1918 We will remember them (19 page)

“Well they might wait until they have all of their men here.”

“The Yanks are coming.  It will take a few more months until they are at full strength.  They will want to beat us before the Americans arrive. I think they are only waiting to get as many new aeroplanes as they can.”

We had reached the office and Ted said, “You seem remarkably well informed.”

“Like I said I had time to read and I visited the Army and Navy club a couple of times.” I tapped my medal ribbons. “These loosen an amazing number of tongues.”

Archie was there already and he had opened one of my bottles of malt. “Well done for today and thanks to Bill we have a new malt so cheers.”

I toasted them and asked, “How many did we knock down then?”

Randolph looked up from the tally sheet he had before him. “Three Fokkers and three Albatros; better than any other day this or last month.”

I noticed that they all looked at me. “It was luck and using new tactics.  Now we need to work out what to do when they send thirty odd birds after us tomorrow.”

In the end the weather closed in the next day and we had a short storm of Biblical proportions. Some of the enlisted men’s tents were blown away and one Camel was damaged when its mooring peg came loose.

The storm gave me the chance to get to know my new pilots. “Well Walter what was it like hanging on to my shirt tails?”

“Er, it’s Wally sir and it was scary. I didn’t want to lose you.”

“And you didn’t.”

“I nearly did.  I pulled back to avoid a collision.”

“Understandable.”

“But you just fired when you were going to collide.”

“Did you get to fire your guns?”

“Yes sir.”

“Did you hit anything?”

“I am not certain but I think so. Not enough for a kill. I will never get the number that you have sir.”

“I can remember when I was desperate for my first kill.  It will come.”

I waved to Jack and sat with him.  “How did they do?”

“Better than when we first arrived, sir. I can understand that they were frightened. I was.  It seems unnatural to fly into the heart of the enemy.”

“I know but it seems to work. We are turning the tide. Their better pilots are being killed.  The ones they are bringing from the east haven’t faced a bus like the Camel yet.  They are in for a shock.”

When we did fly again we saw no Germans in our sector which was strange.  Archie led us, tentatively, towards the German lines. Their guns blasted away at us.  We noticed they had far more than they used to.  It was always dangerous; all it took was one lucky shot.  Once we reached their rear areas we saw trucks, vehicles and horses filling the roads. We went in for a low level attack and soon the roads were emptied as the soldiers and vehicles fled to the safety of side roads and ditches. When we were empty we climbed high and returned west.

All the way back I was wondering why we had seen no German aeroplanes.  It was not like them.  My unease was lessened somewhat by the knowledge that we had given the new pilots more hours in the air and they had fired their guns at the enemy. Confidence was all.

Randolph gave us the bad news when we landed. The German aeroplanes had been over our lines. They had bombed the area to the west of Bapaume and several airfields had been attacked.  It was a disaster and it told us, quite clearly, where they would attack; it would be the Somme and we were in the line of their advance. Someone at Headquarters was thinking and we were sent a company of machine gunners. It was not as good as artillery but it was effective at keeping aeroplanes at a distance. We advised the soldiers on their sandbagging. We were the poacher turned gamekeeper.

Things began to escalate from then on. Between the tenth and twentieth of March we were in the air every morning fighting to keep the Germans at bay. Although we lost no aeroplanes in the dogfights we did have damage to both pilots and Camels which had a debilitating effect on the morale of the squadron. On the seventeenth, St Patrick’s day, we had twenty Camels in the air. We found ourselves facing twenty four Fokkers.  Twenty were the triplane while four were a new bus we had not seen before. This was the Fokker D.VII. It proved to be a dangerous opponent.

We flew in four lines astern. Our aim was to keep the Germans guessing.  They seemed more than happy with four lines of six abreast. Freddie and I were in the middle.  He and his flight were to my right. We had varied our line astern by stacking each Camel just ten feet above.  I had more confidence in my pilots and Wally knew to fire a heartbeat after I opened fire. In the first few moments of combat our plan seemed to be working. The triplane fired at me and I felt the bullets as they hit my top wing and then I fired. As soon as Wally joined in we had a cone of fire from four machine guns. The propeller disappeared and smoke started to pour from the engine.

The next Fokker was just fifty yards behind the first and we were soon upon him. He fired first and I felt the camel judder as his bullets struck my undercarriage.  Once again our combined fire hit him although less spectacularly. We tore into his underbelly as he pulled up his nose to correct his aim. He kept on rising and I was not certain if this was deliberate or if he was already dead.

