National Experiences - British Commission for Military History

326 ai r p o w e r in 20 t H Ce n t u ry do C t r i n e s a n d em p l o y m e n t - nat i o n a l ex p e r i e n C e s
tive balloon
vessel named
Manica leaving
Britain arrived
the Strait of
Çanakkale on
22 March. On
March 26, Captain
Serno and
Captain Schneider
conducted
a new aerial
reconnaissance,
which was repeated
by Captain
Schneider
and Lieutenant Hüseyin Sedat by the late afternoon. The report given by them revealed
that they would not be a new armada attack. Meanwhile, two Albatros B.I
aircrafts arrived Çanakkale. 8
The British air troop in Gallipoli was the third fleet of the Royal Naval-Air Service
(RNAS) under the command of Fleet Commander Charles Samson arriving
Bozcaada. The carrier Ark Royal, the aircraft and flight personnel tried to do their
best while serving around Çanakkale. They conducted aerial reconnaissance around
Edremit, İzmir and Enez Gulf. They arranged the vessel artillery fires during bombardment
in Saronic Gulf. 9
The Airborne Crew Following Reconnaissance.
2. Second Phase: Aerial Activities During Gallipolis Landing
On April 25, 1915, French and British forces landed on Gallipolis Peninsula,
which rendered the nature of the combat from naval campaign to land campaign.
Escadrille M.F 98T, a supplementary squadron arrived Bozcaada so as to accompany
the French troops. The squadron consisted of 8 aviation aircraft and 6 Maurice Farman
aircraft. The French, though, failed in the air campaign at Çanakkale front, they
kept off in order to spread propaganda.
Depending on the weather conditions the airplanes in Tenedos (Bozcaada) generally
took flight two or three times a day. It was including a dangerous flight of more
than 17.5 miles at open sea. Their task was to identify the Turkish positions, improve
the coordination of the maps and take photographs.
8 Yavuz Kansu, pp. 196-198.
9 Nigel Steel, Peter Hart, Gallipoli, Legend of a Defeat, Sabah Press, Translated by Mehmet Harman-
ci, İstanbul, 1977, p. 249.