight. One of the reasons it took so long to develop is
Account: s8944763
Foundations 
that combining light internal combustion engines with a flyable

airframe in a reasonably safe and efficient fashion is a very difficult
task. By the beginning of the First World War, however, every
major country had aeronautical construction industries sup-
ported by military investment.
Aeronautical development and technology were vastly acceler-
ated by WW. From then until arguably the early s the global
aviation industry engaged in what historian David Edgerton has
called ‘military and civil leapfrogging’ with developments in one
being passed into and contributing to the advances of the other.
Most of the time, but not always, military developments led the
way. In the s and s there was much private investment in
racing aircraft, which eventually gave rise to the innovations allow-
ing high-powered all-metal monoplane fighter aircraft such as the
Supermarine Spitfire.
The drive for profitable airliners brought similar advances to
bombers. The Second World War, like WW, brought an expo-
nential increase in investment in technology; the jet engine,
invented before WW (German and British engineers both claimed
it as their invention) was first made operational and even mass-
produced (by Germany) during WW. The need for long-range
four-engined bombers during WW made long-distance jet air-
liners with pressurized cabins possible and now commonplace.
In the late twentieth century, with the advent of large computer
and IT industries with huge investment bases in the s, mili-
tary technologies once again began to follow civilian develop-
ments. The single exception to this trend today may be drones,
where military technology is usually ahead of contemporary
commercial applications.
Account: s8944763
 Foundations
Air forces require excellent personnel to operate and service

this expensive and complex equipment. They must recruit from
the best available young people to maintain the necessary edge
over adversaries. Training must be intensive and realistic. During
WW, research demonstrated that Allied bomber crews were
most likely to be shot down in their first ten or the last five
missions of (usually) thirty in a ‘combat tour’. During the first
ten missions, their combat skills were beginning to develop and
they were more vulnerable. During the final five, exhaustion
was assessed as a major factor. A similar pattern was observed
in other conflicts, especially Vietnam. Following Vietnam, the US
Air Force instituted the ‘Red Flag’ series of intensely realistic
exercises in . Red Flag offers authentic air combat scenarios
supported by dedicated ‘aggressor’ squadrons trained and pre-
pared to fly using the latest ‘enemy’ tactics. One of the purposes
of this is an attempt to overcome the inexperience in combat
situations that affects performance during those crucial first few
missions in actual conflicts. Red Flag continues to be a major
event in the training schedules of many air forces.
There must also be a strong basis of technical skills. Despite
having large numbers of modern aircraft, usually supplied by
the Soviet Union, Arab air forces lost all their battles with the
Israeli Air Force. One reason put forward by leading air power
scholar Robin Higham in an essay in his edited volume Why Air
Forces Fail is that although they had modern aircraft and equip-
ment, the Arab air forces were without an adequate basis of state
investment in technical education and training, particularly of
non-commissioned officers. This mistake was not made by the
Israeli Air Force, which has always taken the best and the
Account: s8944763
Foundations 
brightest of each conscription cadre and trained them to a very

high standard.
In extended conflicts, such as WW, attrition of pilots and
other aircrew was a major problem. The inability of German
and Japanese aircrew training systems to replace their losses at
anything like the rate of their adversaries contributed greatly to
their defeat. Both countries had planned for a short war and had
made little provision for extended conflict. By contrast, the United
Kingdom’s political leadership made a conscious decision that the
highest-qualified and best recruits drafted into the armed services
should be directed to the Royal Air Force. Huge efforts and
resources were put into training and preparing them for combat
and setting up the highly complex systems necessary to accom-
plish this. In a memorandum to the cabinet on the first anniver-
sary of the declaration of war on  September , Churchill
wrote: ‘The Navy can lose us this war, but only the RAF can win
it . . . the bombers alone provide the means of victory’. Clearly this
was a view on priorities taken at a level where strategy and
political leadership intersected.
Such strategic thinking must be informed by an intelligent,
experienced and preferably well educated leadership which in
turn will be drawn from the high quality young officers the
prudent air force or air arm will have recruited. Ideally, but by
no means always, the best of these will rise to positions of high
command. They will then be operating at the strategic level along-
side the political leadership of a state.
When the bullets begin to fly, the effective deployment of air
power relies upon good generalship advising and working closely
with political leaders. The interplay between politics and air
Account: s8944763
 Foundations
power has been particularly intimate since WW and continues

today. Political decisions must be carried out down to the level of
the battlefield; this requires effective command and control (C)
arrangements. Bringing together all the elements of air warfare
and applying them to a particular task can be a very complex
business indeed, since it involves many thousands of moving
pieces. Successful air campaigns inevitably have strong and robust
C systems. For example, the Battle of Britain in  was won by
the Royal Air Force at least as much by its C network (bringing
together the various elements of detection, intelligence, command,
and operations) as by its fighter pilots. In today’s air forces the term
‘C’ is also used, meaning ‘command, control, and communica-
tions’, with ‘C’ adding ‘computers’ to the acronym more recently.
Clearly a commander cannot be expected to know every detail
everywhere. One way of getting around this problem is to use
‘mission command’. This is a technique where a senior com-
mander makes his intent clear and allows subordinates to achieve
that objective in their own way, without close supervision. Obvi-
ously this requires a high degree of trust. There are limitations to
this. With the high cost of modern equipment, resources (espe-
cially aircraft) are often scarce and therefore control may need to
be exerted more closely in certain circumstances. Likewise, the
role of air power as a (supposedly) strategic tool may necessitate
more directive control. Today, decisions about dropping muni-
tions on a specific target are sometimes made at high level due to
the risk of collateral damage. Similarly, orders for a fighter jet to
shoot down an unresponsive airliner suspected of being hijacked
by terrorists planning to use it as a missile, as occurred in the /
attacks, would be given by a senior politician.
Account: s8944763
Foundations 
Over the last two decades, with the populations of Western

countries highly sensitive to the prospect both of casualties to
their own forces and those collateral civilian deaths, the question
whether or not to use air power has become a matter of national
debate. Both politics and law have to a great degree entered the
cockpit. There are still some people, even today, who agree with
theorist Giulio Douhet’s views that laws restraining and govern-
ing the use of air power are ‘nothing but international demagogic
hypocrisies’. Most practitioners of air power recognize that some
law or regulation, however apparently ineffective, is better than
none. The need for legal regulation of air power was realized early
on, as the potential for balloons to cause damage on the ground
became clear. The Hague Conventions of  and  had
already banned bombing from the air. Although WW demon-
strated the ineffectiveness of such strictures, serious efforts were
made to tighten up and indeed to enforce legal norms. The Hague
Rules for Air Warfare () were the first concerted attempt
to limit attack from the air. Notably, they restricted bombing
to ‘military objectives’ the destruction of which would ‘constitute
a distinct advantage to the belligerent’. As has been regularly
pointed out since , the term ‘military objective’ is decidedly
imprecise; in wartime almost anything can be made to fall into
that category.
The  Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions of
 brought the law on targeting up to date. These are based
around the four central concepts of international humanitarian
law: ‘proportionality’, ‘necessity’, ‘humanity’, and ‘distinction’
between civilians and combatants. The principle of proportionality
dictates that any civilian losses must be proportionate to the
Account: s8944763
 Foundations
military advantage gained. Necessity is closely linked, requiring

the commander to ensure that only the force necessary to achieve
the objective is used; for example, destroying an entire town to
get at a single person may be considered neither necessary nor
proportionate. The inclusion of the principle of humanity is an
attempt to reduce the suffering in war which is why, for example,
incendiary weapons such as napalm are now forbidden. Finally,
and most importantly, distinction (sometimes called ‘discrimination’)
means ensuring that as far as possible harm to non-combatants is
avoided—a vital factor in retaining public support in democratic
countries for possibly controversial operations. It is by reference
to these principles that our strike package at the start of the
chapter will have been cleared, or not, by air force lawyers.
No one would dispute that aircraft and the dimensions that
impact upon their use are central to modern warfare. It is easy to
forget that—notwithstanding the French Aerostatic Corps of the
s and some desultory military ballooning in the nineteenth
century—aircraft are relatively new to the world of conflict. As we
will see in Chapter , once powered aircraft had taken to the air in
the early twentieth century, it did not take long for their potential
as a military instrument to be realized.
Account: s8944763

