Part of a twoday symposium hosted by the National World war i museum and memorial in kansas city, missouri. I would like to introduce our next speaker of the day, dr. An associate, professor of history at the United States army command and general Staff College at Fort Leavenworth kansas. Prior to this position, he was an active duty marine Corps Officer and retired in 2009 as a Lieutenant Colonel after 22 years of service. Today, we have the honor to welcome his welcome him for his talk that will explain how forces battled for air superiority during world war i. Listen truly for how he will how skyfought battles lead to the modern development of the concept of total war. Welcomeoin me in a warm for dr. John curatola. Thank you. I appreciate the introduction. If you notice when she went down my biography, im a marine officer who works at an army school who studies airpower, so i have kind of a schizophrenic background on that. Today, we will look at airpower as it pertains to 1916. First, i will have to walk you a development of how do we get to airpower during this year. We dont know what the heck to do with airplanes prior to the war. Everybody is kind of interested in them in some way, shape, or form, but how will we use these funny looking machines in future wars . This is something everybody is trying to come to grips with during this time. Let me give you a couple of quotes on the confusion that abounds about airplanes. Before the war, these gentlemen have this to say. Underscores the idea of confusion with regard to airplanes and what they do. Texts to take a look at is the historical context, and we start seeing these machines in the air as early as, of course, the american civil war. We see them in the u. K. , in sudan, south africa, and as 1899. As may an International Treaty says that there will be a prohibition that the discharge of any kind of projectile or explosion from a balloon, so we are already starting to think that maybe you can use these things as weapons of war in an offensive manner. As the turnofthecentury comes around, germans are already looking at the idea of the zeppelin as a potential weapon in war. All European Countries are largely interested in aviation at the turnofthecentury. Matter of fact, the french kind its importance after the Wright Brothers take off and thats why today you have terms like fuselage with a french connotation because they are the people who started developing aviation tooled much greater degree than we in the u. S. By 1910, most powers decided some kind of desired some kind of aerial armament. You have aircraft being used in wars between the italians and the turks, by the french in morocco, and in the balkan wars, but again, the question remains there is no precedent using the things, so how will they be used in the future . Will the engine noise be in issue . These are things we just do not know. As the war starts, the u. K. Has around 80 aircraft, germany around 200, and france about the same number, so we have these things and are not really quite sure what to do with them, but the idea of working in arguably the third dimension has some interesting applications to it. One of the things we see is this idea of aerial reconnaissance and observation. If you are looking for a man flying kite, there you go. Im not sure how he gets out of it, but there we go. Again, this idea of using airplanes for observation is really the primary role as we get into the war of 1914. Most do this by balloon. The french will make about 4000 balloons during the war. The germans about 2000. Operated by an altitude of about 4000 feet, you can see a good 15 miles, and if you have a trained observer who is familiar with his sector, he can notice slight changes in the terrain. Theres a new position over here, aesh dirt over new unit over here, so there is a lot of value to be gained by having these balloons in a stationary position with the same people looking at this ground over time. This actually works out very the armies atof this time, but when you get to airplanes themselves, think about the dynamic casting that you can do with these things. These things can be flown to of the front as the need arises. As a matter of fact, aerial observation starts very early in the war. Its airplanes the first notice the split between the first and second german armies. They make that turn toward the southeast. They are also important when they notice the difference between the first and Second Russian armies during the 10 number campaign on the east. Aviation almost from the getgo is playing a significant role in the war as it unfolds, and this will become more and more important, this observation piece, as time goes on. The mission of the bombing is in the forefront even before the war begins. H g wells put together his book the war in the air where japan and china are in a confederation and germany is the aggressive power. The u. K. Is the global power and the u. S. Is split between state and federal rights. He talks about aerial engagements over the niagara, dogfights. Theres already some ideas out there about this idea of bombing, and as early as 1914, the italians and the russians already have built longrange strategic aircraft. When aircraft has a range of 340 four miles and can fly up to 75 miles an hour and this is at the beginning of the war. Fliescture you see here from kiev to moscow, which is about 1400 miles, and it can stay aloft as much as eight hours, so we are already advancing military aviation to a large degree because of this interest in bombing. The germans are also interested in this, and they go the way of the dirigible or zeppelin, if you want to use that word. They see this as a way to counter the royal navys presents. Britannia rules the waves and i have great power protection they have great power protection. These things are looked at to go longrange. 