[Transcriber's note: Obvious printer's errors have been corrected.
Hyphenation and accentuation have been standardised, all
other inconsistencies are as in the original. The author's spelling
has been maintained.
{} are used to inclose superscript.]
[Illustration: _Fighting by Sea and Sky._
_Painting by John E. Whiting._]
AIRCRAFT AND SUBMARINES
The Story of the Invention, Development, and Present-Day Uses of
War's Newest Weapons
By
WILLIS J. ABBOT
Author of "The Story of Our Army," "The Story of Our Navy," "The
Nations at War"
_With Eight Color Plates and 100 Other Illustrations_
G. P. Putnam's Sons
New York and London
The Knickerbocker Press
1918
Copyright, 1918
By
WILLIS J. ABBOT
The Knickerbocker Press, New York
PREFACE
Not since gunpowder was first employed in warfare has so
revolutionary a contribution to the science of slaughtering men been
made as by the perfection of aircraft and submarines. The former
have had their first employment in this world-wide war of the
nations. The latter, though in the experimental stage as far back as
the American Revolution, have in this bitter contest been for the
first time brought to so practical a stage of development as to
exert a really appreciable influence on the outcome of the struggle.
Comparatively few people appreciate how the thought of navigating
the air's dizziest heights and the sea's gloomiest depths has
obsessed the minds of inventors. From the earliest days of history
men have grappled with the problem, yet it is only within two
hundred years for aircraft and one hundred for submarines that any
really intelligent start has been made upon its solution. The men
who really gave practical effect to the vague theories which others
set up--in aircraft the Wrights, Santos-Dumont, and Count Zeppelin;
in submarines Lake and Holland--are either still living, or have
died so recently that their memory is still fresh in the minds of
all.
In this book the author has sketched swiftly the slow stages by
which in each of these fields of activity success has been attained.
He has collated from the immense mass of records of the activities
of both submarines and aircraft enough interesting data to show the
degree of perfection and practicability to which both have been
brought. And he has outlined so far as possible from existing
conditions the possibilities of future usefulness in fields other
than those of war of these new devices.
The most serious difficulty encountered in dealing with the present
state and future development of aircraft is the rapidity with which
that development proceeds. Before a Congressional Committee last
January an official testified that grave delay in the manufacture of
airplanes for the army had been caused by the fact that types
adopted a scant three months before had become obsolete, because of
experience on the European battlefields, and later inventions before
the first machines could be completed. There may be exaggeration in
the statement but it is largely true. Neither the machines nor the
tactics employed at the beginning of the war were in use in its
fourth year. The course of this evolution, with its reasons, are
described in this volume.
Opportunities for the peaceful use of airplanes are beginning to
suggest themselves daily. After the main body of this book was in
type the Postmaster-General of the United States called for bids for
an aërial mail service between New York and Washington--an act urged
upon the Government in this volume. That service contemplates a
swift carriage of first-class mail at an enhanced price--the
tentative schedule being three hours, and a postage fee of
twenty-five cents an ounce. There can be no doubt of the success of
the service, its value to the public, and its possibilities of
revenue to the post-office. Once its usefulness is established it
will be extended to routes of similar length, such as New York and
Boston, New York and Buffalo, or New York and Pittsburgh. The mind
suggests no limit to the extension of aërial service, both postal
and passenger, in the years of industrial activity that shall follow
the war.
In the preparation of this book the author has made use of many
records of personal experiences of those who have dared the air's
high altitudes and the sea's stilly depths. For permission to use
certain of these he wishes to express his thanks to the Century Co.,
for extracts from _My Airships_ by Santos-Dumont; to Doubleday, Page
& Co., for extracts from _Flying for France_, by James R. McConnell;
to Charles Scribner's Sons, for material drawn from _With the French
Flying Corps_, by Carroll Dana Winslow; to _Collier's Weekly_, for
certain extracts from interviews with Wilbur Wright; to _McClure's
Magazine_, for the account of Mr. Ray Stannard Baker's trip in a
Lake submarine; to Hearst's International Library, and to the
_Scientific American_, for the use of several illustrations.
W. J. A.
NEW YORK, 1918.
