1917 Eagles Fall (32 page)

The two Jastas arrived thirty minutes after the other two squadrons.  I realised I would have an hour at the most and then I would have to return to base. We had parity of numbers but not quality. We would be lucky to last an hour. The Gunbuses and the BE 2s could fly north to south and use their gunners to fire at the Germans.  The DH 2 and I would have to fly at them or be shot down. Six aeroplanes headed east; one Camel and five DH 2s. It was not a bad tactic for we might be able to break up their formation.

I began to climb.  I wanted to use my superior speed and ceiling. Surprisingly none of the German fighters followed.  I was one lone aeroplane, what damage could I do? I felt suddenly free.  I could fly as fast as I liked and twist and turn to my heart’s content.  I could not crash into any of my fellows for I was far faster than the DH 2.  I had nothing to lose save my life.  I touched my pocket watch and the lock of hair. Beattie was with me. I was invincible!

I dived at the advancing line of fighters.  I flew obliquely at their line.  I was causing them a dilemma.  Did they adjust their line for one lone Camel? I further confused them by banking to port and flying obliquely in that direction.  I risked the fighters to starboard but they had begun to adjust to my attack.  I had, perhaps, thirty seconds grace; I used it.  I opened fire at two hundred yards.  My angle of attack meant that I was flying across the front of the line of fighters. I must have fired a hundred rounds and I struck four of their fighters.  I knew I could not hope to destroy any in one pass but I wanted to disrupt them and give the BE 2s a chance. Miraculously I saw smoke pouring from a Fokker D.II. I banked towards it as it dipped its nose.  I banked to starboard and flew through the gap; away from the German guns.  I continued my turn and found that the fighters were still concentrating on the easier target of the BE 2s.  The fact that I was alone worked in my favour.

I fired at the rear of each fighter as I passed.  I was less profligate with my ammunition and no fighter took more than ten rounds. I had no time to see if I had done damage.  My only hope was to keep moving and firing for as long as I could. I was now flying along their line and heading towards the Gunbuses. I saw a DH 2 as it spiralled in a death dive and a Gunbus with a smoking engine limping west.  The BE 2s appeared to be holding their own.  I saw an Albatros with a large yellow Edelweiss painted on its fuselage and a green rudder.  It flashed before my sights and I gave a longer burst.  I immediately saw smoke coming from the engine.  I barely had time to lift the nose and avoid a collision.  As I did so I saw the Fokker on my tail and its bullets hit my tail and then thudded into the Albatros; killing the pilot. The Germans were doing my job for me.

I looped my Camel.  I saw empty sky above me. I reached the top; then I was descending rapidly.  I saw that my opponent, too, had tried to loop but the smaller Camel had turned inside him. I fired a burst into his tail. As I continued to loop, faster than him, I kept firing. The fighter suddenly lurched to one side and began to fall from the sky. Bullets began to strike me from every direction.  The fighters were like angry wasps when their nest has been disturbed and they were attacking me from all points of the compass.  Although they were hitting me they were also in danger of colliding with each other as well as shooting their own men. I knew that I was running out of ammunition and fuel. I dropped my wing and begin to dive towards the ground. I was aware of bullets hitting me as I passed through the maelstrom of lead. I gritted my teeth and endured it.  I just hoped that the Camel would hold together on its steep dive.

I saw the trenches below me; they were the Canadian lines.  I began to pull back on the stick. I found sweat pouring from me as I struggled to bring up the nose. I still had plenty of air space but I could see, in my mirror the four fighters which had followed me.  As the nose slowly came up I saw the BE 2s who had survived heading west. I kept the Camel at two hundred feet.  It was the Canadians who saved me.  They put up a barrage of machine gun and rifle fire which created a wall of lead behind me.  In my mirror I saw two Fokkers fall from the sky to their deaths.  The rest withdrew.  I waved to the brown uniforms below me.  They would enjoy the victory as much as I did.

The field had never looked so welcoming as I brought in the battered and bruised Camel. It would need a great deal of work to enable her to fly soon. One thing was certain, I would not be flying on the first day of the Offensive.

