The First Great Air War

by Richard Townsend Bickers

  Lufbery’s Nieuport suddenly erupted into flames. A few seconds later he was seen to jump out of it rather than be roasted alive. Examination of the wreckage showed that a tracer bullet had hit the petrol tank. Rickenbacker recalled that only a few days before he had asked Lufbery what he would do if his aeroplane was set alight: jump or stay. Lufbery had replied that he would stay, because there was always the chance of sideslipping down to the ground and thus fanning the flames away from the cockpit.

  A pilot of a French squadron based nearby, who had seen what happened, took off at once to attack the Albatros. The German machine’s first burst shot him through the heart. A second French fighter did shoot it down, it crashed on the Allied side of the lines and its crew was taken prisoner.

  Douglas Campbell had taken off to avenge Lufbery and came back after an hour to report that he had fought a Rumpler, killed the observer, wounded the pilot and brought it down, also behind the Allied lines. Hundreds of mourners from all branches of the Allied Services attended Lufbery’s funeral the next day.

  On 6th May the 95th Squadron had finished its gunnery course and rejoined the 94th at Toul, eighteen miles from the Front and near Nancy. The accommodation was good: stone buildings and steel hangars.

  Hartney, in the meanwhile, commanding the 27th Squadron, had returned from Canada and America, spent six days in England, and arrived in France on 18th March. On 1st June, the 27th and 147th Squadrons also arrived at Toul with their Nieuport 28s.

  The 94th’s Commanding Officer gave them a most hospitable welcome. Major John F. M. Huffer, born in France to American parents, had never been to the United States but spoke English fluently. Along with the courtly manners he had learned in France he had the inherent American generosity. He invited all three of the other squadrons, and all twenty-four of the American nurses in the neighbourhood who were off duty, to a party, and sent a young officer to Nancy to fetch as many respectable young French ladies as he could persuade to venture among the strange foreigners, with chaperones who included the mayor’s wife. Hartney described the party as a combination of American barbecue and gala French fête. Dancing went on until 4 a.m. The festivities were concluding with everybody gathered on the aerodrome singing “Lafayette, We Are Here”, when enemy bombers gatecrashed. Amid falling bombs there was a rush for the air raid shelters. Nobody was hurt. It was as pleasant a baptism of fire for the 27th and 147th as anyone could wish for.

  At 6 o’clock that very morning the two maiden squadrons began patrolling. The first off the ground consisted of the 27th’s Lieutenants Grant, McElvain, Hunt and Raymond, led by Lieutenant Taylor of the 95th. The rest of the day’s patrols were also led by pilots of the 95th, while the 94th introduced the 147th to the front line: which was eminently sensible and an excellent way of promoting good relationships between all four squadrons.

  Two days later an enemy aircraft dropped a photograph of the airfield with the message “Welcome 27th and 147th. Prepare to meet thy doom.” The Americans were only too keen to meet the enemy.

  Among others of their countrymen who were gaining experience on detachment to British squadrons, was a whole flight of American pilots and mechanics, some fifty in all, operating with Sholto Douglas’s 84 Squadron at Bertangles. All three flight commanders, as it happened, were South Africans, one of them being Beauchamp-Proctor. Douglas was at first reluctant to have his squadron disrupted by the arrival of so many from a different country’s air Service, but soon enjoyed their presence. He described them as cheerful and courageous and as having a good effect on morale. They also joined in eagerly at rugger, which particularly endeared them to their temporary CO. Among the pilots was George Vaughn, who ended the war as one of the most successful pilots in the USAS, with thirteen kills. “A thoroughly pleasant man and a first-rate shot.” He scored six kills and shot down several balloons during his time with 84 Squadron. When the first batch of fifty left, after three months, another lot took their place. They were all a fine lot of men, said Douglas, and he disliked having to part with them.

  CHAPTER 19 - 1918. Victory

  In Italy the new atmosphere created in the Army consolidated on the Piave, uplifted by British support and patriotic propaganda, affected also the Air Corps, spurring it on to greater efforts. In the first four months of 1918 the bomber squadrons systematically attacked enemy airfields, ammunition dumps, barracks and railway lines by day and night. The enemy’s air offensive during the first two months, while German bomber squadrons were still there, was fierce.

