[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Aircraft that could operate from, or over, water were just one aspect of naval commitment to extend the scope of aviation technology in World War I. (1) In the Adriatic, relatively tranquil and richly endowed with sheltered bays, single-engined flying boats, Lohners and Macchis, skirmished throughout the forty-one months of the Austro-Italian conflict: Linienschiffsleutnant Gottfried Banfleld was ennobled for his various exploits as a Lohner pilot. In the North Sea, Oberleutnant zur See Friedrich Christiansen of the German Kriegsmarine was credited with shooting down eight British flying boats and two floatplanes * while piloting a Hansa-Brandenburg floatplane. Later he was second only to Hermann Gering as the World War I ace who enjoyed the greatest prominence in the Nazi era. German floatplanes also carried out successful torpedo attacks on British merchant shipping, off Southwold and Harwich, in May and June 1917. British flying boats and floatplanes were responsible for much the greater part of air patrolling over the North Sea in the war against German submarines. In 1917, of 168 sightings by British aircraft of German submarines, twenty-eight were by naval airships, sixty-eight by flying boats, sixty-six by floatplanes, and only six by landplanes. (2)
