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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 1437.PDF
FLIGHT, 5 October 1956 THE SOPWITH 1^-STRUTTER . . . 21 Gothas which had bombed London by daylight. The Sopwithwas one of the 36 defenders which succeeded in closing with the raiders, but it was shot down: Young was killed and hisobserver wounded. For Home Defence purposes, particularly anti-airship duties,at least one l^-Strutter was modified in unusual fashion. The aircraft was B.762, a rebuild made by No. 1 (Southern) Aero-plane Repair Depot. It was a single-seater, flown from what was normally the rear cockpit, and was armed with a pair ofLewis guns which were mounted in a near-vertical position just in front of the cockpit and fired upwards behind the upper wing[a photograph appeared in Part I of this article, p. 546, Septem- ber 28]. It is not known whether B.762 left No. 1 A.R.D. inthat form, however: it may have been modified by the unit to which it was allocated. Nor is it known whether the machinewas unique. A standard single-seat version of the l|-Strutter existed andwas built in considerable numbers. It was a bomber, with an in- ternal bomb bay immediately behind the rear cabane struts: therewere cells for twelve small bombs. The pilot's seat in the 1$- Strutter bomber was in the normal place under the upper wing,and the single Vickers gun was retained. Some of the bombers used by the R.N.A.S. Fifth Wing had a Lewis gun mountedcentrally above the upper wing. In that position it was quite inaccessible to the pilot and could not be reloaded in flight. The single-seat bomber version of the l|-Strutter was used inconsiderable numbers by the R.N.A.S., forming part of the equip- ment of the Third and Fifth Wings. A few were also used inMacedonia. Several of the Admiralty contracts apparently called for a mixture of single-seaters and two-seaters; and the R.F.C.received 89 li-Strutter single-seat bombers. It seems remarkable that no records of single-seaters in service with the R.F.C. havesurvived. It seems fairly certain that none were used operation- ally in France by that Service: some may have been used astrainers or as personal transports; some may have gone straight to store as a source of spares; some may have been converted intotwo-seaters. Official statistics show that 72 went to training units, 13 to the Middle East, three to Home Defence stations, and oneto the Expeditionary Force in France. Outside France the lJ-Strutter in British service was usedoperationally only by the R.N.A.S, Mixed units operated from islands in the Aegean: "A" Sqn. was based on Thasos, "B" atThermi on Mitylene, and "C" at Gliki on Imbros and Mudros on Lemnos. At Stavros on the mainland a fourth unit, knownas "D" Sqn., was based. All had some Ij-Strutters and all were active, particularly against enemy communications. In February 1917 a German squadron, Kampfgeschwader 1,arrived at Hudova aerodrome. It had come from Bucharest, whence its twin-engined A.E.G.s and Friedrichshafens and single-engined Rumplers had conducted a bombing campaign against Roumania. This powerful force made its presence felt, for itsaircraft were up-to-date and superior to most of the British air- craft available in Macedonia. Lt-Gen. G. F. Milne, who was in V/2 -Strutter with skid undercarriage, hydrovane and stowed Grain flotation gear. 589 command of the British forces in Macedonia, saw in Kampfgesch-wader 1 a serious threat to the success of a projected attack to be made by the XII Corps on the western shore of Lake Dojran.He wrote to Vice-Admiral Sir Cecil F. Thursby, commanding the Eastern Mediterranean Squadron, and asked if R.N.A.S. air-craft might be made available to augment the R.F.C. In response to this request the vice-admiral provided two units,which were formed by taking aircraft and crews from the four existing R.N.A.S. squadrons in the Aegean. The first new unit,designated "E" Sqn., was formed in March 1917 with four li- Stru.ters and one Sopwith Triplane. It went to Hadzi Junas,where it joined forces with three B.E.12s of No. 17 Sqn., R.F.C., and a B.E.12 and two D.H.2s of No. 47 Sqn., to form theComposite Fighting Squadron. "F" Sqn. was formed as a bomb- ing squadron and had an assortment of l|-Strutters of bothfighter and bomber versions. The unit went to Amberkoj on April 29, 