  The Air Corps’s contribution to preparations for the Battle of the Piave River was not limited to conventional operations. On the night of 30th May 1918 a Voisin with a silenced engine deposited Lieutenant Camillo De Carlo, an air observer, behind enemy lines, where he remained for three months. His espionage work in determining enemy plans and where the Austrian attack was to be made earned him the Gold Medal. He was able to discover, a few days in advance, the date when the attack was to be launched. By laying out laundry in a meadow as though it were drying in the sun, he sent coded signals which reconnaissance aircraft duly photographed.

  At 3 a.m. on the night of 15th June a heavy Austrian artillery barrage announced the beginning of the battle. On this Front the Italian Air Corps had 221 fighters, 56 bombers and 276 reconnaissance machines. The French had 20 reconnaissance aircraft. The RAF had 54 fighters and 26 reconnaissance types. The infantry assault was supported by low-level Austrian bombing and strafing, to which the Allies responded with fighter patrols in large numbers. On that day 37 aircrew on both sides were killed. Between 15th and 25th June, Italian and British fighters shot down 107 enemy aeroplanes and 7 balloons. On the last day of that period, Lieutenant Flavio Barracchini scored his 25th victory.

  On 19th February the Italian 18th Bombardment Group, comprising three Caproni squadrons, had arrived at the Western Front. On their first night, the enemy attacked their airfield at Longive-Ocheley and damaged three aircraft. During March, April and May they flew fourteen operations, in which sixty-five aircraft took part. Their targets were mostly railway stations and airfields. In April they moved to Villeneuve and in August to Cherminus. Between their arrival and the end of the war, they flew sixty-eight operations, lost seven aircrew killed and suffered fifteen wounded.

  On the Italian Front, American pilots, flying with Italian bomber squadrons, took part in operations for the first time on l0th June. Some of them won Italian decorations. Two of these, Lieutenants Coleman de Witt Fenafly and James Bahl, were posthumously awarded the Gold Medal. On the afternoon of 27th October 1918, during a bombing raid, as first pilot on a Caproni aircraft, Fenafly was attacked by five enemy fighters. Instead of avoiding the unequal battle by landing, he chose to fight. His gunners shot down two of the enemy and continued firing after their aircraft broke out in flames, until it was destroyed and the entire crew perished. On the same mission, five enemy fighters also attacked Bahl’s Caproni. His gunners, too, sent down two enemy aircraft before their own caught fire, then continued shooting until it crashed, killing the crew.

  The RAF squadrons in Italy had been hard worked throughout. In March, 42 Squadron had returned to France. Joubert de la Ferté, who commanded the RAF in Italy, found that one squadron of RE8s could not cope with all the bombing and reconnaissance that was needed. Six Bristol Fighters, flown by crews with no operational experience, were sent from England and added to 28 Squadron as Z Flight, to work up to operational standard. At the end of March they were transferred to 34 Squadron.

  On 30th March twenty-year-old Lieutenant Alan Jerrard of 66 Squadron won the only VC awarded in Italy. He took off that morning with his flight commander, Captain Carpenter, and Lieutenant Eycott-Martin on an offensive patrol. They met four Albatros DIIIs escorting a Rumpler and attacked at 13,000 feet. Carpenter and Jerrard each shot down one fighter. Presently Carpenter and Eycott-Martin saw, from 6000 feet, that Jerrard had gone down to about 50 feet and was attacking, one after another, six Albatroses that were trying to take
off. The combat report states that there were nineteen enemy aircraft milling around. Other details are confused. Both Carpenter and Eycott-Martin were in several combats and returned without Jerrard, who was shot down and taken prisoner. He was awarded his decoration for his bravery in sustained low-level attacks against much superior numbers.

  On 19th June, the Italian 91st Squadron was ordered to make a machinegun attack on the enemy trenches. Baracca set off with two other pilots who were skilled ground strafers, Lieutenants Osnaghi and Costantini. Half an hour later Osnaghi returned to tell Colonel Piccio, the wing commander, that he thought Baracca had been shot down. They had made their attack. He was on Baracca’s right and fifty metres above him, when he saw a tongue of flame lick out from Baracca’s machine. At the same time it zoomed up and he lost sight of it. Five days later burned-out remains of Baracca’s Spad were found. He had scored thirty-four victories.

