1918 We will remember them (22 page)

“You know Bill that A and C have shot down more Germans than the rest of the squadron.  If you look at the pilots who flew with you then you are responsible for seventy five percent of all the downed aeroplanes.  That is quite a record.”

“I didn’t know that.”

Freddie said, hesitantly, “I am thinking of staying in when all this is over sir. What do you think?”

I remembered my talk with the General. “I wasn’t going to but you never know there may be a role for me.”

Freddie became quite animated. “That is good news sir.  I think it would be a shame if the RAF lost your talents!”

“Yes but will my talents be of any use in peace time?”

Randolph began to fill his pipe again.  My new mix was proving popular. “I think it is a little premature to think of peace time. I thought that the war wouldn’t last beyond 1916 but since the Russians made peace I can’t see this war ending until the twenties.”

“That is a depressing thought.”

“The Germans are less than twenty miles from the sea. If they get to the coast then…”

I nodded, “Then we shall have to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

The Albert canal was a useful way to move heavy goods towards the front. Since their gains in the first weeks of the offensive it was even more useful and provided their new gains with a direct supply route.

We took off before dawn.  This was the closest target to Doyle Airfield and we were there as the sun came up. The Airco squadron arrive shortly after we did. While we waited we took the opportunity of shooting up the barges we found.  They all sank to the bottom of the canal, effectively blocking it. They could be recovered but when the Airco arrived they bombed the bridges and the locks.  The bomb racks had still to be fitted to Archie’s Camels but they were not needed that day,

We were so close to our home base that we were able to sweep up to Vimy Ridge where the Canadians had lost so many men.  It was just south of the new German offensive. I saw that the Germans had a spotter aeroplane up and so, while Archie and the rest of the squadron strafed the artillery I took my flight after the spotter.  It was a Halberstadt. The pilot stood no chance in his slow bus and he headed for the ground as soon as we appeared. I let them land and then, as they ran from the aeroplane I dropped a grenade to blow it up.  I would not claim it but I was pleased that I did not have to kill a pilot and observer. It didn’t seem sporting.

We machine gunned the ammunition for the artillery and headed home.  Once again we had hurt Fritz and escaped injury.  April was beginning well. As we flew back we heard the enormous guns that the Germans were using to shell Paris. The war had suddenly come a lot closer to Britain and to the heart of France.

For once what we were doing was working. A senior staff officer came from Headquarters to brief Archie and Randolph.  We just had a patrol over Cambrai that day and we saw little of the enemy. The sector had quietened down. As we landed we saw the staff car heading back to Amiens. Curiosity got the better of us and Ted and I hurried to the office.

Randolph and Archie were studying a map. “Good, we need you chaps.” Archie pointed the stem of his pipe at the map. “General Haig is rushing every soldier he can muster here, towards Loos and Festubert. It will be a Division cobbled together from British, ANZAC and American forces. Fritz has left his flank exposed. There will be no barrage.  Instead they will use us and other squadrons to ground attack. The Airco did a fine job the other day. We also have a couple of squadrons of the D.9.  Our job is to keep the Hun off their backs. We leave before dawn so that we can be on station before the bombers and the ground troops go in. Freddie and his flight will be in reserve and will take off an hour after we do so that we always have a flight over the battlefield. We will be in the air all day tomorrow. Randolph will warn the ground crews.  I am afraid it will be tea and sandwiches tomorrow.”

I didn’t mind.  If it meant we got the offensive over sooner rather than later then I was happy.

Bates was ready with a flask as I headed for the bus. “It might be the middle of April sir, but it is still nippy.  The soup will come in handy.”

He was right.  As I taxied and I rubbed my knee which always ached in the morning I reflected that his soup might well have been the difference between death and survival when I had crashed. The knee had not got much better nor had it worsened.  Sir Michael had been right about the aches but at least I could manage without a stick now. I knew that if I did a lot of walking then I would need it but when I was flying it was unnecessary.

It was a chilly morning as we headed north.  The first part of the German offensive had brought their front line to within five miles of where we were flying. Fortunately they had not moved their squadrons forward yet. Their Fokkers, we had learned, could only stay in the air for an hour and a half.  It had saved us thus far.  We flew by dead reckoning and spiralled into the air when we reached the rendezvous area. I watched the sky lighten and then redden as dawn broke. I heard the throb of the Airco’s engines as they flew from the west.  With an endurance of over four hours they could afford a safer airfield than ours. It would be the bombers who would initiate the attack. Once they had dropped their bombs then the ground troops would go in.

