GERMAN AIRPLANES IN THE WORLD WAR
When we read the story of the wonderful contributions made by France,
England, Italy, and America to the progress of aviation and to the
romantic history of the heavier-than-air machine, we must remember that
it is the story of nations which, a few short years ago, had no thought
of turning the airplane into a mere weapon of destruction and
desolation. It was the conquest of the air, for its own sake, that
appealed to the fiery imaginations of the French, and that made them,
from the day when the first Montgolfier balloon went soaring into the
clouds, down to the early triumphs of the airplane in France and the
great contests and meetings that followed them, ardent enthusiasts over
each and every form of aerial sport. England, in spite of the fact that
her sportsmen fliers were winning new triumphs daily, and in spite of
the public interest that was taken from the very beginning in the
advance of aviation, had, at the beginning of 1911, just _one_ military
airplane. America, ardent devotee of Peace, even while the World War was
raging in Europe, failed to take steps to provide herself with an aerial
fleet.
But when we come to Germany, the story of aviation takes an entirely
different turn. The Germans as a people were never wildly enthusiastic
over airplanes, for they lacked the fine sportsmanship and love of
daring adventure which produced so many clever aviators in other lands.
In fact, until they saw its utter inability to compete with the
heavier-than-air machine as a military weapon, they confined themselves
almost entirely to the construction of the safe and comfortable
dirigible. With the possible exception of such a man as Lilienthal, the
Germans took slight personal interest in the subject of human flight. It
was the German government that, by lavish expenditure, and by every
means known to it, encouraged experiment and progress.
The whole thought in Germany, both in the days of the dirigible and
later, when the airplane had proved its superiority, was solely to
develop the flying machine as an instrument of war. It was for this that
she began her costly and gigantic program of Zeppelin construction, it
was for this that the best engineers in the Empire were set to work
designing aeronautic engines. It was not without some chagrin that the
German military authorities gave up their dream of world conquest by
means of the Zeppelin, and set themselves to building airplanes instead.
Yet when they did, they applied to the new problem the same
thoroughness, the same military precision and uniformity that had marked
their earlier program. Reading of the French machines we are fascinated
by the many types and patterns that the ingenious Frenchmen were able
to devise. In Germany everything was carefully systematized by the
government, individual designs were discouraged unless they fitted into
the military scheme of things, and the airplane was produced in large
numbers, like so many blackjacks, all exactly alike, to be used in
striking the peaceful nations of the world.
German thoroughness went a long way in perfecting the airplane as a war
instrument. When, in August 1914, her sword finally descended, she had
close on to 800 machines and a thousand trained pilots, together with a
small force of seaplanes and pilots. To-day, according to an English
authority, she has at least 20,000 aircraft of all sorts, manned by a
force of 300,000 pilots, observers, and bombardiers.
The first German machines to fly over French territory might well have
struck terror to the hearts of the plucky French, for they were equipped
with the cleverest instruments of destruction that Germany could devise.
The swept-back, curved wings of these standard biplanes won them the
name of _Taube_ or "dove." Certainly they were not "doves of peace."
They were equipped with wireless, carried cameras for reconnaissance
work, had the most accurate recorders of height and speed, dependable
compasses, instruments for bomb-dropping, dual control systems, so that
they could be operated by either pilot or observer, and dozens of other
small improvements and accessories that made them more than a match for
the French machines sent up to dispute their supremacy in the air. The
challenge these machines presented to the genius of the French was taken
up with vigor. It was not long before they found themselves an obsolete
form of aircraft in the great war in the air, and for all their
inventions and improvements, they were forced back into their hangars.
By the Spring of 1915, the French were soaring through the sky in fast
fighting machines that made the air a very unsafe place for the plodding
German "maid-of-all-work." The Germans bestirred themselves to think of
some method of getting even with these unreasonable French pilots, who
somehow refused to admit defeat. The machine which they sent out in
answer to the _Nieuport_ monoplane and others of its type was the
invention of a Dutchman; it succeeded in creating quite a sensation for
a while in Allied circles, until like others of its company it was
superseded by French inventive genius and rendered a more or less
harmless craft.