CONTENTS
Page
PREFACE iii
CHAPTER
I.--Introductory 3
II.--The Earliest Flying Men 14
III.--The Services of Santos-Dumont 39
IV.--The Count von Zeppelin 59
V.--The Development of the Airplane 82
VI.--The Training of the Aviator 103
VII.--Some Methods of the War in the Air 123
VIII.--Incidents of the War in the Air 159
IX.--The United States at War 182
X.--Some Features of Aërial Warfare 207
XI.--Beginnings of Submarine Invention 235
XII.--The Coming of Steam and Electricity 256
XIII.--John P. Holland and Simon Lake 271
XIV.--The Modern Submarine 294
XV.--Aboard a Submarine 318
XVI.--Submarine Warfare 333
XVII.--The Future of the Submarine 362
Index 383
ILLUSTRATIONS
Page
Fighting by Sea and Sky _Frontispiece_
Painting by John E. Whiting
Dropping a Depth Bomb 4
Painting by Lieut. Farré
A Battle in Mid-air 8
Painting by Lieut. Farré
Victory in the Clouds 12
Painting by John E. Whiting
The Fall of the Boche 16
Painting by Lieut. Farré
Lana's Vacuum Balloon 18
Montgolfier's Experimental Balloon 21
A Rescue at Sea 24
Painting by Lieut. Farré
Montgolfier's Passenger Balloon 27
Charles's Balloon 31
A French Observation Balloon on Fire 32
Roberts Brothers' Dirigible 34
Giffard's Dirigible 37
A British Kite Balloon 40
British "Blimp" 40
Photographed from Above.
A Kite Balloon Rising from the Hold of a Ship 48
The Giant and the Pigmies 60
Painting by John E. Whiting
A French "Sausage" 64
Photo by Press Illustrating Co.
A British "Blimp" 64
The Death of a Zeppelin 72
Photo by Paul Thompson
A German Dirigible, Hansa Type 76
A Wrecked Zeppelin at Salonika 76
Photo by Press Illustrating Co.
British Aviators about to Ascend 80
Langley's Airplane 84
A French Airdrome near the Front 84
Lilienthal's Glider 86
A German War Zeppelin 88
French Observation Balloon Seeking Submarines 88
Photo by Press Illustrating Co.
Chanute's Glider 90
A German Taube Pursued by British Planes 92
The First Wright Glider 93
Pilcher's Glider 94
Comparative Strength of Belligerents in Airplanes at the Opening
of the War 96
Comparative Strength of Belligerents in Dirigibles at the Opening
of the War 96
The Wright Glider 98
At a French Airplane Base 100
International Film Service
Stringfellow's Airplane 101
The "America"--Built to Cross the Atlantic 104
A Wright Airplane in Flight 104
First Americans to Fly in France 108
The Lafayette Escadrille
Distinguishing Marks of American Planes 116
What an Aviator must Watch 116
A Caproni Triplane 124
A Caproni Triplane Showing Propellers and Fuselage 124
The Terror that Flieth by Night 128
Painting by Wm. J. Wilson
A Curtis Seaplane Leaving a Battleship 132
Photo by Press Illustrating Co.
Launching a Hydroaëroplane 132
At a United States Training Camp 138
A "Blimp" with Gun Mounted on Top 138
Aviators Descending in Parachutes from a Balloon Struck by
Incendiary Shells 140
The Balloon from which the Aviators Fled 140
German Air Raiders over England 144
One Aviator's Narrow Escape 148
Downed in the Enemy's Country 156
Position of Gunner in Early French Machine 160
Later Type of French Scout 160
Photo by Kadel & Herbert
A French Scout Airplane 168
Photo by Press Illustrating Co.
