The Development of Military Night Aviation to 1919: Emergence of Night Bombing, Tactical and Strategic Bombardment, Foundations of Night Fighting, Reconnaissance, Voisin, Breguet, Sopwith, Caproni

This excellent report has been professionally converted for accurate flowing-text e-book format reproduction. This study examines the development of military night aviation from its origins through the First World War. Emphasis is on the evolution of night flying in those countries which fought on the Western Front, namely France, Germany, Great Britain, and the United States. While night flying occurred in other theaters the most intense air effort was clearly in the west. There belligerents pressed aviation technology and tactics to the limits; the skies of northern France and Flanders offered the only opportunity for movement across the stagnated front. Another important consideration was the availability of a rich documentation concerning night aerial activity in the theater.

A striking disparity quickly became evident during preliminary investigations of the topic. Surprisingly no single book-length study was uncovered which was dedicated exclusively to night flying along the Western Front. This thesis seeks to reduce the existing gap in scholarly knowledge. To appreciate the rapid development of night military aviation during the Great War one first needs to understand the state of night flying prior to August 1914. Numerous aeronautical journals of the period offer articles exploring the technical problems associated with night flight. Additionally the New York Times provides a useful but more general day-to-day account of the evolution of flying during darkness. Source material for the war period is quite extensive.

Chapter 1 - NIGHT AERONAUTICS TO AUGUST 1914 * Chapter 2 - THE EMERGENCE OF NIGHT BOMBING, 1914-1916 * Chapter 3 - TACTICAL NIGHT BOMBARDMENT * Chapter 4 - STRATEGIC NIGHT BOMBARDMENT * Chapter 5 - THE FOUNDATIONS OF NIGHT FIGHTING * Chapter 6 - NIGHT OBSERVATION AND RECONNAISSANCE * Chapter 7 - MEN AND MATERIEL FOR NIGHT FLYING * CONCLUSIONS * BIBLIOGRAPHY