[Illustration: BALLOON STRAFING.
Attacking an enemy kite balloon with incendiary ammunition.
By Capt. W. E. Molesworth, M.C.
[_Frontispiece_
]
SIXTY SQUADRON
R.A.F.
A HISTORY OF THE SQUADRON
FROM ITS FORMATION
BY
GROUP-CAPTAIN A. J. L. SCOTT,
C.B., M.C., A.F.C.
WITH A PREFACE BY
THE RT. HON. LORD HUGH CECIL, M.P.
LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN
NEW YORK: GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
DEDICATED
TO THOSE WHO WERE
KILLED WITH THE SQUADRON
“Clean, simple, valiant, well beloved,
Flawless in faith and fame.”
KIPLING
PREFACE
This book tells the story of Squadron No. 60 of the Royal Flying Corps,
afterwards of the Royal Air Force.
When the war began, in August 1914, the Royal Flying Corps was a
very small body which sent four squadrons on active service and
had a rudimentary training organisation at home. In those days the
only functions contemplated for an airman were reconnaissance and
occasionally bombing. Fighting in the air was almost unknown. The
aeroplanes were just flying machines of different types, but intended
to perform substantially the same functions. Gradually as the war
continued specialisation developed. Fighting in the air began,
machine guns being mounted for the purpose in the aeroplanes. Then
some aeroplanes were designed particularly for reconnaissance, some
particularly for fighting, some for bombing, and so on. It was in the
early part of this period of specialisation that Squadron No. 60 was
embodied. And, as this narrative tells us, its main work was fighting
in the air. It was equipped for the most part with aeroplanes which
were called scouts--not very felicitously, since a scout suggests
rather reconnaissance than combat. These machines carried only one
man, were fast, easy to manœuvre, and quick in responding to control.
They were armed with one or two machine guns, and they engaged in a
form of warfare new in the history of the world, and the most thrilling
that can be imagined--for each man fought with his own hand, trusting
wholly to his own skill, and that not on his own element, but in
outrage of nature, high in the air, surrounded only by the winds and
clouds.
The embodiment of the fighting scout squadrons was part of the
expansion and organisation of what became the Royal Air Force. Among
all the achievements of the war there has been, perhaps, nothing more
wonderful than the development of the Royal Flying Corps and the
Royal Naval Air Service, and their amalgamation in the great Royal
Air Force which fought through the last year of the war. When the
war opened, the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service
were bodies of few units, ancillary to the Army and the Navy, of
which the control was in the hands of the Army Council and the Board
of Admiralty. It was not realised that warfare in the air was a new
and distinct type of warfare. Generals who would have laughed at the
idea of commanding a fleet, Admirals who would have shrunk from the
leadership of an army corps, were quite unconscious of their unfitness
to deal with the problems of aerial war. Every step, therefore, of the
organisation and expansion of the flying services had to be conducted
under the final control of bodies, kindly and sympathetic indeed, but
necessarily ignorant. That the Royal Flying Corps attained to its
famous efficiency and was expanded more than a hundredfold should earn
unforgetting praise for those who were responsible for leading and
developing it. The country owes a great debt, which has not, perhaps,
been sufficiently recognised, to Sir David Henderson, whose rare gifts
of quick intelligence and ready resource must have been taxed to the
utmost in his dual position as head of the Flying Corps and member of
the Army Council; to Sir Sefton Brancker, who worked under him in the
War Office; and to Sir Hugh Trenchard, who, from the date that Sir
David Henderson came back from France to that of the amalgamation of
the flying services in the Royal Air Force, was in command in France.
It was the administrative skill of these distinguished men that stood
behind the work of the squadrons and made possible their fighting or
bombing or reconnaissance. And this background of administrative skill
and resource must not be forgotten or suffered to be quite outshone by
the brilliant gallantry of the pilots and observers.