"Showing Off." A Nieuport Performing Aërial Acrobatics around a
Heavier Bombing Machine 168
An Air Raid on a Troop Train 174
Painting by John E. Whiting
A Burning Balloon, Photographed from a Parachute by the Escaping
Balloonist 176
A Caproni Biplane Circling the Woolworth Building 184
Cruising at 2000 Feet. One Biplane Photographed from Another 184
An Air Battle in Progress 192
A Curtis Hydroaroplane 192
The U. S. Aviation School at Mineola 208
Miss Ruth Law at Close of her Chicago to New York Flight 216
A French Aviator between Flights 216
A German "Gotha"--Their Favorite Type 224
A French Monoplane 232
A German Scout Brought to Earth in France 232
A Gas Attack Photographed from an Airplane 240
A French Nieuport Dropping a Bomb 244
A Bomb-Dropping Taube 248
A Captured German Fokker Exhibited at the Invalides 252
A British Seaplane with Folding Wings 252
British Anti-Aircraft Guns 256
An Anti-Aircraft Outpost 264
A Coast Defense Anti-Aircraft Gun 264
The Submarine's Perfect Work 270
Painting by John E. Whiting
Types of American Aircraft 272
For Anti-Aircraft Service 288
The Latest French Aircraft Guns 288
Modern German Airplane Types 296
A German Submarine Mine-Layer Captured by the British 304
The Exterior of First German Submarine 312
The Interior of First German Submarine, Showing Appliances for
Man-Power 312
A Torpedo Designed by Fulton 320
The Method of Attack by Nautilus 320
The Capture of a U-Boat 324
Painting by John E. Whiting
A British Submarine 336
Sectional View of the Nautilus 336
U. S. Submarine H-3 aground on California Coast 344
Salvaging H-3. Views I, II, and III 348
U. S. Submarine D-1 off Weehawken 352
A Submarine Built for Spain in the Cape Cod Canal 356
A Critical Moment 360
Painting by John E. Whiting
A Submarine Built for Chili Passing through Cape Cod Canal 364
A Submarine Entrapped by Nets 368
Diagram of a German Submarine Mine-Layer Captured by British 372
A Submarine Discharging a Torpedo 374
A German Submarine in Three Positions 376
Sectional View of a British Submarine 380
THE CONQUEST OF THE AIR
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
It was at Mons in the third week of the Great War. The grey-green
German hordes had overwhelmed the greater part of Belgium and were
sweeping down into France whose people and military establishment
were all unprepared for attack from that quarter. For days the
little British army of perhaps 100,000 men, that forlorn hope which
the Germans scornfully called "contemptible," but which man for man
probably numbered more veteran fighters than any similar unit on
either side, had been stoutly holding back the enemy's right wing
and fighting for the delay that alone could save Paris. At Mons they
had halted, hoping that here was the spot to administer to von
Kluck, beating upon their front, the final check. The hope was
futile. Looking back upon the day with knowledge of what General
French's army faced--a knowledge largely denied to him--it seems
that the British escape from annihilation was miraculous. And indeed
it was due to a modern miracle--the conquest of the air by man in
the development of the airplane.
General French was outnumbered and in danger of being flanked on his
left flank. His right he thought safe, for it was in contact with
the French line which extended eastward along the bank of the Somme
to where the dark fortress of Namur frowned on the steeps formed by
the junction of that river with the Meuse. At that point the French
line bent to the south following the course of the latter river.
Namur was expected to hold out for weeks. Its defence lasted but
three days! As a matter of fact it did not delay the oncoming
Germans a day, for they invested it and drove past in their fierce
assault upon Joffre's lines. Enormously outnumbered, the French were
broken and forced to retreat. They left General French's right flank
in the air, exposed to envelopment by von Kluck who was already
reaching around the left flank. The German troops were ample in
number to surround the British, cut them off from all support, and
crush or capture them all. This indeed they were preparing to do
while General French, owing to some mischance never yet explained,
was holding his ground utterly without knowledge that his allies had
already retired leaving his flank without protection.
[Illustration: Photo by Peter A. Juley.
_Dropping a Depth Bomb._
_From the Painting by Lieutenant Farré._]
When that fatal information arrived belatedly at the British
headquarters it seemed like a death warrant. The right of the line
had already been exposed for more than half-a-day. It was
inexplicable that it had not already been attacked. It was
unbelievable that the attack would not fall the next moment. But how
would it be delivered and where, and what force would the enemy
bring to it? Was von Kluck lulling the British into a false sense
of security by leaving the exposed flank unmenaced while he gained
their rear and cut off their retreat? Questions such as these
demanded immediate answer. Ten years before the most dashing scouts
would have clattered off to the front and would have required a day,
perhaps more, to complete the necessary reconnaissance. But though
of all nations, except of course the utterly negligent United
States, Great Britain had least developed her aviation corps, there
were attached to General French's headquarters enough airmen to meet
this need. In a few minutes after the disquieting news arrived the
beat of the propellers rose above the din of the battlefield and the
airplanes appeared above the enemy's lines. An hour or two sufficed
to gather the necessary facts, the fliers returned to headquarters,
and immediately the retreat was begun.
