The Art of War – Aerial Assaults, part 1

 

It was the dawn of a new day for these soldiers, gallant cavalrymen on noble steads chasing an extraordinary new symbol of military power—an airship. This huge flying machine sails through the air faster than a horse or even an automobile. What it lacks in elegance it makes up in gigantic amazement. What power drives it to move so effortlessly through the clouds? What can the crew see from that height? Is this not the most brilliant achievement of our great nation?

The artist of this painting was Anton Hoffmann (1863–1938), a very prolific painter, illustrator, and commercial artist from München whose specialty was creating scenes of military valor, partly inspired from his experience serving in the Bavarian Army from 1880-89. Sometime around 1913 Hoffmann painted this dashing picture of horsemen of the 2nd Silesian Hussars Regiment, a distinguished cavalry unit of the Prussian Army. It was printed as a benefit postcard for Germany's "Crown Prince and Crown Princess Foundation of the German Warriors' League". On the back under the imprint for the league is a facsimile inscription of its late chairman, Prussian General Alexander von Spitz (1832–1910), "Stand firm always / Stand still never!"

In the summer of 1914 the shocking assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg pushed Europe's great powers into war. It was a complicated conflict that many people had feared and many others had planned for. Government officials, military experts, and political pundits predicted this war would be brief, a few weeks perhaps, no more than a couple of months. The streets of capital cities like Berlin, Wien, St. Petersburg, Paris, and London filled with the clamorous noise of soldiers marching and people cheering with nationalist fervor. They could not know that this struggle between nations would drag on for four more years becoming a horrific conflagration that would consume millions of lives.

Beginning in August 1914, as opposing troops mobilized, attacked, and defended across Europe, artists like Hoffman were called upon to illustrate this war and promote their country's patriotic views. Photographers too were engaged, but many subjects were much easier for an artist to depict than what a camera could achieve. One theme was on the new vertical dimension brought to warfare by the introduction of military aircraft, both lighter and heavier-than air. 

In this postcard from 1916 an unknown artist depicts Imperial German troops, cavalry, and artillery neatly arranged on a rolling landscape. It is a scene of an army that Bismarck or Napoleon could have admired except that floating in the sky above is an immense rigid airship, a smaller semi-rigid airship, and a single wing airplane. 

In the first decade of the 20th century the advent of powered airships and airplanes enthralled the public's imagination by opening up seemingly limitless possibilities of human flight. But Europe's military commands were more cautious, even skeptical, of any practical military value for aircraft. Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin's first successful airship flew over Lake Constance on 2 July 1900. But the Imperial German Army did not contract for a Zeppelin airship until 1909. A second airship was commissioned in 1910 from the Schütte-Lanz company, a competitor to Count Zeppelin's company.

In August 1908 Wilbur and Orville Wright first demonstrated their heavier-than-air Flyer in France. The German army negotiated a license agreement with the Wright brothers to have a German factory build their airplane. By 1913 the Imperial German Army Air Service had established five aviation battalions using improved designs from German airplane manufacturers. Not to be outdone, the French, British, and Russian military also formed their own aircraft units, In 1914 the Imperial Russian Army had the largest air fleet with 263 airplanes, followed by Germany with around 250 and France with 156.  

At first armies and navies assigned them to reconnaissance and artillery spotting, just as tethered balloons had been used in previous wars of the 19th century. Observation of enemy forces always provided an important tactical advantage during any battle. A man standing on flat land or on a ship at sea might see as far as the horizon 3 to 4 miles away. Atop a tall 180-foot mast or hill, the distance improved to over 16 miles. Yet in an airplane at 1,000 feet a pilot could see a radius of 38 miles and in an airship at 6,000 feet the circular distance might be 200 miles across in all directions.    

But as Europe's belligerent forces clashed along hundreds of battlefronts it did not take long before aircraft were modified for weapons and combat. It began simply enough when it was noticed that pilots communicated with ground forces by dropping their handwritten messages in weighted bags. Instead of a sack of notes, a grenade or bomb could be released over an enemy.    

In this German postcard an artist named Roland shows how it was done. A pilot holds a bomb the size of a wine bottle outside his biplane's open cockpit as he flies low over a city.  In the lower corner is a caption of dark humor: Fliegergrüße ~ Aviator's Greetings. The card was sent in June 1915 but I think it depicts one of the first efforts to bomb a city in Russia, possibly Poland, on the Eastern Front.