Beginnings
The First World War –
In , General Ferdinand Foch, who was to go on to command

all Allied forces in WW, stated that ‘aviation may be fine as a
sport . . . but as an instrument of war, it is nothing [c’est zero]’.
It did not take long for that sceptical view, by no means shared
by all senior officers, to be compromised by reality. With
its kill-or-be-killed imperative, WW vastly accelerated the
development of aircraft technology, tactics, and operational
thinking.
Aircraft were a relatively rare sight over the battlefields of
. By , aircraft were organized by major powers into vast
air forces. They were regarded by many as an essential, if not as
yet decisive factor on the battlefields themselves; further, they
had demonstrated their potential to cause damage far behind the
front lines.
Account: s8944763
 Beginnings: The First World War –
Reconnaissance
It was in reconnaissance, particularly in providing eyes for the
artillery that dominated all major battlefronts, that the nascent air
forces of WW found their most vital role. In August , the first
month of the war, both France and Britain were staring at the very
real prospect of defeat by the German army. French and British
forces were outflanked. Paris itself prepared for a siege. The Allied
forces, in headlong retreat, did not know the location of General
Alexander von Kluck’s First Army. On  September, Corporal Louis
Breguet, formerly an aircraft builder, took off with his observer
Lieutenant Andre Watteau and found the German force. Their
information enabled French and British forces to turn and stop
the German advance, striking it in the flank, at what became known
as the ‘Miracle of the Marne’. Breguet surely has at least a claim to
have been the ‘saviour of France’, a title later co-opted by the former
air-sceptic Marshal Foch.
As the Western Front, the main theatre of conflict, settled into
trench warfare, the primary means of killing the enemy became
artillery. No less than  per cent of casualties, and probably more,
were directly caused by gun barrages. In order for the artillery
guns to be directed they needed precise information on the
location of enemy positions, their numbers, and strength—if
concentrations of men or supplies could be found within range
of the heavy guns, so much the better.
However, placing reasonably well-trained eyes in the sky above
those enemy positions, and especially behind their lines to a depth
where the artillery could reach; that would be useful. Aircraft
could see troops massing at key points and these in turn could
Account: s8944763
Beginnings: The First World War – 
be shelled by long-range artillery. This was the first use of air

interdiction—stopping or hindering the enemy getting to the
battlefield. If the aircrew could locate the enemy’s own artillery
positions, so much the better, as they could themselves be tar-
geted with counter-battery gunfire to hit their guns and kill their
crews. The lethal imperative to gain that artillery-spotting edge on
the enemy drove all aspects of the conflict in the air.
Driven by the imperative of providing good timely intelligence
to the guns, reconnaissance technology developed rapidly. Ini-
tially it amounted to little more than observing the target, flying as
quickly as possible back to base and telephoning the information
to army headquarters. By the end of the war many of the basic
techniques in use for the rest of the century were well-established
and functional wireless equipment enabled air-to-ground real-
time reporting of artillery accuracy, so that artillery commanders
could adjust their aim. Aircrew were able to use radio and Morse
code to call artillery strikes upon the locations of enemy units
they spotted using ‘zone calls’. Precision photography, as well as
the capabilities to interpret and analyse images and glean useful
intelligence from them, created a lethal combination of air recon-
naissance and accurate artillery.
Most studies of air power in WW focus on the Western Front,
where millions of British, Indian, Canadian, Australian, German,
French, and (after ) American troops were locked in combat.
Nevertheless, it was also vital on the Eastern Front. In addition
to artillery spotting, aircraft were used by Russian, German, and
to a lesser extent Austro-Hungarian forces, to spot the move-
ments of armies over the vast battlefields of what is now Poland
and Ukraine.
Account: s8944763
 Beginnings: The First World War –
In August , Russian generals advancing towards German

forces ignored warnings of German movements from their Air
Corps. General von Hindenburg’s staff did not make the same
mistake when German pilots provided accurate information on
their enemy. The result was a crushing German victory—the
Battle of Tannenberg. Hindenburg was clear on the importance
of aircraft: ‘without airmen, there would have been no Tannenberg’.
In stark contrast to their early lack of appreciation of the value
of reconnaissance, in June  Russian aircraft provided an excel-
lent overview of Austro-Hungarian defences prior to the Brusilov
Offensive, enabling Russian generals to plan a highly effective
attack.
Hundreds of thousands of photographs were taken of enemy
positions by German, British, and French air forces. For example, in
one month alone—September —on the Ypres front, the Royal
Flying Corps (RFC) took over , photographs of enemy posi-
tions and distributed , prints. Reconnaissance photographs
now provide one of the most valuable resources for historians of
the war (Figure ). For the aircrews involved, this was an uncom-
fortable high-risk task involving precision flying and almost con-
stant bone-freezing cold combined with fear. High altitude was
essential to provide any chance of avoiding the enemy’s fighters or
ever-improving ground-based anti-aircraft defences.
The risks for all aircrew in WW were very great and life
expectancies were low. By way of one example amongst many
thousands, Lieutenant J. S. Walthew was on a mission to locate
enemy positions during the particularly appalling Third Battle of
Ypres in . In a letter home he wrote about how his aircraft was
hit by ground fire, piercing his fuel tank and spraying him with
Account: s8944763
Beginnings: The First World War – 
Figure  Reconnaissance photograph of the village of Allaines
petrol. ‘It was a great misfortune having a bad day . . . ’ he opined.

It could have been far worse. A stray bullet or even a misfiring
engine would have condemned him to the kind of horrendous
death suffered by thousands of airmen on all sides—being burned
to death in his cockpit. Walthew was lucky on that occasion.
It was the fate of the great majority of aircrew in WW to be shot
down and killed. One month later, Lieutenant Walthew was shot
down; his body was never found.
Once an aircraft was disabled or burning there was no chance of
escape, as parachutes were neither issued nor permitted to air-
crews. Everard Calthrop, the designer of the first effective British
parachutes, ‘Guardian Angels’, took the view that ‘No-one in high
Account: s8944763
 Beginnings: The First World War –
quarters had any time to devote to investigating the merits of an

appliance whose purpose was so ridiculously irrelevant to war
as the saving of life in the air.’ It was not until  that air forces
on all sides began to permit them, and they have been seen as an
essential piece of equipment ever since, not least for morale
reasons since they offer some hope of survival in the event of
critical aircraft damage.
The only airmen for whom parachutes were permitted in WW
were the crews of tethered hydrogen observation balloons, which
floated over the front lines of all sides, spotting the fall of artillery
shells. These were always very heavily defended by belts of guns.
Nonetheless, they were constantly targeted, not only by enemy
artillery but of course by fighters. Spotting from highly inflam-
mable balloons was another occupation with a very limited life-
expectancy.
Control of the Air

In the early days of the war, control of the air was not practically
an issue, since there were no aircraft dedicated to destroying other
aircraft, and anti-aircraft defences were primitive. However, the
lethal advantages offered by reconnaissance aircraft with their
ability to direct artillery to targets far behind enemy lines were
quickly appreciated. Consequently the need to shoot down those
‘eyes in the sky’ drove the development of the so-called ‘fighter’
aircraft. At an early stage in the war it became clear that such
specialized aircraft were needed if control of the air was to be
gained, which in turn might provide at least some freedom for the
artillery spotters to do their work. Fighters now began to conduct
Account: s8944763
Beginnings: The First World War – 
operations to shoot down other fighters with the objective of

gaining and retaining that essential air supremacy. In any event,
by  the best reconnaissance aircrew had become a specialist
cadre flying far higher than other aircraft, beyond the reach of
potential fighter opponents.
In the early months of the war, attacking the enemy’s recon-
naissance aircraft was the task of other similarly designed planes.
The first fighters were mostly crewed by a pilot and an observer
with a machine gun on a swivel mount. One of these observers
was French Corporal Louis Quenault who claims the distinction
of being the first man to shoot down an aircraft in air-to-air
combat on  October . Pilots and aircrew found trying to
aim a gun on a moving mounting in turn fixed to a speeding,
jinking, swaying, twisting, and turning airframe difficult to say the
least, especially when aiming at another machine doing exactly
the same. Why not point the aircraft instead? This would allow
for a steadier aim and a reduced crew as it would be the pilot
doing the aiming and firing with the aircraft itself acting as a
reasonably stable gun-platform. Wings in those days were not
strong enough to support a gun-mount plus ammunition, so
machine guns needed to be attached to the fuselage of the aircraft.
If the guns were to be fired forward, this raised the problem of
firing through the propeller. Various solutions were attempted.
These ranged from mounting the gun over the propeller, to
coating the propellers with wedge-shaped steel plates and firing
through them hoping for the best. This was first tried (initially
with some success) by the French fighter pilot Roland Garros,
after whom the famous tennis stadium is named. A true system of
synchronization of the gun with the propeller was first mastered
Account: s8944763
 Beginnings: The First World War –
by the Dutch engineer Antony Fokker, whose eindecker (mono-

plane) aircraft ruled the skies of late . They were equipped
with an interrupter mechanism allowing the machine-gun bul-
lets to pass between the spinning propeller blades. The ‘Fokker
Scourge’ gave rise to the first great slaughter of British reconnais-
sance pilots and the fighters trying to protect them.
Soon British and French designers incorporated their own
interrupter mechanisms. However, the British RFC remained
particularly disadvantaged by a haphazard and incoherent train-
ing regime for their aircrew. Their adversaries in the Luftstreitk-
räfte (the German Air Arm) were usually far better prepared for
combat. The German Air Force approach to control of the air
gave rise to some highly original tactical thinking, informed by
hard-earned experience. In  the leading German fighter
leader and tactician Oswald Boelcke drafted a set of precepts
for air-to-air combat; these were fully explained in the form of a
booklet given to each German fighter pilot on completion of
training. The ‘Dicta Boelcke’ (Box ) are still studied by fighter
pilots today.
On both sides a large proportion of air-to-air kills were made
by aces—men who had shot down five or more opponents. The
most famous of them all was Oswald Boelcke’s protégé Manfred
von Richthofen—the so-called ‘Red Baron’—with eighty kills. By
the same token, most victims of the ‘aces’ were relative novices;
this was a pattern that was to continue in WW.
The British sustained another defeat in the air in the summer of
 at the beginning of the Battle of the Somme when their losses
were three times that of the Germans and their superior fighter
aircraft. Despite this, with new and better aircraft they recovered
Account: s8944763
Beginnings: The First World War – 
B  The ‘Dicta Boelcke’: Sayings of Oswald Boelcke on Air

