Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, THURSDAY, SEPT. 19, 1918. THE AIR SERVICE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 14713, 19 September 1918, Page 4

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, THURSDAY, SEPT. 19, 1918. THE AIR SERVICE.

Attached to the daily official Communiques of the British and French j armies there is always to be found a brief summary of the operations of our air services. These reports vary little from day to day, and to the casual ! student of war may . sometimes seem {monotonous. They tell of reconnaissance work, of, so many tons of explosives dropped o.tt Various targets, of i occasional long-distance raide into Geri many. We are afraid that most people i scan the -'tew lines conVeyihg 'these 1 • records of the air service without fully appreciating, the tremendous importance of , the work done. "Contact*," ; the Waiter -of a delightful series of articles m Blackwood'B Magazine, lias shoWh, m one of them what a direct bearing the air work has upon the ordered -scheme of a great campaign, arid that the success or. failure of 'military operations as a wholo. is tactically on the results of the detached aeriarcombats whtoh are from time to time so briefly reported. Without observation, lie points out, a trench-bound army would be very short-sighted, if not completely blind. The gunners would have eyes neither to locate hostile batteries nor to destroy them ; the infantry would have no photographs, of the ground over winch they were to advarite, nor Would it have reliable ? communication w it*, the vrear • during an attack. And 1 the work Hind very existence of theW observation craft depend entirely on the success of fighting ta-aft, -as do Uie_ work and -;Very existence of the craft that bomb and machine-gun the ammunition dumps, factories, trains, bivouacs, aerodromes, nnd other viM tnagets m enemy countries. Besides this protection : of friendly observation, the tightens must do their best to keep the air clear df hostile observation and bombing machines. The struggle for the aerial right of way m France, ! contact" tells us, is desperate aiid unceasing, and its curve of successes is dented and uneven. Never yet has acomplete mastery of the air been won by either side— this was probably written m April or May last, for our own later advices go to show that mastery is fturly well assured. A New Zealand officer, writing towards the end of July, said : "You asked about Our air' force. Ever since the beginning of this year we have held absolute mastery m the ajr and Hie Hun has had to play ■ second fiddle. We. now very 'rarely, if ever, see a Hun over our lines by day, whilst our busses are going and coming across the line all day and night. We are dropping on an average weekly twenty tons of bombs to every one lu-itK drops, and our raids are becoming more and more extensive clay by day " ''Contact" confirms this to some extent by stating that "never once during the past year have the British failed to attain whenever -necessary a temporary but overwhelming mastery of the air al/bve aiidl"'q.i'ouhd the scene of an attack, 'and for. every German machine that darts across "the trenches to spy put the land, dozens of British machines, perform similar work over German country,- up to a radius of. 50 miles from the lines. These- achicveriients are due m part to carefully planned tap-tics, and m part to the offensive ' spirit of British pilots." This superiority, he points out, was not l always maintained. For example, the early part of 1916 was a bad time, for the Flying Corps, owing tt> "the Fokkei' scourge," which was a very real one. Afterwards the 'pendulum swinging back' to, u s and throughout tho first. Battle of the Somine the 1 flying Hun kept most of .his tail BetWeen his. legs. [Then followed the winter period of combatant inaction during which both sides prepared for the following "shooting season." The Hun made colossal efforts 'and found : a master organiser m General Von vHoeppner, S 6 ' that ' m February, 1917, the older- fashioned British types had to contend against great clusters of Albatross single-seaters, Halbertstads, and cither fast scout craft,- which surrounded and pounced -upon them. Many were ■the consequent losses arid. the British Were temporarily dislodged fr6m their. sHipremacw. By" reason; of their wandering liabits and contortionist displays the new German. formations were nicknamed) "travelling circuses." February and March were bad for British obser-. vation craft, but our airriien gamely earned on, arid reconnaissance and scout patrols went Out daily, whilst intrepid airriien, against heavy odds, ■ fought the circuses on every occasion. -Relief x cume with the eagerly-awaited new craft, the first to arrive being a squadron of Bristol Fighters, which were found to be superior m speed, cUmb, and range of firejto. all German |. machines they met. Then followed the SES^a. superior machine,, still. Throughout/ 1917 We had to "fight hard ;to maintain ' our improved position, but ' though' never re* cciving an Overwhelming mastery we always managed to, gain": coriinYarid of theair over a "push area," for so long as tihe pushjasted. The new German tactics, together with the numerical increase of the opposing, air. servibtls, brought about . battles m which scores' of machines became mixed up m determined manoeuvres to destroy ; though, these big engagements always broke .up into smaller groups after the first few minutes, mass fighting manoeuvres by large formations being , for • the most part, impossible. As the year lengthened the British superiority became more and more marked. By the end of the year wo had -. gained a position not far short Of a real, mastery. The, total bag. of our, most successful scout squadron of 1917 was 200 German maclunes, and there Mere two others which came a good second and tlrird. This yean- has seen tho introduction ,of several! British types, with altogether extraordinary performances of climb and speed, and so. far our superiority has become more pronounced than ever. From a general knowledge of the present aerial resources of Britain, France and Ariicrica, the writer declares that never again will tho enemy's fighting craft r be able to win 1 even a temporary ascendancy. Germany's manufacturing resources are now definitely less than those 'of the Allies; and his resources m personnel are likewise less, ' as regards both quantity and quality. , These factors, combined with certain others — the most important of the "cfbhers" being America and the present energeto'o direction of the British and French air services-^give us reason to believe that a complete mastery .of the air has been gained. With that mastery our armies will be able to jsulvorise tho Gernian defences and to spring some surprises that will have a very important influence m hastening the end of the. war.