WAR

11,000 and about 7 p.m. saw a hostile machine being fired at by antiaircraft
guns at about 10,000 over Hooge. The Bristol approached downsun and opened
fire at about 100 yards range. The hostile machine burst into flames, turned
upside down, and crashed E. of Zillebeke." The fall
of the burning machine was
witnessed by thousands of British troops.
One week later, Hawker wrote to his brother (Lt. Col. T. M. Hawker, an
artillerist and Lanoe's biographer): "I strafed a Hun last Sunday, over Ypres on
the Bristol.
"Opened fire at about 100 yards—I had come on him from behind unawares
—and he burst into flames and crashed in our lines.
"I felt very sorry for him when he fell in flames, but war is war and they
have been very troublesome of late."
By August 24, 1915, when his Victoria Cross was gazetted, Hawker had
become an Ace. When he returned to England in September he had completed
just under a year of active service and was long overdue for a breather. From
October 1914 to September 1915 he had flown every kind of mission in every
kind of aeroplane in every kind of weather. He was one of the most experienced
men in the RFC, and that in addition to his value as an inventor. He had devised
new ground-air co-operation schemes, gun sights and brackets, he had designed
hangars and all manner of ground installations. On his return to England in
September the help and encouragement he gave to his dentist, a man named
Prideaux, materially assisted the invention of the Prideaux disintegrating-link
machine-gun belt. It was Hawker who devised the protective fabric cover for the
tips of wooden propellers, and with the help of an engineer named French he
developed the double drum for the Lewis gun. His improvements and refinements
of equipment permeated the Royal Flying Corps and the inspiration of
his example was ubiquitous. Easy to see that he had become a celebrity then in
spite of official British policy which discouraged the focusing of attention on
individuals. After all, not even the British can make a secret of the Victoria Cross.
On returning to England, Hawker reported to Hounslow near London, a
once-desolate stretch of heath where stood a forest of gibbets for the highwaymen
who resorted there. In January 1916 the first deliveries of the D.H.2 were
received and Hawker called the machine "a beauty." It had indeed a kind of
primitive charm, with its box kite wings and tail booms, but it had some serious
drawbacks, two of which were inherent. In the first place it was cold. The large
open cockpit was so drafty that McCudden was once moved to remark that he
didn't care whether he was shot down or not, he was so cold. Hawker designed
fleece-lined hip boots specifically for D.H.2 pilots. Secondly, the aeroplane was
not aerodynamically stable because the motor was located in the center of the
structure rather than in the nose and this imparted a fore-and-aft sensitivity that
required alert and careful handling. In itself, the absence of stability is no serious
problem in a fighter, but at the time that the D.H.2 came into service, aerobatics
was not fully understood, and students were more often told to avoid spins and
stalls than taught how to control them. The 100-horsepower Gnome monosoupape
rotary engine that powered the D.H.2 was obtained in
82
large part from secondhand