Part V: The First World War in .NET framework

Encoding QR Code in .NET framework Part V: The First World War

Enter the aeroplane!

Great Britain entered the war with two air forces the Royal Flying Corps, which belonged to the Army, and the Royal Naval Air Service, a branch of the Royal Navy Both had operational squadrons in France and Belgium from the beginning Air reconnaissance or scouting for the Army was an obvious role for the air forces and the generic name for the first fighter aircraft was Scouts During the early days of the First World War, aircraft also dropped small bombs, grenades, and boxes of flechettes (small, weighted arrows) on the enemy s marching columns Inevitably, they encountered enemy aircraft The observers from each side banged away at each other with pistols, rifles, and shotguns without doing much damage, then went home Such contests became more serious when their cockpits were fitted with rearwardfacing machine guns, and downright dangerous when interrupter devices enabled pilots to fire forward-mounted machine guns through the propeller This initiated the era of the dogfight, as each side sought to maintain air superiority over the trench lines

The availability of machine guns, magazine rifles, quick-firing artillery, and barbed wire meant that the powers of the defence were stronger than those of the attack The problem was that during the past 60 years fate had placed the generals under a tragic delusion: The side that kept attacking had won the American Civil War, the Austro-Prussian War, the Franco-Prussian War, the Russo-Japanese War, and even the Second Boer War, despite the fact that by far the heavier casualties were also among the attackers The business of the generals was to win wars and they believed that they could only achieve this by doing likewise In due course, the British Regular Army was followed into action by the Territorial Force, as it was then known Lord Haldane created the Territorial Army in 1907 from various volunteer units around the country County associations became responsible for raising territorial units that ultimately formed 14 infantry divisions and 14 mounted brigades, based on the 14 military districts into which the country was divided The old volunteer battalions became part of their county regiment, with the object of increasing efficiency by closer ties This produced a regimental structure of, for example: 1st and 2nd (Regular) Battalions 3rd (Militia) Battalion 4th and 5th (Territorial) Battalions

17: Hangin On the Old Barbed Wire : The Western Front, 1914 1917

Other roles for the air forces included spotting for the artillery, shooting down the enemy s observation balloons, photo reconnaissance, and ground attack The Royal Naval Air Service broke new ground by forming an armoured car division in 1914, the original objective being to rescue pilots forced to land between the armies Most Royal Navy Armoured Car Division squadrons transferred to the Army and served in other theatres of war, although one squadron headed for Russia where it enjoyed an adventurous career both before and after the Revolution In 1918 the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service merged to form the Royal Air Force as an independent arm in its own right

The British army that went to France in August 1914 was called the BEF (British Expeditionary Force, although Kaiser Wilhelm gave it a different name see the sidebar The Old Contemptibles ) Its first commander was Field Marshal Sir John French, who had relieved Kimberley with his Cavalry Division during the Second Boer War (see 16) It consisted of a Cavalry Division of five brigades under Major General EH Allenby, I Corps under Lieutenant General Sir Douglas Haig, and II Corps under General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien Following the first battles, III Corps under Major General WP Pulteney joined these The recently formed Royal Flying Corps contributed the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th Aeroplane Squadrons