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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 1836.PDF
1000 FLIGHT THE SHORT SEAPLANES ... shallow W3ter. Nevertheless, the significance of his action was in no way diminished, for he had conclusively demonstrated that it was possible to drop a torpedo from an aircraft and strike a selected target. If proof were needed it was provided five days later, when both Short 184s of the Ben-my-Chree sank an enemy vessel. The official report of the action is as follows: "Seaplane reconnaissance had revealed that Ak Bashi Liman, on theGallipoli Peninsula, just above the Narrows, was being used as a base where the enemy unloaded his supplies, which came by water in trans-ports. It was planned to attack the transports with torpedoes. "The Ben-my-Chree arrived at the same position as on August 12th,just before dawn. Two seaplanes were hoisted out, with the same load as on the 12th, piloted by Fit. Cdr. Edmonds and Fit. Cdr. G. BDacre, D.S.O. "The scheme was to climb to about 1,000ft. across the Isthmus ofBulair, and over the enemy aerodrome at Galata, hoping to get past the latter place unopposed, as it was still not quite daylight. Thence tofly down the Straits at low altitude to Ak Bashi Liman, where it was thought that we should be mistaken for Huns. The machine would beapproaching the direction of the Galata aerodrome, and would be difficult to recognize flying at low altitude from the sun and against abackground of hills. "This worked perfectly as regards Fit. Cdr. Edmonds' machine."At Ak Bashi Liman he fired at an unbroken target presented by three steamships at anchor, and hit the middle one."An agent's report subsequently showed that she was gutted by the ensuing fire, but the hull was salved and taken to Constantinople."No opposition waR experienced except rifle-fire at Bulair, and some sniping after the torpedo was fired. "Fit. Cdr. Dacre had engine trouble, and was forced to descend inthe Straits without reaching Ak Bashi Liman. He saw a steam tug on the Asiatic shore, taxied in, and torpedoed it whilst under rifle-fire, andthen taxied away towards Bulair. His engine developing a few more revolutions, so he managed to get off, and crossing Bulair at about200ft, reached the ship. "In that climate it required a nearly new machine to lift the torpedo,and unfortunately lack of such new machines prevented the attacks from being repeated. _ "Otherwise, by seriously interrupting the Turk's maritime communica-tions (about one-third of his supplies) the torpedo seaplanes might have largely affected the campaign." As indicated in the penultimate paragraph of that report, aflight with a torpedo in a hot climate taxed the Short 184 to the uttermost. No observer could be carried; the limitation of fuelto what sufficed for only 45 minutes' flight placed a severe restric- tion on radius of action; and wind and sea conditions had to beexactly right. After those early successes no other torpedo attacks Production Short 184, with 240 h.p. Renault engine. Robey-built Short 184 with Scarff ring. Mann, Egerton Type B seaplane. were made by Short 184s in any theatre of war, and the typecompleted the greater part of its operational service as a patrol seaplane and bomber. Experiments with torpedoes continued,however, and Short 184s participated in them; the seaplanes were also used to train pilots in torpedo-dropping. Nevertheless,the introduction to A.P.1344 lamented: "The development [of torpedo aircraft] has been astonishingly slow, when it is con-sidered that there are no really great technical difficulties, and it was merely necessary to a£apt a modern naval torpedo to asuitable modern aeroplane." What was perhaps not fully appreciated by those so close tothe events they chronicled was that a truly "suitable modern aeroplane" did not exist before the advent of the Sopwith Cuckoolandplane. The seaplanes were too dependent on ideal weather conditions and (originally at least) had too marginal a perform-ance to permit the sustained and energetic pursuit of a series of experiments. One of the Shorts used in torpedo experiments atFelixstowe had its rear cockpit faired over. But if it did not again do battle as a torpedo-carrier the Short184 gave a good account of itself otherwise. Those of the Ben- my-Chree, again piloted by Fit. Cdr. Edmonds and Fit. Lt. Dacre,flew 120 miles (of which 110 were over land) to bomb the railway bridge over the Maritza south of Kuleli Burgas on November 8,1915. Each Short carried two 112-lb bombs; none hit the bridge, but the permanent way was damaged. In May, 1916, command of the East Indies and Egypt SeaplaneSquadron was taken over by Cdr. C. R. Samson. His command included the Ben-my-Chree and two smaller vessels, Raven II andAnne; these carriers had respectively four, two and one Short seaplanes, but it is uncertain whether all were Short 184s. Samson promptly set about learning to handle the big Shortsand personally flew them on several sorties. He had an early introduction to the fragility of seaplane floats of the period, for onMay 22 he was hoisted out on to a heavy sea, intent upon recon- noitring Jaffa, when one of the floats collapsed. Samson and hisobserver, Capt. Wedgwood Benn, had to swim for it, and the Short sank before it could be retrieved. Samson has left the following description of the difficultiesattending the operation of Short 184s in a hot climate* : — "I must inform my readers that we generally carried the 16-lb bombsloose in the passenger's seat. I leave to the imagination the job the observer used to have. He was in a restricted space with a Lewis gunhitting him in the neck every time he moved, nursing a camera on his knees, with three or four 16-lb bombs somewhere loose at his feet.Somewhere handy he had to have a pair of binoculars, writing-pad, map, and pencil. . . .The pilot, on the other hand, on one of the old Shorts in hot climates had no joy-ride. He had generally a really hard time. First coaxing, ormost probably forcing, the seaplane off the water, he then had a tough job trying to make the machine climb in the gradually increasing heatof the atmosphere with the water in the radiator on the verge of boiling. He had to keep the engine at practically full revolutions the whole timeto have sufficient power to maintain his meagre altitude, and to have some sort of control in the fierce remous that constantly were en-countered. At the same time he had to seize every chance, when he gained a few hundred feet, to throttle down." It was typical of Cdr. Samson that he should try to improvethe Short 184's performance. To quote him againf: "I cut off a good deal of the lower plane, and poked about in other ways,converting one of the old ones into a better performer than a new one. I gained six knots in speed, and about 15 per cent in climb.We termed this altered seaplane the 'Experimental Short'." This modified Short lasted until March 1917, when its floatsgave way and it sank. In European waters, carrier-borne Shorts of H.M.S. Rivieraand Engadine operated against the enemy coast during the winter of 1915-16, but their efforts were hampered by frequent enginetrouble. The Westland-built Short 184 No. 8359 gained the distinctionof being the only aircraft of any type to participate in a major naval action during the war. On May 31, 1916, the Grand Fleet put to *"Fights and Flights," pages 306-307. ilbid., page 337.
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