by W E Johns
*2 Slang: Staff officers, with reference to the gold braid they wore on the peak of the service cap.
*3 Commanding officer
Chapter 2. The Adventure Begins
*1Formally registered as officers by having their names published in an official newspaper announcing official Government communication, appointments, dispatches etc.
*2A single-seater British biplane fighter with twin machine guns synchronised to fire through the propeller.
*3Zeppelin airships, a rigid construction airship used by the Germans over Britain for strategic bombing and reconnaissance.
*4 Slang name for any soldier of the rank of private.
*5 The place where the officers eat and relax together.
*6 The rotary engine of the Sopwith Camel used castor oil as a lubricant.
*7 A structure for housing aircraft.
*8 Non-Commissioned Officer e.g. a sergeant or corporal.
*9 Slang: air mechanic.
*10 Wooden blocks placed in front of an aircraft to prevent it moving when the engines are started. Orders to ground staff were always made by means of signals as shouted words might be misheard over the sound of the engine.
Chapter 3. France
*1The boat carrying military personnel home on leave to England.
*2The symbol showing a plane was British was concentric rings of red, white and blue—see front cover for illustration.
*3Archie was R.F.C. slang for anti-aircraft gunfire.
*4The front line trenches where the opposing armies faced one another.
*5Bullets loaded with phosphorous which starts to emit smoke when fired, allowing the course of the bullet to be seen by day or night.
*6Slang: derogatory term for the Germans.
*7A room or office used for day to day squadron business.
*8The officer designated to supervise the collation of all squadron records, responsible to Commanding Officer.
*9Both sides in the First World War used balloons for artillery spotting and observation of enemy troop movements. The observers were suspended beneath the balloon in large baskets. Balloons were commonly called sausages by the R.F.C.
*10Slang: aeroplane
Chapter 4. Into the Blue
*1Literally a gun which takes a picture of its target instead of firing a bullet at it. Examination of the photo showed how accurate a shot would have been.
*2A thick padded garment worn by airmen.
*3De Havilland 4, British two-seater day bomber in use 1917–1920.
*4Four squadrons of aircraft commanded by Baron Von Richthofen (nicknamed the Red Baron) the top scoring World War I fighter pilot who shot down 80 planes before being killed in 1918.
*5German single-seater biplane fighter with two fixed machine guns, synchronised to fire through the propeller.
*6Streamers were used to make it easy to identify the squadron leader or flight leader in the air.
*7No planes had radio communication at this time so signals using hands or the plane’s movements were the only way to pass messages between planes.
*8In the First World War the Germans used the Maltese Cross or simply a black cross as their identification symbol on their aircraft.
*9General term referring to the tail unit of an aircraft, including the tail plane, elevators, fin and rudders.
*10The trigger to fire the machine guns, usually fitted to the pilot’s control column.
Chapter 5. A Discussion in Confidence
*1Captain Rhys-Davids was Captain of Eton before he went to France and shot down more than twenty enemy aircraft, including the famous German ’ace’ Werner Voss.
*2Two-seater biplane fighters with remarkable manoeuvrability. In service 1917 onwards. It had one fixed gun for the pilot and one or two mobile Lewis guns for the observer.
*3German: Squadrons.
Chapter 6. The Great Adventure
*1An explosive projectile, designed to burst in the air and light up the enemy’s position.
*2For the benefit of those who are unaware of their use in the First World War, the ‘colour of the night’ and ‘letter of the night’ must be explained. Briefly, it was a method employed by both sides to establish identification at night—when the aircraft could not, of course, be seen—for the benefit of the archie gunners. Every night the searchlights adopted a letter, which could be signalled in the Morse code by flashing the beam. Night-flying pilots carried signal flares of a pre-arranged colour—the colour of the night. When the searchlight units heard an aeroplane in the air, they flashed the letter, which was as good as saying, ‘Who are you?’ The pilot—if he were a British pilot—fired the appropriate colour and passed on unmolested. If he failed to do so he would be taken for an enemy, and shelled, for, naturally, a German pilot could not know the correct colour.
*3German: castle.
*4Slang: propeller.
Chapter 7. Neck or Nothing
*1German non-commissioned officer e.g. a Corporal or Sergeant.
*2German: hands up!
*3German: Go!
*4R.F.C. nickname for Bristol Fighter.
Chapter 8. A Race for Life
* German fighter with three wings, with two forward firing guns. Also called by the slang name of tripehounds.
Chapter 9. Forty Makes a Proposition
*1The administrative headquarters. Each Wing commanded several squadrons. It was headed by a Lieutenant-Colonel.
*2Royal Naval Air Service
Chapter 10. A Dangerous Mission
*1Hidden
*2German two-seater biplane for observation and light bombing raids.
*3Short-barrelled pistol for firing coloured flares, used as a signal. Before the days of radio in aircraft different coloured flares were often used to pass messages.
Chapter 11. Rescue Flight to the Rescue
*1In the air, the glow of an exhaust is much more apparent than those who have never flown by night might expect. In daylight the exhaust pipe of a stationary engine does not appear to change colour, but by night it glows red, for it becomes, in fact, red-hot. From it the exhausted gas pours like a streak of fire, which, appearing to be much too close to the fuselage for safety, has scared many a pilot making his first flight by night. This glow is, of course, visible to another machine close to it in the air, but it can seldom be seen from the ground, owing both to the altitude of the machine and the fact that, in the case of anything but a high-wing monoplane, it is shielded by the lower wings. Both the Bristol Fighter and the Camel were biplanes.
*2Two-seater biplane night bomber with the engine behind the pilot, the gunner just in front of the pilot. Commonly known as a Fee in the R.F.C.
*3The gun-mounting which completely encircled the gunner’s cockpit. Round this ring the gun could slide to point in any direction.
*4Carrier pigeons were used by both sides for getting a message through enemy lines before the days of radio telephones.
*5Anyone caught transporting or having transported a spy was treated as a spy himself and executed by firing squad.
Chapter 12. Cutting It Fine
*1Very successful German single-seater fighter with two or three machine guns synchronised to fire through the propeller.
*2Distinguished Service Order, a medal.
Chapter 15. A Desperate Predicament
*1German rank equivalent to 2nd lieutenant.
*2He was, of course, in French territory occupied by the Germans.
*3French: Goodbye, Madame
Have a good journey, Monsieur
*4War prisoners’ camp—usually referred to by prisoners by the German name.
Chapter 16. ‘Captain Forsyth of the Buffs’
*Thank you
Chapter 17. A Life for a Life
*German: squadron
Chapter 18. Thirty Goes Back
*1Credentials
*2German: Yes