1917, commanded by Sqn. Cdr. J. R. W. Smy;h-Pigott,and proceeded to exact retribution for the bombing of Kampf- geschwader 1. The H-Strutters bombed dumps and camps be-hind the Dojran front, sometimes twice daily. On May 10, a raid on Hudova revealed that the enemy bomb-ing squadron was no longer there. On the following day "F" Sqn. flew to Marian to initiate a bombing campaign on theStruma front. Railway stations, ammunition dumps and Drama aerodrome were attacked, and on May 25 a dump at Livunovowas destroyed. On May 27 the squadron lost five of its aircraft in an acci-dental explosion in the hangars at Marian. This so reduced "F" that it was amalgamated with "E" to form a new "F" Sqn.which was re-equipped at Mudros. On June 6, 1917, the re- vivified "F" was sent to Thasos to assist "A" in incendiary raidson enemy crops. After eleven days "F" Sqn. was withdrawn to Mudros to make diversionary attacks designed to distract enemyattention from the activities of the R.N.A.S.'s solitary Handley Page 0/100. At the end of July the unit went to Thermi forspecial bombing duties in the Smyrna area. Its equipment con- sisted of five 1-j-Strutter bombers, three l^-Strutter fighters anda single Camel. From August 1 until September 17, "F" Sqn. conducted a vigorous and successful bombing offensive, flying atotal of 13,000 miles in the process. The R.N.A.S. used l^-Strutters as shipboard aircraft, prin-cipally from aircraft carriers. In January 1918 the Operations Commi'tee of the Board of Admiralty laid down the policy thatreconnaissance aircraft should, in the main, be employed from carrier vessels and that fighting aircraft should be carried infighting ships. This same committee had recommended in Octo- ber 1917 that the carrier Furious should be fitted with a landing-on deck abaft the superstructure. In March 1918 the ship rejoined the Grand Fleet after structural alterations which had given her alanding deck 284ft long and 70ft wide. Her complement of air- craft then consisted of fourteen two-seat l^-Strutters and twoSopwith Pups, but la'er varied considerably. The carriers Vindex and Argus also had li-Strutters in their equipment. Some at least of the carrier-borne lj-Strutters had rigid skidundercarriages generally similar to those which were fitted to the Sopwith 9901a version of the Pup (see Flight, January 1, 1954).Doubtless these undercarriages were evolved from the experience obtained with the Sopwith 9901a in service. Some l|-Strutterswere also fitted with the Grain flotation gear, and ditching trials were successfully conducted. An inflatable air-bag was fitted toeach lower longeron behind the engine, and at least one aircraft had a hydrovane attached to the forward ends of the under-carriage skids, presumably to prevent nosing-over on striking the water. A ly-Strutter with a skid undercarriage was flown from H.M.S.Vindex in a manner which recalled Cdr. Samson's disastrous first attempt to fly a Camel from a lighter towed by a destroyer (seeFlight, April 29, 1955, p. 561). The aircraft concerned was N.5601, and its skids ran in special grooves on the flying deck. The histories of the Sopwith Pup and Camel have told some-thing of the development of the bold technique of flying single- seat fighters from tiny platforms built on to the turrets ofcapital ships. So successful was this practice that it was decided to attempt similar flights with two-seat reconnaissance aircraft.The type selected for the trials was the lJr-Strutter; the ship was the battle cruiser Repulse. The turret platform on Repulsewas extended, and the first take-off was attempted in March 1918. For unexplained reasons that attempt failed. The platform may have been too short, for the experimentswere transferred to the Australian battle cruiser H.M.A.S. Australia, on which a bigger platform was built. From that shipthe first successful take-off was made on April 4, 1918: the ly- Strutter was piloted by Capt. F. M. Fox and carried an observerand full wireless equipment. This success led to the decision to fit extended platforms for two-seat aircraft to the forward turretsof all battle cruisers; single-seat fighters were to be carried on after turrets. At the end of October 1918 thirty-six two-seat1^-Strutters were with the Grand Fleet, and the type is known
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