1917 Eagles Fall

by Griff Hosker

  “Yes sir, sorry, did you want a letter to go?”

  “No, Flight, I wanted to stop a letter. I was trying to ease some pain.” I could see that he had no idea what I was talking about. I looked up as Randolph appeared. “I’ll do my report later, Randolph. I have an important letter to write.”

  He nodded, “I understand. Take all the time in the world.” He hesitated, “I am terribly sorry about this Bill. I knew you were close and … well your sister….”

  I looked at him, bleakly, “That is the letter I have to write.”

  Bates was waiting for me. “Your bath is drawn sir. There is a drink on the dresser.”

  I shook my head, “I have a letter to write to my sister.”

  “The letter can wait sir, until you have had a bath and a drink. The letter to your sister needs thought and right now, well I can see how upset you are.” He put his arm around me. “Come along sir, I’ll help you.” He suddenly looked old, “I have done this before.”

  He was right; I would not even be able to write a letter which would be coherent. I needed to get the emotion from my head. I lay in the bath sipping the whisky. Charlie was dead and it was my stupid fault. It had been my clever plan to trick the Germans; Charlie and the others had paid the price. I found myself sobbing. I had no idea why; I couldn’t remember the last time I had cried but I was so angry and frustrated and full of self loathing that it just erupted from me.

  When I stepped from the bath Bates was there with a warm towel. His words told me that he had guarded the door while I had bathed. “The body works in funny ways, sir. Those tears will help to clear your mind now.”

  “Aye they have done that all right and shown me that the entire disaster is my fault. I came up with the plan of attack and Charlie Sharp is dead.”

  He stood in front of me and wagged his finger like an admonishing schoolmaster. “Now listen here, sir. Mr Sharp thought the world of you and he thought your plan was a brilliant one. It went wrong. If it had gone right would that have made the plan different? No, it would just have meant it succeeded. If every plan of battle worked then wars would be over in days and not years. Plans go wrong. You are a clever man, sir. Come up with another.”

  And that telling off put everything in perspective. I nodded and, after dressing, we composed a thoughtful letter to Alice. John knew the right words and he changed my mawkish sentimentality for something which would make Alice feel better. I doubted that she would ever be happy but John had managed to elicit from me the memories which Alice could cherish.

  By the time I reached the office it was getting on towards late afternoon. Ted and Gordy were seated with Randolph and the whisky was open. I suddenly remembered Archie. “How is Archie?”

  “Doc has gone with him to the hospital at Arras. He will make it but it will take a good surgeon to save his arm. Doc Brennan said something about the nerves being affected.”

  “But he will live.”

  Gordy nodded, “I think so Bill.” He handed me a whisky.

  Randolph looked at the other two and said, “Which makes you, for the time being at least, the Squadron Leader of Number 41 Squadron.”

  Chapter 19

  Gordy and Ted looked at each other. Ted poured me another drink as Gordy said, “We’ll help out if we can.”

  “Have we even got a squadron Randolph? My bus is damaged. We have no Gunbuses. Ted here is wounded.”

  “I can still fly, Bill. Remember you did and this is just a scratch.”

  “And you can fly Archie’s Bristol. He still has his gunner.”

  I listened to Ted and Gordy. I knew they were trying to jolly me along but it wasn’t working. Randolph handed me a manila file. “And this is your bedtime reading Bill. These are the service and training records of the six crews who are ready to begin flying their Bristols when they arrive tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow? I thought it would be the end of the week.”

  “General Trenchard lit a fire under them. He thought he was doing us a favour.”

  “Some favour.”

  Ted said quietly, “Charlie thought so. He couldn’t wait to fly a Bristol.”

  And he was right. Randolph gave it to me straight, “If Charlie was here Bill you know he would be right behind you and encouraging you to lead the new boys. He would be suggesting how to train them and volunteering to help.”

  “I know! And he is not here!”

  Gordy raised his glass and looked at the ceiling, “Then let us imagine he is here in spirit. Here’s to you, Charlie, you were one of the best.”

