Other Aspects of WW1 The War in the Sky Initially, the War in the Sky consisted of balloons. The French had used balloons in the Napoleonic and Franco-Prussian Wars to scout enemy positions. Balloons were also used for reconnaissance in WW1. Balloons were used to identify German troop movements towards Paris through Belgium. The German attack was stopped, and as a result, WW1 trench warfare began.

Other Aspects of WW1 The War in the Sky…2 At the start of WW1, airplanes were also used mainly to spot enemy troops on the ground. These planes were slow, heavy two-seater planes without guns. The Germans put machine guns on smaller, lighter and faster planes. Their goal was to shoot down the reconnaissance planes. The Allied forces also started making fighter planes, and the dog fight in the sky was born.

Other Aspects of WW1 The War in the Sky…3 Dog fights were very dangerous. Airplanes were bi-planes made of wood and canvas. If a plane caught on fire, it would spread quickly. The top speed was less than 160 km/h, and motors were often unreliable. The parachute had not been invented.

Other Aspects of WW1 The War in the Sky…4 There were many famous WW1 “Aces”. The most famous Canadian Ace is Billy Bishop. Bishop had 72 kills. The most famous is the German Red Baron – Manfred von Richthofen. He painted his plane red, and he is credited with 80 planes shot down. The Red Baron was killed in action…some say by Canadian Roy Brown in a dog fight, while other historians believe gun fire from the ground.

Other Aspects of WW1 The War on the Water At the start of WW1, Germany had cruisers which were used to attack the Allied merchant ships delivering war supplies from Great Britain and North America. The British Royal Navy systematically hunted and destroyed the German war ships. By the late stages of WW1, Great Britain controlled the seas. The German ships were confined to port by a British NAVAL BLOCKADE.

Other Aspects of WW1 The War on the Water…2 The Germans also used submarines. Submarines were cheaper and faster to build. The U-Boats attacked freighters and did not allow the crews of the sinking ships to escape On 7 May 1915, the German U20 submarine sank the British passenger liner RMS Lusitania. The torpedo caused a massive internal explosion…some suggest hidden bombs. The boat sank in under 18 minutes and lives were lost…many Americans. This action greatly upset the Americans, and it contributed to the USA entering WW1 in 1917.

Other Aspects of WW1 The War on the Water…3 In 1917, the Germans declared unrestricted submarine warfare. They attacked freighters, supply vessels, passenger liners and hospital ships. This action was intended to disrupt supply lines before the USA entered the war On 27 June 1918, a German U-Boat torpedoed the hospital ship Llandovery Castle. All 244 people aboard perished. The U-boat threat was solved in 1917 by herding merchants ships into a CONVOY escorted by destroyers. The clustering of vessels made it much harder for U-boats to find their targets, and the destroyers made it likely that the slow submarines would be sunk by a highly effective new weapon, the depth charge.