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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 0748.PDF
2o April 1951 469 been organized. The stations concerned were manned by 130• officers and about 700 men; there were 77 aircraft, including 31 seaplanes and 7 airships. Of 83 engines installed, only four wereBritish. Three machine guns were available : one aircraft mounted a Maxim, another a Lewis (on loan to the Admiralty), and theAstra Torres airship had a Hotchkiss. A few machines carried rifles. The armoury at the Isle of Grain contained four hand grenades;Hendon and Felixstowe had twelve each, but Eastchurch boasted the impressive arsenal of 150 hand grenades, 42 rifle grenades,and 26 20-lb bombs ! A number of 6in shells were fitted with tail vanes for use as bombs. Henceforth the R.N.A.S. developed at such a rate that ournarrative must now become more general. An R.N.A.S. squadron from Eastchurch went over to Ostend to support the MarineBrigade and deny to the Zeppelins the use of territory within 100 miles of Dunkirk. Though there was little flying, the exploits ofSamson and his R.N.A.S. armoured cars matched in audacity the historic and completely successful raid by F/L. Marix on theDusseldorf Zeppelin shed. Marix's aircraft was an Avro 504; the date, October 8th, 1914. When the R.N.A.S. was obliged toretreat beyond Ypres it co-operated with the R.A.F. in trying to stop the German drive to the Channel ports. A seaplane base wasestablished at Dunkirk and late in the year, from a point near the French frontier, Avros under Sqn.Cdr. Briggs damaged Zeppelinsat Friedrichshafen and destroyed the gasworks. A seaplane raid on Cuxhaven and Wilhelmshaven was a gallant failure. In 1914,H.M.S. Hermes—our first, and at that time our only, seaplane carrier—was sunk. With airships and seaplanes the R.N.A.S. kept up their weari-some and dangerous patrols during 1915. Offensive operations were generally insignificant, but there were exceptions, notablythe actions against the Belgium-based Zeppelins. Within a few days of the first bombing of London, two of these monsters had been destroyed and a third damaged. The names of Warneford,Spencer Grey, Bigsworth, Wilson and Mills will always be associated with these exploits. The seaplane carriers proved technical disappointments. Sub-marines were attacked from the air, but none was sunk. During 1915 the S.S. "sea scout" airship (sometimes—and not whollyerroneously—described as a gasbag with a B.E.2C fuselage slung underneath) went into service in quantity; the first was built inless than a month and the type was followed by the C "coastal" type, of longer range. The seaplane carriers Ark Royal and Ben-my-Chree, and the kite-balloon ship Monica, saw service in the Dardanelles. In that same theatre, on August 17th, 1915, protagonists oftorpedo aircraft were resoundingly vindicated. Early on that day, two 225 h.p. Sunbeam-engined Short 184 seaplanes, each carryinga 14m torpedo and petrol for 45 min flying, left the Ben-my-Chree to attack Turkish merchantmen. The pilots were Flt.Cdrs.Edmonds and Dacre. Aiming at the centre ship of three, Edmonds released his torpedo. It ran true and struck home. Dacre wasforced to alight on the water with engine trouble, but, sighting a steam tug, he taxied in its direction, slipped the "fish", and scoreda direct hit. In celebration of the double victory, the refractory Sunbeam came to life again and Dacre flew back in safety to themother ship. In East Africa the cruiser Konigsberg was destroyed by gunfirefrom monitors, ranged by Naval aircraft, but such successes were infrequent. Many and bitter were the disappointments. In theearly months of 1916 some gallant but inconsequential sorties were made against the German coast: of eleven seaplanes detailedfor one raid, eight failed to get off the water; one hit a destroyer's aerial and sank, and one returned with engine trouble. To com-plete this chapter of accidents, the only machine to reach the target failed to hit it. The Battle of Jutland, in May, 1916, was the occasion of thefirst air co-operation in a major Naval action : the little carrier Engadine operated one Short seaplane. The larger Campania,under the command of Capt. Swann, did not receive her signal to sail with the Fleet, and when at length she put to sea, she was somenaced by U-boats that Admiral Jeliicoe ordered her back to c On the extreme left is the Short "Triple Twin" of 1911-12. This was the first British twin-engined aircraft to fly. The amazing floating structure in the next picture is a Wight seaplane, photographed at Mudros in the First World War; then comes a Short S.4I of 1912, with Winston Spencer Churchill in the cockpit. Heading this column is the Short from which Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Longmore made the first torpedo drop in this country, followed by Cdr. Swann's Avro—the first British aircraft to ascend from water ("Flight" photograph), and, last, a Short seaplane (Sunbeam engine) releasing a practice torpedo. port. Whatever the rights and wrongs of this deplorable affair, itwas obvious that Fleet co-operation had not yet developed. A note on the Campania in an official publication is succinct andtruthful: "Her for'ard funnel was replaced by two, set on either side of the ship to make room for a runway built right down to thebows. Her seaplanes, mounted on light trolleys, flew down this runway and dropped the trolleys as they took the air. They stillhad to land in the sea, however. Sometimes they were recovered intact." By this time some fine aircraft were being delivered to theR.N.A.S.—Sopwiths, Shorts and American Curtisses among them. For his development of the famous "F" (Felixstowe) boatsfrom the Curtiss "Americas", the name of W/C. J. C. Porte will always be remembered. In the armament field, likewise, the-R.N.A.S. forged ahead; one of its warrant officers—F. W. Scarff— invented the gun ring which was to remain standard in the R.A.F.and Fleet Air Arm until the 1930s. At the beginning of 1917 the R.N.A.S. had 1,501 aircraft—1,086 landplanes and 415 seaplanes—of 76 different types ! Not surprisingly, there ensued an effort towards standardization,which was to tell in later years. But in 1917 confusion and purposeless drifting were still rife in the growing Service.
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