by Guy Warner
‘Wedding Bells: CONGRATULATIONS to Commander Neville Usborne, RN, of the Naval Wing of the Royal Flying Corps, who was married on Monday at St. Margaret’s Church, Westminster, to Miss Betty Hamilton.’
The Times noted:
‘The bridegroom and the best man, Lieutenant C.J. L’Estrange Malone, RN, Assistant to the Director at the Air Department of the Admiralty, were in full uniform, and there was a guard of honour at the church from the Naval Airship Section and from the bridegroom’s ship, Naval Airship III.’268
Betty Usborne.
Helen Monteith ‘Betty’ Hamilton, who was 21-years-old, was the daughter of the artist and tea-planter Vereker Hamilton, and was also the niece of General Sir Ian Hamilton, who would command the ill-fated Mediterranean Expeditionary Force during the Battle of Gallipoli.
Almost a Taste of Action
The airship branch almost got a taste of action in the spring of 1914 when two Squadron Commanders, F.L. Boothby and R. Bell Davies, were sent to the British Protectorate, Somaliland, to survey the possibility of airships being used there. The intent was that they should assist the Camel Constabulary in suppressing Sayyīd Muhammad ‘Abd Allāh al-Hasan, ‘the Mad Mullah’, and his dervishes, who were raiding the country from Ethiopia and Italian Somaliland. Airships had been decided upon by the Admiralty because aero engines were at that time so unreliable the inevitable result of mechanical failure for an aeroplane would be a forced landing, which the Mullah could claim as being due to his magical powers.
A paper was circulated by the First Lord of the Admiralty considering the proposal of the Colonial Office to use aircraft, which noted that the whole wealth of the Mullah was in camels and livestock and that very considerable damage could be inflicted upon him, apart from actual offensive operations, by stampeding his stock and keeping them from their wells.
It was considered that three airships would suffice, two of the Parseval type with modified cars for operations, accompanied by Eta, also modified to enable her to carry stores to the advanced base, to assist with a photographic survey of the trade routes and to be available as a spare ship in case of necessity. One portable and two canvas sheds would be needed, a hydrogen plant, armament from the Ordnance Department, spares (including envelopes), petrol, oil and photographic equipment. It was envisaged that eight officers and forty-nine other ranks would be required, supplemented by Indian troops from Berbera should further manpower be required for handling parties. The experience of the Italian airships at Tripoli was cited as proof that airships could operate satisfactorily in the climatic conditions prevailing in the Somalian winter. The total cost was estimated at £75,000.269
In the event the onset of hostilities in Europe concentrated minds elsewhere; the Mad Mullah had to wait until 1919–20, when aircraft of the RAF did the job – one of the first examples of air control beloved by Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Trenchard.
A Parting of the Ways
June 1914 brought the final breach between the two wings of the RFC when the Admiralty issued a series of regulations governing the organisation of the Royal Naval Air Service, which thereby became a distinct branch of the Royal Navy in much the same fashion as the Royal Marines. Remarkably, the Admiralty was able to make this move without either being questioned or contradicted by either Parliament or in the Press. It was very much a unilateral declaration of independence. The second (and final) annual report on the RFC to include notes on airships was issued at about this time, and reported that in the previous year a distance of 5,275 miles (9,160 kilometres) had been flown by airships without casualties, with an additional 12,848 miles (20,557 kilometres) by free balloons, much used for training purposes.270
Gamma over Portsmouth in June 1914.
HMA No 3 at Kingsnorth in 1914 by Vereker Hamilton.
In mid-1914, Kingsnorth was commissioned as a constructional, experimental, and class G station, with the stated purpose of protecting Chatham and Sheerness. It was decided that Astra-Torres and Parseval airships would be stationed there. Remarkably, the First Lord of the Admiralty found the time to write to the Director of Air Services about the security arrangements on 7 June:
‘The wooden shed at Kingsnorth would be a fine quarry for the suffragettes and it appears to me that it should be watched. The existing watchman informs me that he watches all night long and on Sundays from 12 noon till 7 o’clock next morning. This means that he probably walks round once or twice and goes to sleep for the rest of the time. The matter should have your attention and a regular watch established pending the time when the men enter.’271
Kingsnorth
On 1 July 1914, Usborne was appointed as wing commander and confirmed in command of Kingsnorth. He had been there since mid-June and had to deal with a potentially dangerous fire in the metal airship shed on 28 June.