30 miles plus behind enemy lines. We are going to start developing the idea of strategic compartment during this time as well. Already, this idea of strategic apartment is coming to the four even before the war begins. Lets talk about this because i find this fascinating. Due tohe balloons float hydrogen, which is highly flammable, as we all know, from the hindenburg videos, the thing is how do you build a membrane that can trap and hold hydrogen so it does not leak out . They came up with is cow intestines, and they take the intestine of a cow and cut it up into pieces. Then they went the intestine. They lay it on top of each other, and as it dries, it a wonderful seal. These things are about 11 million square, so you need make one,000 cows to zeppelin. Given the possible food in the german home come and you can see there is a little bit of conflict between making zeppelins and heating germans. Take that home with you and talk to your friends and see if they know what zeppelins are made out of. This idea of longrange strategic apartment with regard thise zeppelin again, is largely a navy effort and captain Peter Strasser is the head of the Navy Zeppelin effort, and here is his and coming with our theme regarding the ideas of , chillers and children. They are accepting these ideas early on, this idea of total warfare. Ironically enough, he will be killed in the last zeppelin raid of 1918 over london. This idea of set and going long will also lay the framework for ideas regarding strategic bombardment and the idea that it will create local panic. That it will create such a panic within people at home and on the home front and in these cities that they will not be able to with this. Punch anywhere in 9, 1915, the first zeppelin raid appears and kills about 10 people. Not a lot of people, but it does cause some death and some damage and the first raid over london is going to kill about seven. Again, this is a small number of people, but the effect, they are hoping, will be cascading. And we are laying the foundation for what happens in the second world war. You can see most of these zeppelin attacks will occur during 1916. The gentleman you see here will actually shoot down the first settlement over london. Here is a photograph of it. In view of the londoners. This is a big morale boost here on september 2, 1960. Thats 19th dickstein. There is a problem shooting zeppelins down. Not ahistorian, scientist, but i will drop a little science on you. You have hydrogen and this big balloon. How do you shoot these things down . If you use a regular full it, you create a whole. All right, that is not a big enough whole for all the hydrogen to leak out, so how do i destroy this . Its a science project, and they maybe we ought to put in high explosive rounds to make a big hole. As it does work, but you are still not bringing the zeppelin down. Then they realize, what if we put incendiary rounds in . Going back to your basic voice scout or girl scout boy scout is yourscout, what basic triangle . If you put an incendiary round with a high explosive round, it will make a whole big enough, in the incendiary round goes in and it will slide off the hydrogen. They have to come to the idea of he rounds with their machine guns and it takes a while to finish this science project. Lets say you are flying at 5000 feet and youre going to go to london and drop your bombs. What if there is a cloud layer at, say, 1000 eight or 2000 eight . And this is the day before gps, the day before Navigation Systems and thus kinds of things, so how do you know where you are at . Well, we have a solution for that. The sky car. I will lower somebody down about 500 seat on a cable with a phone so he can talk to the people back up in the zeppelin itself. Is probably the lowest man on the totem pole who was put in the sky car as it goes down and they were in this thehere it is time to pull sky car back up and they got bunched up in the cables. That did happen. Aircraft this largely comes about because, as we have seen, this is largely an artillery war. We want to prevent our enemy from seeing where our locations are. Maybe we need to start shooting down or preventing observation aircraft from observing our line. 22, 1914,s august guys are starting to bring up rifles and shoot at each other. Yes, thats how air war begins. Guys shooting at each other. Somebody i do like is to scare his german counterpart, took an old record player, the megaphone part of it, and aims it at the german to make him think he has a large caliber weapon. I think that is a unique way of doing things, but pursuit aircraft start to be born over time. In april 19, a frenchman it quips and aircraft with a the problem isd you have this big fan in front of you. To this propeller without shooting your own propeller or . One of the things they will come orwith his a propeller guard a piece of metal they will attach onto the propeller. Just throw the round one way or another as a strike propeller. Problem is ricochets turn to go wherever the hell they want to include your phones engine. It also reduces the efficiency. F the propeller or about 30 leasesuit aviation grows, more and more of these organizations that are purely design just for fighters. The germans will start consolidating their fighters into distinctive unit, pursuit squadrons, antifrench will their owncurrent with Fighter Squadron because we want to prevent enemies from seeing our location, we need units that are specifically designed to do the counter reconnaissance role, so we will be the advent of these kinds of organizations. Also, the gentleman you see here going to codify the first few fighter combat that still exist today, quite frankly. The technologies change, i get that, but many of the ideas and he puts down and paper are still with us today and hes the first to write these down, and he shares these with the members of his squadron. Hes a very innovative aviator during this time, and his legend still resonates today, and here is an idea he puts forward try to keep the sun behind you to blind your enemies. Fire at close range. Always keep your eye on your opponent because its very easy to lose these airplanes. Its a small airplane but a big sky. He is the first to kind of codify some ideas. Never forget your line of retreat. Attack your opponent from behind. If your opponent dives on you, do not dive down. Fly up to meet it. Germans will establish a Fighter Pilot school in 1960, 3 or four speed onget guys up to fighter tactics. This is something the british and