This vivid picture shows a Schütte-Lanz airship over a city as smoke and fire emanate from buildings below. Printed on the back of card is the painter Hans Rudolf Schulze (1870-1951) and a description, the "Bombardment of Warsaw."    

The Polish city of Warsaw was subjected to bombing from German airships and airplanes from 26 September 1914 through February 1915. The first airship reportedly "dropped two bombs, one of which did not explode, and the other destroyed a booth and a telephone pole." Similarly a German airplane dropped a single bomb on a fortress in Warsaw but caused no damage. Subsequent raids did kill or injure people, almost all Polish civilians, but the raids were not as destructive as Herr Schulze would have us believe.  

Warsaw in October 1914.
The Seed of Highest Culture.
Source: Wikipedia

Polish defiance resulted in a Political cartoon that depicted German Emperor Wilhelm II as a batwinged monster lobbing cannonballs at the city. At this time the Polish people were divided into three regions, each controlled by the German Empire, the Austrian Empire, or the Russian Empire. Warsaw was then joined to Russia but the city fell to the German army in August 1915.

Meanwhile the main thrust of the German army was westward against France. But first it had to cross Belgium. The city of Liege was the first to fall during the first weeks of the war, 5–16 August 1914. The Germans bombarded a ring of Belgian fortresses defending the city, mainly with heavy artillery. On 6 August the Germans conducted the first aerial bombing of a European city when a Zeppelin airship released bombs over Liege which killed nine civilians. 

This arresting painting shows German soldiers (in gray uniforms) scrambling over a smashed fortress wall as Belgian soldiers (in blue uniforms) mount a futile defense. On top a busted artillery emplacement a soldier plants the black/white/red flag of the German Empire. In the background a city explodes in flames as a menacing airship hovers above. The artist's name is unclear, perhaps Bürger? On the back is printed a small image of German General Otto von Emmich (1848–1915) with Lüttich Erobert: 7 August 1914 ~ Liege Conquered: 7 August 1914. The card was sent on 4 Mat 1915 by military free post.

This painting gives a different birds-eye-view of an enormous airship over a city aglow with erupting bombs. The back has a caption that reads "Zeppelin over Antwerp". The artist was Themistokles von Eckenbrecher (1842–1921), a German landscape and marine painter. 

The port city of Antwerp was the second major city in Belgium to be attacked by aerial bombs. On 25/26 August 1914 a German airship released bombs which killed 10 Belgian civilians. But the destruction failed to weaken Belgians' spirits and Antwerp's defensive forts held out through two more attacks. However from 28 September to 10 October 1914 Antwerp became surrounded and besieged by the German army. Days of relentless shelling from German siege guns, accurately directed by observation balloons, forced the remaining Belgian, British, and French forces to flee across the border to the Netherlands.  

 

In this grim sepia-tone illustration a terrifying black airplane flies around Paris's iconic Eiffel Tower. Its summit shines a bright search light's beam. Below it and in the background are a half-dozen intense fires, doubtless caused by bombs. At top of the postcard is a caption: Deutscher Flieger über Paris ~ German Aviator over Paris.     

At the end of August 1914, a German monoplane, ironically called a Taube ~ dove/pigeon, flew over Paris, not at night, but just after noon. The solo pilot  dropped around two to five bombs by hand, just like the Fliegergrüße postcard above. Most did minimal damage but one killed an elderly woman and wounded three persons. The pilot also dropped a bag of leaflets demanding that the French surrender. The bag failed to open and French authorities confiscated the leaflets suppressing all reports on casualties. Nonetheless the raid disturbed all Parisians, changing war preparations in the city and for the army protecting it. Over the next month more German airplanes targeted Paris resulting in more civilian casualties, which was also concealed from the public. The first Zeppelin raid over the city was not until 21 March 1915 when seven people were wounded and one killed. 

Longtime readers of my blog should recognize the title of this humorous postcard: Zeppelin Kommt!   It was the same title I used in February 2021 for my story on a series of postcards created in 1910 by the German artist Arthur Thiele. Here Thiele reprises his joke about the German public's manic enthusiasm for Count Zeppelin's airship, only now it is mocking the French public's confused ruckus when a Zeppelin is spotted over the Eiffel Tower. Firemen blow alarm trumpets, their firetruck crashes into a fruit cart, Parisians are falling all over themselves. In the background are two airships illuminated by searchlight beams. There are no explosions. Yet.

