Early Doors Mission 9: Last Gasp of the Somme, 15 September, 1916
Weather; blustery, some showers leading to heavy rain later. Cloud ceiling 4-6000 ft
Lieutenant Andrew Smith, leader of B flight, 52 Squadron RFC sat in his office staring at the action report form in front of him. Where to begin?
The obvious point of course was take off, then assembly in the air, flight to area of action, then the action itself.
He had been debriefed by Lt Bradshaw, the recording officer immediately on his return, after nursing his damaged DH2 home; the report was there in front of him, along with Sgt Ball’s report.
From Sgt Sponge there was no report, nor would there be. Only a brief report from an Infantry officer detailing where the wreckage had been found, and that his body had been recovered for burial.
Oh God! Another of those damned letters to write. He knew so little about the man; a good pilot, liked by his comrades, died for King and Country, upholding the Honour of the Squadron and the Corps, vital war effort; all trite phrases so often repeated as to lose any proper meaning.
There was a sudden bang on his door and Captain Frederickson walked in, threw his hat on the desk and sat down facing him.
“Another bloody day at the office what?” the captain exclaimed.
“ Yes Sir”….
No ‘Sirs’ here Andy, caps off what? I hear you lost two more today. Lost two new crews myself. Ten hours flying one of those pilots, ten hours, I ask you; what chance do the poor devils have? The Fees are all worn out, those Beardsmores are good enough engines when new, but spare parts are very hard to get, and,..but enough of my problems, you look shattered, have a snort.” He produced his hip flask.
“No thank you John, I have to write the Flight Report for today, and a letter home for one of my chaps. Sorry to hear you lost four of your chaps, any chance they might walk in? Or perhaps they got bagged?”
“No, one blew up; direct hit from Archie, the other went down in flames on the way back, not a chance for them.” The Captain took a pull from his flask. “Only one letter? One of yours reported in then?”
“Yes, Sgt Ball made it back eventually; engine failed ten miles from here. The Crossley tender has gone out to recover the aircraft, but Ball claims the motor will be a ‘write off’. These Nieuports are not much better than the old DH2s, worse in some ways, more fragile.”
He reached for the flask which John had left on the desk. “I think I’ll accept your offer after all, maybe it will steady the old noggin so I can put this report together.”
“Why don’t you go through it with me, we have an hour until dinner, and you know the Major likes his paperwork finished before then.”
He reached a fatherly hand over the desk and gripped the younger man by the shoulder,
“Come on old chap, tell me all about it, I’ll take notes, then you can write it up properly.”
“Well, we got the briefing about supporting this new weapon, which had us all guessing, then I checked with Lt Thornton to see if they had managed to repair the two N17s returned damaged yet. No luck there, so I asked what else was operational and got a rather the worse for wear but flyable DH2 to add to the two N17s I already knew about. It wasn’t nearly enough for the task, but then, we’ve been operating below strength for ages as you know."
“We approached the lines at around two thousand feet,”
“We could see movement below us, our chaps moving forwards behind something large and boxy, presumably the new weapon. There were five enemy aircraft in the distance, coming towards us, too far away at that point to identify, but they turned out to be an old Eindekker, a couple of the new Halberstadts, and two very new types which I hadn’t seen before.”
“They were at varying heights, all below the cloud, but were all diving down to get at our infantry”
“The new weapon must be something extraordinary because as we passed over them, we could see the German front line collapsing! Some of their chaps were trying to make a stand, and were putting up flares to call for help.”
“Almost immediately, we were attacking the enemy planes. They must have been concentrating so much on their ground objective they had dropped below us, so we were able to bounce them for a change. I got in a burst at the Eindekker, to some effect, and he returned fire, damaging my rudder control.”
“Sgt Ball reports that he fired at one of the Halberstadts over to the right, and had both of them fire back at him, but to no discernible effect for any of them beyond a bit of torn canvas.”
“On the left, Sgt Sponge met the two new types the Germans had put up. When I looked across to see how he was, he had gone!”
“The Infantry report states he was seen to fall with one wing missing. The plane burst into flames when it hit the ground. They found his body thrown out by the impact. Broke his neck apparently”
Andrew reached for the flask again, but the Captain gently put out a restraining hand.
Andy continued with his tale; “We had passed through the Huns with nothing to show for our loss,”
“and as we turned round to re-engage, I could see the Huns preparing to attack our infantry below us”
“so I fired at the nearest enemy plane”
“then I flicked right to have a go at another one. I got a result at last, as it started trailing smoke.”
“That was the end of my ammunition, so I had to change the drum. I heard firing behind me, and a quick check showed Sgt Ball chasing one of the new types.”
“His report adds that his Lewis jammed after only a short burst, so now we were both effectively unarmed. I turned to keep close to the enemy, and was shot at from behind by the Eindekker, which hit my engine, not enough to knock me down, but I could feel the thing was running roughly and was giving me less power. Lt Thornton told me the valve on one of the cylinders had been shot away.”
“Meanwhile, the Germans, unhindered, were attacking our chaps on the ground”
“We faffed about, sorting out our reloading and unjamming as the Germans continued their spree without any interference from us”
“The Lord only knows what the PBI must think of us”
“Once I had reloaded, I quickly found a target in one of the German new types, and forced it down.”
“It crashed behind our advance and I didn’t see any flames, so hopefully we can find out what it is.”
“The other enemy planes continued attacking our troops.”
“I think it was the only thing that saved us you know, the enemy being so focussed on the new weapons,”
“As we stooged around trying to get in position to attack them, they just kept on hammering those poor devils on the ground.”
“Eventually Sgt Ball got back into the fight, taking on a Halberstadt and a new type,”
“I also had a crack at the remaining new type, but my gun jammed after only a few rounds.”
Picture missing
“I set about clearing the Lewis as the Huns carried on their job against our chaps downstairs”
“One of the Halberstadts had climbed up while I was concentrating on the Lewis gun, and got above me. Just as I was bent over the side to get the new drum, he caught me from the other side cracking a strut and a couple of wing ribs.”
“At this point, with the engine damaged and the right wing in danger of collapse I fired a flare towards Sgt Ball to let him know I was returning to base.”
“According to his report, he immediately performed an Immelmann manoeuvre, and exchanged shots with the Halberstadt, sustaining engine damage himself. He says he could see the German pilot jerk in his seat, so he hopes he injured the fellow.”
“After that, with both aircraft damaged, we concentrated on trying to get our machines back in one piece.”
2The Germans, now that we were forced to leave were able to concentrate more on our poor chaps on the ground.
“I got off a parting shot at an enemy that passed below me some way off, but that was it for us.”
“ The Infantry reports that Major Vaughan showed me a little while ago tells what those poor devils went through after we had to leave”
“Don’t think like that Andrew, you took one down, damaged others, kept them busy and off their aim long enough for our chaps to make the greatest advance of this whole sorry year. Come on, let’s get this written up and change for the mess.”
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