20 
Land & Water 
August 8, 191 8 
an enemy fighting two-seater, and when, after a sharp fight, 
the enemy bolted, the R.E. 8 pursued hotly, caught him up, 
shot him down, and crashed him — and then returned to the 
interrupted work of the artillery "shoot." The incident is 
merely typical of the spirit in which our men carried out this 
important work. The daring with which they circled for 
hours over enemy positions, locating batteries, troop move- 
ments, and concentrations, keeping in wireless touch with our 
batteries and directing their fire on to target after target, 
helped enormously to keep down the enemy fire oh our hard- 
pressed and retreating troops and to shatter the mass forma- 
tions which time and again threatened to overwhelm our line. 
But it was in the bombing and low flying "ground-straf- 
ing" that the most striking assistance was given to the line. 
Practically every tj'pe of machine we possess was fitted with 
bomb-racks, loaded down with ammunition and sent out 
to pelt the enemy infantry and gims in the front hne, or to 
fly back to where the roads and rails were packed with troops 
and transport pushing up into the firing line. It was here, 
perhaps, in these- back areas, that their most valuable work 
was done. We know how the Germans carried out their 
offensive on the plan of pouring in fresh division after division, 
pushing forward masses of men and guns, relieving'the fighters 
at short intervals with still more masses of fresh itien. Simple 
as such a plan may sound, and effective as it is (if a commander 
is willing to spend men enough) it calJs for the most elaborate 
staff work, the most careful calculation of troop movements, 
the most exact following of set time-tables. The vast machine 
must work smoothly, certain roads must be left free for certain 
divisions at certain times, the different streams of men, guns, 
ammunition and food supply wagons must take their own ap- 
pointed course at their own appointed time, and the greater the 
forces moving up and mov'-ing back, the more careful and exact 
must be the arranging and timing of the movements. 
Interrupting Communications 
It was upon this organisation and time-table that the 
Air Force wrecked havoc. A German diyision marching by 
the detailed road to the front and with hard and fast orders 
to be past ^ certain point and leave the road clear by a stated 
hour, would find itself brought to a standstill because some 
of our fl>'ing men had swooped down on the road ahead of 
them, bombing and machine-gunning the transport on it, 
blocking the road by stampeding the gun teams and overturn- 
ing the guns, and so disconcerting or injuring the motor lorry 
drivers that they upset their vehicles in the ditch or smashed 
them into each other. And no sooner would the German 
working parties gather and start to clear the blocked road 
than down would come the flying men on them, their engines 
roaring and their guns pelting bullets on the workers and 
driving them to hasty flight. Or the marching division 
might find itself suddenly attacked from the air, the bullets 
whistling and cracking about men and animals, the bombs 
bursting up and down the length of the column. The in- 
fantry shot back, of course, and they brought down a good 
many of our fliers, but there were always more to take their 
place, and a machine passing overhead at more than 100 
miles an hour, or diving down at well over that with a stream 
of bullets spurting ahead of it, is no easy mark to hit. Invari- 
ably the men on the ground broke and ran for the ditches 
for the cover of houses, scattered wide to escape the bullets 
they knew would pelt hardest where any group made a good 
target. When the low fliers had gone the road would be 
cleared agam, the scattered troops collected and set on their 
march once more ; but think of the German Staff and their 
timetable;, and think, too, of the relief to our weary line 
m the delayed coming against them of those fresh men and 
guns, those renewed supplies of shells and ammunition 
Some of our men in the hne have unpleasant recollections 
of some bombmg and "ground-strafing" carried on by the 
German airmen. But let them look at the comparative 
figures of bombs dropped by the opposing forces and they 
will get some measure of the night and day terror our airmen 
were to the German troops. 
Bombs Dropped in February. 
_^ By Enemy. By British. 
Day . . . . 28 5,283 
759 3!56i 
Night 
Total 
Day 
Night 
Totals 
787 8,844 
Bombs Dropped in March. 
By Enemy. By British. 
517 23,099 
• 1.948 13,080 
2,465 
36,179 
Or, in other words — we dropped in February over 11 bombs 
to the enemy's i ; and in March over 14J to his i. 
