Aviation in World War I World War I was the first war in which aircraft were deployed on a large scale . Tethered observation balloon s had already been employed in several wars , and would be used extensively for artillery spotting . Germany employed Zeppelin s for reconnaissance over the North Sea and strategic bombing raids over England . Aeroplane s were just coming into military use at the outset of the war . Initially , they were used mostly for reconnaissance . Pilots and engineers learned from experience , leading to the development of many specialized types , including fighters , bombers , and ground - attack aeroplanes . Ace fighter pilots were portrayed as modern knights , and many became popular heroes . The war also saw the appointment of high - ranking officers to direct the belligerent nations ' air war effort . While the impact of aircraft on the course of war was mainly tactical rather than strategic , most important being direct cooperation with ground forces ( especially ranging and correcting artillery fire ) the first steps in the strategic roles of aircraft in future wars was also foreshadowed . Prewar developments . About 10 years after the Wright brothers made the first powered flight , aircraft remained very primitive by later standards . Because of limitations of the engine power of the time , the effective payload of aircraft was extremely limited . The basic structural and materials technology of period airframes mostly consisted of hardwood materials or steel tubing ( braced with steel wires ) and linen fabric doped with a flammable liquid , when cured , provided the stiffness required to form the aerodynamic surfaces of the wing ( s ) and other streamlined surfaces . Aside from these primitive materials , the rudimentary aviation engineering of the time meant most aircraft were structurally fragile by later standards , and not infrequently broke up in flight especially when performing violent combat manoeuvres such as pulling up from steep dives . As early as 1909 , these evolving flying machines were however recognised to be not just toys , but weapons : In 1911 , Captain Bertram Dickson , the first British military officer to fly and the first British military officer to perform an aerial reconnaissance mission in a fixed - wing aircraft during army manoeuvres in 1910 , predicted , in a submission to the UK Technical Sub - Committee for Imperial Defence , the military use of aircraft and the ensuing development and escalation of aerial combat . The first operational use of fixed - wing aircraft in war took place on 23 October 1911 in the Italo - Turkish War , when Captain Carlo Piazza made history ' s first wartime reconnaissance flight near Benghazi in a Blériot XI . The first aerial bombardment followed shortly thereafter , on 1 November , when Second Lieutenant Giulio Gavotti dropped four bombs on two oases held by the Turks . The first aerial photography flight took place later in March 1912 , also flown by Captain Piazza . The early years of war . From the very start , there was some debate over the uses ( or usefulness ) of aircraft in warfare . Many senior officers , in particular , remained skeptical . In Germany the great successes of the early Zeppelin airships had largely overshadowed the importance of heavier - than - air aircraft . Out of a paper strength of about 230 aircraft belonging to the army in August 1914 only 180 or so were of any use . The French military aviation exercises of 1911 , 1912 , and 1913 had pioneered cooperation with the cavalry ( reconnaissance ) and artillery ( spotting ) , but the momentum was if anything slacking . Great Britain had " started late " and initially relied largely on the French aircraft industry , especially for aircraft engines . The initial British contribution to the total allied airwar effort in August 1914 ( of about 184 aircraft ) was three squadrons with about 30 serviceable machines . The American army and navy air services were hopelessly behind ; even in 1917 , when the United States entered the war , they were to be almost totally dependent on the French and British aircraft industries for combat aircraft . The initial campaigns of 1914 proved that cavalry could no longer provide the reconnaissance expected by their generals , in the face of the greatly increased firepower of Twentieth century armies . It was quickly realised , on the other hand , that aircraft could at least locate the enemy , even if early air reconnaissance was hampered by the newness of the techniques involved . Early scepticism and low expectations quickly turned to unrealistic demands beyond the capabilities of the primitive aircraft available . Even so , air reconnaissance played a critical role in the " war of movement " of 1914 , especially in helping the Allies halt the German invasion of France . On 22 August 1914 , British Captain L . E . O . Charlton and Lieutenant V . H . N . Wadham reported German General Alexander von Kluck ' s army was preparing to surround the BEF , contradicting all other intelligence . The British High Command listened to the report and started a withdrawal toward Mons , saving the lives of 100 , 000 soldiers . Later , during the First Battle of Marne , observation planes discovered weak points and exposed flanks in the German lines , allowing the allies to take advantage of them . The Germans ' great air " coup " of 1914 ( at least according to contemporary propaganda ) was at the Battle of Tannenberg in East Prussia where an unexpected Russian attack was reported by " Leutnant s " Canter and Mertens , resulting in the Russians ' being forced to withdraw . Early Western Front reconnaissance duties . Late in 1914 the lines between the Germans invading France and the Allies stretched from the North Sea to the Alps . The initial " war of movement " largely ceased , and the front became static . Three main functions of short range reconnaissance squadrons had emerged by March 1915 . The first was photographic reconnaissance – building up a complete mosaic map of the enemy trench system . The first air cameras used glass plates ( Kodak cellulose film had been invented , but did not at this stage have sufficient resolution ) . Artillery " spotting " enabled the ranging of artillery on targets invisible to the gunners . Radio telephone was not yet practical from an airplane , so communication was a problem . By March 1915 , a two seater on " artillery observation " duties was typically equipped with a primitive radio transmitter transmitting the dots and dashes of a Morse key , but had no receiver . The artillery battery signalled to the aircraft by laying strips of white cloth on the ground in prearranged patterns . These duties were shared with the tethered observation balloons . Balloonists could communicate directly with their batteries by field telephone , but were obviously far less flexible in locating targets and reporting the fall of shot . " Contact patrol " work attempted to follow the course of a battle by communicating with advancing infantry while flying over the battlefield . The technology of the period did not permit radio contact , while methods of signalling were necessarily crude , including dropping messages from the aircraft . Soldiers were initially reluctant to reveal their positions to aircraft , as they ( the soldiers ) found distinguishing between friend and foe problematic . Reconnaissance flying , like all kinds , was a hazardous business . In April 1917 , the worst month for the entire war for the RFC , the average life expectancy of a British pilot on the Western Front was 93 flying hours . Early bombing efforts . Typical 1914 aircraft could carry only very small bomb loads – the bombs themselves , and their stowage , were still very elementary , and effective bomb sights were still to be developed . Nonetheless the beginnings of strategic and tactical bombing date from the earliest days of the war . Notable are the raids by the RNAS on the German airship sheds at Düsseldorf , Cologne and Friedrichhafen in September , October and November 1914 , as well as the formation of the " Brieftauben Abteilung Ostende " ( or " Ostend carrier pigeon detachment " , cover name for the first German strategic bombing unit ) , which mounted the first token raid over the English Channel in December . The dawn of air combat . As Dickson had predicted , initially air combat was extremely rare , and definitely subordinate to reconnaissance . There are even stories of the crew of rival reconnaissance aircraft exchanging nothing more belligerent than smiles and waves . This soon progressed to throwing grenades , and other objects - even grappling hook s . The first aircraft brought down by another was an Austrian reconnaissance aircraft rammed on 8 September 1914 by Russian pilot Pyotr Nesterov in Galicia in the Eastern Front . Both planes crashed as the result of the attack killing all occupants . Eventually pilots began firing handheld firearm s at enemy aircraft , however pistols were too inaccurate and the single shot rifles too unlikely to score a hit . On October 5 , 1914 , French pilot Louis Quenault opened fire on a German aircraft with a machine gun and the era of air combat was underway as more and more aircraft were fitted with machine guns . Problems mounting machine guns . The pusher solution . As early as 1912 , designers at the British firm Vickers were experimenting with machine gun carrying aircraft . The first concrete result was the Vickers Experimental Fighting Biplane 1 , which featured at the 1913 aero show and appeared in developed form as the FB . 5 in February 1915 . This pioneering fighter , like the Royal Aircraft Factory F . E . 2b and the Airco DH . 