There was no aviation transport wing in World War I. Logistics was either by sea, truck or horse. In Palestine FA300 dominated the air; their aircraft were faster, better armed and more capable. However, logistics for them was a major hassle as petrol had to be brought in by donkey.

The allied supply lines were less extended and followed the ocean ports with the Royal Navy dominating the Mediterranean. The biggest concern were submarines. Aircraft were not powerful enough in WWI to sink a capital ship as they could in WWII.

There were instances were supply lines were stretched and one case in 1918 was when the AFC was supporting Lawrence of Arabia and the Arab irregulars near Deraa. The AFC forward base at Azrak required petrol, oil, ammunition and parts to be constantly flown in.

Fortunately, the AFC squadron had recently received a Handley Page 0/400. It was quickly pressed into transport duties.

The photo was taken by Richard Williams and is from the AWM Collections ID No.A00654. Under Australian copyright law no photograph taken before 1955 can be under copyright any longer.

Richard Williams relates the supply issues with supporting a forward base at Azrak:

The aircraft [two Bristol Fighters] could not work in the desert area east of Amman without supplies and the normal line of supply was via Akaba on the Red Sea.

This was useless, so the Handley Page was brought into service and used to transport petrol, oil, bombs and ammunition.

It went out during day-light to arrive at Azrak just before dark. It was escorted by two bristol Fighters which went on to bomb the enemy aerodrome at Deraa to distract attention from it [the 0/400].

Richard Williams called the 0/400 the best recruiting agent the British had with the Arab Irregulars. As the aircraft was so big and awe inspiring. He notes that the Biffs also knocked down two German aircraft the same day which meant the irregulars had local air superiority courtesy of the AFC and did not have to worry about being attacked from the air.

Ross Smith was the pilot of the Handley Page and the story goes that when he landed the Arabs celebrated the arrival of the aircraft by firing their guns into the air and racing around his aircraft on their horses. As Smith's plane was loaded up with flammables and explosives this behaviour apparently made him a bit nervous.

Griggs was an American who joined the Australian Flying Corps and flew with No.2 Squadron. Unfortunately he lost his life during the Battle of Cambrai.

Griggs is fourth from left in the back row.

The Australian Imperial Force [AIF] in the First World War was monoracial, but outside that policy, the AIF was multi-ethnic. Consequently there men of many different nations that served in the AIF; Russians, Danes, English, Singaporeans, Canadians, New Zealanders, etc - and Americans. When the gold rushes in California had petered out, many Americans flooded the Victorian goldfields, and then migrating on to the Western Australian goldfields before ended up in the South African goldrushes. It should be remembered that the groups which resisted the British most at Eureka when it came to arms were Americans.

Albert Griggs was from Meridian, Mississippi and was living in Hobart when he signed up to the AIF. He went through the Fifth (flying) Training Course at Point Cook, which was rare too, as the common path for joining the Australian Flying Corps [AFC] was to be recruited from the Australian Light Horse. After completing his training in Britain he was posted to No.2 Squadron AFC.

No.2 Squadron flew the Airco DH5 which was unusual for having 'back-staggered' wings. This caused some problems in a fighter aircraft design as the pilots couldn't see what was behind them, or what was on their tail. To add to the concern of the wing design the DH5 was not a fast aircraft by any means which meant it was easy for German aircraft to catch them up if they wanted to.

The advantage was that the pilot had an excellent view in-front as no upper wing obstructed their vision. Partly as a consequence of this realisation, and the fact that during the Battle of Cambrai all available aircraft were needed to support the offensive on the ground, the DH5s were pressed into a ground attack role. It was very dangerous work and the casualty rate in No.2 Squadron was high during this period.

Griggs, unfortunately, was one of those who were lost during the support of the offensive. On November 23rd the allied offensive stalled at Moevres where three Irish Battalions where trying to take the town. An Irish company was pinned down by a German defensive position and they watched a back-staggered DH5 return to attack the position again and again; until it crashed into ground; killing Albert Griggs.

Two weeks later, the Irish Fusiliers put a notice in The Times: "To an unknown airmen, shot down on November 23rd, 1917, whilst attacking a German strongpoint south west of Bourlon Wood, in an effort to help out a company of Royal Irish Fusiliers when other help had failed."