Masterman wrote of this period:
‘The Airship Branch was unprepared for hostilities, but Usborne was full of schemes for the use of such material as was available and specialised in the mooring out of non-rigid airships in the open so that they could be available for patrol work over the sea. Godmersham Park was the scene of some of his activities.’272
Napoleon believed that an army marched on its stomach; from correspondence between Usborne and an applicant for the post of messman at Kingsnorth it would appear that Usborne believed that a well-fed wardroom was a happy and efficient one. It also shows that he paid considerable attention to detail and gives a very good indication of the style of life enjoyed by RN officers of that period.
W.H. Gunner sought a position as messman in a series of letters to Usborne commencing in August 1913. The agreement was written in Usborne’s own hand:
Victualling agreement with W.H. Gunner – messman.
Each Officer, 2/- (10p) per day or £3 per month, guest 3/6d (17½p) per day.
Breakfast – porridge, fish, bacon & eggs or sausages, omelettes or kidneys, boiled eggs, tongue, two jams, and marmalade.
Luncheon – soup, two hot dishes (fish, steak chops or joint), three cold joints, potatoes, second vegetable (in season), sweet (twice weekly), cheese, pickles, celery or salad (in season).
Sunday Supper (in lieu of dinner) – soup, fish, roast meats, galantine or pie, ham, tongue, potatoes, sweet cheese, pickles, celery or salad (in season).
Tea – pot of tea, plate of bread and butter or buttered toast. Extras in rotation: Fullers bake, crumpets, biscuits, rock cakes.
Dinner – soup, fish or entrée, one joint, sweet, savoury and coffee.
Only the best articles of food are to be purchased by the messman and another brand of tea or coffee shall be supplied by him if that provided does not give satisfaction. Best Parisian coffee will be served after lunch at 2d (1p) per cup and gratis after dinner. Special attention should be given to the variety of meals avoiding any monotony. All beers, minerals (including a good brand of ginger beer), cigars, cigarettes and tobaccos to be supplied by messman at lowest current prices.273
He was also concerned about the suitability of neighbouring Hoo and Rochester as places of resort for the men when off duty. He regarded Hoo as, ‘a particularly undesirable village, full of public houses of the low agricultural type.’274 He therefore proposed that a wet canteen, ie, serving alcoholic beverages should be constructed on site, so that social drinking could be monitored and, hopefully, controlled. Further suggestions included the provision of games, indoor pastimes and garden allotments, ‘so there is no reason why the place should not become a happy, self-contained colony.’275
Both airships, No 3, which was a particularly comfortable ship, with an enclosed car and a radio set, and No 4, made a good number of successful flights from Kingsnorth during 1914, including, in April, another circuit of London landmarks, this time by No 4.
In July 1914 the Naval Wing was renamed the Royal Naval Air Service. It comprised the Air Department at the Admiralty; the Central Air Office at Sheerness; the Royal Naval Flying School at Eastchurch; the Royal Naval Air Stations, and al
l seaplanes, aeroplanes, airships, seaplane ships, balloons and kites employed for naval purposes. The first Director of the Air Department of the Admiralty was Captain Murray Sueter, CB. There were six wing commanders, who were, in order of seniority: O. Schwann, E.A.D. Masterman, F.R. Scarlett, E.M. Maitland, N.F. Usborne and C.R. Samson. Personnel already serving in the RN, RM, RNR and RNVR could apply for transfer. This was shortly before the Royal Fleet Review at Spithead, which was held from 18–22 July 1914. The Astra-Torres HMA No 3 flew over the fleet in July 1914 under the command of Wing Commander Usborne, with Flight Lieutenant W. Hicks as 2nd Officer. It was joined from Farnborough by HMA No 4 (Parseval), Squadron Commander H.L. Woodcock and Flight Commander J.N. Fletcher; HMA No 18, Gamma, Flight Commander J. Boyle and Flight Lieutenant A. Cunningham, and HMA No 19, Delta, Squadron Commander C.M. Waterlow and Flight Commander J.D. Mackworth. No 3 and No 4 escorted the Royal Yacht out of Portsmouth harbour. Seventeen fixed-wing seaplanes from Isle of Grain, Dundee, Yarmouth, Felixstowe and Calshot, as well as twelve fixed-wing, land-based aircraft from Eastchurch also participated. When manoeuvring directly over the assembled fleet, one of the airships took the first ever vertical photograph of a battleship taken from the air.