1 , was a pusher type . The pusher design had the engine and propeller behind the pilot , facing backward , rather than in front , as in a tractor type . This provided an optimal machine gun position , from which the gun could be fired directly forward without an obstructing propeller , and reloaded and cleared in flight . An important drawback was that pusher designs – because of the struts and rigging necessary to hold their tail units , and the extra drag this entailed – tended at best to have an inferior performance to tractor types with the same engine power . Although the F . E . 2d , a more powerful version of the F . E . 2b , remained a formidable opponent well into 1917 , pusher fighters were already obsolete . They were simply too slow to catch their quarry . Machine gun synchronisation . The forward firing gun of a pusher " gun carrier " provided some offensive capability – the mounting of a machine gun firing to the rear from a two seater tractor aircraft gave defensive capability . There was an obvious need for some means to fire a machine gun forward from a tractor aircraft , especially from one of the small , light , " scout " aircraft , adapted from pre - war racers , that were to perform most air combat duties for the rest of the war . It would seem most natural to place the gun between the pilot and the propeller , firing in the direct line of flight , so that the gun could be aimed by " aiming the aircraft " . It was also important the breech of the weapon be readily accessible to the pilot , so that he could clear the inevitable jams and stoppages to which early machine guns were prone . However , this presents an obvious problem , a percentage of bullets fired " free " through a revolving propeller will strike the blades , with predictable results . Early experiments with synchronised machine guns were carried out before the war in several countries . Franz Schneider , the former Nieuport designer now working for the L . V . G . concern in Germany , patented a synchronisation gear on 15 July 1913 . An early Russian gear was designed by a Lieutenant Poplavko , and the Edwards Brothers in England designed the first British example . Finally , the Morane - Saulnier company were working on the problem in 1914 . All these early gears failed to attract official attention , partly due to official inertia and partly due to the terrifying results of failures of these early synchronising gears , which included dangerously ricocheting bullets as well as disintegrating propellers . The Lewis gun , used on many early Allied aircraft , proved next to impossible to successfully synchronise due to its open bolt firing cycle . In an open bolt firing cycle , it is impossible to predict the exact time any given round will fire , and for obvious reasons this is an unattractive characteristic in a weapon one is attempting to fire between the spinning blades of a propeller . Photographs of fuselage - mounted Lewis guns aimed directly ahead on RNAS aircraft , and looking as if they " should " be synchronised — as with some of their Bristol Scout s — were probably in fact free firing , hardly a satisfactory solution . The Maxim gun s used by both the Allies ( as the Vickers ) and Germany ( as the LMG 14 Parabellum and LMG 08 Spandau ) had a closed bolt firing cycle that started with a bullet already in the breech and the breech closed , so the firing of the bullet was the next step in the cycle . This meant that the exact instant the round would be fired could be predicted , making these weapons considerably easier to synchronise . The standard French light machine gun , the Hotchkiss , was also most unamenable to synchronisation due to rounds " hanging fire " – the Morane - Saulnier company designed a " safety backup " in the form of " deflector blades " ( metal wedges ) , complete with metal tiebars extending outwards from the propeller hub for firm bracing , fitted to the rear surfaces of a propeller at the radial point where they would be struck by a bullet . Roland Garros trialled this system in a Morane - Saulnier L in April 1915 . He managed to score several kills , although it proved to be an inadequate and dangerous solution . Garros eventually was forced by engine failure ( possibly caused by the repeated strain on his aircraft ' s crankshaft of the " deflected " bullets striking his propeller ) to land behind enemy lines , and he , and his aircraft , were captured by the Germans . Famously , the German High Command passed Garros ' captured Morane to the Fokker company – who already produced Morane type monoplanes for the German Air Service – with orders to copy the latest design . The deflector system was totally unsuitable for the steel jacketed German ammunition so that the Fokker engineers were forced to revisit the synchronisation idea ( perhaps infringing Schneider ' s patent ) resulting in the Eindecker fighter series . Crude as these little monoplanes were , they produced a period of German air superiority , known as the " Fokker Scourge " by the Allies . The psychological effect exceeded the material – the Allies had up to now been more or less unchallenged in the air , and the vulnerability of their older reconnaissance aircraft , especially the British B . E . 