The third and fourth Germans suddenly lifted their noses as they looped up and over us. We had no target.  The last three Camels in my flight fired at them as they climbed and banked to the east. They had outnumbered us and we had only destroyed four of them.  I could not understand why they had fled. As we headed back to our field we saw the reason why.  They had been keeping us in the air. Other bombers and fighters had raided our field. The Hun had not had it all his own way and we saw three downed bombers and two downed fighters.  The airfield was too badly damaged to land. Randolph fired the Very pistol which told us to land at the next airfield. That was close to Amiens and, by the time we landed there we were flying on fumes.

The adjutant, Captain Moncrieff came to us.  “Get refuelled sir and take your Camels to your new field at Abbeville.” He handed me a map.  “Here is where it is. Your field is being abandoned.  Intelligence seems to think that it is in the direct path of the German advance.”

“But they haven’t started advancing yet!”

“Sir, they have bombed all the forward airfields.  Your squadron was lucky, your buses were in the air.  Two squadrons have been destroyed on the ground. General Trenchard is taking no chances.” He swept an arm around the field. “We are getting ready to move out too.”

“But we are forty miles behind the front here.”

“I know, sir and we are now the furthest forward field in the Somme area.”

As we flew west I reflected that the Battle of Cambrai had done more harm than good.  We had lost good men and the gains we had made had been given back and weakened us.  Until the Americans joined the war there was a better than average chance that we would lose the war before summer.

The field was a windsock and some tents. It was, however, flat and free from pot holes.  We landed. The lorries did not arrive until it was dark.  We saw their headlights as they meandered along the road.  I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw Bates in the car with Randolph and another three batmen. John smiled at me. “I saved all of your stuff Major!”

“Thank you John, I am just glad that you are unscathed.”

“It is only thanks to your bath that I am though, sir.”

Archie and the others turned when they heard Bates’ comment. “My bath?”

“Yes sir.  The first bombs blew the windows out so I hid under the tin bath.  It is a good job too, sir. It looks like a giant colander now. I fear that you will never use it again. Your quarters are a mess.”

I saw Archie and the others smile.  I, too, found it funny but Bates had a close encounter with death and it would not do to minimise its importance. “Well done Bates.  I am afraid we will be in tents for a while.”

He sniffed imperiously.  “I will go and claim one for you, sir.”

As the warrant officers arrived they did what they did best, they took charge. As we smoked our pipes and waited for the tents to be erected and for the cooks to make some sandwiches Randolph told us of the raid. “They came from nowhere and used the big Gothas as well as two seaters with smaller bombs. They strafed the gunners.  Those sandbags stopped the bullets but they couldn’t stop the bombs. The Quarter master was killed and Percy Richardson.” He looked at me, “Geoff and Joe, your mechanics, were also killed.  We lost thirty men all told. The doc is still at the field with the wounded.  He refused to leave.  He will join us in the morning.”

Archie shook his head. “Well, this a fine how do you do! No ammunition.  No fuel and the Hun is about to begin an offensive. Randolph, get in touch with Headquarters and find out what they expect of us.  We need some sort of telephone.”

“Yes sir. I’ll drive to Abbeville.  There must be someone there who can help us.”

As he sped off Ted said wryly, “The Channel isn’t far over there.  It will only take an hour and we will be back in Blighty!”

Gordy shook his head, “I wouldn’t joke about that. It might well happen.”

Archie tapped his pipe out.  “Let’s not lose our heads.  They have hit our fields but there is no offensive yet.  We haven’t lost any ground at all!”

I agreed with Archie but this was ominous. Like everything the Germans did this was well thought out and well executed.  Their offensive would be just as well thought out.  They had sat back and soaked up all of our attacks.  Our best soldiers, like Bert, lay buried in the fields of Northern France. We had planned for an aerial war and we had been outwitted. They had bided their time and waited for the soldiers to return from Russia.  They outnumbered the allies now and they would use that advantage ruthlessly.

Inevitably it took us some time to get organised and we were not able to fly a patrol again until the nineteenth. We had further to fly to reach the front and a shorter time over the combat zone.  It was not a satisfactory arrangement. Each sortie showed the devastating effect their aeroplanes were having.

We were sent towards Bapaume and then Cambrai. That battlefield still held bitter memories for me. As we flew over the battlefield I saw the detritus of battle.  There were wrecked aeroplanes littering No Man’s Land. It had been fought over as though it was a pot of gold.

