At the beginnings of aerial combat during World War One, and before armaments such as the fixed machine gun were introduced, what was the purpose of weapons used by pilots such as the flechette?
Answer: These were pencil-sized, needle-sharp, steel darts that were released from planes on the troops below. Dropped from an altitude of 1,500 feet, a flechette could go completely through the body of a horse.
Source: Knights of the Air by Ezra Bowen