the first months of the war, whilst still in the ‘movement stage’, the value of aerial reconnaissance was vindicated. On 22 August 1914, contradicting all other intelligence, one British Captain and his Lieutenant reported that General Alexander von Kluck's army was preparing to surround the BEF. This initiated a massive withdrawal towards Mons, saving about 100,000 lives. Similarly, at the First Battle of the Marne, General Joseph-Simon Gallieni was able to achieve a spectacular victory, using information provided by the French air force to attack the exposed flanks of the German army. But nowhere was the importance of aerial intelligence more forcibly asserted than at the Battle of Tannenberg on the Eastern Front. The Russian General, Alexander Samsonov ignored his own pilot’s warnings, allowing almost all of his army to be captured or killed by the Germans. After the crushing defeat, Samsonov committed suicide whilst German Field Marshall Hindeburg stated ‘without airmen, there would have been no Tannenburg.’
As aerial reconnaissance became more frequent and effective, new methods were developed to counter this threat. At first, infantry fired at planes from the ground, although this was largely ineffective due to ill-adapted guns. Yet quickly, airmen began directly attacking one another. Pilots and their observers attempted to shoot at the enemy using rifles and pistols; some threw bricks, grenades and ropes with grappling hooks attached. A more reliable solution was required. As early as 1912 the Vickers company had already produced an experimental airplane to be armed with a Maxim machine gun. Nicknamed the ‘Destroyer’, the EFB1 plane was powered via the old fashioned pusher layout, allowing the gunner to sit in front of the pilot, giving an uninterrupted field of vision. The nose was too heavy with the machine gun’s weight though, and the plane crashed on its first flight. By 1914 many pilots took the initiative and experimented with machine guns themselves. The British pilot Louis Strange improvised a safety strap allowing the observer of his tractor driven Avro 504 to ‘stand up and fire all round over top of plane and behind.’ Similarly, on 5 October, 1914, a French pilot in a Voisin III pusher biplane became the first man of the war to shoot down another aircraft – his observer standing up to fire a Hotchkiss machine gun.
Only a few machine guns were small and reliable enough for use however, and the problem was not satisfactorily solved until Anton Fokker developed the ‘interrupter gear’ in 1915. This meant that a machine gun could be synchronised with the moving propeller blades – soon to produce the ‘Fokker Scourge’ for the allies. This development gave the Germans a strong advantage, not only strategically but in terms of morale. The Fokker, and its successor the Eindecker caused panic in the British parliament and press; also contributing to German successes at the Battle of Verdun as French reconnaissance failed to provide information on enemy positions. It took the allies an entire year to adapt the device to their own use.
These fighting aircraft were supported by the bombers; not directly involved in fights (if possible), but aimed at destroying the enemy’s capacity to make war on the home front. Industrial units, power stations, shipyards and entire cities became targets; some of the most famous being Germany’s Zeppelin raids on London – causing up to half a million pounds of damage with each vessel. At the start of the war, bomb aiming was crude in the extreme however. Bombs were simply dropped over the side of the aircraft when the pilot reached the vicinity of the target. Russia was the first to develop an airplane specifically for this purpose; the Murometz, a large four-engine airplane originally produced in 1913 as a passenger plane, was used successfully throughout the entire war. The Germans had the Gotha bomber plane, and the British had the Handley Page. Yet despite the strategic importance of these bomber planes, as the war continued it was the fighters who captured the public’s imagination. Popular legends arose around the ‘great aces’ such as Manfred von Richthofen (the ‘Red Baron’), Ernst Udet, and the French pilot Paul Rene Fonck. Governments were quick to trumpet the successes of their airmen for propaganda purposes, with the French and the Germans being the first countries to award the distinction of ‘ace’.
This seemingly exotic and elegant war in the air was far removed from reality however. As noted, reconnaissance was the largest role of aircraft during the war, and the bravery of the pilots in fulfilling this dangerous and unglamorous work is seldom remarked. Newly recruited pilots were sent into the sky, often only with a few hours air training time (typically less than five), and as the war progressed it became unusual for new pilots to survive their first few weeks. The newer planes, often built more for manoeuvrability than stability were increasingly difficult to operate and if pilots were not shot down, bad weather, mechanical problems and simple pilot error could all intervene. Most died not in spectacular dogfights but after being shot from behind, unaware of their attackers.
Taken as a whole, air warfare did not play a fundamental strategic role in World War One, as it did in later conflicts – however bombers and fighters provided just as important a psychological weapon as they did a practical one. The main significance of World War One aviation was a rapid increase in technology and prestige, fostering a new found respect in the general public and military commanders for this hitherto unknown method of battle. The terrible capabilities of air warfare would be unleashed on a far greater scale in the next World War, with even more devastating consequences.
Amelia Carruthers
Memoirs, Diaries and Poems of World War One
In 1939, the writer Robert Graves was asked to write an article for the BBC's Listener magazine, explaining 'as a war poet of the last war, why so little poetry has so far been produced by this one.' From the very first weeks of fighting, the First World War inspired enormous amounts of poetry, factual analysis, autobiography and fiction - from all countries involved in the conflict. 2,225 English war poets have been counted, of whom 1808 were civilians. The 'total' nature of this war perhaps goes someway to explaining its enormous impact on the popular imagination. Even today, commemorations and the effects of a 'lost generation' are still being witnessed. It was a war fought for traditional, nationalistic values of the nineteenth century, propagated using twentieth century technological and industrial methods of killing. Memoirs, diaries and poems provide extraordinary insight into how the common soldier experienced everyday life in the trenches, and how the civilian population dealt with this loss.
Over two thousand published poets wrote about the war, yet only a small fraction are still known today. Many that were popular with contemporary readers are now obscure. The selection, which emerged as orthodox during the 1960s, tends to (understandably) emphasise the horror of war, suffering, tragedy and anger against those that wage war. This was not entirely the case however, as demonstrated in the early weeks of the war. British poets responded with an outpouring of patriotic literary production. Robert Bridges, Poet Laureate, contributed a poem Wake Up England! calling for 'Thou careless, awake! Thou peacemaker, fight! Stand, England, for honour, And God guard the Right!' He later wished the work to be suppressed though. Rudyard Kipling's For All We Have and Are, aroused the most comment however, with its references to the 'Hun at the gate . . . the crazed and driven foe.'
From Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms, to Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, to the poetry of Sassoon, Graves, and Brooke, there are numerous examples of acclaimed writing inspired by the Great War. One of the best known war poets is perhaps Wilfred Owen, killed in battle at the age of twenty-five. His poems written at the front achieved popular attention soon after the war's end, most famously including Dulce Et Decorum Est, Anthem for Doomed Youth, and Strange Meeting. In preparing for the publication of his collected poems, Owen explained 'This book is not about heroes. English poetry is not yet fit to speak of them. Nor is it about deeds, or lands, nor anything about glory, honour, might, majesty, dominion, or power, except War. Above all I am not concerned with Poetry. My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity.'
Dulce et Decorum Est, one of Owen's most famous poems, scathingly takes Horace's statement, 'Dulce et decorum est, pro patria mori', meaning 'It is sweet and proper to die for one's country' as its title. It chiefly describes the death of an anonymous soldier due to poison gas, vividly describing the suffering of
