War in the Air - Aerial Combat Flashcards
(35 cards)
When were the RFC Established and what were they a part of?
- Est in 1912
- Part of the Army
When was the RNAS Established and what were they a part of?
- Est in 1914
- Part of the navy
- Had their own base at Eastchurch in Kent, donated by the Royal Aero Club in 1910
Where were Military pilots trained?
- Trained at the Central Flying School established at Upavon, Wiltshire
- Some learned to fly privately
How many Squadrons did the RFC have at the start of the war and where were they taken?
- RFC had only 5
- 4 of these were taken to France by the BEF and their role was reconnaissance
- Each squadron had 12 aircraft and around 900 men
What was the tole of the RNAS, how did Admiral ‘Jacky’ Fisher make them more aggressive?
- RNAS was to look after home defence
- Admiral ‘Jacky’ Fisher saw a potential threat to the fleet from German Zeppelin airships
- Therefore in 1913 the RNAS were given the role of coastal patrols scouting for navy and attacking German airship bases
When did Eastchurch Squadron commander of the RNAS Commander Charles R Samson try to bomb Zeppelin bases in Dusseldorf?
22nd September 1914
- He sent 4 planes to bomb
- This was unsuccessful, only one plane reached the target
- It dropped 3 bombs, two failed to explode and one missed
After the failure of Dusseuldorf was the offensive on Zeppelin sheds at Friedrichshafen more successful?
21st November 1914
- Four Avro 504’s aircraft raided
- Had to be transported in cared by train to Belfort, then reassembled
- 11 bombs dropped, 2 hit the airship base damaging a Zeppelin and blowing up gasworks
- One Br plane was hit by German gunfire and forced to land
How was the way in which bombs were dropped by the RFC reformed?
- At first they dropped grenades and home-made petrol bombs out
- By 1915 they were fired with wing racks carrying bombs released by the pilot pulling a cable
What was commander of the RFC, Hugh Trechard’s ‘three-pronged’ policy?
- To attack whenever possible
- To Co-operate with the army through reconnaissance and low-level bombing
- To maintain British morale and weaken the morale of the Germans
How did German infantryman Arthur Goldammer mean when he said ‘mice hiding from a hawk’?
- 1916 he recalled being constantly harassed by British aircraft
- British planes acted like birds of prey which picked out every machine gun and strongpoint of the German trenches
- It would cause them to crouch in trenches, like mice hiding from Hawk
How did Robert Brooke-Popham and Sir David Henderson contribute to the work of the RFC?
- Robert Brooke-Popham took charge of logistics in France
- Sir David Henderson was the director general of military aeronautics
- Trechard nagged the government for better planes
How were Haig and Treachery blamed for being wasteful of material and lives?
- 1917 the RFC lost more than 700 planes and 473 pilots were killed
What was the growth of RFC squadrons from 1915 to 1916?
12 RFC Squads w/ 160 aircraft —> 27 RFC Squads w/ more than 300 aircraft
When did General Jan smuts present the British Government with a report on the future of AirPower?
17th August 1917
- Report foresaw that there was absolutely no limit to the use of aviation
When did the RFC and RNAS merge, and to form what?
1st April 1918
- Merged to form the RAF
- By the end of the war had 300,000 personnel and more than 22,000 aircraft
When was the Air Ministry Set up?
January 1918
- First head was press boss Lord Rothermere
- Resigned in April and replaced by Sir William Weir
When did the Germans inflict the first RFC air to air casualty ?
22nd September 1914
- C1 scout
- Observer injured the RFC pilot with a rifle shot
What was an open cockpit and why was it developed, what disadvantages did it have?
- An open cockpit removed the need for a cooling system on the machine guns, meaning they could be attached to planes
- Pilots froze, even when wearing silk scarves thick coats, fur-lined boots, helmets and gauntlets
What cooling system did the Germans use on their guns on planes?
- The Germans used the Spandau water-cooled machine gun whereas the British fitted Vickers guns
What were most aeroplanes during 1914-15?
- They were biplanes with a propellor in front of the cockpit
What did engineers do to biplanes to allow observers clear view when firing machine guns?
- Developed the ‘pusher’ variation with the propellor at the back of the plane
- This gave the pilot and observer a clear front and side view with no risks of hitting their own propellor
What was the ‘Vickers two-seat FB5 Gunbus’?
- In action from July 1915
- A successful British pusher plane
- Its Lewis gun fired 500 bullets per minute and swivelled on a pivot mount called a ‘Scarff ring’
What was the British FE2B ‘pusher’ and why was it impractical?
- A pusher plane with two guns
- The pilot could fire over the observers head but to re fire the observer had to half-leave, risking tipping the thing over
What remained a lethal threat to fighter planes?
Hitting their own propellor
