Event Details

Dr Tony Cowan will look at German attempts to achieve combined arms capabilities in the First World War. This lecture will be hosted in-person at Lancaster University and live-streamed via Crowdcast, and is co-hosted with the RAF Museum.

CWD-RAFM Lecture, Dr Tony Cowan, 'A Precondition of Success: the German air force and combined arms battle, 1916-1917'

Thursday 16 November 2023, 17.30-19.00, Lancaster University campus, Bowland North Seminar Room 10

This lecture is co-hosted with the RAF Museum. It will be hosted in-person at Lancaster University and live-streamed via Crowdcast..

Attendance in-person at Lancaster is free and no registration is required. To attend virtually, register via Crowdcast.

By 1917, the key to tactical success on the Western Front was combined arms battle, particularly co-operation between the indispensable trio infantry, artillery and aviation. On both sides, the air forces played a crucial role in the provision of intelligence through air reconnaissance and photography; increasing the effectiveness of artillery by directing fire, especially in counter battery work; and informing commanders of the progress of the battle. Also, ground attack and bombing contributed to the greatly increasing depth of the battlefield in 1916-1917.

Both sides recognised that control of the airspace over the battlefield had become a basic precondition of success on it. However, the initial phase of the battle of the Somme showed that the Germans had fallen far behind the British and French in coordinating their air forces with their infantry and artillery.

This paper looks at German efforts in late 1916 and early 1917 to redress the balance. Improvements included doctrine, training and organisation as well as the introduction of new technology. In the longer term, these improvements enabled the German air force to remain an effective opponent of its enemy right till the end of the war, in stark contrast to the Luftwaffe in the Second World War. In the short term, they contributed to what the British knew as ‘Bloody April’. However, the German air force’s success in the initial phases of the battle of Arras and the Nivelle offensive turned to relative failure the next month, and the paper explains the complex factors behind this sudden change.

Dr Tony Cowan was awarded his PhD by King’s College London. His book Holding Out: The German Army and Operational Command in 1917 was published by Cambridge University Press in spring. He has lectured and written about German higher-level command in the First World War, regional identities in the German army, the development of German defensive tactics and the state of the army at the end of 1916. He edited a translation of the German official monograph on the battle of Amiens and he was one of the historians on the British army’s major staff rides in 2016 and 2018 studying the lessons of the First World War.

Accessibility

This seminar is located on the ground floor of Bowland North building. Full information on accessibility for Bowland North can be found on the AccessAble website.