The War in the Air; Vol. 1: The Part played in the Great War by the Royal Air ForceRaleigh, Walter Alexander, Sir
History
The War in the Air; Vol. 1: The Part played in the Great War by the Royal Air Force
Raleigh, Walter Alexander, Sir
Great Britain. Royal Air Force; World War, 1914-1918 -- Aerial operations, British
Maubeuge had fallen on the 7th of September and, in addition to the
Seventh Reserve Corps and other troops, the siege artillery which had
been used to reduce Maubeuge was brought down to the Aisne, and the
British guns were outranged and outnumbered. The spotting of hostile
batteries became an operation of the first importance, and the Flying
Corps quickly rose to its opportunities. When trench warfare began, the
aeroplanes attached to corps commands took up artillery officers daily
from each division over the German batteries. The positions of these
batteries were noted on maps, and the maps were sent in every day to the
divisional artillery commander, who allotted the targets to his
batteries. When any part of the British lines was shelled, information
was obtained from the air and orders were given to those of our
batteries which could best reply, to concentrate on the enemy's guns.
The wireless machines of No. 4 Squadron had been attached to the army
corps direct during the battle of the Marne, but their opportunities had
been few. On the Aisne they were first used to observe for the
artillery. Two pioneers of wireless telegraphy are associated in work
and in memory with these early attempts at wireless co-operation with
the artillery--Lieutenants Lewis and James. Donald Swain Lewis had
joined the Royal Engineers in 1904, and, after qualifying as a pilot in
May 1912, had transferred to the Royal Flying Corps in December 1913. By
example and precept he had done all that he could before the war to
adapt wireless telegraphy to the uses of the Flying Corps and to
convince others of its necessity. Before the battle of the Aisne ended
he had won his victory. He was in the habit of going out alone in a B.E.
machine, piloting the machine and operating the wireless at the same
time. A brother-officer noted of him in a diary: 'Lewis, R.E., came in
from spotting with his machine shot full of holes; I believe he likes
it!' Later on in the war, at home and in the field, he continued his
work. In April 1915 he was appointed to command No. 3 Squadron, in
succession to Major J. M. Salmond, and did much to maintain and advance
the great reputation of that pioneer among squadrons. After a spell at
home during the winter of 1915-16, he returned to France in February
1916, to command the Second Wing, co-operating with the Second Army in
the Ypres salient. By this time he held the rank of lieutenant-colonel,
but he continued to fly over the enemy lines. On the 10th of April 1916,
flying a Morane parasol, east of Wytschaete, with Captain A. W. Gale, an
officer of the Trench Mortars, as passenger, he was brought down by a
direct hit from the enemy's anti-aircraft guns. He had been showing
Captain Gale some of the objectives on which the trench mortar fire had
been directed during the week, and was killed in action while he was
carrying out the duties of that artillery observation which he had done
so much to perfect.
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