January 6 or 15 – The German
submarineU-12 departs
Zeebrugge with a
Friedrichshafen FF.29seaplane lashed to her deck in an attempt to use submarines to carry seaplanes within range of
England. The seaplane is forced to take off early, reconnoiters the coast of
Kent, and has to fly all the way back to Zeebrugge when bad weather makes returning to U-12 impossible. It is the only German attempt to operate an aircraft from a submarine.[3][4]
January 24 – An airship plays a role in a naval battle for the first time, when the German Navy Zeppelin
L 5, flying a routine patrol, arrives over the ongoing
Battle of the Dogger Bank between British and German
battlecruisers in the
North Sea. Operating cautiously after taking fire from British
light cruisers, L-5 finds it difficult to track the action through cloud cover and plays a minimal role in the engagement, passing limited information to the commanding German admiral,
Franz von Hipper, in the late stages of the battle.[8]
January 25 – The Imperial German Navy suffers its first wartime loss of an
airship when
PL 19 is forced down on the
Baltic Sea by
icing and engine failure while attempting to return to base after bombing
Libau,
Russia. Two
Imperial Russian Navyminesweepers capture her seven-man crew and set her ablaze, destroying her. No further airship operations will take place in the Baltic
theater until mid-July.[9]
February
February 2 – The only Imperial Russian Navy
seaplane carrier to see service in the Baltic Sea during World War I,
Orlitza, is commissioned.[10]
February 17 – Only four weeks after they became the first two airships to bomb the United Kingdom, the Imperial German Navy Zeppelins
L-3 and
L-4 are wrecked in
Denmark while attempting to search for British ships off
Norway. L-3's crew burns her before being
interned by Danish authorities. L-4 is blown out over the North Sea after touching down in Denmark and disappears with four men still on board; the Danes intern the rest of her crew.[11]
February 26 – The second German attempt to bomb the United Kingdom fails when strong headwinds force the German Navy Zeppelin
L-8, sent out to attack alone, to give up her attempt and land at an
Imperial German Army camp in German-occupied
Belgium.[12]
March 4 – The third German attempt to bomb the United Kingdom fails when the naval Zeppelin L-8, sent to attack alone, encounters a
gale over the
North Sea and is blown out of control over
Nieuwpoort, Belgium, where Belgian
antiaircraft gunners shoot her down.[12]
March 7 – The first British tactical bombing raids are made in support of ground troops in
Menin and
Courtai.
March 11 – The
Royal Navy charters the
cargo ship SS Manica for conversion into the first British
balloon ship,
HMS Manica. The Royal Navy will be the only navy during World War I to operate balloon ships, specialized ships designed to handle
observation balloons as their sole function.[14]
March 17 – The Imperial German Army attempts its first airship raid against the United Kingdom with the Zeppelin
Z XII. Unable to find targets through cloud cover, Z XII drops no bombs, but over
Calais,
France, on the way home makes the first use of a manned observation car lowered by
winch below the Zeppelin to allow observation while the airship remains safely above cloud cover.[15] The German Navy later also experiments with such cars and later makes them standard equipment aboard German naval airships.[16]
March 18 –
Imperial Russian Air ServiceStabskapitänAlexander Kazakov uses a
grapnel to hook his aircraft to a German
Albatros two-seater aircraft in mid-air, hoping to destroy the Albatros by detonating a small bomb fixed to the grapnel. When his grapnel mechanism jams as he unreels it, he instead downs the Albatros by ramming it with his
undercarriage.[17]
Later in the day,
French pilot
LieutenantRoland Garros scores the first kill achieved by firing a
machine gun through a
tractor propeller when he shoots down a German
Albatros observation plane. With no
synchronization gear yet available for his machine gun, he uses metal deflector wedges installed on the propeller of his Morane Saulnier L fighter to keep the machine gun from shooting his own propeller blades off. It is also his first kill. He will score two more victories this way, on April 15 and April 18.[20]
April 3 – French pilot
Adolphe Pégoud scores his fifth aerial victory, becoming history's first
ace.[19]
April 14–15 (overnight) – Germany bombs the United Kingdom for the second time when the German Navy Zeppelin
L 9 bombs the
Tyneside area of
England, either killing or injuring a woman and a small boy.[16]
April 15–16 (overnight) – The German Navy Zeppelins
L 5,
L 6, and
L 7 – the latter carrying
Peter Strasser, the commander of the German Naval Airship Division, as an observer – bomb England. Although they meet little resistance other than rifle fire, their bombs inflict little damage.[16]
German forces shoot down and capture Roland Garros.
