THE BRITISH AIR CAMPAIGN DURING the BATTLE of the SOMME APRIL-NOVEMBER, 1916: a PYRRHIC VICTORY by Thomas G. Bradbeer M.A., Univ
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
THE BRITISH AIR CAMPAIGN DURING THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME APRIL-NOVEMBER, 1916: A PYRRHIC VICTORY By Thomas G. Bradbeer M.A., University of Saint Mary, 1999 Submitted to the graduate degree program in History and the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Kansas In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy ___________________ Chairperson Theodore A. Wilson, PhD Committee members ____________________ Jonathan H. Earle, PhD ____________________ Adrian R. Lewis, PhD ____________________ Brent J. Steele, PhD ____________________ Jacob Kipp, PhD Date defended: March 28, 2011 The Dissertation Committee for Thomas G. Bradbeer certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: THE BRITISH AIR CAMPAIGN DURING THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME APRIL-NOVEMBER, 1916: A PYRRHIC VICTORY ___________________ Chairperson Theodore A. Wilson, PhD Date approved March 28, 2011 ii THE BRITISH AIR CAMPAIGN DURING THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME, APRIL-NOVEMBER, 1916: A PYRRHIC VICTORY ABSTRACT The Battle of the Somme was Britain’s first major offensive of the First World War. Just about every facet of the campaign has been analyzed and reexamined. However, one area of the battle that has been little explored is the second battle which took place simultaneously to the one on the ground. This second battle occurred in the skies above the Somme, where for the first time in the history of warfare a deliberate air campaign was planned and executed to support ground operations. The British Royal Flying Corps (RFC) was tasked with achieving air superiority over the Somme sector before the British Fourth Army attacked to start the ground offensive. This study focuses on the Royal Flying Corps, its organization and leaders, as well as the strategy and doctrine it employed in its attempt to regain air superiority from the German Army Air Service (GAAS) in the spring of 1916. Prior to the start of the ground battle, the commander of the RFC, General Hugh Trenchard, directed his squadrons accomplish six tactical tasks in order for the RFC to achieve aerial superiority over the Somme. These tasks were: 1) aerial reconnaissance, 2) aerial photography, 3) observation and direction of artillery, 4) tactical bombing, 5) ‘contact’ patrols in support of the infantry and 6) air combat against the GAAS to enable achievement of the other five tasks. Critical to answering the question of whether or not the RFC accomplished its assigned tasks this study also examines the development of air power strategy by the RFC before and during the battle. Five factors are used to frame the analysis: strategy, organization, leadership, selection and training of aircrew. Although the RFC suffered high losses because it rigidly adhered to an offensive strategy throughout the air campaign, when the battle ended, the RFC still controlled the skies above the Somme. While the ground campaign failed to accomplish most of its stated objectives, historians have argued that the air campaign was a victory for the RFC. This paper contends that because of the heavy aircrew casualties it in fact proved to be a Pyrrhic victory. The consequences of maintaining a continuous air offensive over the Somme led to nearly disastrous results for the RFC in its subsequent air campaign over Arras in April, 1917. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Title Page Title Page Acceptance Page ii Abstract iii Table of Contents iv Chapter 1 Introduction: To Command the Sky 1 Chapter 2 The Royal Flying Corps Goes to War: The Development of the Offensive Air Strategy 36 Chapter 3 The Organizational Structure and Leadership of the RFC 88 Chapter 4 Regaining the Initiative: The RFC Ascendant, April-June 1916 142 Chapter 5 Order of the Day: “Attack Everything,” July-September, 1916 187 Chapter 6 Selection and Training of RFC Aircrew 249 Chapter 7 A British Hawk Falling: The Air Campaign Ends, October-November, 1916 307 Chapter 8 Conclusion: An Assessment of Britain’s Air campaign over the Somme: A Pyrrhic victory? 357 Appendix A Royal Flying Corps Order of Battle: 1 July, 1916 390 Appendix B Trenchard’s ‘Future Policy in the Air’, 22 September, 1916 393 iv Appendix C Haig’s Letter to the War Office, 30 September, 1916. 