Patrol of the lines: We had 10 a/c in two flights. Met with heavy cloud cover over NML. No contacts were made. The Esc had 1 a/c land short of field total write off.
Another dark weather flight, now a patrol over friendly airfield. I', the flight leader and Tristan is my wing man.
After we did reach the height we did meet two German Ctype. Only I noticed this plane was much faster, so I could never run into it. Meantime my wingman was gone same as the other Ctype. So another lone patrol, time for making good screen shots
While making this screen shots, 3 German scouts were entering my line of flight. Sharp turn and a steep diving at 200 km/h to get away. One German Scout could not resist us and while he was in the gun range I leveled up the plane so my gun man could free gun him down.
Time for going home and while landing I saw the black cat from my wingman, he made it home. And we have our first claim.
Kinda got shot down by zee Boche. I led 5 a/c up to Zeldegem on the enemy side of the lines and got bounce by the Huns. It seemed I was the center of attention as I got pasted by all. They shot up the wings 22 holes and hit the fuel tank. I was able to evade the devils and land near the costal factories on our side. It was a close one.
How do the Ami's say it ? I was robbed ! On an Escort flight of 2 Be's we ran into a Jasta full of Scouts. I turned into them fired and went pass into a chandel. At one time, I had numerous Huns firing on my tail. Some my fellow pilots took off then down to one I kept reversing till he passed under me. Ah I had him. I cut power and swooped on my prize firing in short bursts ( I fire 278 Rds at him) I plainly saw his motor stop as I slid pass Zee e/a . It was then I saw my Captaine open fire causing a fire and getting credit for my kill. The Esc lost 1 a/c destroyed + 2 Damaged. The flight knocked down 3 e/a.
"Take the cylinder out of my kidneys, The connecting rod out of my brain, my brain, From out of my arse take the camshaft, And assemble the engine again."
Dutch, I think if I were flying that old Nieuport, I'd be happy to fly in weather where no one could see me! Carrick, some nice photos. Good luck with Ignace.
Finally I get to fly with Geoffrey Corderoy. But he still isn't having a great deal of luck...
Diary of 2/Lieut. Geoffrey Corderoy, RFC Part 10: 24 June to 3 July 1917
24 June 1917 – Highland Casualty Clearing Station, Merville
Getting to be a part of the furniture at 51 CCS. My knee took some fresh stitches and the shoulder hurts, but otherwise seems all right. My right eye is swollen nearly shut and that is the biggest impediment to flying. The doctors want to move me along the system, but it seems I am not destined for home leave. McLean pops over to get my report of the accident. We have some new chaps due to arrive. An hour later I am told to pack and be prepared to move. It is now 10 pm and I’m still here.
26 June 1917 – No 2 Convalescent Depot, Rouen
Hellish day yesterday. I was dispatched from Merville to a convalescent centre in Rouen on the slowest train in Christendom, beginning the journey in Hazebrouck. I was classified as walking wounded. The carriages for officers were full and the senior lot had most of the seats, so I stood for the first two hours until my knee could take it no more, and then simply lay down on the floor. After several minutes a colonel said I should be ashamed of myself. I apologized and asked him where HE had been shot. There was a bit of fumbling and bluster, but then the old boy became rather friendly. He rousted the major across from him out of his seat and invited me to share a flask of good brandy with him. The major entertained me the rest of the day with looks threatening impending death.
28 June 1917
Sheer boredom. Haven’t even written in the diary for two days. There are some decent facilities here for the other ranks, with a YMCA hut and billiard tables and badminton, but little for officers to do except stroll about, which I’m not much up to yet. Shoulder is a bit better, and there are exercises to strengthen it. The stitches come out of the knee in a couple of days.
I have taken up darts with a Welsh captain of artillery named, naturally, Jones. I had never really played before. Ridiculous scoring system.
30 June 1917
Feeling much better. Today I got a pass to go to town after first medical parade until supper time. Went to the cathedral and walked to the city market, stopping in a small restaurant for a splendid lunch of sole, small potatoes, and – rarity of rarity these days – a fresh salad made with walnuts and a truly outstanding dressing. I chatted with a couple of Canadian doctors and a newly-arrived American male nurse.
View of Rouen
After dinner, back at the depot. Evening medical parade – told I’m to be released as soon as tomorrow. I feel I must do something soon to set myself right with the squadron. To date I’ve accomplished little of record except down one Hun and smash a number of Pups. The Huns I’ve downed that were not confirmed serve only to make me worry that the others will think I’m telling fairy tales. Ah well, back to work.
