Aerial reconnaissance using heavier-than-air machines was an entirely new science that had to be improvised step-by-step. Early operations were low-level flights with the pilot often dismounting from the plane to report verbally to the nearest officers. Photographic support was urgently developed, initially requiring a full-time photographer on board to handle the heavy, awkward equipment. The interpreting of aerial images was an important new speciality, essential for accurate mapping. By 1915, air-to-ground radio was in use for reconnaissance pilots.
The leader in aeronautics at the outset was France, with its Blériot observation planes, while Germany was more advanced in optics. The British were somewhat behind in the early stages, owing to lack of government backing. America would make valuable contributions in the form of multi-lens cameras for precision spotting.
Reconnaissance remained an under-rated military art, compared with aerial combat, which gained the publicity, but impacted less on the outcome of the war.
Beginnings
The first use of an airplane in war was a reconnaissance flight performed on 23 October 1911 by Captain
Carlo Maria Piazza in a
Blériot XI
The Blériot XI is a French aircraft of the pioneer era of aviation. The first example was used by Louis Blériot to make the first flight across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air aircraft, on 25 July 1909. This is one of the most fam ...
during the
Italo-Turkish War
The Italo-Turkish or Turco-Italian War ( tr, Trablusgarp Savaşı, "Tripolitanian War", it, Guerra di Libia, "War of Libya") was fought between the Kingdom of Italy and the Ottoman Empire from 29 September 1911, to 18 October 1912. As a result o ...
in
Tripolitania
Tripolitania ( ar, طرابلس '; ber, Ṭrables, script=Latn; from Vulgar Latin: , from la, Regio Tripolitana, from grc-gre, Τριπολιτάνια), historically known as the Tripoli region, is a historic region and former province o ...
. Military aerial photography began that December. The experience in World War I would begin on very similar terms, with French Bleriot and German
Taube monoplanes. Reconnaissance was widely perceived as the only practical use of airplanes.
![Aerial observer in balloon gondola, 1918](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/Aerial_observer_in_balloon_gondola%2C_1918.jpg)
While most of the combatant countries possessed a few military aircraft in August 1914, these were almost exclusively devoted to reconnaissance and
artillery
Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during siege ...
spotting, supplementing well-tried and familiar platforms like balloons and
kite
A kite is a tethered heavier than air flight, heavier-than-air or lighter-than-air craft with wing surfaces that react against the air to create Lift (force), lift and Drag (physics), drag forces. A kite consists of wings, tethers and anchors. ...
s. Tethered
balloon
A balloon is a flexible bag that can be inflated with a gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, oxygen, and air. For special tasks, balloons can be filled with smoke, liquid water, granular media (e.g. sand, flour or rice), or light so ...
s could ascend to as high as a mile, but were easy to shoot down. Furthermore, they were unstable observation platforms in any wind, leading to attempts to stabilize them with kite-tails or
drogue
A drogue (also known as a storm drogue) is a device trailed behind a boat on a long line attached to the stern. A drogue is used to slow the boat down in a storm and to prevent the hull from becoming side-on to the waves. A boat that has deploye ...
s attached to the basket.
Dirigible
An airship or dirigible balloon is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft that can navigate through the air under its own power. Aerostats gain their lift from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air.
In early ...
s like the huge new German
Zeppelin
A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp ...
s were considered the best reconnaissance platforms and they served effectively for maritime patrols. Vertical camera installations were used from the beginning of the war, but they were too heavy and bulky for light airplanes, and most early reconnaissance from airplanes consisted of visual observation and written reports. Handheld cameras were widely used but with disappointing results. Good photographs required both skilled flying and an operator who could devote time to handle the camera and the unwieldy and heavy glass plates it required. In time, longer focal length lenses were used, cameras and gear grew lighter and bigger, and for survival, operating altitudes increased up to . Driven high, aircrews began to use oxygen and heated clothing items.
The critical discipline of communicating results led to rampant improvisation. At first it was not uncommon for aircraft to land next to command posts so the pilot could personally pass on urgent information. For artillery spotting, time was of the essence, and the French tried air-dropped messaging, colored flares, and pre-arranged aircraft maneuvers to convey information. France was reportedly the first to try airborne radios, often transmitters alone due to the weight penalty; others maintain that Britain preceded with the light-weight Sterling radio set in aircraft by 1915, and yet others claim that the pioneers were Austrians with their shelling of
Tarnów
Tarnów () is a city in southeastern Poland with 105,922 inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of 269,000 inhabitants. The city is situated in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship since 1999. From 1975 to 1998, it was the capital of the Tarnów ...
railway station with a
420 mm howitzer in January 1915.