But in this book we read, not of the organisation of the Flying Corps
or the Air Force, but of the actual work done in the field. We catch
glimpses, indeed, of the expansion and organisation which was going
on, in the mention of new armament, new machines, new units; and
we are able to gauge the importance of the work done at home and at
Headquarters in France by the effect produced on the fighting capacity
of Squadron No. 60. For example, we hear how machines supplied from
France at one point proved untrustworthy in structure, and how the
fault was detected and put right. But in the main attention is
concentrated on the thrilling story of the achievements of No. 60
against the enemy. I think every reader will agree that he has seldom
known a story more moving to the imagination. Many people even now
feel apprehensive at flying at all, although familiarity has produced
a juster estimate of the degree of risk attending that operation than
used to prevail. But to fly and fight, to sit alone in an aeroplane
thousands of feet above the ground, to catch sight of an enemy, to go
to attack him, flying faster than an express train moves, to venture as
near as may be dared, knowing that the slightest collision will cast
both helpless to the ground, to dodge and dive and turn and spin, to
hide in clouds or in the dazzle of the sun, to fire a machine gun while
not losing mastery of the control and rudder of one’s aeroplane, to
notice the enemy’s bullets striking here and there on one’s machine,
and know that if a bullet hits the engine it means either death or
a precarious landing and captivity, and if a bullet hits the petrol
tank it means being burned alive in the air, and yet to fight on and,
escaping, go forth afresh next day--surely to read of this is to
realise with new and penetrating force the stupendous measure of what
human skill can do and human courage dare.
The picturesque effect of the fighting is enhanced by the security and
comfort in which the pilots rested when they were not in the air, and
from which they went up day by day to their terrific duties. Anyone
who visited the Flying Corps while the war was going on must have
been struck by this poignant contrast. The visitor saw a comfortable
mess and billets, roughly organised indeed, but for young men in the
height of their strength a pleasant place to live in. Good food and
drink, cigarettes to smoke, newspapers to read, and all the fun and
merriment that are natural to a group of young men between eighteen
and thirty years old. And for most of such squadrons the surroundings
seemed peaceful: around were the smiling, highly-cultivated fields of
France--perhaps the most evidently civilised country in the world--with
nothing to witness of war except the distant booming of its guns. Yet
from this abode of youth and ease and joy the dwellers went forth into
the abyss of the air, to face danger at which imagination quails and of
the reality of which they were grimly reminded by missing week by week
some familiar face, gone for ever from their circle. This was what was
done and felt by Squadron No. 60, and here is the story of it.
I am sure this book will interest those who read it, but I would have
it do something more. Even already the memory of the war is beginning
to fade. And it is happy that it should: may its orgy of hate and
blood pass from our minds as from our lives! Yet, while the healing,
deadening waters of oblivion are only drawing near, let us save from
them with careful hands some jewelled memories, that by them we may be
profited; and, amongst them, this of the men of No. 60, who fought a
new warfare with old but unsurpassed courage and found the way of glory
among the untrodden paths of air. Many died and many suffered, but they
bought for us the unpriced treasure of their example. This is like
sunshine to us, giving us life and killing all diseases of the soul.
Let us, then, read these pages that we may learn from our hearts to
honour the fighting airmen of No. 60, and grow ourselves in honour as
we read.
HUGH CECIL.
21 ARLINGTON STREET.
_July 1920._
AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT
It has only been possible to produce this book at all by reason of the
help that so many old friends have given me.
My thanks are due to many of them, but in particular to Flight-Lieut.
G. W. Dobson, who has himself contributed the account of the squadron
at Savy, and has assisted with much of the more arduous work in
connection with the preparation of the appendices, which we both hope
are now correct in every detail, though we really know quite well that
errors will, in fact, be found.
Capt. W. E. Molesworth also has helped very greatly by allowing me
to use his vivid letters and by giving the four drawings by himself,
which, I venture to think, are of considerable merit. To Mr. R. J.
Maclennan, Mr. W. A. H. Newth, and Mr. W. T. Howard, and also to Mr.
G. S. Armstrong, father of the late Capt. D. V. Armstrong, perhaps
the finest pilot the Flying Corps ever produced, I owe letters and
photographs which have been invaluable.
In conclusion, I would ask those many others whom I have not space to
mention to believe that I am sincerely grateful for their help.
