Year 10 Holiday Homework Controlled Assessment Preparation Air Warfare in WWI and WWII
Summer Homework Year 10 The following tasks and articles will help you prepare for the first part of your controlled assessment. You will be taught both content and technique in September; however it is important to know that both questions of the controlled assessment require the deployment of your own knowledge. Therefore it is important for you to begin researching the first topic; Air Warfare in WWI and WII. Tasks 1) Read through the 4 articles on air warfare, highlight key features of how air warfare is carried out and any technology that helps its success. 2) Make a list of similarities and differences of air warfare in WWI and WWII. 3) Using the internet (BBC History, History Learning Site, Spartacus Educational etc.) produce a small project focusing on the British Experience of air warfare; find some examples of the following air warfare concepts from both WWI and WWII: Reconnaissance Air combat Strategic Bombing Types of Aeroplanes - Fighters Types of Aeroplanes Bombers Communication
Air warfare through World War I Encyclopaedia Britannica http://www.britannica.com/topic/air-warfare Powered aircraft were first used in war in 1911, by the Italians against the Turks near Tripoli, but it was not until the Great War of 1914 18 that their use became widespread. At first, aircraft were unarmed and employed for reconnaissance, serving basically as extensions of the eyes of the ground commander. Soon, however, the need to deny such reconnaissance to the enemy led to air-to-air combat in which each side tried to gain superiority in the air. Fighter planes were armed with fixed, forward-firing machine guns that allowed the pilot to aim his entire aircraft at the enemy, and the effective range of these weapons (no more than about 200 yards) meant that the first aerial combat took place at very short range. By the second year of the war fighter tactics emerged on all sides emphasizing basic concepts that, with modification, remained applicable through the jet age. First was the surprise attack; from the very beginning of aerial warfare in World War I, jumping or bouncing unsuspecting victims accounted for more kills than did the spectacular aerobatics of dogfighting. Because a pilot s only warning system was the naked eye, attacking fighters, whenever possible, approached from the rear or dove out of the sun, where they could not be seen. The German ace Max Immelmann, in exploiting the superior abilities of his Fokker Eindeker to climb and dive quickly, helped expand aerial combat from the horizontal into the vertical dimension. Immelmann developed what became known as the Immelmann turn, in which an attacking fighter dove past the enemy craft, pulled sharply up into a vertical climb until it was above the target again, then turned hard to the side and down so that it could dive a second time. Fighters operated at least in pairs, flying 50 to 60 yards apart, so that the wingman could protect the leader s rear. Flying speed averaged 100 miles per hour, and communication was by hand signalling, rocking the wings, and firing coloured flares. The next role to emerge for military aircraft was ground attack, in which planes, by strafing with machine guns and dropping rudimentary bombs, aided an advance on the ground, helped cover a retreat, or simply harassed the enemy. By the late stages of the war, ground-attack aircraft had forced almost all large-scale troop movements to be carried out at night or in bad weather. By war s end a fourth vision of air power arose that of an independent air force attacking the enemy far from the front lines, the purpose being to destroy essential elements of the enemy s war capability by bombing factories, transportation and supply networks, and even centres of government. This role, never effectively implemented in World War I, was spurred largely by the German air attacks on London. Carried out at first by zeppelin airships, the bombing was later done by aircraft such as the Gotha bomber, which, by flying at night and often as high as 20,000 feet (forcing the crew to breathe bottled oxygen through a tube in the mouth), operated beyond the ceiling of many defensive fighters. Thus, the basic roles that aircraft would play in modern war were presaged in World War I: reconnaissance, air superiority, tactical ground support, and strategic bombing.
