Independent Force

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The Independent Force (English for independent force was) one on June 6, 1918 Hugh Trenchard vision was to command two months before the British founded the Royal Air Force , which for strategic bombing raids on the West Front of the First World War was used. Shortly before the end of the war, it was to be expanded to form the Inter-Allied Independent Air Force through the involvement of French, US and Italian associations , but this did not occur.

background

British strategic air raids had been largely the responsibility of the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) until 1918 . At the end of 1914, RNAS aircraft had attacked the German naval base in Cuxhaven and the Nordholz airship base . In April 1916 a separate squadron, No. 3 Wing RNAS formed, which flew attacks on southwest Germany from Luxeuil in the southwest Vosges together with French bomber units. This was intended to counter the German air raids on England that were flown with zeppelins until 1917 .

From May 1917, the Germans used the new Gotha G.IV bombers to fly long-range attacks by the " England Squadron " (Bogohl 3) on London and other cities, which the British once again put under pressure. In July 1917, British War Cabinet member Jan Christiaan Smuts was tasked with developing a plan for how to respond to this challenge. Smuts' proposals boiled down to creating a third branch of the armed forces, independent of the army and navy, in order to strengthen air defense on the one hand and to combine the offensive capacities of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and RNAS on the other . A separate Air Ministry should be established for this purpose. Furthermore, the German air raids were to be answered with their own strategic attacks deep into the enemy's rear. Smuts was able to feel confirmed in this line by the military like Lord Tiverton and Mark Kerr , who in November 1917 advocated an independent bomber fleet in a memorandum.

Foundation and assignments

Tentatively was in October 1917 under the command of Cyril Newall of No. 41 Wing RFC formed from bomber squadrons of the RFC and the RNAS, from which the so-called VIII Brigade of the RFC emerged in early 1918. The Royal Air Force was officially founded on April 1, 1918, after the Air Ministry had already been formed at the turn of the year 1918. After the first successes of the VIII Brigade, it was decided to use it to form the Independent Force proposed by Smuts and Kerr . Ironically, Hugh Trenchard, who had become first chief of the air staff in January and had since fallen out with his minister Lord Rothermere because of his primarily politically motivated decisions, was appointed commander of the new formation. Trenchard, like the commander on the Western Front Douglas Haig , had not been convinced of the point of an independent bomber fleet.

The Independent Force was officially founded on June 6, 1918 with headquarters near Nancy . On this date, Field Marshal Haig handed over the control he had previously exercised over the VIII Brigade to Trenchard. Trenchard, bypassing his successor as Chief of Air Staff, Frederick Sykes , reported directly to the new Minister of Aviation, William Weir . Nor did he adhere to the ministry's instructions, primarily targeting the German war economy, in particular the chemical industry concentrated in southwest Germany, but instead concentrated on German airfields and railway lines, which he expected to achieve greater success. There were also support missions, for example during the Battle of St. Mihiel in September 1918.

Prince Albert , Hugh Trenchard and Christopher Courtney at a dinner in honor of the Independent Force at London's Savoy Hotel, July 1919

On October 26, Trenchard was informed that he should command an inter-allied air force in the future, with Trenchard being subordinate to the Allied Commander-in-Chief Marshal Ferdinand Foch . The rapid end of the war made these plans obsolete; in any case, even for some of those involved, they would hardly have been politically acceptable. The USA, for example, flatly rejected bombing operations against civilian targets. Trenchard returned to Great Britain immediately after the end of the war and left the dissolution of the Independent Force to the chief of field aviation of the RAF John Salmond and his successor Christopher Courtney .

The Independent Force carried out 353 missions in the time of its existence and dropped 550 tons of bombs. Around 500 Independent Force aircraft were lost in the period up to the end of October, more than half of them in accidents. 299 crews were missing (probably fallen), another 58 had surely fallen and 107 were wounded.

Composition and equipment

Handley Page O / 400 heavy bomber
Airco DH.9A medium bomber

The Independent Force grew until the war ended to a thickness of nine bombers and a fighter squadron for Eskortierungsaufgaben, far less than hoped for by the planners at the Air Ministry. These were initially:

  • No. 41 wing with:
    • No. 55 Squadron
    • No. 99 Squadron
    • No. 104 Squadron
  • No. 83 wing with:
    • No. 100 Squadron
    • No. 216 Squadron

Squadrons No. 97, 115, 215 and 110 added. The No. 1 Squadron.

These units were equipped with aircraft of the types:

Due to the armistice signed on November 11, 1918, the super-heavy Handley Page V / 1500 was no longer used. These planes had the task of bombing Berlin in the last weeks of the war .

literature

  • Gary Sheffield, Peter Gray (Eds.): Changing War: The British Army, the Hundred Days Campaign and The Birth of the Royal Air Force, 1918. Bloomsbury, 2013.

Web links