Fighting
......................................................................................
() Be sure you have the advantage before you attack (speed, height,
numbers, position); attack out of the sun when you can.
() Once you have begun an attack, prosecute it to the end.
() Open fire only at close range, and then only when your oppon-
ent is square in your sights.
() Don’t let your opponent out of your sight.
() In any type of attack, it is imperative that you approach from
behind.
() If your opponent dives on you, do not try to evade his attack—
turn towards your attacker.
() When over enemy lines, always keep in mind your own line of
retreat.
() When fighting in groups, it is best to attack in groups of four or
six; when the melee begins, ensure that not too many of your
own aircraft go after the same adversary.
to regain control of the air. In the spring of , whilst British

aircraft had developed quickly and were often as advanced as
German planes, the continuing disparity in training resulted in a
further British defeat; this was ‘Bloody April’. The chances of
poorly trained British pilots were not improved by the relentlessly
aggressive tactics of the RFC commander Brigadier (by early 
Major-General) Hugh Trenchard. These tactics were designed to
retain the initiative in the air, whatever the cost. The view of a
retrogressive British leadership outmatched by efficient German
Account: s8944763
 Beginnings: The First World War –
operational techniques is not entirely accurate and must be

understood in the context of the necessity for British aircraft
to keep the Luftstreitkräfte reconnaissance missions as far from
British lines as possible.
In the last year of the war good British fighter airframes were
married to excellent French Hispano-Suiza engines. This, com-
bined with major improvements in training, resulted for the first
time in more German aircraft being shot down than British. Both
sides learnt from each other throughout the war in tactical and
technological terms; however, it is fair to say that for most of the
war aircraft technology was led by German designers, culminat-
ing in  with the excellent Fokker D.VII; it was just about
matched by the French Nieuport, British Sopwith, and Royal
Aircraft Factory SEa.
French and British air arms were by this time now being
reinforced by aircraft and crews from the US Army Air Service,
initially led by the legendary Lieutenant-Colonel (as he then was)
William ‘Billy’ Mitchell. By the end of the war throughout the
Western Front the combination of overwhelming Allied produc-
tion rates and an increase in relative quality of training and
equipment began to tell—attrition took its toll on the Luftstreitk-
räfte. Having said that, albeit outnumbered by up to three to one
by Allied adversaries, German pilots remained an effective force
until the last day of the war.
Attack
Once you have control of the air and understand what it is that
needs to be destroyed on the ground through reconnaissance, there
Account: s8944763
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
“You won’t have to,” Dan told him. “Fact is, it’s a spade you’ll have to
use more than anything else, a spade and a pick and a shovel, all of which
fortunately we brought along with us.”
“Do you mean to dig a grave for the gorilla after you get him?” asked
Peg.
“Well, hardly, when we promised Mr. Holwell that we wouldn’t hurt the
poor creature,” laughed Dan. “What I want you to do is to dig a pit about
ten feet deep, with walls so smooth that no gorilla that ever walked on two
legs could manage to climb up again, once he fell in.”
“Oh, so that’s the game!” exclaimed Phil. “A pit trap, is it? Seems to me
I’ve read of them in books about life in the jungles of Africa and South
America.”
“That’s just where I cribbed the scheme!” exclaimed Dan. “Don’t you
remember, Phil, lending me those books that you said used to belong to
your father years ago? But what’s the difference anyway who was the
originator of the idea? The author of the books got it from the natives who
were accustomed to catching wild animals in pits. As soon as we’re through
lunch I want some of you fellows to go with me and show what you’re
worth as diggers.”
None of them backed out, though all realized that their muscles would
be stiff and sore before a ten-foot pit could be finished. Still, “Rome was
not built in a day” the minister told them, and they must not expect to rush
things. Better divide the job into two periods, and by the close of the next
day it could easily be completed.
CHAPTER XXV
THE BERRY PICKERS
That was an unusually long afternoon to the “willing workers” in the

