First wireless link between an aircraft and artillery

The British chronology of the war gives 22 September 1914 as the date of the first use of wireless telegraphy for communication between an aircraft and the artillery. It was achieved by airmen of the Royal Flying Corps, the British Army’s air arm, during the fighting on the River Aisne.

From the first weeks of the war British airmen had carried out reconnaissance and, as during the retreat from Mons, supplied the command with valuable information about enemy movements. Reports, however, had to be delivered after landing or dropped to the ground in small bags. On the Aisne, where the front had frozen into trenches and the artillery of both sides was firing at unseen targets behind the hills, rapid communication from the air was needed.

The pioneers were Lieutenants Donald Lewis and Baron James (Baron was his first name, not a title) of a small RFC wireless unit. Their aircraft were fitted with spark transmitters that sent in Morse code but could not receive. The airman circled over the target, watched the shell bursts and passed corrections to the battery. A surviving record of one such flight begins with the words “Very, very little short. Fire! Fire!” and ends after some 40 minutes with the report “I am going home.”

The dates of these first trials differ in the sources. Both mid-September, when successful experiments were carried out with one of the batteries, and 22 or 24 September are given as the day of the first fire direction in combat. What is certain is that by the end of September wireless artillery observation from aircraft had become standard practice on the Aisne, and the demand for wireless-equipped aircraft quickly outstripped the RFC’s resources. From these trials grew one of the most important roles of aviation in the First World War. Neither pioneer survived the war. James was killed in 1915 and Lewis in 1916.