AIR SUPREMACY
The great Somme offensive proved beyond all dispute the claim of
England and France to the supremacy of the air. It is not, however,
always clearly understood precisely what air supremacy means. To that
remarkably able war correspondent, Mr. Philip Gibbs, we owe one of
the clearest accounts given of the part played by aircraft in modern
warfare.
Writing whilst with the British Armies in the field, September 12,
1916, Mr. Philip Gibbs said: ‘To-day has been quiet on our front,
without infantry fighting, up to the time I write. Southward, on our
right, the French have been attacking heavily, with a bombardment that
has swept a great stretch of country with fire between Combles and
Péronne. When the French get to Combles—one need hardly use the word
“if,” as they are now hammering at its outskirts—they will link up
with us to the right of Ginchy and Leuze Wood, where the enemy is still
holding out against us in a bad position, a few hundred Germans still
defending themselves bravely in the “loop” trench which is flung like
a lassoo to the north-east of Guillemont.... We are still below the
line of the Ginchy telegraph on the high plateau, so that we have not
yet obtained full observation of the valley slopes on the other side,
though by the capture of Ginchy itself we have robbed the enemy of his
old point of view, which was of enormous value to him in registering
upon our batteries and watching our movements.
‘His only means of observation now is from the air, and yesterday
there was visible proof of this, because fifteen or sixteen of his
kite balloons came creeping out of the clouds above the plateau here,
peering at us at close range. I should hate to be a German observer
in one of those “sausages,” as our men call them. They have a painful
reminiscence of six such gas-bags brought down on one day, which was
June 30 last, before the great battle began. Since then they have
not floated aloft with any safety. On September 1 two of them were
attacked by one of our air-pilots, who fired machine guns at them
and dropped bombs on to them so that they had to haul down hurriedly
in a great scare, and a few days ago one of our knights-errant of the
air crossed the enemy’s lines at nearly 12,000 feet, mounted directly
above a German balloon, and dived upon it, until he was no higher than
500 yards above it. Then he fired until he almost touched the great
bag, and as he passed it burst into a vast flame and was burnt to a
wisp of smoke in a few seconds. For fighting purposes these German
“Peeping Toms” are not safe and certain means of observation with our
airmen hovering near them, even though they have adopted a new means of
defence, which is a gun below them sending up a high-reaching flame to
scorch the wings of any British moth who dares to come too close. Our
moths will take the risk....
‘To-day, a German plane did come across our lines, where I was
wandering about some old dug-outs and trenches, watching our batteries
plug away in a leisurely style, and wondering at the relative quietude
of an _off day_ of battle. But that hostile bird was scared back by
some of our hawks, and they followed him well into his own country of
the sky, with their usual audacity. There is no humbug about all this.
On this part of the battle-front we maintain the mastery of the air and
blind the enemy’s point of view. It makes all the difference to our
artillery, and it is extraordinary to go through the recent history of
the Royal Flying Corps and to note how many German batteries have been
put under heavy gunfire by aerial registration. It is not easy to knock
out a battery by a direct hit. A gun is a small target, and shells may
crump it all round and leave it unscathed; but on the laws of luck we
have certainly scored many direct hits during the last week or two.
Many ammunition dumps and pits have been blown up after aerial reports,
as I have seen myself several times, watching the high enduring volumes
of black curly smoke.’
Thus we see that the claim of England and her gallant Allies to the
supremacy of the air is an established fact. Later, we shall see more
closely still how this has been brought about, and that more than can
be estimated is due to the individual courage of our heroic aviators.