1 July 1917 -- La Gorgue
As on my first day here just over a month ago, the tender slews and tosses its way down the rutted lane from the main road and drops me off in front of the squadron office. And just as month ago, Major Babington meets me in shirt sleeve, this time with his suspenders hanging down by his legs.
“Good to have you back. Been a bit hectic the past few days,” he says, and begins to bring me up to date. Kay, within days of getting a flight, is dead. He was buried yesterday. Pratt has left for HE. There are new faces in the mess. Dimmock has put up their second pip. There is another new man, a Canadian named Fortin. He has retained his infantry rank as a captain, but is considered like us lowly lieutenants in the air. Joske may get a flight. 43 Squadron has settled in across the field. They are a Strutter squadron.
The hut is different now. Marley was wounded and sent home a week ago, and Pratt of course is no longer here. It’s now me, Barrager, Dimmock, and a Preeston. Lieut. Preeston was an observer in 46 and has just returned as a pilot, so he’s not at all a new fellow, I suppose. I have decided to buy some items to dress the place up a bit, for it’s awfully drab.
At 2:30 I fly again. The task is an escort job. Scott leads, with Lee, Preeston, Holtcombe, Barrager, Dimmock, a new arrival named Holtcombe, and me. We marry up with two BE2s and fly south to Mossy Face Wood for some arty spotting. We encounter nothing except a lone two seater that passes over us on the return leg. I give chase for a moment but soon abandon hope of catching the Hun. 2 July 1917
Lee leads today, a line patrol in the Messines sector. We see nothing and return for breakfast.
At 1:30 this afternoon we escort some BE2s over the Ypres-Menin sector to take photographs. Several Albatri make a quick dash at us and our formation breaks up. Within a few minutes I find myself alone in the sky. Down below I notice movement. A lone Albatros is making for home over the lines. I am quickly on his tail. My first pass results in the EA smoking and its propeller windmilling to a stop. Before I can turn to finish him off he puts down on a shell-torn patch of ground and turns over. At that moment every machine gun the Kaiser owns opens up at me and my Pup is badly hit. I barely nurse it back over the lines before the engine seizes up. I put the machine down at Houplines, just east of Armentieres. The EA is recorded as a “driven down,” since the crash was hidden from view from our lines. This is the eighth machine I have downed for one credited.
3 July 1917
Scott leads us at 5:30 am to escort some RE8s down to the Vimy sector. Archie is heavy, but there are no air Huns today.
Around two this afternoon Joske leads a line patrol to Menen. We climb to 11000 feet and it is breathtakingly cold. The air cuts like a diamond and the clouds are painfully bright. A large group of Albatros scouts appears from the north and we have a short scrap, but we are at the edge of a bank of clouds, so within seconds we are all over the sky. An Albatros emerges from the cloud behind me and tracer flash on either side of my head. Two bullet holes appear in my little windscreen. By the time I pull the Pup around the Hun is gone. I find myself alone and surrounded by towering white walls of mist. I climb above the clouds and there is no one. Nervously I parade north and south, looking for company and finding none. With great relief my time is up and I return home.
The Esc had 9 a/c showing the flag up by Zedelgem and I was Tail end charlie. The flight spotted a couple of Zee recon types down low we dove on them. I saw both machines go down while they flamed one of ours. Pulling up to re join , I spotted one lone Albatross Scout flying level threw the clouds and scattered rain showers. I made a High side pass firing off Three 9-22 rds Bursts., Then a quick Chandell and dropped on his tail closing the distance and firing. Slowing I held down the trigger and parts and spay stated flying. I passed by him and lost sight in the rain. The Boche lost 3 a/c to our 1 .
One of my wingmates later reported that He saw a Scout e/a as it dove into the ground in that area.
Terrible luck indeed Raine, considering that historically, the British had a rather liberal policy for awarding kills.
I'm tempted to join the campaign again, but I probably won't have time until December, and I don't want to start another pilot that barely gets to fly any missions.
"Upon my word I've had as much excitement on a car as in the air, especially since the R.F.C. have had women drivers."
