Royal Flying Corps Handbook 1914-18 E-Book

Peter G. Cooksley

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2007

Beschreibung

Explores the contributions made by the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service during World War I. This work also covers aircraft, an array of other subjects including organization, pay, rank, uniforms, motor vehicles, the womens branches, attitudes, and even songs popular in the mess.

Leseprobe

‘They are the knighthood of this war, without fear and without reproach: they recall the legendary days of chivalry, not merely by the daring of their exploits but by the nobility of their spirit.’

David Lloyd George

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

For the benefit of opinions, the advantage of recollections, the loan of photographs, the discovery of sources and the courtesy of encouragement in the preparation of this book, the author wishes to state his indebtedness to the following persons: Mrs I.W. Austin, D. Barton, Keith Chambers, Dr June Cunbrae-Stewart, Peter Cooper AMRAeS, T.F. Deery, Norman Gillam, Peter Lamb, G.S. Leslie, R.G. Moulton, Bruce Robertson, John Selby CEng, MIEE, Dr Robert Suchett-Kaye, Kenneth Slocombe, Trevor Smale and (bearing in mind the words of an Imperial War Museum spokesman in 1998: ‘The number of First World War veterans who are still alive is now very small’) special gratitude is due to C. Webster (formerly AM 275947) who lent photographs from his album as well as putting his recollections at my disposal, as did the pair – one from each service! – who did likewise but wished to remain anonymous. A number of those who gave assistance are members of Cross & Cockade International – the Society of First World War aero-historians.

CONTENTS

Title

Quote

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1:

The Foundations are Laid

Chapter 2:

The Crucible of War

Chapter 3:

Uniforms, Flying Clothes and Badges

Chapter 4:

Lighter than Air

Chapter 5:

Airships: Shadows in the Clouds

Chapter 6:

Fixed Wing Aircraft

Chapter 7:

Men and Machines

Chapter 8:

Significant Actions

Chapter 9:

The New Arm is Developed

Chapter10:

Wars Unceasing

Chapter 11:

The Women’s Services

Afterword:

The Foundations are Built Upon

Appendix I:

The Songs they Sang

Appendix II:

Facts and Figures:

Comforts Organisations and Medical Care

Government Offices

Selected Abbreviations

Comparative Commissioned Ranks

Equivalent RNAS/Royal Navy Ranks

The Size of the Air Battalion, Royal Engineers

The Size of the RFC (Personnel)

General Flying Casualties at Unit Level, 1914–1918

The Central Flying School

Aircraft Markings – An Outline

RAF Schools in November 1918

The RAF Eagle

From RNAS to RAF

Valediction

Bibliography

Copyright

INTRODUCTION

In 1917 Lord Hugh Cecil wrote about the RFC: ‘The Flying Corps is the greatest of the novelties of the war. And it appeals to people in several ways. Its military importance is great and increasing; it unites in a singular degree the interest of a sport with the deeper and stronger interest of war; the gallantry of its flying officers touches sympathy and thrills imagination; and the development of its mechanical and scientific apparatus inspires wonder and almost astounds belief.’

It is now over ninety years since the short-lived Royal Flying Corps ceased to exist, but it was forged and tempered in the holocaust of the greatest conflict mankind had witnessed up to that time – the First World War. In its brief existence it laid the firm foundations on which the Royal Air Force was built – ready to claim hard-won victory in the Battle of Britain only a little over twenty years later. Today, the admiration expressed by Lord Cecil in 1917 is still commanded by the pilots of the RFC’s successor, the RAF.

It has been said that if an author steals from a single book, he is guilty of plagiarism, but if from many works, he has conducted research. Many men, most of them now dead, have contributed much to this volume, but the written record is not always enough: it must be studied, weighed and assessed in the light of knowledge gained by interview and consultation with survivors of the period and an understanding of the morals, attitudes and social structure that coloured their upbringing. For most people the famous battles of history are little more than dates and dry facts on a page, and the recollections of members of the RFC and RNAS would doubtless have soon faded too and been lost for ever were it not for organisations such as Cross & Cockade International and Over the Front which have kept the memories green. Their work, and that of the various specialised museums, allows modern students of the period to recapture the atmosphere and spirit of the early flying services. These gallant airmen went aloft armed with a service rifle and just five rounds of ammunition before the introduction of Lewis guns, and chivalry flourished between the pilots of both sides. One famous example was Lieutenant Pilcher who, having clearly run out of ammunition, was allowed to make good his escape from a dog-fight by his German adversary; subsequently the Englishman deliberately ‘got in the way’, as he later described it, when he saw his gallant foe in danger. Such conduct was confined largely to the early days of the war and was perhaps not universal but it was still present in 1918 when a Fokker D.VII was brought down intact (the first thus secured, according to the squadron responsible) and Lieutenant L.E. Bickel remembered his colleagues ‘entertaining the pilot to lunch before handing him over to Intelligence’. Something of this spirit even survived until 1940 when Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Longmore, then C-in-C RAF Middle East Command, sent a letter of sympathy to the Italians on hearing of the death of General Italo Balbo, shot down in a ‘friendly fire’ incident.

