Bombardment in 1917 played a more and more important part in aerial
operations. The Germans had for some time expended their principal
efforts upon aviation on the battlefield; besides, up to 1916 they were
averse to night flying. But by the beginning of 1918 they had brought
into existence a system of aerial bombardment supplied with powerful
machines, and had developed an increasing series of attacks on the
French troops, on the camps at the rear, and, alas! on the cities of
France. Nancy and Dunkirk are sad examples of their work.
The German squadrons known as Kampfgeschwader, furnished with special
trains that transport them to any desired point and placed under the
direct authority of the Quartermaster General, make use of great
triplanes armed with machine guns and supplied with automatic bomb
throwers; the Gothas, which, with their two Mercedes motors of 260 horse
power each, can carry 1,200 pounds of explosives and gasoline for five
hours, and the Friedrichshafens, whose two Benz motors of 225 horse
power each can carry enough gasoline for four hours and twelve bombs
totaling half a ton in weight.
It was with these machines--employed in mass formation--that the Germans
attempted their great bombing operations in the Autumn of 1917, notably
the expedition in November, when in a single night seven groups of
airplanes made successive attacks on English cities; also the raid of
Dec. 19 on London, when twenty machines took part in the attack on
London and caused serious damage, including the work of an incendiary
bomb that set fire to a factory and burned it to the ground. It is with
these machines which they are still improving, and which they are
multiplying by the bold creation of series, that the Germans have vainly
sought to hold command of the air during their offensive in Picardy.
The example and threat of the enemy had their effect in France. The
French bombarding groups, which, born at the end of 1914, had in 1915
achieved famous flights into the heart of Germany, were compelled, with
the advent of aerial combats, to renounce daylight operations, as these
had become impossible or too uncertain for their slow and heavy
machines, insufficiently armed, and had turned their attention to
perilous night expeditions. But, despite successful raids and effective
destruction, the French bombing operations remained more or less
unsatisfactory.
In the course of 1917 the use of the flying squadrons was finally
adapted to the diverse needs of the battle front. In the French
offensive at Verdun, while tactical aviation guided the waves of
assault, regulated the artillery fire, and furnished information to the
General Staff, while the swift airplane chasers, by a vigilant barrage,
prevented all observation by enemy machines, the bombarding groups daily
took part also in the action by hurling flames and destruction on
railway stations, munition depots, storehouses at the rear, and sowing
panic among the troops that were preparing to attack.
Equipped at length with machines that combined the indispensable
characteristics of speed, power, and armament, enabling them to hold the
air in daytime, the French bombardiers attacked arsenals in the interior
of Germany, and the British war dispatches of Dec. 25 mentioned a
daylight raid of allied air squadrons upon Mannheim, where several fires
followed, with heavy explosions at the central railway station and in
the factories.
The night groups, which had long made their raids only by moonlight, at
length grew accustomed to flying in complete darkness. They multiplied
their expeditions against enemy cantonments, railways, aviation fields,
factories, and military and industrial centres. The task that remained
at the opening of the Spring of 1918 was the fuller co-ordination of the
groups of bombardiers.
By that time the French had an excellent daylight airplane as well as
successful night machines, and announced the early completion of still
better ones. Their projectiles were not inferior to those of the
Germans, and their supply was up to the demand. Thus they faced the
German offensive fully equipped to hold their own so far as air
supremacy was concerned.