pit. From the way in which every little while one or another would stop
digging and, climbing out of the hole, take an anxious look toward the west,
it could be easily seen that the diggers were getting weary.
Dan, of course, noticed it, and chuckled slily. He realized that they
would stand by him to the finish. At the same time he was not above taking
what he called “a rise” out of Fred Bonnicastle, who emerged from the pit
oftener than the others.
So, on one occasion, when about to suggest stopping work for the day,
he casually remarked, as Fred again climbed up out of the hole, now some
four feet in depth:
“I guess you think the old days have come around again, Fred.”
Fred looked at him blankly.
“Oh, the days of the Children of Israel when they took possession of the
Promised Land, you remember,” continued Dan, grinning.
“I’m still groping in the dark. What have we got to do with Moses and
his followers, when they fought with the Philistines?” asked Fred.
“Well,” replied Dan, drily, “from the way you fellows keep staring into
the west I just made up my mind some of you had begun to believe Joshua
had come along with us, and that he was again commanding the sun to
stand still.” At this Fred laughed, as did the others.
“So far as that goes,” acknowledged Peg, “it certainly has seemed a
coon’s age since we started grubbing here. Four hours, with only little rests
in between when some one spelled me, is going some for my father’s son.”
“Whee! wouldn’t my folks at home stare though, if they could have
watched me actually work?” added Phil Harkness, greatly amused. “Why,
it’s always been the hardest thing going to coax me to weed a little flower
bed up to now.”
“I’m sore, all right,” admitted Fred, candidly; “but it may wear away by
morning. Guess Nature didn’t mean me to earn my bread by the sweat of
my brow. I think after all I’d better take to the law, as my dad wants me to.”
“Perhaps some of the other fellows may want to change places with you
three in the morning,” said Dan, calmly. “My pit is more’n a third
completed now, though the worst is still to come, for every shovel of dirt
has to be lifted out, and carried away, so as not to excite the suspicions of
the beast. Let’s call it off, and meander into camp.”
There was much animated talk around the supper table that night, as
Dan and his assistants entered into arguments with some of the others. It
ended in three new recruits offering to do their turn in the pit on the
following day.
Fred and the two others did not say much, for fear of alarming the
volunteers, and causing them to back out. At the same time they might have
been observed exchanging significant winks, and the expression on their
faces showed satisfaction.
Nothing unusual happened on that night, though some of the boys felt
restless. If the prowling animal came around no one saw or heard him; nor
was anything missing when morning finally arrived, so far as any one could
discover.
“But that means he’ll be with us to-night, never fear,” ventured Dan,
with such confidence in his manner that every one knew he did not mean to
abandon his pit-digging.
The plans for the day had already been laid out. Dick had concluded to
accompany the berry pickers during the morning. He wanted to feel that he
had had a hand in helping Eddie, Ban and Cub accumulate a large store of
the berries, for they were to be shipped to the market in Cliffwood on the
following morning.
Leslie’s father, Mr. Capes, had promised to run up on this day in his car,
to see what the boys were doing. He would spend a night in camp, and start
back on the following morning. He was also to bring with him receptacles
in which such blueberries as had been gathered could be carried back to
town.
That was one reason why Dick planned to go out with the three mill
boys on this morning, so as to feel that he had helped give them a half
holiday. In the afternoon he planned to go fishing with the trio, for Eddie
and the others dearly loved all manner of sports, though not able to indulge
in them as frequently as some of the other boys, unless, as usually
happened, they took Sunday for their outings.
There was certainly no lack of the large berries on Bass Island. Eddie
Grant told Dick he could take him to a place they had hardly touched as yet,
and where their buckets could easily be filled in two hours.
The berry pickers set off, Fred and Peg going with the party.
“We haven’t seen a sign of a snake so far,” Eddie remarked, as they
walked along through the brush and amidst the trees.
“Well, since this is an island, and so far from the mainland,” observed
Dick, “perhaps there isn’t a single snake of any kind on it.”
“I’m glad of that,” ventured Ban Jansen, frankly, “’cause I’m not any
too fond of the crawlers. My folks told me to keep my eyes peeled for
rattlers up in this region. I’d sure hate to run across one of ’em just when I
was in the middle of a thick patch of berry bushes.”
The berry pickers enlivened the time with pleasant chatter as they
pushed along through the brush, heading toward the distant spot where
Eddie had noted the unusually heavily laden blueberry bushes.
Arriving on the ground the boys began to pick. It is slow work at the
best, no matter if the berries can be fairly stripped off by a deft motion of
the hand; and they could count on a couple of hours at the work if they
expected to fill their pails.
By degrees they would, of course, separate as each became absorbed in
his own picking. At the same time, they had agreed not to drift so far apart
but that a loud shout would bring them together again.
Dick busied himself. And as his fingers worked, so his mind also found
employment in going over some of the recent happenings that had served to
enliven their camp life.
Among other things he remembered Asa Gardner. It was nice to know
that the poor chap had brightened up so much of late. The pitiful expression
had left his pinched face.
“He begins to feel now,” Dick was telling himself, “that he has really
mastered that old weakness of his about taking things, whether he needed
them or not. It was a terrible thing to have grip him, and I’m mighty glad
he’s won out. Besides, he needs all the outdoor exercise he can get, so as to
throw off that tendency to tuberculosis that runs in his family.”
Thus Dick was thinking of others as he deftly stripped the small twigs
of their rich stores. Suddenly he stopped work and stared at the ground.
“Whee! there’s another of those queer footprints again,” he muttered.
“Seems that the monkey likes blueberries as well as any human can, or the
partridges even. He’s been browsing around here all right, for I can see
where something has cleaned off a heap of branches.”
The thought that even then the gorilla, or whatever it was, might not be
far away gave Dick a thrill. He was a brave boy, however, as he had proved
on numerous occasions in the past; and this was made manifest when he
almost unconsciously started to follow the spoor of the animal.
A short distance away he came to a well defined trail. It looked as
though the gorilla must have passed along back and forth scores of times.
Dick stood still and stared.
“Here’s a find,” he muttered to himself. “Chances are ten to one that this
leads to his den, all right. A nervy hunter might follow it up and come on
the big beast in his own quarters; but I reckon it would be silly for me to
think of doing such a thing as that.”
The temptation to follow just a little way, to see where the trail led,
caused Dick to start hesitatingly forward. A gorilla in his native Borneo
haunt is considered one of the most terrible creatures known to big game
hunters the world over, not even excepting the grizzly bear of our own
country, and Dick’s pulses were bounding, and his nerves were on edge, for
he realized that at any minute he might find himself face to face with the
animal.
And, indeed, that was just what did happen, for Dick suddenly heard a
horrible gurgling sound close by, and turning his head found himself staring
at a squatty, hairy figure that looked like a misshapen man with amazingly
broad shoulders, and long dangling arms.
CHAPTER XXVI
POACHING ON STRANGE PRESERVES
“Oh! good-bye!”
As Dick gasped these two words he flung himself squarely around, and
ran wildly. At the same time he listened, with his heart almost in his mouth,
to ascertain whether the terrible animal were chasing after him. Yes, he
could catch that odd thumping sound so like the roll of a distant bass drum.
The boy ran in the direction that would take him close to where his
companions were busily engaged in picking berries. He did not mean to
lead the beast so as to include Eddie and the rest in his own danger; but he
wished to warn them so that they, too, might flee from that perilous section.
When they heard him shout they quickly understood. Even before that it
had dawned upon their comprehension that something was amiss, for they
had caught the noise made by Dick’s frantic passage through the bushes.
Besides, the booming sound from beyond had also been carried to their
ears.
Now all six were tearing off like mad, and for a brief time it seemed as
though the berry picking must be abandoned for that day at least. Dick soon
found that they were not being pursued. Then the ridiculous character of the
wild flight broke in upon him, and he laughed aloud.
This caused the others to feel safer. Surely the situation could not be so
very desperate if Dick, wise Dick, could give way to merriment.
Eddie Grant joined in the laughter, and Ban and Cub, not to show the
white feather, followed suit, until all of them threw themselves down on the
ground and tried to catch their breath again.
There was considerable badgering, for each chose to believe that all
save himself were panic-stricken. Of course, he had galloped along just
because it was the fashion, and he did not wish to be left to face the ugly
beast alone.
When Dick candidly admitted that he had been badly scared the others
realized that confession was good for the soul; and in the end everybody
owned up.
“Do we give up the job then for to-day?” asked Fred Bonnicastle.
“Oh! I know lots of other places where the berries are just about as thick
as off there,” asserted Eddie Grant, who, having undertaken a task, however
unpleasant, never wished to relinquish it.
“Who’s afraid?” demanded Cub Mannis.
Of course, after all this manifestation of valor no one dared hint at
stopping work just because there chanced to be an escaped gorilla loose on
Bass Island.
“We can arrange to keep closer together after this,” suggested Eddie,
“and have a signal to close up in a bunch if the old critter bobs up again.
But like as not we happened on his private preserves when we tackled that
batch of berries, and he ain’t goin’ to bother us if we keep away.”
It was natural that the boys remained in a nervous frame of mind during
the remainder of that morning. If a bird flew up suddenly, or a branch
scraped against the trunk of a tree, emitting a harsh sound, some of them
were sure to take in a long breath and stare around uneasily.
The pails were slow in filling up, too, on account of this vigilance and
of the fact that the pickers stuck close together. In fact, the time dragged
until it was well on toward noon before Eddie announced that his pail was
running over.
“Can’t seem to hold another handful, fellows,” he observed. “And as
you’re all in the same fix I move we start back to camp.”
“That suits me all right!” declared Fred; and not a murmur of dissent
was heard, for every one was only too glad that the long strain had come to
an end.
When the berry pickers told of their experience that noon, as they
munched the lunch that had been prepared, dinner being reserved for the
evening when Mr. Capes would in all probability be with them, the others
listened with a sort of awe.
Although, boy like, some of them ventured to make fun of the berry
pickers on account of their panic, secretly they were ready to confess that
under similar conditions they would have done the same thing—would have
run wildly.
“Well, my pit is four-fifths dug,” announced Dan, proudly. “And if I can
get a new shift of workers this afternoon I’ll have it done easily, so the trap
could be set this very night.”
Several volunteers were immediately forthcoming, among others Asa
Gardner, who, while not as strong physically as most of the others, wished
to do his share.
“You see,” he explained to Dan when making the offer, “I don’t want to
be left out of the running.”
“Well,” observed Fred Bonnicastle, drily, “you wouldn’t have if you’d
gone off with our bunch this morning, I can tell you that. Eh, fellows?”
Dick, true to his promise, after certain camp duties had been performed,
went out in one of the boats with Eddie, Ban and Cub to try for the bass.
“We’d like to give Mr. Capes a treat and the finest dinner possible while
he’s up here over night with us,” he told his companions, while rowing
toward his favorite fishing grounds. “So everybody must do his level best to
land some big fellows, if only we can tempt them to take hold.”
The conditions seemed especially favorable. The sun was hidden much
of the time behind friendly clouds, and a gentle wind blew from the
