Aviation Militaire Belge

Cockade of the Aviation Militaire Belge

Aviation Militaire Belge (Dutch Militaire Luftvaart ) was the name of the Belgian Air Force from 1915 until the German occupation in 1940 . It emerged from the Compagnie des Aviateurs (Fliegerkompanie) established in 1913 and was deployed on the front in Flanders during the First World War .

Establishment of the air force 1909–1914

Belgian military aviation began in 1909 with the establishment of the Compagnie des Ouvries et Aérostiers , an airship company.

In 1910 the first two civil airfields were built in Belgium, which also aroused the interest of War Minister General Hellebaud. In the meantime, some officers had already been privately trained in the Baron de Caters flight school , and other officers followed suit and took flight lessons, including Lieutenant Nelis, who even took part in flight tests with a Farman biplane on which a machine gun was mounted . But it was not until April 16, 1913, when the Belgian army set up an aviation company (" Compagnie des Aviateurs ") and stationed it in Brasschaat north of Antwerp . It was first used on May 26, 1913 during a maneuver on the Beverloo military training area near Leopoldsburg .

By 1914, the unit grew to three squadrons (" Escadrilles ") and a depot unit, a further expansion to six squadrons was planned. However, by the beginning of the war, only two squadrons had been brought to full strength. The 37 military pilots had 16 Blériot monoplane, Voisin and Farmand biplane. Two tethered balloons and two airships were available.

First World War

1914

Shortly after the mobilization, eight other civilian pilots registered with their aircraft , including the aviators Crombez, Baron Pièrre de Caters, Tyck and the Olieslagers brothers, who were known from pre-war times, and made it possible to set up a fifth Escadrille with a mixed population of Déperdussin and Blériot XI - and Morane-Saulnier H monoplane.

The company received its baptism of fire when their Escadrille 1, one day after the outbreak of war (August 4, 1914), monitored the Dutch and Belgian borders with their Farman biplanes and discovered the advance of the German army. This squadron was subordinate to the 3rd Artillery Division under General Gérard-Mathieu Leman and was located near Ans, not far from the Liège fortress belt , which blocked the crossings over the Meuse .

Shortly afterwards, the fortress of Liège was bombed by a German zeppelin and then taken by hand by German troops. The Belgian army then withdrew step by step to the fortress of Antwerp. The Escadrille 1 flew numerous reconnaissance missions, fought advancing enemy columns by dropping aviator arrows and finally moved to Wilrijk south of Antwerp.

In the meantime the German troops had encountered the British expeditionary corps at Mons . There was also an encounter with British aircraft; two British aviators were brought down with their machine; they were the first to die in the war on Belgian territory.

After the advance of the 1st German Army on the Marne was stopped, the fighting concentrated on the besieged Antwerp, where British troops had now landed, including naval pilots of the Royal Naval Air Service , who operated from Ostend and Antwerp. From there, on October 8, 1914, they also started their flight against the airship hangars in Düsseldorf , where they destroyed the Zeppelin Z.IX. The Belgian pilots with their Farmans , reinforced by French pilots, were used to clear up the German siege batteries.

After Antwerp had to be surrendered, the remnants of the Belgian army withdrew along the coast and finally took positions along the Ijser.

Via Ostend the Escadrille 1 finally arrived on October 12, 1914 with six Farmans and a Nieuport on French territory to Saint-Pol-sur-Mer near Dunkirk , where the other Belgian squadrons had also gathered. Shortly afterwards, the Escadrille moved into a field airfield near the front at Sint-Idesbald, near Koksijde ; the other squadrons remained in the Dunkirk area. Since the bad weather in autumn barely allowed aircraft to be deployed, the Belgian units were replenished and replaced by French aircraft of the Blériot and Farman types . To this end, Commandant Nelis, an aviator from the very beginning, set up a depot in Calais -Beaumarais with rear supply services, from where he organized material supplies and repairs for the Belgian air force throughout the war. A flight school for pilot training has been established in Étampes . The front squadrons moved to Belgian airfields in Houtem and Koksijde.

1915

In March 1915, the “ Compagnie des Aviateurs ” was renamed the “ Aviation Militaire Belge ” based on the French model .

On April 17, 1915, Captain Fernand Jacquet and his observer Lieutenant Hans Vindevogel from Escadrille 1 achieved the young Aviation Militaire's first aerial victory against a German Albatros two-seater on a Farman MF11 .

1916

On January 18, 1916, the formation of a hunting squadron was ordered, and on February 22, the Escadrille 1 was regrouped to the 1ère Escadrille de Chasse and equipped with Nieuport 11 , later with Nieuport 16 and 17 .

At the beginning of 1916, the Belgian air force finally reached a strength of four escadrons for reconnaissance, aerial photography and bombing missions and two fighter squadrons.

Since the Sint-Idesbald field airfield was now in the direct range of the German artillery, the fighter squadron had to move to the De Moeren airfield in June.

