Major Vaughn looked out at the assembled officers and other ranks that comprised the flying men of the Bulldogs.
“Gentlemen, as you will doubtless have noticed from your patrols, the ‘Big Push’ has stalled. The Huns are massing for a major counter attack, and we have been tasked with causing as much damage to his supply network as possible. To that end, the French have asked us to help smash the railhead at St Quentin.”
The Major paused and looked at the expectant faces before him.
“Tomorrow morning, I shall lead the whole Squadron to Mount St Quentin, where I and the rest of ‘A’ flight shall stir up as much trouble as we can. ‘B’ flight will escort the eff ees of ‘C’ flight down the Beauvois road, and then across to St Quentin, where we believe the enemy are bringing in supplies and troops to counter our efforts in the north and the French effort between Barleaux and Ablaincourt.”
He paused as a murmur rippled through the assembled aircrews.
“Gentlemen, your own flight leaders will brief you on the fine details of your respective operations, and then I recommend an early night, as you will be awakened at 03:30 hours.”
At three a.m. the Major, clutching a mug of strong tea, walked along the line of Fe2s as the armoury Sergeant’s team fitted the bombs to the racks under the aircraft. As he got to the fourth plane, he found Captain Frederickson also clutching a tin mug for the warmth.
“Problem John?” he asked
“Sgt Roberts woke me twenty minutes ago, we’ve been asked to send one of the Fees to protect a pair of balloons near Hardecourt. I’m sending Ault with Chard as pilot. Luckily they haven’t started to load this aircraft yet”
“Will the other three be enough do you think?”
“ Hobson’s choice Sir. England and McGregor are a well proven pair, and Sgts Jenkins and Strong..well..much as I disapprove of Strong, he’s a damn fine soldier if he keeps his mouth shut near officers. Lt Archer and Sgt Leech are an unknown quantity really, but I’m sure they will do their best.”
At a quarter past five, Lieutenant Andrew Smith left his office and limped down the corridor to the Squadron Orderly office. Taking himself in hand, he opened the door and strode across to the stove where the large blackened teapot simmered perpetually.
“Any sign of the Chaps yet Roberts?”
Sgt Roberts stepped away from the telephone he had just put down.
“Yes Sir, the Observer at post 32 just called; we should hear them any minute now”
He followed the young officer to the outer door and into the cool morning air. As they stepped onto the track separating the buildings from the landing field the unmistakeable popping of a throttled back rotary emerged from the background bustle of the aerodrome. The now familiar shape of the Nieuport 17 swung into view as the first of the Squadrons pilots returned from the morning’s operation.
Over the course of the next fifteen minutes, Nieuports in various stages of disrepair made a variety of landings, some good, some bad, a couple disastrous.
First reports were mixed, the Major had been forced down, had crashed, had landed at another field, had landed in a field. A runner from Sgt Roberts finally brought word that the Major had indeed landed in a field next to a nunnery, but was unharmed and waiting for a car to pick him up.
Ten minutes later, to the relief of Captain Frederickson, two Fe2s waddled into view.
Making a point of keeping well away from the older plane flown by the Sgts, Frederickson stood by the door to the officer’s mess and waved to 2Lts England and McGregor to join him.
“George, Gregor, you’ll have time for a quick drink, the Recording officer is still dealing with the chaps from ‘A’ and ‘B’ flights. How did it go? Rumours from ‘B’ flight are that they could see the glow through the cloud”
“We followed the Sgts in Sir,” said Gregor “They dropped their bombs right across the main tracks and sidings”
“Aye, we came in alang the sidings and dropped oor bombs intae a mess o’ trucks and the like” added George.
“Any news of Lt Archer and Sgt Leech Sir?” asked Gregor, “we saw them peel off where the archie seemed to be thickest”
“Not yet, it seems about half the squadron have made themselves guests at other aerodromes this morning.”
The Scout’s Report Pt 1
Sgt Timothy Ball; “In accordance with our instructions, Sgt Sponge and I were flying just above the clouds, dropping down occasionally to ensure the flight was keeping station with the bombers.
As we neared the target area, the flight was attacked by a strong formation of enemy scouts. As we were flying at the lowest point of our formation, we escaped the worst of the initial attack, but the enemy recovered from their initial dive quickly and myself and Sgt Sponge found ourselves receiving the unwelcome attentions of an Eindekker, a Halberstadt, and another German biplane, of a type we had not encountered before. It resembled the Eindekker, but with an upper wing. I got off a couple of bursts at the Eindekker before it was engaged by 2Lt Jones. It flew off smoking badly. I was hit by the Halberstadt in the top left wing.
As a result of this encounter, I found I was out of position and flying in the wrong direction. I resumed the proper course, and was attacked again by the Halberstadt, but to no effect. At this point I deemed it prudent to drop below the clouds to ascertain my position relative to the bombers.
I was quite some distance behind them, but I could see another of our Scouts was with them. I could see anti aircraft artillery had engaged the bombers, but no German scouts had dropped through the cloud. I became aware of an artillery position below me, and jinked left just as they fired, causing them to miss.
As I chased after the bombers I saw one of them turning away to the north, it was to far away to see much detail, but it appeared to be damaged
I then saw another enemy position which fired at me, causing damage to my engine. I fired back however and silenced the gun.
