Introduction
Chronology
Design and Development
Technical Specifications
The Strategic Situation
The Combatants
Combat
Statistics and Analysis
Aftermath
Further Reading
While modern air forces employ time-tested, combat-proven tactics and decades-old aeroplanes designed on well understood aeronautical principles and built with ample time for testing and refining, air forces of World War I were literally writing the book on tactics and aeroplane design as dictated by the current state of the war. Indeed, throughout the conflict a perpetual reactionary arms race existed to counter and hopefully conquer the enemy’s latest aeroplane technology. Nowhere was this more evident than with single-seat scouts.
Better known today as ‘fighter aeroplanes’, single-seat scouts were born as a direct result of two-seater aerial reconnaissance and artillery observation. Such infantry cooperation aeroplanes were crucial for the furtherance of army strategic and tactical planning for ground force success. This was particularly the case on the static Western Front, where trench-based warfare throttled any cavalry-based reconnaissance. Without exaggeration, two-seater photographic reconnaissance was as important in World War I as satellites are today.
Naturally, it became desirable for all combatants not only to amass as much intelligence as possible via two-seater excursions over the frontlines but to simultaneously prevent the enemy from achieving the same. This begat two-seater crews arming themselves for aerial interception of their belligerent counterparts, but soon single-seat ‘scouts’ were developed to use speed to dash quickly over the lines, conduct a specific observation, and then quickly regain the lines. However, both sides realised that single-seat scouts provided an effective means with which to hunt and shoot down enemy reconnaissance aeroplanes, as well as to protect their own reconnaissance types from similar treatment. A natural result of these tactical implementations was scout-versus-scout combat – the ‘fighter aeroplane’ and ‘dogfighting’ were born.
However, the superiority pendulum swung without equality as each side strove to counter what the enemy already possessed. The Germans struck first with their Fokker Eindeckers, armed with a single Maxim machine gun that was synchronised to fire through the propeller arc. Not necessarily an extremely nimble aeroplane – it did not have to be when pursuing sluggish two-seater reconnaissance types such as the Royal Aircraft Factory (RAF) BE 2c – the monoplane’s armament and speed (approximately 88mph compared to the BE 2c’s modest 69mph at 10,000ft) allowed it to plunder Allied reconnaissance machines. This in turn gave rise to the legendary ‘Fokker Scourge’ description given to German air superiority over the Western Front from late 1915 through to early 1916.
As yet the Triple Entente (Great Britain, France and Russia) had no reliable synchronisation gear with which to counter the new threat. However, the single-seat French Nieuport 11 ‘Bebe’ soon appeared with a single Lewis machine gun mounted atop the upper wing that fired over the propeller arc, bypassing the need for propeller synchronisation.
The British answer to the problem was to employ the ‘pusher’ aeroplane concept – i.e. locate the engine behind the cockpit to allow the pilot freedom to fire a machine gun forward without any interference from the propeller. This arrangement had previously been used in two-seaters such as the Farman F 40 and RAF FE 2b, but the Aircraft Manufacturing Company’s DH 2 was the first single-seat pusher designed specifically for air-to-air interdiction.
Now equipped with fighters that were as fast and more nimble than the German monoplanes and, crucially, available in greater numbers, the Entente had once again achieved control of the skies over the Western Front by the summer of 1916. A postwar German analysis concluded:
The start of the Somme battle [1 July 1916] unfortunately coincided with the low point in the technical development of our aircraft. The unquestioned air supremacy we had enjoyed in early 1916 by virtue of our Fokker monoplane fighters had shifted over to the enemy’s Nieuport, Vickers [generic German term for British lattice-tailed pushers, in this instance referring to the DH 2] and Sopwith aircraft in March and April.
As the German monoplanes were replaced by biplane fighters such as the Fokker D I and various Halberstadt machines, pilots wanted a fighter that had power enough to promote speed and bear the weight of twin-gun firepower. Enter the Albatros D I and D II, each boasting a 160hp engine that gave the pilots what they had asked for. The Albatros Ds were not as manoeuvrable as the Nieuport 11 or DH 2, but this was not a detriment when one considers that shooting down ungainly two-seaters was a primary endeavour. All pilots sought to attack under a cloak of surprise, using speed to swiftly approach one’s target unseen and then hammer it down before the crew of the aeroplane was even aware that they were under attack.
