1917 Eagles Fall (11 page)

Our Alice came home for Christmas and she seemed changed.  She looked older but she is happy.  I thought she would hate London but she seems to love her job.  She didn’t say anything but I think she must have met someone down there.  It is typical of the little madam that she hasn’t brought him home for us to meet. She is not as thoughtful as you. But at least she is happy. And our Bert doesn’t write or visit often enough.

Keep your letters coming. We read them over and over.

I remember you and Bert each night in my prayers and I pray that God spares you. Your dad and I are so proud of you Bill I can’t tell you properly.  God speed and we love you.

Mum xxx

I read the letter twice and poured myself a second whisky. I hoped that Lady Burscough could do something for them.  I hated to think of them on the street or even in the workhouse. That would kill my mother for sure. I would make certain that didn’t happen.

I sniffed Beattie’s letter.  She must have used a few drops of her perfume when she had written it.  If I closed my eyes I could imagine her next to me.

January 1917

Dearest Bill,

I am sorry I have not written until now.  You would think that Christmas would be a quiet time but we had huge numbers of wounded officers from the Somme Offensive.  I had to work double shifts.  Luckily the other nurses are back from Christmas leave now and life is a little easier.

It is heartbreaking to see some of the maimed officers who come through our doors. I worry that their lives have almost ended and many are barely 20!

Your ears must have been burning last week.  We had a Colonel McCartney of the 17
th
Liverpool Battalion. He had lost a leg. We were chatting and I mentioned your name and he knew you! What a small world eh Bill? He couldn’t stop singing your praises.  He said if we had more pilots like you and the others then they would have taken fewer casualties.  He asked me to remember him to you.  I am always proud of you but when I heard that it made me realise what a difference you make. Take care of yourself! I want to be Mrs Harsker and I don’t suit black!”

I have only seen your Alice once in the last few weeks but she is very taken with your Captain Sharp. He seems a nice chap and they looked good together. I know your mum worries about her but tell her that Alice has an old head on those young shoulders. She needn’t worry about her.

I will need to finish now, my love.  My eyes are closing. I love you and pray each night that you are safe.  I hope that Lumpy and John are well.  Tell them that I remember them in my prayers too but all my love is reserved for you.

Beattie (now that you have finally started to use it)

xxx

I was still reading it, for the tenth time, when the gong went for dinner. I put the letters in my drawer. I had to stay alive for all of them.

We managed just one patrol before we were given our specific orders for photographs. The squadron headed east.  We had not received our replacements yet. It was not the pilots which were causing the problem but the gunners.  We heard that a request had been sent to the Machine Gun Battalions for volunteers to transfer. We headed towards Cambrai.  Archie had been ordered to fly a patrol along our lines to Arras. It was a relatively safe assignment. We immediately saw more activity behind the British lines.  There were horse drawn vehicles and guns being moved and brown snakes moving into support trenches behind the front lines.

The German aeroplanes were also curious. We were higher than the Gunbuses and we saw eighteen dots in the distance. I waggled my wings to attract the attention of the others.  I pointed up.  We needed height. I knew that eventually the Germans would cotton on to our tactic but it was early days and we might just get away with it.  Once again I thanked the designers who had made such a small aeroplane and yet one which had so much power.

Archie had the squadron in one long line. It gave maximum protection and made the move into our defensive circle much easier. When we were three thousand feet above the Gunbuses I took us into a lazy circle. If the Germans had any sense they would turn back rather than risk a mauling. Of course, if they were the new German fighters then they would relish the opportunity of giving us the mauling. The trouble was the only difference in the shape of the fighters, old and new was the extra Spandau.  By the time you saw the armament your gunner could be dead.

The fact that the Germans came on told me that they were confident and they hadn’t seen us. I watched as Archie led the fifteen aeroplanes into the defensive circle. I saw that Peter Dunston was now the last pilot in Charlie’s flight and his gunner stood on the rear Lewis.  He was the one responsible for closing the stable door. Archie had done all that he could. If the Germans were going to observe our movements they would have to come through us.

When I was certain that they had not seen us I led my three aeroplanes in a steep dive to pass along their line.  These were the old Fokkers with a single machine gun and no observer.  They were faster than the Gunbus but we had their measure.  The trouble was there were just three of us.

The gunners of the squadron sent a wall of lead towards the advancing Germans. The limited effective range of the Lewis meant that little damage was done and the Germans split into two flights to try to attack the rear of the Gunbuses.  It was as they were banking that the three of us hit them.  I waiting until I was just four hundred yards away.  I had perfected the technique of firing five bullets to show me how close I was and then a burst of twenty or thirty bullets once I was certain I could hit them.

The Fokker in my sights jerked his nose up as I fired my longer burst but it just meant that I shredded his tail. It made his Fokker unstable and I watched as he dived from the fight to head east. I saw the foot sloggers as they peppered him with ground fire. I banked to port and took a snap shot as a Fokker came across my guns.  I stitched a line from his engine along to his fuselage and he too began to smoke and headed east.

I felt the thud of bullets strike me and I looked in my mirror.  It worked; I could see a Fokker on my tail. I pulled hard and went into a loop.  The Sopwith had a wonderfully small turning circle and the Fokker could not compete.  As I came around he was still on the way up and his aeroplane was a perfect cross in my sights.  I gave a ten second burst.  I hit the pilot and his fuel tank.  They exploded before my eyes. I flew through the debris and, when I emerged on the other side I saw I was in clear skies.

