1917 Eagles Fall (18 page)

Gordy and Ted looked at each other. Ted poured me another drink as Gordy said, “We’ll help out if we can.”

“Have we even got a squadron Randolph?  My bus is damaged.  We have no Gunbuses.  Ted here is wounded.”

“I can still fly, Bill.  Remember you did and this is just a scratch.”

“And you can fly Archie’s Bristol.  He still has his gunner.”

I listened to Ted and Gordy. I knew they were trying to jolly me along but it wasn’t working. Randolph handed me a manila file. “And this is your bedtime reading Bill.  These are the service and training records of the six crews who are ready to begin flying their Bristols when they arrive tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow? I thought it would be the end of the week.”

“General Trenchard lit a fire under them.  He thought he was doing us a favour.”

“Some favour.”

Ted said quietly, “Charlie thought so.  He couldn’t wait to fly a Bristol.”

And he was right. Randolph gave it to me straight, “If Charlie was here Bill you know he would be right behind you and encouraging you to lead the new boys.  He would be suggesting how to train them and volunteering to help.”

“I know! And he is not here!”

Gordy raised his glass and looked at the ceiling, “Then let us imagine he is here in spirit.  Here’s to you, Charlie, you were one of the best.”

“Charlie.”

That was the point at which I nearly broke but if I had then I would have been letting down my gunner. I needed to be a good squadron leader, if only for Charlie.

“And the other thing is, well, the letters to the families of the dead crews.”

My heart sank.  Ted came to my rescue. “That’s not fair, Randolph.  We will divide them up. Otherwise our new leader will be in no condition tomorrow to lead us up into the wild blue yonder.”

And so we drank, smoked and wrote the ten letters which almost broke my heart. It was Airman Bates who stopped us.  He knocked on the door. “Gentlemen, the mess is waiting for dinner.  There may not be many of them left but those young men are hurting just as much as you are. Whatever you are doing may I suggest that you leave it until tomorrow?”

He might have been the lowest ranked soldier in the room but we all obeyed. We trudged before him to the mess. There were just three pilots there and then the new boys.  All of them looked as though they had suffered.  They had a drawn look about them and Freddie and Johnny looked to be on the verge of tears. I stood at Archie’s seat.  “Gentlemen sit.” As they did so I said, “I apologise for the delay.  Major Leach will be away for a while and I will be in temporary command.  As you can imagine there is much to do and I hope that you will all help me.” I was gratified to see nods.

“We will fly as one flight in the morning.  I shall fly the Major’s bus.  You young pilots need to familiarise yourselves with your new fighters; they will be arriving tomorrow.  We fly as a squadron the day after.”

Again, there were more nods. I waved over the mess orderlies. “You can serve the food but first make sure everyone has a drink.”

Every glass was charged.

“Gentlemen, be upstanding.” They all stood. “The King, the Squadron and absent friends; may we never forget them!” It was an emotional toast and a silence descended as soon as we had all emptied our glasses. I nodded and sat.

I said little during the meal and I barely tasted the food.  I had so much running through my mind.  I had the emotion of the deaths of so many men I had flown with and that seemed to run into the mundane as I tried to work out how to reorganise the flights. By the time the meal was over I felt a wreck and yet I knew I still had some letters to finish and that I had to commit my thoughts on the flights to paper.

Gordy and Ted had drunk a great deal.  Harry, Johnny and Freddie saw them to bed. I went to the office and lit my pipe.  Randolph appeared.  “You should be in bed, Bill, you will be flying tomorrow.”

“I will do no one any good if this is on my mind.  I will get them finished.”

“I’ll give you a hand then.” With two of us working we managed to finish the letters in an hour.

As we sealed the last envelope Randolph rose. I took a clean sheet of paper. “What now?”

“The new flights and flight commanders; they need to be done too.”

He took off his tunic again and sat down. “Right, what are your thoughts?”