The whole of the squadron raced to gather around my bus. Gordy shook his head, “We saw most of that.  You are as mad as a fish!” He pointed to my wings and the engine which were riddled with bullet holes. “You proved one thing.  The Camel is a tough aeroplane in the right hands.”

We made our way to the mess. A report would have to wait.  All of us were celebrating my survival. The last three bottles of brandy I had bought were opened and everyone toasted the Sopwith Camel.  That was the true hero of that battle.  Randolph was summoned to answer the telephone and when he returned he clapped me on the back. “That was headquarters.  The Canadians and the two squadrons who were up today were singing your praises. The Germans did not get through.  We only lost five aeroplanes and they reckon that is down to you.”

“Well I hope that means that tomorrow we have no Germans to face for we haven’t any aeroplanes to send up.”

I was woken in the night by heavy rain as it thudded on the tent walls. The Passchendaele Offensive would go ahead but we would not fly that day. As it turned out my flight and my fight were the last ones in the Passchendaele sector. We were sent back to Arras and replaced by a brand new squadron of SE 5s. Not that it really mattered for the rains meant that no one flew for the first five days of the offensive and the poor soldiers had to wade through mud to reach their objectives. The one thousand yards they gained was paid for by five hundred Germans, British and Canadians for every yard.

As I flew a much repaired Camel south I reflected that the sacrifices had all been in vain. Our squadron had done its duty and we had bled just as much as the men on the ground but as with so many battles it had been for nought.

We had been back at our old field for a week when the news finally came through that the first Passchendaele Offensive had stopped. We had our replacement pilots and Camels but there was an empty feeling in the squadron. We had lost too many good men in the battle at Ypres.

We were at dinner one night when Randolph came in and whispered in Archie’s ear. Our Squadron Leader held his hands up for silence, “Gentlemen, I have just been informed that Major William Harsker has been awarded the Victoria Cross for his rescue of Lieutenant Holt!” There was a tumultuous noise as everyone cheered.  The sergeants came in to hear what the noise was about and the words spread like wild fire.  Gordy and Ted hammered my back screaming like banshees. Archie roared, “Silence.” Everyone went quiet. “All of you fill your glasses.  No-one deserves this more. Our leading ace deserves a second one for Passchendaele. He fought as bravely as an eagle. Gentlemen I give you Bill Harsker, the Eagle of the skies!”

Everyone toasted me but I felt empty.  There were too many eagles who had fallen.  I raised my glass but I was raising it to the eagles who had fallen, Lord Burscough, Charlie, Harry and even Lumpy. I, for one, would never forget them. I hoped the country would remember them too.

BEF- British Expeditionary Force

Beer Boys
-inexperienced fliers (slang)

Blighty
- Britain (slang)

Boche
- German (slang)

Bowser- refuelling vehicle

Bus
- aeroplane (slang)

Corned dog
- corned beef (slang)

Craiglockhart- A Victorian building taken over by the military and used to treat shell shocked soldiers.  Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen both spent time there.

Crossley- an early British motor car

Dewar Flask- an early Thermos invented in 1890

Donkey Walloper
- Horseman (slang)

Fizzer
- a charge (slang)

Foot Slogger
- Infantry (slang)

Gaspers-
Cigarettes (slang)

Google eyed booger
with
the tit
- gas mask (slang)

Griffin (Griff)
- confidential information (slang)

Hun
- German (slang)

Jagdgeschwader – four German Jasta flying under one leader

Jasta- a German Squadron

Jippo
- the shout that food was ready from the cooks (slang)

Kanone 14- 10cm German artillery piece

Killick
- Leading seaman (slang-Royal Navy)

Lanchester- a prestigious British car with the same status as a Rolls Royce

Loot
- a second lieutenant (slang)

Lufbery Circle- An aerial defensive formation

M.C. - Military Cross (for officers only)

M.M. - Military Medal (for other ranks introduced in 1915)

Nelson’s Blood-
rum (slang- Royal Navy)

Nicked
- stolen (slang)

Number ones
- Best uniform (slang)

Oblt. - Oberlieutenant (abbr.)

