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Centenary Vintage
Fly-In Day by our special correspondent
13th May 2012 - The Stow Maries Aerodrome
To commemorate the centenary of the formation of the Royal Flying corps,
this First World War Aerodrome will host a fl y-in of vintage aircraft. Static
displays of vintage planes and vehicles. Re-enactors and tours of the site.
Stalls, refreshments and bar. Tel: 01245 808744 www.stowmaries.com
Tribute to the brave airmen of World War One
Rare is the Essex country church or churchyard that does not provide
poignant reminders of the local sons who were killed or maimed in one of
England’s many wars. The illuminated cross atop the steeple of St Mary and
St Margaret, Stow Maries, was a gift from a grateful Royal Flying Corps (RFC)
pilot who, unlike so many of his compatriots, lived to tell the tale.
Claude Ridley was on patrol in France in the First World War when set on by
three German Fokkers. Though wounded in the foot, he outfl ew them to make
a safe landing. A bronze plaque on the church chancel arch records: “The
illuminated cross was erected by Squadron Leader Claude A. Ridley D.S.O.,
M.C. First Commanding Offi cer Stow St. Mary’s Aerodrome 1916 with “B”
Flight No. 37 Squadron as a thank offering for the many mercies vouchsafed
him during 1914-1918”. It adds: “And in memory of the very happy days spent
in the county of Essex. Also in loving memory of his father L.C. Ridley who
died 8th June 1925. A neighbouring plaque states: “The reredos and oak fl oor
of this sanctuary were erected to the Glory of God and in memory of (names
here) who made the supreme sacrifi ce 1914-1918. Of your charity pray for
their souls.” Air Marshal Sir Hugh Trenchard unveiled this memorial in 1923.
The names recorded are of local men and three airmen who were buried in the
churchyard. The reredos – a decorative screen behind the altar, usually highly
carved – was taken down in 1999 to reveal the east window. Its memorial
element was replaced by a panel in the west window, engraved with words
from Laurence Binyon’s poem For the Fallen.
It was in 1916 that the village surprisingly became home to the RFC’s 37
Squadron B Flight, whose pilots were tasked with stopping German planes
and the terrifying Zeppelin airships reaching targets in East Anglia and as far
inland as West London. The date of the fl ight’s offi cial deployment to their
hastily built aerodrome on requisitioned farmland, to be known as Stow, was
September 15 when the squadron was formed. (By coincidence it was 24
years to the day – September 15 1940 – in another, arguably more terrible,
war that the RFC’s successor, the Royal Air Force, was to break the German
Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain). B Flight moved to Flamberds on 29th
September, to accommodation in tents and sheds. The brick buildings were
started in 1918. Known as Stow Maries Aerodrome, it was in fact in Cold
Norton parish. The fi rst sortie from Stow was on May 23, 1917. Ridley, the
fl ight commander, fl ew his fl imsy BE12a fi ghter for three and a half uneventful
hours. Lt. G. D. F Keddie also took up a BE12a, but engine trouble forced him
to land in Suffolk.
37 Squadron’s most famous ‘kill’ was the Zeppelin L48, which was one of
two attacking London on the night of June 17 1917. In all, Home Defence
squadrons fl ew 32 sorties against the airships that night. L48 was set on fi re
and fi nished off after Lt. L.P Watkins, operating from Goldhanger, pressed
home his attack. The crippled airship crashed onto farmland in Suffolk.
Although other pilots were involved in the attack, the War Offi ce decided to
award the “kill” to Watkins. Three Germans survived although one died later.
But let’s rewind to 1916, when war in the air was in its infancy and brave young
men did battle in fl imsy machines that all too often became ‘fl ying coffi ns’. A
telling account of the lives of these idealists, who joined the air services in
the early months of the First World War, many straight from public school,
is contained in the late Alan Clark’s book Aces High. Clark, a distinguished
military historian and outrageously colourful politician, makes the point that in
1914 “conquest of the air was newer, less sure and vested with a still higher
romance than that of space today”. But he points out that although these
fl yers performed acts of incredible bravery and skill, unlike spacemen “ almost
all lost their lives or their sanity”.
The Air Defence of Britain 1914-1918, by C. Cole and E. F. Cheesman,
reminds us “the best remembered pilots of the First World War are the fi ghter
‘aces’, but the great majority of the home-defence pilots remain shadowy,
unknown fi gures. “All too often some technical or weather problem thwarted a
well-executed and promising sortie. The courage of the early pilots, who took
off into fog and cloud knowing that the prospects of a safe return were slender,
recalls Bosquet’s immortal refl ection on the charge of the Light Brigade – ‘c’est
magnifi que, mais ce n’est pas la guerre.’
To be continued in our next issue
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