In WW1 The Eiffel Tower performed an important service taking advantage of its great height to function as a giant radio antenna. Early radio technology could not yet handle voice or sound but did well with messages transmitted in Morse Code. The Eiffel Tower also had search lights to spot enemy planes but positioned them at lower levels. Fortunately it never suffered any damage during the war.  

The French produced sophisticated propaganda during the war too. This photo of bomb destruction has a caption:

Les Zeppelins sur Paris — Crimes odieux des pirates Boches 

Côté de maison ébouié  
~

Zeppelins over Paris — Heinous crimes of the Boche Pirates

Side of a House Collapsed

This second photo postcard shows a two story building cut in half by a bomb explosion. A bed hangs precariously from the demolished second floor bedroom. The card comes from the same series as the previous card but with a different identifying caption: 

La maison du brigadier Bidault
~
Brigadier Bidault's House 

The image is identified in French archives as: "Damage caused by bombs dropped by a Zeppelin on the home of Sub-Brigadier Bidault, 34 Rue du Borrego, 20th Arrondissement, Paris, on January 29, 1916."

There is no mention of casualties at this house but that raid in January 1916 killed 75 people and wounded 33. 

My final example of the Art of War is also from France. It is a sketch of a man bent over in a chair, weeping as a young girl tries to console him. Beside him is a covered body in a hospital bed. A nurse and doctor stand at the back of the room. The card has a caption:

Triomphe de Zeppelin.
~
Zeppelins Triumphs. 

To recognize tragedy we need few words
and only a picture to understand.

After January 1916 the German command discontinued sending Zeppelins to bomb Paris. The giant airships were proving too vulnerable to anti-aircraft fire and too expensive to build and maintain. So there would be no attacks on Paris that year or the next. Not until 30 January 1918 when the Imperial German Air Service introduced the new Gotha G5 heavy bomber. 

Gotha G.V heavy bomber
Source: Wikipedia

This huge two-engine biplane was 12.36 m (40 ft 7 in) long and had a wingspan of 23.7 m (77 ft 9 in). It required a crew of 3 men (sometimes 4) and was capable of carrying 14 × 25 kg (60 lb.) bombs over a range of 840 km (520 miles). It was used principally as a night bomber and squadrons of Gotha bombers would make 8 sorties over Paris in 1918 that resulted in many people killed and injured. 

 CODA 

My interest in collecting aviation history started a few years ago when I discovered old postcards depicting the first pioneers of human flight and their flying machines. The images were usually grainy and often absurdly silly. Pilots seated in flimsy aeroplanes flew low over crowds of hundreds of spectators. Squads of men wrestled with long guide ropes to secure a gigantic dirigible to a pylon. One could not help but admire the great courage and single minded determination of these first aviators. 

But I also became fascinated with how flying machines of all kinds inspired a new kind of wonder in mankind which had never been felt before. What was it like to fly like a bird? How far could you see through clouds? How fast and how far could you go? The answers to these questions called for a special imagination that I think added a new 3rd dimension to the world. No longer was the Earth defined by just north-south-east-west, but now there was Up and Down, too. How high could you fly?

From 1900 to August 1914 all this energy of invention and enterprise in aviation was positive, full of hope and optimism. But the Great War changed that and aviation was forced to advance following bellicose military requirements. After 1914 the art of war began presenting flying machines differently. Pilots earned new respect as brave warriors. Their exploits took on new risks in addition to defying the laws of gravity. But as aircraft were armed with guns and bombs they became flying weapons of death and destruction.  

They were also advancing a terrible new moral dilemma for mankind—sanctioning indiscriminate bombing of civilians. Over the next 100 years military aircraft would be used for the most unimaginable horrors and reprehensible atrocities in the history of the world. 

Sadly over the past few weeks we have seen the start of yet another senseless war in Iran. And death and destruction are dispensed from new flying machines in the same random cruel fashion. Predicting the outcome of this war is no different than it was in 1914. Anyone's guess is as good as another.

Because I think this story
resonates with our current time
I will continue with more pictures
on this aviation theme next weekend.
Stay tuned for The Art of War – Aerial Assaults, part 2.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where it's a good idea to always check your fuses.