The Great War: Tactics in Aerial Warfare

William Lutz for The Great War

"The great thing in air fighting is that the decisive factor does not lie
in trick flying but solely in the personal ability and energy of the
aviator. A flying man may be able to loop and do all the stunts
imaginable and yet he may not succeed in shooting down a single
enemy.

- Manfred Von Richthofen, from his book, The Red Fighter Pilot

To best understand aerial tactics, you need to appreciate the weapons used and the conditions
battle took place.

Picture yourself in your car, driving at 120 miles per hour (190 Kph) and your head is out the
window; the wind is biting and exposed skin to frostbite. Only your car is made of wood and
metal struts and youre sitting on top of a 20 gallon gas tank with a noisy, oily sputtering motor
sitting closely in front of you. In the sky is it always wintertime: at 15,000 feet the air is cold -
about 5 degrees Fahrenheit (-30 C). Its also hard to breathe; feeling giddy you take a couple of
breaths from your oxygen tank to clear your head. You have no parachute and you can barely
hear anything due to the noisy motor as it occasionally spits out oil droplets in your face, briefly
blurring your goggles. Suddenly, bullets are tearing all around you! If you are to survive this, you
cannot panic: youll have move quickly and kill before you get killed.

Youre beginning to understand what it was like to be a fighter pilot in The Great War.

At the start of The Great War, the aeroplane" was barely a decade old and few regarded it as a
weapon of serious consequence. It was only Italy who, in November 1911 during the Italian -
Ottoman war in the Libyan campaign under the command of Captain Guilio Douhet who utilized
airplanes to drop bombs, conduct observation of troop movements, with Douhet writing about
his experiences and insights.

A man ahead of his time, Captain Guilio Douhet of the Italian Army
argued the necessity for air superiority. In his classic work, The
Command of the Air (1912) Douhet argued in order to assure an
adequate national defense, it is necessary - and sufficient - to be in
position in case of war to conquer the command of the air.

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Compared to todays modern aircraft, Great War fighter airplanes were incredibly basic. In 1914,
when the first wave of British fighter planes - a ramshackle selection of 64 unarmed aircraft -
headed for the Western Front, it was an achievement just to make it across the Channel where
the frenchman Louis Bleriot had made the first channel crossing just a mere five years earlier!
But by the end of the Great War in 1918, the foundation of 21st century modern air war will have
been set.

Fighter plane cockpits usually included a pilots seat, compass, RPM gauge, oil pressure gauge,
machine gun, revolver - and sometimes a hammer. The machine gun was for the enemy, while
the revolver was for the pilot to use in case they landed in enemy territory - or to commit suicide
in the event the plane caught fire. Rather than burn painfully as the plane plummeted to the
ground, pilots either shot themselves in the head or jumped to their deaths as pilots then were
not issued parachutes. Parachutes were not permitted owing to command staff thinking pilots
would tend to abandon their planes, whereas not having parachutes would encourage the pilot
to remain focused on the fight. Parachutes were only issued to pilots toward the end of the war,
when they were first assigned to Imperial German pilots.

Pilots clothing varied, but were necessarily warm. Temperatures at regular operating levels
(15,000 to 18,000 feet, depending upon the aircraft) often reached 5.5 F (-14.7 C) to 5.2 f (-29.7
C) coupled with wind. Pilots wore heavy weather clothing and gloves along with boots (the more
fortunate or wealthy pilots wore fur lined clothing). Pilots also generally carried with them their
eponymous scarf, although the scarves were not for show nor just for warmth: they were often
used to wipe their goggles from the oil and debris spraying from the plane motor. Between the
motor and the gas tank located immediately by the pilot, any bullets hitting the plane would likely
create a series of sparks, causing the plane to burn quickly as most planes were made of wood
with wings made of canvas using a flammable varnish known as dope (it was not uncommon
for civilian factory workers making the planes sometimes becoming ill or dying from excessive
exposure to the very flammable varnish).

