On 6 September 1914, the first air-sea battle took place when a Japanese Farman MF.11 aircraft launched by the
seaplane carrier unsuccessfully attacked
SMS Kaiserin Elisabeth with bombs. The MF.11 served in both the British and French air services on the Western Front in the early stages of the war. It flew the first bombing raid of the war when, on 21 December 1914, an MF.11 of the
Royal Naval Air Service attacked German artillery positions around
Ostend, Belgium. The MF.11 was withdrawn from front-line service on the
Western Front in 1915 but continued to be used by the French in
Macedonia and the Middle East, while the British also used it in the
Dardanelles and Africa. The
Australian Flying Corps (AFC), provided with the MF.11 by the
British Indian Army, operated it during the
Mesopotamian campaign of 1915–16. Following its withdrawal from frontline service, the MF.11 continued to be used by the British in flight schools where it became known as the
Rumpty (or Rumpety). Despite its archaic looks, the MF.11 was regarded as a good aircraft for trainee pilots as its sturdy build meant that bad landings rarely caused damage to the undercarriage. Italy's
Società Italiana Aviazione, a
Fiat company, licence-built a number of MF.11s under the designation
SIA 5 from early 1915, fitted with a fixed forward machine gun and a 74.5 kW (100 hp)
Fiat A.10 engine. In 1916, the AFC also bought some MF.11s for training purposes. ==Operators==