Flying a
B.E.2c, Royal Flying Corps pilot
Lanoe Hawker attacks the German Zeppelin sheds at
Gontrode, Belgium, destroying a brand-new shed and shooting down a nearby Drachenobservation balloon. He will be awarded the
Distinguished Service Order for the action. The Germans soon cease to use Gontrode as an airship base.[22]
April 20 – Flying a reconnaissance mission along the border with
Mexico in a
Martin T biplane,
First LieutenantByron Q. Jones (pilot) and Lieutenant
Thomas D. Milling (observer) become the first
United States Army aviators to come under enemy fire during a flight when Mexican forces open fire on them with small arms and at least one machine gun while they are over the
Rio Grande at
Brownsville, Texas. Their plane is hit, but they are uninjured. It is considered the first combat air sortie in U.S. Army history.[23]
April 26 –
Second LieutenantWilliam Rhodes-Moorhouse of the Royal Flying Corps's
No. 2 Squadron is mortally wounded while carrying out a bombing attack on a railway junction at
Kortrijk, Belgium; he dies the next day. For the action, he posthumously will become the first airman of any sort while flying against the enemy to receive the
Victoria Cross.
May
The British
War Office issues instructions specifying the aircraft and armament
Royal Flying Corpssquadrons are to have ready for defense of the
United Kingdom against German airships. One aircraft is to be kept ready for immediate takeoff at all times, with the
Martinsyde Scout preferred over other aircraft. The instruction also lists a specific mix and numbers of weapons the aircraft are to carry, including bombs, grenades, and incendiary darts.[24]
May 3
On patrol over the
North Sea, the German Navy Zeppelin
L 9, commanded by KapitänleutnantHeinrich Mathy, encounters four British
submarines on the surface and attacks them while
HMS E5 fires at her and the other three dive; L 9 tries to bomb E5 as E5 dives, but does no damage. L 9 later catches
HMS E4 on the surface and attacks with bombs, but E4 dives and survives as well. L 9 later sights another surfaced submarine and moves in to attack while the submarine fires at her, but the submarine dives before L 9 can attack.[25]
May 11 – An early attempt to intercept an
airship with a shipborne aircraft takes place in the North Sea when the Royal Navy
seaplane tenderHMS Ben-my-Chree tries to launch a Royal Naval Air Service
Sopwith seaplane to attack a German
Zeppelin sighted low on the horizon at a range of 70 nautical miles (130 kilometres). The attempt fails when the launching platform collapses, and the unmolested Zeppelin goes on to bomb four surfaced British submarines – without damaging them.[27]
May 16–17 (overnight) – Two Royal Naval Air Service Avro 504s intercept the
Imperial German NavyZeppelinsLZ 38 and
LZ 39, badly damaging LZ39 with four 20-lb (9-kg) bombs dropped on its envelope from above.[18]
May 31-June 1 (overnight) – The Imperial German Navy Zeppelin LZ 38 carries out the first air raid on
London, killing seven people and injuring 14.
June
While scouting to protect German
minesweepers in the
North Sea, the German Navy Zeppelin
L 5 encounters a force of Royal Navy
light cruisers and
destroyers while at low altitude. The light cruiser
HMS Arethusa quickly launches a
Sopwithseaplane which is closing rapidly on L 5 when its pilot mistakes smoke from British destroyers as a recall signal and abandons the chase, ending one of the most promising early opportunities for the interception of an airship by a shipborne aircraft.[27]
June 7 – The German Army Zeppelin
LZ 37 becomes the first airship destroyed in air-to-air combat when
Flight Sub-LieutenantReginald Warneford of the Royal Naval Air Service's
No. 1 Squadron, flying a
Morane-Saulnier L, destroys her with air-to-air bombing over
Ghent, Belgium. LZ 37 crashes in
Sint-Amandsberg, Belgium, killing one person on the ground and all but one of the crew. Within 36 hours, Warneford is the second-ever Commonwealth pilot, following William Rhodes-Moorhouse two months earlier, to receive the
Victoria Cross for the action.[30][31]
June 23 – The Royal Flying Corps decrees that all aircraft with covered fuselages use the tricolor
roundel on the sides of their
fuselages. Previously, the roundel was used only on the
wings.
July
July 1
German LeutnantKurt Wintgens, flying the Idflieg-serialed E.5/15Fokker M.5K/MG production prototype of the
Fokker Eindecker fighter (one of five built) armed with a
Parabellum MG14 gun, achieves the first aerial victory using a
synchronization gear which allows a machine gun to shoot through a turning propeller without hitting its blades, downing a
Morane-Saulnier L two-seat "parasol" observation aircraft over the
Western Front.[34] His victory begins the period that will become known as the "
Fokker Scourge," in which German Fokker Eindeckers will take a heavy toll of
Allied aircraft over the Western Front.[35] Wintgens would down two more Morane Type L two-seaters, one each on July 4 and 15, with the July 15th victory being his first confirmed victory, all achieved with E.5/15.
