Peace Through Knowledge Of The Enemy

The Great War: The Dawning of Marine Corps Aerial Photographic Reconnaissance During the opening moves of the war on the Western Front, the airplane was seen to have value in understanding the enemy’s intentions. General Sir John French, the commander of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), attributed the role of the fledgling Royal Flying Corps (RFC) in providing timely information that prevented his hard-pressed force from being encircled during the Battle of Mons. Later, during the critical first Battle of the Marne, the French Army used information provided by the Armee de l’Air to outflank the German Army. Stopping the Germans at the Marne saved Paris and set the stage for four years of trench warfare. With the onset of trench warfare on the Western Front, the long-accepted form of gaining intelligence through the use of cavalry was no longer applicable. The use of aerial reconnaissance now became vital to the commander. Aircraft and balloons were now the primary sources to obtain information on the extent of the enemy’s trench networks, troop movements, and associated logistics train. Very little else could establish a comprehensive picture of the battlefield, even though photography from aircraft was in its infancy and plagued with technical problems such as the vibration and bouncing, roll, pitch, yaw, and forward motion compensation of the camera. The Royal Flying Corps has the claim to have taken the first aerial photographs of the war on 15 September 1914. With the war against Germany a certainty, Congress authorized the expansion of U.S. military aviation capability. In August 1916, the United States Navy Flying Corps was established, which included the Marine Corps. On 26 February 1917, First Lieutenant Alfred A. Cunningham was ordered to organize an aviation company. For its part, the U.S. Army had been leveraging the aerial photographic mapping experience, lessons learned, and training of the British and French forces. It was during this time that the United States established the first generation of aerial mapping specialists and topographers, with the US Army’s Signal Corps having the sole responsibility for the role of US aerial photographic reconnaissance and had established three schools for aerial photography. The schools were established at Cornell University, Rochester New York, and at Langley Field, Virginia, the latter of which was founded on 19 October 1917.