2 and French Farman pushers , came as a very nasty shock . Other methods . Another method used at this time to fire a machine gun forward from a tractor design was to mount the gun to fire above the propeller arc . This required the gun to be mounted on the top wing of biplanes and be propped up and secured by complicated , drag inducing mounting in monoplanes . Reaching the gun so that drums or belts could be changed , or jams cleared , presented problems even when the gun could be mounted relatively close to the pilot . Eventually the excellent Foster mounting became more or less the standard way of mounting a Lewis gun in this position in the R . F . C . – this allowed the gun to slide backward for drum changing , and also to be fired at an upward angle , a very effective way of attacking an enemy from the " blind spot " under his tail . This type of mounting was still only possible for a biplane with a top wing positioned near the apex of the propeller ' s arc – it put considerable strain on the fragile wing structures of the period , and it was less rigid than a gun mounting on the fuselage , producing a greater " scatter " of bullets , especially at anything but very short range . The earliest versions of the Bristol Scout to see aerial combat duty in 1915 , the Scout C , had Lewis gun mounts in RNAS service that sometimes were elevated above the propeller arc , and sometimes ( in an apparently reckless manner ) firing directly through the propeller arc without synchronisation . Captain Lanoe Hawker of the Royal Flying Corps , however , had mounted his Lewis gun just forward of the cockpit to fire forwards and outwards , on the left side of his aircraft ' s fuselage at about a 30° angle , on his Scout C , with serial number 1611 , and with this aircraft on 25 July 1915 , managed to defeat three German two seat observation aircraft to earn the first Victoria Cross awarded to a British aviator . 1915 : The Fokker Scourge . The first purpose - designed fighter aircraft included the British Vickers F . B . 5 – machine gun armament was also fitted to several French types , such as the Morane - Saulnier L and N . Initially the German Air Service lagged behind the Allies in this respect , but this was soon to change dramatically . In July 1915 the Fokker E . I became operational – this was the first type of aircraft to enter service with a " synchronisation gear " which enabled a machine gun to fire through the arc of the propeller without striking its blades . This constituted an important advantage over other contemporary fighter aircraft . This aircraft and its immediate successors – also commonly known as the " Eindecker " ( German for " Monoplane " ) – for the first time supplied an effective equivalent to Allied fighters . Two German military aviators , " Leutnants " Otto Parschau and Kurt Wintgens , worked for the Fokker firm during the spring of 1915 , demonstrating the revolutionary feature of the forward - firing synchronised machine gun that the Eindecker was armed with , to the embryonic force of " Fliegertruppe " pilots of the German Empire . The very first successful engagement involving a synchronised - gun - armed aircraft occurred on July 1 , 1915 , just to the east of Lunéville , France when " Leutnant " Kurt Wintgens , one of the pilots selected by Fokker to demonstrate the small series of five Eindecker prototype aircraft , forced down a French Morane - Saulnier Type L " Parasol " two seat observation monoplane behind Allied lines with his Fokker M . 5K / MG Eindecker production prototype aircraft , carrying the IdFlieg military serial number " E . 5 / 15 " . Some 200 shots from the synchronised Parabellum MG14 machine gun on Wintgens ' aircraft had hit the Gnôme Lambda rotary engine of the Morane Parasol , forcing it to land safely in Allied territory . By late 1915 the Germans had achieved air superiority , making Allied access to vital intelligence derived from continual aerial reconnaissance more dangerous to acquire . In particular the essential defencelessness of Allied reconnaissance types was exposed . The first German " ace " pilots – notably Max Immelmann – had begun their careers . The number of actual Allied casualties involved was for various reasons very small compared with the intensive air fighting of 1917 – 18 . The deployment of the Eindeckers was less than overwhelming – the new type was issued in ones and twos to existing reconnaissance squadrons – and it was to be nearly a year before the Germans were to follow the British in establishing specialist fighter squadrons . The Eindecker was also , in spite of its advanced armament , by no means an outstanding aircraft , being closely based on the pre - war Morane - Saulnier H , although it did feature a steel tubing fuselage framework ( a characteristic of all Fokker wartime aircraft designs ) instead of the wooden fuselage components of the French aircraft . Nonetheless , the morale impact of the fact that the Germans were fighting back in the air , and effectively too , created a major scandal in the British parliament and press . The ascendancy of the Eindecker also contributed to the surprise the Germans were able to achieve at the start of the Battle of Verdun – the French reconnaissance aircraft failed to provide their usual cover of the German positions . Fortunately for the Allies , two new British fighters were already in production that were a match for the Fokker — the F . E . 