1916 Angels over the Somme

by Griff Hosker

  I stood. “I will go and have a word with Freddy. Find out what happened.”

  “Good idea. Oh, by the way, your chat with Carstairs must have worked. He bagged his first Fokker today.”

  “Good, I am pleased.” He had been quiet for a few days but Gordy seemed happier with him. Perhaps all he needed was a good talking to.

  The ambulances had taken the wounded to the sick bay. Randolph had told me that nothing was serious. We would have enough pilots and gunners. I saw Senior Flight Sergeant Lowery with Sergeant McKay. They both saluted when I walked up to them. “What’s the damage then?”

  “Three willna be flying tomorrow sir. Just minor damage but it is to the engines. They need nursing a wee bit. We can fix up the wings fairly easily but the engines… well they need ma touch.”

  I turned to Lowery. “We appear to have credit with Wing; how about getting Mr Doyle on to them. Let’s see if we can get more spares. We will be having more aeroplanes and pilots soon. They won’t be much good if they are all grounded.”

  “The lads are doing their best, Captain Harsker.”

  “I know Mr McKay and that is not a criticism. It’s just that every aeroplane we can keep n the air saves lives on the ground. Today we stopped the Germans from using a rail head. When the Tommies attack tomorrow it should be easier.”

  “Point taken, Captain Harsker. I’ll ring Wing myself. As you say they seem to think that 41 Squadron is the best so who are we to disagree?”

  I was glad that I had had the coffee for I was flagging. I headed for the mess where I hoped I would find Freddie. Surprisingly it was empty and I went to his quarters. He still shared a room with Johnny Holt despite the fact that they were now in different flights. They were like Gordy and me; they were mates.

  They snapped to attention when I entered. “At ease. I just wanted to talk with you about Dunston.” Johnny got up to leave but I said, “No, Johnny, I’d like you to stay. Just shut the door will you.”

  I sat on the chair and began to light my pipe. I had discovered that it encouraged others to talk without peppering them with questions. “It was only a little mistake sir. He wasn’t watching you closely enough when you made that right bank and he flew straight on. He was Fokker watching. Two of them pounced on him. That was when his gunner got nicked. Luckily Laithwaite was on the ball and between us we sent them on their way. By the time he had recovered and I had signalled him to take station again you were some way away. Sorry.”

  “Don’t worry. I thought we might have teething troubles. I am just glad that he is surviving.”

  “Don’t worry sir, I will have another word with him.”

  “I am glad you are both here because we are getting another batch of pilots. The squadron is getting bigger and you two will need to help the new pilots to acclimatise quickly. Dunston will need to be up to speed sooner rather than later.”

  “Don’t worry sir, I won’t let you down.”

  “I know Freddie. You have come a long way since I put you both in the front cockpit.”

  They laughed and Freddie shook his head. “That put me in my place sir. I thought I knew everything but seeing the world through the eyes of a gunner was a revelation.”

  “Well it made you a better pilot, both of you for that matter.”

  The Major led us up the next day and we managed a patrol without too much stress. We saw four Fokkers but they kept well to their side of the lines. From what we could see there appeared to be little ground action, certainly on the German side. Ominously we saw lines of Tommies marching towards the support trenches. That was a sure sign of another push. How long would this battle go on? We had already exceeded the Loos offensive. How many more men would we lose? It seemed to me that we were bleeding the country dry.

  There were also new arrivals at the airfield. A dozen lorries disgorged mechanics, sergeants and equipment as we taxied along the grass. As Archie and I entered Captain Marshall’s office a harassed Senior Flight Sergeant Lowery hurtled out of the door. He shook his head, “Sorry sirs! They send the men and the equipment but no beds! Headquarters; they have no sense!”

  I smiled as he hurtled out of the door, “He is only happy when he is moaning. No sign of the Gunbuses though.”

  “No, they are due this afternoon. Apparently they are flying all the replacement aeroplanes over together to avoid them getting lost. And we are to stand down until the day after tomorrow. Wing wants us to be able to field all the cover we can muster. I think there is another offensive coming up. They are trying to take Delville Woods and the area around Pozières.”

