CHAPTER XXXVI. Sea-planes for Warfare
"Even in the region of the air, into which with characteristic British prudence we have moved with some tardiness, the Navy need not fear comparison with the Navy of any other country. The British sea-plane, although still in an empirical stage, like everything else in this sphere of warlike operations, has reached a point of progress in advance of anything attained elsewhere.
"Our hearts should go out to-night to those brilliant officers, Commander Samson and his band of brilliant pioneers, to whose endeavours, to whose enterprise, to whose devotion it is due that in an incredibly short space of time our naval aeroplane service has been raised to that primacy from which it must never be cast down.
"It is not only in naval hydroplanes that we must have superiority. The enduring safety of this country will not be maintained by force of arms unless over the whole sphere of aerial development we are able to make ourselves the first nation. That will be a task of long duration. Many difficulties have to be overcome. Other countries have started sooner. The native genius of France, the indomitable perseverance of Germany, have produced results which we at the present time cannot equal."
So said Mr. Winston Churchill at the Lord Mayor's Banquet held in London in 1913, and I have quoted his speech because such a statement, made at such a time, clearly shows the attitude of the British Government toward this new arm of Imperial Defence.
In bygone days the ocean was the great highway which united the various quarters of the Empire, and, what was even more important from the standpoint of our country's defence, it was a formidable barrier between Britain and her Continental neighbours,
"Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house."
But the ocean is no longer the only highway, for the age of aerial
navigation has arrived, and, as one writer says: "Every argument
which impelled us of old to fight for the dominion of the sea has
apparently been found valid in relation to the supremacy of the air."
From some points of view this race between nations for naval and
aerial supremacy may be unfortunate, but so long as the fighting
instinct of man continues in the human race, so long as rivalry
exists between nations, so long must we continue to strengthen our
aerial position.
Britain is slow to start on any great venture where great change
is effected. Our practice is rather to wait and see what other
nations are doing; and there is something to be said for this method
of procedure.
In the art of aviation, and in the construction of air-craft, our
French, German, and American rivals were very efficient pacemakers in
the aerial race for supremacy, and during the years 1909-12 we were in
grave peril of being left hopelessly behind. But in 1913 we realized
the vital importance to the State of capturing the first place in
aviation, particularly that of aerial supremacy at sea, for the Navy
is our first line of defence. So rapid has been our progress that we
are quite the equal of our French and German rivals in the production
of aeroplanes, and in sea-planes we are far ahead of them, both in
design and construction, and the war has proved that we are ahead in
the art of flight.
The Naval Air Service before the war had been establishing a chain
of air stations round the coast. These stations are at Calshot, on
Southampton Water, the Isle of Grain, off Sheerness, Leven, on the
Firth of Forth, Cromarty, Yarmouth, Blythe, and Cleethorpes.
But what is even more important is the fact that the Government is
encouraging sea-plane constructors to go ahead as fast as they can in
the production of efficient machines. Messrs. Short Brothers, the
Sopwith Aviation Company, and Messrs. Roe are building high-class
machines for sea work which can beat anything turned out abroad. Our
newest naval water-planes are fitted with British-built wireless
apparatus of great range of action, and Messrs. Short Brothers are at
the present time constructing for the Admiralty, at their works in the
Isle of Sheppey, a fleet of fighting water-planes capable of engaging
and destroying the biggest dirigible air-ships.
In 1913 aeroplanes took a very prominent part in our naval
manoeuvres, and the cry of the battleship captains was: "Give us
water-planes. Give us them of great size and power, large enough to
carry a gun and gun crew, and capable of taking twelve-hour cruises at
a speed much greater than that of the fastest dirigible air-ship, and
we shall be on the highroad to aerial supremacy at sea."
The Admiralty, acting on this advice, at once began to co-operate
with the leading firms of aeroplane constructors, and at a great rate
machines of all sizes and designs have been turned out. There were
light single-seater water-planes able to maintain a speed of over a
mile a minute; there were also larger machines for long-distance
flying which could carry two passengers. The machines were so
designed that their wings could be folded back along their bodies, and
their wires, struts, and so on packed into the main parts of the
craft, so that they were almost as compact as the body of a bird at
rest on its perch, and they took up comparatively little space on
board ship.
A brilliantly executed raid was carried out on Cuxhaven, an
important German naval base, by seven British water-planes, on
Christmas Day, 1914. The water-planes were escorted across the North
Sea by a light cruiser and destroyer force, together with submarines.
They left the war-ships in the vicinity of Heligoland and flew over
Cuxhaven, discharging bombs on points of military significance, and
apparently doing considerable damage to the docks and shipping. The
British ships remained off the coast for three hours in order to pick
up the returning airmen, and during this time they were attacked by
dirigibles and submarines, without, however, suffering damage. Six of
the sea-planes returned safely to the ships, but one was wrecked in
Heligoland Bight.
But the present efficient sea-plane is a development of the war.
In the early days many of the raids of the "naval wing" were carried
out in land-going aeroplanes. Now the R.N.A.S., which came into being
as a separate service in July, 1914, possess two main types of flying
machine, the flying boat and the twin float, both types being able to
rise from and alight upon the sea, just as an aeroplane can leave and
return to the land. Many brilliant raids stand to the credit of the
R.N.A.S. The docks at Antwerp, submarine bases at Ostend, and all
Germany's fortified posts on the Belgian coast, have seldom been free
from their attentions. And when, under the stress of public outcry,
the Government at last gave its consent to a measure of "reprisals" it
was the R.N.A.S. which opened the campaign with a raid upon the German
town of Mannheim.
As the war continued the duties of the naval pilot increased. He
played a great part in the ceaseless hunt for submarines. You must
often have noticed how easily fish can be seen from a bridge which are
quite invisible from the banks of the river. On this principle the
submarine can be "spotted" by air-craft, and not until the long
silence upon naval affairs is broken, at the end of the war, shall we
know to what extent we are indebted to naval airmen for that long list
of submarines which, in the words of the German reports, "failed to
return" to their bases.
In addition to the "Blimps" of which mention has been made, the
Royal Naval Air Service are in charge of air-ships known as the Coast
Patrol type, which work farther out to sea, locating minefields and
acting as scouts for the great fleet of patrol vessels. The Service
has gathered laurels in all parts of the globe, its achievements
ranging from an aerial food service into beleaguered Kut to the
discovery of the German cruiser Konigsberg, cunningly camouflaged up
an African creek.