It was a beaten army that plodded back to the line of the Marne. Its
retreat at times narrowly approached a rout. But the army was not
crushed, annihilated. It remained a coherent, serviceable part of
the allied line in the successful action speedily fought along the
Marne. But had it not been for the presence of the airmen the
British expeditionary force would have been wiped out then and
there.
The battle of Mons gave the soldiers a legend which still
persists--that of the ghostly English bowmen of the time of Edward
the Black Prince who came back from their graves to save that field
for England and for France. Thousands of simple souls believe that
legend to-day. But it is no whit more unbelievable than the story of
an army saved by a handful of men flying thousands of feet above the
field would have been had it been told of a battle in our Civil War.
The world has believed in ghosts for centuries and the Archers of
Mons are the legitimate successors of the Great Twin Brethren at the
Battle of Lake Regillus. But Cæsar, Napoleon, perhaps the elder von
Moltke himself would have scoffed at the idea that men could turn
themselves into birds to spy out the enemy's dispositions and save a
sorely menaced army.
When this war has passed into history it will be recognized that its
greatest contributions to military science have been the development
and the use of aircraft and submarines. There have, of course, been
other features in the method of waging war which have been novel
either in themselves, or in the gigantic scale upon which they have
been employed. There is, for example, nothing new about trench
warfare. The American who desires to satisfy himself about that need
only to visit the Military Park at Vicksburg, or the country about
Petersburg or Richmond, to recognize that even fifty years ago our
soldiers understood the art of sheltering themselves from bullet and
shrapnel in the bosom of Mother Earth. The trench warfare in
Flanders, the Argonne, and around Verdun has been novel only in the
degree to which it has been developed and perfected. Concrete-lined
trenches, with spacious and well-furnished bomb-proofs, with
phonographs, printing presses, and occasional dramatic performances
for lightening the soldiers' lot present an impressive elaboration
of the muddy ditches of Virginia and Mississippi. Yet after all the
boys of Grant and Lee had the essentials of trench warfare well in
mind half a century before Germany, France, and England came to
grips on the long line from the North Sea to the Vosges.
Asphyxiating gas, whether liberated from a shell, or released along
a trench front to roll slowly down before a wind upon its
defenders, was a novelty of this war. But in some degree it was
merely a development of the "stinkpot" which the Chinese have
employed for years. So too the tear-bomb, or lachrymatory bomb,
which painfully irritated the eyes of all in its neighbourhood when
it burst, filling them with tears and making the soldiers
practically helpless in the presence of a swift attack. These two
weapons of offence, and particularly the first, because of the
frightful and long-continuing agony it inflicts upon its victims,
fascinated the observer, and awakened the bitter protests of those
who held that an issue at war might be determined by civilized
nations without recourse to engines of death and anguish more
barbaric than any known to the red Indians, or the most savage
tribes of Asia. Neither of these devices, nor for that matter the
cognate one of fire spurted like a liquid from a hose upon a
shrinking enemy, can be shown to have had any appreciable effect
upon the fortunes of any great battle. Each, as soon as employed by
any one belligerent, was quickly seized by the adversary, and the
respiratory mask followed fast upon the appearance of the chlorine
gas. Whatever the outcome of the gigantic conflict may be, no one
will claim that any of these devices had contributed greatly to the
result.
But the airplane revolutionized warfare on land. The submarine has
made an almost equal revolution in naval warfare.
Had the airplane been known in the days of our Civil War some of its
most picturesque figures would have never risen to eminence or at
least would have had to win their places in history by efforts of an
entirely different sort. There is no place left in modern military
tactics for the dashing cavalry scout of the type of Sheridan,
Custer, Fitz Lee, or Forrest. The airplane, soaring high above the
lines of the enemy, brings back to headquarters in a few hours
information that in the old times took a detachment of cavalry days
to gather. The "screen of cavalry" that in bygone campaigns
commanders used to mask their movements no longer screens nor masks.