Culture was not sacrificed either. In Salonica in 1916 Captain Murlis-Green, flying a BE12 of 17 Squadron, would drop carefully padded cases of gramophone records for his ‘enemy’ who would reciprocate with consignments of fresh green vegetables. The friendship between the two was reflected in Murlis-Green’s fury when the courteous German pilot was killed after being lured to attack a captive balloon. But it would paint an inaccurate picture of the period to suggest that such displays of gentlemanly conduct were common – in fact, they were only remarked on at the time because of their rarity. Generally speaking, the air war reflected the horrors of the ground war.

As the few survivors of the RFC gradually vanish for ever from the scene, I have seized this final chance to present an accurate picture of the RFC, so that what you hold in your hands is a unique and unrepeatable document, in both social and military terms. It is a comprehensive overview, describing the aircraft, uniforms, tactics and feats of arms, but neither human interest nor the lighter side are forgotten. Since the Royal Flying Corps formed the basis on which the RAF was formed, the book also looks at its influence beyond 1918.

All this may be summed up by an incident remembered by Sergeant A.E. Jessop of 615 Squadron, RAF, in the Second World War, when he still wore the badge of 56 Squadron, RFC, with which he had served in the First. An inspecting officer strode down the line of men and paused in front of the sergeant, barking ‘What’s that in your cap?’

‘Royal Flying Corps, sir,’ replied Jessop, stiffening a little more as he spoke.

‘Redundant service’ came the reply as the officer moved on down the line, but his lack of an order to replace the offending badge was a silent acknowledgement of the service’s enduring pride in its history and the debt it owed to its predecessors.

Peter G. Cooksley

London, 1999

CHAPTER ONE

THE FOUNDATIONS ARE LAID

The existence of the Royal Flying Corps was brief, less than six years to be exact, but during the period when it flourished it fought in the greatest war mankind had ever experienced, and it proved to be the precursor of what is arguably the finest and most efficient independent air arm in the world. This in turn became the pattern for the air forces of every nation that has emerged since. However, the birth-pangs of the Royal Flying Corps were protracted and painful. Only a year before it was formed, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Field Marshal Sir William Gustavus Nicholson, whose experience of warfare extended back to the Afghan War of 1878, had declared: ‘Aviation is a useless and expensive fad advocated by a few individuals whose ideas are unworthy of attention,’ although Orville Wright believed that he and his brother were ‘introducing into the world an invention which would make further wars practically impossible’.

It is not too fanciful to trace the beginnings of the RFC back to 1862 when Lieutenant Edward Grover RE began trials to investigate the military potential of balloons, basing his tests on a paper written by Captain T.H. Cooper of the 56th Regiment of Foot in 1809. However, it was not until 1878 that the War Office introduced the British Army to military aviation with the establishment at Woolwich of the so-called Balloon Equipment Store, at the same time allocating the sum of £150 for maintenance and equipment. Captains H.P. Lee RE and J.L.B. Templar of the Middlesex Militia (and subsequently KRRC), assisted by Sergeant-Major Greener, were appointed to oversee development work. Templar was a burly, genial man who was already an experienced aeronaut and owner of the coal-gas balloon Crusader, the first such vessel to be used by the Army. In the same year Crusader was joined by the 10,000cu.ft hydrogen Pioneer, specially constructed from varnished cambric at a cost of £71 – almost half of the original budget – before making its first ascent on 23 August 1878.

This sudden interest in lighter-than-air vehicles was in part due to the influence of Captain F. Beaumont RE and Lieutenant G.E. Grover RE, both of the Ordnance Select Committee. They had been attached to the Federal Army Balloon Corps during the American Civil War and subsequently made experimental ascents from Aldershot and Woolwich with equipment borrowed from the dentist and balloon pioneer Henry Coxwell.

