1917 Eagles Fall (2 page)

We headed for the office, where I saw Archie and Randolph waiting for us. Ted shook his head. “Then why are you back? Operations are winding down at the moment and we will be going back for Gordy’s wedding in four weeks.  You should have stayed in Blighty.”

Gordy looked at me and laughed, “This isn’t as simple as it sounds. I am looking forward to hearing this.”

Major Archie Leach held out his hand, “Glad you made it Bill! You are the good luck charm of this squadron.  Come in and we’ll have a wee nip of something just to keep out the cold.”

The wee nip turned into two bottles as I went through the whole story of the crash and the escape across the sea. I finished with General Henderson’s words.  Archie shook his head as he put the last, half empty bottle away. “Well, you’ll no be flying until Doc Brennan gives you the all clear. You are daft man.  You should have travelled back on the train.”

I smiled, I was slightly drunk, “And miss all your smiling faces? I didn’t fancy the train and the ferry. Anyway what have I been missing?”

“Not a great deal.  The weather has been awful and we have not managed too many operations but some of the other squadrons have taken a real hammering from the new Fokkers and the Albatros the Boche has recently introduced. I am afraid the Gunbus just can’t handle them.”

“The Major is right Bill, Ted and I are just glad to get down in one piece after a patrol these days.” Just then we heard the gong for dinner.  “Anyway your young lads and Bates will be desperately glad to see you. Poor Bates thought you had gone west and he just moped around. The lads in your flight felt guilty that you had sacrificed yourself for them.”

“Well I had better get changed for dinner then.”

I left the office and headed for my quarters.  Airman Bates was waiting for me with his normal disapproving look. “I am pleased to see you back, Captain Harsker, but your sergeant has told me of your wound.  Get your sling on now.” He flourished the sling like a magician.

“I think we can wait until I have dressed for dinner eh?”

“Yes sir but, really, you must look after yourself!”

I was washed and dressed by Bates who took more care of me than a mother would. He was not satisfied until the sling was in place and he had adjusted it for the maximum comfort. “There.” He brushed some fluff from my tunic. He nodded towards the other officers’ quarters.  “They all missed you, Captain Harsker.  It was like a funeral parlour here until we received the message that you had reached England.  We all thought you were dead.” He shook his head, “I couldn’t go through that again, sir.”

Poor Bates had had a breakdown when his last officer had died going over the top.  He had transferred to the RFC because he thought it was safer.  He was learning that life was equally precarious in the air. “I have learned my lesson, Airman Bates, and I will be careful.  I intend to marry Miss Porter.”

That brought the smile back to his face. “Well jolly good sir! That makes up for many things.  Now off you go or there will be no dinner left.”

To my embarrassment I was cheered by the whole mess when I entered.  Johnny and Freddie had saved a place between them for me.  I could see that Ted and Gordy were put out. I smiled and sat between my two wingmen.  Charlie Sharp gave me the thumbs up. His face showed his delight at my return. After we had said Grace I was bombarded with question from my two young pilots about my escape, my crash and my flight across northern France and Belgium. I noticed that all the other younger officers were listening keenly.

I was glad when we had the toast and were able to retire to the comfortable seats.  This time I managed to get my own chair and Gordy and Ted sat close by while Charlie sat on the arm of the settee.

“The Luger came in handy then, sir.” Charlie had been my sergeant and could not get into the habit of calling me, while in the mess, Bill.

“It did but, ironically, it almost got me shot when we landed in England.”

“That Ebbs sounds like an idiot.  He must be one of those armchair generals we hear so much about.” Gordy had never been keen on officers when he was a sergeant and now that he was one himself it was only those in our squadron whom he rated.

“Looking at the way the war on the ground is going there must be some of those armchair generals making the decisions right now.  We made great advances on the ground in the first days of the Somme offensive and then they make a mess of it.”

I remembered Albert. “Some of those who live here seem to have suffered greater losses than we have.  We can’t change our generals.  We just have to do the best that we can. There was an old man called Albert who gave his life so that Lumpy and I could escape.  I owe it to him to keep on.”

Charlie said quietly, “I don’t think any of us thought about giving up but when you fly over the front and see the wasted deaths, it makes you wonder. The fighting has eased off lately and that gives you more time to look when you fly over the front. It scares me.”

Gordy waved the mess orderly over.  “Enough depressing talk.  Did you see Mary when you were in London?” The orderly came.  “Same again, Jackson, on my bill.”

“Yes sir.”

I shook my head. “I was only there for a couple of hours. Just enough time to get a dressing down from the general. Beatrice said she had caught up with her a couple of weeks ago.  They had lunch with my sister, Alice.  Beatrice said she was really excited about the wedding.” I smiled at the relief on Gordy’s face.  “Don’t worry; it is the women organising the wedding not us.  It will all go swimmingly!”