  Archie came out of his office and went to the staff car. He shook his head. “Typical, Lord Burscough spends the other day briefing me and now I get summoned to Wing for another briefing. If talk could win a war we would be in Berlin by now. You can greet the new chaps, Bill. God knows when I will be back!”

  I went back to my quarters with mixed emotions. I was glad of the rest. The aeroplanes and the crews needed it but an offensive meant that thousands of young men would die. I had seen their faces now and spoken to them. It made it more personal. When I reached my quarters I met Airman Bates for the first time. Major Leach had his own servant, inherited from the colonel, Smith. The rest of us didn’t have any. Bates was the first of a number who had just arrived. It was another sign of our status. I had been Lord Burscough’s servant in the cavalry and knew what to expect. If I am honest I did not need a servant but Airman Bates stood to attention when I entered my room.

  “Airman John Bates sir, your new servant. I took the liberty of tidying up in here sir. I hope it was not presumptuous of me?” He was the most softly spoken man I had ever heard. He had a perpetual smile on his face and everything about him was neat.

  “No, Bates that is fine. You carry on.”

  As he made my bed I examined him. He was a slight man, almost tiny. He looked unreasonably neat. I know he wore the same uniform as the others but he managed to give it some style. His hair was well groomed and I noticed that his hands were manicured. I took off my jacket and he had it brushed, straightened and on a hanger in double quick time.

  He turned to me and smiled, “Now then sir, I need to get to know what you like and so on if I am to do my job. What is your routine?”

  I sat down and told him the times I rose, what I did, my day and when I went to bed. It felt strange. I had grown up as the son of a servant, I had started my military career as a servant, and now I had my own. It felt unnatural to have a servant.

  I noticed that, as I spoke, although he had a serious expression he had twinkling eyes. He looked happy. It was strange. He nodded when I had finished.

  “Thank you sir.” I noticed he had collected all my dirty laundry and he gathered it up.

  “Before you go Bates, sit down and tell me about yourself.” He raised a quizzical eyebrow. “I do this with the men I fly with so do not take offence. I believe if you know where a man comes from you can lead him anywhere.”

  “None taken sir, but it is just unusual for an officer to take any interest in his servant. Well, sir, before the war I worked at Lord Derby’s estate. I assisted his Lordship’s gentleman’s gentleman. I was being trained to become the gentleman’s gentleman for his nephew. When his nephew joined up so did I and I became his servant.” His face clouded over and I saw sadness for the first time. “He was killed in the first battle of Ypres. I was then allocated to other officers. They were all either wounded or died.” He lowered his voice, “To be frank with you Captain Harsker I didn’t handle the deaths and the trenches very well. I became… unwell. I was sent to Craiglockhart. When I was cured a nice doctor there asked me if I wanted a discharge. I told him I wanted to serve my country but I couldn’t face the trenches. He sent me here.”

  I nodded and in that moment I had an insight into this neat little man. He coped through order. I would have to treat him as gently as I did my pilots.

  “Thank you for your honesty, Bates and I will do my very best not to get
killed.”

  He laughed, “They were right about you sir. You do have a sense of humour.”

  “Oh and just so you know I grew up on Lord Burscough’s estate which is not far from Lord Derby’s. I am the son of a groom and if it was not for the war then I too would be a servant on an estate. We are not that different, you and I.”

  “With respect sir, we are. I was born to be a servant but I know already that you were born to be a warrior.”

  As he went out I noticed that he didn’t so much walk as bounce out; he almost skipped and yet he looked to be almost forty. His voice and his manner were equally lively. Considering I had neither needed nor wanted a servant Bates made a real difference over the coming months. Perhaps it was his experience in the trenches which made him so easy to talk to. He certainly made a difference in my life.

  When I had dressed for dinner I heard the sound of approaching aeroplanes. I left the officers’ quarters and joined the others as the eight new Gunbuses approached from the west. I looked, with amusement, at the young pilots like Carstairs and Swan, critically analysing the flying of the eight new pilots. The eight would know they were being scrutinised. Sergeant McKay had organised all the new mechanics too. There was a large audience just waiting for them.

