THE BRITISH AIR CAMPAIGN DURING THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME APRIL-NOVEMBER, 1916 ...

430 Pages·2011·10.68 MB·English

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

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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.

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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
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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

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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,
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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. The Official Historian of the Royal Air Force (RAF) later
recorded that “The efficacy of his [Rees’s] attack impressed the enemy whose attempts at
daylight raiding afterwards were few.”8 Lieutenant Gwilym Lewis, a pilot who served with
Rees in Number 32 Squadron, wrote a letter to his parents describing his commanding
officer’s actions that morning.
The Major [Rees] happened to be up at the same time on a DH. I told you he
was the bravest man in the world. He came across them a little later, and the
Archie [Anti-Aircraft] batteries say they have never seen anything so gallant
or comic in their lives. The Huns were in a tight little bunch when he came
along-after he had finished they were scattered in twos and ones all over the
sky, not knowing which way to go. He sent the first one down out of control;
the second one probably had a bullet through the engine. He turned to attack
the third, whose observer was sitting with his head back and his gun aimed
vertically upwards fairly blazing off bullets. I suppose he must have forgotten

6 W. Alister Williams, Against the Odds: The Life of Group Captain Lionel Rees, VC, 90-91. See also
Ralph Barker, The Royal Flying Corps in France: From Mons to the Somme. (London: Constable and
Company Limited, 1994), 164-165.
7 Alex Revell, Victoria Cross: WWI Airmen and Their Aircraft, 76-79. See also Royal Flying Corps,
1915-1916, ed. Christopher Cole, (London: William Kimber and Co., Limited, 1969), 172.
8 H. A. Jones, The War in the Air, Vol. II. (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1928), 332. Hereafter referred to
as WITA.
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to take his hand off the trigger before he ”pipped out.” Just as the Major was
going to get this machine as a trophy another fellow came and shot him in the
leg from below. He was still going on but discovered he couldn’t steer his
machine so he came home.9

Rees was wounded worse than it first appeared. Upon landing he was taken to a Casualty
Clearing Station and then spent six months in the hospital recovering from his wound. He was
never able to fly on active operations again.10 His actions in leading his fighter squadron in
June culminated with his one and only mission of the first day of the Somme offensive. For
his courage and resolution in the face of overwhelming odds, Rees would later receive the
Victoria Cross, Britain’s most distinguished medal for valor.11 Although the air battle over the
Somme lasted nearly eight months, Rees was the only RFC pilot to receive the Victoria Cross
during the arduous campaign.

Since the Battle of the Somme’s eightieth anniversary in July, 1996, there has been
much renewed interest by historians and laymen alike regarding Britain’s first major offensive
of the First World War. Just about every facet of the campaign has been analyzed and
reexamined. Many of the works have focused on the senior commanders, the strategy and
tactics that were used, the units involved and of course the soldiers that fought the campaign.
There has also been much attention given to the social, cultural, and political aspects of the
nations and armies that conducted the battle. An ever-increasing group of military historians
have argued that the Somme campaign was a turning point in both the war and in military
history because during this battle the tank was introduced to the battlefield and aerial warfare

9 Gwilym H. Lewis, Wings Over the Somme, 1916-1918. (Clwd, Wales: Bridge Books, 1976), 47-48.
10 Christopher Shores, Norman Franks & Russel Guest, Above the Trenches: A Complete Record of the
Fighter Aces and Units of the British Aces and Units of the British Empire Air Forces, 1914-1920,
(London: Grub Street, 1990), 316.
11 Trevor Henshaw, The Sky Their Battlefield: Air Fighting and the Complete List of Allied Air
Casualties From Enemy Action in the First War, (London, Grub Street, 1995), 90.
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