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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 0552.PDF
554 Triplane N.509 (150 h.p. Hispano-Suiza engine) leaving the Sopwith works. Above, N.5O9 assembled. THE SOPWITH TRIPLANE ... middle of the following month Naval Ten was attached to theR.F.C. as a reinforcement to the Eleventh Army Wing in the Second Army area; the unit was followed by Naval One on June 1.Both squadrons had 15 Sopwith Triplanes on strength at that time: a shortage of pilots had necessitated the reduction of theunits' establishments from 18 to 15 aircraft. From Arras (which, thanks to the failure of the French offen-sive on the Aisne, was but a limited success) the war had pro- gressed to the preparations for transferring the main Allied effortto the British front in Flanders. As a preliminary, it was considered essential to capture the hills which formed the Messines-Wytschaete ridge. The moves of R.N.A.S. squadrons Nos. 1 and 10 were part of the British preparations for the Battle of Messines;the main preparatory bombardment began on May 31, 1917, and the battle opened on June 7. The bombardment inevitably led to intense aerial activity, andthe Sopwith Triplanes of Nos. 1 and 10 (Naval) Sqns. were in frequent action. In the morning of June 6 those of Naval One hadmany successful fights. Thirteen Triplanes of Naval Ten attacked 15 German machines, some of which were two-seaters bound forthe British lines, over Ploegsteert Wood. The enemy formation was utterly defeated: five of their number were shot down, two ofthem Albatros fighters which fell in flames as victims of Fit. Sub- Lt. Raymond Collishaw. Collishaw was, without doubt, the most brilliant exponent of theSopwith Triplane. He had come to Naval Ten on April 1, 1917, as commander of "B" Flight; his earlier operational flying had beenwith No. 3 Wing (with which he shot down three Fokkers) and with No. 3 (Naval) Sqn., in which unit he shot down an AlbatrosD.III. He had shot down three enemy fighters and a seaplane between April 1 and May 15, 1917, when Naval Ten joined theR.F.C. A Canadian himself, Collishaw had a Flight which was exclu-sively Canadian and one of the most formidable fighting units to take the air during the 1914-18 War. Between May and July, 1917,"B" Flight of Naval Ten destroyed a total of 87 enemy aircraft. In a period of 27 days in June 1917, Collishaw himself shot down 16 enemy aircraft, all but three of which were single-seat fighters.The original members of "B" Flight were Fit. Sub-Lts. E. V. Reid, J. E. Shannan, G. E. Nash and W. M. Alexander: theircontributions to the Flight's total of 87 enemy aircraft in three months were respectively eighteen, eleven, eight and seven. Naval Ten's "B" Flight was known as the "Black Flight," forits aircraft bore the names Black Death, Black Maria, Black Roger, Black Prince and Black Sheep. Popular legend has it that theTriplanes were painted all black, but it seems more probable that the colour was confined to the engine cowlings and the aluminiumpanels at the noses of the aircraft. It is known that the members of the Black Flight flew the following Triplanes (but it does notfollow that each officer flew the specified aircraft exclusively): Collishaw, N.5490 and N.5492; Reid, N.5483; Sharman, N.6307;Alexander, N.5487. The Black Flight suffered its first casualty on June 26, 1917,when Nash was wounded and forced to land behind the enemy lines. His conqueror was Lieutenant Allmenroder, one of theleading German fighter pilots, who had 30 victories in air combat. Collishaw did not, of course, know the German pilot's identity, butnext morning he and his Flight attacked seven enemy fighters over Courtrai, and he recognized one of them as the green-tailed Alba-tros which had defeated Nash. In the fight which ensued, Collishaw shot down and killed Allmenroder; the Albatros crashed in theoutskirts of Lille. Three other enemy fighters fell to the Black Flight in that combat. Four of Naval Ten's Triplanes played a gallant part in thecombat in which Manfred von Richthofen was shot down wounded by 2nd Lt. A. E. Woodbridge, the observer of one of six F.E.2Dswhich had been attacked by die German leader and 39 other enemy fighters. The Triplanes went to the rescue of the F.E.s, heedlessof the odds; they shot down four of the enemy out of control, but were unable to save two of the pushers from defeat. Theirunhesitating attack on the large enemy formation, which consisted wholly of single-seat fighters, makes an instructive contrast withRichthofen's technique of attacking slower, less manoeuvrable air- craft with a vastly superior force. The Triplanes gave excellent service in the battles of Ypres, butthey began to be withdrawn in the summer of 1917. Camels began to replace the Triplanes of Nos. 8 and 9 (Naval) Sqns. in July, andby August 4, No. 9's re-equipment was complete. Naval Ten began to receive Camels at the end of August, when three of its Triplaneswere transferred to No. 1 (Naval) Sqn. to restore that unit's strength to 18 aircraft. Naval One's attachment to the R.F.C.ceased in November 1917, and the unit returned to Dover to be re-equipped with Camels. The passing of the Triplane was regretted by many of thosewho had had the good fortune to fly it. As a fighter, it enjoyed the distinction of never having been outclassed. No doubt the realreason for its withdrawal lay in the statement that even minor accidents to a Triplane necessitated a disproportionate amount ofrepair work. If that were true, maintenance in the field must have been a time-consuming process, and serviceability may have beenrelatively low. It has also been said that the Triplane was more difficult to rig than contemporary biplanes. It had the Pup's disadvantage of having only one gun; thougheven that was overcome. The six machines N.533-N.538 were built with twin guns by Clayton and Shuttleworth; of these atleast two, N.533 and N.534, saw operational use with Nos. 10 and 1 (Naval) Sqns. respectively. The batch ordered from Oakley wereto have been similarly armed, but the contractor was new to air- craft manufacture and, as noted in Part 1, the third Oakley-builtmachine was not delivered until October 19, 1917, by which time the Camel had been standardized and only Naval One still hadTriplanes. No further Triplanes were completed by the Oakley concern. Despite the disparaging combat notes on the Triplane issued bythe German authorities, there is a good deal of evidence to indicate that the Sopwith caused the enemy a great deal of anxiety. Itseems that two of the first Triplanes to go to France shared the same fate as early F.E.2Ds and the Handley Page O/100, for ithas been said that their pilots lost their bearings and landed on an enemy aerodrome. The truth of this is hard to establish, but atleast one Triplane fell into enemy hands intact, or nearly so, for it was flown in German markings. This particular machine did nothave the standard shape of fin: the surface with which it was fitted had the same outline as the fin of the Sopwith l|-Strutter. It isnot known whether the fin was a manufacturer's experiment or a squadron Or pilot's modification: as far as is known, it was not
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