  Ruffo de Calabria succeeded him as squadron commander, survived the war and made his last flight nine days before the Armistice. His score was twenty. Silvio Scaroni also survived, with twenty-six kills to his name; and so did Piccio, with twenty-four.

  The operations and combats of the British squadrons were the same as those on the Western Front, with the exception that contact patrols were not necessary. In less than twelve months, the three Camel squadrons brought down 367 enemy aircraft. Only thirty-two Camels were lost on the enemy side of the lines. Nineteen British pilots were killed in action, four were wounded in action but returned safely, nineteen were taken prisoner and survived the war.

  The squadrons in Italy comprised the same variety of nationalities as in France. On both Fronts, pilots’ average age was strikingly younger than three years earlier. No. 45 Squadron was typical. Major J. A. Crook, MC, the CO, was aged twenty-one. His flight commanders, Captains N. C. Jones, R. J. Dawes and C. E. Howell, were twenty-five, twenty-one and twenty-four respectively. The others were mostly between eighteen and twenty. Five officers were from the United Kingdom, fifteen from Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and three, Second Lieutenant Charles Gray Catto and Lieutenants Jay Rutlidge O’Connell and Max Gibson, from the USA.

  Forty-five Squadron was honoured by a visit from His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales that did not go quite as the lieutenant colonel commanding the wing had expected. The squadron borrowed a band from a famous British infantry regiment for the occasion. The musicians found a barrel of vermouth in the kitchen. Their playing became progressively “more unusual” as it was described at the time, until the bandsmen and their instruments were slung into a lorry and driven off. The musicians were evidently not the only excessive imbibers. When Captain J. Cottle, who had by then taken command of A Flight, and the other members of the dawn patrol went into the mess the following morning, they found the Medical Officer sound asleep, wedged on a lavatory seat.

  Shortly before this, Cottle had shot down Oberleutnant Linke-Crawford, the third-highest-scoring Austro-Hungarian ace, who had thirty victories to his name at that time. Leading a patrol with Catto and eighteen-year-old Lieutenant F. S. Bowles, Cottle saw three enemy fighters overhead, which at once attacked. Their leader — Linke-Crawford — came in from astern of Cottle, who made the extraordinary decision to loop. Usually this is a manoeuvre that invites a burst of gunfire, because it gives the attacker a full plan view of the target. Its unorthodoxy apparently surprised Linke-Crawford, who, in his faster-climbing machine, looped over Cottle; who shot his aircraft to bits.

  On 15th July Barker had been promoted to major and given command of 139 Bristol Fighter Squadron, which had been formed by adding six Brisfits to the original six in Italy. Barker took his Camel with him and brought down six enemy aircraft with it before being posted back to France; where he shot down several more Germans.

  Early in the year a parade had been held at Istrana to present the British Military Cross to d’Annunzio. He continued flying on operations whenever possible and was finally awarded the Gold Medal for Military Valour and promoted to lieutenant colonel.

  The Armistice between Italy and Austria was declared on 4th November 1918, a week earlier than the Armistice on the Western Front.

  *

  In France, the pace and intensity of the air war was maintained until the end. On 3rd October Degelow shot down a French Spad and on 30th October a British DH4. He was awarded the last Blue Max of the war.

  Leo Leonhardn received his on 2nd October and was at the Front until the 15th, before being given command of a training school.

  Von Röth, who rivalled Gontermann as an expert in destroying observation balloons, and followed the same techniques of attack, brought down five balloons in flames on 29th May. His total, for which he was decorated with the Blue Max, was twenty balloons destroyed.

  Von Greim, who made his name by knocking out tanks, was not given his first opportunity to attack these new inventions until 1918. His first attempts to bomb them and hit them with armour-piercing bullets were frustrated by heavy ground fire. The basic difficulty, however, was to find a tank to attack. There were very few, and they were widely scattered. Camouflage made them difficult to espy. This meant that the whole sortie had to be flown very low: which exposed the aircraft to incessant fire from machineguns and quick-firing cannon. The best method of attack had also to be found empirically. It was not necessary to pierce the tank and kill or wound the crew. To stop it, only the tracks needed to be hit. It was easier to do this by machinegun fire than by trying to judge when to drop a small bomb. He was not trying to shoot men but to bring a mechanised vehicle to a halt. These behemoths amazed him by the speed with which they could turn and avoid his fire. He found that the most effective attack was a vertical dive from 600 metres with both guns firing, and a pull-out that made the aircraft creak as though the wings would be torn off. In this way he was out of sight of the tank gunners until the last moment and had the tank broadside-on at his mercy. It was the spring of 1918 before he perfected this method. In October he was given the Pour le Mérite.