![RFC aircraft with aerial reconnaissance camera](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/RFC_aircraft_with_aerial_reconnaissance_camera.jpg)
Germany had a scientific lead and adopted the first aerial camera, a
Görz
Gorizia (; sl, Gorica , colloquially 'old Gorizia' to distinguish it from Nova Gorica; fur, label= Standard Friulian, Gurize, fur, label= Southeastern Friulian, Guriza; vec, label= Bisiacco, Gorisia; german: Görz ; obsolete English ''Gorit ...
, in 1913. Austria-Hungary followed their lead. Just two weeks into the war, reporters noted of airplanes: "They have ranged constantly over the enemy's positions, so that the French have always known what the Germans have been doing. This has so disconcerted the latter that they are now making efforts to frighten the French air scouts away." By 17 August 1914 and repeatedly thereafter, Belgian "air scouts" reported on German troop movements.
France was by far the aeronautical leader at the time, and the French Army had incorporated cameras in airplanes from the beginning. France began the war with several squadrons of Blériot observation planes. The French Army developed procedures for getting prints into the hands of field commanders quickly. In Britain, then lagging far behind in aviation, the reconnaissance pioneer
F.C.V. Laws established the first heavier-than-air photography unit at
Farnborough in 1913, using a
Farman
Farman Aviation Works (french: Avions Farman) was a French aircraft company founded and run by the brothers Richard, Henri, and Maurice Farman. They designed and constructed aircraft and engines from 1908 until 1936; during the French national ...
fitted with a Watson camera. In stark contrast with the French, early British reconnaissance was essentially conducted on an amateur basis, lacking in official backing.
The United States played an important role in the last months of the war, using French aircraft and modified cameras. Some techniques and equipment used in civilian surveying and mapping were developed by the
US Army Corps of Engineers
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when the topographic engineer,
James W. Bagley, transferred from the
US Geological Survey
The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, an ...
to the army. Major Bagley brought his recently invented
tri-lens camera to France, where it was used to make one vertical and two oblique images from airplanes. These images were used to overprint enemy trenches and gun emplacements over existing maps for precision targeting. An example of this camera is held at the Smithsonian Institution: "This object is on display in the Boeing Aviation Hangar at the
Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center
The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, also called the Udvar-Hazy Center, is the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (NASM)'s annex at Washington Dulles International Airport in the Chantilly area of Fairfax County, Virginia. It holds numerous ...
in
Chantilly, VA
Chantilly is a census-designated place (CDP) in western Fairfax County, Virginia. The population was 24,301 as of the 2020 census. Chantilly is named after an early-19th-century mansion and farm, which in turn took the name of an 18th-century ...
.
Fairchild Aerial Camera Corporation built the production model of the T-2 and T-2A four-lens camera, which improved upon the T-1 tri-lens mapping camera developed by Maj. James Bagley of the
U.S. Army Signal Corps
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. The T-2A had one vertical lens and three oblique lenses set at 35 degrees, which provided a 120-degree field of view at right angles to the direction of flight. Four lens caps are also displayed."
Italy and Russia had prominent roles as well, with Italy deploying some of the best performing aircraft. The small Ottoman air forces were mostly an extension of German air power. The failure of the
Schlieffen Plan
The Schlieffen Plan (german: Schlieffen-Plan, ) is a name given after the First World War to German war plans, due to the influence of Field Marshal Alfred von Schlieffen and his thinking on an invasion of France and Belgium, which began on 4 ...
offensive in 1914 is attributed in part to French air superiority blinding German reconnaissance, but the German victory at
Tannenberg is thought to have been helped by prompt response to air intelligence about Russian movements.
Despite the improvised start, all sides quickly learned the importance of aerial photography, and by 1916 heavier-than-air reconnaissance was a regular practice along the front. This in turn necessitated fighter escorts, and thus drove much of the rapid aeronautical progress of the four years of war. Support of ground forces was almost the sole role of reconnaissance; strategic air war concepts were as yet embryonic. At sea, lighter-than-air photography still dominated; but Zeppelins turned out to be very vulnerable over settled areas.
Flying boat
A flying boat is a type of fixed-winged seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a floatplane in that a flying boat's fuselage is purpose-designed for floatation and contains a hull, while floatplanes rely on fusela ...
s and
seaplane
A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of takeoff, taking off and water landing, landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their tec ...
s ("Hydro-aeroplanes")came into their own for coastal patrol duties. By the end of the war both sides maintained detailed maps of the front derived from mosaics of aerial photographs. Germany alone reportedly generated 4,000 images a day in 1918.
Equipment
All major combatants maintained traditional units of kite-balloons and airships for point surveillance and reconnaissance. These were vulnerable, and tethered balloon observers were the first to use parachutes. Lighter-than-air platforms would soon be eclipsed, though not replaced, by fixed-wing aircraft.