The sombre mood was lightened by the talk of the wedding for that meant leave.  The Major had said that the flight commanders could all have leave in late November, early December and he, Captain Marshall and the younger pilots would all have the end of December. It was not altruistic; most of the young pilots did not have wives and children. New Year was a better celebration for the single young men.  None of the wedding guests would be home for Christmas but I would be able to travel and see my family before I had to return to the front.  If Beatrice could manage leave too then I would be able to have my family meet her.

It felt strange, the next morning, not to be flying. It was just Ted and Gordy’s flights that were on patrol.  As I had been told already the front was quiet. The Somme offensive had ground to a muddy, bloody halt.  The patrols were over the front to discourage the Germans from reclaiming any of the precious land our lads had gained.

Lumpy and the armourer, Flight Sergeant Richardson, were busy fitting the Lewis guns to the new bus and I was like a spare part. I walked with Charlie who was also having a rest day. We wandered down the airfield.  Charlie had seen a few apples which had not fallen and he wanted to gather them. I was not much use with the one arm. However I had learned how to fill and light my pipe with one hand. I did so while he collected the latest windfall apples and reached up for the ones still on the tree.

I leaned on the fence as Charlie began to open up. “I have never really thanked you, sir, for giving me my chance to be a pilot and an officer.”

“There is nothing to thank me for.  I was glad to do it.  You deserve it.”

“My mum and dad were so proud when I was made an officer.  The other lads in the street are all privates or corporals. You know how it is.”

I nodded.  I did know. His people were like mine, working class and always keen to brag about their children who had bettered themselves.  Charlie was still the same bright lad I had known as a young gunner but he had taken his chance.

“What will you do after the war then, Charlie?”

He put down the bucket which was now full and lit a cigarette. “I haven’t given it much thought.  This war seems never ending.”

“But it will end.  What then?” I knew that Charlie had worked in a factory before the war; most of his uncles and cousins also worked in the grim northern factories.

“I don’t think I could go back to the factory. I know cotton is supposed to be in my blood but I have been in the fresh air for the last two years and I like it.” He picked up an apple. “I would never have been able to do this if I had worked in a factory, would I?  I’d like to fly.  Perhaps I will stay on.  I like the Royal Flying Corps and I like the blokes I serve with.”

“What about a wife? A family?”

“We don’t get much chance for that here do we sir? Besides, any woman who wants to marry me would have to let me fly.”

He flicked his cigarette stub away and picked up his bucket.  We began to walk back.  I was thinking about my future.  What would I do? I didn’t want to stay in the Corps. I wanted a home for me and Beatrice and not a barracks. I heard the drone of engines behind us.  The flight was back early.  Something was not right.  Suddenly Charlie shouted, “Sir, they aren’t our lads.  It is the Boche!”

He dropped his bucket and began to run.  I turned and saw a line of five aeroplanes.  They were coming in either to strafe or to bomb us. I heard the bell being rung and the gun crews ran to the guns and their sandbags.

I heard the unmistakeable chatter of a machine gun and saw an airman pitched in the air by the nine millimetre steel jacketed bullets. The gunner just made the sandbags.

“In there Charlie, you can feed the machine gun!”

We just made it behind the wall of sandbags before the first bullets thudded into them. I ducked down.  I was annoyed that I could do nothing.  I did not even have my service revolver. The five aeroplanes, which I did not recognise, machine gunned the gun pits and then climbed.  The gunner had managed to cock his Vickers.  “Is that it sir?  Will they be off?”

As they had flown over I had seen that they were a two seater and they had bomb racks fitted next to the cockpit. “No, airman, they’ll be back.  Let’s see if you and Lieutenant Sharp can bag one.” I watched as they looped to return. Their first run had been to silence the guns.  This time they would go for the six parked aeroplanes.  I looked around for a weapon.  The only one I saw was the Very pistol.  I picked it up.  It was loaded.

They came in again.  This time they flew a little higher and down the centre of the airfield.  The heavy Vickers began to pump out bullets.  There were tracer rounds which enabled the gunner to be more accurate but the Vickers was a heavier weapon than the Lewis and the gunner and Charlie had to tap the barrel around to follow the flight of the fast moving Germans. I had a sudden idea. I stepped out and aimed the pistol.  Instead of firing it high I fired at a low trajectory.  I had one chance in a thousand of hitting an aeroplane but that was not my main intention.

