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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 1532.PDF
622 FLIGHT, 18 October 1957 NO. 5 SQUADRON . . . always meant to do. He then began firing and ejecting his empties intomy face, cursing at the lack of result. Suddenly his face lit up and waving his rifle in the air he pointed to the earth. Dodging the rifle I swung over and dived, nearly leaving R. behind.I soon spotted the German and then my attention was caught by a long column of troops on the march, coming south. The German landedsafely, not far from the column. I thought: German troops, of course. I can't land. Better go home. So I turned south and soon foundLc Cateau again. Ma). H. sent us to H.Q., R.F.C. and I told Col. Sykcs about the column of troops. It was part of the B.E.F. in full retreat.We were credited with the first German machine in the official history of the R.F.C. The R.F.C. continued retreating and advancing for reconnaissances.My log has at Senlis an interesting note (31.8.14) that a move was expected of our overseas base (B.E.F.) from Havre to Nantes. On4.9.14 I flew from Pezarches to Melun, doing the usual reconnaissance north before leaving. On this flight I reported what I thought was achanged direction of German columns moving more to the east, and my sector emptier than ever. On 5.9.14 I was sent rather late in theevening with Furze to confirm and enlarge on the reconnaissance of 4.9.14. This reconnaissance was the most interesting we had, and thelast I did during the retreat. We definitely confirmed the changed direc- tion. Furze had not been on the first reconnaissance; I had taken mymechanic as we were changing landing grounds. We spent a long time on this job. Furze was very excited and I had our only compass—apoor one at that—and had to signal to him. I suddenly realized that it was getting dark and we were a good bit north of Melun at 5,OOOft—which meant that it was much darker on the ground. We got back to Melun and landed by flares in the pitch darkness. From Retreat to Advance Furze and I were both sent to French's headquarters direct, and hada long interview with his staff. The B.E.F. went into reverse the next day, and the Germans were eventually driven back to the Aisne after theBattle of the Marne. We afterwards knew that we had seen the famous turn of Von Kluck's Army away from Paris, which cost the Germansthe war. On 6.9.14 I was sent with three other pilots of No. 5—Wellesley,Ware and Creed—to Etampes to rest and refit our machines. At Etampes we saw the "flight from Paris" by the civilian population—a curiousexperience, as we knew it was then quite unnecessary. At Etampes my mechanic, who adored 398, pinched a drum of boat varnish andvarnished it all over—an excellent idea. I handed over 398 in April 1915 in good order, having only seen a shed occasionally. We returned to No. 5 at Coulommiers on 12.9.14, finding to oursurprise that both No. 5 and the B.E.F. had got along quite well and even won the Battle of the Marne without us. The retreat from Monswas well over and occasionally I have been ashamed at our enjoyment of it. But not while it was on—we had all the luck. A gay picnic inlovely summer weather, moving almost every day, sleeping under your aeroplane or in a barn, or in a splendid chateau. Our main meal was lunch in fields or sheds, our rations supplementedby French wine, and often by eclairs and gateaux and omelettes. Flight Grossley tenders made useful shopping possible always. The young R.F.C. had had a supreme test in action in a war ofmovement, and was pining to advance and develop ideas of fighting, co-operation with artillery, bombing, photography, wireless, etc.—ideasit knew were bound to come. A pre-1914 demonstration pilot and member of the sixth course of C.F.S., 2nd Lt. (now Col.) L. A. Strange is yet a third original member of No. 5 Squadron who has been kind enough to recall its early days. Incidentally, it will be remembered that Louis Strange also played an important part in the 1939-45 war—still flying and engaged in training paratroops. He writes: — There was much excitement at Upavon, where the sixth course ofinstruction was ending at the Central Flying School in July 1914. Capt. Godfrey Paine assembled us all in the lecture room and told us thatall those on the course who were considered fit and sufficiently advanced in flying were to be posted to active service squadrons forthwith. Tomy great joy I was one of these, and hurriedly packing our kit we went 79/4 armament: A Bristol Scout equipped with Lee-Enfield rifle (stock sawn off), Mauser pistol and rifle grenades. The rods have been removed from the grenades, and rags substituted to serve as tails. off to report at R.F.C headquarters at Farnborough. But I did notstay there long for I was promptly posted to No. 5 Squadron, located at Fort Grange, Gosport. I do not think I ever worked so hard or so long as during those firstfew days with the squadron. It was one continual bustle to get our stores listed and packed, and there appeared to be every indication ofour going overseas as a complete unit. No. 5 Squadron, under Maj. J. F. A, Higgins, had not long been formed and was short of manythings. Our lorries were a miscellaneous collection of vehicles requisi- tioned from various commercial organizations. The H.Q. stores lorrywas a huge red covered van with A. 1 Sauce, the World's Appetizer painted in large black letters on it. This became a welcome object lateron and was easily spotted from the air. We were short of aircraft, and my first job was to fly an unwanted50 h.p. Gnome Avro back to C.F.S. and to return with an 80 h.p. Henri Farman. I took it to Netheravon first to have a compass finedand swung, and then I had a forced landing at Over Wallop but got back all right. Capt. Carmichael was my flight commander. RobertSmith-Barry (of later Gosport fame) was a pilot officer in one of the other flights. At last everything was ready; aircraft, lorries, mechanicsand pilots only waited the word to move off—and on August 14, just a fortnight after I joined the squadron, the transport departed with theaircraft following the next morning. We flew independently to Dover and landed on the downs just above the castle, having had to land atShoreham to fill up, as we had a strong head wind. I broke a tail skid taxying over a ditch and had to go to Farnborough to get another, whichmade me a day late. I flew over on Sunday, August 16, to France and landed at Amiens, where I found eight other aircraft of No. 5 hadarrived. It took me 45 minutes to cross the Channel against a strong north-east head wind. On August 19 we moved up to Maubeuge and from there did our firstreconnaissance flights. On the 22nd the first German aeroplane flew over our aerodrome, and Lt. Penn-Gaskell and I took off after it, oursbeing the only machine fitted with a Lewis gun in the front seat; but we could not get over 3,500ft with the Taube sailing along at about5,000ft, We shot off all our ammunition, but without effect. After this I had to go without the Lewis gun and take a rifle instead in orderto climb higher. It was not until I got an 80 h.p. Avro that I was able to get myLewis gun back, when with Lt. Small we shot down an Aviatik. This machine landed almost intact and was later flown back to Farnborough.That day, No. 5 had its first casualties, when Lts. Bayly and Waterfall failed to return from reconnaissance. (The report written by Lt. Baylywas found by a Belgian and eventually arrived at the War Office.) No. -5 was lucky to have one flight of Avros, one of Henri Farmansand one of B.E.8s. The B.E.8s were not very satisfactory and were soon replaced. The Avros had by far the best performance andeventually we were entirely equipped with them. My Henri Farman, however, did over 340 hours' flying during the first five months of the (Left) The SJ.2 which No. 5 Sqn. proudly owned for a time early in the 1914-18 war. (Centre) Louis Strange, who served with No. 5 Sqn. as a second lieutenant ih 1914. He is seen here as a demonstration pilot at Hendon in 1913. (Right) G/C. J. G. Hear son, who, as a major, took over command of the squadron on December 21, 7975.
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