WAR

it had been a long time coming, but the idea of "aerial supremacy" was finally
put into words on both sides of the line and the words framed a definite tactical
concept. During the Battle of the Somme, July to November 1916, the Royal
Flying Corps put in long hours.
In order for the reconnaissance, observation, photography, and artilleryspotting
aeroplanes to be able effectively to perform their various functions, the
British sent up fighters in increasing numbers to patrol on the German side of the
lines, forming a screen behind which the RFC two-seaters could operate safely
and through which the German fighters could not pass. Continual fighter escort
might have been provided for the two-seaters, but this method, while it might
have been more economical, was judged less effective. Fighter squadrons were
therefore collected into wings, then groups, until eventually great swarms of
aeroplanes crossed the line, stacked up on several levels.
It was assumed that German fighters would attack British fighters, if there
were any around, before they would attack two-seaters for the
simple reason that
the fighters were the more dangerous, and until they were out of the way the
two-seaters could not safely be attacked.
Aerial supremacy implied, therefore, not only establishing dominion over
a given stretch of air, but holding it regardless of cost. Remember that the prevailing
wind over most of the Front was westerly so that British aeroplanes
returning home bucked a headwind and fights naturally tended to drift toward German
territory rather than British; also, that a firm rule of aerial supremacy is that
all patrols be over the enemy's lines; and lastly, that the British did not, at this
period, have the best equipment. In fact, Guynemer said that if the Germans had
been flying such poor machines as the British he would have guaranteed to
shoot down one a day.
The RFC established aerial supremacy and held it regardless of cost—but
the cost was frightful.
No. 1 1 Squadron was a British fighter, reconnaissance, and photographic
unit in Flanders equipped with F.E.2b's, Vickers "Gunbus" two-seaters, Bristol
Scouts, and French Nieuports. During the Battle of the Somme which began on
July 1, 1916, the squadron's single-seaters provided fighter escort for bombers.
On May 7, 1916, a 19-year-old Lieutenant named Albert Ball joined the squadron.
On May 7 one year later, he had won 44 confirmed victories, the Victoria Cross,
the Legion d'Honneur, the Russian Order of St. George—and he was dead.
Ball had come to France in February 1916, assigned to No. 13 Squadron
to fly B.E.2c's on observation missions. He had on numerous occasions flown a
Bristol Scout belonging to the squadron and had shown promise as a singleseater
pilot. No. 11 Squadron had come to France in July 1915 equipped with
12 Vickers F.B.5's and F.B.9's, the first two-seater fighter squadron at the Front.
In 1916, No. 11 had varied its equipment to assume the duties of an army cooperation
squadron, and from May to August 1916 Ball served with this
squadron
as pilot of one of the Nieuport fighters.
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