  The manner of Manfred von Richthofen’s death remained in some doubt until the 1960s, when it was thoroughly researched for the first time. On 21st April 1918, in a dogfight, a Canadian pilot, Wilfred May, found that the guns of his Camel had jammed. He left the fight and headed for his base, Bertangles, at low level. Richthofen chased him. May kept zig-zagging and Richthofen fired at every chance. They crossed the British trenches in an Australian sector. Another Canadian, Roy Brown, was chasing Richthofen, shooting at him. Eyewitnesses confirmed that Brown broke off after firing a last long burst. Machine-guns on the ground and rifles were also being fired at Richthofen. Brown thought he saw his tracer hit the rear fuselage of Richthofen’s aeroplane. Richthofen crashed and was found dead in the wreckage. Brown was awarded a bar to the Distinguished Service Cross he had won in the RNAS.

  Investigation half a century later, and an interview with Brown, has left no doubt that the man who shot Richthofen down was an Australian machine gunner, Robert Buie, of the 53rd Battery, 14th Australian Field Artillery. Buie was manning a Lewis gun on anti-aircraft lookout to protect the big guns, saw the enemy aircraft overhead, shot at, and hit, it and was always convinced that it was he who shot it down.

  The previous autumn, Werner Voss had been shot down by a young pilot of 56 Squadron, Arthur Rhys-Davids. Voss was up alone in a Fokker Triplane at dusk when he attacked a British straggler. Six of 56’s most experienced pilots, led by McCudden, were above and out of sight. Their SE5As dived faster than the Triplane and caught it up. McCudden and Rhys-Davids separated to cover both flanks, two others stayed above and two astern. Voss turned suddenly to face his enemies and flashed past them at a closing speed of nearly 200 m.p.h. without being hit. But he was boxed in and although he twisted and switchbacked for some minutes, he could not break free. Any of the British pilots might have killed him, but it was Rhys-Davids who got the chance and took it.

  He, in turn, disappeared on a dusk patrol not long afterwards, with twenty-three confirme
d kills.

  *

  No. 55 Squadron, flying DH4s on the Headquarters Wing commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Cyril Newall, had been engaged on strategic bombing since early 1917. In October that year Newall had been given command of a new wing, No. 41. Its first squadrons were No. 55, whose DH4s had been on daylight operations since April, and No. 100, which, since the same month, had been flying FE2bs by night. It was typical of the state of aircraft supply that these latter, obsolescent lattice-tailed fighters, should still be flying against the enemy as makeshifts for a purpose different from that for which they had been designed. Also allotted to the wing was a Naval unit, “A” Squadron, which had the huge 100-foot-wingspan Handley Page 0/100.

  Late in April 1918 the first two of these became the nucleus of a further new formation. The Independent Force, comprising four day (Nos 55, 99, 104 and 110) and five night (Nos 97, 100, 115, 215 and 216) squadrons, was stationed at several airfields in eastern France, under Trenchard’s command, for the purpose of bombing Germany and enemy targets in France and Belgium. The IF began operations under its new identity in June 1918. Not all the squadrons had by then joined it. Nos. 97, 115 and 215 did so in August. Had the war not ended when it did, American, French and Italian squadrons, all to be commanded by Trenchard, would soon have been added to it.

  Whether they raided by night or by day, the bombers did so in the teeth of an array of defensive measures that had been greatly augmented in recent months. Fighters — helped after dark by searchlights — patrolled across the lines of approach to the most obvious targets. Flak was sited intelligently and in abundance, along the routes and around the targets. Barrage balloons forced attacking aircraft to fly high and thus reduce the accuracy of their aim. The balloon cables offered to snag their wings. When the wind was too strong for large balloons of the observation type, smaller, spherical ones were used up to heights of over 7000 feet. Their cables were often linked by transverse wires that formed an apron to entangle British bombers.