J. S.
4 WILTON STREET, S.W.1.
_June 28, 1920._
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE vii
AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT xiii
AN EXPLANATION OF TECHNICAL TERMS USED xix
CHAPTER I
THE FORMATION OF THE SQUADRON 1
CHAPTER II
THE SOMME 11
CHAPTER III
ARRAS 30
CHAPTER IV
PASSCHENDALE AND THE NORTHERN BATTLES 65
CHAPTER V
THE MARCH OFFENSIVE (1918) 92
CHAPTER VI
DEMOBILISATION 125
APPENDIX I
A LIST OF THE OFFICERS WHO SERVED IN 60 SQUADRON DURING THE WAR 128
APPENDIX II
A LIST OF BATTLE CASUALTIES 134
INDEX 139
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
BALLOON STRAFING _Frontispiece_
FACING PAGE
PATROL OF MORANE “BULLETS” ABOUT TO LEAVE THE GROUND, VERT
GALANT, JUNE 1916 6
H. BALFOUR AND D. V. ARMSTRONG, JULY 1916 8
CLAUDE A. RIDLEY, D.S.O., M.C., IN A MORANE “BULLET” 8
SUMMERS STANDING BY HIS MORANE “PARASOL” 16
MAJOR R. SMITH-BARRY IN A MORANE “BULLET” 16
BROWNING-PATERSON WITH HIS MORANE “PARASOL” 20
CAPT. D. V. ARMSTRONG 20
SOME OF THE OFFICERS OF 60 24
MORANE “BULLET” CRASHED BY SIMPSON. BOISDINGHEM, JUNE 1916 24
“A” FLIGHT AWAITING SIGNAL TO PROCEED ON PATROL, MAY 1917 28
THE KAISER DECORATING VON RICHTHOFEN, WHOSE AEROPLANE APPEARS
BEYOND THE GROUP 28
MOLESWORTH, BISHOP, AND CALDWELL, APRIL 1917 40
BISHOP, CALDWELL, AND YOUNG, APRIL 1917 40
THE HARD TENNIS-COURT AT FILESCAMP FARM, MAY 1917 58
60 SQUADRON’S NIEUPORT SCOUTS LINED UP IN THE SNOW AT LE
HAMEAU AERODROME, NEAR ARRAS, JANUARY 1917 58
A DOG-FIGHT 100
“ARCHIE” 100
GERMAN MACHINES 112
AN S.E.A. WITH LIEUT. ROTH, A PILOT OF 148 AMERICAN SQUADRON,
STANDING 118
S.E.5A. WITH 200 H.P. HISPANO SUISA ENGINE, ARMED WITH ONE
VICKERS AND ONE LEWIS GUN 118
MAPS: ON THE WESTERN FRONT
SITUATION ON SEPTEMBER 25, 1918 116
THE BATTLES AND THEIR EFFECTS 126
AN EXPLANATION OF TECHNICAL TERMS USED
The line drawing below of a typical tractor biplane will explain to the
non-technical reader the meaning of many terms used hereafter which are
difficult to describe without the aid of a diagram:
[Illustration]
A monoplane has no lower planes, while the top planes sprout from the
side of the body like the wings of a bird, but are rigid.
In either type of aeroplane it is the action of the air on the wing
surfaces, both upper and lower, when the machine is travelling forward
at a minimum speed of about forty miles per hour that keeps it in the
air. If the speed is allowed to drop below this minimum (known as the
flying speed) the machine “stalls,” i.e. becomes uncontrollable, drops
its nose and dives to regain flying speed. If this happens near the
ground--within a hundred feet--a serious, and often fatal, crash is
the result.
Among the types of aeroplanes used in France during 1916-18, and
mentioned in these pages but not described in detail, are:
B.E.2C., R.E.8, AND OTHER TYPES OF TWO-SEATER MACHINES
All two-seater machines carrying one pilot and one observer which were
chiefly used for artillery observation, i.e. correcting, by observation
from the air, the fire of batteries on the ground.
These were tractor biplanes, i.e. the engine and propeller were in
front, while the observer and pilot sat tandem in two cockpits, or
nacelles, in the fish-shaped body.
F.E.2B.
