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28 NAVY NEWS, APRIL 2007
marina Continued from page 27
THE BATTLE WON
was brief but bloody; he scored his
SOPWITH TRIPLANE
first ‘kill’ in his Sopwith Pup biplane
‘GAVRELLE IS OURS’
on March 4, his tenth and last on
Principal Characteristics
April 26.
On April 23 1917, the sky seemed
CLASH OF EAGLES
Built by: Sopwith Aviation Co. Ltd, Kingston-upon-Thames
to belong to this likeable Canadian.
With night settling over the Gavrelle Engine: 1 x 110hp or 130hp Clerget
arts
On a dawn patrol he accounted for
battlefield, a solitary German Speed: 117mph at 5,000ft
three German scouts; he would have
scout flew above the village Length: 18ft 10in
bagged a fourth, but he ran out of
ruins, signalling to the Wingspan: 26ft 6in
ammunition. Undeterred, he put
guns to open fire. The artillery Wing area: 231 square ft
his Pup down at a forward airfield,
responded with a ferocious barrage Height: 10ft 6in
reloaded his guns, and took off to
upon the exhausted Brits. Weight: 1,541lb fully loaded
continue the fight. Another Albatros
When the barrage lifted, the Rate of climb: 25 minutes to 16,000ft
fell victim to the Canadian’s guns
Germans came on again. They were Endurance: 2¾ hours buoys
before the morning patrol was over.
decimated by British artillery and Armament: 1 x Vickers machine-gun
The following afternoon Malone
machine-gun fire.
forced a German two-seater
Around 10pm, the Hoods
reconnaissance plane down and
were pulled out of the line.
landed alongside it to inspect his
They had seized Gavrelle but it
prize.
had cost them 13 officers and
“We were shelled by German
179 men.
artillery after helping the pilot to
remove the badly-wounded observer
Tuesday April 24 dawned and
from his cockpit.”
with the first rays of light
The observer was dead within a
from the east the German
quarter of an hour; the wounded
guns opened up determined,
pilot, Unteroffizier – NCO – Max
Thomas MacMillan convinced
Haase was taken prisoner.
himself, “to blast us out of the
Malone’s tally of five German
village”.
planes in two days earned him the
Behind the creeping German
Distinguished Service Order.
barrage came the infantry
News of the order – and similar
once more, their Stahlhelm
recognition for two comrades
– ‘coalscuttle’ steel helmets
– was posted on Naval Three’s
– clearly identifiable through the
noticeboard.
smoke.
brought their craft to rest on the
Richthofen’s squadron was
As the fog lifted on April 21 1918,
The 63rd gunners responded by
grass at Douai.
now Richthofen’s own squadron;
the Red Baron climbed into his dark
Five ‘kills’ earned a British pilot
drawing an iron curtain across the
Between them the brothers had
it bore his name. On the Kaiser’s
red Fokker Dr.I triplane and headed
the distinction ‘ace’; for German
battlefield through which no man
‘bagged’ six British planes that
orders Jasta 11 became Jagdstaffel
westwards to intercept British aircraft
fliers eight ‘kills’ (subsequently 16)
could pass. The men added to the
Sunday – two for Lothar, four for
Richthofen. Under whatever name
over the Somme.
warranted the Pour le Mérite.
inferno with rifle and machine-gun
Manfred, “an entire squadron”
it fought, it was a lethal fighting
It was there where he ignored his
Yet to most pilots recognition,
fire directed at the advancing foe.
“We had evidently invited our
unit; in April 1917, 95 Allied aircraft
own rules of aerial combat. He spied
awards, public adulation and score
Seven times the Germans swarmed
father to a treat,” the Red Baron
were downed by the guns of the Red
a Sopwith Camel flown by one 2/Lt
tallies meant little. The men lived
towards Gavrelle. Seven times their
recalled. “He was overjoyed.”
Baron and his comrades.
Wilfred May and gave chase through
for each other, for their wingmen.
attack was cut down.
That evening the Richthofens
the Somme valley.
Friendships blossomed briefly, but
Cdr Walter Sterndale Bennett,
celebrated their victories among
Bloody April continued into Bloody
The red triplane and the stumpy
it was fatal to become too fond of
leading Hood’s sister battalion
Lille.
friends with a fine meal.
May – the Battle of Arras dragged on
khaki biplane jinked and jerked,
colleagues.
Drake, revelled in the enemy’s dance
“Good day, father, I’ve just shot until mid-month. It claimed 150,000
turned and twisted. Tracer raced
A young S/Lt Walter proved very
of death.
down an Englishman,” Lothar
‘BLOODY’ APRIL
British casualties and 100,000
past May’s Camel. At any second
popular in Naval Eight in the short
“The enemy was thoroughly
breathlessly greeted him. German dead and wounded.
he expected his fighter to burst into
time he was with the squadron. So
butchered – and we enjoyed every
A few minutes later, the Red Baron And yet Arras was a sideshow. The
flames and spiral to the ground but,
small was he his colleagues dubbed
moment of it,” he enthused. Perhaps
climbed down from his Albatros.
