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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. 88
During the summer of 1916, two Nieuports were concurrently in service, the old Bebe and a new version of it, the Nieuport 17, powered with a 110- horsepower Le Rhone rotary engine. The I 7 was faster than the Bebe, having a top speed of about 1 10 miles per hour, and it climbed nearly twice as fast, but its chief distinction over the Bebe, at least with the French, lay in the fact that it was armed with a synchronized Vickers gun in addition to the Lewis on the top wing. The British Nieuports retained the top-wing Lewis gun as the only standard armament. 89
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*»&%gp&iiqfc THE MEN AND MACHINES
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Hanriot H-D 1 • France (here in B
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Photograph by Beverly Lebarrow
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COPYRIGHT © 1965 BY THOMAS R. FUND
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In acknowledging the help he has re
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the great war, as every schoolboy k
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perseverance have been beyond all p
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: ; o COLOGNE MAP Showing the Salie
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"A EUROPEAN WAR" "Never before the
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an American, Charles J. Biddle, of
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From 1300 metres the country is spr
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Pegoud
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In the autumn of 1913 Pegoud gave a
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In layout the new monoplane somewha
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Aviatik B I
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— — grudziadz is a town on the
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Stationed in home country near Bres
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Roland Garros *«« . •—;-*.;-
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twins jean and Pierre navarre were
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One day on a reconnaissance flight
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Pilot and observer/gunner in Halber
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in February of 1915 Roland Garros r
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so became enthusiastic about flying
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them disappeared in the direction o
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one of navarre's closest friends wa
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— CO. condemning the ship the men
Page 58 and 59: iefed their mechanics and packed th
Page 60 and 61: although Kriegszeitung stated expli
Page 62 and 63: ehind the British lines near Arras
Page 64 and 65: Boelckc returned to Douai in Decemb
Page 66 and 67: artillery-spotting that they didn't
Page 68 and 69: an American ace who flew in British
Page 70 and 71: The same day two other men from the
Page 72 and 73: observer seized his Parabellum and
Page 75 and 76: "THE INEVITABLE RESULT" "As I have
Page 77 and 78: 21, 1916, the German Fifth Army beg
Page 79 and 80: — — * * * since the Germans hel
Page 82 and 83: among the flying personnel assemble
Page 84 and 85: on june 17, 1916, Navarre, Pivolo,
Page 86 and 87: — hnmelmann On June 18, 1916, obs
Page 88 and 89: en route to verdun the end of Febru
Page 91 and 92: 5- 3 a*i& rT& A striking demonstrat
Page 93: late in 1915 the Halberstadt Aeropl
Page 96 and 97: Seven such units were initially pro
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Page 100 and 101: The results were uniformly nil, but
Page 102 and 103: 11,000 and about 7 p.m. saw a hosti
Page 105 and 106: British machines reached their obje
Page 107: y January 1917 von Richthofen had a
Page 111 and 112: Ball was awarded the M.C. for his e
Page 113: from the beginning of 1917 a warnin
Page 116 and 117: . The aeroplane he had destroyed wa
Page 119 and 120: Bristol F.2 "Brisfit." 99
Page 121: On this day he had just taken off w
Page 124 and 125: The Sopwith Triplane appeared in sm
Page 126 and 127: Naval Ten was formed in February 19
Page 128 and 129: It would appear that the raid was a
Page 130 and 131: 1 "Collishaw led a (second) offensi
Page 132 and 133: fast as the three machines spun aro
Page 134 and 135: — Hermann becker was born in Treb
Page 136 and 137: gilbert sardier of Clermont-Ferrand
Page 138 and 139: — the storks— Groupe de Combat
Page 140 and 141: no. 20 squadron rfc was a two-seate
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Page 144 and 145: on the last day of July 1917, the T
Page 146 and 147: the last instant he would tilt his
Page 148 and 149: a powerful one, but that hardly mat
Page 150 and 151: in august 1917 Naval Ten switched f
Page 152 and 153: I "The Germans kept shooting at me
Page 154 and 155: mm me Caudion G.3. ktN erwe
Page 156 and 157: Commandant Brocard. 136
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Fonck was the best shot at the Fron
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"THE SUPREMACY OF THE AIR" "Despite
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"if von richthofen liked a man it w
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albert deullin was born in Epernay,
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tion, full motor and diving slightl
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Pfalz D III In the summer and autum
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was of the semi-monocoque method, i
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Nodding, von Richthofen turned to g
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when the battle of cambrai opened,
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Cerisy, a hamlet on the left bank o
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As the two machines ahead of him zi
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"Balloon strafing became highly dev
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eed Mckinley chambers was born at O
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On March 29, James Norman Hall arri
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Lufbery. Assuming command of the 94
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IN February 1918 Oberleutnant Adolf
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y the end of May both Douglas Campb
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— Brigadier General Everett R. Co
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Biddle.
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177
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of the 95 Congressional Medals of H
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Rickenbackei eddie rickenbacker's o
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when hellmuth von zastrow began fly
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In August 1917 Theobald was posted
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— On October 1, 1917, at five o'c
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Sam, over two feet tall and acquire
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— climb all the way to ceiling go
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A dispatch from the Wolff Telegraph
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Gibbons, Floyd, The Red Knight of G
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43,53, : : : Frantz: ix, 13, 15,26
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Spad 13 • France (here in Italian
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WAR

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