A Brief History of Air Warfare -The Second World War Dugdale Pointon, T., (30 March 2007), A Brief History of Air Warfare The Second World War saw the military use of air power come of age. The development during the war saw the most rapid and drastic changes in military aircraft technology and airborne weaponry. Whereas aircraft development in the First World War had been evolutionary although rapid, the Second World War saw truly revolutionary development. The monoplane quickly became the dominant design and speed and fire power rapidly increased, resulting in a propeller driven fighter that could possibly break the sound barrier in a dive, the British Typhoon. Aces were still important but the sheer scale of air combat made personalities less important and technology more so. The first jet fighters came into front line service by the end of the war with the British Meteor and German Me 262 although propeller driven combat aircraft would remain in military service for many years to come. Air to Air weaponry was still based on machine guns and cannon with some unguided rockets in use against large bombers. The Second World War saw the bomber come of age, with a massive increase in bomb load and range compared to their First World War counterparts. The concept of strategic bombing brought destruction to cities on a scale never seen before although the effectiveness of large scale bombing of cities is highly debatable. Bombers became massive multi gunned, multi engined machines with such aircraft as the British Lancaster and American Flying Fortress and Super Fortress being deployed in vast numbers. The power of strategic bombing reached new levels with the first use of nuclear weapons in 1945. Radar became important and a new breed of aircraft the Night Fighter developed, to hunt the night time bombing raids. Photographic reconnaissance became increasingly important to commanders on the ground. Depth charge armed sub hunting aircraft ranged far over the world s oceans. The Second World War also saw the development of close air support, the use of attack aircraft in direct support of ground troops often making attacks very close to the forward edge of battle. New aircraft types developed to take on this role such as the Stuka Dive bomber and the British Typhoon and Tempest. Aircraft now took on tank hunting as a specific role, using large calibre guns in the case of modified German Stuka aircraft or unguided rockets as in the case of aircraft of many other countries. At sea the aircraft career became the dominant weapon end the battleship's supremacy, as shown at the Battle of Midway. Air power now showed the vulnerability of large warships to air launched torpedoes and bombs although the big fleets had considerable defences against air attack. Air craft also impacted on warfare in another area - that of transport and supply. Paratroopers were used on a large scale for the first time with the German airborne invasion of Crete in 1941 and the nearly disastrous Allied operation Market Garden in 1944. Transport planes such as the Ju-52 and DC-3 made large scale operations possible and allowed the rapid resupply of forces in environments where the transport networks were poor or nonexistent. Helicopters started to be developed during the Second World War but failed to have a significant affect. Air power in the Second World War was a vital part of the conflict. Unlike the First World War where air power was a useful addition to forces or a propaganda weapon, Second World War airpower helped decide the fate of whole campaign areas if not the course of the war as in the Battle of Britain. Furthermore it became integrated into warfare as never before, with the use of airborne troops, close air support and Naval Aviation.
Battle of Britain By Bruce Robinson BBC History Theatre: United Kingdom Dates: June to September 1940 Location: Britain - the skies above the Southern Counties and the Channel Outcome: British victory, forcing Hitler to postpone indefinitely his plans to invade England Note: The Battle of Britain marked the first major use of radar, which strengthened British defensive capabilities enormously and was a significant contributor to eventual victory. Following the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) from Dunkirk, Hitler issued a directive on 16 July 1940 ordering the preparation and, if necessary, the execution of a plan for the invasion of Great Britain, codenamed Operation Sealion. Britain retained naval superiority and Hitler knew an amphibious invasion of the British Isles would only be possible if Germany could establish control of the air in the battle zone. The German High Command launched a campaign to gain air superiority over southern England and to knock British morale. On paper, the Luftwaffe had a clear advantage. They entered the battle with around 1,300 bombers and divebombers, and about 900 single-engined and 300 twin-engined fighters - significantly more than Fighter Command's 600 planes. But the Luftwaffe was hampered by a lack of any consistent plan of action. It tried to establish a blockade by destroying British shipping and ports, attempted to destroy Britain's Fighter Command through combat and the bombing of ground installations, and also attacked London and other important cities. In addition, the British forces