THE BUTCHER’S BILL
main event, Robert Nivelle’s grand
no, it was the red triplane which
him ‘The War Baby’.
2,000 Hun were dead or dying in
“Good day, father, I’ve just shot offensive on the Chemin des Dames,
was crippled. It spun around one
Outnumbered three to one by the
the ruins of this insignificant French
down an Englishman,” he greeted ETERNAL DEEDS failed to deliver the victory the
and a half times and smashed into
Germans on one patrol, he “put up
town.
his father. general had promised. It did deliver
the ground close to trenches held by
a wonderful fight before the Huns
Bloody April ended on a high for
“At last the guns were stilled and
That Englishman was a Spad VII nearly 200,000 French casualties,
Australian troops.
got him”. Shot through the heart,
Naval Eight. The squadron was
the air was clear again,” MacMillan
fighter, its pilot one 2/Lt Richard widespread mutiny among the poilus
Thus died the Red Baron, killed
Walter died instantly, his Triplane
woken at dawn on the thirtieth by
wrote. “Out in the open fields lay
Applin of the Royal Flying Corps. – the ordinary French soldier – and
either by anti-aircraft fire or by the
plummeting into the ground.
the sound of bombs exploding. Four
the mangled remains of thousands of
Richthofen had already mortally the fall of Robert Nivelle.
guns of Canadian fighter pilot Capt
It was impossible for the men not
Triplanes were hastily scrambled to
our adversaries, while here and there
wounded Applin’s fighter with a With the battle still rumbling on,
Arthur ‘Roy’ Brown, formerly of the
to be affected by the loss of such
intercept the bombers. None could
a solitary figure was seen to stagger
burst of gunfire. Now the Red Baron John Charteris, Haig’s intelligence
Royal Naval Air Service.
friends. They withdrew to a world of
be found but, to Geoffrey Bromet’s
and fall, to rise no more.
revealed his ruthless streak. chief, visited the ground at Arras
The next day Brown was shown
their own, trying to rationalise their
delight, the fighters “fell in with a
“Gavrelle was ours.”
“I no longer showed any mercy,” captured. It left him deeply moved.
Richthofen’s body. “There was a
daily existence. he recalled in his memoirs. “I
whole party of Huns”. Two pilots
“I wish everyone in England could
lump in my throat,” the Canadian
“By turning away our faces and
bagged a pair of German aircraft
The Battle of Gavrelle was over.
attacked him a second time. His see it to make them realise what war
aviator wrote. “If he had been my
refusing to acknowledge death,
apiece, a third naval aviator downed
The Battle of Arras was not. Nor too
wings dropped off like pieces of really is,” he wrote in his diary.
dearest friend, I could not have felt
by casting off that thin veneer of
a fifth Hun.
Bloody April.
paper; the fuselage dropped like a “It is impossible to describe. When
greater sorrow.”
civilisation we were able to sit down
Such actions were characteristic of
The relentless patrols of the Royal
stone, burning ferociously, falling the war is over, nobody – except
Such were the sentiments of men
and enjoy a good breakfast,” wrote
April 1917 in the skies above France.
Naval Air Service persisted. So too
into a swamp.” those who survive out here – will
dubbed Knights of the Skies.
Flt Lt Robert Compston of Naval
Bloody April was never as bloody
those of Manfred von Richthofen’s
The morass swallowed the have any real conception of what
Eight.
for the Royal Naval Air Service as
Jasta 11.
wreckage. All that was left was a tail war is.”
“How marvellously can the
it was for the Royal Flying Corps
Over the town of Douai, the
forlornly sticking out of the mud. Civilised life here had disappeared
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
human mind adapt itself so that all
which was still flying obsolete and
British and German aces tussled after
Applin was Richthofen’s 49th entirely. No villages, orchards, trees,
experience, all knowledge, even
obsolescent machines.
tea on April 26. It came as a shock to
victim. The afternoon saw him reach fields tilled by farmers, roads,
religious beliefs, can be laid on one
Eight naval aviators lost their lives
Edward Crundall who found himself
his half century, a sluggish RFC railway lines. Compiled by Richard Hargreaves
side until the lust to kill is satisfied,
over the Arras front between April
locked in a life and death struggle
FE2b fighter. “The only living things that with thanks to Jan Keohane and
leaving a charred and blackened
1 and April 30 1917; the RFC lost
with “Baron von Richthofen’s
He returned to Douai, lunched, survive are the great swarms of flies Catherine Rounsfell at the Fleet Air
earth and the sweet sickly smell of
more than 270 aircraft and 200 men
circus”.
slept, then returned to the skies before wherever there is a dead body,” the Arm Museum and Capt Christopher
blood.”
in the same battle.
