War in the Air - Aerial Combat

Question 1

When were the RFC Established and what were they a part of?

Answer 1

• Est in 1912
• Part of the Army

Question 2

When was the RNAS Established and what were they a part of?

Answer 2

• Est in 1914
• Part of the navy
• Had their own base at Eastchurch in Kent, donated by the Royal Aero Club in 1910

Question 3

Where were Military pilots trained?

Answer 3

• Trained at the Central Flying School established at Upavon, Wiltshire
• Some learned to fly privately

Question 4

How many Squadrons did the RFC have at the start of the war and where were they taken?

Answer 4

• 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

Question 5

What was the tole of the RNAS, how did Admiral ‘Jacky’ Fisher make them more aggressive?

Answer 5

• 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

Question 6

When did Eastchurch Squadron commander of the RNAS Commander Charles R Samson try to bomb Zeppelin bases in Dusseldorf?

Answer 6

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

Question 7

After the failure of Dusseuldorf was the offensive on Zeppelin sheds at Friedrichshafen more successful?

Answer 7

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

Question 8

How was the way in which bombs were dropped by the RFC reformed?

Answer 8

• 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

Question 9

What was commander of the RFC, Hugh Trechard’s ‘three-pronged’ policy?

Answer 9

• 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

Question 10

How did German infantryman Arthur Goldammer mean when he said ‘mice hiding from a hawk’?

Answer 10

• 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

Question 11

How did Robert Brooke-Popham and Sir David Henderson contribute to the work of the RFC?

Answer 11

• 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

Question 12

How were Haig and Treachery blamed for being wasteful of material and lives?

Answer 12

• 1917 the RFC lost more than 700 planes and 473 pilots were killed

Question 13

What was the growth of RFC squadrons from 1915 to 1916?

Answer 13

12 RFC Squads w/ 160 aircraft —> 27 RFC Squads w/ more than 300 aircraft

Question 14

When did General Jan smuts present the British Government with a report on the future of AirPower?

Answer 14

17th August 1917
- Report foresaw that there was absolutely no limit to the use of aviation

Question 15

When did the RFC and RNAS merge, and to form what?

Answer 15

1st April 1918
- Merged to form the RAF
- By the end of the war had 300,000 personnel and more than 22,000 aircraft

Question 16

When was the Air Ministry Set up?

Answer 16

January 1918
- First head was press boss Lord Rothermere
- Resigned in April and replaced by Sir William Weir

Question 17

When did the Germans inflict the first RFC air to air casualty ?

Answer 17

22nd September 1914
- C1 scout
- Observer injured the RFC pilot with a rifle shot

Question 18

What was an open cockpit and why was it developed, what disadvantages did it have?

Answer 18

• 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

Question 19

What cooling system did the Germans use on their guns on planes?

Answer 19

• The Germans used the Spandau water-cooled machine gun whereas the British fitted Vickers guns

Question 20

What were most aeroplanes during 1914-15?

Answer 20

• They were biplanes with a propellor in front of the cockpit

Question 21

What did engineers do to biplanes to allow observers clear view when firing machine guns?

Answer 21

• 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

Question 22

What was the ‘Vickers two-seat FB5 Gunbus’?

Answer 22

• 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’

Question 23

What was the British FE2B ‘pusher’ and why was it impractical?

Answer 23

• 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

Question 24

What remained a lethal threat to fighter planes?

Answer 24

Hitting their own propellor

Question 25

How did French pilot Roland Garros try to fix the issue of hitting your own propellor?

Answer 25

He tried to fit metal plates to the propellor blades to ‘deflect’ bullets from the gun

Question 26

How did Dutch engineer Anthony Fokker improve upon Garros’ adaptation?

Answer 26

• Linked the guns firing mechanism to the engine to produce the first interrupter gear
• This allowed a pilot to shoot through the arc of his propellor without the risk of hitting the wooden propellor

Question 27

What did British Vickers engineer George Challenger come up with in December 1915 that was a coincidence?

Answer 27

• A Vickers-Challenger synchronised firing gear
• This resembled the Fokker design out of coincidence as no Fokker plane had been captured till 1916
• Using this gear an RFC pilot could hit an enemy plane up to 800 yards and 600 bullets per minute having to reload every 250

Question 28

What were ‘riggers’ ?

Answer 28

• Connected the wiring brace to the wings
• This is because most planes were made of wood and fabric so airfield mechanics and ‘riggers’ could repair them

Question 29

What single seater did Albert Ball fly and what did he do that was particularly impressive?

Answer 29

• He flew the single seater SE5 (1917)
• He angled its Lewis gun on the top wing upwards to shoot into an enemy’s underside

Question 30

What was the best British all rounder?

Answer 30

• The Sopwith F1 Camel (July 1917)
• A dive bomber, a carrier based aircraft at sea and an air defence fisher against German bombers
• Top speed of 120mph and altitude of 22,000 feet

Question 31

What was the increase in aircraft speed and power 1914-18

Answer 31

60/70mph —> 150mph
70hp —> 400hp

Question 32

Who was the wars most celebrated German ace pilot?

Answer 32

• Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richtofen or aka ‘Red Baron’
• He was credited with 80 victories before death in April 1918
• He led a wing known as the ‘circus’ with painted aircraft for increased psychological effect
• He targeted reconnaissance planes, unsporting, but a sound tactic to win wars

Question 33

Who was the wars most celebrated British ace pilot?

Answer 33

• Major Edward ‘Mick’ Mannock
• He had 73 victories before shot down July 1918
• This had created a public perception of the war and pilots, as ‘knights in the air’

Question 34

What did Lloyd George say in July 1917?

Answer 34

• The governments first order was to see if the French army were sufficient supplied with aeroplanes

Question 35

Give stats of factory output having risen by 1918?

Answer 35

• Allies were outproducing the Germans by nearly 5:1 in aircraft, 7:1 in engines
• November they had 3,300 front line aircraft on the Western Front
• Allied superiority was 2:1