Oppo-
workmate/friend (slang)

Outdoor
- the place they sold beer in a pub to take away (slang)

Parkin or Perkin- a soft cake traditionally made of
oatmeal
and black
treacle
,
which originated in
northern England
.

Pop your clogs
- die (slang)

Posser- a three legged stool attached to a long handle and used to agitate washing in the days before washing machines

Pickelhaube- German helmet with a spike on the top.  Worn by German soldiers until 1916

Rugger-
Rugby (slang)

Scousers-
Liverpudlians (slang)

Shufti
- a quick look (slang)

Scheiße
- Shit (German)

Singer 10 - a British car developed by Lionel Martin who went on to make Aston Martins

Staffelführer- Jasta commander

The smoke
- London (slang)

Toff
- aristocrat (slang)

V.C. - Victoria Cross, the highest honour in the British Army

Map courtesy of Wikipedia

Courtesy of Wikipedia –Public Domain

This is my fourth foray into what might be called modern history.  The advantage of the Dark Ages is that there are few written records and the writer’s imagination can run riot- and usually does! If I have introduced a technology slightly early or moved an action it is in the interest of the story and the character. The FE 2 is introduced a month or so before the actual aeroplane.  The Red Baron is shot down six weeks before he really was. The Sopwith Camel arrived at the end of may rather than the middle. I have tried to make this story more character based. I have used the template of some real people and characters that lived at the time.

The Short Magazine Lee Enfield had a ten shot magazine and enabled a rifleman to get off 20-30 shots in a minute. It was accurate at 300 yards. Both cavalry and infantry were issued with the weapon.

For those readers who do not come from England I have tried to write the way that people in that part of Lancashire speak. As with many northerners they say
‘owt’
for anything and
‘Eeeh’
is just a way of expressing surprise.  As far as I know there is no Lord Burscough but I know that Lord Derby had a huge house not far away in Standish and I have based the fictitious Lord Burscough on him. The area around Burscough and Ormskirk is just north of the heavily industrialised belt which runs from Leeds, through Manchester, to Liverpool.  It is a very rural area with many market gardens.  It afforded me the chance to have rural and industrial England, cheek by jowl. The food they eat is also typical of that part of Lancashire. Harsker is a name from the area apparently resulting from a party of Vikings who settled in the area some centuries earlier.  Bearing in mind my earlier Saxon and Viking books I could not resist the link, albeit tenuous, with my earlier novels.

The rear firing Lewis gun was not standard issue and was an improvised affair.  Here is a photograph of one in action.

The photograph demonstrates the observer's firing positions in the
Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.2d
. The observer's cockpit was fitted with three guns, one or two fixed forward-firing for the pilot to aim, one moveable forward-firing and one moveable rear-firing mounted on a pole over the upper wing. The observer had to stand on his seat in order to use the rear-firing gun.

This artistic work
created by the United Kingdom Government
is in the
public domain
.
This is because it is one of the following
:

1. It is a photograph created by the United Kingdom Government and taken prior to 1 June 1957; or
   
2. It was commercially published prior to 1964; or
   

It is an artistic work other than a photograph or engraving (e.g. a painting) which was created by the United Kingdom Government prior to 1964. HMSO has declared that the expiry of Crown Copyrights applies worldwide.

An F.E.2
without armament

This image is in the
public domain
because the copyright has expired.
This applies to Australia, the European Union and those countries with a copyright term of
life of the author plus 70 years
.

Sopwith Pup
courtesy of Wikipedia

Bristol F2b
Courtesy of Wikipedia

This variant was faster than the F2A of which only 52 were built. Ted and Harry’s are the F2A variant and the later ones the faster F2B which could reach speeds of 123 mph.