Head to head, the DH 2 was more manoeuvrable than the Albatros D I and D II, but the latter were faster, had better rates of climb and were equipped with two beltfed machine guns and 1,000 rounds of ammunition. The DH 2 had a single gun with less than half that amount of ammunition, carried in 47- or 97-round drums that had to be replaced during combat. The Albatros also enjoyed a much more reliable inline engine than the DH 2’s rotary motor, which was prone to power loss or outright failure due to mechanical faults. However, even with properly running engines, speed triumphs manoeuvrability. The latter is a defensive tactic and fighter aeroplanes are offensive weapons, best employing surprise in order to prevail over an opponent. The DH 2’s nimble attributes, therefore, could not easily overcome the Albatros’s superior speed (the DH 2 was nearly 20mph slower in level flight), especially when in a dive, and firepower.
Royal Flying Corps (RFC) pilot Capt R. H. M. S. Saundby’s recollections succinctly set the stage for the chapters that follow:
The Albatros single-seater fighting machine was the first formidable tractor [engine in front] biplane scout produced by the enemy. While we had occasionally met them before, they only became numerous and, therefore, offensive at the beginning of November [1916]. The de Havilland Scout had a hard job when outnumbered by these machines, and only carried on because of its handiness and manoeuvring power, for its speed and climb were much inferior to these new Huns [slang for Germans and/or German aeroplanes].
1914 | |
March | Geoffrey de Havilland joins the Aircraft Manufacturing Company as chief aeroplane designer and test pilot. Begins work on a two-seater pusher, forerunner of the DH 2. |
June | Albatros Type DD wins 100km (60 miles) speed prize at the Aspern Flugmeeting in Vienna. Designed by Ernst Heinkel and Robert Thelen, the Type DD is considered to be the forerunner of the Albatros D series of scouts. |
28 June | Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria assassinated by Serbian student Gavrilo Princip, beginning a period of international diplomatic manoeuvring. |
July | To end Serbian interference in Bosnia, Austria-Hungary delivers a ten-demand ultimatum to Serbia, intentionally made to be unacceptable and provoke war. Serbia agrees to eight demands. |
28 July | Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia. |
29 July | Russian Empire orders partial mobilisation in support of Serbia. |
30 July | German Empire delivers ultimatum to Russia to cease mobilisation against Austria-Hungary. |
1 August | France orders mobilisation and Germany declares war on Russia. |
3 August | Germany declares war on France and invades Belgium. |
4 August | UK declares war on Germany in support of Belgian neutrality. World War I fully under way. |
1915 | |
June | de Havilland conducts inaugural DH 2 flight and begins series of test flights and refinements. |
Summer | German monoplanes armed with synchronised machine guns decimate RFC reconnaissance two-seaters, begetting the ‘Fokker Scourge’. |
9 August | DH 2 prototype sent to France for combat evaluation is shot down and captured mostly intact by the Germans. |
1916 | |
February | DH 2 arrives in France with No. 24 Sqn. |
June | Thelen design team’s Albatros D I undergoes flight evaluation and static load tests at Adlershof. |
18 June | German 15-victory ace Ltn d R Max Immelmann is killed in action, his death marking the end of the ‘Fokker Scourge’. |
July | Albatros D I ordered into production. |
1 July | The Battle of the Somme commences. British Army suffers 60,000 killed or wounded on the first day of the offensive. |
August | Germans implement the Jagdstaffel, a dedicated group of single-seat fighters tasked primarily with hunting enemy two-seater reconnaissance and artillery-spotting machines. |
16 September | Albatros D Is and a single D II arrive in the frontline with Jagdstaffel 2. |
28 October | Jagdstaffel 2 Staffelführer and 40-victory ace Hptm Oswald Boelcke is killed after a mid-air collision with Ltn Erwin Böhme, who survives. |
22 November | No. 24 Sqn pilots Capt John Andrews and 2Lt Kelvin Crawford shoot down and kill Jagdstaffel 2 Staffelführer Stefan Kirmaier. |
23 November | No. 24 Sqn commanding officer and RFC luminary Maj Lanoe Hawker is shot down and killed by Jasta 2’s Manfred von Richthofen after an eight-minute swirling dogfight and race to the lines near Bapaume, France. |
Late December | Albatros D IIIs begin arriving at frontline Jagdstaffeln. |
In the first decade of the 20th century the UK’s aviation endeavours lagged significantly behind those of their continental neighbours France and Germany. France had taken to the new heavier-than-air aeroplane with an ardent fervour after American Wilbur Wright so ably demonstrated the Wright Flyer there in 1908. Germany had focused its aviation interest primarily upon lighter-than-air machines, such as Graf Zeppelin’s rigid airships, which by 1909 had gained acceptance into the German military.
