Cross & Cockade International Autumn 2009 40.185

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CAVALRY CONTACT PATROLS 1915-1918

by Michael Meech

Introduction

During the First World War it was found necessary for the Royal Flying Corps to introduce the ‘Contact Patrol’ as one of the methods of locating the position

of British troops during an advance in the ‘trench type’ warfare that was engaged in during most of that conflict. However, it must also be considered that the attacks that were made on the German trenches on the Western Front had an aim of breaking into those defences and then to achieve a ‘Breakthrough’. This in turn would then achieve a return to ‘open warfare’ in which the only exploitive military arm would be the Cavalry. This in turn meant that the RFC had to consider how they could support the Cavalry Corps during this phase of the war. One of the roles that had to be considered was the Cavalry Contact Patrol which is what will be discussed in this paper, although it is closely connected with other ‘Corps’ squadron tasks and there is some overlap with them.

The Situation In 1915It should remembered that the war started in a mobile and open warfare style and by mid 1915 there was already a document in existence Notes on the Co-operation of Aircraft and Other Arms when the Army is on the move. (TNA. AIR 1/2251/209/54/6). This, as it implies, was more than cavalry support and was at a time when aircraft were in very short supply and relatively primitive, even by World War One standards. However, some of the instructions contained in this document are built on in later cavalry support specific

papers. This included an RFC Detachment on the ground attached to the unit involved, the officer being responsible for choosing and marking forward landing grounds. It was illustrated in the document as in Fig.1 (below).

The document also laid down the markings for ‘Report Centres’, which again returns in similar and later specialised forms in later documents. Fig.2 (overleaf) shows the markings used in 1915.

On these ‘Report Centres’ the aircraft observer would drop his message bag with two ‘Black, Yellow, Red’ streamers, about a metre long, attached. This is a form of communication that lasted throughout the war. Wireless and electric signalling lamps were also used from the aircraft, mainly at that time for artillery co-operation, for sending messages.