When his friend Charles Booker
dusk for a final patrol of the day. general continued, “and the birds, Page of the Naval Historical Branch;
This was a world the press and
Yet Bloody April made terrible
was pounced upon by an Albatros,
First Richthofen dispatched a which, curiously enough, sing just their knowledge, respectively, of
loved ones did not learn about. They
demands of man and machine.
Crundall turned his aircraft on to
British two-seater, then his squadron as merrily and happily back behind Naval aviation and the Royal Naval
only learned that the Hun was being
Booker’s attacker: the hunter became
regrouped and turned north towards
Edward Crundall spent more than 30
the line.” Division is inestimable. Thanks also
whipped by a gallant band of aces.
the hunted.
Lens.
hours on patrol; the men responsible
to Andy Brady for drawing ‘Doris’.
“Don’t worry about me – I’m
“I got so close to its tail I could
In the glow of the April evening
for Doris were even more exhausted.
The Royal Naval Division spent In addition, the following books
having the time of my life,” Naval
hardly miss doing considerable
sun, the red Albatroses made a
The ground crew worked tirelessly,
the summer of 1917 in and around have been consulted:
One’s Flt S/Lt Oliver Bernard Ellis
damage,” he wrote excitedly in his
brilliantly chilling sight.
despite conditions which bordered on
Arras, now an inactive front after
assured his family.
diary.
There was no disguising
the primitive.
the spring battles. In September it Holger Afflerbach, Kaiser Wilhem II
“I am enjoying myself hugely and
“The Albatros fell away and went
Richthofen’s squadron, but then
“Imagine nine inches of snow on
was hauled out of the line and sent als Oberster Kriegsherr im Ersten
the war can’t last for ever.”
down in a vertical spiral dive.”
Richthofen did not want to disguise
the ground with icy wind blowing
north. Douglas Haig needed the Weltkrieg
It couldn’t last for ever. The death
Now separated from his comrades,
his men.
through many holes in a canvas
sailor-soldiers again in Flanders for Robert Asprey, The German High
toll was too great for that. Most pilots
Crundall made for home. His ‘kill’
Eleven triplanes from Naval Eight
hangar, the feel of the cold spanners
the Third Battle of Ypres, commonly Command At War
had clocked up little more than 90 and a Nieuport 17 biplane were
and frozen oil, the making of delicate
known as Passchendaele. John Charteris, At GHQ
hours in the air before the end came.
ACE OF ACES
on patrol, but at a higher altitude
adjustments with hands numbed
Edward Crundall, Fighter Pilot on
Jack Malone clocked up barely 40 than Jasta 11. They spied the red
to the bone,” wrote Flt Lt Robert
The Royal Naval Air Service had the Western Front
hours on patrols. After three months
Compston.
A NAVAL VICTIM
Albatroses. The bees were drawn to begun the war with little more Robert Doughty, Pyrrhic Victory:
on the Western Front Malone was the honey.
“Truly did these men deserve
than 200 pilots and fewer than 100 French Strategy and Operations in
physically and mentally exhausted. “The celebrated triplanes were
our praise. Their work was the
aircraft. the Great War
His dreams were haunted by
A CELEBRATORY DINNER
brand new machines,” wrote
foundation of all our hopes and
When it merged with the RFC to Wolfgang Foerster, Wir Kämpfer im
images of the men he had killed, Richthofen, “but the quality of the
victories. Without them we could
form the Royal Air Force on April Weltkrieg
especially the German observer he was never confirmed. machine matters little. What counts
have achieved nothing.” Compston
1 1918 its numbers had swelled to Norman Franks, Sopwith Triplane
had come face-to-face with, and with is who sits in it.”
would end the war with 25 victories
67,000 personnel and nearly 3,000 Aces of World War I
premonitions of his own death. On Manfred von Richthofen’s squadron The British and German aircraft
to his name and a desk job in charge
aircraft. Douglas Haig, Diary, held by the
the last day of April 1917, Malone had downed 100 enemy aircraft sparred for perhaps 20 minutes before
of a squadron.
Transfer meant the new rank of National Archive, Kew
became the first victim of Leutnant in precisely 90 days, prompting a battle was joined in earnest.