“Freddie and Harry seem to me the best two to be Flight Commanders.  I can still fly the Pup once it is repaired and Harry seems competent enough in the Bristol. We’ll make Ted the second in command in the air.”

“Not Gordy?  I thought he was your best friend?”

“And he is but I want the best second in command.  That is Ted.  He knows the Bristol and he has changed in the last year.”

“I agree.  I was just surprised.”

“And they will all have an equal number of new pilots.  That is also fair.  But I want to spend an hour a day, at least, working with the new pilots. Use your influence at HQ to cut us some slack.”

“I am not sure that there is any slack to be cut but I will try.”

The door opened, without a knock, and Bates stood there like a house mother in a public school.  He pointed to the officers’ quarters.  “Bed now! Both of you!”

We were both so taken aback that we laughed and then followed his orders, marching off to bed. He said nothing more until I was in bed and he closed the door saying, “I promised your mother I would take care of you.  But you don’t make it easy! Good night, sir.”

My sleep was troubled with bad dreams and seemed to be far too short. I wolfed my breakfast down and raced out to the Bristol. After the Pup it seemed enormous. Airman David Speight was already there checking over the guns and the rigging. “Morning sir.  I wasn’t certain if we would be flying this morning but I thought I would be ready anyway.”

“Good man.  Yes, until my bus is repaired I shall be flying Major Leach’s.  I’ll try not to bend it!”

He laughed, “I don’t think there will be any danger of that sir.”

He seemed to have more faith in me than I did. The rest of the depleted squadron soon joined me.  Randolph came out with the orders and the maps. “We are to stop the Hun photographing the ground we recently took.  I think the brass is worried that the Hun are preparing a counterattack.”

“Thanks.” That was not so bad.  We would be over our own lines and the Hun would have to endure ground fire too. “Right gentlemen, we’ll have the Pups above us.” It seemed ridiculous to have to issue orders. There were just four of us.  Until the doctor gave Gordy and Ted the all clear I would not risk them in the air.  Their accusing looks told me that they were not happy to be grounded.

The Bristol was faster than I thought but the Pup did not need as much airfield in which to take off.  Unlike the Gunbus I needed no speaking tube as Speight was right behind me. “Are the Pups in position, Speight?” I also noticed that there was no mirror on this fighter.  I had to rely on my rear gunner.

“Yes sir.  Just above and behind.”

“And Mr Dodds?”

“On station sir.  You needn’t worry about him sir.  He sticks to the bus in front like glue.”

As we headed north I noticed another squadron coming from the west.  There was a brief moment of alarm until I recognised them as Gunbuses. We had company.  I hoped they would not run into the same squadron we had.

The Bristol’s powerful engine had twice the horsepower of the Pup.  The configuration of the wings was, however similar, and the gun was in exactly the same place.  I soon felt at home in the roomier cockpit. I gradually took us higher.  I knew that Carrick and Holt would match my moves. I wanted to be as high as I could get. With just four buses we could not afford to get jumped. I realised that we did not have the constraint of the Gunbuses to tie us to the earth.  A sad result of the previous day’s losses was that the remaining aeroplanes had more freedom.

As we headed closer to the area around Vimy Ridge we saw lines of reinforcements heading east. The foot sloggers had made remarkable gains in the first two days but now the offensive looked to have stalled somewhat.

We heard the sound of German artillery and it alerted us to the fact that they must have had aeroplanes spotting.  I led us east over No-Man’s Land and towards the German lines. There appeared to be four or five of the slow moving two seaters, above them were six fighters.  As we approached they began to descend to meet us. Once again we were outnumbered.  Freddie and Johnny would be on their own.

“Right David.  Things will get hot in a moment.  There are six fighters.  We will have to get rid of them before we can attack the spotters.”

“Righto sir.” I heard him cock the Lewis.