At the beginning, France had a significant corps of Blériot type observation aircraft, soon replaced by a profusion of more capable types. The
Royal Flying Corps
"Through Adversity to the Stars"
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, colours_label =
, march =
, mascot =
, anniversaries =
, decorations ...
entered the war with the slow but stable and reliable
B.E.2
The Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2 was a British single-engine tractor two-seat biplane designed and developed at the Royal Aircraft Factory. Most of the roughly 3,500 built were constructed under contract by private companies, including establish ...
reconnaissance aircraft. It served acceptably in the role until new German fighters drove it from the skies in 1915-16. B.E.2 variants typically mounted a vertical camera outside the pilot's (rear) cockpit. The more capable but similar
R.E.8
The Royal Aircraft Factory R.E.8 was a British two-seat biplane reconnaissance and bomber aircraft of the First World War designed and produced at the Royal Aircraft Factory. It was also built under contract by Austin Motors, Daimler, Standard ...
replaced the B.E.2c as the standard RAF reconnaissance aircraft and remained in that role despite requiring escort for survival. British aircraft used the Watson Air Camera, the Type A camera, and later the C, E, L and finally L/B cameras (L for Laws and B for
Brabazon) developed specifically for aircraft. The early C-type used the available lenses and a plate. The Allies began to standardize on 18×24 cm plates and 25, 50 and 120 cm focal lengths, 50 being the most common.
The Central Powers used many different aircraft but especially
Rumpler
Rumpler-Luftfahrzeugbau GmbH, Rumpler-Werke, usually known simply as Rumpler was a German aircraft and automobile manufacturer founded in Berlin by Austrian engineer Edmund Rumpler in 1909 as Rumpler Luftfahrzeugbau.Gunston 1993, p.259 The fir ...
and
Albatros types mounting Görz and
ICA cameras. The Germans used also a standard 70 cm focal length and 13×18 cm plates. The radio-equipped unarmed photoship
Rumpler C.VII (Rubild) — for ''Rumpler-Bildflugzeug'' (picture-aircraft) — distinguished itself for long-range and high-altitude, reaching 21,000 feet. Unusual recon aircraft included the armored
Junkers J.I
The Junkers J.I (manufacturer's name J 4) was a German "J-class" armored sesquiplane of World War I, developed for low-level ground attack, observation and army cooperation. It is especially noteworthy as being the first all-metal aircraft to ...
for low-level flights, the gigantic long-range
Ilya Muromets
Ilya Muromets (russian: Илья Муромец), or Ilya of Murom, sometimes Ilya Murometz, is one of the ''bogatyrs'' (epic knights) in Bylinas of Kievan Rus.
He is often featured alongside fellow bogatyrs Dobrynya Nikitich and Alyosha Pop ...
from Russia, and the high-performing (at well over 200 km/h top speed) Italian
Ansaldo SVA
The Ansaldo SVA (named for Savoia-Verduzio- Ansaldo) was a family of Italian reconnaissance biplane aircraft of World War I and the decade after. Originally conceived as a fighter, the SVA was found inadequate for that role. Nevertheless, its ...
, considered nearly uninterceptable. Italy standardized on the simple 24-plate Lamperti camera.
![German aerial cameras, 1918](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/German_aerial_cameras%2C_1918.jpg)
German
optics
Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultraviole ...
was overwhelmingly superior, as exemplified by
Carl Zeiss
Carl Zeiss (; 11 September 1816 – 3 December 1888) was a German scientific instrument maker, optician and businessman. In 1846 he founded his workshop, which is still in business as Carl Zeiss AG. Zeiss gathered a group of gifted practica ...
lenses and optical glass. The Allies had to quickly learn to make lenses especially for long foci. In the meantime they had to make do with such short-focus lenses as could be found. When the U.S. entered the war, the Army urgently requested that American civilians turn in their lenses and optics, including telescopes and binoculars, for aerial use, specifically naming several sought-after German manufactures. Cameras quickly became large and mechanically very complex. German and Italian cameras generally used 13×18 cm plates. France standardized on the advanced deMaria cameras of various configurations. For the last two years of the war, Britain used almost exclusively the , semi-automatic, prop-driven L camera.
As was the case for airplanes, the U.S. made use of French and British cameras. As an example, the semi-automatic American deRam (from the French) weighed 45 kg, had a focal length of 50 cm (standard), and took 18×24 cm plates. The U.S. flew
Curtiss Jenny
The Curtiss JN "Jenny" was a series of biplanes built by the Curtiss Aeroplane Company of Hammondsport, New York, later the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company. Although the Curtiss JN series was originally produced as a training aircraft for th ...
s with
Folmer-Schwing (Graflex) handheld cameras during the Mexican excursion in 1916. These became the K-1, first in a long line of U.S. aerial cameras. The attempts at Allied interoperability was thus described at the time: “The task of harmonizing the photographic practice as taught in America, following English lines, with French practice as followed in the theater of war, and of adapting planes built on English designs so that they could carry French apparatus, was a formidable one, not likely to be soon forgotten by any who had a part in it.”