That morning it was lucky that we were at altitude else we would have fallen foul of Von Richthofen and his Flying Circus who were on the prowl. I prayed that my young lads would not be upset at the thought of fighting such a renowned Jasta. The Red Baron was clever.  He knew that the sight of his garishly painted buses inspired fear in the enemy.  He had the advantage as soon as he appeared. My lads knew how to fight Fokkers.  They had done so before but it was the psychological aspect which I could not predict. What was in their heads?

We had retained our four line astern formation and I was happy with that.  The Flying Circus had not seen how we worked. The stacked Camels above me worked and gave us a marginally better rate of fire.  I hoped it would be enough. Once again Freddie and I were in the middle and slightly ahead of the other two flights. This time we had no height to make up but we would have the same endurance issue as the Germans. We would have no more than thirty minutes to defeat them and then we would need to break off.

I saw that the Red Baron was in the centre of the line.  It would either be me or Freddie who had to come against him. I hoped it was me.  I had fought him three times. Perhaps this would be the day when it was decided. I waited until I was but fifty yards away. I fired just a heart beat ahead of the Red Baron.  Such are the margins of victory. Smoke began to drift from his engine and, more importantly, his nose dipped as he lost power. That dip saved his life for it took him away from Wally’s guns which would surely have ended his life. Grey’s bullets hit his upper wing and his fuselage. I had no time to fire at him again as I saw another triplane ahead.  I fired and, this time, Wally did too. I felt the German’s bullets strike me but the Hun drifted to port as some wires gave way and he lost some control. I fired again before he moved away as did Wally and this time we hit his cockpit. I could see that he was in trouble. I slowly banked to port to continue to pour bullets into him.  This time Roger Stuart, in the third Camel, had a shot and he managed to hit the pilot.  The triplane plunged to the ground.

I turned to starboard to tackle the other Germans but they were descending as they headed east. I saw another damaged Fokker to port and headed after him.  I saw Archie lead the rest of the squadron to pursue the Flying Circus. The Fokker I chased twisted and turned. I kept firing. I hit him again and again. Eventually a hand came up and he descended.  He was surrendering. I kept my eye on him but I was suddenly aware of a barrage to the east.  The Flying Circus had led Archie and his two flights into a trap.  There were machine guns and artillery waiting for them. I saw one Camel explode in the air and another two spiral to earth before Archie extricated the squadron and headed west. We had come within a whisker of a great victory and we left with a draw; it was honours even.

It seemed an inordinately long flight home.  Perhaps that was the maudlin thoughts which filled my head.  I had had a brief moment when I thought we had had a victory.  The sight of the Flying Circus fleeing had filled me with the hope that we might win.  Instead we had been led into a trap and two pilots lay dead. The tents which lined our new field did not look welcoming. I thought of the bottles of malt which waited at our old field and yearned for them.

There were few comforts on that cold field.  However we had bowsers for our fuel and parts were arriving to repair our buses. Jack Fall showed himself to be a good leader.  He jollied along the younger pilots.  It was hard to believe that he had but a few months more experience than they did.  It showed what aerial combat did to a young pilot. If you survived the first few weeks then you became a changed man. We made the best of our new home. I think Bates was upset by the new arrangements more than anyone else.  He disliked dirt and he positively hated anything which upset his ordered life.  Our short time on that field was the low point in his life.

We were awoken on the morning of March twenty first by the sound of a barrage.  The noise was so intense that we knew it could mean only one thing; the offensive had started. The cooks had breakfast already going but we ate on the hoof.  We had to be in the air by dawn. We were on the receiving end but we understood how these things worked.  The German fliers would be in the sky to direct the fire of their guns and to support their infantry.

We sat in our buses watching the first hint of dawn peer over the eastern horizon.  We could see the sky punctuated by the flash of artillery and Archie fired the Very pistol when it was still dark and we trundled down the grass. The German guns guided our flight.

As we flew towards the front we realised that there was thick fog.  We had assumed, at the field, that it was a sea mist. As we flew beyond Amiens we saw that it looked like a low cloud which covered the earth. It would make observation difficult. The nearer we went to the front the more terrifying became the noise from the barrage. Archie began to fly higher to avoid the shells.  There were so many that the air seemed to be filled with flying metal.

When dawn did break all that we saw was the fog below and explosions as the shells struck. We were helpless to aid the soldiers who must have been suffering hellish conditions.  We saw no one and had to return to the field to refuel.  Our new home was safe but we had a longer journey.