Aerial warfare was a grim business. Many who volunteered initially thought it was better to fly
then to serve in the trenches; in fact, some pilots later requested returning back to the trenches
for better chances of survival! In the beginning of the war, the average life expectancy of a pilot
(particularly for the Entente, owing to the better quality of Imperial
German Air Force) was 17.5 flying hours. Given a standard patrol
operated for approximately 3 hours a day, a typical new pilots life
expectancy was about 5 days (although later the odds improved,
sometimes as much as 11 days for new pilots on arrival). It was
little wonder that flying squadrons were commonly known as
'suicide clubs'.

As Lieutenant Cecil Lewis (picture on the left) of the Royal Flying

Corp stated: You sat down to dinner faced by the empty chairs of
men you had laughed with at lunch. The next day, new men
would laugh and joke from those chairs. And so it went.

When Lt. Lewis wrote this in early 1917, the Royal Flying Corp
alone was losing 12 aircraft and 20 crew every day; lots of empty
chairs to go around.

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Fighting tactics constantly evolved as never and faster planes developed. The first war planes
were observation planes spotting enemy troop concentrations or coordinating artillery shelling.
Opposing observation planes would pass each other with a salute and go on about their duties,
but it quickly developed into a battle to the death. The first recorded aircraft to be shot down by
another aircraft occurred on October 5, 1914. The pilot, Feldwebel Wilhelm Schlichting of the
Imperial German Air Force was shot with a hand gun wielded by observer Louis Quenault, who
was riding in a Voisin Type 3 piloted by French Sergeant Joseph Frantz. The need to stop
reconnaissance aircraft rapidly led to the development of fighter planes designed specifically to
destroy other aircraft. Fighter planes were initially assigned as lone wolf hunters flying
individually within a given patrol area to shoot down any enemy reconnaissance aircraft. In
response, reconnaissance aircraft were assigned fighter escorts - and the race was on. Fighter
planes were then organized into squadrons to patrol and destroy enemy planes while
performing attacks on enemy troop gatherings, railroad depots or other targets.

Training varied between the two respective forces; from the beginning of the war, German
fighter pilots overall received better training. Compared with three months advanced training the
French gave their own fighters and the Americans who flew for them, German pilots were
tutored for twice that time by some of the best - and experienced - German pilots. With the
Entente, on the other hand, training focused on learning to fly and relying heavily on pilots
sharing stories and anecdotal insights with the newer pilots upon arrival at their assigned
squadrons.

Within the German Imperial Air Force, aircraft were organized into squadrons (usually of 12 to
15 planes) also known as circuses with coordination between the circuses overseen by a
structured / uniform air command. Very quickly, the Imperial German Air Force dominated the air
war for the coming years. It wasnt until the arrival of the American air force, the reorganization
of the Ententes respective air forces into a single cohesive command structure and the
introduction of the Sopwith Camel in June of 1917, the odds turned in favor of the Entente.

One man instrumental in advancing modern air warfare through

rigorous and formalized training was Captain Oswald Boelcke
of the Imperial German Air Force (pictured on the left). Boelcke
developed key dogfighting approaches still used in modern
aerial warfare, through several basic rules of fighting - also
known as Dicta Boelcke.

The Dicta Boelcke is as follows:

1.Try to secure the upper hand before attacking; if possible,

keep the sun behind you.
2.Always continue with an attack you have begun.
3.Open fire only at close range, and then only when the
opponent is squarely in your sights.
4.You should always try to keep your eye on your opponent and
never let yourself be deceived by ruses.
5.In any type of attack, it is essential to assail your opponent
from behind (i.e, at your enemys 6 oclock).
6. If your opponent dives on you, do not try to get around his attack, but fly to meet it.

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7. When over the enemy's lines, always remember your own line of retreat.
8. It is better to attack in groups of four or six. If fights break up into a series of single combats,
pay attention that several comrades would not go after one opponent and weaken your
attacking force

As with any new technology, fighter training

was initially haphazard at best. Pilots with
the Entente were generally given
rudimentary flight training, with some
gunnery training and then sent off to their
squadrons. Imperial German pilots were
given more formalized instruction with
combat veterans sharing and conducting
demonstrations of their experiences with the
new recruits through actual flight training
behind the lines.

Airplane speeds were limited between 100 to 145 miles per hour (160 to 217 Kilometers/hour)
with extreme maneuvers taken at the pilots risk owing to the something rickety construction of
planes. Most planes of this era also tended to be slow on turning to the left owing to the rotary
effect by the propellors (a left turn meant fighting the rotary turn of the propellers turning to the
right). Very often, experienced pilots found it quicker to conduct 270 degree right turns and
circling around in order to attack on the left.