Overlapping
stereoscopic
Stereoscopy (also called stereoscopics, or stereo imaging) is a technique for creating or enhancing the depth perception, illusion of depth in an image by means of stereopsis for binocular vision. The word ''stereoscopy'' derives . Any stere ...
photos began to be taken, requiring carefully timed exposures. Fully automatic cameras and
film
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
cameras came into use. Germany began using electrically heated cameras and devised engine-driven generator power. Wind-driven generators, both
venturis and small props, came into use for automation. Suction was used to keep film flat on the plate. Despite the weight penalty,
radiotelegraphy
Wireless telegraphy or radiotelegraphy is transmission of text messages by radio waves, analogous to electrical telegraphy using cables. Before about 1910, the term ''wireless telegraphy'' was also used for other experimental technologies for ...
gradually replaced earlier “message-in-a-bottle” airdrops. Simple codes for artillery spotting were worked out. Despite some experiments, night photography was unsuccessful due to insufficient flash power and film speed, and inability to precisely time the exposure to the illumination.
At the end of the war, aerial photography was an enormous ongoing project. The number of exposed images numbered in the millions, with many more prints. Large photo-mosaics covering the entire
Western Front at scales as low as 1:8000 were created and continuously updated. It is estimated that about one third of sorties were devoted to reconnaissance.
Results
From an essentially zero base, armies had to create and train interpretation units, since the aerial view and stereoscopic view was quite alien to what ground-based reconnaissance would see. Interpreters had to have extensive knowledge of military hardware. They had to learn how to use shadows for size estimation, and to detect the increasing use of camouflage and decoys. Equally importantly, interpreters learned to standardize annotations and present comprehensive marked-up imagery to commanders. The static fronts and fixed fortifications in Europe were especially suitable for turning the art of interpretation into a science, while the far-ranging operations in the desert and at sea put a great premium on serendipitous discovery and resourcefulness.
Maritime reconnaissance tended to generate its own separate technology and procedures, aided by the customary sharp separation of the fleet from the armies. In the air, however, the two services overlapped, which began to cause friction in assigning responsibilities, especially for sea powers like the U.K. and the U.S. The use of ship-based observation aircraft (though not true carriers) was already well advanced by the end of the war. This quickly became a
force multiplier for the fleet. It complicated offensive sea power; for example, Zeppelin surveillance of the North Sea made it difficult for the Royal Navy to exploit its naval superiority.
In four years, commanders learned that reconnaissance innately favors the defensive, as it reduces surprises and makes it difficult for the opponent to mass forces for attack. Inability to conduct reconnaissance, such as due to weather or enemy air domination, conversely leaves one highly vulnerable, as occurred repeatedly during the War. Commanders learned that in aircraft, there is no substitute for performance, and in cameras, no substitute for focal length. They learned to regularly monitor the opponent in order to detect any changes; and they learned the absolute necessity of maintaining libraries and institutional knowledge of targets and of the visual “signatures” of not only equipment, but the subtle effects thereof – tracks, marks, etc. – on the environment. Experts agree that most of this had to be relearned the hard way two decades later.
[Goddard]
Perennial problems included the shortage of trained and experienced photo-interpreters, the difficulty in distributing timely and interpreted prints to exactly the commanders needing them, a lack of overall coordination of effort and centralized interpretation (a ''common air picture''), and the tendency of field commanders to demand risky, repeated flights for objectives only for the photos to languish in files somewhere along the process.
Finally, the recurrent pattern of reconnaissance not gaining recognition commensurate with its importance developed during these years. There were no “reconnaissance aces” and recon pilots were not household names. Air combat gained immense publicity, but – apart from reconnaissance – air operations had negligible military effect. This imbalance in perception would have consequences for preparedness in later years.
References
Bibliography
* Finnegan, Terrence: Shooting the Front: Allied Aerial Reconnaissance and Photographic Interpretation on the Western Front, World War I. Nat. Def. Intel. College, D.C., 2007
* Ives, Herbert Eugene. Airplane Photography. Lippincott, 1920.
* Ferdinando Pedriali, Aerei italiani in Libia (1911-1912), Storia Militare N° 170/novembre 2007 pag 31-40
* Goddard, George. Overview, 1963/
* National Geographic, January 1918, special issue on the air war.
{{Wwi-air
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
Aviation in World War I
Espionage
Military cartography
Intelligence of World War I