This supposedly invincible fighter was the _Fokker_. In general
construction it was largely an imitation of the French Morane monoplane,
but it had one entirely new feature that rendered it at the time a
formidable adversary. That was what was known as a synchronized gun,
firing through the propeller.
The problem had been to design a machine which could be operated by one
man, who became both the pilot and the gunner. In order to do this he
must necessarily be able to control the direction of his machine in
flight and aim his gun at the enemy at the same time. The best way to
accomplish this was to point the nose of his machine at his victim and
fire straight ahead of him. But here the propeller was the great
obstacle. How could he fire a gun from the bow of his machine without
striking the propeller blades as they whirled swiftly about in front of
him? The German _Fokker_ answered that question. The machine gun with
which it was equipped had its shots so synchronized, or "timed," that,
impossible as it seems, they passed between the rapidly revolving
propeller blades without striking them. The _Fokker_ was a remarkable
climber in its day, and in addition it had a simple device by which the
pilot could lock the control of the elevating planes, steering only to
right or to left, by means of pedals worked with his feet.
Early in 1916 this deadly weapon of aerial warfare made its appearance,
and for a while the civilian population of England and France read with
dismay of its conquests. Mounting high into the clouds, it would await
its victim. The moment a machine of the Allies appeared beneath it, the
_Fokker_ turned its nose straight down and went speeding in the
direction of its prey, opening fire as soon as it got within range.
There was no use of the unfortunate airplane trying to escape. The
_Fokker_ could, by wobbling its nose slightly in spiral fashion as it
descended, produce, not a straight stream of bullets ahead of it but a
cone of fire from its machine gun, with the victim in the center of the
circle. Whichever way the latter turned to escape it met a curtain of
bullets which could destroy it. The Allied machines could only combat
it in groups of three and for a time at least it held supremacy in the
skies. When itself pursued by a superior number of planes, it was quick
as an acrobat, and speedy at climbing, so that it very seldom could be
caught.
This was the machine in which the two famous German airmen, Immelmann
and Boelke performed some of their most daring exploits. It traveled at
a speed of more than 100 miles per hour and could perform surprising
feats with the most alarming ease.
But while the _Fokker's_ début over the trenches caused the British
House of Commons to debate the new peril gravely, French and British
airmen sprang quickly and gaily to the challenge. Heedless of the
danger, they braved the bullets of the _Fokker_ in order to get a better
view of its mechanism, and they soon answered it with swift and powerful
machines like the British _De Havilland_. It was only a short while
before the Fokker monoplane was "behind the times." Faster machines with
greater climbing powers overtook it in the skies and swooped down upon
it from superior altitudes, as it had swooped down upon so many of its
victims. Its day of triumph at an end, it withdrew to the seclusion of
its hangar, and the _Fokker biplane_ replaced it in the air. This in its
turn became the steed of many of Germany's star aerial performers.
Now came the days when Captain Baron von Richthofen held forth in the
heavens with his squadrons of variegated planes which the British airmen
nicknamed "Richthofen's circus." These queerly "camouflaged" planes
were German Albatroses. The _Albatros_ was one of the best designed of
the German airplanes, and although the first models produced were not
remarkable for their speed, they were good climbers and weight-carriers
and thoroughly reliable. They were later developed in two distinct
types: a fast "speed scout" biplane single-seater, equipped with two
machine guns both firing across the propeller; and a slower
reconnaissance airplane, for general service over the lines. The latter
carried both a pilot and an observer, and had two machine guns, one to
be fired by each of them.
