1917 Eagles Fall (30 page)

“Thanks.” By the time I was kitted out Ted and his flight were airborne. “Contact!”

“Contact!”

She fired first time and I roared down the airfield.  The other two would need to catch me when they could. I could see that Gordy and his flight were surrounded by swarms of German aeroplanes.  Ted and his flight were climbing to their aid.  I decided to keep low and gain ground as quickly as I could. I soon found myself below B Flight which was still a mile or so away from contact. I began my climb.  I saw a Bristol with flames pouring from its engine as it tried to evade two Albatros. I headed for them. The two Germans were below the Bristol and the gunner did not have a shot. The Bristols were neither as nimble nor as agile as an Albatros and this one was like a fish wriggling on a line.

I was nimble and I was faster than both of them. I opened fire at two hundred yards.  I fired a long burst which tracked along the fuselage of first one and then the second Albatros. I saw them peel apart to come after me. They were trying to flank me.  I had no doubt they had seen the horse and wished to bag an ace. As I began a loop I saw the wounded Bristol descend and limp back to the airfield. 

My two opponents were trying to outflank me and were coming from my port and starboard. When I reached the top of the loop I banked to port and screamed down at one of the Albatros fighters. My extra speed and my small profile made me harder to hit.  I side slipped across his front and gave a long burst.  I hit his lower wing, then his engine and finally his undercarriage. I continued my turn.  He, too, tried to turn towards me but I must have damaged his engine for he had little power. 

The second German was heading directly for me. I had one Albatros to my port rear and one directly ahead of me. I started to turn to starboard.  The Albatros corrected himself to match me.  I flicked the Camel to port and opened fire when he came across my front.  He was not expecting that and when he fired it was into empty sky.  I felt bullets from the damaged Albatros hit my fuselage and I banked to starboard.  The other fighter turned and came at me. I raised the nose and started to climb as he fired.  His bullets missed me but ploughed into his colleague. The Albatros fell from the sky.

As I flew over the Albatros I gave a half turn and my airspeed dropped dramatically.  The stall speed of the Camel was forty nine miles an hour.  I prayed that I was above it as I attempted my first Immelmann turn.  It worked and I found myself directly behind and above the Albatros.  I was but forty yards from his tail and catching him rapidly. I gave a burst which went from his rudder to his engine.  Some of the bullets must have caught him in his back. He slumped forward and the stick sent the aeroplane into a terminal dive.

As I scanned the skies I could see Ted and his flight chasing the remnants of the raid east. I turned the Camel around and headed home.

Another of Gordy’s pilots had been shot down. It was on our side of the lines and so we recovered the bodies and the aeroplanes. Jim Jenson had not been with us for long but Gordy had had high hopes for him.  However two Albatros were more than enough for a seasoned pilot let alone someone with just twenty five hours flying time. We had wounded pilots too as well as damaged aeroplanes. As Archie said, when we had all landed safely, “If they had bombed the buses on the ground then we could have lost everything.”

“Gordy, do you think that they saw the airfield?”

He shook his head.  All that you could see was a field with white tents around.  I couldn’t see any buses.”

“Then the camouflage worked. I think we can expect a hot reception tomorrow.” I turned to Randolph. “How long until the offensive begins?”

“Zero Hour is 3.45 on the 31
st
of July.”

Archie unrolled a map he had under his arm. He pointed to a spot on the map.  “Apparently the offensive began here at
Messines
Ridge on the 7
th
of June.  It has been consolidated. Now they are going to push here towards Passchendaele. Our job is to stop Germans snooping too close.”

Ted shook his head, “Easier said than done.  Today they had two squadrons up… what about tomorrow?”

He was right and we all had an early night to prepare for what we knew would be a hard day.  We would need to be on station before the spotters arrived.  I had no doubt that the Germans would be there too.  We would have to try out my new theory.  I just prayed that it would work.

As we took off the following morning I was acutely aware that we did not know this area well.  The landmarks we would use were unfamiliar.  We had to learn quickly- it was merely days to the offensive. We circled above Ypres while we waited for the two flights of RE 8 aeroplanes which would take the photographs. Although a newer aeroplane than the hapless BE 2 it was still very slow and did not manoeuvre well. As dawn broke, the two seaters arrived.  Their leader gave a cheery wave.  He was a braver man than I was.  If the Germans broke our defensive umbrella then he had little hope of survival.  He could try to flee but the Albatros and Fokker fighters we had seen would soon catch him.

My squadron began to climb to a better altitude.  There were some annoying clumps of cloud ahead.  They made wonderful hiding places for aeroplanes. We had our new formation and Harry and his flight were behind and below us.  Behind them were the spotters. So long as they were quick then they might be able to take the photographs the brass wanted. Surprisingly we reached Passchendaele without being attacked and I began to fly a loop above the camera buses. I had taken photographs and I knew how long it could take to satisfy Headquarters.  If you did not take the right ones then they sent you back out. You took them until you were chased off.

