George
One thing that surprised me is that at Soissons the Marines and other US and French divisions had no air cover. They saw German planes overhead that called down artillery fire not only on Marine positions but advancing tanks and even HQ positions. They would see a cluster of men or men coming and going from a particular spot and call for artillery rounds. The men were even strafed by German fighters. There is no mention of Allied air cover at all

George

May I recommend the book "Five Days From Defeat" by Walter Reid. It covers from March 21 to March 26 1918. I found it a quick and interesting read. It anawered a lot of questions for me and gave me insight to many things I did not know, like how close the Germans were to success.

Thus, for Operation Michael the German Air Service concentrated 820 aircraft against 645 Allied aircraft, gaining control of the air for the first three days of the offensive. German economy of force, however, meant its observation aircraft were often at a disadvantage; reduced German opposition meant British fighters could be allocated to ground attack.

Failing logistics, a lack of forward airfields and limited aircraft endurance, however, rapidly degraded German control of the air.

Major General John Salmond, on 25 March concentrated 50% of his fighter strength (27 squadrons) on reserve airfields in support of the British Third and Fifth Armies, ordering every available RFC aircraft to ‘bomb and shoot up everything they can see on the enemy’s side of the line.’ General Duval, commanding the French Air Service, ordered ground attacks from 25 March and one of Foch’s first actions as Allied Supreme Commander was to order on 1 April the ‘first duty of aeroplanes is to assist the troops on the ground by incessant attacks’.[19]

By 31 March the RFC was struggling to find German air opposition.

Phil
Did the Germans have a better handle on air support at this time? Didnt they use planes as part of their offensive in the early stages? Also didn't they design an all metal fighter Junker D.1 with some idea of using it in such a role?

The German air force amassed a large number of aircraft for the initial attack and they outnumbered the British planes initially.
But by the end of the offensive, the British and French could not find many German planes in the air.

According to Group Captain John Alexander, the AF's of the major participants had similar structures but different numbers of planes in the categories of Fighters, Observers and Bombers in 1918

eg. By 1918 the French had 34% fighters, 51% observation aircraft, and 15% bombers.

The British preferred more fighters at 55%, observation aircraft at 23% with 22%

Germany at 42% fighters, 50% observation aircraft and 8% bombers.

To a certain extent, this determined how the different countries would use their AF's. Within these broad categories, different countries employed specialist squadrons.

e.g. Germany and France employed squadrons that specialized in long range artillery, photographic and high altitude recce.

During Operation Michael, Capt. Alexander had this to say about the German air service

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As the battle progressed, the British air service took the initiative and went on the attack.

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This was all very costly for the British. Even as the German reports indicated that their troops were suffering from "hostile airmen", British planes were being shot down at a rapid rate. And the pilots did not enjoy assignments to engage in low level strafing because they were more easily hit from the ground.

I thought that this article by Capt. Alexander and written in 2019 was detailed and informative with respect to the air services involved in 1918. The article may answer many questions.

To John's question, if I understand Capt. Alexander's article, Germany could not match the allied industrial capacity but were selective about using the aircraft that they had, bringing them together for an important attack.

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Cheers,

George

The Allies most successfully implemented this tactic at their devastating attack on the Germans at Le Hamel in July 1918, which employed wireless to coordinate tanks, infantry, artillery, and aerial observation.

Mike
Thanks for your explanation. I had only a little knowledge (which is dangerous) about the Germans and esp. the Junker metal plane

George
During the Meuse-Argonne I believe the AEF attempted to use panels to contact their planes. Also talked about some infantry having colors on their packs. I found nothing that said they tried it or was it successful. The dense forest may have hindered this.

Mike, I was hoping that you would jump in on this topic. Very informative post. My knowledge is rather limited I am afraid.

I have a question about communications between aircraft and land forces. I believe that you may have answered this before but as the British air service attempted to co-ordinate efforts, were the infantry and the tankers able to request specific target, air support if they encountered a sticking point while trying to advance? If so, how quickly would an aircraft be able to respond?

Cheers,

George

Many thanks Mike. You bring a great depth of knowledge to this subject and I appreciate that you would share with us.

You mentioned that in 1918, the response time for low flying squadrons was improved by placing the CIB in Villers-Bretonneux. Where was the CIB prior to this and was the distance the reason for the delay in passing information?

George

John,

I recall reading somewhere that by 1918 that wireless communication existed for the infantry and tanks. I wondered whether Mike knew whether wireless communication from ground to air and air to ground was employed as well.

I found this image of a wireless communications tank


I was poking about and found an article in the International Encyclopaedia. I cannot vouch for its accuracy.

However, it does say this with respect to the use of wireless communication:

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Cheers,

George

Mike
Amazing information. Thank you

Do you know if the French used any thing like the British or did they develop their own method? Since the American forces were under their command for the most part, would their air squadrons use whatever the French use? This discussion raised the question why did the Germans control the air at Belleau Wood and Soissons and where was the Allied air cover?

Mike
Amazing information. Thank you

Do you know if the French used any thing like the British or did they develop their own method? Since the American forces were under their command for the most part, would their air squadrons use whatever the French use? This discussion raised the question why did the Germans control the air at Belleau Wood and Soissons and where was the Allied air cover?

Mike
Marine aviation in WWI consisted 3 companies that flew DH-4s and some DH-9s bombers. They were assigned to RAF 218 Squadron. They flew a total of 43 raids with them. Four Marine aviators were killed in combat. The Marine First Aviation Force flew 14 missions as an independent unit. By March 1919 Marine aviation was disbanded. It didn't really end there. In the 1920-30's the Marines developed an "air force" while fighting the the Banana Wars in Central America and the Carib. There it developed close air support, air to ground communication, dive bombing, and aerial evacuation of wounded. The lack of their own air support during WWI drove the Marine higher command to find a way to create their own