It was not long before the Allies had several captured machines of this
type in their possession. An Austrian _Albatros_ reconnaissance biplane,
taken in 1916, afforded an interesting opportunity to examine what was
at that time one of the very best of the enemy's planes. Its general
construction did not entirely meet with the approval of expert airmen
who looked it over. Its upper wing was much longer from tip to tip than
the lower, producing a very great overhang. From the point of view of
the pilot this had its advantage, for the shorter plane below him
allowed a much better range of vision, but it undoubtedly weakened the
whole structure. The biplane was exceedingly slow in flight, a great
drawback even in a machine not built for fighting purposes. One curious
feature was its very large fixed tail plane, to which the elevating
plane was attached; while a decided defect from a military standpoint
was the entirely unprotected position of the pilot and the observer.
Obviously the Germans had not yet solved the problem of air supremacy to
their complete satisfaction. But their engineers and designers were busy
thinking it over, and soon they had ready a number of swifter airplanes,
foremost among which were probably the _Aviatik_ and the _Halberstadt_.
The _Aviatik_ made great claims of superior accomplishments over the
front lines. German pilots boasted that it had a "ceiling" (a climbing
capacity) of almost 16,000 feet with pilot, observer and a fuel supply.
This was over 4,000 feet greater altitude than that which any other
Allied or enemy machine could reach under similar conditions. The
machine had an upper wing span of 40 feet, 8 inches, while its lower
wing measured 35 feet, 5 inches from tip to tip. It had a strong armor
of steel tubing surrounding the compartment or "cockpit" which held the
seats of the pilot and observer.
The _Aviatik_ was an efficient bombing biplane of its day, although
larger and more powerful machines have since come into the field to
supersede it. It was fitted with metal bomb-launching tubes at either
side of the bow, and the bombs were released by pulling a cable
connected with the releasing trigger. The _Aviatik_ was armed in
addition with rotating machine guns, able to fire in any direction in an
aerial battle.
The _Halberstadt_ was a swift fighting machine or speed scout, which
made its appearance in the third year of the war and proved efficient
and reliable. This and the combat planes that followed it showed greater
and greater speed until by 1917 the scout machines were flying at 150
miles per hour and climbing to altitudes as high as 22,000 feet.
It was the bombing plane, however, that appealed most strongly to the
German mind as an instrument of destruction. Tired, perhaps, of their
efforts to produce a fighting machine which should be without its match
in aerial warfare, they focussed their attention about this time upon
the bomber, which in 1917 was playing an ever more important role in the
struggle for air supremacy. Early in 1917, the flower of their creative
genius took to the air. It was the _Gotha_ biplane, and at the time of
its début it proved one of the most difficult machines to attack and
down of any of those flying for the Hun. The _Gun-tunnel Gotha_ it was
familiarly called, owing to the unusual means of defense against
pursuers that had been devised for it.
Up to this time one of the best methods of attacking an enemy plane had
been to come up suddenly and fire on it "under its tail." The gunner in
the machine thus attacked could not get in a single shot at his pursuer
without striking the tail planes of his own machine. The portion of an
airplane which can be fired on in this way without danger of return fire
is said to be its "blind spot," and it was this blind spot that sent
many a well-armed and powerful airplane crashing to earth when its
pursuers had succeeded in outmaneuvering it.
The _Gun-tunnel Gotha_ had practically no blind spot. Its designers had
constructed it with a tunnel that ran the length of the fuselage, from
the cockpit, or compartment where the pilot and gunners sat, through to
an opening just under the tail planes. A machine gun in the cockpit
could be pointed through this tunnel and fired at the unsuspecting
victim who came up back of it according to the most approved tactics.
The opening of the gun tunnel was carefully "camouflaged," so that at a
short distance it could not be seen by an attacking airplane, especially
one which was unprepared for it.
The _Gotha_ practically bristled with machine guns. One in its bow which
commanded a fairly large range was operated by the forward observer, who
sat in front of the pilot. A passage-way beside the pilot's seat allowed
him to reach "gun-tunnel," where, stretched flat on the floor of the
fuselage he operated the gun which fired out under the tail. Above him
in the fuselage sat the rear gunner, and by their combined aid the
_Gotha_ could keep all enemy planes at a safe distance.
