BOMBING CONSTANTINOPLE

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 103, 3 May 1919, Page 14

BOMBING CONSTANTINOPLE

R.A.F. IN THE JSGEAN.

A great sensation was caused in July, 1917, observes a statement issued by the Press Bureau, when iti was announced that a Handley-Page aeroplane had bombed Constantinople after a flight from England. The public, however, has never realised that during the last year of the war the Turkish, capital was subjected to a continuous series of attacks from the air.

A Royal Air Force group was established in the JEgean with aerodromes or stations at various points on the mainland and on islands of the Archipelago. Mudros was the base from which, the enemy ca-pital was attacked, and from January, 1918, until Turkey sued for peace, raids were undertaken as often as the weather permitted, both by day and by night. During that period fifty aeroplanes in all flew over Constantinople, and the moral effect of thjs continual bombardment may be readily imagined.When the reconnaissance flights were first started, in January, 1918, the only machines available for this work did not carry sufficient fuel, and they consequently had to be altered to give them an air endurance of six hours, the time taken over the flight being from 5£ to sjj hours, according to weather conditions. Later on a larger typo of machine arrived, but it was found that the hot weather overheated the engines. This was rectified, after many experiments, in 3, most ingenious manner.

The flight to Constantinople was among the largest raiding flights carried out continuously during the war, the distance being 440 miles. The circumstances of the flight entailed a severe and prolonged strain upon pilot and observer. During practically the whole of a raid they were flying over water and over enemy country, with the knowledge that if forced to land in the sea there wa-s very little chance of thei? being rescued. The night raids were a particularly fine performance. In the iEgean very frequent changes in the weather are experienced, and on his return at the end of his long flight the pilot had to pick up a small island on which his aerodrome was situated. As thoiEgean is thick with islands, and this particular one w.-.s far from the mainland, this was no easy matter even on a calm dark night, and an extremely difficult and hazardous feat in thick or cloudy weather. The yEgean group of the Royal Air Force, in'common with most units engaged with the allies of Germany, found that there were certain advantages and certain drawbacks in fighting elsewhere than in France. If the raiders were not opposed, as those of the Independent Air Force were, by strong patrols of German chasers, on the other hand it took a longer time for reinforcements, reliefs, and stores to reach them. Moreover, life at Mndros was dull. There were fewer chances of relaxation and recreation for the pilots there than was usually the case in France and on other fronts, and this made the strain tell more severely on the nerves of the pilots." But no difficulties stopped the work. It was carried on relentlessly with the same indomitable spirit which has characterised the Royal Air Force upon every front in the war.