The emergence of the Royal Flying Corps. (Author)

In 1879 Crusader appeared at Dover during the Easter Volunteer Review and at Brighton twelve months later, when a programme of balloon training was begun at Aldershot. In the same year there was a balloon detachment at the summer Army manoeuvres. A year later, on 24 June, the Army manoeuvres saw the first use of a man-carrying balloon, and in October the complete unit, now termed the School of Ballooning, was moved to Chatham, becoming part of the School of Military Engineering. Captain Templar took charge of a small balloon factory in old huts belonging to St Mary’s Barracks. A derelict ball-court was reroofed and used as an erecting shop and old beer barrels held the granulated zinc and sulphuric acid necessary for the production of hydrogen. Rough and ready measures were adopted to save expense and later investigations resulted in the varnished cambric envelopes being replaced with those made of ‘goldbeater’s skin’ (taken from the lower intestine of an ox), which proved lighter, more impervious and stronger, and was used for the new 10,000cu.ft Heron, completed at the end of 1883. During this year, Templar was joined by Lieutenant John Capper RE, then serving with the 11th Field Company at Chatham, and in the search for new coverings the pair set about the construction of the experimental silk-covered and linseed oil-treated 5,600cu.ft Sapper in the search for new coverings.

With plans for Bechuanaland to become a British protectorate in 1885, the Army dispatched an expeditionary force which arrived in Cape Town on 19 December 1884. This force included an aerial section equipped with three balloons under the command of Captain H. Elsdale, assisted by Lieutenant Trollope, and although their use was confined to limited observation duties, it is interesting to note that the force commander, General Sir Charles Warren, made a number of ascents in the balloon Heron. In addition to the balloons themselves, the section would have needed to take all the necessary equipment, consisting of a horse-drawn, limbered winch-wagon, a single GS wagon and three tube-carts each carrying forty-four heavy steel gas cylinders. Each cylinder was 8in long and 51/8in diameter and contained hydrogen gas stored at 1,500lb/psi pressure in peacetime but increased to 1,800lb/psi on active service. The following year, on 15 February, another balloon section was posted overseas, this time to the eastern Sudan. It was commanded by (now) Major Templar, assisted by Lieutenant Mackenzie who achieved something of a record by remaining aloft for seven hours at an altitude of 750ft, while the balloon was towed along by the mobile winch in the centre of a marching column en route from Suakin to Torfrik. As a result of such operations, it was concluded that such lighter-than-air craft were reasonably successful as observation posts, although their full potential had not been realised owing to inadequate transport facilities. In 1888 Captain Elsdale, now returned to England, was succeeded by a friend of Major Templar, Major C.M. Watson, who promptly took steps to create a self-contained Balloon Section, requesting (unsuccessfully) that it should have its own horses and drivers since borrowing these from other units had been a frequent source of irritation. But within a few years this was achieved, reflecting the official realisation that there was a future for the new arm of the Army, although this was not supported by the niggardly grant for 1888 of £1,600, a reduction of £400 on that allocated two years earlier. Nevertheless it was not altogether surprising that the year 1889 was marked by the announcement that a detachment from the Balloon Section, acknowledged as the most interesting and novel branch of the Army and staffed by enthusiasts, should visit Aldershot during that year’s manoeuvres. Coupled with a favourable report on balloons for military work from General Sir Evelyn Wood, the GOC Aldershot Division, who had gained a Victoria Cross during the Indian Mutiny, this ensured that the Balloon Section was established on a regular basis in the following year. It was decided to move the section and the gas-producing establishment to Aldershot in 1891, the workshops and shed being occupied in the following year. The gas plant was set up adjacent to the RE’s Stanhope Lines, near the Basingstoke Canal, and the name ‘Balloon Factory’ came into use locally after the founding of the necessary workshops at South Farnborough in 1894 (although the name was not officially adopted until three years later). Three officers and thirty-three other ranks made up Superintendent Templar’s staff, forming in effect the nucleus of the future RFC, and the Army store now contained a total of ‘32 fully equipped balloons ready at an hour’s notice to go on active service’.

A British war balloon with its attendant horse team. (Author’s collection [380/16])

When the ‘Great Boer War’ broke out in October 1899, the Army still had only a single balloon section and depot stationed at Aldershot, but nevertheless a detachment of the Royal Engineers, including an aerial section, was among the British troops sent to Africa. This section, commanded by Captain Jones, made aerial observations before the Battle of Magersfontein in December, and the subsequent heavy losses among the troops on the ground could probably have been avoided if Lieutenant-General Lord Methuen had made proper use of the balloon observer’s report (although it probably saved lives later in the battle). However, there was partial redress for this blunder when information gathered by a captive Army balloon was intelligently used during the siege of Ladysmith between November 1899 and February 1900. This balloon was also used to survey the terrain across which troops were to advance on Pretoria in May and to provide reconnaissance information for the town’s subsequent capture by Lord Roberts’ troops in June. As a result of these operations, the strength of the balloon detachment was increased to twenty-one NCOs and men. By this time supporting equipment had improved and the gas wagons, increased in number to six, now carried thirty-five 9ft long, 8in diameter spun steel tubes each, enabling a balloon to be filled in twenty minutes.