A Zeppelin flies over the visiting warships of the Royal Navy at Kiel in June 1914.
The General Orders for the assembly of aircraft at Spithead, on 18–22 July 1914, included instructions specifically for the airships. General orders covered some more specific stipulations: ‘Uniform for all officers will be monkey jacket, breeches and putties, optional flying kit to be worn over it when actually flying. Officers may also wear any form of headgear when flying, but must carry a uniform cap to wear at all other times.’ (via Sue Kilbracken)
Chapter Four
From August 1914 to February 1916
The First War Patrols
On 4 August 1914 Usborne reported to the Admiralty that he had, under his command, four RNAS flying officers, a meteorological officer, seventy-seven ratings, an airship handling party of two petty officers and forty-eight boys, a military guard of sixty-two NCOs and men, commanded by two RE officers, and one further RE officer and twenty-nine men, whose concern was the completion of a blockhouse.1 Building work was continuing and accommodation was chiefly under canvas. After the declaration of war, the Kingsnorth airships carried out very valuable, long duration patrols over the Straits of Dover, escorting the troopships taking the British Expeditionary Force to France between 9 and 22 August. No 3 had a greater range than No 4 and could fly further to the north-east over the Channel approaches. Indeed, the initial British aerial missions of the war were carried out by these two airships. On the very first night of the war, No 4 came under the fire of territorial detachments at the mouth of the Thames on her return to her station. The enthusiastic, but trigger-happy soldiers, presumably imagined that she was a German airship on a spying mission over the naval dockyard at Chatham.
Log of No. 3 Airship, 13 August 1914.
7.10 a.m. Rose.
7.37 Passed Sittingbourne.
7.45 Passed Teynham Station.
7.50 Passed Faversham.
8.20 Passed Canterbury.
9.00 Passed Coastguard Station.
9.49 Sighted No. 4 Airship.
10.41 Sighted seaplane on starboard quarter.
5.50 p.m. Altered course for Coastguard Station.
6.25 Coastguard Station.
6.54 Faversham.
7.40 Sittingbourne.
7.34 Landed.
A chart of a patrol by Airship No 3 on 14 August 1914.
Chart of patrol of Airship No 3 on 11 August 1914.
Neville’s account of a patrol on 16 August 1914.
Log of No. 4 Airship, 13 August 1914.
7.40 a.m. Left Kingsnorth.
9.28 Passed Coastguard Station, shaped course for Calais.
10.35 Shaped course for Dover.
11.25 Shaped course for Calais.
11.35 Broke one blade of port propeller, rendering it necessary to change two for new blades. Off Dover one blade of the port propeller burst and flew off, narrowly missing damaging the rigging near the envelope. We were able to fit two new blades while under way and continue the patrol. This took one hour and twenty minutes.
12.55 pm Proceeded to Calais.