The enthusiastic Oliver Bernard
captain for Edward Crundall and a Peter Hart, Bloody April
Paul Billik; Billik, in turn, would jubilatory order of the day from The Red Baron locked horns with Ellis scored his first victory early in new squadron, 210. He ended the Holger Herwig, The First World War:
down 31 Allied aircraft before the the head of Die Fliegertruppen the Sopwith Triplane of Flt S/Lt May after “a glorious scrap”. It was war with seven victories to his name, Germany and Austria-Hungary
war’s end. des Deutschen Kaiserreiches Albert Cuzner. quickly followed by another ‘kill’ in despite being shot down twice. 1914-1918
And yet for all the death, for all – The Airborne Forces of Imperial With Richthofen on his tail, Cuzner the same dogfight, then a third. He Under the merger, the naval Douglas Jerrold, The Royal Naval
the inhumanity of aerial combat, the Germany – one Generalleutnant tried to shake off his assailant, turning landed with just half an inch of petrol squadrons were renumbered – Division
crews maimed by bullets, scarred by Ernst von Hoeppner. Richthofen and and manoeuvring his triplane. left in his tank. “It’s a great war, isn’t normally by adding 200, thus Naval Peter Kilduff, Germany’s First Air
burning fuel, somehow, sometimes his “small band of brave pilots” had But each turn slowed the Sopwith it?” he wrote home. Within a week, Eight became 208 Squadron RAF. Force 1914-1918
it appeared to be the last refuge of “accomplished deeds which add the and brought the baron closer, until he was dead. He fell – or jumped It survives today, teaching RAF and Peter Kilduff, The Red Baron Combat
chivalry. greatest honour to the German Air finally the German was almost within – from his burning Triplane 12,000ft Fleet Air Arm pilots the art of fast Wing
“It was rumoured a message had Force.” touching distance. above the battlefield. His body was jet combat. Peter Kilduff, Richthofen: Beyond
been dropped by the Germans on our In those 90 days, the Red Baron From 50 yards, Richthofen opened never found. the Legend of the Red Baron
side of the lines,” Edward Crundall alone had accounted for 39 aircraft. fire with both his machine-guns. Manfred von Richthofen and his Alexander McKee, Vimy Ridge
wrote. “Baron von Richthofen His overall tally of ‘kills’ as St “I heard a slight hissing noise – a Three of the naval fliers lost in Bloody squadron, the ‘flying circus’ of Joseph Murray, Call To Arms
challenged any one triplane to mortal George’s Day ended stood at 47. He sure sign that the fuel tanks had been April fell in Sopwith Triplanes. They legend, continued to take a terrible Naval Eight: A History of No.8
combat over Douai.” bagged his forty-eighth victim, an hit. Then I saw a bright flame and he were the exception, not the rule. In toll of Allied airmen. Squadron RNAS
Naval Eight did not accept the Red RFC two-seater, five days later. disappeared below,” the Red Baron April 1917, the three-winged fighter By April 1918 the Red Baron had Christopher Page, Command in the
Baron’s invitation. It was obviously And then came Bloody Sunday, recalled. was arguably the finest aircraft on the downed 80 enemy aircraft, but Fate Royal Naval Division
a trick. Richthofen’s entire squadron April 29 1917, when Manfred von Canadian troops watched the Western Front. German pilots were was catching up with von Richthofen. Ian Passingham, All The Kaiser’s
was bound to pounce on the lone Richthofen dominated the heavens stricken Sopwith spiral out of control warned to beware its presence. The technological superiority the Men
British fighter. over Arras. and smash into the ground near the Its moment in the sun was brief Fliegertruppe had enjoyed over the Manfred von Richthofen, Die Rote
The challenge was nevertheless The Richthofen brothers touched village of Courrières. – by the autumn of 1917 it was being Allies a year earlier had turned to Kampfflieger
a boost for the naval aviators. “We down at Douai after their first patrol Thus died Flt S/Lt Albert Cuzner, replaced by another little gem from inferiority. Benno Schneider and Ulrich Haacke,
believe the Huns have got the wind of the day around 9am. the last victim of the Red Baron in the Sopwith factory, the Camel – but Richthofen’s brashness had all but Das Buch von Kriege 1914-1918:
up about triplanes and, to boost their Waiting for them on the airfield Bloody April – his 21st of the month glorious. So glorious in fact, that the vanished. “The war is not as the Briefe, Berichte, Erinnerungen
morale, will attempt to shoot one was their father, Major Albrecht and 52nd overall. Fokker company copied it and built people at home imagine it, with a Leonard Sellars, The Hood Battalion
down whatever the cost,” wrote Freiherr von Richthofen who held With dusk beginning to engulf their own triplane, which became the hurrah and a roar; it is very serious, Owen Thetford, British Naval
Crundall. a staff job behind the lines in nearby the Arras battlefield, the Richthofens favoured aircraft of von Richthofen. very grim,” he wrote fatalistically. Aircraft Since 1912
Bloody April.indd 4 16/3/07 09:51:39 029_NN_apr.indd 1 21/3/07 11:33:40
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