56 Squadron RFC

[IRM]

Does anyone have any information on the correct letters for the aircraft of this squadron and which pilots used those particular fighters ? Specifically "B" Flight's SE5a fighters, but I'd appreciate any data you have.

There's plenty of images of McCudden's plane, so I know that they should have a white band just after the tail and that his has the letter G. Other than that, I've only seen a painting of his aircraft with two others, marked F and K, but I've no idea which pilots they represent. Rhys-Davids migh have been marked I, but I can't confirm that.

At worst, I can always just pick any letters I have decals for, but I'd much prefer to at least get some of them right.

Thanks in advance.

[Burt]

Had a quick look in the Osprey book SE5/5A Aces of WW1 and found the following for 56 Sqd don't know which flights they where inthough.

Capt G Maxwell = A
Capt W S Fielding-Johnson = U (later a plane marked with a V)
Capt K W Junor = E
Lt A P F Rhys Davis = I
Capt H J Burden = V
Capt J T B McCudden = G (later a plane marked with a 6)

Have seen another picture of a 56 Sqd plane marked with a Z

Hope thats a help. It would probably be better if you could find some good images.

Don

[IRM]

It's a great help, thanks. At the very least that gives me more than enough fallback names/letters to use if I can't track down my first choices.

[Flying Officer Kyte]

In a letter to his mother Rhys Davids mentions that on 7th May at Vert Galant he is in B flight and his flight commander was one Cpt. C. M. "Billy" Crowe. The other members of the flight are Barlow and Lloyd. Muspratt also eventually turned up in this flight. Cecil Lewis was in C flight and had a C to the rear of his fuselage roundel and a 2 in front of it with a red wheel cover .On 24th May C flight also includes Turnbull and Hoidge and was commanded by Cpt.Henry Meintjes until he was wounded in the fight that cost Ball his life..
McCudden's 6 in white also on upper right wing inboard of roundel. On lower left it is outside roundel and is black.
After Albert Ball's death on 7th May, Major Gerald Maxwell temporarily took over C flight for Meintjes until Cpt. Philip Prothero arrived. At the date of Balls death The flights were as follows.

A Flight. Ball,Maxwell,Knaggs.
B Flight. Crowe. Musters,Rhys Davids, Leach.
CFlight. Meintjes, Hoidge, Lewis,Melville.
Hope this helps.
Rob.

[flash]

An image here of a 56 sqn SE5 belonging to B flight in June 1917.
http://www.cbrnp.com/profiles/quarter1/raf.htm
Also this book sounds good if you can find a copy -
HIGH IN THE EMPTY BLUE: THE HISTORY OF 56 SQUADRON, RFC/RAF, 1916 TO 1920 by Alex Revell - the book has 16 pages of color profiles of SE-5s and SE-5a's,representing the changing policies in unit markings and a variety of individual schemes.
He has other books on the subject too by the look of it.

[Flying Officer Kyte]

-
HIGH IN THE EMPTY BLUE: THE HISTORY OF 56 SQUADRON, RFC/RAF, 1916 TO 1920 by Alex Revell - the book has 16 pages of color profiles of SE-5s and SE-5a's

Amazon have two starting at £94 :eek:
I would try your local library service.
Rob.

[IRM]

All very useful, thanks chaps.

I already knew about Revell's book, but the local libraries don't have it (even to request). According to WORLDCAT there is a copy in the British Library, but not in the garden variety ones. Wee bit far to travel !

Nevertheless, I should have enough details to do a more thorough search now.

[IRM]

I lucked out and came across a discussion over on the "other Aerodrome" about Voss' last flight, with contributions from Alex Revell among others (including the fellow who did the CGI recreation for the History Channel), plus a few more notes from model-making threads. I'll probably do a couple from each of B and C Flights with the dumbell markings.

For September 1917:
A-Flight had red wheel covers and a white dumbell on each side of the fuselage, just before the tail (like some of the pics Flash linked to).

B-Flight had black (later blue/white quartered) wheel covers and a blue dumbell.
McCudden(G), Rhys Davids(I), Muspratt(H), Cronyn(L), Young (?), Jeffs(?)

C-Flight had blue wheel covers and a red dumbell.
Bowman(M), Hoidge(J), Maybery(K), Gardiner(?), Taylor(?)

The dumbell markings were switched to a white band in Autumn 1917, some time after the Voss fight. They changed again around March 1918 to a split V shape (i.e. 2 thin diagonal stripes) and B-Flight changed from letter IDs to numbers around the same time. Aircraft didn't always have the correct Flight markings due to replacements and swaps between flights.