British air patrol over the English Channel
Contemporary chronicles of the war record under 9 August 1914 the start of British air patrols over the English Channel. Their task was to protect the ships carrying the British Expeditionary Force to France. It was one of the first instances of aircraft being used to cover a naval operation on such a large scale.
Naval aviation
The patrols were flown by the Royal Naval Air Service, the air arm of the Royal Navy, which had been set up as a separate formation only a few weeks before the outbreak of war. In August 1914 it had fewer than a hundred aircraft, including seaplanes, and a few airships. The airships patrolled the Channel from the very first nights of the war.
Eyes of the fleet
Aircraft and airships could not yet fight warships effectively. Their main advantage was the ability to observe a large area of sea from the air. The airmen watched for German surface ships and submarines that might attack the transports, and for mines drifting in the shipping lanes. Information was passed to the ships of the Royal Navy guarding the crossing in the Dover area and the western part of the Channel.
The transfer of the Expeditionary Force took place mainly between 12 and 18 August. The transports sailed from Southampton to Le Havre, Rouen and Boulogne. The crossing was covered by warships and aircraft, and not a single troopship was lost.
Significance
The patrols over the English Channel heralded a new role for aviation in naval warfare. In the following years aircraft and airships became an important weapon in the struggle against German submarines, escorting convoys and watching for the enemy. Alongside this the army’s air arm, the Royal Flying Corps, developed; its first squadrons flew to France in mid-August 1914.
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