CHAPTER XVI

AIR SUPREMACY

The great Somme offensive proved beyond all dispute the claim of England and France to the supremacy of the air. It is not, however, always clearly understood precisely what air supremacy means. To that remarkably able war correspondent, Mr. Philip Gibbs, we owe one of the clearest accounts given of the part played by aircraft in modern warfare.

Writing whilst with the British Armies in the field, September 12, 1916, Mr. Philip Gibbs said: ‘To-day has been quiet on our front, without infantry fighting, up to the time I write. Southward, on our right, the French have been attacking heavily, with a bombardment that has swept a great stretch of country with fire between Combles and Péronne. When the French get to Combles—one need hardly use the word “if,” as they are now hammering at its outskirts—they will link up with us to the right of Ginchy and Leuze Wood, where the enemy is still holding out against us in a bad position, a few hundred Germans still defending themselves bravely in the “loop” trench which is flung like a lassoo to the north-east of Guillemont.... We are still below the line of the Ginchy telegraph on the high plateau, so that we have not yet obtained full observation of the valley slopes on the other side, though by the capture of Ginchy itself we have robbed the enemy of his old point of view, which was of enormous value to him in registering upon our batteries and watching our movements.

‘His only means of observation now is from the air, and yesterday there was visible proof of this, because fifteen or sixteen of his kite balloons came creeping out of the clouds above the plateau here, peering at us at close range. I should hate to be a German observer in one of those “sausages,” as our men call them. They have a painful reminiscence of six such gas-bags brought down on one day, which was June 30 last, before the great battle began. Since then they have not floated aloft with any safety. On September 1 two of them were attacked by one of our air-pilots, who fired machine guns at them and dropped bombs on to them so that they had to haul down hurriedly in a great scare, and a few days ago one of our knights-errant of the air crossed the enemy’s lines at nearly 12,000 feet, mounted directly above a German balloon, and dived upon it, until he was no higher than 500 yards above it. Then he fired until he almost touched the great bag, and as he passed it burst into a vast flame and was burnt to a wisp of smoke in a few seconds. For fighting purposes these German “Peeping Toms” are not safe and certain means of observation with our airmen hovering near them, even though they have adopted a new means of defence, which is a gun below them sending up a high-reaching flame to scorch the wings of any British moth who dares to come too close. Our moths will take the risk....

‘To-day, a German plane did come across our lines, where I was wandering about some old dug-outs and trenches, watching our batteries plug away in a leisurely style, and wondering at the relative quietude of an _off day_ of battle. But that hostile bird was scared back by some of our hawks, and they followed him well into his own country of the sky, with their usual audacity. There is no humbug about all this. On this part of the battle-front we maintain the mastery of the air and blind the enemy’s point of view. It makes all the difference to our artillery, and it is extraordinary to go through the recent history of the Royal Flying Corps and to note how many German batteries have been put under heavy gunfire by aerial registration. It is not easy to knock out a battery by a direct hit. A gun is a small target, and shells may crump it all round and leave it unscathed; but on the laws of luck we have certainly scored many direct hits during the last week or two. Many ammunition dumps and pits have been blown up after aerial reports, as I have seen myself several times, watching the high enduring volumes of black curly smoke.’

Thus we see that the claim of England and her gallant Allies to the supremacy of the air is an established fact. Later, we shall see more closely still how this has been brought about, and that more than can be estimated is due to the individual courage of our heroic aviators.