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Aviation History
1931
1931 - 0818.PDF
FLIGHT, JULY 31, 1931 J?hc Clir €xcrciscs By MAJOR F. A. de V. ROBERTSON, V.D. (Concluded from page 733) UESDAY. JULY 21.—In previous years I havefound that cne of the best spots from which to gain a general idea of day attacks on London isthe Duke of York's Headquarters at Chelsea. There is a camera obscura there—in fact, there is one atpractically all the targets—and the camera is made the target. It represents a building which is supposed to bethe seat of Government of Redland. Beside it stands a •wireless lorry, manned by R.A.F. personnel. A numberof the wireless hands employed are actually men under instruction at the Electrical and Wireless School at Cran-well, who are considered sufficiently trained to be able to carry out work " in the field." They do remarkablywell, get some excellent practice, and naturally are greatly encouraged in their studies by having some experience ofreally interesting and important work. So thither I wended my way on Tuesday evening. At a Camera Obscura A camera obscura consists of a small closed tent, with alens at the top, and a large sheet of paper spread out on a table. The bomber squadrons in the air keep reportingtheir position by wireless, and the calls are picked up by the wireless lorry. Of course, they receive calls fromsquadrons which are bunting other objectives besides Chelsea. As I waited, a squadron was seen away to thesouth-east, which reported itself as No. 207 B.S. (Fairey III.F), and was probably bound for the West India Docks.We knew that it was the " Harts " of No. 33 B.S. which were after our blood this evening. No. 12 B.S. had alsooriginally received orders to attack Chelsea and the seat of Government, but had later been diverted to a low-bombing raid on Northolt aerodrome. The first wave of bombers had crossed the coast at6 p.m. The second wave was due to cross at 6.30. Our friends of No. 33 B.S. were in the second wave. Theyarrived a little before they were expected. At 6.40 we sighted the squadron flying in V formation, with the wire-less machine cruising about in the rear. The appearance of the V, instead of the more usual " squadron formation,"rather surprised us, and we wondered what Squadron Leader Waller had in his mind. An officer with warservice who was near the camera recalled that his squadron always used the V for bombing in the war. Possibly itpresents a harder target for a " brown " by the Archies. At any rate, it was a very imposing sight to watch No. 33,and we all admired the way in which the nine " Harts " kept their formation. At the same time another squadron was seen to therear of the Harts, not flying up from the south towards us as No. 33 was doing, but heading eastward. This squadronwas spread about over miles of sky. The leading flight was in good formation, but at first it was hard to besure that the other six machines belonged to the same squadron, until they began to close up. No one happenedto have any binoculars handy, and so the type of machines could not be identified. No. 33 came on, stately and undisturbed. The lensshowed the ten little shadows moving across the paper in the camera obscura. A metronome was ticking, and ateach tick a pencil mark was made on the paper at the spot where the leading machine of the squadron was atthat moment. These ticks gave the course and the ground speed of the squadron. It had to tell the camera its ownheight. The Harts were quite plain to the naked eye, and the sweep back of the upper planes, and the dihedral ofthe lower planes could be clearly distinguished. We all judged them to be about 7,000 ft. or so above us. Theysignalled, however, that they were at 11,400. Then a puff of smoke appeared below the leading machine. Thebombs had been released. There was practically no wind, and the smoke hung almost motionless for quite a con-siderable time. A buzz on the wireless gave more accurate information to the camera of the moment at which thebombs were released. The mathematicians now had all the factors—height, ground speed, direction, etc.—andthey knew the time which it would take for a bomb to fall from that height. In a very short time they workedout that the bombs would have fallen 350 ft. away from the camera. Not at all bad shooting. If, however, therehad been a mistake in reporting the height of the squadron, that would materially alter the result of thecalculations. When "Hart" meets "Hart" Afterwards I heard the explanation of the " V " forma-tion. The squadron which I had seen rallying to the rear of No. 33 B.S. was No. 23 (Fighter) Squadron from Ken-ley, which had been attacking No. 33 over Leatherhead. The umpire decided that one bomber was shot down andalso one fighter. This was probably the first occasion on which the fighter Hart had been engaged in air combatwith the bomber Hart. Squadron Leader Waller, of No. 33, had met the attack of the fighters by changingfrom squadron formation into squadron V. This forma- tion gives a fine field of fire to the rear gunners. No. 23F.S. is the composite squadron, having one flight of Hart two-seater fighters and two flights of " Bulldogs." N"report has been published as to whether the fighter which was shot down in this fight was a Hart or a Bulldog. On a Fighter Aerodrome Wednesday, July 22.—The third day of the exercises was gloriously fine. There were hardly any clouds in the READY FOR THE NIGHT RAIDERS. The picture at the head of the page shows No. 32 (Fighter) Squadron at Kenley ready to send up patrols of " Bulldogs " to meet the raiding " Virginias " and " Hinaidis." (FLIGHT Photo.) 764
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