  Captain Marshal joined me and we lit our pipes. “It seems we have increased our staff generally, Bill. We had two officers who arrived this morning; one is going to supervise Sergeant McKay and the other Sergeant Richardson.”

  I gave him a wry look, “Well good luck to them! Have they any experience?”

  “I think they are both fresh from University.” He shrugged, “There were both doing engineering degrees so they might understand the physics.”

  “I’ll stick with the two sergeants. They might know bugger all about physics but they know Lewis guns and Gunbuses.”

  He laughed, “That’s what I like about you northerners. You have a habit of calling a spade a shovel.”

  “As my dad would say, ‘tell the truth and shame the devil’!”

  “And we have half a dozen more sergeants, corporals and privates for the office.”

  “Do you need them?”

  “I think so. Sergeant Lowery and I are rushed off our feet. The trouble is we will have to learn to delegate.” He gestured at me with his pipe, “As will you Bill. Get some of the others to do the training. It will be good for them.”

  “You are probably right.”

  We watched as the eight aeroplanes landed. At least three of them came down in bounces. I saw Sergeant McKay wince at the potential damage to the undercarriages and frames. None of the landings were particularly good but I suspect the audience didn’t help and for most of them this would have been the first time they had landed a Gunbus.

  I turned to Sergeant Lowery. “Get them billeted. We will have a briefing at 0800 tomorrow.”

  “Sir!”

  “Sergeant McKay, I want the whole squadron in the air tomorrow at 0900. They won’t need ammunition.” I pointed to the recently landed aeroplanes. “These only have the two Lewis guns. Better see Percy. I want a pilot’s Lewis fitting on each one.” He groaned. “I know, Flight Sergeant, it is more weight and it weakens the structure of the bus but at the end of the day that extra Lewis saves lives.”

  “Sir.” He had a resigned tone to his voice.

  I gave him a wicked smile. “And ask the armourer if I can have a second pilot’s Lewis fitted to my bus.”

  His jaw dropped and then he mumbled, “Yes sir!”

  I knew that the air would be blue as he wandered off and pity the poor mechanic who got the wrong side of him.

  Archie did not make it back for dinner. Randolph had assumed he would not and we had spent the afternoon allocating the pilots to the flights. The four who had had the worst landings were divided up so that every flight had one who needed work. The others looked much of a muchness and we just arbitrarily put them in flights. We would be able to move them around later. We put the lists up before dinner. I saw them being scrutinised by the new and the experience pilots.

  I had persuaded Randolph to take charge of the speeches at dinner. I was not quite ready for that. I could talk tactics and flying but the social niceties were beyond me. It was inbred into the likes of Archie and Randolph.

  There was a healthy buzz of conversation around the table. I sat between Gordy and Charlie. Since he had been made up Charlie had taken to sitting with us. I knew it wasn’t snobbery. Charlie was not like that. He just wanted to learn from the three of us. He wanted to be the best Flight Commander he could be. I knew that he felt an affinity for us. We had all been promoted from gunner and he was following in our footsteps.

  “Charlie, I want you to take the pilots up one by one tomorrow and put them in the front cockpit. It’s the quickest way I know to make a pilot think about his gunner.”

  He grinned, “Well it worked with Mr Holt and Mr Carrick.”

  Gordy waved a forkful of Boeuf Bourguignon in the direction of the now crowded mess. “We have an extra twelve officers now! I think you ought to go on another recce and get some more furniture!”

  Ted and Charlie laughed. “I don’t think so. I got the first lot. It’s someone else’s turn now.”

  “We are growing though, Bill. How will we keep track of everyone? Especially in the air.”

  “The numbers on the nose help a little.”

  “You can’t see them from the side.”

  “Ted’s right. They are only useful on the ground. We need something on the side.”

  Charlie, who tended to be thoughtful suddenly said, “Sir, you could have a horse painted on the side of yours, being in the cavalry and all. It would mark you out for our lads and we would know where you were.”