A two-seater fighting biplane of the “pusher” type with the engine
behind the pilot, who with the observer sat in a cockpit which
protruded beyond the leading, or forward, edges of the planes. This
aeroplane was used for day and night bombing, for fighting in 1916 and
the first half of 1917, and also for reconnaissance and photographic
work.
DE HAVILLAND 4
A high-speed tractor two-seater biplane used for bombing,
reconnaissance work, and photography.
NIEUPORT, S.E.5, AND SOPWITH CAMEL
Single-seater fighting scouts, all tractor biplanes.
SIXTY SQUADRON
R.A.F.
CHAPTER I
THE FORMATION OF THE SQUADRON
To create a new flying unit is a task which entails much thought and
labour, and the formation of 60 had been a matter for the careful
consideration of the R.F.C. authorities for many months before the
squadron number could appear on any of those manifold returns, without
a bountiful supply of which no country seems able to go to war. Vital
points for preliminary consideration are: The type of aeroplane and the
numbers of this type likely to be available in the future; the engines,
and, no less important, the spares which must be procured in adequate
quantities if these engines are to be kept in running condition. The
training units, too, must be increased in order to keep the new service
formation up to strength in pilots. A sufficient number of trained
mechanics must be got from somewhere, and these have usually to be
wrung from the commanders of other units, themselves already short of
trained personnel, and as a rule most reluctant to part with good men.
All these matters were at last decided, and 60 Squadron was formed on
May 1, 1916. At that time there were in the Royal Flying Corps about
thirty-five service squadrons all told, of which by far the greater
number were in France. The Royal Naval Air Service had at this date
considerably fewer service units. When the Armistice was signed, there
were well over two hundred service squadrons in the Royal Air Force,
which had come into being as an independent entity distinct from the
Army or the Navy on April 1, 1918. During the months previous to the
formation of 60, the Germans, with the aid of the Fokker monoplane,
which they produced in the autumn of 1915, had begun seriously to
interfere with our artillery observation machines. At this period of
the war--early 1916--we had no complete single-seater fighting scout
squadrons, but achieved the protection of the artillery machines,
mostly B.E.2C.s, by having a few Bristol and other scouts in each
two-seater squadron.
As a result of these losses, General Trenchard decided to form some new
scout squadrons, of which 60 shortly became one, and also to re-equip
some of the existing squadrons with scouts. No. 1 Squadron, for
example, was given Nieuports (a French machine), at that time the equal
of any German fighter.
No. 60 was formed from No. 1 Reserve Aeroplane Squadron at Gosport.
Major F. Waldron, known to his friends as “Ferdy,” was the first
commander of the new unit. He had previously commanded No. 1 R.A.S.,
and was a cavalry officer who had been seconded from his Hussar
regiment (the 19th), some time before the war, to the R.F.C. He was
one of the earlier military aviators. He had been an instructor at the
Central Flying School at Upavon and was a first-class pilot. The three
original flight commanders (Capts. R. Smith-Barry, A. S. M. Somers, and
H. C. Tower) were all three old Etonians. The original flying officers
were: Capt. D. B. Gray; Lieuts. H. A. Browning-Paterson, J. N. Simpson,
G. F. A. Portal, H. H. Balfour, H. Meintjies, A. D. Bell-Irving;
2/Lieuts. C. A. Ridley, D. V. Armstrong, H. G. Smart, and G. D. F.
Keddie.
The observers were: Lieuts. R. H. Knowles and G. Williams; 2/Lieuts. L.
L. Clark, H. J. Newton, H. H. Harris, H. Good, C. F. Overy, J. I. M.
O’Beirne, W. E. G. Bryant, J. Laurie-Reid, J. N. O. Heenan (A.E.O.),
and J. Bigood (A.E.O., wireless).
Usually a new squadron received its machines in England at its home
station and flew them over to France. 60 Squadron, however, was to be
equipped with Moranes, French machines which were not built in England
at that time. Consequently the squadron, with its motor transport,
stores, etc., crossed to France by sea, and went to St. Omer, where its
equipment was completed.
