The bombing war

[Jonathan Saunders]

I just wondered if any aviator pals could give me a brief overview on the bombing war. For example when did both sides start bombing artillery positions, columns, rear areas (ammunition dumps, railway lines) or straffing troops etc. How effective was this?

I know by 1918 Britain had the Handley Page long distance bomber. To what extent did we bomb Germany ... was it only authorised military targets or were towns bombed piecemeal ... not sure on what accuracy could be quaranteed.

Many thanks in advance.

[gem22]

Some Handley Page HP 400 pilots were returned to England from the Western Front around about Oct 1918 for training on the new V1500 ( I think that's the correct designation) 4 engined long - range bomber. They were to fly as part of the Independent Force under the control of Trenchard. The aim was to bomb Berlin. The plan was dropped before training got properly underway because the war ended.

I can't remember the name of the book but I have read an account by a young pilot who flew HP 400s and was one of the pilots chosen for the conversion course.

I also seem to remember that in his Bloody April to Final Victory book Barker mentions these plans

Garth

[MikeW]

Forget the RAF and Independent Force in 1918, the link below will give you a flavour of the RNAS strategic bombing of Germany in 1916, an activity that Trenchard went to great lengths to get stopped.

RNAS 3 Wing

Mike

[Jonathan Saunders]

Garth, Mike ... many thanks.

[AndyHollinger]

Fredette's Sky Afire is a great study of the German raids on London ... and provide an interesting insight into the 1940-1 Blitz

[Adrian Roberts]

Firstly, don't forget who started the bombing: the first raid on civilian targets was by Zeppelins on Antwerp on October 3rd 1914. One of the Captains was Ernst Lehmann, who survived the war but was fatally injured in the Hindenburg incident. I don't know if he intended to hit civilians rather than industrial targets but that's what happened.

As to the British: the Royal Naval Air Service were more involved in bombing development, and probably more imaginative generally than the RFC, though to be fair the RFC were heavily committed to artillery spotting and reconnaissance.

Mike W's article above on RNAS 3 Wing is very informative. I imagine one of his key sources was "Sailor in the Air", the autobiography of Richard Bell Davies VC. (He stayed in the Navy when the RNAS merged into the RAF and became a Vice-Admiral). The book is out of print, but it gives a fascinating account of life in the pre-war Navy as well as of 3 Wing operations in Flanders in 1914 and in Gallipoli. The first British strategic bombing raid was on October 8th 1914, when Lt. Reggie Marix (later Air Vice Marshal) of 3 Wing flew a Sopwith Tabloid single seater from Antwerp to Dusseldorf and, using 20lb bombs, destroyed a Zeppelin in its shed. Being forced to land during the return, he got back to base by bicycle. The rest of the Wing had abandoned the base due to the German advance but had left a motor car there for his use and he escaped through the burning city.

3 Wing was reconsituted in Spring 1916, with Sopwith One-and-a-half Strutters, to bomb German targets in from Luxeil in France. Bell Davies writes: "It's task was to carry out reprisal bombing raids on German towns in revenge for the Zeppelin raids on English towns.....I thoroughly disliked the idea of reprisal raids. Two wrongs did not make a right. Furthermore, most of us believed that the Zeppelins set out to bomb military targets, only bombing towns as a result of losing themselves in the dark". I don't know if he was being naive about the Zeppelins, but he describes how he wrote a carefully worded letter to the Admiralty, and "in the eventual orders given to 3 Wing there was no mention of reprisals". From his account it appears that the main targets were the blast furnaces in the Saar region.

Incidentally, the Fighter version of the Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter was the two-seater, and was supposed to escort the Bomber version which was a single-seater. Air combat as we know it was in its infancy and it was assumed that the observer's Lewis gun would be as useful in aerial combat as the pilot's Vickers. The 1 1/2 Strutter Bomber had a gun for the pilot but carried four 65lb bombs instead of the observer. But the Bomber pilots soon sussed that once the bombs were gone the aircraft made a better fighter than the Fighter.

The twin-engined Handley Page O/100 was being developed during 1916, again by the RNAS, and its definitive version was the O/400 of 1917. These were to be used for night-bombing. I don't claim any specialist knowledge of this subject. I am aware that what knowledge I have is Anglocentric: in fact the Italians and the Imperial Russian Military Aviation Service had multi-engine strategic bombers before we did.

hope this is of interest.

Adrian Roberts

[MikeW]

Mike W's article above on RNAS 3 Wing is very informative

Not my article, Bob Pearson was the author, and I believe I'm correct in saying that much of the source material was provided by Stewart Taylor who of course interviewed just about every Canadian aviator that survived the war.

Mike

[John Gilinsky]

Forget the RAF and Independent Force in 1918, the link below will give you a flavour of the RNAS strategic bombing of Germany in 1916, an activity that Trenchard went to great lengths to get stopped.

RNAS 3 Wing

Mike

I know that this is an, uhm, old post BUT here goes:

Does anyone have a complete LIST of ALL personnel and their fates (wounded, killed, pows, etc...) for the April 14/15, 1917 raid on Freiburg?

Does anyone have a copy of the leaflet dropped and could they scan it and post it here? A German publication on aerial propaganda leaflets published in the late 1980s or 1990s did include it.

Thanks all!

John

[fitzee]

The Russian IIya Mourometz V was a massive four engined machine designed by the great Igor Sikorsky in 1914!

It held a bombload of 800kgs and was protected by 9 machineguns. The Germans were hesitant to engage the machines in combat because of their defensive capabilities. however I believe they managed to shoot one down. Sikorsky was a visionary whose ideas were truly before their time. If the Germans managed to copy this monster, one can only imagine what effect it might have had on the war!

Fitzee

[Guest]

I know that this is an, uhm, old post BUT here goes:

Does anyone have a complete LIST of ALL personnel and their fates (wounded, killed, pows, etc...) for the April 14/15, 1917 raid on Freiburg?

Does anyone have a copy of the leaflet dropped and could they scan it and post it here? A German publication on aerial propaganda leaflets published in the late 1980s or 1990s did include it.

Thanks all!

John

Hi John,

I have indeed such a list of 3 Wing Aircrew but not the French, including photos and details of the appropriate burial sites. I have indeed a copy of the "leaflet" dropped/ This leaflet is actually a piece of aircraft fabric complete with pinked edges and with the message stamped on it with either a linocut or similar. I am in the process of completing a book telling the story of 3 Wing, which I have been researching since about 1998.

I would suggest you send me a PM.

Regards Duncan