ISR Tour: Avro 504

ISR Audio Tour Part 1

When World War I started, all the warring powers had airplanes, but lacked in a complete understanding of their potential. British and French aviators made critical reconnaissance observations that helped save 100,000 British troops from capture at Mons and win the First Battle of the Marne. One of the most difficult tasks was getting ground commanders to believe them. The French aviators took up artillery officers to view German gun positions. They asked to bring their personal cameras and it became standard to use cameras. The military proved reluctant to invest however. After being asked for money to buy cameras, a French officer stated, “use a Kodak that you can purchase from a local shop…don’t ask the government to pay for this.” A French general stated, “I already have a map, I don’t care about your pictures.” Troops on the ground understood that an airplane overhead meant accurate, correctable artillery fire and they learned to hate early reconnaissance aircraft. The first fixed-wing aircraft ever shot down in combat was a British Avro 504 like the one here, lost to German rifle fire over Belgium in August 1914, while doing reconnaissance. The other main sources of intelligence in World War I were: human intelligence (HUMINT), which mainly came from spies, prisoners, repatriated troops and patrol reports; ground observation from infantry and artillery; captured documents; radio intercept and direction finding (SIGINT) and sound ranging (ACOUSTINT)/flash spotting from artillery. Photos validated everything gleaned from the other sources of intelligence.