WAR

slow, unarmed, defenseless, fragile, hopelessly subservient to the weather, and
too feeble to carry any load other than a pilot and passenger. What good were
they
To tell
the truth, they weren't much good. Not when we consider the endless
and amazing variety of jobs today's aircraft can perform. But they could execute
one tactical function, one that required no armament, no particular range, speed,
or ceiling, or ability to lift any load other than a pilot and passenger: reconnaissance.
If the passenger were a professional soldier, a Regular Army officer
able accurately to interpret and report what he saw from the air, one aeroplane
and its
crew could do the work of a regiment of cavalry.
While the armies had experimented with aerial reconnaissance during
manoeuvres before the war, and the aeroplane had won a limited acceptance,
the vision of the war being won in a grand style by sweeping corps movements
and dashing cavalry charges had been too glorious a one to be forsaken lightly
in the interest of a handful of greasy mechanics.
So the nations marched, or rode,
to war. The Air Service went along almost
as an afterthought. Like the tail of the donkey it had its function, but no one
expected it to draw any of the load.
The background of Britain's Royal Flying Corps presents a typical example
of the slowness and apparent reluctance with which an aerial service was given
an official endorsement. By August 1914 there were an even dozen aerodromes
in England, none of which were owned or operated by the military. On these
fields some 30 civilian flying schools were operating. These schools, subsidized in
part by the Government, had trained about 660 officers, all of whom had had
to pay their own tuition (£. 75), which was returnable from the War Office in
the case of officers on active duty who joined the RFC on passing out of the school.
In Germany, Belgium and France the situation was identical; the United
States will be passed over in silence. The situation was a joke.
when the shooting started in earnest in August 1914 Britain's Aerial Arm was
ready to help, eager to take part, and for the first week, uninvited. The aviators
fretted and fumed, fearful that the war would end before they could make that
contribution which would prove their worth. Their chance came, however; the
first squadrons went to France on August 13, following the four-division BEF
commitment. While the German armies of the north were wheeling through Belgium
and northern France, the British were feeling for a firm contact with their
ally the French. The BEF at Mons lay square in the path of General Alexander
von Kluck's First Army, the German right wing. The Royal Flying Corps spotted
von Kluck's army and kept it under surveillance, and the British were ready
when battle was joined. In his dispatch for September 7, 1914, Sir John French,
the British Commander-in-Chief, cited the RFC in the following terms: "I wish
particularly to bring to your lordship's notice the admirable work being done by
the Royal Flying Corps under Sir David Henderson. Their skill, energy, and