The gunner was also the bomb aimer and no bullets came in my direction.  I fired the pistol and then ducked behind the sandbags.  I saw the flare arc over the first two aeroplanes and then, as it dipped just in front of the third aeroplane it exploded. The flash must have terrified and disorientated the pilot who suddenly jerked his bus up into the air.  The fourth German kept on coming and when the third aeroplane over corrected his wing tip caught the fourth German’s tail. The crippled German plunged vertically and exploded in a fireball just a hundred yards from us.  The explosion and the Vickers hit the other aeroplane which also crashed and exploded on the runway.

I heard the bombs from the first two aeroplanes as they hit our airfield but the fifth, having seen his fellow fliers crash and burn, banked and headed east. Archie came down the airfield.  He was shaking his head when he met me. “And don’t think for one minute you can claim that one laddie!” The medical team were examining the dead airman.  “We were lucky then.  Very lucky.  They didn’t hit any of the buses.”

Charlie pointed to the dead and wounded airmen who were being attended to.  “They weren’t lucky though, were they sir?”

An hour later we heard the familiar drone of Rolls Royce engines. However I could detect that not all of the engines were running smoothly.  I saw the six aeroplanes in the distance.  That was a relief; they had all made it but I saw smoke drifting from the engines of two of them.  When Ted fired his Very pistol we knew that they had wounded men in the buses. I watched as Senior Flight Sergeant Lowery and every man not attending to the wounded tried to put out the fires on the two German aeroplanes and clear the airfield. There was just enough room for a Gunbus to land but if they were damaged then it could be tricky.

It was with some relief that we saw all six landed safely. We ran over to the most damaged of them.  Doc Brennan was still busy with the wounded from the raid.

Ted jumped down.  “That was a nightmare.  Some of the new Albatros D.III jumped us.  They are so fast and manoeuvrable that we didn’t have time to make a circle. And they have two machine guns! I have no idea how Paddy McCormack  managed to land his.”

We went to Paddy’s aeroplane.  The medical orderly climbed into the cockpit only to return five minutes later shaking his head. Paddy’s gunner lay on the ground being attended to. “He must have landed it while in his last dying moment, sir.  He’s gone.” The gunner lay on the ground being attended to, Paddy had given him a chance.

Another young pilot had gone west. The new German aeroplanes were gaining the upper hand and that was no mistake. We lost three gunners and four of the aeroplanes were too badly damaged to fly. The next day it was down to Charlie and the major to take up just five aeroplanes.  They stayed well inside our lines.  Their intention was to stop the Germans bombing our field. We were no longer on the offensive but were just hanging on for dear life.

Randolph discovered, after the remains of the two aeroplanes were examined, that they were a type called Albatross CIII. Obviously the single seaters we had encountered were a newer version. We buried the four dead Germans but their belongings were collected and dropped, at dusk, two days later over the closest German airfield. The Germans had begun the tradition.  This was one of the few opportunities we had had to reciprocate.

And that was the way the Somme Offensive ended.  It just petered out.  Both sides were like punch drunk boxers.  Neither wanted to quit but they had no strength to carry on. Nature and the French winter determined that there would be little flying until the Spring.

The wedding party, as we were termed, left France on the 25
th
of November.  We would all have to return to the airfield by the 8
th
of December.  It was not long but it would have to be enough.  Johnny and Freddie also took leave at that time but they did not come to the wedding.

The day before we were due to leave Airmen Bates came in with that look of his which I now knew meant there was something he was unhappy about. “Come, on then Bates, spit it out!”

He wrinkled his nose at my choice of words, “Well sir, I am pleased that you are going on leave; heaven knows you deserve it, but you need someone to look after you.”

I smiled, “Don’t worry, John, I have Nurse Porter.  She can see to me.”

“Sir!” He was shocked, “You cannot have the young lady helping you to dress that would not be acceptable. She is not your nurse now, she is your young lady!”

I shrugged, “Well you are going home on leave so I will just have to manage.”

“No sir, I could look after you.”

“You mean you would spend the leave looking after me rather than having time with your family?”

He looked at me sadly, “I have no family sir. If I went home… well sir this is as near to a home as I have.” He turned to leave, “Of course, if you don’t need me, sir.”

“Of course I need you, but I didn’t want to take advantage of you.”

He looked puzzled, “How sir?  I am a gentleman’s gentleman, it is what I do.”

“Very well then although I am not certain about the available accommodation at the hotel.”

He beamed, he was happy now.  “Leave that to me sir. I have dealt with hotel staff before. I shall go and pack our things.” He went off to his little room whistling.  He was a strange little man but I began to wonder how I had managed before he had been posted to us. He seemed to work in a different way to the rest of us. I wondered what he would do when the war was over. The world would be a different one then. Too many fine young men had gone west for it to be anything else.