Battle of Cambrai - Tank vs Airplane

[wingedwarrior]

He everyone,

I came across an interesting German term while reading a book on the battle of Cambrai. The battle began on November 20, 1917, and it was the first battle in which the British used tanks on a large scale. The term 'tankschlacht', which literally means tank battle, was used to describe missions flown by German airmen. The problem is, there is no further information to help describe these actions. Does anyone know if the German Air Service flew organized and sustained missions against these mechanized giants, or were these combats sporadic at best? Any clues will be helpful.

Regards

[vb136]

Winged warrior

I have a German monograph from 1929, called Die Tankschlacht bei Cambrai, describing this battle. It seems that the phrase Tankschlacht describes the battle as such, because it saw the first massive use of tanks by the British.

[TonyWilliams]

This is from 'Flying Guns – World War 1: Development of Aircraft Guns, Ammunition and Installations 1914-32' by Emmanuel Gustin and myself:

"The German attacks of March 1918 were supported by CL and J planes, and countered by British fighters dropping bombs and strafing. RFC doctrine saw Camels and Bristol Fighters being mainly used for ground attack, covered by S.E.5a and Dolphin fighters. The air attacks proved very effective (particularly against horses, which panicked), but the RFC suffered heavy casualties once more as the non-specialised aircraft were not really suitable for the task. This conflict saw the first successful anti-tank missions, when the aircraft of 34 (Bavaria) Jagdstaffel attacked a column of advancing British tanks, stopping them with machine-gun fire."

Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website (http://www.quarry.nildram.co.uk) and discussion
forum (http://forums.delphiforums.com/autogun/messages/)

[wingedwarrior]

Thanks vb136 and Tony for your help. I see that the term 'tankschlacht' was a generic term, used to describe the battle itself. I appreciate the narrative from your book Tony as well. It shows that concentrated efforts were made in regards to stoppng the tank menace.

regards