Each plane possessed their own idiosyncrasies the pilot must learn. New arrivals would be
trained in a particular aircraft (usually slower and easier to learn), but upon arrival to the front
would need to learn - quickly - the nature of their assigned aircraft to better survive the coming
dogfights. Such was the risk of innovation, but this was war and survival demanded upon
developing and practicing maneuvers and skills depending on the nature and strength of the
craft they were flying.

Universally, throughout the Great War, the primarily goal was to attain the 6 of their enemys
plane - that is, 6 oclock or the rear of the enemy plane. Shooting at the enemys rear, the
enemy would have no chance to defend themselves as they would not readily be able to see
behind them and had no protection.

Maneuvers varied in style and type - such as the famous Immelmann Loop" (named after
German pilot Max Immelmann) whereby a pilot would fly in a loop removing themselves from
attack and place themselves behind the attacker; the break" - that is, to abruptly turn away from
the attacker in an abrupt turn and dive; and the "barrel roll, whereby a pilot would roll their
plane into a barrel pattern, turning the underside of their plane up while they would fly upside
down and move into position behind the attacking enemy.

Its important to note that the original Immelmann Loop was an effective maneuver in the early
part of the war, but as aircraft technology rapidly advanced, and fighter engines became
increasingly more powerful, it became a dangerous maneuver, because the opponent could
climb and shoot the fighter when they were almost motionless at the top of the turn. Later, Max

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Immelmann than delved the Immelmann Turn in which an attacking plane could rapidly turn in
a tight loop and finish off an opponent:

The Immelmann Turn. The

attacking plane (1 to 4) would
make an initial pass at the
enemy aircraft from the side,
shooting as he closed the
distance. Typically, the
Entente pilot would then start
a turn toward him or would
attempt to dive away.The
attacker would then pitch their
nose up at a high angle,
causing the speed bled off,
kicking over the rudder and
dropping around into an
extreme form of a tight turning
chandelle that placed him above and behind his opponent in a position to fire again within
scant seconds of his first attack. Although some debate whether Immelmann actually used the
maneuver, eyewitnesses in the RAF reported it enough times that the case is fairly strong that
what is described here is what he did. Sadly, confirmation is elusive since Immelmann himself
never officially documented the maneuver in any way.

During the early years of the war, due to

the low power of early aircraft, another
common type of aerial defensive maneuver
was the Lufbery (oddly named after the
American / French pilot who served in the
Lafayette Escadrille, although he is not
credited to having invented it). This
approach was utilized by slower, less
capable fighters and bombers to cope with
attacks by an enemy flying superior
airplanes. The Lufbery involved
formations of aircraft working together
forming a horizontal circle in the air when
attacked, so each aircraft protected others
in the circle (akin to circling the wagons).
The Lufbery complicates attacking fighters with the formation having fewer "blind spots", making
it more difficult to attack an individual aircraft without being exposed to returning fire from the
others.

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 Another common tactic used by many pilots is
the Rope-a-dope (or the Scissors Attack),
where an attacker conducts a series of short
dives followed by quick ascents behind the
enemy so as to not lose inertia, opening fire at
the movement when the attacker passes behind
his enemys tail, flying constantly behind the
enemy on their exposed tail.

(Illustration of a Scissors Attack)

Aces - pilots who held more than 5 kills - also developed unique approaches suited to their
skills and attitudes. Canadian ace Billy Bishop was notable for his battle tactic in which to avoid
jamming his machine guns, Bishop would fly his plane until he had the enemy firmly in his
target, aiming for the enemys head and only then shooting. Upon returning to base, Bishops
gun(s) would hold nearly all of his bullets - save for several - having spent mere a handful to
take down each enemy plane. Bishop was also noted for his Billy Bishop Move where the pilot
would watch carefully over their shoulder and, judging the moment when the enemy opens fire,
turning their plane quickly so as to fly at right angles to the enemy with the bullets passing
behind the pilot during the maneuver.

