he Somme bombing was carried
out by formations of Wings. In October, 1917, 113 tons, and for a period
of six days in March, 1918, 95 tons, of explosives were dropped. This
illustrates the enormous progress of bombing which was so largely
resorted to in the later stages of the war. The hand grenades of 1914
had become bombs weighing three-quarters of a ton: the pilot's pocket a
mechanically released rack: and aim, assisted by instruments, was
becoming fairly accurate.

Night bombing, necessitated by the fact that by day a large machine
heavily laden with bombs was an easy prey to the fighting scout, came
into prominence in 1916, increasing in intensity up to the end of the
war; and raids into Germany recommenced. Early in 1918 these raids
included the bombing of Maintz, Stuttgart, Coblentz, Cologne, and Metz.
Machines sometimes dropped their bombs from heights of about 12,000 feet
and at other times descended to within 200 feet of their objectives.

_Contact Patrol._

Contact patrol, the name given to the direct co-operation of aircraft
with troops on the ground, was first extensively practised at the Battle
of the Somme, though experiments in this direction had been made in
1915, messages being dropped at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle at
pre-arranged points.

The main objects of contact patrols were to assist the telephone (which
was frequently cut by shellfire), to keep the various headquarters
informed of the progress of their troops during the attack, so also
saving them from the possibility of coming under the fire of their own
artillery, to report on enemy positions, to transmit messages from the
troops engaged to the headquarters of their units, to attack ground
formations, and to co-operate with tanks. A system of red flares on the
floor of the trenches was used to mark the disposition of the troops,
and aircraft communicated their information by means of signalling
lamps, wireless and message-bags.

During the German retreat of 1917 contact patrols attacked enemy
foundations from 100 feet and in some cases landed behind the enemy
lines to obtain information. The skill of low-flying pilots in taking
cover by flying behind woods, houses, etc., became increasingly
important. The fact that 62,673 rounds of ammunition were fired from the
air against enemy ground targets between November 20th and 26th, 1917,
and 163,567 between March 13th and 18th, 1918, indicates the rapid
development of this form of aircraft