the french to some degree. The germans have the best training of all the powers at this time. German pilots could have about 60 hours of flight training. Your british pilot has about 20. The quality of instruction is a mixed bag if you are on the outline side. These aircraft are not very stable. You have to fly these airplanes, and you cannot just set the trends have, take your hands off, and let it fly around like you and a modern airplane. These things are very unstable. , in 1950, this really becomes a war about technology. Engine horsepower, aerodynamic characteristics of these airplanes is important. On the strategic level, the british and french are going to aircraft engines by far than with the germans can possibly keep up with. The germans, as we know, have a strategic shortfall in natural resources. They will stick with a sickly mostame type of engine for of the fourth. They have a few, but they stick with the same one. They will make refinements. It will get more powerful, up to about 200 or 210 horsepower as for thegoes on, but end, the allies are producing 200, 3 hundred, 500 horsepower engines because they have the resources. Its interesting what you see in terms of Aircraft Development is the germans have innovations with regard to aerodynamics because they have less powerful engines, while the allies filled aircraft that are very powerful and less dynamic, so theres kind of a trade with regard to overall philosophy in the. Evelopment of airplanes and of course, airplanes are temperamental things. I love this quote. Now, as early as 1911, depending on who you read, this idea of an to solve theear problem of a propeller in front of a machine gun, is drawn up. Who draws it up . Disputeheres lots of about this. Some say it is a swiss engineer working for a german aircraft company. Read ands on who you which side you want to take, but the point here is in may of 1915, it makes its debut, and its the first true Fighter Aircraft. The pilot can in the aircraft along with the machine gun along an axis and shoot down an attacker as opposed to shooting off to the side or trying to have a ring mount on the back while somebody else flies, and that makes the aircraft heavier. This is the consummation of a machine gun and aircraft. Max edelman, another famous german aviator, will score the first kill in august 1915. This at the time is top secret, hushhush. We do not want anyone to know about this. The germans will keep all of their Fighter Aircraft on their side of the line. Do not want these things getting in the hands of the allies. Also, for most of the war, the germans will fight it and said air war. Not necessarily going deep with the Fighter Pilot observation, they are staying on their side of the line to keep their allies from seeing their position. The interrupter gear is a huge advancement in terms of this air war and the Technology Associated with it. I love this story. Before the interrupter gear gets established, this gentleman right here you see him hanging onto his aircraft there this unfortunate pilot is flying along one day and takes on a german aviator. His gun on his top weighing he runs out of ammunition, so he decides he needs to change the drum out, so he reaches up and is trying to get the drum off of his gun. As hes doing this, he is using both hands. As he is doing this, the plane flips inverted. He is not wearing his seatbelt, so he is Stuck Holding onto the magazine he was just trying to get off. He is dangling underneath his aircraft with his magazine holding him to be airplane. He is finally able to swing his heat into the cockpit, and as he does that, he damages some of the instruments, but he gets himself back in there, writes his aircraft back up, but he gets back home. The moral of the story is he gets chewed out by his squadron co for damaging the aircraft. In this picture, you can see the on thatr guard aircraft. Again, it throws the rounds one way or another. This idea of this interrupter gear is going to begin what we call the fokker scourge. Bear with me, folks. Were getting there. The germans at this time have an invincible aerial weapon, and as military men, we tend to make our enemies look bigger than they really are. During this time, you will see the world flying corps lose about 20 aircraft in about 49 men. Again, compared to what we see in the first war, thats not a big number, but aviation is just coming into its own during this time, and the germans will own air superiority until the early parts of 1916 with the allies start producing the newport 11 and the dh two. Is a flimsy looking machine, only flies about 80 miles per hour, and its not nearly as maneuverable as some of the other planes that will come to succeed it, but this thing is that it forces the allies to change up some of their tactics, meaning they have to fly in formation now to protect each other. The germans are looking to bleed the french as much as possible. Them duringrtant to this flight is the counter reconnaissance mission. The germans are going to throw much of their airpower and support into this sector. The German Air Service sees a requirement for local air superiority and is going to aircraft, which is a large number at that time, fieldvide them into attachments. Hes also going to throw in for zeppelins for deep recon and what we refer to today as battlefield air and addiction looking for targets beyond the. Ombat zone the germans will also establish their specialized fighter. Quadrons you have to love the german language. The language of war. Used specifically for keeping the allies off of the german line. Is oswaldng to happen realizes we have a problem with the airplane. It is a good plan for its time, has aeping planes aloft price to pay in terms of aircraft and in terms of pilots. Remember, these are not highquality engines. Kinds of to have all problems. Instead of having aircraft aloft 24 7, what if i went to my forward observers and had a phone line and when they saw and allied aircraft taking off, they called me up, and then i could take off. I could have planes ready without the wear and tear of keeping them aloft. So you are starting to see this idea of advanced early warning. Obviously rudi