As the new century dawned, technical innovations were introduced, some of which were later to be adopted for the Flying Corps. One of the most important was the transmission and receipt of wireless messages to balloons in flight, first achieved successfully in May 1904. Handling and controlling unpowered lighter-than-air vessels soon became established procedures, knowledge of which was to prove valuable for the Caquottype balloons used during the First World War for observation, to support defensive balloon aprons and to act as aerial barrages flown from ships such as the sloop Penstemon in 1917.

Early ground-to-air wireless experiments being conducted by the Army at Aldershot at a distance of 30 miles. (Author’s collection [156/19])

MAN-LIFTING KITES

Intended for observation, these kites could be operated in wind speeds of up to 50mph (much too strong for balloons), and were adopted by the Army in 1906. The idea of such kites was traceable back to 1894 when a team of kites capable of lifting a man to an altitude of 100ft was devised by Major B.F.S. Baden-Powell of the Scots Guards, brother of the founder of the Boy Scout movement. However, it was the kite-teams devised by S.F. Cody that were used by the balloon companies. These were capable of lifting an observer to an altitude of 1,500ft (over 3,000ft on one occasion). They consisted of a pilot kite below which were three to seven lifting kites, according to the wind strength; suspended beneath the lifting kites was a carrier kite, below which was the observer’s basket. The first man to be lifted by this system was a sapper who went aloft over Pirbright Camp.

June 1894 saw the establishment of the Army’s Balloon School. S.F. Cody was appointed Chief Instructor, Kiting, and during 1906 secret investigations were launched to look into the possibilities of powered gliders. Lieutenant J.W. Dunne, who had been invalided out of the Army, was appointed designer of man-lifting kites at HM Balloon Factory, where he soon designed a tail-less glider, which was eventually powered by a pair of Buchet petrol motors. This proved capable of making short hops twelve months later.

But the advent of such devices did not mean that work on balloons had been abandoned. In 1903 and 1904 there were trials with a balloon flown from a destroyer taking place over Malta and Gibraltar. More reliable petrol motors were fitted to large balloons, creating a new form of transport – airships. Little more than an elongated, motorised balloon, Nulli Secundus – otherwise known as Army Airship no. 1 – was begun in 1904 by the Balloon Factory following Colonel Capper’s visit to the pioneer aviator Santos Dumont two years earlier. It was launched in September 1907 and in the following October it made its greatest – and last – flight. This was a 31/2-hour trip, mostly at an altitude of 500ft to 600ft, from Farnborough to London via Frimley, Bagshot, Sunningdale and Brentford; crossing the Thames just north of Staines it passed over Kensington Palace, Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace and the War Office, from where it was watched by a number of people, including Sir William Nicholson. When it reached St Paul’s Cathedral it circled the dome while Cody, taken along as he was the only man strong enough to restart the 50hp Antoinette motor which had a tendency to run hot, attempted to take close-up photographs of the cathedral. Unfortunately the pictures were spoilt because oil from the engine had coated the camera lens. Severe weather forced Nulli Secundus to land near Crystal Palace, and the balloon subsequently became too waterlogged ever to fly again. One eyewitness recalled: ‘Sergeant Ramsay ripped open a sealing chamber, remarking “And there goes £250 worth of hydrogen” as he did so.’ In fact, it was later rebuilt as Nulli Secundus II, which first flew on 24 July 1908, perhaps to mark the renaming of ‘His Majesty’s Balloon Factory’ (thus placing it on the same footing as the Royal Arsenal). In July 1908 the Admiralty made two important decisions: the first was the suggested appointment of a Naval Air Assistant to their Lordships; the second was proposing the construction of a large rigid airship, ordered from Vickers of Barrow-in-Furness. This was to be designated HMA [His Majesty’s Airship] No. 1. Its fate may be read in Chapter Five. Meanwhile the Royal Navy was gathering a small band of qualified pilots, although Lieutenant G.C. Colmore RN had unknowingly achieved the distinction of being the very first on the 21st of the preceding month when he gained Aviator’s Certificate no. 15 at his own expense.

