Western Front, 1914–1918
In 1914, planes were fragile toys—wooden frames, canvas wings, and engines that coughed more than roared.
They were used only for reconnaissance.
Pilots waved to one another across the sky.
But war evolves.
By 1915, the wave became a bullet.
By 1916, the sky was a killing field.
Fokker Eindecker—the first plane with a synchronized machine gun—changed everything.
The "Fokker Scourge" terrorized Allied pilots.
Germany's Oswald Boelcke wrote the rules of air combat.
His protégé, Manfred von Richthofen—the Red Baron—rewrote the legend.
With 80 confirmed kills, he became death incarnate in crimson paint.
To his enemies, a nightmare.
To his comrades, a gentleman.
He refused to shoot wounded pilots.
He sent letters of condolence to the families of the men he killed.
On April 21, 1918, he was shot down over the Somme.
British soldiers buried him with full military honors.
Meanwhile, the Allies answered.
Albert Ball, René Fonck, Eddie Rickenbacker—new aces rose to meet the storm.
In the back lines, the Zeppelin raids on London and Paris brought war to civilians.
The sky no longer protected. It threatened.
By 1918, fleets of bombers darkened the horizon.
What began as scouts had become harbingers of total war.
A British pilot wrote in his diary:
"The sky is no longer blue. It is steel, flame, and fate."