The barrage stopped shortly before ten o’clock.  It had lasted five hours. We took off again and the mist and fog began to dissipate. To our horror we saw that there were brown uniforms fleeing west.  The Germans had broken through. The barrage had ceased and it was safe to descend. Not all the British soldiers had fallen back and we saw islands of soldiers fighting desperately in redoubts.  I saw pockets of the dreaded storm troopers,
Stoßtruppen
,
attacking with flamethrowers, bombs and hand held machine guns.

I led my flight down to machine gun the Germans who had surrounded one beleaguered island. By the time our guns were empty the redoubt was surrounded by a sea of grey uniforms and the corpses of the elite
Stoßtruppen
. We saw the rest of the squadron supporting other such redoubts and we headed back to the field.

Randolph was waiting with mess orderlies.  Piles of sandwiches and buckets of hot tea awaited us. While we ate Randolph filled me in, “It is bad, Bill.  HQ knew it was coming and most of our soldiers had been pulled back from the front line trenches but the barrage caused huge damage to our advanced positions and they have exploited it.  What did you see?”

“There looked to be redoubts holding out but the Hun is using those storm troopers you told us about. I don’t think our lads can hold out.”

“It looks like they are heading for Amiens.  If they capture that we are scuppered.  That is the main rail link for the whole of the front. If that falls then so do we. Those redoubts have been specifically built to hold out and slow the enemy advance down. I hope they work!” I nodded and washed down the bully beef sandwich with hot sweet tea. “Did you see the Hun in the air?”

I shook my head, “Not yet and that surprises me.”

The other flights began to land. “Headquarters wants a third sortie this afternoon.  I know that causes problems but we have to hold them, Bill.”

“I know. I’ll go and brief my lads.” I waved Jack over.  “Lieutenant, get the lads gathered around.  We are going up again.”

They had all taken off their goggles and their helmets.  I wondered if I looked as amusing. There was a blackened area where oil and dirt had spattered and then two white patches where their eyes were.  We looked like owls!

“We are going back up, chaps.  Now the Hun is breaking through.  We have to stop them reaching Amiens. This time keep your eyes open for Fritz in the air. We may not be able to keep formation.  If we are attacked then I think we will be outnumbered.” I smiled, “You are not raw recruits any more, you are pilots.  You can handle anything the Germans throw at you. Yesterday we sent the Flying Circus packing!” I saw them stand a little taller at the memory. “When you are low on fuel or out of ammunition then get back here as soon as you can.” I looked at them all one by one, “Our backs are to the wall but then British soldiers have had their backs to the wall before and we have always come through.  Your ancestors were outnumbered at Poitiers, Crecy, Agincourt, Blenheim and Waterloo.” I paused, “We always won and you lads are going to win today.” I nodded when I saw the sparkle in their eyes.  They would not let me down.

Bates had been standing to one side. He handed me a flask which I knew would contain something hot. “Make sure you come back today, Major Harsker.  The men who led in those battles you spoke of all came home and made our country a better one.  Make sure you do too.”

It felt a little lonely leading the six Camels over the enemy lines. We reached the front far quicker than we had done which showed the speed of their advance and we arrived as a mixed force of Albatros and Fokkers were dive bombing and machine gunning the redoubts. I waggled my wings and led my flight down.  We were outnumbered but the enemy aeroplanes were busy machine gunning our soldiers. The first they knew of our presence was when I opened fire at twenty yards range. The pilot of the Albatros knew nothing for my first burst, delivered from above, hit and killed him instantly. I pulled the nose up and fired at the tail of the next German. We were faster than the Huns anyway and our altitude had given us even more speed. It meant we had seconds only to fire but there were six of us pouring round after round into the Jasta and receiving nothing in reply. After I had passed the last Fokker I pulled up the nose and began to bank to port.

As I looked to my left I saw the devastation we had caused. At least five German aeroplanes were burning.  Ground fire must have accounted for some of them. I came around and saw that the rest of the German squadron were heading east.  I did not think that six Camels had made them do that; it was probably a need to refuel and rearm which had prompted it. I was faster than they were and I had more height.  I followed. Inexorably I gained on them. I did not want to waste ammunition and I waited until I was thirty yards away from the rearmost Albatros before I fired. I could not miss him but he kept swinging his bus from side to side in an attempt to shake me off.  Suddenly he plummeted to the ground.  Either I had hit him or something vital. I sought my next target. As I did so I glanced below me.  We were over what had been the front lines just eight hours earlier.  It was now German territory.