After this I climbed back up through the clouds, to find the fight between the rest of the squadron and the enemy had moved quite a way to the north east. As my engine was now behaving erratically and spraying out more oil than normal, I dropped to the upper edge of the cloud layer and turned for home. As I crossed over the trenches, I spotted one of our bombers, through a hole in the clouds also flying back. It was about half a mile away, so I can’t be certain, but I think it was missing half of its tail plane. The rest of my flight was uneventful, I saw no more enemy aircraft, and I saw no other aircraft from the squadron until I joined the circuit to land.”
Lt Bradshaw; “Thank you Sergeant, could you identify which aircraft was flying back below you with any greater clarity?”
Sgt Ball; “Sorry Sir, it could have been B, C or D, at that distance I cannot be more certain. It was the misshapen silhouette that caught my attention.
Lt Bradshaw; “Thank you Sergeant, you may dismiss”
The Sergeants Tale
Sgt Jenkins; “We approached the area of the target in threes, just under the clouds at about fifteen hundred feet. The cloud was like a solid ceiling Sir so we ‘ad no choice really.”
“Me and Sgt Strong were on the left flank, Lt Archer and Sgt Leech were in the middle, and Lts McGregor and England were on the right flank. When we could see the engine smoke risin’ up from the rail’ead, was when we ran into trouble”.
“A Gerry on the ground started shootin’ at us, well at Lt Archer’s plane,”
Sgt Strong; “Yes Sir, I seen the @*”..
Lt Bradshaw coughed.
“Sorry Sir, I seen the blighter and give ‘im a few rounds for ‘is trouble, I think the Scottish Gentlemen did the same.”
Sgt Jenkins; “As we flew on, the Gerry had another go at us, but we must ‘ave rattled ‘im proper, ‘cause ‘e missed.”
Sgt Strong; “Then I seen Mr Archer wavin’ and pointin’ a ‘ead. I couldn’t see owt”
“But the others must ‘ave, ‘cause they turned out sharpish, and there was a crash of “Archie” ‘tween us and Mr Archer. I seen him ‘avin a pop back”
Sgt Jenkins; “Sgt Leech was flyin’ along side of us,”
“When he suddenly turned and nigh on drove into us!”
Sgt Strong; “yer, that’s when I seen another B*@#£% , ‘scuse my French Sir, ‘Un cannon in front of us”
Lt Bradshaw; “Yes, let’s keep the French out of this shall we Lance Sergeant”
Sgt Strong; “Yes Sir, sorry Sir. Any way the ‘Un fired at us, an’ I fired at ‘im. ‘E missed, and I set ‘is ar-er set somethin’ on fire.”
Sgt Jenkins; “I’d better tell it for a bit Micky else you’ll lose a stripe again. As we went over the gun Sir, I saw Mr Archer’s plane swingin’ back to the right, to get into position again,”
“that’s when I realised I couldn’t see Mr McGregor’s plane, but it were ok, just further off than I expected. With young Leech ‘eadin’ right, I turned right so we could get back in formation, when the daft bu- bloke turned left into me.”
“Well I straightened up sharpish, and Sgt Leech twisted right, and about then this MG opened up, I could see Micky, that is Sgt Strong was firin’ at something, and he said it was a Gerry MG.”
Sgt Strong; “Yes Sir”
Sgt Jenkins; “And then there was a God awful bang by Mr Archers plane. The ‘Un be’ind us must of reloaded and ‘it Mr Archer’s plane near full on.”
“ They came out the smoke lookin’ a bit beat up, but they was behind us for a bit,”
We were getting near the town, an’ I was tellin Sgt Strong to keep a sharp eye out for more “Archie” when we were fired at, but they must ‘ave been a bit green ‘cause they missed us.”
“I looked round for Mr Archer, and him and Archie, I mean Sgt Leech, were driftin’ off left. From the back they didn’t look to clever if you know what I mean Sir, I could see a lot of flappin’ canvas Sir.”
Sgt Strong; “We was getting right close to the target now, I ad me second drum loaded, and I was pointin’ the way for Bert to get us over some wagons and that.”
“And then there was another one o’ them cannons firin’ up at us, what missed, so I let ‘im ‘ave some what for,”
Sgt Jenkins; “And I leant over and slapped ‘im ‘cause I needed ‘im to be watchin’ to loose the bombs.”
Sgt Strong ; “Which I did right after.”
“The lot went down right smack into some wagons, and as we flew over I could see bits blowin’ up and catchin’ another train on fire.”
Sgt Jenkins; “Yes Sir, I felt the lift as the bombs went down, then damn me if I didn’t feel the lift as the blast came back up, it must ‘ave been munitions to go off that big.”
“After that we was passed the target, so I pulled around in a big sweep north and then back ‘ome.
I didn’t see owt of the missin’ lads, er, Mr Archer and young Archie I mean. Is there any news yet Sir?
Lt Bradshaw; “Not yet, Sergeant, but chaps are ringing in from all over at the moment.
“Thank you for your report, you may dismiss. Get to your mess now, Captain Frederickson has made the usual arrangements.”
note: Lance Sergeant was a British Army rank for a corporal acting as a sergeant. the appointment carries the three chevrons, the same as a full sergeant. This rank can be revoked by the commanding officer, unlike the rank of sergeant, which requires a court martial to revoke.
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