WAR

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The results were uniformly nil, but it was nice to know that one could take a shot at an enemy aeroplane. The squadron finally set up a "permanent" station at Bailleul late in the year and received some new machines—B.E.2c's—in which Hawker perfected his skill as a pilot. In March the squadron moved back to Poperinghe in accordance with an ancient army tradition which inflexibly decrees that a unit must move to some dingy, foul and depressing spot as soon as the spot at which it is stationed has been made comfortable. Hawker flew constantly—even after having received a painful wound in the leg from ground fire. (For a time he had to be lifted into the cockpit.) He was sent on sick leave during May 1915. When he returned to the squadron he was delighted to learn that he was to be issued "a beautiful little toy," a Bristol Scout. The Bristol Baby Biplane was a pre-war sport design of which grand things had been expected in the racing season of the summer of 1914. The war intervened and the Bristol Baby went to war as a fast single-seater scout. No squadron was equipped with more than one or two at a time, but nearly every squadron in the RFC had one. It was a handy and manoeuvrable aeroplane and fairly advanced for its time. Hawker designed a machine gun mounting for his Scout within a few days of having flown it to the aerodrome. (The squadron had been moved to Abeele.) He had been flying all manner of army co-operation missions—observation, photography, artillery spotting—and now he was going to fight. The Scout was not a bad aeroplane to fight with. Fast, manoeuvrable, with a good rate of climb, it was a fine machine by the standards of 1915. All it needed was a gun. He considered the qualities of the aeroplane. It was responsive and light on the controls. He considered his own qualities. He was a first-rate pilot and a good shot. Very well, the obvious thing to do was to fix a Lewis gun to the left side of the aeroplane just ahead of the cockpit pointing down a few degrees and out to the side to clear the propeller. The Lewis gun was light and would not seriously affect the machine's performance, and it would be within easy reach of his left hand (he would be holding the stick with his right) for firing and reloading. It would be no great trick for a pilot like himself to slip or crab into position to fire a burst from the diagonally aligned gun. On July 25, 1915, Hawker was flying a high evening patrol between Passchendaele and Ypres. At about six o'clock he spotted a German two-seater just the other side of the German lines at Passchendaele. He dived on the machine and fired off a drum at it while its pilot turned and dived away. Hawker broke off and resumed patrolling. Twenty minutes later the show was repeated over Houthulst Forest, but this time a British antiaircraft section reported that the German aeroplane was forced down by Hawker's fire. Hawker resumed his patrol at 11,000 feet and toward seven o'clock spotted a third machine. His combat report (quoted in a new biography*) reads in part: "The Bristol climbed to * Hawker, V. C, by Lieut. Col. Tyrrel Mann Hawker, The Mitre Press, London, 1965. 80
Bristol Seoul. Bristol Scouts of a naval unit in France, October 1914. The Union Jack anteceded the roundel as national marking on the first British machines at the Front.
