1916 Angels over the Somme (British Ace Book 3) (5 page)

That evening Lieutenant Carstairs was sitting alone.  I wandered over to Johnny and Freddy.  “Try and make the new chap welcome eh lads?”

“We did, sir, but he is a little stand offish.”

“Try again.  I think he just feels alone here. Be full of good humour and jolly him along.  If it doesn’t work after tonight then let him stew in his own juices.”

They both grinned.  They were fine fellows. “Of course sir.” I saw them take their plates and sit on either side of him.  I joined Ted and Gordy and by the time the mess orderly had brought my food I saw the three of them chatting away. When Charlie Sharp joined them I felt much happier.  Charlie had become a pilot as I had through the front cockpit. He knew what was what.

Gordy sniffed, “I still think a clip round the ear would have done him more good.”

“That works for the likes of us Gordy but these lads from privileged backgrounds who went to public school are different. They have been brought up in a strange way. Besides we need every pilot we can get.”

“You are telling me, Bill. The Major and I were knocked about a bit this morning and the three lads we have with us aren’t a patch on your two.  That’s why we scored a duck this morning and your lads shot down five.” He gestured with his thumb at my medals.  “No wonder King George gave you that lot.” He poised with the fork half way to his mouth.  “Here do you get money for having a medal?”

“I doubt it, Ted. If you do I haven’t seen any yet.”

“A pity that. And you are entitled to a wound stripe too.  A couple of them I should think.”

“It was just a scratch.”

Gordy laughed, “Mary told me the truth.  The doctors and nurses were worried for some days before you recovered.” He suddenly nodded, as though he had remembered something. “That is right, Mary said that you and the pretty nurse appeared close.” I am afraid I could not hide my blushes and he and Ted almost fell to the floor laughing at my acute embarrassment.  “At last the man of iron shows a softer side!”

I looked at my plate, wishing that the ground would swallow me up. Ted said, “That is a good thing, Bill.  We are happy.”

Gordy nodded. “Mary liked her.” He spread his arms. “What more can I say?”

“Thanks chaps. It has changed my perspective on life.”

“Well I hope he doesn’t take away that which makes you a killer, Bill.  We all need that.”

I shook my head, “I think today showed I can still kill.”

Gordy nudged Ted in the ribs, “You should have seen us today.  We went across the front of the Germans.  They had no chance because they weren’t expecting it. We had every gun on them! As we flew across the pilots could all fire and when we turned our gunners could carry on. With so many bullets you have to hit something.  And of course their fixed gun means that have to be facing you to hit you.”

“They will be expecting that tomorrow, Gordy.  We will have to come up with something new.”

“You’ll manage it I am sure.”

During the morning we checked and double checked our guns and our buses. Even Carstairs seemed a little more interested in the aeroplane which might save his life. Captain Marshall came over to speak with me. He looked serious.  “A chum of mine from H.Q. was just on the telephone to me.  The casualties yesterday were bad. Twenty one thousand officers and men were killed yesterday.  One Newfoundland Regiment lost seven hundred and ten men out of the eight hundred who went over the top. The Warwicks, my cousin is in that regiment, had five hundred and twenty men killed and over three hundred wounded out of eight hundred and thirty six who attacked.  It is a bloodbath.”

I was appalled.  “Can we carry on sustaining so many casualties?”

He gave me a cynical look, “Do you think the generals actually go with their men, Bill?  They will keep on keeping on, as they say. There is still an endless supply of volunteers. We have to do our bit but, my God, I feel sorry for the poor buggers down there.”

“We’ll do all that we can Randolph and I hope your cousin is safe.”

As he walked away he said, “I will live with him being alive at the end of the month.”

I decided not to tell the others.  It had upset me and most of them were younger that I was. I wanted them confident when in the air. I just determined to do the best I could. My problems and worries were as nothing compared with the men in the trenches and crater holes.

It was with some relief that I counted five aeroplanes landing safely. I knew that Archie and Ted had taken on board my comments and flown differently. Their cheery smiles told me that all had gone well.

We took off and headed east. The new front line looked to be holding but Lumpy and I were still appalled by the men we saw being carried back on stretchers. “The poor sods are still suffering!”

“They are that.”

The skies over the German lines were, amazingly, empty. We patrolled our sector and there was nothing.  Sergeant Hutton had sharp eyes and he spied something. “Sir, there on the Bapaume road.  German infantry and they are enfilading some Tommies!”

I saw what he meant in an instant.  The grey uniformed Germans were behind the hedgerow and firing at the infantry who were advancing east.  The Tommies would be massacred.  Although we had been told not to venture behind the German lines this, technically, was the front line. “Let’s get rid of them!” I waved my right arm down so that Freddie knew what I intended.  Gordy would realise what I was doing as soon as I dived.

I cocked my Lewis while I banked. We would use both machine guns at the same time. This was not an aeroplane which was moving all over the place. We would be firing  at static German infantry who would not be watching for us. I took us down to tree top height and we zoomed along the road.  Hutton and I both opened fire at the same time and the first Germans were slaughtered.  They were knocked down like nine pins in the village pub. Those further up the road dived for cover but Hutton followed them with the Lewis. He tracked them and kept firing until he ran out of bullets. There was no place to hide and the trees and hedges provided scant cover. We kept flying and firing until my ammunition ran out. 

I began to climb as Hutton reloaded. I turned and saw the others beginning their climb after their strafing run. As I began to descend I took out my Luger.  I would not have time to reload but I could send nine German bullets back to their home. At less than fifty feet we screamed along the death ridden lane.  I held the gun over the side and fired every two seconds.  I had no idea if I hit anything but the bullets were going in the right direction. I saw two metal eggs dropped over the side and knew that Lumpy had dropped grenades.  I hoped the ones behind had realised otherwise they could be badly buffeted by the blast.