July 4 – A force of six German Navy airships (five
Zeppelins and a
Schütte-Lanz) sets out to attack a Royal Navy force of
light cruisers,
destroyers, and the
seaplane tenderHMS Engadine operating in the
German Bight to conduct an aerial reconnaissance of the
Ems estuary and
Borkum and intercept reacting German airships. The British reconnaissance achieves nothing, British seaplanes are unable to launch in heavy seas to pursue the airships, the airships do no damage to the British ships, and although British ships fire on some of the airships, they fail to shoot any down.[38]
July 25 – Following his bombing raid exploits on the Gontrode zeppelin base some three months earlier, while flying a
Lewis machine gun-armed
Bristol Scout C, military s/n 1611, Royal Flying Corps Captain
Lanoe Hawker shoots down three German aircraft while on patrol over
Passchendaele,
Belgium. For this achievement, he will become the first single-seat scout/fighter pilot to be awarded the
Victoria Cross for combat against enemy airplanes.
August 1 -– LeutnantMax Immelmann shoots down his first aircraft with the
lMG 08-armed production Fokker E.I, E.13/15, beginning his career as an ace.
August 2 – Building upon 1913 flying-off experiments aboard
HMS Hermes, an aircraft takes off from a platform aboard a fully operational British aviation ship for the first time, when a
Sopwith Baby equipped with wheeled floats takes off from
HMS Campania.[40]
August 6–9 – Plagued by weather and communications problems, German Navy airships prove unable to provide effective reconnaissance support to a
minelaying sortie by the German
auxiliary cruiserSMS Meteor, which scuttles herself when she is intercepted by British
light cruisers and
destroyers.[41]
August 12–13 (overnight) – Four German Navy airships attempt to bomb
England. Two turn back short of England, while
L 10 bombs
Harwich, destroying two houses, and
L 12 finds no targets and barely makes it home after encountering violent
thunderstorms over the
North Sea.[43]
August 17–18 (overnight) – Four German Navy airships attempt to bomb
London. Two turn back with engine trouble, and
L 11 mistakenly bombs open fields near
Ashford and
Faversham.
L 10, however, becomes the first German Navy airship ever to reach
London, but thinking she is over central London she mistakenly bombs
Leyton, hitting the railroad station and a number of houses, killing 10 people and injuring 48.[44]
August 19 – Flying a
Fokker M.5K/MG bearing IdFlieg serial number E.3/15, fitted with a
gun synchronizer and Parabellum MG 14 machine gun, LeutnantOswald Boelcke shoots down his first aircraft.
August 20 – The first sustained aerial bombing offensive is made by
ItalianCaproni Ca.2s against
Austria-Hungary. The Ca.2 becomes the first Italian bomber to strike enemy positions during World War I.[45]
August 31 – The first French ace,
Adolphe Pegoud, is killed in combat. He had scored six victories.
September 7 – A force of
Royal Navy ships in the
North Sea bombarding
Imperial German Army positions at
Ostend,
Belgium, comes under attack by German aircraft, which bomb the
scout cruiserHMS Attentive. Attentive suffers two killed and seven wounded, and the Royal Navy force disperses briefly before returning to resume its bombardment.[47]
September 8–9 (overnight) – Four German Navy Zeppelins attempt to bomb England. Two suffer engine trouble, while
L 9, attacks a
benzole plant at
Skinningrove,
Yorkshire, but her bombs fail to penetrate the roof of the benzol house or of a neighboring
TNT store, and there are no casualties.
L 13, however, bombs London – including the dropping of a 300-kg (661-lb) bomb, the largest yet dropped on Britain – killing 22 people and inflicting the most damage – valued at
£530,787 – in a single airship or airplane bombing raid throughout all of World War I. Her commander, KapitänleutnantHeinrich Mathy, becomes a great hero in Germany.[49]
Fearing large-scale British retaliatory raids for German airship raids against London and resentful of German Navy publicity about the achievements of naval airships in bombing the city, Chief of the
German General Staff General
Erich von Falkenhayn issues a statement pointing out that German Army airships are restricted to bombing London's docks and harbor works and are prohibited from attacking the central
City of London.[51]
September 14 – Admiral
Henning von Holtzendorff, Chief of the
German Naval Staff, restricts German naval airships bombing London to targets along the banks of the
River Thames and directs them as far as possible to avoid bombing the poorer, working-class northern quarter of the city.[52]
October
October 13–14 (overnight) – After a five-week hiatus, German airships resume raids against the United Kingdom, as five German Navy Zeppelins attempt to bomb London.