2b and the D . H . 2 . These were both " pushers " and could fire forwards without gun synchronisation . The F . E . 2b reached the front in September 1915 , and the D . H . 2 in the following February . On the French front , the tiny Nieuport 11 , a tractor biplane with a forward firing gun mounted outside the arc of the propeller ( on the top wing ) also proved more than a match for the German fighter when it entered service in January 1916 . With these new types the Allies re - established air superiority in time for the Battle of the Somme , and the " Fokker Scourge " was over . The Fokker E . III , Airco DH - 2 and Nieuport 11 would be the very first in a long line of single seat fighter aircraft used by both sides during the war . Very quickly it became clear the primary role of fighters would be attacking enemy two - seaters , which were becoming increasingly important as sources of reconnaissance and artillery observation , while also escorting and defending friendly two - seaters from enemy fighters . Fighters were also used to attack enemy observation balloon s , strafe enemy ground targets , and defend friendly airspace from enemy bomber s . Almost all the fighters in service with both sides - with the exception of the Fokkers ' steel - tube fuselaged airframes - had continued to stick to the use of wood and fabric as basic structural materials , and exposed wood struts with steel wire bracing in their airframes . However , in secret , the emerging technology of practical all - metal aircraft as pioneered by the work of Hugo Junkers , also incorporating cantilever structures within their metal envelopes had resulted in the first flight tests of the initial flight demonstrator of such technology , the Junkers J 1 monoplane at the end of 1915 , heralding the wave of the future in aircraft structural technology for the postwar period and beyond . 1916 : Verdun and the Somme . When the battle of Verdun began on 21 February 1916 , air superiority initially enabled the Germans to establish a blockade ( " luftsperre " ) on the French air squadrons . However the French were already arming their specialist fighter squadrons , the " Escadrilles de chasse " , with the Nieuport 11 , and with a new offensive strategy they quickly overcame the " luftsperre " , establishing air superiority over the battle by April . In the meantime , in the aftermath of the Fokker Scourge , the need for a larger , better equipped RFC became obvious , and the process of raising many new British squadrons was started . In the short term , creating new units was easier than producing aircraft to equip them , and training pilots to man them . When the Battle of the Somme started in July 1916 , most ordinary RFC squadrons were still equipped with the BE . 2c , which had already proved an easy target for the Fokker " Eindecker " . New types such as the Sopwith 1½ Strutter had to be transferred from production intended for the RNAS . Even more seriously , replacement pilots were being sent to France with pitifully few flying hours . Nonetheless , air superiority and an " offensive " strategy facilitated the greatly increased involvement of the RFC in the battle itself , in what was known at the time as " trench strafing " – in modern terms , close support . For the rest of the war , this became a regular routine , with both attacking and defending infantry in a land battle being constantly liable to attack by machine guns and light bombs from the air . At this time , counter fire from the ground was far less effective than it became later , when the necessary techniques of deflection shooting had been mastered . Allied air superiority was maintained during the height of both battles , and the increased effectiveness of Allied air activity proved disturbing to the German High Command . A complete reorganisation of the " Fliegertruppen des deutschen Kaiserreiches " into what became officially known as the " Luftstreitkräfte " followed and had generally been completed by October 1916 . This reorganisation eventually produced the German strategic bombing squadrons that were to produce such consternation in England in 1917 and 1918 , and the specialist close