Pre-Project Idea
-I heard of this class through my Prof. J. Hupy, who is the one who taught this class, and he explained briefly what we might do. I was very interested in the class, so while I was signing up for classes, for the next semester, I made sure I signed up for his class. In the beginning of the Fall 2013 Semester, this class went to France to visit the Western Front of World War I. The two main place were studied and surveyed was the Battlefield of the Somme and the Battlefield of Verdun. Our class was able to take in how large of a scale this war was and the experience was amazing. I appreciated everything we were able to do while we were over there and would love to visit again some day. After we arrived back from France it was time to get back into school and start on our goal for the class.
Introduction
-For this class we were given instructions to pick a topic
of World War I and do a project or a series of projects on that subject. We
could pick whatever interested us and if we want to only focus on one subject
we could and really get in the details or we could have a board topic, so we
could cover many things. My interests of
World War I were in the navies and air forces because I myself did not know
much of either of them. I knew more about the air forces of World War I and
wanted to learn more about both subjects. There was just not enough time in the
semester to do both topics, so I had to choose. I decided to do my research on the
World War I air forces of the major players in the war. The main reason why I
choose to research the air forces is because I am in the Wisconsin Air National
Guard and thought that it tied to my profession as a guardsman. So being a part
of the U.S. Air force, I had a deep interest in how aviation evolved since the
Wright brothers’ first flight and how aviation changed the world forever after
its introduction into warfare.
Brief History
-You can say military aviation started long before the
invitation of the airplane. On November 21, 1783 in the Bois de Boulogne in
Paris the brothers launched a 70-foot high balloon carrying Jean Francois
Piltre de Rozier and the Marquis d’Artandes. After the invitation lighter-than-air
machines were created, hot air and helium filled balloons, nations around the
world used balloons form military observation. One of the most famous was Count Ferdinand von
Zeppelin, whom was famous for making the Zeppelin blimps of World War I for
Germany. Then came along the Wright Brothers
whom were able to achieve the first sustained flight with a heavier-than-air
machine, also called an airplane. Although a great invitation, the Wright
Brothers struggled for years to find a buyer for their newly found patent. As
years went on, other inventors were able to build and build better aircraft
than the Wright Brothers. Some nations did not find aircraft would have any
military potential or just waited for aircraft to evolve enough, so they could
have a military purpose. Eventually as the aircraft evolved, nations saw what
the aircraft could do and exploited its potential for a military purpose. This
would change the world forever.
Research
-With the topic of World War I air forces, I could do a
number of things for my project. I decided to do a series of small projects for
my “final class project”, instead of only focusing on one side of the war or one
nation. For my research I used books
from my campus library as well as many online sources. The books in the library
I noticed only focused mainly on one side of the war or only on one nation, so this
made me realize that I would have to pull most of my information from the
Internet. The books though helped in narrowing down and finding topics for my
small projects. On doing research on the Internet for my topics, all I did was
focus on a topic that interested myself and narrowed down from the books. As I
started to research I ended up getting more and more interested in the topics I
was doing, but realized that I was sometimes straying away from the topic or
getting too bogged down in one topic. I was able to research on a number of
different nation’s air forces and how they were born. I focused on the major
powers of World War I who had any air power. I did run into a few problems well
researching, for example, I did not find much information on the Russian air
force and was not able to make a tour for it. I found out that they had an air
force, but it was small and after the Bolsheviks Revolution the Russian air
force was dismantled. My goal for my project was to give people an over view of
the topics I researched and try to interest people in World War I because the
hundred year anniversary of the start of World War I is coming in the spring of
2014. I also gave people links to my sources in case they wanted to educate
themselves more on the topic. For my projects I used tourbuilder with google to make
small tours for my topics. Tourbuilder is an easy program to use and anyone can
use it. Here are my topics and you can click on them to get a tour of that
topic:
o
This is a tour of some of the first German
airship raids of World War 1 on the Western Front. The Germans were able to
produce Zeppelin airships that could travel for hundreds of miles and attack
way behind enemy lines. The main German airships were the Zeppelins and were
the biggest airships of World War. The Germans were able to do a series of
raids on the British mainland and kind of foreshadowed of what would come in
World War II. This is not all of the airship raids or bombings of World War 1,
but it is some of the most important ones of the World War I for the Germans. 
o
Manfred von Richthofen, aka "The Red
Baron", was a pilot in World War I that had 80 confirmed kills, before
he too was shot down. Richthofen was born into a military family and from a
young age was put into a military academy. In the start of the war, Richthofen
was a cavalry officer, but realized that the real glory for him would take to
the skies of Europe. This tour will show you where he was, what he did, and
what he accomplished.
o
For more information on the Battle of Somme go
to Ellen’s and Blake’s project. Blake focused on the Battle of Somme as a whole
and Ellen focused on the mining and mine explosions of World War I.
o
As America entered World War I, they were vastly
behind in aviation and an air service. William "Billy" Mitchell
was ready to turn America into one of the aviation elites. Mitchell was a
capable, but controversial officer in the military and was a firm believer in
that aircraft would change warfare forever. At the Battle of St.
Mihiel he would show the world that the aircraft indeed would be the weapon
of the future. Billy Mitchell is also considered the father of the U.S. air
force, so this made me want to do some more research on him and the beginning
of U.S. air force.
o
For more information about the Battle of Verdun,
go to and read Tanner’s and Lee’s projects. They both focused of the Battle of
Verdun in two different aspects.
o
At the beginning of the Great War, the British
only had 113 aircraft in military service, but by the end of the war the
British had over 22,000 in their inventory (http://www.airwar1.org.uk/,
2004). The British by the end of the war had and could boast of having the
world’s largest air force at the time. Aviation in Great Britain started was
mainly formed by aviation clubs. As they were drawn into World War one they
soon realized their air force was severely lacking and need to be built up. As
the numbers show they were able to build up and the Royal Flying Corps was
deployed all over the world during the First World War, to include the Middle
East.
o
This is a brief history on the Imperial German
Flying Corps or Air Service in 1918. The Germans were able to produce some of
the best aircraft of the War. After the Treaty of Versailles, German was not permitted
to have any military aircraft if that tells you anything of the greatness of
their air force.
o
Before World War I started, the French were
leading in aircraft design and production. The French air force was founded in
1909 and is the oldest air force in the world. While producing fine aircraft,
the French also had some of the most successful Allied pilots. The most notable
of the French pilots is ace René Fonck. He recorded 75 confirmed kills making
him the best allied ace, but also the most successful fighter pilot to survive
the war.
Goal
-My goal for this project was not only to educate myself on the aviation of World War I, but also to educate and interest others on World War I as a whole. I was able to learn a ton of information about World War I through this class and I feel that I would not have been able to do so if I did not take this class. With the anniversary of the start of World War I coming up, I hope that people will look for information about this war and see what we have done as a class. Our goal as a class was to pick out what interested us about World War I, educate ourselves on it, and make projects on the topic we choose to educate others. 
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