Aviation in Peace and WarSykes, Frederick Hugh, Sir
History
Aviation in Peace and War
Sykes, Frederick Hugh, Sir
Aeronautics
The successful use of Drachen kite-balloons borne in ships at the
Dardanelles led to their extensive development. Up to about May, 1915,
when the vessels to which they were attached could stand in close to
shore and overlook the enemy's positions from a distance of three or
four thousand yards, a large amount of spotting of great value was
carried out by these balloons for ships at Gallipoli, but when the Turks
brought long-range guns into position, kite-balloon vessels were obliged
to lie out beyond 11,000 yards and their services were rendered
comparatively slight for this purpose. From 1916, however, they were
towed by merchant auxiliaries and light cruisers to spot submarines,
observers communicating with the patrol ship by means of telephone. One
of the most wonderful sights I have ever seen was from the observer's
basket of the kite-balloon let up from S.S. "Manica" in June, 1915. We
were spotting for the guns of H.M.S. "Lord Nelson" bombarding Chanak.
The sky and sea were a marvellous blue and visibility excellent, the
peninsula, where steady firing was going on all the time, lay below us,
the Straits, with their ships and boats, the Asiatic shore gradually
disappearing in a golden haze, the Gulf of Xeros, the Marmora, and
behind one the islands of the AEgean affording a perfect background. No
one who was at the Dardanelles, however vivid the horrors and the heat
and dust and flies, will forget the beauty of the scene, especially at
sunset, and it was seen at its best from the basket of a kite-balloon.
The ever-increasing assistance rendered by aircraft to surface vessels
in crippling Germany's submarine campaign is shown by the fact that in
1915 ten submarines were attacked from the air and in 1918 126 were
sighted and 93 attacked. Nor was the principle forgotten in countering
the submarine menace that offence is the best defence, and among the
many duties of R.N.A.S. aircraft, based on Dunkirk from the early days
of the war, were anti-submarine patrols along the Belgian coast and the
bombing of hostile submarine bases, such as Bruges.
As in the case of the Army Corps observation machines, fighting scouts
became necessary for the protection of patrols and to counter the
enemy's efforts at raids and sea reconnaissance, and the considerable
amount of experiment in air fighting which the R.N.A.S. had made before
the war bore useful fruit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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