Real time Discusion thread

5 Squadron RNAS, currently attached to the Royal Navy’s Dover Patrol have been engaged in a tit-for-tat exchange with German air forces along the Belgian coast. The RNAS has been bombing aerodromes and Zeppelin sheds to prevent the attacks on the English coast and on Belgian towns. The Germans in turn have been bombing Dunkirk and other Belgian towns.

The Commander of the RFC is in no doubt that his primary role is to support the British Army in the field, through reconnaissance and artillery spotting, and has no time for these kind of sideshows. Today he wrote to the Air Board to make his position clear:

Trenchard's time in command of the R.F.C. on the Western Front was characterised by three priorities. First was an emphasis on support to and co-ordination with ground forces. This started with reconnaissance and artillery co-ordination, and later encompassed tactical low-level bombing of enemy ground targets. While he did not oppose the strategic bombing of Germany in principle, he rejected moves to divert his forces on to long-range bombing missions as he believed the strategic role to be less important and his resource to be too limited. Secondly, he stressed the importance of morale, not only of his own airmen, but more generally the detrimental effect that the presence of an aircraft had upon the morale of enemy ground troops. Finally, he had an unswerving belief in the importance of offensive action. Although this belief was widely held by senior British commanders in the war, the R.F.C.'s routinely offensive strategy resulted in the loss of many of its air crews and machines, and some doubted its military validity.[80]