Cody man-lifting kite team. (Author)

With the aid of a woven wicker seat (a lighter alternative to the basket), an observer is lifted by a team of Cody man-lifting kites. (Author’s collection [259/10])

The semi-rigid Army airship Nulli Secundus, which made the epic journey of 5 October 1907 (the same year that it was launched). It was destroyed in a storm and was replaced by the slightly larger Nulli Secundus II in 1908. The special radiator for its 50hp Antoinette engine was designed by the youthful Geoffrey de Havilland. (Author’s collection [178/13])

With that sagacity associated with many naval decisions, the plan to create a nucleus of trained pilots was one that spoke well for the Admiralty’s resolve to adopt a flexible approach to the likely new form of warfare. On 1 March 1911 four of its officers (selected from some two hundred applicants), Lieutenants R. Gregory, C.R. Samson, A.M. Longmore and E.L. Gerrard, the last being a member of the Royal Marine Light Infantry, were sent for training as aeroplane pilots. Their training was conducted at Eastchurch on the Isle of Sheppey, which F.K. (later Sir Francis) McClean of the Royal Aero Club had placed at the Admiralty’s disposal, together with two of his Short aircraft, in the previous November. A further pair of aircraft were placed on loan by the RAeC later. Charles Samson gained RAeC certificate no. 71 on 25 April, Arthur Longmore no. 72 on the same day, Reginald Gregory no. 75 on 2 May and Eugene Gerrard no. 76 three days later. All had flown Short biplanes for their first solos.

On 30 April 1912 the proposed equipment of the RFC naval wing was set out as follows:

1 twin-engined Short biplane

1 new twin-engined Short biplane

1 70hp Gnome-engined Short biplane

1 Chenu-engined Breguet biplane

1 Nieuport two-seat 50hp monoplane

1 Short monoplane

1 Deperdussin two-seat 70hp monoplane

1 Etrich monoplane

6 set of Short floats for the above to convert them for hydro-aeroplane practice.

In their standard configuration all these were fitted with a normal (land) undercarriage, but the proposal also suggested a further fourteen machines described as ‘hydro-aeroplanes’ – seaplanes:

2 Short seaplanes with twin motors: one biplane, one monoplane

6 seaplanes (to be ordered from a British firm)

6 further seaplanes to be ordered from the firm supplying the most satisfactory design in the tender.

The car of the airship Lebaudy, a vessel which had been purchased by the Morning Post newspaper in October 1910 and presented to the British government. It was subsequently based at Aldershot. (Author’s collection [380])

On 28 February 1912 the Royal Engineers were authorised to form an air battalion, with effect from 1 April. This had an eventual strength of 14 officers and 176 men under the command of Major Sir Alexander Bannerman, and consisted of two companies. No. 1 (Airships) was based at South Farnborough and equipped with Beta, Gamma and Delta. No. 2 (Aeroplanes) was based at Larkhill, its equipment consisting of a Wright biplane, a Bleriot Monoplane, a Paulhan, a de Havilland, a Henry Farman, a Howard Wright and four Bristols. At the same time plans were announced for a joint Army and Navy aviation school at Upavon on Salisbury Plain. This was staffed by 180 personnel including a commander and adjutant, 5 other officers, 63 NCOs and 2 Chief Instructors. A throughput of sixty-three pupils was envisaged. The school was officially opened on 12 June 1912, and consisted of fourteen sheds including hangars, workshops and accommodation. In the event, though, the school had been forestalled by the Royal Navy, whose Eastchurch training establishment became its official flying school in December 1911, the four aircraft now augmented by a further pair. The naval role in the event of war was officially defined as reconnaissance, shadowing submarines, identifying minefields and spotting for warships’ guns after ‘ascending from a floating base’ – pointers to the practical application of flights such as the one that took place on 18 November 1911 when Commander Oliver Schwann made the first ascent from water in a British aircraft, flying an Avro biplane off Barrow-in-Furness.

The new year opened with a further achievement for the Navy’s air pioneers on 1 January when Lieutenant Samson, one of the four pilots sent for training at Eastchurch, flying a Short S.38, ‘T2’, fitted with pontoons, took off from HMS Africa, anchored in Sheerness Harbour. HMS Africa was one of the King Edward Class warships, considered to be the finest pre-Dreadnoughts in the world. Completed in 1906, Africa was 425ft long, with a displacement of 16,350 tons, and had now been fitted with an experimental, wooden flying deck on the forecastle. Samson later repeated the experiment, flying a Short S.38 from the slightly longer deck of HMS Hibernia, a vessel of the same ‘Wobbly Eight’ Class, while it was steaming at 5 knots in Weymouth Bay during King George V’s Review of the Fleet on 2 May. Although the aircraft carried air-bags so that it could land on the water, Samson elected to land ashore at Lodmoore. Later the flying platform was transferred to HMS London, one of the 15,000-ton Formidable Class ships completed during the first four years of the century, and another successful take-off was made on 4 July from this ship, steaming at 12 knots.