Richthofen was noted for his approach of opening fire at several yards - contrary to the Dicta
Boelcke - forcing his enemy to zig-zag in evasion while he flew in a straight path to get closer
quickly and engage while his enemy was distracted in attempting to evade.

Maneuvers aside, more often it was the pilot who was more direct and ruthless, and who also
flew a better plane would win. Richthofen described his battle technique in this telling of how he
shot down the English fighter ace, Lanoe Hawker:

One day I was blithely flying to give chase when I noticed three Englishmen who also had
apparently gone a-hunting. I noticed that they were ogling me and as I felt much inclination to
have a fight I did not want to disappoint them.

I was flying at a lower altitude. Consequently I had to wait until one of my English friends tried to
drop on me. After a short while on the three came sailing along and attempted to tackle me in
the rear. After firing five shots he had to stop for I had swerved in a sharp curve.

The Englishman tried to catch me up in the rear while I tried to get behind him. So we circled
round and round like madmen after one another at an altitude of about 10,000 feet.

First we circled twenty times to the left, and then thirty times to the right. Each tried to get
behind and above the other.

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Soon I discovered that I was not meeting a beginner. He had not the slightest intention of
breaking off the fight. He was traveling in a machine which turned beautifully. However, my own
was better at rising than his, and I succeeded at last in getting above and beyond my English
waltzing partner.

When we had got down to about 6,000 feet without having achieved anything in particular, my
opponent ought to have discovered that it was time for him to take his leave. The wind was
favorable to me for it drove us more and more towards the German position. At last we were
above Bapaume, about half a mile behind the German front. The impertinent fellow was full of
cheek and when we had got down to about 3,000 feet he merrily waved to me as if he would
say, "Well, how do you do?"

The circles which we made around one another were so narrow that their diameter was
probably no more than 250 or 300 feet. I had time to take a good look at my opponent. I looked
down into his carriage and could see every movement of his head. If he had not had his cap on I
would have noticed what kind of a face he was making.

My Englishman was a good sportsman, but by and by the thing became a little too hot for him.
He had to decide whether he would land on German ground or whether he would fly back to the
English lines. Of course he tried the latter, after having endeavored[126] in vain to escape me
by loopings and such like tricks. At that time his first bullets were flying around me, for hitherto
neither of us had been able to do any shooting.

When he had come down to about three hundred feet he tried to escape by flying in a zig-zag
course during which, as is well known, it is difficult for an observer to shoot. That was my most
favorable moment. I followed him at an altitude of from two hundred and fifty feet to one
hundred and fifty feet, firing all the time. The Englishman could not help falling. But the jamming
of my gun nearly robbed me of my success.

My opponent fell, shot through the head, one hundred and fifty feet behind our line. His machine
gun was dug out of the ground and it ornaments the entrance of my dwelling.

Experienced pilots always exploited what resources and practical tactics they could muster to
their advantage. Pilots on patrol, for example, would make it a point to fly as high as possible so
as to give them an ability to ambush the enemy, while creating a speed advantage from diving.
In conjunction with this tactic, pilots would, upon sighting an enemy force, feather their throttle
so as to muffle the sound of planes from the enemys ears as they flew above, waiting for their
moment to attack.

One tactic that many pilots on both sides employed was that of a standard evasion maneuver. A
fighter pilot was trained, whenever he found he was fired on from behind, to pull up and turn into
the direction of fire in that order. The order in which this action is very important: up then in. 'Up'
took the pilot out of the line of fire; that is, the plane of attack. 'In' gave the pilot the greatest
separation from his attacker and better enabled a pilot to survive a sudden surprise attack; this
is still taught today in modern fighter pilot training.

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Plane technology tremendously determined dogfight successes. The German Tri-wing Fokker,
for example, was slower than a number of its Entente counterparts, but were incredibly agile
and maneuverable. Witness, for example the legendary dogfight between the German pilot
Werner Voss taking on a total of 9 British SPEs single-handedly. Although slower, Voss utilized
the Tri-wing forker to his fullest advantage, making rapid 180 degree turns nullifying attackers in
close end combat against the faster, more powerful British regular bi-planes, shooting down 4
enemy planes and driving 2 away before finally being shot down himself.