There were three squadrons of bombers.  Two were the D9 and one was the D5. They went in waves. It was light enough to see that the Germans had captured territory and trenches but they had yet to improve the defences. The bombers were far more accurate than artillery.  Each successive wave could see what the previous ones had achieved and they sought new targets.  Even from our altitude we could see the machine gun companies being shredded by the bombers. When they had completed their work it was the turn of Archie, Gordy and Ted to dive and use their Vickers to keep down the heads of the Germans. Although we were kept aloft watching for Germans I glanced at the ground from time to time and saw the waves of brown uniforms walking purposefully north. Thanks to the bombers and to the Camels there were no machine guns to turn them into mincemeat.

Archie and the rest of the squadron headed south to refuel and rearm while we kept watch for German aeroplanes. It was hand to hand fighting below us but the allied forces had the advantage that the Germans had suffered an aerial bombardment and were weakened because of it. The whole intent of the attack was to weaken the flanks of the Germans and make them halt their advance. It looked like it was working.

The Fokkers arrived just fifteen minutes after the departure of Archie. They were the triplane along with a few of the older Fokkers. I waggled my wings and led my six aeroplanes down to attack them. The triplanes climbed to engage us.  They would have to leave the party sooner than their comrades. We were stacked and I intended to make one pass over the triplanes and then engage the older buses. I pulled my triggers and banked to port at the same time. My bullets hit the wings and struts of the leading Fokker. Wally behind me was luckier.  As I turned I saw that he had hit the pilot and the triplane tumbled to the ground.

As I fired at the next Fokker I felt bullets hit my fuselage.  You learned to ignore them. I hit the tail of the Fokker which banked away, to starboard. I continued my bank and saw, below me, the three older Fokkers as they began to fire at the advancing allied soldiers. We were able to fly more than twenty miles an hour faster than they were and our altitude meant we were even quicker. We reached them before they had expended more than a dozen bullets. As we swooped we each fired in turn. My banking manoeuvre meant that I crossed all three of them.  I kept firing knowing that they would have to endure the fire of six Camels.

When I passed the last, I began to climb.  In my mirror I saw that all three had been badly hit.  None would reach home. Jack Fall had also been hit.  I saw smoke coming from his engine and he was surrounded by triplanes. I led the other four to attack the Fokkers from underneath. As we fired I saw, to the south, Freddie and his flight as they came on station. The Fokkers stood no chance.  Freddie was the hammer and we were the anvil. When three had fallen from the sky the remaining seven fled east pursued by a vengeful Freddie.

We headed south. I signalled for Wally to lead and I flew next to Jack.  His bus coughed and spluttered but it kept going and when we saw the field ahead I knew that he would make it.

That first day we took off four times.  Our numbers became depleted as the day wore on. It was not due to losses from enemy fire but the wear and tear of air time.  The umbrella of Camels stayed aloft until dusk and the Germans were pushed back.  Their offensive had stalled.

By the end of April we felt that we had halted the German advance. We were, for the first time in a long time, stood down. Leave was granted, at least for some of the younger men. Gordy was a little resentful but I explained that many of the younger pilots had yet to have a leave. We were left with a skeleton squadron. We would only be needed if the Germans began another attack. Many of the ground crews were also given leave and the rest spent their time finishing the repairs to Doyle Airfield.

We also received mail. The German Offensive had upset the postal service and I had a whole day’s worth of reading.  It was a pleasant May morning and I sat outside my quarters. There was news in all of them but one had the most important piece of news.

Hyde Park

April 5
th
1918,

Dearest Husband,

I hope that you are well.  The newspapers are full of the news that the Germans have broken through! As I have not had a telegram and you haven’t turned up injured at the hospital I assume that you are, at least, alive. I hope your knee is not giving you too much pain.

I have some wonderful news, at least I believe it is wonderful, we are going to have a baby in the autumn.  You are to be a father. I know that you will be as happy as I am.

I have told no one yet, save Mary. They have rules about that sort of thing and I will have to leave the hospital.  I am not showing yet and so I can carry on working.  I would like to carry on for as long as I can.

Mary has said that I can stay with her in the short term but that is not an answer.  What do you think?

I pray that God watches over you. You have even more reason now to survive this war.

I love you and go to bed at night thinking of you and yearning for your arms around me.

Your loving wife,

Beattie

xxx

I read the letter a dozen times to make sure I had understood it. I was to be a father. I would not be the last of the Harskers! I read the other letters from Alice, Sarah and mum but the only one I went back to was Beattie’s.  Then I thought of the ramifications. Where would she live?  She was quite right she could not stay indefinitely at Mary’s. It was not a large house and, besides, it was my responsibility. I saw a solution almost immediately. Burscough; she could stay with mum and dad.  When the baby was born then I could look for a house although I had no idea how to either rent or buy.

I put pen to paper and wrote to mum, Sarah and Alice. I told them the news and then asked mum if Beattie could stay with them.  I knew what the answer would be but I knew that they would expect to be asked. I then wrote a very long letter to Beattie.  I think I managed to convey my joy and I told her of my plan. I almost ran to the office to have them sent. I knew that Randolph would have to censor them and so I told him my news. He was delighted for me and said, “I will do these in a jiffy! We celebrate in the mess tonight!”