support squadrons ( " Schlachtstaffeln " ) that gave the British infantry such trouble at Cambrai and during the German Spring offensive of 1918 . Its most famous and dramatic effect , however , involved the raising of specialist fighter squadrons or " Jagdstaffeln " - a full year after similar units had become part of the RFC and the French " Aéronautique Militaire " . Initially these units were equipped with the Halberstadt D . II ( Germany ' s first biplane fighter ) , the Fokker D . I and D . II , along with the last few surviving " Eindecker " s , all three biplane design types using a single lMG 08 gun for armament . The small numbers of questionably - built Fokker D . III s posted to the Front pioneered the mounting of twin lMG 08 guns before 1916 ' s end , as the building numbers of the similarly - armed , and much more formidable new twin - gun Albatros fighters were well on the way to establishing the German air superiority marking the first half of 1917 . 1917 : Bloody April . The first half of 1917 was a successful period for the " jagdstaffeln " and the much larger RFC suffered significantly higher casualties than their opponents . While new Allied fighters such as the Sopwith Pup , Sopwith Triplane , and SPAD S . VII were coming into service , at this stage their numbers were small , and they suffered from inferior firepower , as all three were armed with a single synchronised Vickers machine gun . On the other hand , the " jagdstaffeln " were in the process of replacing their early motley equipment with the Robert Thelen - designed Albatros D - series fighters , armed with twin synchronised " Spandau " machine gun s . The D . I and D . II of late 1916 were succeeded by the new Albatros D . III , which was , in spite of structural difficulties , " the best fighting scout on the Western Front " at the time . Meanwhile , most RFC two - seater squadrons still flew the BE . 2 e , a very minor improvement on the BE . 2c , and still fundamentally unsuited to air - to - air combat . This culminated in the rout of April 1917 , known as " Bloody April " . The RFC suffered particularly severe losses , although Trenchard ' s policy of " offensive patrol " , which placed most combat flying on the German side of the lines , was maintained . During the last half of 1917 , the British Sopwith Camel and S . E . 5a and the French SPAD S . XIII , all fitted with two forward firing machine guns , became available in numbers . The ordinary two seater squadrons in the RFC received the R . E . 8 or the F . K . 8 , not outstanding warplanes , but far less vulnerable than the BE . 2e they replaced . The F . E . 2d at last received a worthy replacement in the Bristol F . 2 b . On the other hand the latest Albatros , the D . V proved to be a disappointment , as was the Pfalz D . III . The exotic Fokker Dr . I was plagued , like the Albatros , with structural problems . By the end of the year the air superiority pendulum had swung once more in the Allies ' favour . 1918 – the Spring Offensive . The surrender of the Russians and the Treaty of Brest - Litovsk in March 1918 , and the resulting release of troops from the Eastern Front gave the Germans a " last chance " of winning the war before the Americans could become effectively involved . This resulted in the last great German offensive of the war , the " Spring Offensive " , which opened on 21 March . The main attack fell on the British front on the assumption that defeat of the British army would result in the surrender of the mutiny - weakened French . In the air , the battle was marked by the carefully coordinated use of the " Schlachtstaffeln " or " battle flights " , equipped with the light " CL " class two seaters built by the Halberstadt and Hannover firms , that had proved so effective in the German counter - attack at the Battle of Cambrai . The new German fighter aircraft , notably the Fokker D . VII , that might have revived German air superiority in time for this battle had not however reached the " Jagdstaffeln " . As with several offensives on both sides , thorough planning and preparation led to initial success , and in fact to deeper penetration than had been achieved by either side since 1914 . Many British airfields had to be abandoned to the advancing Germans in a new war of movement . Losses of aircraft and their crew were very heavy on both sides – especially to light anti - aircraft fire . However by the time of the death of Manfred von Richthofen , the famed Red Baron , on 21 April , the great offensive had largely stalled . The new German fighters had still not arrived , and the British still held general air superiority . The month of April 1918 began with the consolidation of the separate British RFC and RNAS air services into the Royal Air Force , the first independent air arm not subordinate to its national army or navy . By the end of April the new Fokker , Pfalz and Roland fighters