PROLOGUE
Off to the Seaside.
“Well chaps we have a routine mission this morning” announced Biff our Flight Commander “but after that I have some good news for you, we are going to the sea side”. We all looked slightly dubious at this pronouncement and Berry turned to me and whispered “I wonder if Uncle knows about this”. Biff continued “The RFC Brass have been having words with the RNAS Brass and they have agreed an exchange of pilots would be a good for everyone. A exchange of ideas and tactical doctrine, comunicating what we have learned, you know the sort of things these fellows dream up”.
“Well I suppose because of my connection to Pa” (The Earl of Shrewsbury and C.O. of the RNAS in France) “or maybe because the Skipper is still annoyed at Vagabond for pi**ing in his aspidistra, we have been chosen to go and join the RNAS for a while, and pass on the wisdom of the RFC.” “Don’t worry it shouldn’t take long, we don’t have too much wisdom to impart and then we can get back here into the thick of it”. This latter comment got a wry smile from most of us and by then I’d given up trying to explain the injustice of me making a simple mistake with the watering of the aspidistra.
Biff went on to say “The Navy seem to be having a light time of it,
Some long range bombing trying to destroy the Zeppelin sheds and a few offensive patrols but they don’t seem to have much opposition from the Germans who are mainly here or around Verdun”.
“The Upside is, we should get to fly some different planes, the beer is better and we might live a little longer, but the downside is - the wine is thin and vinegary, also there’s the sea, just make sure you don’t land in it because it will be cold in March and your flying gear will take you straight to the bottom as sure as eggs is eggs.”
“Right-oh, when we get back you can pack your bags, we are taking 2 of the FE2b’s Vagabond and I will fly them and the rest of you are being picked up by a couple of tenders”. “We are also taking the Twa Jocks with Plaskitt-Smythe and Podgy from B Flight”. “They didn’t want to go but Uncle thought it best to keep them out of the C.O. sight for a little while and let his temper cool a bit, should only take a couple of months.”
Our new home was about a mile from the sea, which was visible on a good day, although there hadn’t been too many of those since we arrived a week ago. We did see it though, every time we were up in the air, it looked a cold, grey, wet and a very uninviting place. Somewhere to avoid at all costs and we were all hoping that we wouldn’t have to patrol over it, the Navy had some smallish rescue launches but they didn’t recover many of the pilots who ditched offshore. Well not alive anyway.
The work with the RNAS was going well, we explained our method of aerial combat and I think they were a bit in awe of us because of our quite extensive combat experience, that and the fact that we were all bull sh**ers.
The new planes we had been promised turned out to be the ubiquitous BE2c’s and a couple of old Nieuport 10’s, not the nimble Nieuport 11 scouts we were hoping for. The 10’s turned out to be immensely small for a two seat plane and the Twa Jocks and Podgy had a struggle to get in and out of them and couldn’t wear the lifejackets issued so had to carry them loose in the plane, not ideal, especially if you needed them quickly.
Biff had taken his old double barrelled shotgun and a clay pigeon trap together with some clays. We all spent some time on the beach enjoying ourselves and practicing deflection shooting and it turned out Bouncer Berry had a knack for it and was able to shatter more clays than the rest of us combined.
Afterwards Biff had a long conversation with him about flying.
But more importantly about landing and Berry explained about how hard he found it to land on grass the right way up. Biff responded “We are an observer short for one of the FE’s, with your quick reactions and skill at deflection shooting how do you fancy trying that for a week or so while we work on your landing skills and you regain your confidence” “ Sounds good to me” he replied.
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This morning there was a bit of a flap on, we were being sent to pick up a scientist and his assistant who had been carrying out tests on a new mine and the Navy in it’s inimitable fashion had managed to blow up their own ship so these two jokers were stranded on a small island off the coast of Holland. It was quite a long distance away, but fortunately, because of the long range sea patrols the RNAS were carrying out, all the two seat aircraft we had were fitted with an additional fuel tank to give them extra range. That was the good news, the bad news was that the radio operator on the trawler had been sending out the SOS on the open airwaves, so there was a good chance the Germans and indeed the neutral Dutch would have picked up the transmission and would try and apprehend the castaways before we got there.
The Navy briefing about the island was not encouraging, apparently there was only one beach that was suitable for us to land on, they told us it was hard sand but might have soft spots!!
The tide was due to turn in 45 minutes so we had to leave immediately or the beach would cover completely at half tide, they calculated we only had about 20 minutes after arrival to land and pick up the Scientist and his assistant and were adamant that the Scientist was the most important target for us to rescue.
On our way to the planes Biff explained his plan in detail, I was aghast, we had never tried this before, “it will be fine” he said “all you have to do is follow me, if I fire a red flare or we are down to 2 planes it’s every man for himself, understood”. Even the Twa Jocks looked a bit askance, the first time I’d seen them looking less than deadly confident before a mission.
The only comfort we got was when Biff explained he’d been drinking in a bar, talking to a pilot from one of the Squadrons doing long range bombing missions and they had tried it when they had been attacked by a swarm of E111’s. Apparently at least half their flight got back home, although I didn’t take much comfort from that titbit of news.
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