Concurrently, the British had no aviation mindset either. Case in point, in 1908 the British Secretary of State for War’s response to inquiries regarding the placement of government aeroplane manufacturing orders said, succinctly, ‘we regret we cannot do this as we are trustees of the public purse and we do not consider that aeroplanes will be of any possible use for war purposes’.
However, English journalist George Holt Thomas set out to change that opinion. In 1906 he had offered a £1,000 prize for the first heavier-than-air machine to complete a straight-line flight of one mile, and his frequent trips to Paris kept him in the know regarding the significant advancements of French aviation. These trips included visits to French manufacturers and aviation pioneers, particularly Henry Farman, and after attending the 1909 Reims Aviation Meeting Holt Thomas returned to England determined to increase the country’s aviation interests and awareness.
Toward that end he organised the first officially recognised British aviation meeting at Blackpool, arranged demonstration flights around London and then became manager of French aviator Louis Paulhan, who subsequently won a £10,000 prize for being the first to fly from London to Manchester.
In September 1910 Holt Thomas attended French army manoeuvres on the continent, where he witnessed the progress military aviation had made with aerial reconnaissance and artillery spotting. Recognising the aeroplane’s military importance, but cognizant of the British lack of progress in its furtherance, Holt Thomas wrote a letter to the Daily Mail on 17 September that said, in part, ‘A new weapon of the utmost importance in war has appeared, and with that weapon our Army is wholly unprovided’. Nevertheless, the British army remained unconvinced that the aeroplane would replace the cavalry as a method of reconnaissance.
Undeterred, Holt Thomas used his influences with the press to further his cause, and in October 1910 was able to arrange purchase of two French aeroplanes (a Henry Farman Type Militaire and a Paulhan biplane) for the War Office, and further pressure eventually resulted in the British government agreeing to a nearly 500 per cent increase in the 1911 allotment for military aviation, from £9,000 to £52,000. Shortly thereafter Holt Thomas brokered a deal with the Farman Brothers to build and sell their machines in Britain through his Aeroplane Supply Company, which he established in 1911.
When a similar attempt to broker a deal with Prince Henry of Prussia to construct Zeppelin airships fell through in 1912, Holt Thomas sought and received licence to build French Astra-Torres airships and subsequently formed Airships, Ltd. In May 1912 he merged his two companies, and the following month he re-registered them as the Aircraft Manufacturing Company (AMC – the oft-used ‘Airco’ prefix was not officially adopted by the Aircraft Manufacturing Company until October 1918), whose first British-built Maurice Farman machine was completed in 1913. Holt Thomas’s fledgling company soon became the pinnacle of the British aircraft industry.
With a want to expand AMC beyond manufacturing and into aviation design, Holt Thomas was advised to contact a 26-year-old aircraft designer by the name of Geoffrey de Havilland. Born on 27 July 1882, de Havilland had graduated from Crystal Palace Engineering School in 1903 and had initially worked as a motor engineering draughtsman in Birmingham prior to returning to London to take up employment with a bus-building company.
Intrigued by reports of aviation feats and advancements on the continent, de Havilland and a partner quit their jobs to build an aeroplane of their own, financed by de Havilland’s grandfather. They accomplished this in 1909, but the machine was destroyed after de Havilland stalled it on takeoff. Uninjured, de Havilland and his partner assembled a second machine the following year and flew it successfully. The aircraft was purchased by the War Office, who then offered de Havilland a position as both designer and test pilot at His Majesty’s Balloon Factory, forerunner of the famous Royal Aircraft Factory.
So employed, de Havilland helped design and develop such legendary aeroplanes as the BE and FE series, but by 1914 he found himself inspecting aircraft from other designers rather than working on his own. After voicing dissatisfaction about his plight, it was suggested (by the same man who had told Holt Thomas to contact de Havilland) that he seek employment with AMC as it was expanding into aircraft design. Taking heed of this advice, de Havilland approached Holt Thomas when the latter next visited the RAF facility at Farnborough, and on 23 March 1914 he signed on as AMC’s chief designer and test pilot.
Initially working on a rotary-engined version of the BE 2, de Havilland was soon redirected by Holt Thomas to commence design work on a two-seater pusher biplane instead. Although de Havilland was reluctant at first because he knew the tractor configuration was more aerodynamically sound than the pusher, Holt Thomas had made the request because it was believed within the RFC that the pusher was a superior weapons platform at the time. With the engine and propeller behind the pilot, the new scout could dispense with the then oft-unreliable interrupter gear needed to enable a machine gun to fire through a propeller arc.