southwest, causing a ripple on the water such as fishermen delight to see.
The sport turned out to be excellent, and some extra fine fish were taken
during the several hours the quartette spent at their pleasant task.
“Let me tell you this beats picking berries all hollow,” remarked Eddie,
as he played a sturdy bronze-backed warrior, and watched the captive leap
wildly from the water time after time, always attempting to throw his
weight upon the line so as to break the hook loose from his jaw.
“I never seem to get enough of it,” added Cub, all aglow as he, too, felt
a savage jerk, and succeeded in fastening a mate to Eddie’s fellow, so that
there were lively times at both ends of the anchored boat.
Indeed, the pleasures of that single afternoon were enough to repay the
mill boys for all their labors. One and all they confessed, when later on
heading for the camp, that they had never had such glorious fishing in all
their lives.
Dan was found in camp fairly palpitating with satisfaction. Dick knew
before a single word had been said that the pit was completed.
“Come out and see it, Dick,” urged the proud architect. And as there
was still an hour and more before sundown, Dick gladly complied.
He found that the pit had been neatly covered with a matting of slender
poles, upon which both earth and leaves had been deftly strewn. In fact,
Dick might himself have stepped upon this disguising covering only that
Dan caught his arm and held him back.
“You see where I’ve hung the bait,” he observed, pointing upward as he
spoke. “The gorilla can’t reach it without stepping squarely out on the weak
platform, and he’ll go plump down so fast there’ll be no chance for him to
throw out those long arms of his and grab a branch above. I guess his goose
will be cooked all right if only he browses around this way to-night, as I
hope will happen.”
Dick shook hands with the originator of the pit trap.
“Here’s hoping he comes—and stays, Dan!” he said.
“You like the way we fixed it, then, do you, Dick?” demanded the other.
For according to his way of thinking commendation from Dick was always
to be accepted as a certificate of real merit.
“It couldn’t be better, Dan, and you have cause to be proud of your
work.”
They had just returned to the camp when one of the boys was heard
shouting:
“There’s a big car arrived across the bay from us, where Leslie and Phil
are waiting with the boat.”
“Seems to be something of a crowd along,” remarked Dan; “I can see
the chauffeur all right, and Mr. Capes; but there’s another, too. Wonder now
who he brought up here with him to-day?”
“They’re fixing some sort of canvas over the car, so as to leave it there
for the night,” ventured Asa, straining his eyes in the effort to make things
out.
“Now they’re beginning to get into the boat, after the boys have taken
aboard some bundles that may be containers for the berries,” said Dick. “I
can give a pretty good guess who that third person is, boys.”
“Mr. Nocker, Dick, don’t you think?” asked Peg. “Seems to me he looks
kind of familiar, with his tall figure, and queer way of walking.”
“Just who it is,” replied Dick, without hesitation. “Mr. Nocker has taken
the trouble to come all the way up here to spend a night with us boys, and
see how we carry on when in camp.”
“Just to think of him, doing such a thing,” ventured Dan, “when only a
short time ago he detested every type of boy, because they reminded him of
his own son who gave him so much trouble, and finally ran away from
home and died.”
“Yes,” interrupted Dick, softly. “But that was before Mr. Nocker met his
little grandson, Billy, and felt a new sensation in his withered old heart.
Nowadays he loves boys, and can’t do too much for them. Forget all about
the past, fellows, and only remember that Mr. Nocker is now one of our best
friends.”
CHAPTER XXVII
A NEVER-TO-BE-FORGOTTEN CAMPFIRE
When finally the boat arrived at the island landing, and the passengers
came ashore, they were greeted with three rousing cheers by the score of
lads. Mr. Holwell, Mr. Bartlett and the athletic director added their voices to
the chorus, and then shook hands with the guests, who were soon made to
feel at home.
A brush shanty had been erected during the day by some of the busy
workers. This was to be used to house the “overflow.” It was intended that
one of the tents should be handed over to Mr. Capes. The deacon would
occupy a part of it, while the chauffeur could be taken care of elsewhere.
There was a great feast that night, the assistant cooks “doing themselves
proud,” so they declared, in their desire to let these gentlemen see that boys
know how to serve as accomplished chefs when they are in camp.
“I don’t remember enjoying a meal so much as this in many a long day,”
admitted Deacon Nocker, when he had to decline any further helping.
“That fresh bass was simply delicious,” observed Mr. Capes, smacking
his lips, and then adding, when several started to try to fill up his pannikin
again: “Not another mouthful, or I’ll be foundered. This takes me away
back to the days when I too was a boy, and used to camp out. I quite envy
you, Mr. Holwell, the opportunity to spend a week with these fellows.”
After the meal was finished what a glorious time they had sitting around
the blazing campfire, and talking “a blue streak,” as Leslie called it. Scores
of things had to be told, all connected with the trip, though it could easily be
seen that the chief subject of all was the presence of the gorilla on the
island.
To the surprise of the boys Mr. Nocker, as soon as he learned about the
animal, declared that he could explain where it had come from, though
probably no one would ever be able to find out how the gorilla managed to
get to the island, almost a mile from the main shore.
“Last spring there was an accident to a circus that was showing over in
Hastings,” he went on to say, “and some of the animals escaped. I
remember that among them was an enormous gorilla, though I never
learned whether the animal had been captured again or not. Apparently he
never was, and has found his way up here, to frighten a lot of people, and
rob their camps on the island.”
“Then that was what you meant, was it, Mr. Nocker,” asked Dick,
“when you told us to beware of the mysterious thief while up here on your
property?”
“Exactly,” replied the gentleman, grimly. “Though it never once
occurred to me to connect the thievery with the disappearance of the gorilla.
Some gentlemen I knew came up here when the fishing season opened, to
enjoy casting the fly for the gamy black bass of Lake Russabaga. They
camped on this island, and had a fine time. The only thing that annoyed
them was the remarkable manner in which through some unknown agency
various valuable articles vanished.”
“He seems to like things that have a shine to them,” remarked Mr.
Holwell, humorously, “judging from the fact that he took not only my gold
watch and Dan’s nickel one, but the aluminum frying-pan as well. We don’t
believe he could have any particular need for that, unless to use it as a
looking-glass.”
“Well,” Mr. Nocker continued, “according to my recollection those
gentlemen from Creston lost a field-glass they valued highly, as well as a
watch, and several other things, that they would surely pay a good reward to
recover.”
“That makes me think of something,” Dick spoke up.
“Tell us what it is, then, please?” urged Leslie, quickly.
“The trail I started to follow at the time I glimpsed the gorilla standing
so close by, was so well beaten that I felt sure it must lead to his den,
somewhere in the thickest part of the jungle.”
“It stands to reason that would be the case,” admitted Mr. Nocker. “I
suppose you are going to say, Dick, that if the pit trap works and the
monster is caught, so there need be no further fear of him, you mean to
follow up that trail and find his den?”
“Why, yes, sir, that was what I had in mind,” admitted the boy,
modestly. “If he is like some monkeys I’ve read about, that had such a
weakness for pretty and shiny things that they stole them, he’ll keep his
trophies there, and we’ll be apt to get back everything that’s been taken.”
“Thank you for that comforting assurance, Dick,” said Mr. Holwell.
“There’s a standing reward of ten dollars out for the safe return of my
watch. I’d feel that I was getting off pretty cheap at that, for I cherish that
keepsake considerably above its intrinsic value. Then Dan, here, is to be
heard from also, for he’s in the same boat with me.”
“Ten cents reward, and no questions asked,” declared Dan, “for the safe
return of my dollar watch! That’s ten per cent. you know. I only hope the
rascal hasn’t gone and stowed it away in his cheek, as I saw a tricky
monkey do when he’d hooked a man’s watch right from his pocket.”
Many times during the evening Dan might have been observed listening
eagerly. He half fancied he had caught some significant sound which
indicated that his expected guest had arrived at the trap, and taken the
plunge.
On each occasion, however, he concluded he must have been mistaken.
At any rate Dan did not see fit to ask any one to accompany him thither,
lantern in hand, to investigate. Indeed, it is questionable if he could have
found a single recruit had he proposed such a thing. The boys were not keen
to wander far from the protection of that jolly campfire, knowing, as they
did, what sort of terrible beast was making its home on Bass Island.
Both Mr. Nocker and Mr. Capes asked so many questions that it is
doubtful whether anything escaped being told during those delightful hours
spent around the crackling fire. The evening had turned out a bit chilly, too,
which made the blaze all the more appreciated.
Then at the suggestion of Mr. Holwell, who knew how splendidly the Y.
M. C. A. boys could sing, they gave a number of their school songs, and
patriotic airs as well. Dick, learning that the minister had a special liking for
“Onward Christian Soldiers,” coaxed Leslie to strike up with his clear tenor,
and the rest came thundering along in the chorus, greatly to the delight of
Mr. Holwell, in whose eyes dewdrops sparkled when they were through.
“I have heard that inspiring song on many notable occasions, boys,” he
assured them, “but I give you my word for it, never sung as to-night. Here
on this lonely island in the vast lake the sound seems to roll over the water
with telling effect. I never before realized how wonderfully charming songs
can sound on the water. It gives them a special value that could not be
attained in any other way. I shall never, never forget this night, and the ones
who have entertained us so well.”
Mr. Nocker was almost as enthusiastic in his praise.
“I want to say to you, young fellows,” he told them, with considerable
emotion in his voice and manner, “that I am proud to be reckoned your
friend in these days of reconstruction. I would not go back to the life I used
to lead for all the money in the United States. Since little Billy came into
my life it seems as though the scales have dropped from my eyes, and the
whole world has taken on a new and glorious aspect. And I owe it mostly to
Dick here. God bless him.”
“Hear! hear!” shouted some of the lads.
“The best chum going!” others roared.
“For he’s a jolly good fellow, which none can deny!” chanted Leslie and
several of the rest in chorus. Nor did the camp director have the heart to
restrain this boisterous demonstration.
Dick laughed, and turned red; but, of course, he would not have been
human if he had not felt his heart beating faster than its wont with
happiness, when he realized that these good friends thought so well of him,
and that Mr. Nocker no longer deemed all boys “Sons of Belial,” as he used
to affirm.
Much as they enjoyed that evening, the hour grew late, and some of the
campers were found to be secretly yawning behind their palms. So Mr.
Bartlett said it would be just as well for them to consider retiring, as they
would want to be up early in the morning.
“Don’t forget we’ve got to have breakfast,” he remarked at the same
time. “And all that heap of fine, hard blueberries must be placed in the
containers our friends have taken the trouble to bring along with them. They
wish to make a start before the sun gets too high, because it’s a long and
rough ride to Cliffwood.”
Dan lingered around while the others were preparing to seek their
blankets. He often cast an anxious look off toward the place where his trap
had been set, and Dick found no trouble in guessing what his thoughts were.
“Try to forget all about it until you wake up in the morning, Dan,” he
told the other. “I’ll want to go over with you, remember, to see if anything
happened while we slept.”
“I’ll be mighty glad to have you along, Dick,” Dan replied. “I reckon I
fixed everything just right, and if the creature comes snooping around and
tries to hook the bait hung up out of his reach, he’s liable to take a sudden
tumble, believe me! All right,” he went on, “I’ll turn in, as you say; so good
night, Dick!”
Ten minutes afterwards the camp was wrapped in silence.
CHAPTER XXVIII
WHEN THE PIT TRAP WORKED
Dick had just succeeded in hurriedly dressing on the following morning,