had finally begun to replace the obsolescent equipment of the " Jagdstaffeln " , but this did not proceed with as much dispatch as it might have , due to increasing shortages of supplies on the side of the Central Powers , and many of the " Jastas " still flew Albatros D types at the time of the armistice . The rotary engined Fokker D . VIII and Siemens - Schuckert D . IV , as well as surviving Fokker Triplanes , suffered from poor reliability and shortened engine life due to the Voltol - based oil that was used to replace scarce castor oil – captured and salvaged Allied aircraft ( especially Sopwith Camels ) were scrounged , not only for engines and equipment , but even for their lubricants . Nonetheless , by September casualties in the RFC had reached the highest level since " Bloody April " – and the Allies were maintaining air superiority by weight of numbers rather than technical superiority . 1918 , especially the second half of the year , also saw the United States increasingly involved . While American volunteers had been flying in Allied squadrons since the early years of the war , not until 1918 did all - American squadrons begin active operations . Technically America had fallen well behind the European powers in aviation , and no American designed types saw action , with the exception of the Curtiss flying boats . At first , the Americans were largely supplied with second - rate and obsolete aircraft , such as the Nieuport 28 , Sopwith 1½ Strutter , and Dorand AR . 2 types , and inexperienced American airmen stood little chance against their seasoned opponents . As numbers grew and equipment improved the Americans came to hold their own in the air ; although casualties were heavy , as indeed were those of the French and British , in the last desperate fighting of the war . Impact . By the war ' s end , the impact of air missions on the ground war was in retrospect mainly tactical – strategic bombing , in particular , was still very rudimentary indeed . This was partly due to its restricted funding and use , as it was , after all , a new technology . On the other hand the artillery , which had perhaps the greatest effect of any military arm in this war , was in very large part as devastating as it was due to the availability of aerial photography and aerial " spotting " by balloon and aircraft . By 1917 weather bad enough to restrict flying was considered as effective as " putting the gunner ' s eyes out " . Some , such as then - Brigadier General Billy Mitchell , commander of all American air combat units in France , claimed " the only damage that has come to [ Germany ] has been through the air " . Mitchell was famously controversial in his view that the future of war was not on the ground or at sea , but in the air : Anti - aircraft weaponry . Though aircraft still functioned as vehicles of observation , increasingly they were used as a weapon in themselves . Dog fight s erupted in the skies over the front lines – aircraft went down in flames and heroes were born . From this air - to - air combat , the need grew for better aircraft and gun armament . Aside from machine guns , air - to - air rocket s were also used , such as the Le Prieur rocket against balloons and airships . Recoilless rifle s and autocannon s were also attempted but they pushed early fighters to unsafe limits while bringing negligible returns . Another innovation was air - to - air bombing if a fighter had been fortunate enough to climb higher than an airship . The Ranken dart was designed just for this opportunity . This need for improvement was not limited to air - to - air combat . On the ground , methods developed before the war were being used to deter enemy aircraft from observation and bombing . Anti - aircraft artillery rounds were fired into the air and exploded into clouds of smoke and fragmentation , called archie by the British . Anti - aircraft artillery defenses were increasingly used around observation balloons , which became frequent targets of enemy fighters equipped with special incendiary bullets . Because balloons were so flammable , due to the hydrogen used to inflate them , observers were given parachutes , enabling them to jump to safety . Ironically , only a few aircrew had this option , due in part to a mistaken belief they inhibited aggressiveness , and in part to their significant weight . Bombing and reconnaissance . As the stalemate developed on the ground , with both sides unable to advance even a few hundred yards without a major battle and thousands of casualties , aircraft became greatly valued for their role gathering intelligence on enemy positions and bombing the enemy ' s supplies behind the trench lines . Large aircraft with a pilot and an observer were used to scout enemy positions and bomb their supply bases . Because they were large and slow , these aircraft made easy targets for enemy fighter aircraft . As a result , both sides