by Griff Hosker
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.
I saw burning aeroplanes as we began our descent. It was hard to tell if they were ours or theirs. There were three of them. Even worse, when we came in to land I saw a crowd of people around Johnny’s aeroplane. It was quite obvious that he had suffered damage. One of the wheels had broken and it lay at an untidy angle. It took longer to reach him for we had to park our aeroplanes where they could be camouflaged. By the time we had run across the field he was being carried on a stretcher. I saw that his face, although covered in dressings was a bloody mess.
I caught up with Doc Brennan. “How is he?”
He reassuringly smiled, “He will live. It looks far worse than it is but it is a serious wound.” He stopped smiling. “He has lost his right eye and his face will be scarred for life. But he will live.”
“What happened, how…?”
He opened his blood stained hand. There was small piece of silver metal the size of a farthing. “A bullet must have struck the engine and this piece ricocheted, with others and hit his face. He was lucky it did not penetrate his skull. If it had he would be dead. As it is he will be up and about in a week or so.”
“But he lost an eye!”
“His body will adjust.”
“Can he still fly?”
“No reason why not. Whether he wants to or not is another matter.” I opened my mouth and he said, “You can see him tomorrow. The body is in shock and he will need rest.” He put his arm around my shoulder. “And that will be good medicine for you too.”
Archie and Randolph looked at me. I could see the concern on their faces. “A rough one?”
I nodded, “We lost Harry and Ben Sanderson. Johnny has lost an eye.”
Ted and Gordy walked in. “Well that was a bit of a bugger.”
“Did you lose any pilots or buses?” I could hear the concern in Archie’s voice.
“No but we can only manage one flight between us tomorrow. They meant business today.”
Cecil Alldardyce came to the tent and peered in. “Sir, do you want the report of A Flight?”
I could hear the catch in his voice. “Of course, come in and thank you for having the presence of mind to ask.”
He nodded and gathered himself. “The Lieutenant led us to protect the spotters but they outnumbered us by two to one. They got Ben and they hit Joe Duffy.” He looked at me and shrugged, “It is why I am reporting. I am the only one left, sir.”
“You are doing well, carry on.”
“We would both have been shot down but Major Harsker here came to our rescue. If he hadn’t….”
“I am sorry that I took so long. What about the spotters?”
He shook his head, “They didn’t get them. Well, they did hit one but it landed and I saw them carry the camera off. They did their job.”
“And so did you. Off you go and, well done. Tell David he did well too.”
He smiled, “He now has more kills than Lumpy! He is pleased with himself.”
“As he should be, Lumpy was a legend.”
Ted said, “If they come again tomorrow, what do we do? Throw paper aeroplanes at them?”
Archie leaned back as he puffed on his pipe. He took it out to point to the east. “If the photographs are what the brass hats want, then we will just have to stop the Hun coming over our lines. That may be our only salvation.”
Randolph asked, “Bill you have Freddie left, then there is Alldardyce.” I nodded as I filled my pipe. “Ted?”
“There is me and Gordy, Dave Ferry, Tony Hanson and Brian Hargreaves.”
Randolph looked up from the list he was compiling. “That makes eight aeroplanes.”
Archie nodded, “There are just three days until Zero Hour. We will just have to see what wonders Mr Lowery can perform.”
Bates had the nervous look he had first adopted when he arrived at the squadron. He shook his head, “Dear me sir, so many young men. And poor Mr Dodds. He had a young lady at home, did you know?”
“No, I didn’t John. How do you know so much about them all?”
“They see me as someone they can confide in. No offence meant to the reverend gentleman but the padre is not the sympathetic type. I must just be a good listener.”
“Perhaps I should make you the morale officer eh John?”
“I don’t think so.” He peered at me, “Will the squadron be up again tomorrow?”
“What there is left of it, yes.”
“Then I had better get your uniform ready.”
That evening was sombre. There were too many empty places and all of us knew that the ones who remained might not be there much longer. The tent walls and dirt floor did not help but were surrounded by ghosts. Moving from Arras had been an unmitigated disaster.
Chapter 32
As we climbed, before dawn this time, I tried to be positive about the patrol. We had hit them harder than they had hit us. Their hastily assembled aeroplanes were testament to that. We also knew that other RFC squadrons had been knocked about worse than us. That did not make me feel any better. We were just two flights and we patrolled a north south route over Ypres and the front line. The Tommies cheerily waved at us and we waved back whilst keeping a weather eye to the east and the Hun in the sun.
It was almost an anti climax when no German fighters appeared. Of course we had not ventured over their lines but I felt that they had declined to engage us. Perhaps we had hurt them more than they had hurt us.
When I landed I did not report to Randolph. I went to see Johnny. His head looked enormous. It was as though he had a turban on. He smiled when I entered, “How did it go today sir?”
“The Huns did not come. You scared them off!”
He laughed and winced, “I forget that there are muscles on my face.” He pointed to his cheek. “I have many scars apparently.”
I remembered talking to Beattie about such wounds. “You would be amazed how quickly they heal. Within a month or so you will hardly notice them.”
“What about my eye though, sir? Will that heal?”
“Now Lieutenant Holt, you know that it will not. What do you want? Sympathy? If I give you sympathy will that give you back your eye?”
“No, sir.”
“The doc says you can fly with one eye. In fact it will hardly impair you. Think about poor Lumpy with one arm. He did not let it get him down. And we both know that Charlie Sharp would trade places with you in a heartbeat. So if you want sympathy ask for the padre.”
“I am sorry sir. You are right. Is it true? Can I fly again?”
“As far as I am concerned you can. The question is do you think you can? If the answer is yes then you need to get better as soon as you can.”
“Thank you, sir, and good luck tomorrow.”
“You just get well and leave the flying to us for the time being.”
I did not sleep well that night. I dreamt of my dead comrades in the cavalry, Lord Burscough, Charlie and poor Lumpy. I just saw them being killed or wounded over and over and I could do nothing about it. I was not refreshed when Bates woke me for the dawn patrol.
None of the damaged aeroplanes were ready nor were their crews and the eight of us took off on that fateful day in late July. We followed the same pattern as the day before. We were not worried that the Germans would be waiting for us. We had left too early for that. We reached the front shortly after dawn and peered east. The clouds were a little lower than we might have liked but they were acceptable conditions.