Having just completed a major re-read of several of my pilot bios - Sagittarius Rising, No Parachute, High Adventure and Wings Of War; one thing that has stuck me as odd are the various heights that patrols are flown at, especially during the last two years of the war.

By then the advantage of height (a crucial factor to survival and success) is well established. Yet what is evident from reading the above bio's is how often Flights/Squadron's/Jasta's cross the Lines at heights below 10,000ft. And not always because of cloud/weather limitations.

Why would they do so? I should note that I'm referring to offensive patrols, not escort or ground attack.
Who is responsible for setting the operational height that the patrol was to fly at? The man leading the flight? Squadron commander? Wing HQ?

To answer your question I think it is combination of how the air war was conducted (tactics) and the limitations of the old MK. 1 Eyeball.
Except for the high flying German photo recon planes, with their excellent cameras (kind of forced upon them though by the strength of the Allied defense) I think it safe to say the bulk of air war was fought at 8,000' of less. ArtObs, bombing, and normal photo recon. The Germans would have loved to gad about the Allied rear at 10,000' taking pictures but that was suicide in 1917 and 1918 so they developed the high flying two-seaters (Rumplers) and good cameras for high altitude.
And for both sides, especially the RFC/RAF during the last year, ground support operations seemed to have been flown by the fighter squadrons almost as much as high altitude patrols. Even if assigned to a offensive patrol you go to where you are going to find the enemy and that is where the action is...8,000' or less. Plus the other part of the mission is to protect your planes and where are they? You guessed it.
Sure you can patrol at 18,000' but with clouds, haze, murk, and the bulk of the action taking place 10,000' or more lower then you your combat effectiveness was compromised if you can't find the enemy!
I have read the same books, and others, and that makes the most sense to me.
Oh...and patrol and mission orders usually came down from Wing who, presumably with the big picture, knew where to put their planes to best effect and apparently that was not always at maximum altitude.

Another critical factor is hypoxic hypoxia or altitude hypoxia. Above 10,000 feet altitude, the amount of oxygen in the blood decreases rapidly. Between 15,000 and 20,000 feet altitude normal human function is significantly disrupted. The effects are cumulative. As altitude increases the effects worsen rapidly.

Symptoms of hypoxia change from individual to individual. As the level of hypoxia increases, the typical symptoms include: Breathlessness, tiredness, fatigue, boredom, euphoria, impairment of performing recently learned tasks and impairment of mental tasks.

Not at all hard to see why going above 10K-12K in open cockpit, unheated planes with a need for clear, sharp instantaneous thinking isn't a good plan.


Rick W

And, as a further example of WOFF coolness, the Campaign Engine simulates this lower altitude for mission-effect based reasons nicely when you have "Historical Altitude" checked in the Workshop.

EDIT: Attempt at clarity of statement.

That IS very cool!

8-10,000 ft is sort of the Goldilocks Altitude. Not too high, not too low.
Higher starts to hurt engine performance, turning radius, rate of climb, loss of visual acuity from hypoxia, shortens patrol time, etc.
Lower increases drag, burns more fuel, lacks potential energy and room for dives, opens you up to more accurate AA, etc.

Duke, you said "...simulates this." What is "this"? Hypoxia?

Nope. That the lower altitudes of the patrols was due to the "mission facts of life." That is the bulk of the air war business was being done lower then maximum ceiling.
Sorry if I was confusing.

Okay, thanks for the clarification. Although simulation of hypoxia would be pretty cool, IMO. Maybe that could be a function of the "non-WW1 sim" that OBD is working on? Presuming the planes in whatever genre/theatre they've chosen used oxygen, any oxygen system damage/failure leads to nighty-night, depicted by something like the screen slowly turning black to simulate unconsciousness, unless/until you get to lower altitudes. A2A simulates hypoxia in some of their airplanes.

AH! I too thought you meant that hypoxia was simulated... You know, that would probably not be all that difficult to simulate...

Rick

+1

Yea sorry about that. I do 99% of the forum stuff on my smart phone. I am afraid sometimes the little screen makes it smarter then me. I can only see about 3 lines at a time.

An noted exception to the probably accurate generalisations about what height and why were the Pup squadrons like No. 46, who, in order to be able to use their outclassed machines in any way successfully against the Albatros D.III flew at 17000 or above if conditions permitted. This seemed a definite objective on DOPs especially, having the added advantage of being able to glide home with a dud engine if not too far over.

Indeed it was and I am glad you mention that. They did routinely fly way high on their OP's especially it seems when over the front or slightly back.
It is often mentioned in the book (No Parachute) that the Alb's were "much better" and "out classed" the Pups at 15,000' or less and 8,000' was "suicide." so they liked it high - but I will note that they seemed to have very few contacts when they were way up there - very few. I read once that another reason they flew that high over the front was to try and catch German two-seaters sneaking over for a quick recon leaving down low for others. How true that is I will leave to others but it makes a kind of sense I suppose.

I think 'No Parachute' and 'Open Cockpit' cite instances of descending on two-sealers, under the leadership of the aggressive MacLaren, perhaps. McCudden certainly used those tactics in stalking his favourite prey... that man must have had Nepalese genes somehow.

Yes you are correct upon them having to decend on the few interceptions - or attempt at.
And I don't have my books in front of me but: Are you referring to the Canadian MacLaren (sp) 46's high scoring ace?
I thought his rise to fame came after Lee had left the squadron?
That's the problem with reading this stuff for 40 years - hard to keep track of where you heard what!

Indeed it is! I had a notion that M was a flight commander whilst Lee was still in No. 46, but then I recall I reread 'Winged Victory' a couple of weeks ago and may be confusing my 'Macs'.

Ho hum. Any of my confusion stills centres about No. 46, at least.

I think you are thinking of a 46 flight commander named McDonald (or MacDonald?) or "Mac" as he was called in the book.
He was shot down and killed in the first few days of September 1917 shortly after the squadrons return to France and during the Ypres battles.

It took a loooong time to get to +17000ft.... until better engines came along late 17/18.
Most scouts could only fly say 2hrs when compaired to 4+hrs for 2-seaters. Early in the war the engines just didn't have enough power/lift for the smaller wings of a scout. And from reading, it would seem that certain plane types were picked for certain heights...i.e Spads up top, then Se's and down below Camels. If you have an Alb and you know its crap at +17000 then your not realy going to go that high if you dont have to.

Perhaps they flew at the altitudes that best fit the aircraft performance when possible.

Yes indeed.
When the British began to do their combined DOP's (summer(?) 1917) they would try to, at least accomodate, aircraft performance. With 46 Squadrons combined DOP's it would be DH5's low, Brisfits at medium altitude, and the Pups up high.
Lee, where I am getting this information from, stated these were a "waste of time" as, for whatever German or force deployment reasons, they never had contact except a minor one once IIRC and the "top cover" never engaged.
At other times I see mentioned that the Camels were shunted to ground attack mission missions as "they were better down low" while the Se's tried to keep the Germans off them from higher up - probably 10,000 or less though I have not seen a number.
I will stick with the bulk of the air war, and the action, taking place at 10,000' or less IMHO.