Air Warfare

When they entered the war the Germans had approximately 230 aeroplanes, Great Britain had roughly 30 and France about 84. The production of aeroplanes increased over the course of the war but when the Americans joined the fighting three years later, they were reliant on British or French aircraft, having brought almost none of their own

On 8th September 1914 a Russian pilot rammed his plane into an Austrian one. Both planes crashed and both pilots were killed. Other means of fighting between aeroplanes at the time included throwing grenades at one another, swinging grappling hooks at the enemy or firing a pistol

Though less of a threat than aeroplanes, balloons were a danger to an army as they could give away both position and strength. For this reason they were included in a pilot's list of victories to encourage him to attack

The origin of the term is not known for certain. It may be that the word 'anti-air' bears a passing resemblance to 'Archibald.' Another explanation is that a pilot, when fired on, had quoted a popular music hall song of the time about a henpecked husband, entitled 'Archibald, certainly not!'

The British deployed 365 aircraft of which roughly 120 were fighters and faced 80 German fighters. The British lost 245 aircraft and 319 men during the course of the month whilst the Germans lost 66 of their planes. Nevertheless, it is considered a victory for the British as they were successful in their air support duties, helping their comrades on the ground to achieve victory

The balloons were tethered to the ground and fitted with telephones for direct communication with their assigned artillery unit. Aeroplanes had no such luxury but were much more versatile, being used to take photographs of enemy trench networks. Later in the war aeroplanes were fitted with radio transmitters which allowed them to communicate via morse code, but they had no receivers so ground units had to use visual signals to communicate with the airmen

Only 5 victories, confirmed by one's superiors, were enough to gain the title. By the end of the war more than 1,800 men had become aces

It was also known as the Fokker Scare and lasted from the summer of 1915 until the beginning of 1916 when Allied fighters also equipped with synchronised gears arrived on the battlefields. For those six months the German Fokker Eindecker fighters enjoyed a dominance over the skies of the Western Front

Squadrons in the German Army had previously been mixed with fighters providing escort to bombers and reconnaissance planes. After losing their air superiority, the Germans reorganised their air corps into more specialised units for close support, fighting or strategic bombing

All of the solutions presented their own problems. Having a standing gunner as well as a pilot added weight to the aircraft and slowed it down, whilst rear-mounted propellers created extra drag which also slowed the aeroplane down. It was not until 1915 that synchronised gears, which allowed bullets to pass between the rotating blades, were developed. These were not wholly reliable though as the speed of a propeller's rotation can vary and bullets would often hit the blades, either disintegrating them or ricocheting dangerously back at the aircraft or its pilot