Bates was even more pleased than even Randolph.  He approved of my ideas and my plans.  You would have thought he had a vested interest in the birth. It was as though the new baby would, in some way, be related to him! Needless to say I had a distinctly bad head the next morning, as did the rest of the squadron.  The fact that it was all the older pilots was reassuring.  We had so much in common.

Archie had been particularly garrulous. He had three children of his own.  He regaled us with stories of their childhood and his dreams and hopes for their future.  It made all of us think, for the first time, of life after the war. Gordy was adamant that he, like Archie would leave the service. “I shall open a garage.  Trust me there will be a fortune to be made and I am still a handy mechanic.”

“I will go back to the family farm. There’s little on it now but I have saved a wee bit of money and I shall buy some sheep and highland cattle.  I will be a laird.”

The rest of us were all keen to stay in the new RAF although my impending responsibilities put some doubts in my mind. I would wait until the baby was born and then decide. There was little chance of the war being over by autumn.  I would have plenty of time to make up my mind.

The young pilots returned from leave at about the same time that we heard the news that the Red Baron had been shot down. Surprisingly enough there was neither elation nor celebration.  We all knew that he was a good pilot and when we heard he had been killed by ground fire it made us more aware than ever of our own mortality. Ground fire was like luck; it struck indiscriminately.  Even the best pilot could die at the hands of a lucky machine gunner.

May brought renewed attention from the German Jastas.  They began to probe and attack the area just to the east of our field.  Headquarters sent some heavier artillery pieces to deter the Hun.  No one wanted us to decamp to a tented village again. At first the Germans were cautious.  Their numbers were too small for them to risk a combat with our twenty aeroplanes but their daily presence was a sure sign that they were up to something.

After one such patrol I found Freddie talking to one of his young pilots, Jamie Fox.  He was a likeable young pilot and he came not far from my home in Ormskirk. I waited until he had finished and then approached Freddie.  “Problem?”

“Possibly. Before he went on leave he was reliable and very popular.  Since he has returned he has become withdrawn and he has had a couple of fights and arguments with the other pilots. I caught him and Owen squaring up to each other this morning after the patrol.”

“Can’t have that.”

“Quite.  You know the Welshman, he is just serious.  He isn’t belligerent.”

“Do you want me to have a word?”

He smiled, “No sir.  It is my flight and my problem.”

“Yes Freddie but we can’t have one bad apple at fifteen thousand feet.  Pilots could die.”

“I know.  I will deal with it.”

It was strange for the young pilots normally got on well with each other. We didn’t have to deal with petty squabbles which I knew happened in other squadrons. I would let Freddie work things out but if it continued then I would do something about it.

It was in the second week of May that the Germans began to increase their aerial activity.  Perhaps they had been stunned by the Red Baron’s death and forced to reorganise but when they came they came in numbers. We were over La Fere.  It was now well behind the German lines but it had been the front line a month earlier. We were looking for targets to strafe but Fritz had become warier and we saw no targets as we patrolled the skies. Freddie waggled his wings to signal that the enemy had been seen. I peered east and saw twenty odd German fighters.  Half of them were the triplane but the other half looked different.  They were not the older fighters we were used to.  They were a new bus.

Archie led us higher to match their altitude. The Germans climbed higher.  That was a worrying development.  The new fighter looked to have a greater ceiling.  I wondered if they had oxygen or heat in their cockpits for once you were above twenty thousand it was hard to breathe and almost impossible to keep warm. Archie wisely kept us circling rather than risking the higher altitude and its attendant dangers.

The Germans swooped down.  I saw that the new bus had twin Spandau like the triplane.  It appeared to be out diving the Fokker; that set alarm bells ringing in my head. Then we were amongst them and all such thoughts were driven from my mind as we just tried to survive.

The new bus was a bigger target. My first shots hit his wings but then he was past me and firing at Wally. I banked to come round and get on his tail.  My smaller size and turning circle meant I was able to do so quite quickly; he was not a triplane. I fired a second burst and hit him.  I felt bullets cracking into my own tail and saw, in my mirror, that I had two triplanes close behind. I pulled up my nose to loop. The first Fokker was slow to take his fingers off his guns and I saw him hit the new German fighter. As I reached the top of the loop I flicked my Camel around and then side slipped to port. The move threw off the aim of the Fokker which was behind me. I banked to starboard and saw the second of my pursuers ahead of me, side on.  I gave a long burst.  I hit his stays, his wires, his wing and finally the cockpit. The triplane seemed to disintegrate in the air.  I kept the turn going and the first Fokker started to dive. I had more speed and I brought my Camel around to line up on his rear. He headed east.  His fuel was running out.  I fired again and hit his fuselage. Although twisting and turning I was hitting him.