No.2 Squadron's DH5 aircraft were pressed into the ground attack role during the Battle of Cambrai. It was dangerous work as the linen and wood aircraft were susceptible to small arms fire at the low levels they worked at. Harry Taylor was shot down while performing a ground attack mission, and surviving the crash had quite an adventure before getting back to the squadron's aerodrome.

On the morning of the 20th of November the Battle for Cambrai was well under way. The dawn horizon clammered with the sound of artillery shells from both sides being fired in never ending barrages and through the impenetrable mist. At the crack of dawn a flight of six aircraft from 2 Squadron Australian Flying Corps took off from their Warloy aerodrome in their DH5 aircraft to strafe and bomb the German rear and offer tactical air support for the allied soldiers. The mist was so dense, as it had been for the whole of the month, that formation flying was impossible and the six aircraft split up into pairs and went off to find for targets of opportunity.

Of this first flight Captain Bell who had been a pilot with 1 Squadron AFC in the Palestinian theatre , in company with Lieutenant McKenzie attacked a series of German Artillery positions at low altitude. The ground attack work was dangerous, often the DH5's would be less than 30 feet off the ground due to the heavy mist. McKenzie after releasing his bombs on a position strafed another with his Vickers gun until he was low on ammunition, his partner however had received a bullet wound in the chest from ground fire and was forced to land near the front lines. Bell unfortunately was to die of his wounds in a hospital, but his downed aircraft was to play a role in another escapade that occurred later in the day.

Before this first morning flight had returned a second flight was taking off from Warloy to attack German positions under the command of Phillipps and Wilson. In the formation was a well respected pilot by the name of Lieutenant Harry Taylor. Taylor had been a Mechanic before the war having found himself in Australia after being born and living much of his life in Birmingham, England, and joined the A.A.S.C on the outbreak of hostilities. Later he transferred to the Australian Flying Corps and was posted to France with 2 Squadron. On November 20th he was flying as a pair to Captain Wilson, who says of the initial attack;

Close together we dived down and opened our machine guns on the Germans, pulling up to the level of the fog again ( about thirty feet off the ground ), and letting a bomb drop as we rose.

After another zoom , Wilson noted he had lost Taylor and was looking for him when Wilson saw a red rocket fired up into the sky meaning Taylor was in distress. Wilson wrote;

That he was sufficiently alive to fire those rockets was amazing. His machine was just a heap of wreckage. One wing lay 20 yards from the rest of the heap." Wilson also noticed that 50 yards from Taylor were groups of enemy infantry who had been watching Taylor come down, uncertain as to whether he was crashing or going to strafe them. As he crashed they lifted their rifles to fire on Taylor.

Taylor had crouched behind a small mound after crashing and with his automatic starting firing back at the German soldiers. Taylor would run and fire with each strafing run of Wilson's until he was close to a small group of British soldiers who quickly clamoured around him and started firing back at the German soldiers. Wilson saw Taylor pick up the rifle of a fallen soldier and fire alongside the British soldiers at the German infantry who was now surrounding the British position.

Wilson continued to strafe the German infantry in an attempt to get them to disengage the British soldiers and break up their attack , but offering himself as a target eventually had consequences. Wilson writes;

Then there was a crashing sound and I was blinded. Two bullets had pierced the wind screen in front of my eyes and dust from the triplex glass had been flung into my eyes. ....... For a while I flew about anywhere, certain of one thing only, that I was climbing up clear of enemy fire. Gradually the glass dust got washed from my eyes and I was able to see again.

When Wilson returned to the crashed aircraft the surrounding land was in the control of the Germans and neither Taylor or the British soldiering party could be seen. The men that Taylor had found had lost their Officer and Taylor fought with them as they edged their way back to more easily defensible lines and the main body of troops they were attached to. Taylor left the group once they reached safety and began the long trek back to the advanced landing ground when he came across Captain Bell's machine. Taylor with the help of some troops attempted to get the engine started but they were unable to. Taylor walked back to the airbase , reaching it in time for dinner.

The official description of Taylor's escapade for that day read;

attacked parties of the enemy with a German Rifle , joined an advanced British infantry patrol, led it forward, and brought in a wounded man. He found Captain Bell's machine and tried to fly it , but without success. He then rejoined the squadron at the advanced landing ground.