I checked my mirror. There was no one behind me. I banked to port and saw that the Germans were heading east.  There were still a couple of dogfights ahead of me.  Freddie and Johnny were fighting three Fokkers.  I began to climb. I fired at a thousand yards.  Far too long for a Lewis but the Vickers sent a trail of bullets towards the rearmost Fokker. I hit his fuselage.  There was little damage but it must have worried him for the pilot banked the Fokker to starboard. I fired again as I followed him around. I was aware of Johnny and Freddie both looping at the same time. I could concentrate on the last German. My bullets struck him and I saw the Fokker judder.  He banked to port to head east. I followed his line.  I was catching him.  I fired another burst and hit his tail. He began to descend. I was aware of ground fire.  He had tried to lure me over the German lines. I banked to port and, as I did so, pulled the pin on one of Hutton’s Mills Bombs and hurled it over the side.

As I climbed I saw, in my new mirror, the grenade explode some fifty feet in the air.  It would shower the German gunners with shrapnel.  “That one was for you, Lumpy.”

I saw the two Fokkers which had been attacking Freddie and Johnny.  They were spiralling to earth. I checked my fuel.  I was getting low.  I turned to port and headed west. We had survived another day.

As I came in to the field I counted only fourteen aeroplanes.  Someone had not made it back. I saw in my mirror the two Pups following me and I breathed a sigh of relief.

The mechanics raced to my bus as soon as I stopped.  They went to the rudder. As I climbed out I noticed the holes from the Fokker which had caught me napping.  I chastised myself.  I needed to get used to looking in my mirror. “I think you lads are going to have to do a lot of repairs over the next month or so.”

“At least if we are repairing them, sir, it means you have returned.”

“Who didn’t make it?”

“Lieutenant Dunston.”

He had been one of my flight and was one of the more experienced pilots in the squadron. I wondered if this was a taste of things to come.

When I reached the office the others were all there. “Good show today, Bill.  Your three little Pups made all the difference.”

I was more cautious.  “These weren’t the new German buses.  These only had one Spandau.  Wait until we meet the new boys!”

Randolph held up the map. “Here are the areas we need to photograph.  It is a place called Vimy Ridge. We will be working alongside a couple of other squadrons.  They want complete aerial photographs, a picture of everything from here,“ he pointed to the map, “Vimy, to here, Fleuchy.  When we have those we will have to photograph further east. And we have to fly low to get as much detail as we can.  You will have to endure ground fire.”

“That means that they will be ready for us.  They will have time to observe our strategies.”

“I know, Gordy, but we have our orders.”

“And think about the poor sods who will need to attack across the mud.”

Archie held up his hand.  “There is no point in debating this, we have our orders.  What is the time scale?”

“We need everything photographed by the middle of March.”

That gave us less than two weeks. Archie looked at me. “We are getting no replacements.  It is up to your guardian angels to watch our backs.”

“You might try Lumpy’s old trick of a couple of Mills Bombs too.  It makes the Hun a little more nervous if he thinks you are going to drop a grenade or two. And I used the new mirrors we had fitted the other day.  They work a treat.  So long as you remember to look at them. You might need it if your gunner is photographing.”

“Good idea.  I hate having a stiff neck.”

Ironically the death of Peter and his gunner did not induce a sombre feel to dinner, rather the squadron focussed on the success of the Pups.  They had all had a front row seat to the show. After dinner Gordy got up and began to tell the young pilots of the time I had been a gunner and a pilot had tried a loop. It raised a chuckle and then Charlie said, “And of course the best thing was Captain Harsker had his own song.” Emboldened by his earlier success he began to sing.  Gordy and Ted stood on either side and harmonised with him.

“He'd fly through the air with the greatest of ease,

That daring young man on the flying trapeze.

His movements were graceful, all girls he could please

And my love he purloined away.

Once I was happy, but now I'm forlorn

Like an old coat that is tattered and torn;

Left on this world to fret and to mourn,

Betrayed by a maid in her teens.

The girl that I loved she was handsome;

I tried all I knew her to please

But I could not please her one quarter so well

As the man upon the trapeze.

He'd fly through the air with the greatest of ease,

That daring young man on the flying trapeze.

His movements were graceful, all girls he could please

And my love he purloined away.

This young man by name was Signor Bona Slang,

Tall, big and handsome, as well made as Chang.

Where ‘er he appeared the hall loudly rang

With ovation from all people there.

He'd smile from the bar on the people below

And one night he smiled on my love.

She winked back at him and she shouted "Bravo,"

As he hung by his nose up above.

Her father and mother were both on my side

And very hard tried to make her my bride;

Her father he sighed, and her mother she cried,

To see her throw herself away.

One night I as usual went to her dear home,

Found there her father and mother alone.

I asked for my love, and soon they made known,

To my horror that she'd run away.

She'd fly through the air with the greatest of ease,

You'd think her the man young man on the flying trapeze.

Her movements were graceful, all girls she could please,

And that was the end of my love.

The young pilots though it was hilarious and soon the whole of the squadron was singing it. Archie leaned over, “They don’t mean any harm you know Bill. It is just a bit of banter.”

“I know and I am quite happy about it.  I just can’t get over the change in shy, Charlie Sharp.  He is like a different person.”

“That must be down to your sister.  His flight can’t sing his praises high enough.  A lot of that is down to you.  He models himself on you. I think it is good for the squadron.”

“It is good for me too.” They all finished singing and were congratulating themselves.  I stood and bowed.  They applauded as though I had sung.  That was a happy night.  There were not many more of them in the next month.

HGH

, “I want to try a different formatrion