after the regular turn in the lake, when some one nervously gripped his arm.
Turning, he discovered, just as he expected, that it was Dan with an eager
look of anticipation on his face.
“Dick, you haven’t forgotten, I hope?” was his anxious greeting.
“Oh, no! if by that you mean I’m to go along with you to the trap,”
answered the other, smiling at the look on Dan’s face.
“You won’t be long, I hope, Dick?” Dan continued, pleadingly, as the
other turned back toward his tent.
“I’ll join you just as quickly as I can, Dan.”
“And Dick, did you happen to wake up during the night? If so, tell me:
Was there any sort of noise from that region?”
“Nothing that I noticed, Dan; though I slept sounder than usual I’m
afraid. But we’ll soon settle that, you know.”
“Whew! I’m all in a tremble to find out,” muttered the other, as he cast
another quick glance toward the quarter where his thoughts were centered.
Dick took pity on him, and did hurry, even postponing some of his
customary morning duties until later. He found Dan waiting, almost
consumed with impatience. No one noticed them steal quietly off, which
was just as well. Indeed, Dan breathed an audible sigh of relief when he
made sure of this fact.
“Course if there isn’t any Old Man of the Woods squatting down in my
pit trap,” he went on to explain as they walked, “we needn’t hurry to say
anything about it. If anybody happens to mention the subject later on I’ll
tell ’em I hardly expected to strike oil the first thing, and that they’ve just
got to give me time.”
Like most boys Dan was very sensitive to ridicule, as his words proved.
Dick said nothing further, for already they were beginning to draw near the
spot where the pit had been dug.
That Dan was very much on the alert his actions speedily proved. He
suddenly clutched his companion rigidly by the arm, and his voice was
husky with self-suppressed excitement as he gasped:
“Dick, I do believe it worked after all!”
“What makes you think so?” asked Dick, who had as yet seen nothing
to disclose this fact.
“Because the bait is gone!” continued Dan, growing more and more
excited. “I hung it up on that branch you can see moving in the wind, and
now it’s bare. No danger of its having fallen off either. Something’s taken it,
Dick!”
“So? Then let’s move along and make sure,” remarked the second boy.
Ten seconds later Dan made another discovery.
“Oh! the mat over the hole has been broken in, Dick—it certainly has!”
he cried in growing excitement.
“Good enough!” his chum observed. “Then let’s hope Mr. Gorilla is
right now down in the pit, waiting for us to come and explain what we
mean by deceiving a poor old simian in such a mean way. Come along,
Dan. The chances are you’ve caught him.”
All doubt was removed shortly afterwards, when creeping cautiously up
the two boys peered over the edge of the pit. Most of the covering had been
dragged down with the heavy descending body of the gorilla when he fell
in, so that enough daylight managed to struggle to the bottom to disclose a
fearful sight.
There sat the gorilla, blinking his wicked little eyes up at the faces of his
captors, of whose presence he seemed to be fully aware. He was all that
Dan had pictured him, short of stature, with an immense girth of chest, long
muscular arms, and squatty lower limbs. Ugly though he seemed to the
boys, Dick was rather of the opinion that the animal could not be quite as
ferocious as those of his species when met in their native Borneo haunts.
“He must have got used to folks in the years of his captivity,” Dick
remarked to the shivering Dan; “and that’s why he doesn’t take on dreadful,
now that he understands he’s caught in a trap, and will have to go back to
his cage again.”
“My stars!” muttered the entranced Dan, “if he’s a tame gorilla deliver
me from ever running across a real wild one. All the money in the world
couldn’t tempt me to drop down in that pit alongside that old chap. Ugh!
excuse me! Even the thought of it makes me creep all over.”
“We’ll try not to have any such accident as that,” remarked Dick,
experiencing a squeamish feeling himself at the idea. “And now, what are
you going to do with Bob, since you’ve trapped him?”
“I’ve figured all that out,” replied Dan. “We’ll have Mr. Capes find
where that circus proprietor is holding out this week. There must be ways of
doing that, you see. And then he can wire him that his gorilla is trapped,
and for him to come along as fast as he can, with a cage and experienced
help to get him out.”
“That’s a good scheme, Dan,” commended the other, slapping his chum
on the back. “And in the meantime we’ll have to see that the old fellow
doesn’t want for his regular allowance of grub.”
“No danger of his climbing out, is there, Dick?”
“I should hardly think so,” the other replied, after again taking a survey
of the deep pit. “The only way he could ever do that would be to dig holes
in the side, and I don’t believe he’s up to that game. Anyhow we’ll keep tab
of his doings, and if we find he’s trying a game like that we’ll check him in
a hurry.”
Dan began to take on the airs of a world conqueror. The look of anxiety
gradually left his face, giving way to one of conscious triumph. Indeed, it
must be confessed that he puffed his chest out a little as, in company with
Dick, he returned to the camp.
Their coming was noticed, if their flitting had passed without comment.
“Any luck, Dan?” called Andy Hale, who was trying to get his
refractory crop of bristly hair to stay down, always a difficult morning task
with him.
“Say, do we have gorilla steak for breakfast?” demanded Nat Silmore,
trying to be funny, though his recent actions had shown that the presence of
the animal in the vicinity of the camp was anything but a joke with him.
“Oh, well, you can settle that yourself,” said Dan, carelessly. “I make a
standing offer right here and now. Any fellow who cares to drop down into
that pit this morning may have all my coop of homing pigeons free, gratis,
for nothing.”
The offer caused a sensation.
“Did you get him, Dan?” demanded Eddie Grant.
“Whoop! Dan’s trapped the old thief after all! Bully for Dan!” yelled
Peg.
“Did you, Dan, and is the Jabberwock mad about it?” asked Andy Hale.
Even the grown members of the party evinced considerable interest in
the matter. Mr. Bartlett knew that some of the boys, more impetuous than
wise, would be apt to rush toward the pit in order to gratify their curiosity.
He wished to warn them of the danger involved in carelessness.
“Mr. Holwell,” he said, “Dan invites us all to come and see for
ourselves. But before we go I wish to tell the boys to be very particular not
to crowd up close to the edge of the pit. If the earth crumbled under any one
and he fell in I’m afraid he’d never come out alive again.”
Accordingly, the boys promised to exercise the greatest care. Then the
whole troop followed in the wake of the proud originator of the scheme to
trap the disturber of their peace.
Judging from the broad grin decorating the face of Dan Fenwick when
he looked around once or twice, it was the happiest moment of his whole
young life. He could understand the feelings that must have filled the heart
of some ancient conqueror, when crowned with the laurel wreath of victory
and watching the strings of captives paraded before the throngs filling the
public square in Rome.
The captured gorilla must have been quite used to seeing human faces
about his cage, for he never once got up from his squatting position, but just
blinked up at them, and scowled frightfully.
“Deliver me from meeting that chap in the woods after night sets in!”
remarked Clint Babbett.
“And Nat, I’m going to ask your pardon for laughing at you because
you yelled when that monster took to playing leap-frog over you,” said Peg
Fosdick, humbly. “If I waked from a sound sleep and saw him sailing past I
reckon my heart would nearly jump out of my mouth with fear. Say, he’s
the limit!”
“Look at the muscles in his arms, would you?” cried Andy Hale. “Huh!
no wonder he smashed that first trap of yours to flinders, Dan. After this I
can easily believe the stories about a gorilla tying a gun-barrel into a knot.”
The sight of the beast sitting so close to them, though unable to do them
injury, was so fascinating that Mr. Bartlett had to order the boys back to the
camp.
“And remember,” he added sternly, “not one of you except Dan or Dick
must ever approach this place without special permission. What that rascal
might do should any one fall into the pit I am not prepared to say. So far
we’ve managed to get on without any serious trouble; and we don’t want
our camping trip to be marred by tragedy. Please remember those are my
positive orders, and I shall hold each one of you responsible for any
disobedience.”
The boys had never seen Mr. Bartlett so serious, and his words made a
deep impression on even Nat and his two reckless cronies. But the camp
director knew it was no time for trifling; and he believed in closing the
stable-door before the horse was stolen, not afterwards, when it was too
late.
Breakfast followed, after which preparations were made looking to the
departure of the guests. All of them declared they had enjoyed their too
brief stay greatly, and shook hands with each member of the camp guard.
The berries had been placed in the carriers provided and were loaded into
one of the boats, which Elmer and Peg offered to row over to the landing.
Mr. Bartlett had been privately asked by the minister to select Asa
Gardner to help Leslie ferry the three guests across to where their car
awaited them. Of course, Mr. Holwell had an object in so doing, wishing
Asa to understand that he was considered a member in good standing of the
party, and that whatever the past held in the shape of regrets need not bother
him a particle now.
Asa looked quite cheerful. With the capture of the thieving gorilla the
last doubt had been removed from his mind. Dick secretly found himself
rejoicing with the boy who had had to fight so desperately in order to
conquer his evil tendencies. He meant to keep in close touch with Asa after
this, realizing that the person who has won a victory over himself deserves
ten times more credit than those who have never had to engage in a fight
with their weak natures.
In good time the car started back toward Cliffwood, with a long journey
before the travelers. And across the intervening water came the cheers of
those who from the distant island watched the departure of the guests. A
few half wished they, too, were starting for dear old Cliffwood. It was only
natural that a feeling akin to home-sickness should for a moment grip their
young hearts. But all this was soon forgotten, when they began to plan for
another day of good times.
CHAPTER XXIX
CLEARING UP THE MYSTERY
“Feel like coming with me this morning, Leslie?” asked Dick, after one
party had set off to fill the pails with berries, and while another group was
busy catching minnows for bait, as the supply had got somewhat low in the
reservoir where the bait was kept.
“Count on me if Mr. Bartlett is willing,” laughed Leslie Capes. “And I
say that without even asking what’s in the wind. I know that when you get
an idea in your head it’s generally worth something.”
“Listen,” said Dick. “When I saw that well-trodden trail the gorilla had
made you remember I remarked that it must lead to the place he’d been
using for his den. Now that the old fellow is safe, and there’s no danger of
meeting him on the way, I’m thinking of taking a look-in on his home.”
Leslie was interested immediately.
“Thank you then for selecting me to go along, Dick,” he cried.
“Just as if you weren’t always first choice with me, old fellow,” returned
Dick. “But honest, I’m curious to find out what sort of place the wily old
beast picked out for his den. More than likely we’ll never know how he got
across to this island; but we can find out what he’s done here in these
months since he broke away from the circus in that storm.”
“And,” continued Leslie, “I rather think you hope we may be lucky
enough to find some of the many things the thieving rascal has made away
with, not only from our camp, but from that of the sporting party up here for
the fly-fishing earlier in the summer.”
Dick nodded his head in the affirmative.
“There’s no telling,” he admitted. “Though perhaps we’d better not
count our chickens before they’re hatched. Even if we find nothing, it’ll be
interesting to follow that path made by the feet of the gorilla.”
“Sure it will,” agreed Leslie, “now that we know where the old gent is
stopping temporarily. If he were foot-free nothing could tempt me to
meander in that quarter, and take chances of meeting him face to face in the
brush, where running would be a hard job. Whee!”
He shrugged his shoulders to add emphasis to his words, and Dick
evidently quite agreed with his partner, to judge from the look on his face.
Some time later on the pair found themselves in that part of the big
island so well remembered by Dick as the scene of his panic of the former
day. They caught the sound of voices near by, and understood from this that
Eddie Grant and the other pickers had concluded to visit that rich harvest
field, now that all danger had been removed.
“No need of their knowing we’re around as yet,” whispered Dick. “So
come along over this way, for that’s where I struck the well-worn trail.”
He had made no mistake, Leslie soon learned. Even though so soon
afterwards compelled to fly for his life, Dick had noted the ground, and a
few minutes later he was pointing down at his feet.
Both boys examined the earth with interest, but their curiosity was so
great that they did not care to linger long. Following that plain trail was the
easiest kind of work, for the gorilla had not attempted to “blind” it in the
least.
At the end the boys reached a sort of strange shelter undoubtedly made
by the Borneo man-monkey. It was fashioned from branches, and matted in
such a clever way that the boys declared it would shed water as well as any
thatched roof they had ever seen.
“I never dreamed a gorilla could do such work as this,” Leslie said, as
they stood and examined the shelter.
“Oh!” explained Dick, quickly, “from what I’ve read about them, over
in Borneo, where they mostly come from, they have their homes in trees
and make many such shelters so the baby gorillas can be kept dry when the
tropical rains come on.”
“Well,” continued the wondering Leslie, “it seems that this old fellow
hadn’t forgotten the lessons of his younger years, even if he was shut up in
a cage for goodness knows how long.”
“That can be set down as the instinct,” said Dick, “which animals and
birds have in place of the reasoning powers of the human mind. A wild bird
can be taken from the nest when it’s just hatched, reared in a cage, and if set
free will be able to construct a nest exactly like those its species has been
building ever since the world began.”
“It’s just wonderful, that’s what, Dick! But let’s creep underneath and
see if we can find anything of the lost articles.”
No sooner were they inside the rude shelter than both boys uttered cries
of wonder mingled with delight.
“Here’s his treasure-chest as sure as anything!” yelled Leslie. “Oh, look,
Dick! Mr. Holwell’s gold watch, and not a bit hurt, either! Won’t he be
tickled half to death at getting it back? When I start winding it up I can hear
it begin to work. And here’s Dan’s nickel time-keeper too, as well as Peg’s
precious aluminum frying-pan.”
“Yes, and I’ve found the field-glasses that other party lost, as well as
lots of things besides,” added Dick, laughing happily, for it really did seem
as though the very last of their troubles had now been smoothed out.
“This is certainly a great picnic,” asserted Leslie. “I’d like Clint to come
and take a good picture of this ape-made shack. It’d be well worth showing,
with our crowd grouped around it as evidence that we’ve been here.”
“I’ll ask Mr. Bartlett to have it done to-morrow, for Mr. Holwell talks of
having to go back home on the next day!” Dick declared.
“We’ll all be sorry to see the last of him, Dick.”
“That’s right,” agreed the other, earnestly. “Mr. Holwell is one man
among a million when it comes to knowing just how to wind boys around
his finger. But then that’s because he loves boys so. No man can have
control over them unless he is thinking and planning for their benefit night
and day.”
“I reckon you’re right there,” Leslie asserted. “Boys are a heap like
animals. A dog knows by instinct who’s his friend. He’ll come up to one
fellow wagging his tail the minute he hears his voice, even if he never saw
him before; and growl as soon as another chap speaks to him. That’s the
way with boys—they just know.”
As there was nothing more to detain them, Dick and his chum set off to
find the berry pickers and lead them to the strange shelter fashioned by the
escaped gorilla.
Great was the astonishment of the mill lads when they looked upon the
“den,” and learned that everything that had been taken from their camp, as
well as numerous other articles, had been recovered.
That very afternoon all of the campers made their way to the spot, and
Clint, as well as several other contestants for the photograph prize, managed
to get several pictures of the “monkey shack” as the boys called it. They
took inside views also, with the array of recovered articles in plain sight, as
a reminder of the thievish propensities of the big ape.
Several days later some one was discovered making gestures, and
signalling from the mainland. Upon this a couple of the boys rowed over
and found that two men had arrived in a sort of wagon, that could be also
called a cage.
This was the circus proprietor and one of his assistants, who had come
to get the valuable animal that had been loose so long. The proprietor
brought a letter from Mr. Capes, as had been agreed upon. This told of the
reward of two hundred dollars which had been offered for the capture of the
gorilla, and which the proprietor had agreed to pay to the boys in camp.
After some little time the experienced circus men managed to get the
gorilla into the cage. Dick suspected that they made use of chloroform or
something of that nature, though he was never sure about it, because no one
was allowed to accompany them when they went to the pit.
On the following day the two skiffs were fastened together, and in this
way served as a ferryboat to take the cage and its occupant across to where
the wagon awaited them.
The money in cash was handed to Dick, greatly to the delight of Dan
and the rest of the boys; for it had been decided that the reward was to go
into the club treasury for future needs.
This was not all the good fortune that came their way. Mr. Holwell had
insisted in redeeming his word, and he placed ten dollars in Dick’s hand
when he was handed his valued gold watch, unharmed save by a single
scratch that would always serve to bring the exciting events of the occasion
fresh to his mind.
Not to be outdone, Dan also handed his “magnificent reward” over,
swelling the aggregate receipts of the treasury by another ten cents. And
later on, when the sportsmen from Creston were communicated with and
told the wonderful story, they sent twenty-five dollars to Mr. Bartlett for the
boys of the Cliffwood Y. M. C. A. with their compliments.
Returning again to the afternoon just after the ape had been trapped, it
can be easily understood that there were many lighter hearts in the camp,
now that all danger of a night visit from the gorilla was past.
Nat and his two cronies in particular seemed to have recovered their lost
nerve—a fact that Dick was none too glad to see, for he half feared Mr.
Bartlett might have trouble with the trio after Mr. Holwell left. Still, as the
loyal ones were so overwhelmingly in the majority it hardly seemed likely
that Nat would try any of his tricks, with the odds so greatly against him.
The day finally came when Mr. Holwell had to leave the boys. He
showed that he disliked doing so very much. He had so heartily enjoyed
himself while among them that he felt keenly the severance of those
friendly ties that bound him to his boys.
In fact everybody was more or less subdued, and no one displayed any
ambition to do anything until after Mr. Holwell had said good-bye.
CHAPTER XXX
BREAKING CAMP—CONCLUSION
Dick chanced to be talking with Mr. Holwell on the morning of