L 15 bombs central London, during which Royal Flying Corps pilot
John Slessor, flying a
B.E.2c, intercepts her, becoming the first man to intercept an enemy aircraft over the United Kingdom, although he is unable to fire on L 15. The other four Zeppelins scatter their bombs over various towns and the countryside. The raid is one of the deadliest of World War I, killing 71 people and injuring 128.[53]
October 18 – The
Third Battle of the Isonzo begins. It will last until 3 November, and during the battle Italian aircraft will make their first contribution to Italy's ground war."[28]
November 3 – Royal Naval Air Service
Flight Sub-Lieutenant Fowler makes the first British take-off of an aircraft with a conventional, wheeled undercarriage from a ship when he flies a
Bristol Scout from
HMS Vindex.[40]
Imperial Japanese Army aviation gains a degree of independence for the first time when it is organized as the Air Battalion of the Army Transport Command.[58]
^Layman, R.D., Before the Aircraft Carrier: The Development of Aviation Vessels 1849-1922, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989,
ISBN0-87021-210-9, p. 120.
^Layman, R.D., Before the Aircraft Carrier: The Development of Aviation Vessels 1849-1922, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989,
ISBN0-87021-210-9, pp. 29-30.
^Frankland, Noble, Bomber Offensive: The Devastation of Europe, New York: Ballantine Books Inc., 1970, p. 10.
^Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN, pp. 70, 73-76.
^Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN, pp. 94-95.
^Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN, pp. 216-218. The 15 January 1915 date given for the incident on p. 217 appears to be a typographical error; the 25 January 1915 date given on p. 216 appears to be accurate.
^Layman, R.D., Before the Aircraft Carrier: The Development of Aviation Vessels 1849-1922, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989,
ISBN0-87021-210-9, p. 97.
^Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN, pp. 76, 95-96.
^
abWhitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN, p. 76.
^
abLayman, R.D., Before the Aircraft Carrier: The Development of Aviation Vessels 1849-1922, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989,
ISBN0-87021-210-9, pp. 96, 101.
^
abLayman, R.D., Before the Aircraft Carrier: The Development of Aviation Vessels 1849-1922, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989,
ISBN0-87021-210-9, p. 73.
^Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN, pp. 76-77.
^
abcWhitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN, p. 78.
^Franks, Norman, Aircraft vs. Aircraft: The Illustrated Story of Fighter Pilot Combat From 1914 to the Present Day, London: Grub Street, 1998,
ISBN1-902304-04-7, p. 11.
^
abThetford, Owen, British Naval Aircraft Since 1912, Sixth Edition, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991,
ISBN1-55750-076-2, p. 33.
^
abHollway, Don, "The Sentinel of Verdun," Aviation History, November 2012, p. 36.
^Hollway, Don, "The Sentinel of Verdun," Aviation History, November 2012, p. 38.
^
abLayman, R.D., Before the Aircraft Carrier: The Development of Aviation Vessels 1849-1922, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989,
ISBN0-87021-210-9, p. 112.
^Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN, pp. 79-80.
^Heaton, Dan, "Gunfire Over the Rio Grande," Aviation History, May 2014, pp. 16-17.
^Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN, pp. 72-73.
^Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN, pp. 97-98.
^Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN, pp. 80-81.
^
abWhitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN, p. 98.
^
abGooch, John, Mussolini and His Generals: The Armed Forces and Fascist Foreign Policy, 1922-1940, Cambridge, U.K: Cambridge University Press, 2007,
ISBN978-0-521-85602-7, p. 52.
^Clark, Basil, The History of Airships, New York: St Martin's Press, 1961, Library of Congress 64-12336, p. 146.
^
abSturtivant, Ray, British Naval Aviation: The Fleet Air Arm, 1917-1990, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1990,
ISBN0-87021-026-2, p. 215.
^Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN, pp. 84-92.
^Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN, p. 104.
^Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN, pp. 93.
^Franks, Norman, Aircraft vs. Aircraft: The Illustrated Story of Fighter Pilot Combat From 1914 to the Present Day, London: Grub Street, 1998,
ISBN1-902304-04-7, p. 20.
^Layman, R.D., Before the Aircraft Carrier: The Development of Aviation Vessels 1849-1922, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989,
ISBN0-87021-210-9, p. 20.
^Swanborough, Gordon, and Peter M. Bowers, United States Navy Aircraft Since 1911, Second Edition, London: Putnam, 1976,
ISBN0-370-10054-9, p. 2.
^Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN, pp. 98-100.
^Gooch, John, Mussolini and His Generals: The Armed Forces and Fascist Foreign Policy, 1922-1940, Cambridge, U.K: Cambridge University Press, 2007,
ISBN978-0-521-85602-7, p. 53.
^
abThetford, Owen, British Naval Aircraft Since 1912, Sixth Edition, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991,
ISBN1-55750-076-2, p. 12.
^Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN, pp. 101-103.
^Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN, pp. 104-106.
^Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN, pp. 107-108.
^Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN, p. 108.
^Blumberg, Arnold, "Bombing, Italian Style," Aviation History, November 2015, p. 49.
^Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN, pp. 108-109.