Flight Lt Alex Ackworth - RNAS 4 - Coudekerque - 5 Aug. 1916 (Mission 31)

Some action !

I'm in the morning flight, I take off at 07:15 with Flight Cdr "Madman" Whealdon again, and flight A will follow us with 6 planes. We are sent to the frontline east of Bethune for an artillery spotting.

My leader lives up to his reputation, as soon as we cross the front, instead of carrying out with our mission, he goes down chasing enemy planes. I see him engage two Fokkers, so I decide I can't let him alone and we take one each. While I am fighting with mine, I suddenly hear John firing a few short bursts behind me. The second Fokker is with us, and Cdr Whealdon can't be seen, bad news ! After a few minutes things get worse as two more Fokkers join in ! Luckily we are higher than them so we can stay mostly out of reach.

During the rather long fight we will nevertheless take a few bullets ... John sends two of them down, I get number three and number four prefers running home. I head west, but we are a little low and I take a few more shots from ground units on the way.

My controls get sluggish, I prefer landing at La Gorgue nearby. I am surprised to find Cdr Whealdon is already there and I park my Strutter next to his. Both our planes will need a couple of days work, so we leave them there and get a ride by road back to Coudekerque where I will file my three claims.

This is when we get the bad news : the entire flight A is declared missing. Consequence is that we have to wait for planes and we can't fly until the 8th. Looks like the germans finished their holiday !