Infantry Support?

I know there were Ground Attack Aircraft like the Salamander...

But were any of the players in WW1 particularly good at supporting Infantry Advances?

For instance, would Aircraft ever be used to soften up enemy trenches before an assault?

[Volker_Nemsch]

Hello Grey!

Germany had at least one specialised aircraft for low altitude missions / ground attack missions over no-mans-land.

It was the JUNKERS J.1, the world´s first all-metal plane. Additionaly it had a 5 mm armour-plate for protecting crew and engine against ground fire.

I´m not sure if this plane had one (or two) fixed machine guns fireing downward/forward (additionally to the guns for observer and pilot).

For further information please have a look the AIRCRAFT section of the Aerodrome.

Best regards
Volker Nemsch

Volker,

I'm familiar with the aircraft.

But mainly my question is concerning tactics and events which put Infantry Support tactics into action.

World War II saw the Air/Ground combined warefare, and many times I heard it said that it wasn't until Germany's invasion of Poland that this was ever put into practice.

But such aircraft as the Salamander and the Junkers J.1 at least suggest that tacticians were at least thinking about it during WW1.

I understand, for instance, that the Turks used aircraft to harrass the Bedoin on the ground, but that seemed the extent of air/ground assault that I've ever heard of.

What about Gotha Bombers attacking British or French trenches prior to an attack? Or fighters strafing to pin down the enemy to cover an infantry advance?

[Dan_San_Abbott]

Grey:
In the German Army, at the Army (Armee) and Corps(Korp) level were assigned a reconnaissance unit, Flieger Abteilung (Fl. Abt.) of which, one of their duties was to provide the Armee or Korp Commander with information as to where the front line was during the attack or in defensive actions, those of these crews were called Infantry Flieger, (Infantry Flyer). In the mix of aircraft issued to these Fl.Abt. were one or two of any of the following armored aircraft: AEG J.I, AEG. J.II; Alb.J.I, Alb.J.II; Ju.J.I. The forward part of the fuselage on all these aircraft were armored with 5mm chrome steel to protect the crew and engines from small arms fire from the ground. The AEG and Alb J.types also had two machine guns to strafe enemy ground forces during these types of reconnaissance missions. They would fly very low 50 to 100 meters over the front to determine the location of the front-line troops during the flux phase of the battle. The means of identification was the color of the uniforms of the troops on the ground. Obviously, this was very dangerous. There were generally one or two of these machines assigned to a Flieger Abteilung in the their normal complement of 6 aircraft. The other aircraft in the unit would be the normal current 2 seat photo reconnaissance "C" type aircraft.
Blue skies,
Dan-San

50 meters isn't exactly pistol range, but it's getting close.

If these flights were taking place during a battle, how would the crew communicate to the ground forces in time to affect strategy?

[Dan_San_Abbott]

Grey:
The second part is the real answer to your question.
In late 1916, The Fliegertruppe (Flying Troops) were reorganized and it became the Luftstreitkräfte, (Air Force). From this reorganization were formed 30 Schutzstaffeln, Schusta, (Protection flights) which were used to fly shot gun for the Fl.Abt. and Fl.Abt.A (Artillery direction flights). In late 1917, a few of these Shustas were used in infantry support during the Battle of Cambrai. They were quite successful and studies were conducted to determine how to best use them. The role was changed from protection to attack, as a result of these studies. Their designation was changed from Schutzstaffel to Schlactstaffel Schlasta, (Battle Flight). During the "Battle of France" in March 1918, they were grouped into three Schlasta and used as ground attack in infantry support, to beat trenches enemy strong points met in the attack, machine gun nests. Later they were grouped into Schlactgruppen of six Schlastas. They were very effective. They were equipped with light two seat fighters, the: Halb. Cl.II, Halb. Cl.IV; Han. Cl.II, Cl.III and Cl.IIIa. These were light "C" Class aircraft without any armor and they also flew very low over the battle field, 50 to 100 meters, and these guys had balls! :
Blue skies,
Dan-San

DanSan, THAT, Sir, is the answer I was looking for!

My utter lack of knowledge about what happened in WW1 galls me, but my suspicion, I think, is correct in that the people who made war in that period weren't stupid or backward as some seem to suggest.

[Dan_San_Abbott]

Grey:
Communications between ground troops and the Infantrie Flieger were carried out by use of ground panels that would be layed out to from various symbols,i.e. an arrow ^ might indicate the point of attack. These were also used to inform the Schlasta crews. The information would be relayed to Korp or Armee Headquarters by morse code wireless or by dropping a message bag with a streamer attached. This was the real beginning of controlling the battlefield.
Blue skies,
Dan-San

Dan, what I meant was, how was this physically accomplished from the Air Crew to the Ground Commanders?

Did they have to land or did they drop notes?

[Vigilant]

Both note dropping in message bags (as mentioned by Dan San) and landing at HQ were used by the British to inform the brass about what was going on. In the RFC at least this sort of information-gathering role, called Contact Patrol, was separate from 'straffing' or contour-chasing in direct support of the infantry. Contact patrol was carried out by normal 2-seaters such as RE8's, while direct support was more usually allocated to manoeuvrable fighters such as the Camel.

The first time fighters were used in this role by the British Army was at Arras in April 1917. Contact Patrols had been going on since 1915 with mixed results.

Really it was only the invention of the mobile radio (ie walkie-talkie) that allowed commanders to influence the course of a modern battle while it was going on. Unfortunately, without such technology WW1 battles often degenerated into bloody chaos a few minutes after 'going over the top' as phone wire were cut by shell fire, and runners became casualties.