were well prepared. Radar early warning technology, the most advanced and the most operationally adapted system in the world, gave Fighter Command adequate notice of where and when to direct its forces to repel German bombing raids. The Spitfire, though still in short supply at the time, was arguably the best intercepting fighter in the world and proved deadly against the German bombers, which lacked the bomb-load capacity to strike permanently devastating blows. German dive-bombers were extremely vulnerable to being shot down by British fighters, and fighter cover was only partially available since the German fighter aircraft were operating at the limit of their flying range over England. The German air attacks were initially focused on British shipping, ports and airfields along the English Channel. In June and July 1940, as the Germans gradually redeployed their forces, the air battle moved inland. On 2 August, the Luftwaffe chief, Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, issued the Adlertag (Eagle Day) directive, a plan of attack in which a few massive blows from the air were to destroy British air power and so open the way for the invasion of Britain. This intensive phase began on 8 August. The Germans launched bombing raids involving up to 1,500 aircraft a day and directed them against the British fighter airfields and radar stations. By late August the Germans had lost more than 600 aircraft and the RAF only 260, but the RAF was rapidly losing badly needed fighters and experienced pilots and its effectiveness was further hampered by the bombing damage done to its radar stations. At the beginning of September the British retaliated with a bombing raid on Berlin, provoking Hitler into redirecting Luftwaffe attacks from Fighter Command installations to London and other cities. This gave the RAF a much-needed breather, but intensified the Blitz on British cities. By mid-september Britain had effectively won the Battle of Britain, denying the Luftwaffe air superiority by shooting down German bombers faster than they could be rebuilt. On 17 September, Hitler postponed Operation Sealion 'until further notice'.
The Blitz By Bruce Robinson BBC History Theatre: United Kingdom Dates: 25 August 1940 to 16 May 1941 Location: London and other major cities Outcome: Allied victory at a high civilian cost. The Blitz reduced pressure on the RAF, cost Germany enormous numbers of aircraft and personnel and failed to pave the way for the German invasion of Britain. The sustained German bombing of London and other major British cities began towards the end of the Battle of Britain, after a British raid on Berlin in early September prompted Hitler to order the Luftwaffe to switch its attention from RAF Fighter Command to urban centres of industrial and political significance. The first German raids on British cities had already taken place by the end of August 1940, when Birmingham and Liverpool were attacked, but on 7 September the Blitz intensified when around 950 German aircraft attacked London. It was the first and last mass daylight raid on London, but it heralded the first of 57 consecutive nights of bombing. The daylight raid alone caused some 300 civilian deaths and a further 1,300 serious injuries; by the end of the Blitz, around 30,000 Londoners would be left dead, with another 50,000 injured. Fortunately, millions of children, mothers, patients and pensioners had already been evacuated to the countryside. For those who were left in London, a rigorous policy of blackout began. Every building had to extinguish or cover its lights at night, and car owners had to reduce their headlights to a thin horizontal slit, with rear lamps also dimmed severely. Road accidents shot up, exacerbated by the lack of street lighting and the dimmed traffic lights. A second daylight raid on 9 September was successfully intercepted by Fighter Command's 10, 11 and 12 Groups. Less than half of the German bombers got through, with very few hitting their targets. Daylight attacks continued elsewhere in England, with sporadic success. Against London, however, the Germans haemorrhaged aircraft and crew, compared to much lighter British losses. In early November, Luftwaffe chief Reichsmarschall Herman Göring ordered that the air offensive against cities, industry and ports had to be conducted entirely under cover of darkness. The new strategy was showcased by a massive attack on Coventry on 14 November, which destroyed much of the city, including all but the spires of St Michael's Cathedral and the Grey Friars' Church. Attacks on Birmingham, Southampton, Bristol, Plymouth and Liverpool followed, but they proved less effective. On 29 December, a major raid on London destroyed much of the City, but poor winter weather then led to a drop in attacks until March. The two months from March until May 1941 saw a series of heavy attacks, culminating in a very damaging raid on London on 10 May. The Blitz ended on 16 May, when most of the Luftwaffe was re-assigned east for the imminent invasion of Russia. The end of the Blitz saw a return of evacuees and the start of the reconstruction of London - even though building materials were in desperately short supply. The docks had been devastated, as had many industrial, residential and commercial districts, including the historic heart of the City.