  “Charlie.”

  That was the point at which I nearly broke but if I had then I would have been letting down my gunner. I needed to be a good squadron leader, if only for Charlie.

  “And the other thing is, well, the letters to the families of the dead crews.”

  My heart sank. Ted came to my rescue. “That’s not fair, Randolph. We will divide them up. Otherwise our new leader will be in no condition tomorrow to lead us up into the wild blue yonder.”

  And so we drank, smoked and wrote the ten letters which almost broke my heart. It was Airman Bates who stopped us. He knocked on the door. “Gentlemen, the mess is waiting for dinner. There may not be many of them left but those young men are hurting just as much as you are. Whatever you are doing may I suggest that you leave it until tomorrow?”

  He might have been the lowest ranked soldier in the room but we all obeyed. We trudged before him to the mess. There were just three pilots there and then the new boys. All of them looked as though they had suffered. They had a drawn look about them and Freddie and Johnny looked to be on the verge of tears. I stood at Archie’s seat. “Gentlemen sit.” As they did so I said, “I apologise for the delay. Major Leach will be away for a while and I will be in temporary command. As you can imagine there is much to do and I hope that you will all help me.” I was gratified to see nods.

  “We will fly as one flight in the morning. I shall fly the Major’s bus. You young pilots need to familiarise yourselves with your new fighters; they will be arriving tomorrow. We fly as a squadron the day after.”

  Again, there were more nods. I waved over the mess orderlies. “You can serve the food but first make sure everyone has a drink.”

  Every glass was charged.

  “Gentlemen, be upstanding.” They all stood. “The King, the Squadron and absent friends; may we never forget them!” It was an emotional toast and a silence descended as soon as we had all emptied our glasses. I nodded and sat.

  I said little during the meal and I barely tasted the food. I had so much running through my mind. I had the emotion of the deaths of so many men I had flown with and that seemed to run into the mundane as I tried to work out how to reorganise the flights. By the time the meal was over I felt a wreck and yet I knew I still had some letters to finish and that I had to commit my thoughts on the flights to paper.

  Gordy and Ted had drunk a great deal. Harry, Johnny and Freddie saw them to bed. I went to the office and lit my pipe. Randolph appeared. “You should be in bed, Bill, you will be flying tomorrow.”

  “I will do no one any good if this is on my mind. I will get them finished.”

  “I’ll give you a hand then.” With two of us working we managed to finish the letters in an hour.

  As we sealed the last envelope Randolph rose. I took a clean sheet of paper. “What now?”

  “The new flights and flight commanders; they need to be done too.”

  He took off his tunic again and sat down. “Right, what are your thoughts?”

  “Freddie and Harry seem to me the best two to be Flight Commanders. I can still fly the Pup once it is repaired and Harry seems competent enough in the Bristol. We’ll make Ted the second in command in the air.”

  “Not Gordy? I thought he was your best friend?”

  “And he is but I want the best second in command. That is Ted. He knows the Bristol and he has changed in the last year.”

  “I agree. I was just surp
rised.”

  “And they will all have an equal number of new pilots. That is also fair. But I want to spend an hour a day, at least, working with the new pilots. Use your influence at HQ to cut us some slack.”

  “I am not sure that there is any slack to be cut but I will try.”

  The door opened, without a knock, and Bates stood there like a house mother in a public school. He pointed to the officers’ quarters. “Bed now! Both of you!”

  We were both so taken aback that we laughed and then followed his orders, marching off to bed. He said nothing more until I was in bed and he closed the door saying, “I promised your mother I would take care of you. But you don’t make it easy! Good night, sir.”

  My sleep was troubled with bad dreams and seemed to be far too short. I wolfed my breakfast down and raced out to the Bristol. After the Pup it seemed enormous. Airman David Speight was already there checking over the guns and the rigging. “Morning sir. I wasn’t certain if we would be flying this morning but I thought I would be ready anyway.”

  “Good man. Yes, until my bus is repaired I shall be flying Major Leach’s. I’ll try not to bend it!”