Baron Von Richthofen was actually shot down by an FE 2 during the later stages of the Battle of the Somme.  In this novel it is Bill who has that honour. The Red Baron is portrayed as the pilot of the Halberstadt with the yellow propeller. Of course the Red Baron got his revenge by shooting down the leading British ace of the time, Major Lanoe Hawker VC. Major Hawker, was flying the DH2 while the Red Baron flew the superior Albatros DIII. The Red Baron took over Jasta 11 in January 1917 and he made a huge difference.  Until he had arrived not a single aeroplane had been shot down by the Jasta.  He had a kill on his first day. His squadron was known as the Flying Circus because they were all painted differently and in very bright colours. His was all red but every one of his aeroplanes had the colour red somewhere in the colour scheme. In  the summer of 1917 the Germans reorganised their Jastas so that Richthofen was in command of four fighter squadrons.

The circle devised by Bill and Billy really existed.  It was known as a
Lufbery circle
. The gunner of each F.E.2, could cover the blind spot under the tail of his neighbour and several gunners could fire on any enemy attacking the group. There were occasions when squadrons used this tactic to escape the Fokker monoplane and the later fighters which the Germans introduced to wrest air superiority from the Gunbus. It made for slow progress home but they, generally, got there safely.

This is the Immelmann Turn as a diagram.
The Immelmann Turn was named after the German Ace Max Immelmann who flew the Fokker E1.  He was apparently shot down by an FE 2 although one theory is that his interrupter gear malfunctioned and he shot his own propeller off.  I prefer the first theory.

I have no evidence for Sergeant Sharp’s improvised bullet proofing.  However they were very inventive and modified their aeroplanes all the time. The materials he used were readily available and, in the days before recycling, would have just been thrown away. It would be interesting to test it with bullets.

The Mills bomb was introduced in 1915.  It had a seven second fuse. The shrapnel could spread up to twenty yards from the explosion.

The tunnels at Arras were astounding. Work had been going on underground to
construct tunnels
for the troops since October 1916. The Arras region is chalky and therefore easily excavated; under Arras itself is a vast network of caverns, underground quarries, galleries and sewage tunnels. The engineers devised a plan to add new tunnels to this network so that troops could arrive at the battlefield in secrecy and in safety.
The scale of this undertaking was enormous: in one sector alone four Tunnel Companies worked around the clock in 18-hour shifts for two months. Eventually, they constructed 20 kilometres of tunnels, graded as subways for men on foot tramways which had rails and was used for taking ammunition to the front and bringing casualties back; and railways. Just before the assault the tunnel system had grown big enough to conceal 24,000 men, with electric lighting. Bert and his company are part of this undertaking.  However the Germans knew of the tunnels and they were digging countermines.  Both sides fought a deadly war beneath the surface.

The Battle of Arras was delayed because the French were not ready and consequently began during a snowstorm. Despite that the British and Commonwealth troops made astonishing gains in the first few days. The German front line troops were, quite literally, shell shocked from the two week barrage they had endured. The defences ceased to exist.

General Henderson commanded the RFC for all but a couple of months of the war. The Fokker Scourge lasted from autumn 1915 until February 1916.  It took the Gunbus and other new aircraft to defeat them. The BE 2 aeroplanes were known as Fokker fodder and vast numbers were shot down. There were few true bombers at this stage of the war and the Gunbus was one of the first multi-role aeroplanes. The addition of the third Lewis gun did take place at this stage of the war. The Germans had to react to their lack of superiority and in the next book the pendulum swings in Germany’s favour when the Albatros D.III and other new aircraft wrested control of the air away from the RFC.

Trenchard was in command in France although he was a controversial figure. He was the first Chief of the RAF.  He was known for his penchant for offensive rather than defensive flying.

More aeroplanes were shot down by ground fire than other aeroplanes and I have tried to be as realistic as I can but Bill Harsker is a hero and I portray him as such. He does achieve a high number of kills. Lanoe Hawker was the first ace to reach 40 kills and he died just at the end of the Somme Offensive.

Selected Specifications
for the aeroplanes mentioned in the novel

FE2b

2 crew

47 feet wingspan

12 feet 6 inches height

Rolls Royce Eagle engine 360hp

Maximum speed 81 mph (up to 88 at higher altitude)

Ceiling, 11000 feet

2 Lewis machine guns and up to 517lb of bombs

AEG G1

3 crew

52 feet wingspan

11 feet four inches height

2 Mercedes 8 cylinders in line engines 100 hp each