File:The aeroplane in war (1912) (14577783648).jpg

Identifier: aeroplaneinwar00grah (find matches)
Title: The aeroplane in war
Year: 1912 (1910s)
Authors: Grahame-White, Claude, 1879- Harper, Harry, b.1880
Subjects: Airplanes Aeronautics, Military
Publisher: Toronto : Bell and Cockburn
Contributing Library: ASC - York University Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Ontario Council of University Libraries and Member Libraries

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ecorps—The work of cavalry reconnaissance. What can be achieved by aeroplane reconnaissance,when skilfully carried out, and conducted upon anadequate scale, it will be the purpose of this sectionof our book to show. In order to appreciate the services which anefficient air-corps will be able to render, the positionof a Commander-in-Chief who has no aeroplanes tohelp him should first be understood. In modern warfare, operations are extended overa very wide area. Sometimes, for example, a fight-ing line will stretch over a frontage of many miles.This makes it increasingly difficult for a Commander-in-Chief to obtain precise and speedy informationconcerning the movements of his enemy. Cavalry scouts are, of course, sent out. Theymove cautiously forward, until they come into con-tact with the outposts which the enemy has thrownforward with the deliberate intention of concealinghis intentions. The cavalry scouts are able to reportthe position of these outposts ; but as to what general 96
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I - c in I - ^-- i> ^ o h V o = •5 E THE AEROPLANE IN WAR 97 strategic movement is taking place behind this screenthey can, as a rule, provide only meagre information,if any at all. How difficult it is to glean anything like rehablenews of an enemys movements has been indicatedby that great military genius, Napoleon. Dealingwith this very question, and clearly emphasising theneed for such a scouting medium as the aeroplane,he wrote:— Nothing is more contradictory, nothing ismore bewildering, than the miltitude reports ofspies, or of officers sent out to reconnoitre; somelocate army corps where they have seen only de-tachments ; others see only detachments wherethey ought to have seen army corps. Often they have not themselves seen the factsthey report, and they have only gathered the hear-say evidence of alarmed, surprised, or bewilderedpeople. ... If a former preoccupation exists, ifthere is a tendency to believe that the enemy willcome from one direction rather than from anot

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