The German Fokker Triplane is the plane

most often associated with the Great War
(although Fokkers design was directly
copied from a captured Entente Sopwith
Triplane). The Fokker Triplane was
relatively slow (94 mph) but was
legendarily maneuverable. It was said that
the Fokker was nearly able to turn on a
dime and thus in battle, the Triplane could
readily come about on its attackers, or
rapidly turn to pick off their opponents with
incredible ease. With the introduction of the
Sopwith Camel, however, Fokkers triplane
had to be discontinued owing to its slower speed and its maneuverability being matched by the
Sopwith Camel.

Unlike what we now expect of modern jet fighter planes, planes at the time of the Great War
were very limited in their reliability: motors would often stall, weaponry jamming (it was
commonplace for pilots to carry hammers on their missions as their guns would sometimes jam
when firing; many are the stories of pilots hitting their guns in an effort to unjam them in the
midst of a dogfight), or wings and struts simply sheering off due to maneuvers pushing the limit
of the planes.

The Sopwith Camel was difficult

to master; many pilots died
during training with the Camel.
The Camel was very
maneuverable in flight but
sensitive to handle because
most of the aircrafts weight was
placed forward in just a seven
feet section. The Sopwith Camel
also needed a very specific fuel
mixture. When stalling in flight -
a common problem for
inexperienced pilots - the Camel
could spin badly. Once a pilot
had mastered the Camels
idiosyncrasies, however, it was a
powerful killing machine.

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Despite the killings, pilots held a society and culture all their own; flight was a relatively new
novelty shared by a chosen few and thus professional consideration was given toward one
another. Despite the viciousness and ruthlessness pilots practiced during battle, off duty there
would be a shared camaraderie verging on the sentimental. It was common practice for pilots
who were captured to be taken to the nearest squadron headquarters to join in a meal and
several drinks with their opposites prior to being shipped to a prisoner of war camp.

Additionally, on some fronts, units would often exchange condolences on those who are killed in
battle, sometimes even landing to show respect to an enemies grave. A typical example of this
chivalry between pilots of the warring nations was shared by the German ace Ernst Udet
(second only to Richthofen) writing about his battle with George Guynemer, the French ace.
Udet, though a consummate flier in his own right, was unable to outmaneuver Guynemer during
an air battle:

I try anything I can, tightest banks, turns, side slips, but with lightning speed he anticipates all
my moves and reacts at once, he wrote. Slowly I realize his superiority. His aircraft is better, he
can do more than I, but I continue to fight. Another curve. For a moment he comes into my
sights. I push the button on the stickthe machine gun remains silentstoppage! For what
Udet described as the longest eight minutes of his life, he struggled on while trying to clear his
jammed weapons. At one point he was pounding on the receiver with both fists when the Spad
flew over his Albatros: Then it happens, Udet wrote. He sticks out his hand and waves to me,
waves lightly, and dives to the West in the direction of his lines.

Udet remained convinced Guynemer had spared him in an act of knightly chivalry.

The life of an ace - a pilot with a

number of kills - often took its toll.
Here, we see two pictures of the
famous French Ace, George
Guynemer: the one of the left just
as he was beginning his first series
of kills; the picture on the right
taken shortly before his death in
battle. The haunted look in his eyes
on the right reflects a statement he
made when asked - after having
received nearly all military
accolades that he could possibly
receive - what awards were left:
just one: a wooden cross.

Even though it has been a hundred years since the aces of the newly created fighter airplanes
fought and died, the tactics and techniques they developed are still with us. So long as man
utilizes fixed wing aircraft, many of the maneuvers and techniques the masters - Bishop,
Boelcke, Guynemer, Richthofen, Immelmann and Rickenbacker (to name a few) - developed for
aerial warfare are echoed in the modern killing machines used throughout the worlds modern
air war forces to this day.

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Suggested Reading

First To Fly: Story of the Lafayette Escadrille; Charles Bracelet Flood

Marked For Death: The First War In The Air; James Hamilton-Patterson

Aces High; Alan Clark

The Red Fighter Pilot; Manfred von Richthofen

The Command of The Air; Guilio Douhet

Ace of the Black Cross: The Memories of Ernst Udet; Ernst Udet

To learn from the pilots viewpoint some of the air battle techniques discussed in this work,
check out this cool website: http://newwingstraining.org/e107_plugins/content/content.php?cat.
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