Sky Fighters Of France, Aerial Warfare, 1914-1918 by Lieutenant Henry Farré Catherine Rush

Author:Lieutenant Henry Farré, Catherine Rush [Lieutenant Henry Farré, Catherine Rush]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781782890799
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Lucknow Books
Published: 2012-04-12T00:00:00+00:00

IX—OBSERVATION FLYING

THE observation squadron, by which is meant the squadron of planes that reports the fall of shots, was located near us and commanded by Captain d’Aimery. Their work was very different from ours; it began when we finished, and I admit very frankly that their task was less appreciated and was more dangerous. They are the most useful auxiliaries to the army; they report the fall of shots and signal the necessary sight corrections to the guns. Their work is inconspicuous—never seen; they fulfill their mission and fall heroically without any mention in dispatches, victims of the enemy’s guns and planes.

One morning—his suspicion of my being a hoodoo gone—I spoke to Captain Laurens of my desire to assist in the work of some of these observation planes.

“That‘s all right, my dear man, we are not flying to-night, however,—will to-morrow do?“

“Certainly, sir.”

“Ask d’Aimery, then, what time they begin to-morrow, and we can put in the spare time by running over the lines. I want to see the Verdun sector in daylight; flying at night all the time is monotonous. Don’t you find it so? “

“Ah, I am delighted to hear you say that. I never dared to ask for the chance to fly during the day.”

The next morning at seven o’clock, we flew towards the Vauquois sector, where the guns were in full swing. There were two spotting-planes of the Farman type, in which our best observers were at work at an altitude of about eighteen hundred meters. Keeping as nearly head to wind as possible, they described circles of about a kilometer’s radius, noting the point of fall of the shots from our long-range guns. For about a quarter of an hour we made big circles around them, observing them.

The observer, by means of his wireless, advised the artillery and directed their fire up to the time that they hit the mark. When this was reported, the gunners made careful note of the angle of fire and the direction. Such work is always tedious and dangerous, because the enemy never sees with any pleasure an enemy plane taking notes over his head, for he knows perfectly well that these observations may be followed by terrible consequences for him. To do away with this, the enemy’s special air-guns, which he uses constantly and often with great effect, try to bring down that human bird which stubbornly remains up there as long as our guns continue to fire. Sometimes when the shrapnel shells come very close, the observation planes rise three or four hundred meters to avoid being hit.

Another danger to the observation plane is attack from fighting planes; swift, handy, and heavily armed, like hawks they dart from the upper heights down upon their inoffensive prey. This comparison is particularly apt in the case of the Farman plane, which is called a chicken coop because it resembles a chicken coop in shape. The Farman is an excellent planer, too. Head to the wind, he can be held so that he

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