An R.F.C. squadron had two sergeant-majors: one disciplinary, the
other technical. Waldron, when forming 60, chose these warrant
officers with considerable discretion. Sergt.-Maj. Aspinall, an old
Guardsman brought into the Flying Corps by Basil Barrington-Kennet
in the very early days, was the disciplinary warrant officer. He had
qualified as a rigger and had tried to learn to fly, but it was as a
disciplinarian that he really shone. He played no inconsiderable part
in the achievement of whatever success the squadron may have had. He
was a first-class soldier, and his instructions to flight commanders
in the form of little typewritten lectures were gems of their kind.
It should be remembered that at times the casualties in the squadron
were very heavy, and officers became flight commanders at an age which
would have been regarded as absurd before the war. “The Great Man,”
as we called him, would explain with profound respect to a captain
promoted, most deservedly, at the age of nineteen the necessity for
assuming a judicial demeanour when an air mechanic was brought up
before him on some minor charge; he would, further, instruct the
young flight commander most carefully in the punishments appropriate
to each offence, and all this without in the smallest particular
transgressing that code of military etiquette which regulates so
strictly the relations between commissioned and warrant officers. Only
his successive commanding officers know how much of the tranquillity
and contentment of the men was due to “the Great Man.” The technical
sergeant-major, Smyrk by name, was a wizard with an internal combustion
engine. He had been employed at the Gramophone Co.’s factory at Hayes
in civil life before joining the R.F.C. in 1912, and had a gift for
teaching fitters their business. During almost all the war, two
fitters a month had to be sent home to assist in the manning of new
units, while the squadrons in the field had, in consequence, always
to carry a percentage of untrained or partially trained men, who had
to be made into experts on the engines with which they were equipped.
The technical sergeant-major had to train these men, and was also
the specialist who was called in whenever one of the flights had an
unusually refractory engine which had baffled both the flight commander
and his flight sergeant. Smyrk was always equal to every call upon him,
and a long line of pilots should, and no doubt do, remember him with
gratitude, for, after all, the degree of efficiency with which the
engine was looked after often meant the difference between a landing in
Hunland and getting home.
After a few days at St. Omer we received our machines, which were
Moranes of three different types: “A” Flight had Morane “bullets,” 80
h.p.; “B” Flight, 110 h.p. Morane biplanes; and “C” Flight, Morane
“parasols.”
Of the “parasol,” a two-seater monoplane, it is unnecessary to say very
much, as they were soon replaced by “bullets,” and “C” Flight did
practically no work on them. The machine is best, perhaps, described as
a biplane without any bottom planes, by which is meant that the wings
were above the pilot’s head, a feature which suggested its nickname. It
had an 80 h.p. Le Rhone at that time, almost the best air-cooled rotary
engine. They were good for artillery registration, as the view downward
was excellent; they were very stable also, easy to fly and to land,
and, in fact, were “kind” machines, giving their pilots the sort of
feeling afforded by a good-tempered, confidential old hunter.
The Morane biplane had a more powerful engine, the 110 Le Rhone, also
an air-cooled rotary, and was quite an efficient “kite,” as the R.F.C.
called them, with its inveterate habit of inventing pet names for its
aeroplanes. It was draughty and cold to sit in, but was light on the
controls and had a reasonably good performance. This machine was also
a two-seater, like the “parasol,” with the observer’s seat behind the
pilot’s.
[Illustration: PATROL OF MORANE “BULLETS” ABOUT TO LEAVE THE GROUND,
VERT GALANT, JUNE 1916.]
The Morane “bullet,” with a 80 h.p. Le Rhone engine, was quite a
different proposition.
This was a monoplane with a fuselage (body) of the monococque, or
cigar-shaped, type and very small wings, giving, therefore, a very high
loading per square foot of lifting surface. The speed near the ground
was not too bad for 1916, being about ninety to ninety-five miles per
hour, but, owing to the high loading on the wings, the machine became
inefficient at a height. It had the gliding angle of a brick, as
a pilot moodily complained after an unsuccessful forced landing. It
is obvious that, if a machine has a very small wing surface, it must
be kept going fast, when gliding without the engine, to preserve its
flying speed, and this can only be done by keeping the nose well down;
hence the unfriendly description quoted above.