  “What about the rest of us?”

  Charlie shrugged, “I could have a Lewis gun. I was a gunner.”

  “So were we,” pointed out Ted.

  Charlie grinned, “Yeah but I had the idea first! You have to come up with your own.”

  In the end it proved to be a diverting idea and we spent the rest of the evening discussing it. We decided that it was only the flight leaders who would need this. Anything else would be confusing.

  We were having whisky and enjoying a smoke when Archie returned. His eyes lit up when he spied the whisky bottle. “Give me a double! After a day talking to Wing I need one.”

  “Bad day skipper?”

  “Just as boring as a Presbyterian teetotaller’s wedding in Ayr!” We laughed. “You needn’t laugh. Next time I send one of you lads. That’ll be six hours of your life you’ll never have back!”

  “And did you learn anything?”

  He became serious. “Aye. I am afraid that the day after tomorrow we hit the ground running! They want us to keep the Hun on the ground. Our orders are to patrol their front line and stop their aeroplanes from observing our infantry attack. They really wanted us up tomorrow but they accepted that we would need a day with the new laddies. The attack is in two days time. We have to stop the Boche from seeing what we are about.”

  “A tall order.”

  “It gets taller I am afraid, Gordy. We have to patrol five miles of the front.”

  That shut everyone up. “How?”Charlie’s voice came out thin and high pitched. Five miles of the front meant we would not be able to help each other.

  “We use flights. That way we can cover a larger area. I’ll be with you Charlie.” I saw the relief on Charlie’s face. He leaned back in his chair. “So what did you do while Father was away?”

  Ted stubbed his cigarette out and poured himself another whisky. “We watched half of our new pilots do an impression of a kangaroo.”

  Archie laughed, “Well that is nothing new. I have yet to see a new pilot land properly. Present company excepted.”

  “The new buses don’t have a pilot Lewis. I got the armourer to fit one to each Gunbus.”

  “Typical of some official back in England who wants to save a few bob and cut corners.”
>
  “And we have decided to paint an emblem on each of our buses, just so that our men know who is who.”

  “Seems a good idea. Go on.”

  “I would have a horse because I was in the cavalry. Charlie here would have a gun because he was in the gunners.”

  Ted grumbled, “I wanted a gun. I had to settle for a hammer.”

  Archie looked puzzled, “A hammer?”

  Ted grinned, “Yes sir, my name is Edward. King Edward was known as the hammer of the Scots.”

  Even Archie laughed, “Very droll. And you Gordy, what did you come up with?”

  “We thought of a Gordian knot and then realised that wasn’t very warlike so I decided on a shield.”

  “I like it. It will give your flights identity: the Cavalry, the Gunners, the Hammers and the Shields. I shall join in and have a thistle on mine!”

  At 0800 we gathered for the briefing. We had the gunners with us as well and used the Sergeants’ Mess. It was the only place big enough. Archie started the briefing. He was good at this sort of thing.

  “Laddies, we have a great opportunity today. Today we begin to write the history of 41 Squadron. We have the best pilots, as rewarded by the King himself. We have the best gunners. Yesterday at Wing I discovered that our gunners have shot down more German aeroplanes than any other observers or gunners in the whole of the RFC. And we have the only aeroplane which can hold its own against the Germans. And you know something? We will need all of that if we are going to help the laddies on the Somme. We have to protect them from above and that isn’t going to be easy. Now Captain Harsker will explain what we will do today but tomorrow we will need to be as sharp as tacks because tomorrow we will have to hold off two squadrons of German aeroplanes!”

  It was rousing but there were no cheers. It was deadly serious and even the older hands knew that.

  “We will be flying in four flights tomorrow. We want the newer pilots to fit in behind the flight commander. Carstairs, McCormack, Holt and Carrick you will all be at the rear. We know that you can cope with that. This morning we are going to take the whole squadron up so that everyone gets to know the signals we will be using and we get used to flying with five or six aeroplanes instead of just three.” I paused to let them all take that in.