The Independent Force 
During June the existence of a new branch of the RoyaJ 
Air F(j/rce was officially reported as "the Independent Force," 
its WQifk apparently being the long-distance raiding of German 
towns. The effect of these raids was by now becoming 
clearly demonstrated. It was not only inmaterial damage 
that they were proved effective, but the urgings of the Rhine 
town's local authorities to the Reichstag that this bombing 
of "open towns" and places far behind the firing line was 
not defensible as actual warfare, and their urgent requests 
that steps should be taken to conclude agreements between 
the belligerents to cease the practice, being very obvious 
proof of the punishment inflicted and the fear of worse to 
come. The bombing of Cologne came as a blow to the whole 
German nation, and they have clearly come to see that 
determined efforts are to be made to carry the war right into 
the heart of Germany, a prospect which they plainly view 
with grave alarm and with a total change of spirit from the 
rejoicings with which they greeted the news of the German 
bombings of the "fortified town" of London. 
This bombing of the Rhine towns has increased steadily 
and to an extent not realised by the public despite the issue 
of regular offi-ial statements. " From December i, 1917, to 
Febiuary 19, igi8, we made 36 raids on Germany, dropping 
22 tons of bombs on railways, junctions, stations, munition 
factories, steel works, barracks, and poison gas manufac- 
tories. In May, 1918, 48 tons were dropped, and in June 
74 raids were made by the Independent Force and-6ii tons' 
of bombs dropped. 
It is sincerely to be hoped that the strongest efforts will 
be made in the v.orkshops to provide a sufficiency of bombers 
to continue and increase heavily the number and weight of 
these bombings of the Rhine towns. Nobody who has 
known anything of air work for a year past has ever doubted 
the value of these raids as a means of bringing the Germans 
to a realisation and sickening of war, and all who knew the 
facts were fully aware that any delay in carrying out a com- 
plete and comprehensive scheme of Rhine-bombing was only 
due to the fact that the Air Commands decUned to rob the 
fighting fronts of machines they needed, and that they were 
waitjng until sufficient machines could be spared to carry 
out effective and conrinued raids. To put it bluntly, the 
extent of "bombs on Germany" has never been anything 
but a mere matter of production ; it still remains so, and will 
continue to do. 
It is a pity that an account of American activities in air- 
craft production and the provision of an adequate Air Force 
cannot yet be described, because these things are now in 
the very stage when the enemy would give much for the 
slightest inkling of knowledge on which to base his calcula- 
tions. It must be enough to say that the result of these 
activities will assuredly be writ big in any account which 
comes to be given of the fifth year, and that already they have 
given sufficient proof of that towards the end "of this the 
fourth year of the war. 
For much the same reason it is impossible to write now 
any proper account of the naval side of the war in the air 
for. the past year. There are occasional indications of the 
tremendous work that is being done by the seaplanes, the 
"Bhmps," and the airships, in patrolling the seas in keepihg 
watch over the troop, transport, and food convoys, in acting 
as the eyes of the Navy, in hunting and destroying the U-boats 
But the silent Navy has infected those of the Air Force who 
work with it with the same dumbness, and little leaks out 
of the details of the work. 
Only this much may perhaps be said— that if it had not 
been for the assistance -given to the Navy by air work the 
submarines would never have been held in check as they 
have been, the scarcely felt pinch of short rations in Great 
Britain might easily have come near to the point of acute 
starvation and suffering which Germany so long endured 
we should have found, ten times the difficulty in bringing 
the American Army and oversea reinforcements to the seat 
of war, we should have been far short of being as ileariy 
in sight, as we are to-day, of a victorious conclusion to the 
war. 
Air warfare has made a great advance in the past year 
but the possibilities or probabilitifes are of a greater and yet 
more striking advance in the next. By all the signs there 
are developments already weU past the experimental stage 
which vvi 1 go a long way to bring complete and final victory 
to the Allies; to make the fifth the last year of the war ; and 
further, to make the last year of this .war the last year 
of any war. ^ 