departure, asking his advice regarding several things that might arise later
on, when Asa Gardner approached.
Seeing the boy hesitate the minister smiled, and beckoned to him.
“I’m glad you’re having such a good time up here, Asa,” he said in his
kindly fashion, as his strong hand grasped that of the boy in whom he felt
such a deep interest.
“Oh! I certainly am feeling splendid just now,” Asa told him,
brightening up. “I was worried for a while, as Dick knows, sir, because I
had begun to be afraid that in spite of all I could do my old trouble was
getting the better of me. But when we found out about that gorilla, why, of
course, I just knew it couldn’t be so.”
“Take my advice, Asa,” said Mr. Holwell, steadily, “and never allow
yourself to believe for even a minute that you can go back to the old ways
again. That weakness is dead, I tell you! It lost its grip when you gave your
dear mother that solemn promise. I knew you would win out, and redeem
the past; and I’m proud of the way you’re doing it, son.”
Asa should have beamed with pleasure on hearing this, but then he was
an odd sort of boy, Dick knew. He was therefore not much surprised to hear
him give a big sigh, and then go on to say with a whimsical smile:
“Sometimes I do feel that I’ve done pretty well, sir; and then I think of
the story I once heard you tell at a meeting of boys.”
“What was that, Asa?” asked the minister, realizing that the shadow of
the past would be likely to haunt the sensitive lad for a long while, until
time had healed the wound.
“I’ll tell you, sir. It certainly did make a great impression on me,” said
Asa. “There was once a boy who got to doing so many bad things that his
father took him to task. He had him set up a nice clean post, and made him
promise that every time he did a thing that he shouldn’t he would drive a
nail into it. Then when he did a good deed he could draw a nail out.”
Mr. Holwell knew what was coming, but he only smiled, and said
encouragingly when Asa stopped to catch his breath:
“Yes, go on, Asa.”
“One day, sir, as you told us, that boy suddenly began to notice that his
post was getting pretty full of nails. That scared him, and made him feel
bad; so he set himself to stopping his bad deeds, and did things worth while.
Then one day he took his father out to look at the post. There wasn’t a nail
left in it, sir. He had drawn them every one out!”
Again Asa gulped hard, and then managed to continue.
“The boy’s father was proud of him, you said, because he knew he had
managed by his little scheme to make the boy think, which was just what he
had wished to do. So he told him that he was pleased to see the post without
a nail. And then, Mr. Holwell, the boy turned to him and said sadly: ‘But
Father, the holes are still there!’ And that’s the way with me, sir. I seem to
have managed to reform, but every little while I see all those terrible holes
in the post to remind me of what I’ve done in the past!”
Mr. Holwell patted Asa on the shoulder.
“Cheer up, my son,” he said, heartily. “It is that regret which is bound to
make your footing sure on the rocks. When any one can forget his
weaknesses of the past he is in danger of slipping again. That conscience of
yours is going to be your best asset. Don’t fret about what is past, but look
hopefully into the future. If the chance ever comes your way, help some
other fellow to get his feet on a firm and sure foundation. Remember, I
believe in you, and I have no fear.”
Dick’s hand-grip, too, caused Asa to color. With such good friends
beside him what boy need worry about the future? So the look of
foreboding began to leave his face from that hour, and Asa showed that he
could be a good comrade in the sports of the camp, as well as in its
obligations.
The campers gave Mr. Holwell a royal send-off. The cheers followed
him across the water, and broke out again when he and Dick started for the
station, for the latter insisted on accompanying him that far on his way, to
carry his bag, and have a last little talk.
It was well on toward noon when Dick and Asa returned to camp. The
boys, together with Harry Bartlett and the physical instructor, settled down
to enjoy the remainder of their stay on Bass Island as best they could. There
could be no doubt about their having a fine time; but all the same most of
them would miss Mr. Holwell very much.
Nat Silmore was beginning to grow tired of it all. He missed something
that he was accustomed to having when off on any such trip as this. This
was the liberty to play pranks without being reprimanded by Harry Bartlett
or the athletic director.
So Nat and his two cronies fretted under the galling conditions. They
would have only too willingly accompanied the circus men when they went
away with the captured gorilla, except for the fact that Mr. Bartlett had the
return railway tickets, and the distance was much too far for them to dream
of trying to walk.
Nat and his cronies on one occasion refused to do their share of the
work, whereupon Mr. Bartlett promptly gave them to understand that those
who did not take part in the camp routine and daily exercises could not have
anything to eat. That, of course, brought the rebels to terms, but from that
time on, while they picked berries and chopped wood in turn, and forced
themselves to play their parts, they kept pretty much to themselves, and
looked gloomy, as though counting the days when this irksome camp life
would come to an end.
With the three mill boys the exact opposite came about. They learned
that these other lads were not in the least snobbish. Then the kindly spirit in
which most of the boys helped pick berries so that Eddie, Ban and Cub
could enjoy their afternoons in any way they wished, made a deep
impression on the three.
“One thing sure!” Eddie told Dick, on the day before they were to break
camp and start back to Cliffwood. “You’ll see a lot of the mill boys fairly
tumble over themselves to join the Junior Department of the Y. M. C. A.
when they hear how royally we three have been taken care of up here. From
Mr. Holwell, Mr. Bartlett and Mr. Rowland, all the way down, I want to say