  He laughed, “I don’t think there will be any danger of that sir.”

  He seemed to have more faith in me than I did. The rest of the depleted squadron soon joined me. Randolph came out with the orders and the maps. “We are to stop the Hun photographing the ground we recently took. I think the brass is worried that the Hun are preparing a counterattack.”

  “Thanks.” That was not so bad. We would be over our own lines and the Hun would have to endure ground fire too. “Right gentlemen, we’ll have the Pups above us.” It seemed ridiculous to have to issue orders. There were just four of us. Until the doctor gave Gordy and Ted the all clear I would not risk them in the air. Their accusing looks told me that they were not happy to be grounded.

  The Bristol was faster than I thought but the Pup did not need as much airfield in which to take off. Unlike the Gunbus I needed no speaking tube as Speight was right behind me. “Are the Pups in position, Speight?” I also noticed that there was no mirror on this fighter. I had to rely on my rear gunner.

  “Yes sir. Just above and behind.”

  “And Mr Dodds?”

  “On station sir. You needn’t worry about him sir. He sticks to the bus in front like glue.”

  As we headed north I noticed another squadron coming from the west. There was a brief moment of alarm until I recognised them as Gunbuses. We had company. I hoped they would not run into the same squadron we had.

  The Bristol’s powerful engine had twice the horsepower of the Pup. The configuration of the wings was, however similar, and the gun was in exactly the same place. I soon felt at home in the roomier cockpit. I gradually took us higher. I knew that Carrick and Holt would match my moves. I wanted to be as high as I could get. With just four buses we could not afford to get jumped. I realised that we did not have the constraint of the Gunbuses to tie us to the earth. A sad result of the previous day’s losses was that the remaining aeroplanes had more freedom.

  As we headed closer to the area around Vimy Ridge we saw lines of reinforcements heading east. The foot sloggers had made remarkable gains in the first two days but now the offensive looked to have stalled somewhat.

  We heard the sound of German artillery and it alerted us to the fact that they must have had aeroplanes spotting. I led us east over No-Man’s Land and towards the German lines. There appeared to be four or five of the slow moving two seaters, above them were six fighters. As we approached they began to descend to meet us. Once again we were outnumbered. Freddie and Johnny would be on their own.

  “Right David. Things will get hot in a moment. There are six fighters. We will have to get rid of them before we can attack the spotters.”

  “Righto sir.” I heard him cock the Lewis.

  The Huns came at us in two lines of three. One flight would take out the Pups while the others came after us. I wondered if they thought we would fly them defensively. If so they were in for a shock. There would be no sneaky tactics this time. We would just get in amongst them and cause havoc! They would learn that this fighter had a sting in the tail!

  The Bristol was fast but was also a bigger target than the Pup. We were heading towards each other at a combined speed of two hundred and ten miles an hour. I knew that I would have a short time to react. I lowered my nose slightly. It prompted the Hun to fire, thinking I was trying some tricky manoeuvre. As I pulled up the nose and fired his bullets clattered into my top wing. My bullets hit his radiator. I saw a jet of steam erupt from the front. I fired again and then moved to starboard a little so that I could bring my bus in at an oblique angle.

  The second Albatros tried to turn. I heard Speight’s Lewis as he finished off the first German and I fired at the second. His change of direction meant I only hit his undercarriage while his bullets struck my fuselage. “Are you all right?”

  “Yes sir, he didn’t get close and I finished off the first one sir!”

  “Good man.” The second Hun had dived below me. “You had better watch for one coming from below us.” I glanced to starboard and saw Harry Dodds firing at the spotters. I was on my own.

  The third German came straight at me. We both fired at the same time. Although I hit him, I appeared to cause little, if any damage. As he came over me I knew what he intended; the Immelmann turn. If I had been flying the Gunbus then that might have caused me a problem. The Bristol was a different matter. “Hang on Speight!” I threw the Bristol on to its side and pulled a hard turn to port. He could not know what I had planned and he must have had a shock when he turned to attack out tail; we were not there. I levelled out, “Ready Speight?”