Above 10,000 feet it was difficult to turn a “bullet” sharply and
steeply without “stalling”; moreover, in bad weather it was very
uncomfortable to fly, giving the impression that it was trying its
best to kill the pilot all the time. The lateral control,[1] of the
“warp” type, was to some extent responsible for this. The armament was
a fixed Lewis gun firing through the propeller, which was fitted with a
metal deflector--a steel wedge which prevented the propeller being shot
through. There was no synchronising gear on any of the Moranes. By this
is meant the device by which the detonation of the gun was harmonised
with the beat of the propeller; actually the gun is blocked when the
blades of the propeller are in the line of fire.
Later on we were given some “bullets” with 110 h.p. Le Rhones, but
these were no better, as the loading was even higher with the heavier
engine, and their performance above 8,000 feet was consequently poor.
The climb for the first few thousand feet was wonderful, as the engine
seemed almost to pull the machine straight up.
Generally speaking, the “bullet” was not a success, as it was too
difficult to fly for the average pilot. Nevertheless, as several of our
pilots, notably Smith-Barry, Gilchrist, Foot, Grenfell, Meintjies, and
Hill, and in particular D. V. Armstrong, were considerably above the
average, some useful work was accomplished on these machines.
The equipment having been completed, we moved to Boisdinghem, between
St. Omer and Boulogne, for a few days’ practice with the new machines.
This was very necessary, as hardly anyone had flown Moranes before.
On June 10 we were ordered to Vert Galant, an aerodrome astride the
Doullens-Amiens road, and joined the 13th Wing of the 3rd Brigade
R.F.C., operating with the 3rd Army. War flying was started a few days
later, and it at once became apparent that our anti-aircraft batteries
found difficulty in distinguishing our “bullets” from the Fokkers.
In consequence the black cowls of our machines were painted red to
help the “archie”[2] gunners, who had been assiduously firing at 60’s
machines.
[Illustration: H. BALFOUR AND D. V. ARMSTRONG, JULY 1916.]
[Illustration: CLAUDE A. RIDLEY, D.S.O., M.C., IN A MORANE “BULLET.”]
The work at this time chiefly consisted of offensive patrols, which
were supposed to keep the air clear for our corps and bombing machines.
Numerous reconnaissances were also carried out. In these days scouts
usually worked in pairs, but larger formations of five and six machines
were becoming more common; later in the war it was the rule to send
out a whole squadron, or as many of its machines as were serviceable,
over the line at once; but in 1916 aeroplanes and pilots were, usually,
too scarce to send more than two off the ground at once.
On August 3, 1916, Claude Ridley had a forced landing near Douai
through engine failure when dropping a spy over the lines. His
adventures were remarkable. His spy got out, told Ridley to hide for a
little, and presently, returning with civilian clothes and some money,
told him that he must now shift for himself. Ridley did so with such
address that he eluded capture for three months on the German side
of the line, and eventually worked his way via Brussels to the Dutch
frontier and escaped. This was a good performance, none the worse
because he could speak neither French nor German. The method he adopted
was a simple one--he would go up to some likely-looking civilian and
say, “I am a British officer trying to escape; will you help me?” They
always did. He had many interesting adventures. For example, he lay up
near the Douai aerodrome and watched the young Huns learning to fly and
crashing on the aerodrome; here he saw one of our B.E.s brought down,
and the pilot and observer marched past him into captivity; later the
conductor of a tram in the environs of Brussels suspected him, but,
knocking the man down, he jumped into a field of standing corn and
contrived to elude pursuit.
This method of landing spies was not popular with R.F.C. pilots, as
there was always quite a chance that one might not be able to get the
machine off again, and, anyhow, it was a nerve-racking experience to
have to land in a field after a necessarily hurried survey from the
air, and wait while your spy climbed slowly--very slowly--out. Later,
different and, from the pilot’s point of view, improved devices were
adopted; the spy was made to sit on the plane with a parachute and to
jump off when told. Occasionally they refused to jump, nor is it easy
to blame them, so a further improvement is said to have been introduced
by which the pilot could pull a lever and drop the wretched agent out
through the bottom of the fuselage, after which he parachuted down to
earth.
They were very brave men, these French spies who voluntarily entered
the occupied territory in this hazardous manner. They were usually
dropped either in the late evening or early morning.