Aerial Warfare The Battle For The Skies Ledwidge Full Chapter PDF

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

You might also like

Aerial Warfare The Battle For The Skies Ledwidge Full Chapter PDF

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Aerial Warfare The Battle For The Skies Ledwidge Full Chapter PDF

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Aerial warfare : the battle for the skies.

Aerial Warfare: The Battle for the Skies Frank Ledwidge

The Battle for Markgraaf Hive Justin D Hill

The Battle for Britain: Crises, Conflicts and the

Crimson Skies Jaymin Eve

Sparks: China's Underground Historians and their Battle

A Great Disorder: National Myth and the Battle for

Falling Rocket: James Whistler, John Ruskin, and the

Over the course of researching and writing this book many

the production team led by Clement Raj, copy-editor Brian North,

 ‘L’Entreprenant’ at the Battle of Fleurus  

 The USS Essex 

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS

As with most military topics, air power is replete with acronyms

xii List of Abbreviations and Acronyms

RAF Royal Air Force

‘Air power is the use of air capabilities to inﬂuence the behaviour

inﬂuenced military conﬂict. However, air power has several unique

Vast resources have been and are spent on the development

logistical structures. The world’s ﬁrst independent air arm, the

Anatomy of an Air Strike

also likely to be an ‘electronic countermeasures’ (ECM) aircraft,

The Four Roles of Air Power: Control of the Air

B  The Four Roles of Air Power

were sustained from ground ﬁre. ‘Offensive counter-air’ (OCA)

Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance

Figure  ‘L’Entreprenant’ at the Battle of Fleurus 

saw both sides deploy balloons to no decisive effect and they

Figure  An Italian aircraft dives on Turkish troops

army tank units. If a tank cannot move due to lack of fuel it

kind we have seen in Iraq or Afghanistan, the air supremacy

Germany (see Chapter ). At sea, air power is delivered from

that combining light internal combustion engines with a ﬂyable

Air forces require excellent personnel to operate and service

brightest of each conscription cadre and trained them to a very

power has been particularly intimate since WW and continues

Over the last two decades, with the populations of Western

military advantage gained. Necessity is closely linked, requiring

In , General Ferdinand Foch, who was to go on to command

 Beginnings: The First World War –

Beginnings: The First World War – 

be shelled by long-range artillery. This was the ﬁrst use of air

 Beginnings: The First World War –

In August , Russian generals advancing towards German

Beginnings: The First World War – 

Figure  Reconnaissance photograph of the village of Allaines

petrol. ‘It was a great misfortune having a bad day . . . ’ he opined.

 Beginnings: The First World War –

quarters had any time to devote to investigating the merits of an

Control of the Air

Beginnings: The First World War – 

operations to shoot down other ﬁghters with the objective of

 Beginnings: The First World War –

by the Dutch engineer Antony Fokker, whose eindecker (mono-

Beginnings: The First World War – 

B  The ‘Dicta Boelcke’: Sayings of Oswald Boelcke on Air

to regain control of the air. In the spring of , whilst British

 Beginnings: The First World War –