orders, decorations, campaign medals and militaria - Spink

Cestovo Reconnaissance I observed three E.A. getting height
over Piravo and when the reconnaissance machines were over
our lines Capt. Bell and I turned N. to meet E.A. over
Cestovo. We dived down on two of the E.A. following them
down to about 6,000ft. just S. of Hudova Aerodrome at close
range with both guns. I fired about 150 rounds. I then
zoomed up to my left and met a DV coming head on for my
machine at 7,000ft. from about 200 yards range. E.A.
continued to come straight for my machine as I did for his
nose on. I fired about 100 rounds from both guns up to
point blank range when E.A. and my machine just managed
to avoid collision. I then turned sharply round and observed
the DV going down in a steep nose dive, with smoke pouring
from the centre section on to Hudova Aerodrome. E.A. was
lost to sight as I had then to face another which was about to
dive on my machine. Capt. Bell and I then climbed up to
about 12,000ft. over Cestovo and patrolled but no E.A. were
then to be seen. S.E.5a B688 [Travers’ aircraft] was so badly
shot about that it partially collapsed on landing’; he shared a
Halberstadt D.F.W. shot down in flames, east of Vardarhoe,
28.5.1918, and shot down an Albatros Scout, 1.6.1918; the
first week of September provided Travers with somewhat of a
‘purple patch’; on the 2nd he shared a two-seater shot down
in flames, S.E. of Seres; on the 3rd he shot down two
Albatros Scouts in the space of five minutes and on the 4th
he shared another two seater, ‘Whilst returning home from
Recco. observed an E.A. two-seater flying N. of Rupel Pass.
I dived down and met E.A. first at 9000ft, firing a burst into
its starboard side. E.A. dived away followed by Lieut.
Hamilton on another S.E. 5a. E.A. continued to make large
spirals down and I followed it firing bursts at intervals with
both guns with Lieut. Hamilton. We followed E.A. down to
a few hundred feet of the ground. I managed to get on its tail
and fired a long burst to point blank range when the E.A.
slipstream turned me off from firing. E.A. then dived down
to about 50 ft. and I next saw it strike some horses in a field
turning completely over and crashing just N. of Karasu
Bridge. The pilot of E.A. crawled out and ran across the
fields’; he achieved his last success of war, forcing down a
Fokker Biplane out of control, 16.9.1918, ‘Whilst returning
with our formation of D.H.9’s after a Bomb Raid at 1200
hours on Hudova I observed 5 enemy Fokkers coming in
pursuit below. E.A. continued to follow the formation until
they returned over our lines. I dived down on the E.A. over
Lake Doiran several times when opportunity permitted finally
getting on the tail of one of the Fokker Scouts which was
behind the rest of the E.A. formation. I fired a good burst at
close range into the E.A. then it fell over on its back and
continued falling from side to side and spinning. Owing to 2
other E.A. engaging my machine I lost sight of the falling
E.A. after 3,000ft.’; Travers was posted to 17 Squadron,
September 1918, and the squadron sent “A” Flight to
Batoum in December 1918 to co-operate with the forces
fighting the Bolsheviks; in 1919, ‘he was a pioneer pilot on
the Salonica-Constantinople mail service and was the Air
Member of the British Military Mission to Rumania from
1919-1920.
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He joined Imperial Airways in 1926 as a captain and was one
of the first pilots on the African and Far East air routes flying
Hercules, Atlanta and Hannibal aircraft.... He became a
senior captain first-class and flew all types of Imperial Airways
and British Overseas Airways Corporation flying boats and
amassed a total of 19,500 flying hours. He first flew to East
Africa in 1931.
One of his many memorable flights was the first crossing of
the Indian Ocean from west to east when he flew ‘Golden
Hind’ from Mombasa to the Seychelles and on non-stop to
Colombo, for which he received the King’s Commendation
for valuable services in the air. This operation was carried out
with no aids to navigation’ (Obituary refers); in 1922 he had
transferred to the Reserve, and from 1925-26 he operated a
private air taxi service to the south of France; employed by
Imperial Airways from the following year he started to
pioneer the Cairo-Basra-Karachi air mail route, and as he
stated in an interview, “We had no radio to speak of, no blind
flying instruments that worked, practically no weather
reports, and navigational aids which were in their infancy.
With temperatures up to 127 degrees in the shade, we sat in
open cockpits in the full blast of scorching air from our hot
engines. The heat was so intense, the consumption of oil was
enormous, and we had to feed in oil by hand from two-gallon
tins. We had to force land frequently to wait for sand storms
to pass; and on one occasion in Gaza’s heavy rains, water got
into the petrol tanks. All three engines cut over the Syrian
Desert, but we glided down safely on to a caravan track.
Even at the best of times we had to do a lot of hard routine
work which the modern pilot leaves to efficient ground crews
with their up-to-date mechanical aids. We had to refuel in the
desert at emergency landing grounds by pumping our petrol
from locked tanks in the ground. We had to raise the fuel
about thirty feet - a back breaking job. Landing grounds were
strips smoothed out of the desert with harrows drawn by
camels. A single line furrow ploughed across the Arabian
desert, which was frequently obliterated after sand storms,
was the sole guide through that featureless expanse of
desolation.” (Article included in lot refers); along with
Captain L.A. Waters he was granted the first Master Air
Pilot’s Certificate by the British Air Ministry, February 1934;
with the advent of the Second War Travers was employed to
fly VIPs, secret agents and refugees to Lisbon, he also flew
the famous “Horse-shoe” route to Australia; in 1943 he
made his epic crossing of the Indian Ocean in the Golden
Hind; and in 1945 he commanded Argentina on the first
BOAC commercial service to South America; he retired to
Kenya in 1951, having flown approximately 19,500 hours, 3
million miles and carried 140,000 passengers; during the
Mau-Mau rebellion Travers joined the Kenya Police Reserve
Air Wing as a District Commandant (he did not claim his
medal); his last employment was a British Government
Courier - collecting documents from Queen’s Messengers
and delivering them to smaller outposts; he died in 1970 and
his ashes were scattered over Lake Naivasha.