The Huns came at us in two lines of three.  One flight would take out the Pups while the others came after us.  I wondered if they thought we would fly them defensively.  If so they were in for a shock. There would be no sneaky tactics this time.  We would just get in amongst them and cause havoc! They would learn that this fighter had a sting in the tail!

The Bristol was fast but was also a bigger target than the Pup. We were heading towards each other at a combined speed of two hundred and ten miles an hour. I knew that I would have a short time to react. I lowered my nose slightly.  It prompted the Hun to fire, thinking I was trying some tricky manoeuvre. As I pulled up the nose and fired his bullets clattered into my top wing. My bullets hit his radiator.  I saw a jet of steam erupt from the front.  I fired again and then moved to starboard a little so that I could bring my bus in at an oblique angle.

The second Albatros tried to turn.  I heard Speight’s Lewis as he finished off the first German and I fired at the second. His change of direction meant I only hit his undercarriage while his bullets struck my fuselage. “Are you all right?”

“Yes sir, he didn’t get close and I finished off the first one sir!”

“Good man.” The second Hun had dived below me.  “You had better watch for one coming from below us.” I glanced to starboard and saw Harry Dodds firing at the spotters. I was on my own.

The third German came straight at me. We both fired at the same time.  Although I hit him, I appeared to cause little, if any damage.  As he came over me I knew what he intended; the Immelmann turn.  If I had been flying the Gunbus then that might have caused me a problem.  The Bristol was a different matter.  “Hang on Speight!” I threw the Bristol on to its side and pulled a hard turn to port.  He could not know what I had planned and he must have had a shock when he turned to attack out tail; we were not there.  I levelled out, “Ready Speight?”

“Sir!”

As we passed my gunner emptied a magazine into the side of the surprised German who tumbled to the earth. I banked again and saw that the sky was free of German aeroplanes. The two Pups were heading towards us and Harry was climbing, having destroyed a spotter.

“Time to go home! Well done Speight.”

“They were my first two kills, sir! Lumpy was right about you sir. He reckoned he only shot down as many Huns as he did because of the way that you fly.  I see what he means. It isn’t half exciting!”

I smiled. His enthusiasm was infectious. Whoever had him as a gunner would be lucky.

When we landed Gordy and Ted came to greet me.  They both had relieved looks on their faces. “Were you worried, boys?”

“Not really, Bill, but it is a pleasant surprise to have four aeroplanes return without damage and with their crews intact.”

As Speight clambered out I said, “And my gunner here bagged two Albatros D.IIs!”

As ex gunners themselves they knew the feeling and they both slapped him on the back.  “Good man! A celebration in the mess tonight then?”

“Yes sir!”

I went directly to the office without waiting to talk to the other pilots. I no longer had that luxury.  I was C.O. now and that meant paperwork.

“Well Randolph, we are back safe and sound.  What about the replacements?”

“Glad that you are safe, Bill.  I would be lying if I said I wasn’t worried. What was the new Bristol like?”

“It is an excellent machine.  I can’t understand how 48 Squadron lost four in one day.  They must have been flying them the wrong way.”

“Our new buses will be flown in tomorrow.  The crews will be with them.”

“Is that wise? I remember a couple of new pilots getting lost.”

“Apparently the replacement for Captain Robinson is going to lead them over with their replacements too.  They should make it.”

“Right.”

The other three pilots came into the office.  Their looks told me that they had all had kills. “It looks like our luck has changed eh sir?”

I nodded to Harry however I was feeling anything but lucky.  I would swap all the kills of that morning for Charlie not to be dead.  As I had come in to land with the ebullient Speight chattering away behind me I thought of Charlie and Lumpy.  Both had been my gunners; one was crippled for life and the other was now dead. I was anything but lucky.

After they had gone Randolph said, diplomatically, “When will you tell Harry and Freddie about the new arrangements?”

“I should have done it then, shouldn’t I?”

“You have a lot on your plate at the moment and you are new to this. Why not have a briefing in the morning before the new pilots arrive.”