  “Sir!”

  As we passed my gunner emptied a magazine into the side of the surprised German who tumbled to the earth. I banked again and saw that the sky was free of German aeroplanes. The two Pups were heading towards us and Harry was climbing, having destroyed a spotter.

  “Time to go home! Well done Speight.”

  “They were my first two kills, sir! Lumpy was right about you sir. He reckoned he only shot down as many Huns as he did because of the way that you fly. I see what he means. It isn’t half exciting!”

  I smiled. His enthusiasm was infectious. Whoever had him as a gunner would be lucky.

  When we landed Gordy and Ted came to greet me. They both had relieved looks on their faces. “Were you worried, boys?”

  “Not really, Bill, but it is a pleasant surprise to have four aeroplanes return without damage and with their crews intact.”

  As Speight clambered out I said, “And my gunner here bagged two Albatros D.IIs!”

  As ex gunners themselves they knew the feeling and they both slapped him on the back. “Good man! A celebration in the mess tonight then?”

  “Yes sir!”

  I went directly to the office without waiting to talk to the other pilots. I no longer had that luxury. I was C.O. now and that meant paperwork.

  “Well Randolph, we are back safe and sound. What about the replacements?”

  “Glad that you are safe, Bill. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t worried. What was the new Bristol like?”

  “It is an excellent machine. I can’t understand how 48 Squadron lost four in one day. They must have been flying them the wrong way.”

  “Our new buses will be flown in tomorrow. The crews will be with them.”

  “Is that wise? I remember a couple of new pilots getting lost.”

  “Apparently the replacement for Captain Robinson is going to lead them over with their replacements too. They should make it.”

  “Right.”

  The other three pilots came into the office. Their looks told me that they had all had kills. “It looks like our luck has changed eh sir?”

  I nodded to Harry however I was feeling anything but lucky. I would swap all the kills of that morning for Charlie not to be dead. As I had come in to land with the ebullient Spe
ight chattering away behind me I thought of Charlie and Lumpy. Both had been my gunners; one was crippled for life and the other was now dead. I was anything but lucky.

  After they had gone Randolph said, diplomatically, “When will you tell Harry and Freddie about the new arrangements?”

  “I should have done it then, shouldn’t I?”

  “You have a lot on your plate at the moment and you are new to this. Why not have a briefing in the morning before the new pilots arrive.”

  “What about our patrol?”

  “HQ said we could stand down.” He shrugged, “I don’t think they realised that we were down to four aeroplanes.”

  There was a knock on the door and Doc Brennan came in. “Just thought I would give our new leader an update.” He was grinning as he said it. “I think Gordy and Ted need another day to recuperate.”

  “That is not a problem we aren’t flying tomorrow.”

  “Good, head wounds can be tricky. And I heard from the hospital, Archie pulled through and he won’t lose his arm. However I think it will take months, rather than weeks for him to fully recover.” He patted me on the back as he left. “So it looks as though we have you to say yes sir, no sir, three bags full sir, for the foreseeable future.”

  I spent the rest of the afternoon with Randolph arranging the new rotas and signing the mountain of forms which had accumulated in the last day. I was ready for my whisky and bath by the time we had finished.

  Chapter 20

  I held the briefing in the mess. I had the mess orderlies make a pot of coffee for I wanted a relaxed atmosphere. I did not want the strained days of Hamilton-Grant to return.

  “Right gentlemen, as you know Archie will be laid up for some months to come. I have spoken to General Trenchard and he is happy for us to continue working as a squadron without drafting in new senior officers.” I saw the relief on the faces of Ted and Gordy. This would be music to their ears. “However we are getting new aeroplanes and new pilots today so we will need to rearrange and reorganise the flights.”

  “Freddie, Johnny and Harry I am making all three of you up to First Lieutenant. I know that Archie would have got around to it eventually. Freddie and Harry I want the two of you to be temporary Flight Commanders. I will still be flying but we may need to use smaller flights from time to time and I need the flexibility to be able to delegate.”