398 Appendix D Key Statistics, RFC: Battle of the Somme: 1 July-23 November, 1916 400 Appendix E “Too Many Casualties” 403 Bibliography 405 Picture Credits 424 v Chapter One INTRODUCTION To Command the Sky 1 On the first morning of the Battle of the Somme, 1 July, 1916, an air engagement took place before the first British troops ever left their trenches to begin the attack. Just after 0600 hours, two single-seat de Havilland DH 2 pusher biplanes, the first true single-seat British fighter aircraft of the war, became engaged with ten German two-seater aircraft crossing the lines at Festubert on a bombing mission.1 Flying the lead DH 2 was the squadron commander, Major Lionel W. B. Rees. A career soldier, Rees had transferred to the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) at the outbreak of the war in August, 1914 and was serving his second tour at the front with an operational squadron. He had won the Military Cross as a flight commander in 1915 flying an FB5 Gunbus with Number 11 Squadron.2 The second aircraft in the flight was piloted by a Canadian, Lieutenant J. C. Simpson. While Simpson patrolled the lines from La Bassee, Loos, and Souchez, Rees patrolled the front line awaiting the return of a flight of DH 2s, he had sent out several hours earlier to escort aircraft from two other squadrons whose mission was to bomb the railway station at Don and disrupt German troop movements in the area.3 Now separated from his squadron commander by several miles of sky and though the odds were heavily against him, Lieutenant Simpson dove to attack the German formation. Within seconds, Simpson found himself attacked in turn. After a fierce exchange of machine- gun fire, Simpson’s DH 2 was seen by observers on the ground to descend more than 5,000 feet, apparently under control. In fact Simpson had been killed instantly having been hit eight 1 Royal Flying Corps, 1915-1916, ed. Christopher Cole, (London: William Kimber and Co., Limited, 1969), 170-173. 2 Alex Revell, Victoria Cross: WWI Airmen and Their Aircraft, (Stratford, CT: Flying Machine Press, 1997), 77. 3Ibid., 78. 2 times in the head by the accurate fire from the German gunners. His aircraft crashed in no- man’s land where the wreckage was almost immediately shelled by German artillery.4 Rees was too far away from the fight to have witnessed Simpson’s demise but he did spot the cluster of aircraft crossing the British lines and assumed they were the returning British bombers he was to link up with. Flying to intercept them, it was not until he spotted the small crosses on their fuselages that he realized they were enemy machines. He was more than a little surprised that a flight of German aircraft was actually attempting to cross over the lines into British airspace, something they had not done in any strength for several weeks. Rees, replicating Simpson, attacked without hesitation. Holding his fire until he was less than one hundred yards from the leading aircraft, Rees fired thirty rounds from his Lewis machine-gun, causing damage to the fuselage between the pilot and the observer. Rees then attacked the second aircraft and fired fifteen rounds into it. In the span of a few seconds he had badly damaged two enemy aircraft. Both were seen to be trailing smoke and descending back towards the safety of the German lines. At least one of the bombers dropped its bombs on top of German positions.5 At 9,000 feet, Rees then proceeded to attack five more of the enemy aircraft and in the process broke up the integrity of their formation and effectively ended the Germans bombing mission. He was however, hit in the upper leg by a bullet from one of the bomber’s observer- gunners but continued to attack as he came within range of another enemy aircraft. “I finished firing about ten yards away, and saw the observer sitting back firing straight up in the air. 4 Alex Revell, Victoria Cross: WWI Airmen and Their Aircraft , 78. See also H. A. Jones, The War in the Air: Being the Story of the Part Played in the Great War by the Royal Air Force, Vol. 2, (London: Oxford University Press, 1928), 332. Hereafter referred to as WITA followed by volume number. 5 W. Alister Williams, Against the Odds: The Life of Group Captain Lionel Rees, VC, (Clwyd, Wales: Bridge Books, 1989), 90-91, 3 He was firing an immense amount of ammunition. Just before he reached the lines I gave him one more drum. Having finished my ammunition I came home.” 6 One British pilot had single-handedly prevented ten German bombers from crossing the British lines and accomplishing their mission. It was later confirmed that Rees had in fact shot down the first two aircraft he had attacked. Thousands of soldiers from both sides had been witnesses to this act of incredible bravery. As it turned out, Rees had killed the commander of the German flight of aircraft, Leutnant Erich Zimmermann, the Staffelfuhrer of Kaghol 3 and wounded his pilot with the aircraft crashing near a small village near La Bassee.7 The results of the air action between Rees and the German bombers would have no small impact on the German Army Air Service’s (GAAS) bombing raids during the opening phase of the Battle of the Somme.