I saw them to the left as the two Jastas headed purposefully for us. I banked to port.  My flight followed me. This time we would have to bear the brunt of their bullets.  If it saved the Bristols from damage then it would be worth it. This was the first time we had not had Alldardyce watching our tail.  I felt as though there was a hole in my trousers!

Now that we knew where their fields were we also knew that they would be struggling to gain the height they needed for superiority. They were close to the front. We had the high ground and I was determined to use it. I kept at the same altitude, while the mixed squadrons climbed to reach us. When we were just half a mile from them I put the stick forward and began to dive. Without looking I knew that Gordy and Ted were angling their flights away from me.  There would be a gap opening in the middle of their line.

This time I went for the leader.  His nose was painted yellow but the lack of any red that I could see told me that it was not Richthofen! He would still be in the Arras area. At a hundred yards I fired.  He did so at the same time.  As soon as I had stopped firing I dipped my nose.  I felt the bullets strike my top wing and fuselage. There was another flight directly behind the first.  I left Lieutenant Dodds’ flight to deal with the ones we had fired at and I dived towards these four Fokkers who were racing towards us.

I glanced to my right and saw that Freddie was on station.  However when I looked to the left Johnny was not there. I prayed that he had not bought it. This time I might have to endure the fire from two Fokkers. I edged my Camel to port and raised the nose, inviting the shot.  I quickly dipped it again and bullets zipped above me.  As my nose came down I saw the side of the cockpit of the first aeroplane which was turning to get a better position.  I snap fired a short burst and banked to port.  I followed his turn and I fired again.  As I did so I felt bullets thudding into me as another of the flight snatched his chance. I ignored the hits. I needed to finish this one off. I made it a longer burst and was rewarded by a column of smoke from his engine.  It suddenly coughed and lost power. It went into a nose dive.

I pulled hard on my stick.  As I did so I saw Freddie to my right finish off one Fokker.  I had looped none too soon for bullets filled the space I had just occupied. I mentally chastised myself.  I had forgotten to look in the mirror. As I completed the loop I did so and saw that the sky behind me was empty.  When I looked up I saw why.  I was heading west into a dozen dogfights. Some of the RE 8s were heading west but a couple were gamely battling the superior German fighters.  The machine which had fired at me drifted in front of my sights as it tried to get into a shooting position on Freddie.  I fired a long burst and the bullets hit the lower wing and the bottom half of the cockpit. I was close enough to see the pilot spasm.  He had been hit but he had enough control to bank to starboard out of shot.  I let him go.  He was out of the battle and heading home.

I dived to go to the aid of one of the spotters.  His gunner was spraying the attackers with his Lewis but they were dodging from side to side.  They were making him waste his ammunition.  Once he changed his magazine then they would attack him. If we were the eagles then they were the vultures. At two hundred yards I fired a burst.  I wondered how I had ever managed with just one Vickers. The twin shower of .303 rounds seemed to be drawn to the Fokker’s tail.  The rudder and tail disappeared. The Albatros became almost impossible to fly and he started to lose altitude and to turn east. I saw the gunner in the RE 8 clutch his shoulder. The second Albatros stopped dodging as he lined up for his coup de grace. I lifted my nose slightly and then lowered it as I fired.  My bullets hit his top wing and, I assume, went through to his engine and radiator. Smoke, steam and oil began to pour from it and he too banked and dived, simply to avoid smashing into the slow moving RE 8.

As I banked to starboard too the gunner waved his good arm as the pilot headed home.

I began to climb. The Germans, too, were trying to head home.  I started to follow and then realised that they had too much of a lead on me. It would be a dangerous waste of time and fuel.  I turned and joined the rest of our battered squadron as I headed west.

When I came into land I saw the field was filled with mechanics and medical staff.  We had suffered.  I did not manage to count the aeroplanes to see who was missing but I saw Johnny’s Camel and Freddie’s was in my rear view mirror.

I taxied close to the fence to give the mechanics an easier job.  I clambered down and Johnny rushed over to me.  “Sorry sir, I was hit in the first pass and I lost power.  I barely kept it in the air.”

“Thank God you are alive.  I was worried you might have been hit.”

“Oh no sir! Just my engine.  Flight says he can have it repaired by tomorrow.” He looked worried.  “I promise that the engine was hit, sir.  I would not take the easy way out.  I shan’t let you down.”

I put my arm around the earnest young man.  “Johnny you could never let me down. “ I laughed.  “We are like eagles, remember, and we rule the skies.  You will be fine.”

He saw a stretcher with a blanket covering a body as it went by.  “That’s Harry’s gunner.  He’s pretty shaken up by it.”

I knew that he would be.  I had had two gunners wounded and it haunted me both times.  I blamed myself. “Have we lost any buses?”