The Admiralty took over the airship Gamma, described with Delta and Eta as ‘experimental’, together with a Parseval and the civilian Willows IV before the outbreak of war in August 1914. (Author’s collection [380/15])

The year 1912 was turning out to be an eventful one for military aviation. The Committee of Imperial Defence appointed Brigadier-General D. Henderson, Captain F.M. Sykes and Major D.S. MacInnes to prepare plans for the formation of the Royal Flying Corps. Absorbing the Air Battalion of the Royal Engineers and the Naval Air Organisation, this was constituted by royal warrant on 13 April, the actual formation of the Corps also incorporating a Central Flying School (‘to teach flyers to become soldiers rather than to train them to fly’, said cynics) and the Royal (formerly Army) Aircraft Factory. The new Military Wing was to have a Headquarters, seven aeroplane squadrons, one airship/kite squadron and an Aircraft Park (termed a Flying Depot, Line of Communications).

The Military Wing was to be commanded by Captain (temporary Major) Frederick H. Sykes (1877–1954). Late of the 15th (The King’s) Hussars, with which he had seen service in India as part of British Intelligence during 1905–6, Sykes had gained Royal Aero Club Certificate no. 95 flying a Bristol Boxkite on 20 June 1911. He was just thirty-five years old and some people thought him too young to lead the Military Division of the Corps, but between 1915 and 1916 such doubts were forgotten under the pressures of war and he was to find himself in command of the RNAS in the Eastern Mediterranean. In 1918 he became Chief of Air Staff, and the first of his three books, Aviation in Peace and War was published in 1922. As announced on 30 April 1912, the initial equipment of the Military Wing was proposed as:

The Royal Flying Corps flag was light blue, with dark blue borders and a central red stripe. (Drawn from Army Form B2095 C. Author)

1 Nieuport three-seater 100hp monoplane

1 Nieuport two-seater 70hp monoplane

1 Deperdussin three-seater 100hp monoplane

1 Deperdussin two-seater 70hp monoplane

2 Flanders two-seaters

2 Breguet three-seater 100hp biplanes

2 Henry Farman three-seater 70hp biplanes

1 Royal Aircraft Factory ‘B’-type.

3 Bristol-built Royal Aircraft Factory ‘B’-types

1 120hp Cody biplane

1 Martin-Handasyde two-seater 60hp monoplane

2 Bleriot single-seater 50hp monoplanes.

When war engulfed Europe in August 1914 Sir David Henderson (1862–1921) took command of the RFC in France, his appointment due partly to organisational qualities and partly to his work in 1911 as Director-General of Military Aeronautics. A patient dedicated Scot, described as determined but even-tempered, amiable and gentlemanly, he had earlier served in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. At the age of forty-nine he joined the War Office and at about the same time he learned to fly at Brooklands, gaining his brevet on 17 August and Royal Aero Club Certificate no. 118 the next day, after a total of two hours instruction at Brooklands on a Bristol Boxkite. His instructor was C. Howard Pixton, who went on to win the Schneider Trophy for Great Britain in 1914, flying a Sopwith floatplane at Monaco.

Ranken explosive darts measured some 51/2in long and weighed 13 oz. Each dart had three sprung arms designed to catch in airship fabric once this had been pierced by the cast-iron nose. It was a nonexplosive device, but its filling sent back a shower of sparks, fired by the jerk of their lodging in the fabric to ignite the volatile mixture of air and escaping hydrogen. They were carried in metal cases of fifty and dropped in groups of three from 60ft above the target. They were supported during their fall by a small rubber parachute. (Author)

No stranger to action, Henderson had joined the Army in 1883 and five years later was posted to the Sudan. He served in South Africa for two years until 1900; he was wounded, but twice mentioned in dispatches before returning home. He was awarded a DSO in 1902. Later his experiences in the field formed the basis of a book, The Art of Reconnaissance, which was published in 1907. He was again mentioned in a dispatch dated 8 October 1914, when Sir John French warmly commended his work in establishing the RFC in France. In August 1915 Sir David relinquished his command of the RFC in France to become its GOC.

