Aviation in Peace and WarSykes, Frederick Hugh, Sir
History
Aviation in Peace and War
Sykes, Frederick Hugh, Sir
Aeronautics
During the five months of its existence the Independent Air Force
dropped 550 tons of bombs, 160 by day and 390 by night. Of these 200
tons were dropped on aerodromes, largely by the short-distance F.E.2b's,
as a result of which, hostile attacks on Allied aerodromes became
practically negligible. Theoretically, machines of the Independent Air
Force should not have been utilized for attacking purely military
objectives in the Army zone, such as aerodromes, and their co-operation
with the Army for this purpose shows that their true role was either not
appreciated or not favoured by the French and other Commands.
There is ample testimony to the spirit of demoralization which pervaded
the civil population of the towns attacked.
"My eyes won't keep open whilst I am writing," reads one captured
letter. "In the night twice into the cellar and then again this
morning. One feels as if one were no longer a human being. One air
raid after another. In my opinion this is no longer war but murder.
Finally, in time, one becomes horribly cold, and one is daily, nay,
hourly, prepared for the worst." "Yesterday afternoon," says
another, "it rained so much and was so cloudy that no one thought it
was possible for them to come. It is horrible; one has no rest day
or night."
Although, for reasons into which it is not necessary to enter here, only
a comparatively small percentage of the efforts of the Independent Force
were directed against the industrial targets for which the force had
been created, yet by the end of the war the strategic conception of air
power was bearing fruit, and the Air Ministry had in hand measures for
bombing which would have gone far to shatter German munitionment. The
defence measures forced upon the Germans within their own country were
reacting on their offensive action at the front, which was at the same
time denuded of fighting aircraft at various points to meet the menace
of our strategic force at Ochey.
ORGANIZATION.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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