[Illustration: _Copyright Underwood and Underwood_
A GIANT GOTHA BOMBING PLANE BROUGHT DOWN BY THE FRENCH]
These, however, were merely protective measures. The Gotha's real
mission was bombing, and for this it carried a bomb-releasing mechanism
just in front of the pilot's seat, on the floor of the fuselage, while
behind the pilot an additional supply of the death-dealing missiles were
carried in racks in vertical position.
[Illustration: _Copyright Underwood and Underwood_
GERMAN FOKKER PLANE CAPTURED BY THE FRENCH]
These were the machines which flew over England and France in 1917
scattering death and destruction. Against them the machines of the
Allies were for a time almost powerless, for the best of their airplanes
were completely outgunned by this new terror of the skies. The new
German machine was given one of its first tryouts in the Balkans, where
a squadron of twin-engined _Gothas_ accomplished the bombing of
Bucharest. Its efficiency proved, it appeared over the lines and was
also used extensively by the Germans for long distance bombing
operations.
The fact that the _Gothas_ flew in large squadrons made them still more
difficult to attack. Yet Allied airplanes went out to give them fight,
and in spite of what seemed the almost complete hopelessness of the
situation, they did succeed in breaking up _Gotha_ formations and in
downing a few of the dread machines.
Yet another German twin-winged bombing plane was ready about this time.
The _Friedrichshafen_ bomber was not so large as the _Gotha_, but in
many points of construction it resembled it. A biplane, it had wings
that tapered somewhat from the center to the tips. The wings were
strengthened by center spars of steel tubing, which was also used in the
construction of the rudder and elevators at the tail. The pilot occupied
the rear seat in the cockpit and the gunner the forward seat, while a
short passage-way ran between the two. Every effort had been made at
camouflage. On their upper surfaces the wings were painted as nearly as
possible earth color, so that they might be indistinguishable to a
machine looking down upon them from a superior altitude. On their lower
surfaces they were painted pale blue, to blend with the sky and make
them invisible to an enemy plane below.
The armament of this _Friedrichshafen_ bomber consisted of three machine
guns, one of them firing downward through a trap door in the fuselage.
It was fitted with an automatic bomb-releasing apparatus, by means of
which, as one bomb was released, another slipped into place.
Other bombing machines appeared in 1917, as the _A.E.G._ twin-motored
tractor biplane, and the _A.G.O._ twin-bodied biplane. The Germans also
began construction of huge bombing triplanes, heavily armed with machine
guns. With squadrons of these, the _Gothas_, and the _Friedrichshafens_,
they carried out in 1917 and 1918 an established program of bombardment.
The night no longer held terrors for their airmen, who had learned to
fly in the darkness. They made their raiding expeditions, not only
against Allied troops and military bases, but also on English and French
towns, killing civilians and children and destroying property of no
importance from a military point of view.
By these methods the Hun had hoped to acquire the supremacy of the air
which his smaller fighting machines had not yet won for him. Fortunately
the French and British had been hard at work, and in answer to the
forays of the German bombing planes, squadrons of Allied planes dropped
their missiles in the heart of Germany. The Allied planes, however,
chose military objectives, and did not aim their blows at defenseless
civilians.
Stroke for stroke, and with a little extra for good measure the Allies
beat back their opponents in the air. To-day some of the most remarkable
raiding machines in existence, whether for night or for day work belong
to France and England, while America is leaving no stone unturned to
build up an air navy the equal of those by whose side she fought.
Yet the war in the air, on the Allied side, was always marked by honor,
decency and humanity. The enemy repeatedly showed that not mere military
gains, but the savage pleasure of bombing civilians, was a part of his
air program. In March, 1918, nine squadrons of his airplanes flew over
Paris and attacked the city. The raid resulted in 100 deaths, besides 79
people injured, a shocking story to go down in the record of the Hun's
attempt at mastery of the air.