Unfortunately Taylor was to die in an aeroplane accident on the 18th of August 1918 while flying as an instructor with the Training Wing of the Australian Flying Corps in England.

The Corps squadrons on the British front had flights attached to them with Rolls Royce engined Bristol Fighters that were intended to conduct long-range reconnaissance missions of a tactical nature. The flights were to be manned by the pilots and servicemen of the squadrons they were attached to. O Flight RAF was attached to 3 Sqn AFC.

Bristol Fighter E2529 flown by Lieutenant W. Palstra and Lieutenant E.A.D. Hamilton, O Flight RAF. 1918. Profile from photograph in Charles Schaedel's The Men and Machines of the Australian Flying Corps"

The Royal Air Force recognised the need for longer range tactical reconnaissance missions to be flown. These would be best served by the Corps squadrons which were still flying RE8 aircraft as they had in 1917. For long range reconnaissance it was decided to equip five flights with Bristol Fighter aircraft and attach them to existing Corps squadrons. It had been expected the Corps squadrons would receive Sunbeam Arab engined Bristol Fighters to replace their RE8's. However problems with the Sunbeam Arab led to the delay (3 Sqn AFC did receive a couple before the end of the war and flew them in 1919). The long range flights received Rolls Royce engined Bristol Fighters. Harry Wrigley in "The Battle Below" explains how O Flight came into being with 3 Squadron Australian Flying Corps;

It was during this period also that the organisation of a flight of Bristol Fighter aircraft, to be attached to No.3 Squadron for the purpose of carrying out long-distance work, was taken in hand. This was to be a self-contained unit composed of Royal Air Force personnel, with the exception of the pilots and observers, who were to be provided from No.3 Squadron. Captain E.J. Jones was transferred from the command of A Flight to the command of the new flight, the official designation of which was 'O' Flight, Royal Air Force.

The squadron was flying the two Bristols they received on special reconnaissances by October 23rd. Lieutenant Loftes and 2nd Lieutenant Cherry, Harry Wrigley writes of the special mission;

The route followed on this reconnaissance was along the western and northern sides of the Forest of Mormal and back along the River Sambre, and Lieutenant Loftes was instructed to pay particular attention to the important railway junction north of Leval. During the course of their flight, Lieutenant Loftes and Cherry reported several trains in the vicinity of Leval had also reported and called for artillery fire against an enemy balloon on the ground north of Maroilles, and against a six gun battery in a small clearing on the western edge of the Forest of Mormal south east of Jolimetz. In addition they reported that all the bridges over the River Sambre between Landrecies and Leval were intact, that numerous foot bridges had been constructed across that section of river that skirts the south eastern edge of the Forest of Mormal, and that the enemy aerodrome east of Aulnoye had been evacuated.

Another important special mission was carried out on October the 30th when Captain E.J. Jones and Lieutenant C.W.B. Loftes with 2nd Lieutenant A.D. Cherry and Lieutenant J.H.B.Lawson as observers searched for a special observation station in a local forest. Again Harry Wrigley provides the details;

For some time it had been suspected that the enemy had a special observation post somewhere in the Forest of Mormal, and the object of this reconnaissance was to discover it if possible. Captain Jones and Lieutenant Loftes flew in company, carefully searching the forest, and succeeded in locating a girder type tower of timber painted a dark grey and about four times the height of the trees in the forest. It was situated approximately one mile south-east of Locquignol, and was undoubtedly the observation post referred to.

The O Flight aircraft were capable of providing escort for themselves and each other. On one occasion when Lieutenant W. Palstra and Lieutenant E.A.D. Hamilton were taking photographs of the German lines facing west, this required the photographs to be taken with the Bristol deep in German airspace. The aircraft of Captain E.J. Jones flew in tandem with Palstra's providing escort cover. O Flight continued to work in strategic reconnaissance until the end of the war when the Australian Flying Corps aircrew serving with O Flight returned to 3 Squadron.

Richard Williams writes of both Lewis and Vickers armed Bristol Scouts being with No.1 Sqn AFC. He flew a No.14 RFC Bristol Scout at Kantara. (more)

You wouldn't know it to look at him, but Frank Alberry only had one leg. He is also one of two known one-legged aces in World War I. Alberry was born in Hobart and grew up in Port Arthur and as a young man worked his way from Burnie, to Melbourne, to Bendigo, to England and Edinburgh. Eventually he ran out of work and joined the English Regular Army. In 1911 while on leave he got the opportunity to return to Australia on a ship - he reconciled his desertion by telling himself if war broke out he would return.