We climbed and I looked to the right.  The British infantry had taken advantage of the diversion and were racing for their objective. We had eliminated the threat.  I heard the two crumps as the grenades went off and I climbed. We circled until all the others were in line.  I could not see any smoke or major damage from my flight and we headed back to the west. We had not shot down any German aeroplanes but we had helped the infantry.  I would take that trade off any day of the week.

When we landed Archie met me.  “Did you see any German aeroplanes?”

“Not a one.”

“Neither did we.  Perhaps we frightened them yesterday.”

“Perhaps or they could be regrouping. We shot up some German infantry.”

“Good.” He put his arm around my shoulder. “I think you are right about the Germans. They are methodical and they do plan well. I think they will try to jump us tomorrow.”

I nodded, “I agree.”

“Have your flight take off fifteen minutes after mine.  We might be able to surprise them.  If I get my flights to go into the circle when they attack, then you could launch an attack from height.”

“You mean number three from my list.”

“Exactly.” He pointed to the mess,  “Now the new boys have arrived. We have four more pilots and aeroplanes but I intend to leave them here.  They will be a back up for the day after tomorrow.  I don’t want to risk the news boys if the Germans are planning something.”

We had reached the office and we went into Randolph’s den. “Any news on the attack today?”

His face clouded over, “It did not go well and we made no more progress.”

Archie shrugged, “We keep on doing what we do. We are doing our bit.  I know that a handful of biplanes is not much in comparison with the casualties on the ground but I am afraid, laddies, it is not a level playing field.  By denying the enemy the airspace we stop him targeting his guns.  We are saving lives.”

“I’m sorry sir but I saw those stretchers coming back.  We are not saving enough lives.  We need to do more.”

Archie shook his head sadly, ”If you can see a way then I am all in favour.  Until then we keep on plodding away.”

I left the office feeling a little depressed. I had been happy to have successfully returned from the operation with no losses but now I wondered what we were doing here. After I had washed, shaved and changed I went to the mess.  I needed a drink. Ted and Gordy were already in there.  They had left one of the more comfortable seats for me.

Ted held a glass out to me.  “I thought I would treat you.” I cocked my head questioningly. “Gordy told me about the raid on the German foot sloggers.  Well done.  We just tootled up and down wasting fuel.”

“I am not certain what good it does.  The infantry had a bad day today and made little or no progress.  Yesterday we shot down a handful of aeroplanes.”

Ted smacked me on the knee.  “And you call me a pessimist! And today you stopped a British battalion from being massacred.” He shook his head, “You are a daft bugger! Do you want to win the war all by yourself?”

I took a swallow of the whisky.  It was not a great one.  This was no malt but it warmed as it slipped down. “I want to make a difference.  Don’t forget I have been on the ground and know what it is like.  How those blokes do what they do is beyond me! I was on a horse and I could get out as quickly as I got in. They have to march slowly against machine guns and if they fail in their attack, suffer the same machine guns on the way back.”

The three young pilots who had flown with us came in and asked the mess orderly for a beer each.  Gordy raised his glass to them, “Well done today, lads! A good day’s work and no losses.”

Johnny shook his head, “I didn’t enjoy today, sir.  It didn’t seem sporting.”

I felt myself reddening.  Perhaps it was the whisky. “Sporting?”

“Yes sir, we just machine gunned them and they had no chance to defend themselves.”

“This is not a bloody game at Eton or Harrow or wherever the hell that you went! This is war and the Huns down there were slaughtering our boys.  Was that sporting? The sooner you get those silly public school ideas out of your head the better. Our job is to shoot down as many German aeroplanes as we can, destroy as much war material and kill as many Germans as we can.  The sooner we do that the sooner we win this war and get back to Blighty!”

Johnny looked close to tears, “Sorry sir.  You are right.”

I realised that I had ranted a little and so I smiled, “You are a good pilot, Johnny, and you will do well in this war but you need to be more ruthless and stop treating all this as some sort of game. This is not a cricket match against the Headmaster’s eleven!”

He nodded and the three of them scurried off to a corner of the mess well away from our gaze. Ted shook his head, “I heard that most of those foot sloggers going over the top are led by blokes just like those three.”

“And they are the ones to die first.”

“You are missing the point, Bill. The men follow them because they think they are Toffs and know more that they do because they had a better education.  That just isn’t true.” He lowered his voice, “Look at us three.  We are all working lads and we were sergeants.  Compare that with some of the chinless wonders they had leading us. Would we still be here if Major St.John Hamilton-Grant was still in command?  We would all be dead.”

“Archie and the Colonel are all right.”

Ted nodded, “You are right, Gordy, but are either of them as good a leader as Bill here? No! Who came up with the rules about combat flying?  Bill. Who has more kills than anyone else?  Bill.  And who would any pilot follow if they were given the choice? Bill.” He downed his whisky; others were coming into the mess. “Bill was right to have a pop at Holt.  They all need to wake up and realise this is no game.”

There was a subdued atmosphere in the mess that night. Captain Marshall asked me why the men appeared so down. “The lads who flew with us today were unhappy about machine gunning those Huns.” I shrugged, “I sent them away with a flea in their ear.”

Randolph nodded.  He took a message from his pocket.  “I was going to pin this up on the notice board tomorrow but I think it might help them realise that what we do is important if I read it to them.”

He stood and tapped his glass with his knife he looked at the colonel who nodded.

Captain Marshall held up the piece of paper. “I have here a note sent to me by Colonel McCartney of the 17
th
Liverpool Battalion.  They are one of the Pals Battalions.  I will pin it on the board tomorrow but it might be useful if you hear what the Colonel has to say.” He began to read,