“Two of the RE 8s were downed and Lieutenant Stokes isn’t back yet.”

I looked at an empty sky to the east. “Then he isn’t coming back.”

In the office tent I gave my report.  Ted and Gordy seemed remarkably upbeat.  “The tactics worked, Bill.  Our buses suffered less damage than they normally do.”

“It didn’t help us.  If it hadn’t been for Alldardyce and his gunner Speight they would have had more than my gunner and poor Dick Stokes.” Harry was visibly shaken.

I put my hand on his shoulder.  “Cecil is used to taking that position.  I am sorry. The only solution that I can see is if your flight divides in two when you attack and then converges.”

Archie shook his head, “That is fine for experienced pilots but Harry has some of the younger pilots.”

“It is probably my fault sir.  Don’t worry.  I’ll do better tomorrow.”

In the event we had a day off for the weather closed in and we had a stormy July day.  One of the mechanics wondered if it was St. Swithins’ day.  Senior Flight Sergeant Lowery snipped, “What did they teach you at Sunday school, Loach? St. Swithins’ day was almost two weeks ago!”

We were all grateful for the chance to repair aeroplanes and bodies.  Harry received his new gunner and we were ready to escort the spotter aeroplanes. “This lot will be a mixture, Bill.  They are running out of reconnaissance aeroplanes. Some are the old BE 2 and the rest are the RE 8s you escorted the other day.” He smiled.  “I don’t know if it helps but their adjutant telephoned; they were grateful for our cover the other day.”

“Harry, I want you and your flight to cover the spotters.”

“Don’t worry, sir, I can stay behind you again.”

“I am not worried about me or you. I am worried that the mission will be a waste of all of our time if we don’t get the photographs back. We are going back out because they shot down some of the aeroplanes with cameras.  I want all of them to survive this time. Then we shan’t have to do this again!”

A chastened Dodds nodded and said, “Sir! We won’t let anyone get through.”

“That’s the ticket.”

As we climbed into the sky I knew that this day would be harder.  They would know where we were going.  They might even be waiting. Of course we had no choice over the time.  The cameras needed light and that meant the Germans could be there before us. I hated it when I was right! The German fighters were in position as we arrived.  They would not brave our guns on the ground.  They would just stop us taking photographs.  In addition they had the altitude.

This time we climbed to meet them. They would be able to turn quicker and attack us from beneath.  We would be struggling to turn. This could be a bloodbath.

I saw that these were a mixture of Fokker and Albatros, DII and DIII.  We had hurt them and they were now cobbling together different types of aeroplane.  It was a glimmer of hope; nothing more.

My slower climb and the Fokker’s swifter descent meant that he fired before I did.  He struck my wings and I saw wood fly from a spar. I held my nerve and moved to port a fraction.  I fired as I did so. I only hit his undercarriage. I side slipped to starboard and his next bullets went into fresh air and he was hurtling past me.  This time I fired as soon as the next Fokker came into sight. I saw the tracer as it arced towards his engine.  There were sparks and then I saw steam as I punctured the radiator.  It must have blinded him for a moment or two for he did not change direction.  I moved my nose slightly down and fired. This time the bullets tore two tunnels deep into the engine.  I pressed again and then jerked the Camel up and right as he came straight at me. I caught sight of him as I flew over him. His stomach was a bloody mess.  My bullets had gone through the engine and into him.

I banked.  To my horror I saw twelve German fighters flocking and mobbing Harry and the spotters. Five of the spotters were heading west and Harry and the remnants of his flight were trying to take on the vultures that were desperate to pick at the corpses of the Bristols. Even as I descended I could see an old BE 2 bus gliding down to land with its engine on fire and a slumped gunner in the rear cockpit.

Harry managed to damage one of his attackers.  I saw Harry’s gunner spasm as he was hit. I fired from long range and missed.  I was closing but I did not know if I would be in time.  I glanced to my right and saw Freddie on my wing. Together we stood a chance.  At five hundred feet we both fired. Our bullets tore into the fuselage of two Fokkers which had to abandon their attack.  We both banked after them and fired again. I was about to follow the Fokker south when I saw that Harry was still being attacked from beneath by an Albatros. I banked to starboard.  The normally nimble and agile Camel seemed to take an age to turn. I had to watch as Harry’s body juddered and shook as the 9mm steel jacketed bullets ripped up and into him. As he fell forward his Bristol began to spiral down to earth.  Another eagle had fallen.

The Albatros appeared in my sights. He was less than a hundred feet away having been hidden by Harry’s bus. I let rip and watched as the bullets tore him to shreds.  His fuel tank exploded and I was thrown high into the sky by the concussion. I had to fight to control the Camel and I was not sure where I was.  I looked to my right and saw Freddie give me a wave.  The sky was empty and we headed west.