used fighter aircraft to both attack the enemy ' s two - seat aircraft and protect their own while carrying out their missions . While the two - seat bombers and reconnaissance aircraft were slow and vulnerable , they were not defenseless . Two - seaters had the advantage of both forward - and rearward - firing guns . Typically , the pilot controlled fixed guns behind the propeller , similar to guns in a fighter aircraft , while the observer controlled one with which he could cover the arc behind the aircraft . A tactic used by enemy fighter aircraft to avoid fire from the rear gunner was to attack from slightly below the rear of two - seaters , as the tail gunner was unable to fire below the aircraft . However , two - seaters could counter this tactic by going into a dive at high speeds . Pursuing a diving two - seater was hazardous for a fighter pilot , as it would place the fighter directly in the rear gunner ' s line of fire ; several high scoring aces of the war were shot down by " lowly " two - seaters , including Raoul Lufbery , Erwin Böhme , and Robert Little . Strategic bombing . The first ever aerial bombardment of civilians was during World War I . On 19 January 1915 , two German Zeppelin s dropped 24 high - explosive bombs and ineffective three - kilogram incendiaries on Great Yarmouth , Sheringham , King ' s Lynn , and the surrounding villages . In all , four people were killed , sixteen injured , and monetary damage was estimated at £7 , 500 . There were a further 19 raids in 1915 , in which 37 tons of bombs were dropped , killing 181 people and injuring 455 . Raids continued in 1916 . London was accidentally bombed in May , and , in July , the Kaiser allowed directed raids against urban centres . There were 23 airship raids in 1916 in which 125 tons of ordnance were dropped , killing 293 people and injuring 691 . Gradually British air defenses improved . In 1917 and 1918 there were only eleven Zeppelin raids against England , and the final raid occurred on 5 August 1918 , which resulted in the death of KK Peter Strasser , commander of the German Naval Airship Department . By the end of the war , 51 raids had been undertaken , in which 5 , 806 bombs were dropped , killing 557 people and injuring 1 , 358 . The Zeppelin raids were complemented by the Gotha G bombers from 1917 , which were the first heavier than air bombers to be used for strategic bombing , and by a small force of five Zeppelin - Staaken R . VI " giant " four engined bombers from late September 1917 through to mid - May 1918 . Twenty - eight Gotha twin - engined bombers were lost on the raids over England , with no losses for the Zeppelin - Staaken giants . It has been argued that the raids were effective far beyond material damage in diverting and hampering wartime production , and diverting twelve squadrons and over 10 , 000 men to air defenses . Calculations performed on the number of dead to the weight of bombs dropped had a profound effect on attitudes of the British government and population in the interwar years , who believed that " The bomber will always get through " . Observation balloons . Manned observation balloons floating high above the trenches were used as stationary reconnaissance points on the front lines , reporting enemy troop positions and directing artillery fire . Balloons commonly had a crew of two equipped with parachutes : upon an enemy air attack on the flammable balloon , the crew would parachute to safety . Recognized for their value as observer platforms , observation balloons were important targets of enemy aircraft . To defend against air attack , they were heavily protected by large concentrations of antiaircraft guns and patrolled by friendly aircraft . Blimps and balloons helped contribute to the stalemate of the trench warfare of World War I , and contributed to air to air combat for air superiority because of their significant reconnaissance value . To encourage pilots to attack enemy balloons , both sides counted downing an enemy balloon as an " air - to - air " kill , with the same value as shooting down an enemy aircraft . Some pilots , known as balloon buster s , became particularly distinguished by their prowess at shooting down enemy balloons . The premier balloon busting ace was Willy Coppens : 35 of his 37 victories were enemy balloons . Leading aces . As pioneer aviators invented air to air combat , the contending sides developed various methods of tracking aerial casualties and victories . Aviators with five or more aerial victories confirmed by their parent air service were dubbed " aces " . Their numbers would burgeon , until by war ' s end , there were over 1 , 800 aces . The following aces scored the most victories for their respective air services . Pioneers of aerial warfare . The following aviators were the first to reach important milestones in the development of aerial combat during World War I : " Italian aircraft : "