A general moves with perfect knowledge that his enemy's aircraft
will report to their headquarters his roads, his strength, and his
probable destination as soon as his vanguard is off. During the
Federal advance upon Richmond, Stonewall Jackson, most brilliant of
the generals of that war, repeatedly slipped away from the Federal
front, away from the spot where the Federal commanders confidently
supposed him to be, and was found days later in the Valley of the
Shenandoah, threatening Washington or menacing the Union rear and
its communications. The war was definitely prolonged by this
Confederate dash and elusiveness--none of which would have been
possible had the Union forces possessed an aviation corps.
[Illustration: _A Battle in Mid-air._
(_Note rifleman on wing of airplane._)
_From the painting by Lieutenant Farré._
Photo by Peter A. Juley.]
It is yet to be shown conclusively that as offensive engines
aircraft have any great value. The tendency of the military
authorities of every side to minimize the damage they have suffered
makes any positive conclusion on this subject difficult and
dangerous at this moment. The airplane by day or the Zeppelin by
night appears swiftly and mysteriously, drops its bombs from a
height of several thousand feet, and takes its certain flight
through the boundless sky to safety. The aggressor cannot tell
whether his bombs have found a fitting target. He reports flaming
buildings left behind him, but whether they are munition factories,
theatres, or primary schools filled with little children he cannot
tell. Nor does he know how quickly the flames were extinguished, or
the amount of damage done. The British boast of successful air raids
upon Cuxhaven, Zeebrugge, Essen, and Friedrichshaven. But if we take
German official reports we must be convinced that the damage done
was negligible in its relation to the progress of the war. In their
turn the Germans brag mightily of the deeds of their Zeppelins over
London, and smaller British towns. But the sum and substance of
their accomplishment, according to the British reports, has been the
slaughter and mutilation of a number of civilians--mostly women and
children--and the bloody destruction of many humble working-class
homes.
At this writing, December, 1917, it is not recorded that any
battleship, munition factory, any headquarters, great government
building, or fortress has been destroyed or seriously injured by the
activities of aircraft of either type. This lack of precise
information may be due to the censor rather than to any lack of
great deeds on the part of airmen. We do know of successful attacks
on submarines, though the military authorities are chary about
giving out the facts. But as scouts, messengers, and guides for
hidden batteries attacking unseen targets, aviators have compelled
the rewriting of the rules of military strategy. About this time,
however, it became apparent that the belligerents intended to
develop the battleplanes. Particularly was this true of the Allies.
The great measure of success won by the German submarines and the
apparent impossibility of coping adequately with those weapons of
death once they had reached the open sea, led the British and the
Americans to consider the possibility of destroying them in their
bases and destroying the bases as well. But Kiel and Wilhelmshaven
were too heavily defended to make an attack by sea seem at all
practicable. The lesser ports of Zeebrugge and Ostend had been
successfully raided from the air and made practically useless as
submarine bases. Discussion therefore was strong of making like
raids with heavier machines carrying heavier guns and dropping more
destructive bombs upon the two chief lurking places of the
submarines. While no conclusion had been reached as to this strategy
at the time of the publication of this book, both nations were busy
building larger aircraft probably for use in such an attack.
* * * * *
The submarine has exerted upon the progress of the war an influence
even more dominant than that of aircraft. It has been a positive
force both offensive and defensive. It has been Germany's only
potent weapon for bringing home to the British the privations and
want which war entails upon a civilian population, and at the same
time guarding the German people from the fullest result of the
British blockade. It is no overstatement to declare that but for the
German submarines the war would have ended in the victory of the
Allies in 1916.
We may hark back to our own Civil War for an illustration of the
crushing power of a superior navy not qualified by any serviceable
weapon in the hands of the weaker power.
Historians have very generally failed to ascribe to the Federal
blockade of Confederate ports its proportionate influence on the
outcome of that war. The Confederates had no navy. Their few naval
vessels were mere commerce destroyers, fleeing the ships of the
United States navy and preying upon unarmed merchantmen. With what
was rapidly developed into the most powerful navy the world had ever
seen, the United States Government from the very beginning of the
war locked the Confederate States in a wall of iron. None might pass
going in or out, except by stealth and at the peril of property and
life. Outside the harbour of every seaport in the control of the
Confederates the blockading men-of-war lurked awaiting the blockade
runners. Their vigilance was often eluded, of course, yet
nevertheless the number of cargoes that slipped through was
painfully inadequate to meet the needs of the fenced-in States.