1.40 Shaped course for Dover.
2.12 Course as requisite to arrive at Calais.
2.52 Dover.
3.20 Calais.
4.00 Dover.
4.45 Calais.
5.45 Deal.
7.30 Arrived at Kingsnorth.
7.53 Landed.
It will be seen that the Parseval, which could not fly for a whole day without landing for the replenishment of fuel, plied continually between Dover and Calais, while the Astra-Torres, which was the stronger ship, laid her course far to the east and north-east to search the Channel for the approach of hostile craft. Once the expeditionary force was safely across the Channel, these routine patrols were discontinued, though both airships and seaplanes continued to make special scouting flights over the North Sea and Channel.2
Murray Sueter related a story which he believed spoke volumes for the average naval officer’s appreciation of the RN’s aerial assets at that early stage of the war:
‘During one of the patrols an amusing incident occurred, which I relate to show how little the navy bothered to study airships before the war. One of our coast patrol cruisers, with the admiral on board, suddenly sighted one of our airships. They at once cleared lower deck, and placed below all surplus ammunition not required to fire at the airship, which they thought was a Zeppelin. A few days after this incident, the Chief of Staff sent for me, and wanted to know what I meant by letting one of my airships go near this patrol cruiser, as the admiral thought it was a German Zeppelin. I said, “He couldn’t possibly have thought that, sir, as it was the tri-lobe Astra-Torres, commanded by Wing Commander Usborne (one of our ablest naval torpedo officers and expert airman) and not in the least like a Zeppelin, and the admiral, who had been Director of Operations at the Admiralty for two years, ought really to know the difference.”
‘“Do not be absurd, DAD [Director of Air Department],” was the answer, “how could you expect the Director of Operations to find time to go and look at one of your airships? What nonsense, indeed!” Of course, the naval airmen were always wrong. After this I had a book of silhouettes of every aircraft – our own, allied, and enemy – specially prepared and circulated for guidance of those who had been too busy to spare a second to look at our airships.’3
Account of a patrol of eleven and a half hours.
Log of No 3 Airship for 13 August 1914.
Report for 14 August.
Extract from Log of Airship No 3 on 11 August 1914.
Further remedial measures included supplying naval control centres with the start and finish times of patrols, the issue of ‘dozens of photographs and line drawings showing the difference between our ships and German Zeppelins’ and large White Ensigns with jacks being supplied to the airships, ‘it is not seen that much more can be done at present’.4
On the other hand, Sueter himself was not the easiest of subordinates, being enthusiastic, unorthodox and somewhat impatient of minds unable, or unwilling, to grasp matters which he perceived to be of fundamental importance. In return, salt-horse senior officers regarded the RNAS in general, and Sueter in particular, as insolent upstarts who needed the beneficial lash of old style naval discipline at regular intervals.
On 23 August 1914, a letter was sent to Usborne from Commander Edward Masterman, now at the Air Department in the Admiralty. It noted that he was:
‘Disappointed by the failure to get No 4 (Parseval) back to Farnborough at the required time. The sooner she gets back the better, as her propellers are practically ready for her. She will have to do without reversing gear for a bit as that is not yet designed, but I don’t think it highly essential. I do not think, nor do others, that she ought to continue flying with m
etal propellers after the accident in the air the other day.’5
On an early war patrol, No 4 had shed a propeller blade, but as she carried a spare, this was changed in mid-air. However, the airship drifted towards the Belgian coast where the flashes of gunfire illuminated the gathering dusk. Masterman went on to remind Usborne that Maitland was in charge at Farnborough and anything wanted from him should be by request and not framed as an order. (As will have been noted, Wing Commander E.M. Maitland had a considerable background in lighter-than-air aviation – he took up ballooning in 1908 and, on 18 November 1908, together with Major Charles C. Turner and Professor Auguste Gaudron, he flew in the Mammoth from Crystal Palace to Mateki Derevni in Russia, a distance of 1,117 miles (1,787 kilometres) in 36½ hours – a new British long-distance balloon record. In 1909 and 1910 he was attached to the Balloon School and whilst there he also undertook experiments with powered aircraft, but, following a bad crash, decided to concentrate on airships. On one occasion, he took a couple of young ladies aloft in a balloon, only to come down on the rooftops of Kensington, necessitating rescue by the fire brigade. He had been serving in positions of authority since 1911.) Usborne was urged to be ‘more tactful’. Masterman went on to make some recommendations as to future commands:
‘Fletcher, No 6 (Parseval Vickers) with No 5’s (Parseval Vickers) crew, Woodcock, No 7 (Parseval Vickers) with Cook as coxswain, No 4, Hicks or Cunningham. Can you straighten this out now as you think?’6
And concluded by warning:
‘Look out you don’t get an incendiary bomb dropped on the wooden shed by an aeroplane from Ostend.’7