With an extra fuel tank in the faired-over front cockpit, this BE2a was flown to Ireland by Captain C.A.H. Longcroft in September 1913. On 22 November in the same year it made a record flight of 450 miles from Montrose to Farnborough. It was destroyed in a crash on 2 April 1914. (JMB/GSL collection)

Naturally the emergence of a new Army Corps took some time. Nos 1, 2 and 3 Squadrons were formed on 13 May 1912, and no. 4 in September. No. 5 Squadron was constituted in August 1913 (the year which saw the new Corps’ first royal review), followed by no. 6 in January 1914 and nos 7 and 8 in May that year. No. 8 Squadron was formed out of the former no. 1 Airship and Kite Squadron. Meanwhile the redoubtable Samson was placed in charge of the Naval Wing’s personnel, while its air bases came under the control of HMS Vernon, the torpedo school. On 25 November 1912 the Admiralty formed a new Air Department. Its director was Captain M.F. Sueter (later Rear Admiral Sir Murray) and although the new Wing was to fall into seeming decline over the next twenty-six months, his quiet organisational skills behind the scenes eventually earned him the nickname ‘Father of the Fleet Air Arm’. Indeed in the year of his appointment to the new directorship, he had shown his grasp of the situation when he told a sub-committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence, ‘war in the air, for the supremacy of the air, by armed aeroplanes against each other is likely. Thus flight … in future wars will be of the first and greatest importance.’

Meanwhile investigations into the practicalities of ship-launched aircraft had not been neglected, and the old cruiser Hermes had been fitted with a short wooden deck. During 1913 seaplanes (the term replaced ‘hydro-aeroplanes’ from 17 July) were experimentally launched with the aid of wheeled trolleys that fell into the sea and were lost at each take-off. But the aircraft were still equipped with floats or airbags and on their return were expected to touch down on the water alongside the vessel to be hoisted aboard. At the beginning of 1913 the total naval air strength was 5 monoplanes, 8 biplanes and 3 seaplanes, but by the summer the position had materially improved, published figures listing the aircraft as 7 monoplanes; 14 biplanes and 10 seaplanes. They were made up as follows:

At the military aeroplane trials in July 1912, this Maurice Farman S.7 is approaching after a ‘good flight in a 30mph wind’. A later commentator described it as ‘floating serenely, creating something of a sensation’. (Copyright Hampshire County Library)

Monoplanes: 1 Bleriot, 2 Deperdussins, 1 Etrich, 1 Nieuport, 2 Shorts

Biplanes: 1 Avro, 2 Bristols, 1 Caudron, 2 Horace Farmans, 1 Maurice

Farman, 5 Shorts, 2 Sopwiths

Sea and Floatplanes: 1 Astra, 1 Avro, 2 Borels, 1 Donnet-Leveque,

1 Henry Farman, 1 Maurice Farman, 3 Shorts.

There were bases at Calshot, the Isle of Grain, Harwich and Yarmouth.

The Army had been thinking along similar lines and in December 1911 announced that a Military Aeroplane Competition (better known as the Military Trials) was to take place at Larkhill on Salisbury Plain in August 1912. The specifications for the aircraft were based on the slight experience gained so far, although the requirements for military purposes were not fully understood at the time. The Navy was to take no part in the trials. There were thirty-two entrants, but some either failed to arrive or took little part in the competition. The unexpected winner was the Cody V biplane, a machine that was totally useless for military purposes. The winning machine was taken over by the new RFC’s 4 Squadron as no. 301, but it was unfortunately destroyed in a fatal crash on 28 April 1913. The only other example, no. 304, was issued to the same squadron and allegedly also known as no. 2. This aircraft was eventually presented to the Science Museum, South Kensington, in November 1913 where it may still be seen.

But of greater import had been the creation in March 1913 of an Experimental Branch of the RFC’s Military Wing. Commanded by Major H. Musgrave, its tasks were to look into the further development of balloons, man-lifting kites, aerial photography, bomb-dropping, meteorology, aerial gunnery, wireless and artillery observation. According to published sources the aeroplanes at Musgrave’s disposal in mid-1913 were 22 monoplanes and 36 biplanes:

Cody military biplane no. 304, preserved in the South Kensington Science Museum. (Author [343/1])

BE2a no. 336, later to go to war with 4 Squadron, was equipped with wireless at the ‘Concentration Camp’. (JMB/GSL collection)

Monoplanes: 2 Bleriots, 4 Bristols, 5 Deperdussins, 4 Howard Flanders,

1 Martinsyde, 6 Nieuports

Biplanes: 4 Avros, 22 BEs, 2 Breguets, 2 Caudrons, 6 Shorts.