Clothing, medicines, articles of necessary household use were denied
to civilians. Cannon, rifles, saltpetre, and other munitions of war
were withheld from the Confederate armies. While the ports of the
North were bustling with foreign trade, grass grew on the
cobble-stoned streets along the waterfronts of Charleston and
Savannah. Slow starvation aided the constant pounding of the
Northern armies in reducing the South to subjection.
Had the Confederacy possessed but a few submarines of modern type
this situation could not have persisted. Then, as to-day, neutral
nations were eager to trade with both belligerents. There were then
more neutrals whose interests would have compelled the observance of
the laws of blockade, which in the present war are flagrantly
violated by all belligerents with impunity. A submarine raid which
would have sunk or driven away the blockading fleet at the entrance
to a single harbour would have resulted in opening that harbour to
the unrestricted uses of neutral ships until the blockade could be
re-established and formal notice given to all powers--a formality
which in those days, prior to the existence of cables, would have
entailed weeks, perhaps months, of delay.
How serious such an interruption to the blockade was then considered
was shown by the trepidation of the Union naval authorities over the
first victories of the _Merrimac_ prior to the providential arrival
of the _Monitor_ in Hampton Roads. It was then thought that the
Confederate ram would go straight to Wilmington, Charleston, and
Savannah, destroy or drive away the blockaders, and open the
Confederacy to the trade of the world.
Even then men dreamed of submarines, as indeed they have since the
days of the American Revolution. Of the slow development of that
engine of war to its present effectiveness we shall speak more fully
in later chapters. Enough now to say that had the Confederacy
possessed boats of the U-53 type the story of our Civil War might
have had a different ending. The device which the Allies have
adopted to-day of blockading a port or ports by posting their ships
several hundred miles away would have found no toleration among
neutrals none too friendly to the United States, and vastly stronger
in proportion to the power of this nation than all the neutrals
to-day are to the strength of the Allies.
[Illustration: _Victory in the Clouds._
_Painting by John E. Whiting._]
From the beginning of the Great War in Europe the fleets of the
Teutonic alliance were locked up in port by the superior floating
forces of the Entente. Such sporadic dashes into the arena of
conflict as the one made by the German High Fleet, bringing on the
Battle of Jutland, had but little bearing on the progress of the
war. But the steady, persistent malignant activity of the German
submarines had everything to do with it. They mitigated the
rigidity of the British blockade by keeping the blockaders far from
the ports they sought to seal. They preyed on the British fleets by
sinking dreadnoughts, battleships, and cruisers in nearly all of the
belligerent seas. If the British navy justified its costly power by
keeping the German fleet practically imprisoned in its fortified
harbours, the German submarines no less won credit and glory by
keeping even that overwhelming naval force restricted in its
movements, ever on guard, ever in a certain sense on the defensive.
And meanwhile these underwater craft so preyed upon British
foodships that in the days of the greatest submarine activity
England was reduced to husbanding her stores of food with almost as
great thrift and by precisely the same methods as did Germany
suffering from the British blockade.
Aircraft and submarines! Twin terrors of the world's greatest war!
The development, though by no means the final development, of dreams
that men of many nations have dreamed throughout the centuries! They
are two of the outstanding features of the war; two of its legacies
to mankind. How much the legacy may be worth in peaceful times is
yet to be determined. The airplane and the dirigible at any rate
seem already to promise useful service to peaceful man. Already the
flier is almost as common a spectacle in certain sections of our
country as the automobile was fifteen years ago. The submarine, for
economic reasons, promises less for the future in the way of
peaceful service, notwithstanding the exploits of the _Deutschland_
in the ocean-carrying trade. But perhaps it too will find its place
in industry when awakened man shall be willing to spend as much
treasure, as much genius, as much intelligent effort, and as much
heroic self-sacrifice in organizing for the social good as in the
last four years he has expended in its destruction.