Three years later that event happened and he turned up at an Australian recruitment station and was given the option of returning to his English unit or joining the Australian Army; he chose the latter and posted to the 1st Division's 8th Battalion. In July 1916 the 8th Battalion were involved in the Somme offensive at Pozieres, Alberry was awarded a Distinguished Conduct Medal in the battle but a bullet shattered his kneecap and his leg was amputated above the knee. (more)

It is a common question, and different nations all have different opinions on their contribution and importance to winning the war. However the war was more like a continental siege on an industrial scale rather than the blitzkrieg and heroics we see in movies. This makes the role of the Royal Navy and French Armies important in the containment and blockading of Germany to the point where it was unable to compete on the battlefield; economically, socially or politically.

Prior to World War I there was a level of globalisation and trade that wasn't seen again until the 1990s. World War I, the depression and consequent protectionist and nationalist policies stopped that globalisation but in 1914 national wealth was highly dependent on the inter-connectedness of trade and communications. Crippling Germany's ability to make war would require cutting them off from the rest of the world's trade, technology and resources. This was the role for the British Royal Navy. Niall Ferguson writes;

Significantly, the first Royal Navy action of the war - on August 5th, the day after Britain's entry - was the severing of all Germany's international telegraph cables, which ran along the ocean floor to France, Spain, North Africa and the United States.

Britain did not lose global blue water supremacy to the United States until World War II, consequently in WWI it was in the ideal geographical location and force structure to conduct a naval blockade of Germany.

The second important component of a continental blockade was sufficient forces to lay siege to Germany and the territory it occupied. This was made easier by industrial warfare which proved advantageous to defence. Technology, weaponry and

tactics had to advance before industrial warfare could be used offensively with any success. Byng and Monash by war's end were coordinating ground, armoured and aerial forces in a very modern manner. Arguably, offensive industrial warfare did not come of age until the German blitzkrieg's of WWII where air-power was used as mobile forward artillery.

The majority of forces on the western front were supplied by the French Army. British forces, including Australian, only operated on a small part of the front in Belgium and northern France whereas French forces held a majority of the line from northern France to the Swiss border.

Source: Wikipedia

Russia and France suffered the greatest number of military deaths, though industrial warfare brought massive casualty rates for every nation involved, but Russia collapsed militarily and socially under the pressure of such dehumanising warfare. France suffered similar problems with whole Division falling into mutiny, but managed to hold it the army and front line together without suffering revolution as Russia did.

Russia's exit from the war did not help Germany much either as Russia fell into revolutionary chaos which limited access to trade and resources, but it would not have mattered. The globalised trading world that existed before the war was shattered by 1917 and would take seventy years to resurrect itself again.

In World War I the high-tech industries of the day were aviation and submarines. These required cutting edge science, engineering, design and materials. Germany still produced amazing designs, but in the area of materials and production it had fallen behind by late 1916. A good example is the deployment of 180hp and 200hp SE5as and Spads to the front with the Hispano Suiza engine. This was the last time that Germany would be able to match the Allies for horsepower in deployed squadrons.

In the last days of the war the United States was spitting out 400hp engines while the best Germany could come up with was the 110hp rotary. Some of the the Fokker DVIIs had the high-performance 185hp BMW engine, but they were in small numbers at war's end. In comparison the British were rolling out the 230hp Sopwith Snipe which was the least powerful of the next-gen 1918 aircraft.

It is probably a fair statement that the blockade affected Germany's ability to deploy high-technology production in numbers by 1916. It would take another two years, and defeat in the Battle of the Marne in early 1918 for Germany to be unable to continue in a state of warfare socially, economically or politically.

Song of the Australian Flying Corps; "We are the boys of the Flying Corps, Australia's land we defend. Our planes fly over land and sea, and the war we'll fight to the end ....." Verses and music and all. (more)

The National Library of Australia has digitised versions of his negatives on their website. Hurley was the official photographer for the Australian Imperial Force in World War I. He was also quite innovative for his time, providing us with the few colour photographs of World War I aircraft, and even photographic composites. (more)