The Experimental Branch had bases at Montrose (2 Squadron), Salisbury Plain (3 Squadron) and South Farnborough (Headquarters/4 Squadron). A footnote in one published source stated that the delivery of twenty aeroplanes of various types was ‘awaited’ and that of the sum total, fifty were ‘effective for war’.

In the days when world events were rarely brought to the attention of the general public, the opening months of 1914 seemed to hold no portent of the cataclysm that was to come, and life in general seemed to have set into a tranquil pattern of progress. Not so in the armed services, however. Throughout June a ‘Concentration Camp’ was held at Netheravon for the entire RFC, its purpose being to concentrate under canvas the total strength of the new Corps in order to test its mobilisation ability and efficiency by means of competitions, talks, conferences and demonstrations, the mornings being devoted to flying and the afternoons to lectures and discussions. This should have been a period of consolidation and progress for the RFC, with a budget of one million pounds called for in that year’s Army Estimates, but there were damaging allegations that during the month of the ‘Concentration Camp’, serviceability and the condition of equipment made it impossible to put more than thirty machines into the air at any one time. In all, five squadrons were present at Netheravon – nos 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 – although the latter was neither completely manned nor fully equipped. No. 1 Squadron was in the process of converting from airships to aeroplanes, while no. 7 was still being formed.

The historic ‘Concentration Camp’ of 1914, where this photograph was taken, saw the appearance of BE2a no. 240, which had been allocated to the Military Wing of the RFC on 10 December 1913. It attracted much interest because it carried a Rouzet wireless, the aerial reel for which is visible under the front cockpit. The aircraft went to France on 13 August 1914 with 4 Squadron, but was struck off charge sixteen days later. (Flight International/Quadrant Picture Library [038])

On 1 July came the announcement that future references to the RFC would indicate only the former Military Wing since the earlier structure had never been popular. The Naval Wing, which was henceforth to take responsibility for all airship operations, had from the beginning of the year claimed to have in excess of a hundred trained aeroplane pilots. From this time on it would follow an independent existence as the Royal Naval Air Service, a title that had already been in unofficial use for several months.

The ‘Concentration Camp’ from the air. The high-altitude RE5, bottom right, has extended wings. (Bruce Robertson collection)

Then, as if to endorse the new autonomy of naval flying, just twenty-seven days later, at RNAS Station Calshot, Squadron Commander Arthur Longmore dropped a 14in 810lb torpedo from a seaplane for the first time. The Short Folder Seaplane, no. 119, was specially modified for the task, with a quick-release gear designed by Flight Lieutenant D.H. Hyde-Thompson. The experimental drop was the result of a request from the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, encouraged by the enthusiasm of Commodore Murray F. Sueter, Director of Air Operations, for the development of this weapon.

Seven days later hostilities opened between Great Britain and Germany – the First World War had begun. This cataclysmic event not only demanded the best efforts of the men and machines in the front line, but also the vast support system required to keep them flying. This included the RFC’s now largely forgotten Chinese Labour Corps: civilian ‘pick and shovel men’ who prepared aerodromes in France as well as laying roads. This was hard physical work and one RFC veteran remembered that ‘these lads did a fine job, many of them only to die far from home in a foreign country’. Sometimes referred to as ‘Annamite Coolies’, they were recruited from an area on the east coast of French Indo-China; there were some 250,00 of them in France, organised into companies and regiments along military lines. The uniformed RNAS Air Construction Corps did much the same tasks.

In 1915 the RFC founded the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (which continues today under the aegis of the Department of Trade and Industry), ensuring safety in air operations and travel.

From mid-1916 the little-remembered Intelligence Division of the Admiralty pioneered the production of numbered Air Packets containing specially prepared air maps to obviate the need for naval pilots to use their old school atlases and road maps for navigation, as they had done in the earliest days.

Cast bronzed RFC cap badge and ‘collar dog’ (left). (Author [700/0])

One of the RFC’s most bizarre duties was dropping copies of genuine letters and postcards written by German POWs over the front line trenches in France as part of the silent propaganda struggle.

The first pilots quickly had to become familiar with the phonetic alphabet for safer communications. In 1917 J.M. Grider, an American who served in France with 85 Squadron, listed the small number in use as: Ak, Beer, Cee, Don, E, F, G, Haiches, I, J, K, Ella, Emma, N, O, Pip, Q, R, Esses, Toc, U, Vic, W, X, Y, Zed. Grider was killed in action in late 1918.