1917

In 1917 Belgian fighter pilots also operated their Nieuport fighter planes from De Moeren airfield, including such successful fighter pilots as Willy Coppens , Edmond Thieffry and Jan Olieslagers . The Belgian fighter pilots as well as their German opponents marked their aircraft with individual symbols, some of which are still used today on aircraft of the Belgian Air Force. André de Meulemeester chose the Scottish thistle as the emblem of the squadron in 1917 , as a regiment of the Scots Guards was stationed near the airfield . The season chose the slogan “ Nemo me impune lacessit ” as the motto .

The other field pilot squadrons, on the other hand, continued to use the now outdated Farman biplanes for a long time, some of which were, however, equipped with tactile radios , but in spring 1917 also fell victim to the increasing German air superiority. The Belgians were mainly faced with the Marine Field Hunting Squadron 1 in Nieuwmunster, whose fighter planes dominated the airspace over the coast.

On May 4, 1917, Henri Crombez and Louis von der 6ème Escadrille dared a flight over the occupied territory to Brussels and dropped a Belgian flag over the city as a symbol. In doing so, they flew over the enemy airfields at Sint Agatha Berchem and Gontrode, from where the bomb squadron of Supreme Army Command No. 3 ("England Squadron ") took off with its heavy Gotha bombers on its bombing flights against London and other English cities. July 6, 1917 was similarly symbolic: in the meantime, newer Sopwith 1½ Strutter two-seaters had been delivered and King Albert personally carried out a reconnaissance flight in such a machine on July 6, 1917 to prove his solidarity with the aviators.

In parallel with the fierce fighting on the ground, the intensity of the aerial warfare in Flanders steadily increased. In July 1917, Belgian pilots flew around 120 sorties a day. German airfields were established in Aartrijke, Varsenare, Wijnendale and Snellegem. In August the Belgian fighter pilots received newer single-seaters of the type Hanriot HD.1 for the first time , which was to become the standard fighter aircraft of the Belgian Escadrilles de Chasse by the end of the war , and a little later also British Sopwith Camels . The outdated Farmans were SPAD S.XI replaced. The Third Battle of Ypres began on August 15th. Fierce dogfights took place over the trenches and claimed victims among the pilots. On July 30th the German fighter pilot Werner Voss fell near Kortrijk (Courtrai), he was followed by the famous French fighter pilot Georges Guynemer , who was shot down on September 11th near Poelkapelle.

It was not until autumn that the weather restricted flying. British squadrons now moved into field airfields at Poperinghe, Abele and Proven, but on December 23, 1917, the French Escadrille C74, which had been operating in Flanders since 1914, was relocated with its Caudron bombers to a different front sector.

1918

In February 1918, the Aviation Militaire was reorganized and brought to a strength of eleven squadrons. The previously largely independent 1ère Escadrille de Chasse, which won 66 victories by the end of the war, now became the 9ème Escadrille de Chasse together with the 10ème and 11ème Escadrille based on the French model to form the new fighter squadron (" Groupe de Chasse ") under the leadership of Capitaine -Commander Fernand Jacquet in summary. The squadron with its Sopwith Pups and Camels, SPAD S.VII and Hanriot HD.1 kept its airfield in De Moeren until the German withdrawal in October 1918.

At the same time, the reconnaissance squadrons, now equipped with modern Breguet 14 and SPAD S.XI , were now assigned certain front sections, with the Belgian aviators taking over a sector along the Ostend – Vijfwegen railway line. The Belgian observer Jaumotte, whose photographs were repeatedly requested by British and French staff, stood out for the aerial reconnaissance.

With the arrival of the American Expeditionary Forces in the summer of 1918 , the Aviation Militaire Belge had become the smallest of the air forces operating on the Western Front. After successfully repelling the German spring offensive , the Belgians had 127 aircraft in June 1918, in addition to 180 American, 2630 British and 3857 French. With this power ratio of 3: 1, the air superiority against the 2551 German aircraft was fought for and continuously strengthened.

On September 28th, with the start of the Allied counter-offensive, the recapture of Belgium began. On October 17th, the first fighter pilots of the Groupe Jacquet landed with their SPADs in Ostend and were the first to enter the city that was evacuated by German troops.

On their advance, the Allies came across extensive stocks of materials that the German troops had left behind on their retreat; some of them can still be seen in Belgian museums today.

The Belgian aviators followed the advancing troops until the last fighting on the Leie in the Mons- Tournai- Enghien area in November 1918 was ended by the armistice.

References and comments

↑ Latin motto of the Scottish King James II in 1687: " Nobody irritates me with impunity ". A Hanriot HD.1 marked accordingly is exhibited today in the Royal Army Museum in Brussels.

literature

Olaf Groehler : History of the Air War 1910 to 1980 . Military publishing house of the GDR, Berlin 1981
Whitehouse, Arch: Fliegerasse 1914-1918 , Stuttgart 1970
Pacco, John: Aviation Militaire / Militaire Luftvaart 1910-1929 , JP Publications ISBN 90-801136-5-4

Web links

Further air forces in the First World War

[1] Latin motto of the Scottish King James II in 1687: " Nobody irritates me with impunity ". A Hanriot HD.1 marked accordingly is exhibited today in the Royal Army Museum in Brussels.