Peter Brown - Barnstormers, Wing-Walking and Flying Circuses

Barnstormers, Wing-Walking and Flying Circuses

Barnstormers, Wing-Walking and Flying Circuses

Peter C. Brown

First published in Great Britain in 2022 by

Pen & Sword Air World

An imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

Yorkshire Philadelphia

Copyright Peter C. Brown 2022

ISBN 978 1 52679 418 5

eISBN ISBN 978 1 52679 419 2

mobi ISBN 978 1 52679 419 2

The right of Peter C. Brown to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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Ihave used the word airplane to describe the machines that the early aviators used because it was first coined in 1906, about three years after the Wright brothers took to the air on the first successful flight with the flying machine. Little more than bolted and welded pieces of metal, wood and fabric, it was more than twenty years after the Wright brothers took flight that Charles Lindbergh became the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic non-stop, helping to cement airplane travel across the Atlantic and around the world. The word aero, although favoured in scientific jargon, was deemed too fancy, and planes became more common things to talk about. In Scientific American in 1906, there had already been a claim that air-plane was a much better word than aeroplane. Ten years later, airplane was adopted by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics as their term.

Airplanes were just coming into military use at the outset of the Great War, and while their impact on the course of the war was mainly tactical rather than strategic, most important being direct cooperation with ground forces especially ranging and correcting artillery fire the first steps in the strategic roles of aircraft in future wars was also foreshadowed. At the 1911 meeting of the Institute of International Law in Madrid, legislation was proposed to limit the use of airplanes to reconnaissance missions and banning them from being used as platforms for weapons. This legislation was rooted in a fear that airplanes would be used to attack undefended cities, violating Article 69 of the Den Hague Reglement (the set of international laws governing warfare).

However, the initial campaigns of 1914 proved that cavalry could no longer provide the reconnaissance expected by their generals, in the face of the greatly increased firepower of twentieth-century armies, and it was quickly realized that aircraft could at least locate the enemy, even if early air reconnaissance was hampered by the newness of the techniques involved.

Aviation was one of the most romanticized elements of the First World War. Air aces in particular achieved celebrity status both during and after the war and their photographs regularly appeared in newspapers. The French first coined the term ace to describe the high-scoring fighter pilot Adolphe Pgoud and the expression stuck, and then applied to any fighter pilot credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft. Lone aerial combat provided an outlet for acts of personal bravery, and the aces were seen as chivalrous heroes engaged in honest and impressive one-to-one fighting. However, the lives of air aces were often cut short through combat or because of mechanical failure. This only fuelled their status as heroic martyrs when they were killed in action between 1916 and 1918 or died in flying accidents during or after the war.

Many countries signed up to the proposal at the meeting in Madrid for banning the use of airplanes in war, except for the major countries that had aircraft just before the First World War, which in effect catalysed the development of the aircraft industry. Thus the plane became a full war machine with decisive influence on the modern battlefield.

At the start of the war, there was some debate over the usefulness of aircraft in warfare. Many senior officers, in particular, remained sceptical. However, aircraft were to prove their worth by mid-war and early scepticism and low expectations quickly turned to unrealistic demands beyond the capabilities of the primitive aircraft available.

Even so, air reconnaissance played a critical role in the war of movement of 1914, especially in helping the Allies halt the German invasion of France. On 22 August 1914, British Captain Lionel Evelyn Oswald Charlton and Lieutenant Vivian Hugh Nicholas Wadham reported that German General Alexander von Klucks army was preparing to surround the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), contradicting all other intelligence. The British High Command took note of the report and started to withdraw from Mons, thus saving the lives of 100,000 soldiers. Later, during the First Battle of the Marne, observation aircraft discovered weak points and exposed flanks in the German lines, allowing the Allies to take advantage of them.

In Germany, the great successes of the early Zeppelin airships had largely overshadowed the importance of heavier-than-air aircraft. Out of a paper strength of about 230 aircraft belonging to the army in August 1914 only 180 or so were of any use. The French military aviation exercises of 1911, 1912 and 1913 had pioneered cooperation with the cavalry (reconnaissance) and artillery (spotting), but the momentum was if anything slacking.

Great Britain had started late and initially relied largely on the French aircraft industry, especially for aircraft engines. The initial British contribution to the total Allied air war effort in August 1914 (of about 184 aircraft) was three squadrons with about thirty serviceable machines. By the end of the war, Great Britain had formed the worlds first air force independent of either army or naval control, the Royal Air Force. The American army and navy air services were far behind; even in 1917, when the United States entered the war, they were to be almost completely dependent on the French and British aircraft industries for combat aircraft. The Germans great air coup of 1914 was at the Battle of Tannenberg in East Prussia, where an unexpected Russian attack was reported by pilots Lieutenants Ernst Canter and Karl Mertens, resulting in the Russians being forced to withdraw.

Aerial reconnaissance using heavier-than-air machines was an entirely new science that had to be improvised step by step. Early operations were low-level flights with the pilot often dismounting from the plane to report verbally to the nearest officers. Photographic support was urgently developed, initially requiring a full-time photographer on board to handle the heavy, awkward equipment, and the interpretation of the resulting aerial images became an important new speciality, essential for accurate mapping. It would be 1917 before two-way air-to-ground radio would be in use for reconnaissance pilots, and until then, it was not uncommon for aircraft to land next to command posts so the pilot could personally pass on urgent information. The French employed airdropped messaging, coloured flares and prearranged aircraft manoeuvres to convey information.