AS THE GREAT WAR DESCENDED INTO AN ENTRENCHED stalemate of attrition across the Western Front, the ability to gain a birds eye view of the battlefield situation and more specifically, your enemy's strengths and weaknesses became of huge tactical importance. This information was initially obtained by deploying tethered observation balloons, however, whilst these did provide limited information, they were relatively inflexible and required a large number of men and equipment to operate. With the aeroplane already beginning to show its military potential, crews were not restricted by the length of a steel cable and armed initially with a pencil and paper and later with specialist cameras, they were able to provide commanders with an accurate picture of the current situation. It now became of critical importance to deny your enemy the ability to secure this information and stop these reconnaissance flights from taking place.
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