The Unarmed and Unafraid book notes that in World War II “Very few of the reconnaissance aircraft flying over Europe were armed.” In the Pacific theater, on the other hand, “the distances were much too great for this and consequently most of the patrolling and reconnaissance aircraft were armed or loaded with bombs.”
It occurs to me that this would be the first step toward things like Predator drones, that do surveillance and fire missiles.
In the third chapter of Unarmed and Unafraid (see post below), regarding aerial reconnaissance in World War I, there’s a passing reference to Manfred von Richthofen, a.k.a. the Red Baron, as one of the fighter pilots that the recon planes had to contend with. This caused a quick mental slide to Snoopy and his Sopwith Camel. I was a huge Peanuts fan as a child and I owned dozens of the paperback Peanuts books. Somehow I picked up on Snoopy’s imaginary scenario here of WWI flying ace. It’s an interesting cultural reference for Charles Schultz to use in the ’60s and ’70s (consider: another Snoopy alter-ego was the hipster Joe Cool).
Anything that causes me to think of Peanuts cartoons makes me happy.
WWII's 16th Photo Tech: A Project. By Theresa Everline. 