Mr. Baker, our American Secretary of War, was in Paris at the time when
this historic raid occurred. He was holding a conference at his hotel
with General Tasker H. Bliss, at the time American Chief of Staff, when
the French warning siren was sounded throughout the city. The city was
covered with a deep fog, that completely shielded from the view of the
German machines any possible objective. But they had no intention of
choosing targets for their bombs,--they let them fall at random upon
Paris. For almost three hours terror reigned among the helpless
civilians; then the raiders, having lost four of their number to the
anti-aircraft gunners, turned and sped swiftly toward their own lines.
"It was a revelation," said Mr. Baker, "of the methods inaugurated by an
enemy who wages the same war against women and children as against
soldiers.... We are sending our soldiers to Europe to fight until the
world is delivered from these horrors."
London as well as Paris suffered from enemy bombing planes. Raid
followed raid in the Spring of 1918, but the British had so improved
their aerial defenses that they were able to meet the attempted ravages
of the enemy with the most powerful anti-aircraft guns, which, like a
wall of fire, forbade the dread monsters to come within the limits of
the metropolis. Many machines in the German squadrons never got close
enough to London to bomb it, but those which did let fall their terrible
explosives without aim or object, killing and maiming a large number of
civilians. The British were finally forced to take the only course which
could have effect with the Hun. They flew into the heart of the enemy's
country and gave him a taste of his own medicine. True, they chose their
objectives carefully, and the targets which they bombed were munition
works, railways, factories, and camps, but for all their tempered
revenge they made the foe smart beneath the stinging lash that
descended, again and again, upon his back.
In answer to the aircraft program of the United States, Germany renewed
her energies, and her construction of airplanes during the last year of
the War was on a larger scale than ever before. Her small fighting
machines, or speed scouts, include the _Fokker_, the _Halberstadt_, the
_Roland_, the _Albatros_, the _Aviatik_, the _Pfalz_ monoplane, the
_Rumpler_, the _L.V.W._ and a number of others.
Some of these we have already seen at work. The _Roland_ is one of the
latest types of German two-seater scouts. Every effort has been made in
it to decrease the "head resistance" by careful streamlining, reduction
of the number of interplane struts, etc. Swift flying and a rapid
climber, it has won for itself the title of _The German Spad_. The
_Pfalz_ is built either as a monoplane or as a biplane. It is a machine
somewhat similar to the _Fokker_. The monoplane, however, has two
machine guns, one on each side of the pilot, and firing through the
propeller.
Among airplanes used by the enemy for general service duties over the
lines, the _A.G.O._, the _A.E.G._ and the _Gotha_ undoubtedly take the
lead. All are heavily armed with machine guns and bombs and are driven
by powerful motors.
Yet for all the desperate German struggle for supremacy, her machines
and her pilots did not prove the equals of the Allies in the air. The
airplanes of France, England, Italy and America maintained a ceaseless
vigilance over the lines, giving chase to every enemy plane or squadron
of planes that made its appearance on the horizon. Our airmen showed the
most dauntless courage, and they continually outwitted and outmaneuvered
the slower thinking Hun. Our speed scouts challenged his reconnaissance
and bombing planes, and prevented them from performing their missions
effectively; our own reconnaissance airplanes gave him a hard time of
it; and our bombing machines proved themselves the strong right arm of
the service--taking the place of the big guns in raining heavy
explosives upon enemy troops, bombing his military bases, and making
life in general most uncomfortable for the foe.
It is a far cry from those first standardized _Taubes_ to the many makes
and patterns of German airplanes of the present day. As the Allies met
those first maids-of-all-work with a mixed company of airplanes of many
and untried talents, so to-day they are meeting her efforts to imitate
their own versatility in aircraft with machines which are carefully
standardized in every detail. It should be an object lesson to Germany
that the Allies have triumphed in each case.