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*»&%gp&iiqfc THE MEN AND MACHINES
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Hanriot H-D 1 • France (here in B
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Photograph by Beverly Lebarrow
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COPYRIGHT © 1965 BY THOMAS R. FUND
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In acknowledging the help he has re
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the great war, as every schoolboy k
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perseverance have been beyond all p
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: ; o COLOGNE MAP Showing the Salie
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"A EUROPEAN WAR" "Never before the
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an American, Charles J. Biddle, of
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From 1300 metres the country is spr
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Pegoud
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In the autumn of 1913 Pegoud gave a
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In layout the new monoplane somewha
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Aviatik B I
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— — grudziadz is a town on the
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Stationed in home country near Bres
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Roland Garros *«« . •—;-*.;-
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twins jean and Pierre navarre were
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One day on a reconnaissance flight
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Pilot and observer/gunner in Halber
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in February of 1915 Roland Garros r
Page 50 and 51: so became enthusiastic about flying
Page 52 and 53: them disappeared in the direction o
Page 54 and 55: one of navarre's closest friends wa
Page 56 and 57: — CO. condemning the ship the men
Page 58 and 59: iefed their mechanics and packed th
Page 60 and 61: although Kriegszeitung stated expli
Page 62 and 63: ehind the British lines near Arras
Page 64 and 65: Boelckc returned to Douai in Decemb
Page 66 and 67: artillery-spotting that they didn't
Page 68 and 69: an American ace who flew in British
Page 70 and 71: The same day two other men from the
Page 72 and 73: observer seized his Parabellum and
Page 75 and 76: "THE INEVITABLE RESULT" "As I have
Page 77 and 78: 21, 1916, the German Fifth Army beg
Page 79 and 80: — — * * * since the Germans hel
Page 82 and 83: among the flying personnel assemble
Page 84 and 85: on june 17, 1916, Navarre, Pivolo,
Page 86 and 87: — hnmelmann On June 18, 1916, obs
Page 88 and 89: en route to verdun the end of Febru
Page 91 and 92: 5- 3 a*i& rT& A striking demonstrat
Page 93: late in 1915 the Halberstadt Aeropl
Page 96 and 97: Seven such units were initially pro
Page 98 and 99: the quality of disinterestedness wi
Page 102 and 103: 11,000 and about 7 p.m. saw a hosti
Page 105 and 106: British machines reached their obje
Page 107 and 108: y January 1917 von Richthofen had a
Page 109 and 110: During the summer of 1916, two Nieu
Page 111 and 112: Ball was awarded the M.C. for his e
Page 113: from the beginning of 1917 a warnin
Page 116 and 117: . The aeroplane he had destroyed wa
Page 119 and 120: Bristol F.2 "Brisfit." 99
Page 121: On this day he had just taken off w
Page 124 and 125: The Sopwith Triplane appeared in sm
Page 126 and 127: Naval Ten was formed in February 19
Page 128 and 129: It would appear that the raid was a
Page 130 and 131: 1 "Collishaw led a (second) offensi
Page 132 and 133: fast as the three machines spun aro
Page 134 and 135: — Hermann becker was born in Treb
Page 136 and 137: gilbert sardier of Clermont-Ferrand
Page 138 and 139: — the storks— Groupe de Combat
Page 140 and 141: no. 20 squadron rfc was a two-seate
Page 142 and 143: 122
Page 144 and 145: on the last day of July 1917, the T
Page 146 and 147: the last instant he would tilt his
Page 148 and 149: a powerful one, but that hardly mat
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in august 1917 Naval Ten switched f
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I "The Germans kept shooting at me
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mm me Caudion G.3. ktN erwe
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Commandant Brocard. 136
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Fonck was the best shot at the Fron
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"THE SUPREMACY OF THE AIR" "Despite
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"if von richthofen liked a man it w
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albert deullin was born in Epernay,
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tion, full motor and diving slightl
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Pfalz D III In the summer and autum
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was of the semi-monocoque method, i
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Nodding, von Richthofen turned to g
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when the battle of cambrai opened,
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Cerisy, a hamlet on the left bank o
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As the two machines ahead of him zi
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"Balloon strafing became highly dev
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eed Mckinley chambers was born at O
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On March 29, James Norman Hall arri
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Lufbery. Assuming command of the 94
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IN February 1918 Oberleutnant Adolf
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y the end of May both Douglas Campb
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— Brigadier General Everett R. Co
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Biddle.
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177
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of the 95 Congressional Medals of H
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Rickenbackei eddie rickenbacker's o
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when hellmuth von zastrow began fly
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In August 1917 Theobald was posted
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— On October 1, 1917, at five o'c
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Sam, over two feet tall and acquire
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— climb all the way to ceiling go
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A dispatch from the Wolff Telegraph
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Gibbons, Floyd, The Red Knight of G
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43,53, : : : Frantz: ix, 13, 15,26
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Spad 13 • France (here in Italian
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WAR

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