James McCudden, Five Years in the Royal Flying Corps
June 1 Zeebrugge, Ostend and Bruges were heavily bombed by the Royal Naval Air Service. June 2 After some of its vessels were sunk by German submarines, Brazil revoked its neutrality and seized all German ships in Brazilian ports. June 3 Italy proclaimed its Protectorate over independent Albania. The Independent Labour Party and the Socialist Party met in Leeds to advocate a peace settlement. Among the attendees were future British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald and philosopher Bertrand Russell. June 4 General Aleksei Brusilov succeeded Mikhail Alexeiev as Russian Commander-in-Chief. June 5 German aeroplanes bombed the port of Sheerness and other Naval establishments on the Thames Estuary during daylight hours. June 7 The Battle of Messines launched an Allied offensive near the village of Messines in Flanders. The battle began when a number of enormous underground mines were detonated under the Messines Ridge. June 8 The Tenth Battle of the Isonzo was called off by Chief-of-Staff Luigi Cadorna with only minor territorial gains for the Italians. June 9 The Russian Provisional Government refused a German proposal for unlimited armistice. June 10 The Battle of Mount Ortigara began between Italian and Austro-Hungarian troops to gain possession of Mount Ortigara, on the Asiago Plateau. June 11 Allied Governments delivered an ultimatum to Greece demanding the abdication of King Constantine I. June 12 King Constantine I of Greece abdicated his throne in the face of pressure from Britain and France and internal opponents - including Greek Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos - who favoured Greece's entrance into the war on the side of the Allies. June 13 US Major General John J. Pershing arrived in France. German Gotha aircraft launched a major heavy bomber raid on London in daylight. June 14 The German Zeppelin L43 was shot down by a British fighter aircraft during a reconnaissance mission in the North Sea. The British Admiralty approved plans for the convoying of merchant ships. June 15 The Espionage Act was passed in the United States. The act prohibited any attempt to interfere with military operations, to support US enemies during wartime, to promote insubordination in the military, or to interfere with military recruitment. All Irish veterans of the Easter Rebellion still in custody were freed by the British government. June 17 The German airship L48 was intercepted and destroyed by British fighters over the sea near Great Yarmouth. June 18 Austrian Premier Count Heinrich Clam-Martinitz resigned. June 19 General Arthur Currie was appointed to command the Canadian Corps. June 20 The British Sloop HMS Salvia, operating as a Q-ship, was sunk by German submarine U-94 off the west coast of Ireland. June 23 The P&O liner SS Mongolia struck a mine and sank off the coast of Bombay. June 25 The first contingent of United States troops arrived at the port of Saint Nazaire in France. An Austrian counterattack in Trentino recaptured Monte Ortigara. June 27 Greece severed diplomatic relations with Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey and a state of war was declared. June 28 General Edward Allenby succeeded Sir Archibald Murray in command of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force. June 29 The Russian Summer Offensive began along a broad front in Galicia. June 30 The British steamer SS Ilston was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine UB-23 on a voyage from Swansea to France with a cargo of railway material.
(From The Great War - Unseen Archives by Robert Hamilton)
"Take the cylinder out of my kidneys, The connecting rod out of my brain, my brain, From out of my arse take the camshaft, And assemble the engine again."
Warbirds Rising News of the World for October 1917:
October 2 The armoured cruiser HMS Drake was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-79 in Rathlin Sound. The British Government ordered an embargo on trade with neutral nations Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden to prevent supplies reaching the Germans. October 3 The US Congress passed the War Revenue Act which increased income taxes in order to raise more money for the war effort. October 4 The Battle of Broodseinde was fought in Flanders at the east end of the Gheluvelt Plateau between the British and German armies. The battle was the most successful Allied attack of the Battle of Passchendaele. October 5 The Peruvian Government in Lima voted to sever diplomatic relations with Germany. October 6 US Major General John J. Pershing was promoted to General of the National Army of the United States. October 7 In Montevideo Uruguay severed diplomatic relations with Germany. October 8 Leon Trotsky became President of the Petrograd Soviet Presidium. October 9 The third phase of the Ypres Offensive began with British and French troops taking Poelcapelle. The battle marked the end of a series of successful British attacks during September and early October. October 11 German forces began offensive operations against the Baltic Islands. October 12 The First Battle of Passchendaele took place in the Ypres Salient area of the Western Front, during the Third Battle of Ypres. The British launched their latest assaults near the village of Passchendaele but the attempted breakthrough to Passchendaele Ridge failed. October 15 A French firing squad executed the Dutch-born dancer Mata Hari as a German spy at Vincennes outside of Paris. October 16 The 10,000 ton British tanker San Nazario was torpedoed by German submarine U-53 whilst en route from Plymouth to Tampico. October 17 British destroyers HMS Strongbow and HMS Mary Rose were attacked by German cruisers Brummer and Bremse in the North Sea whilst escorting a convoy of 12 merchant ships from Norway. The German cruisers went on to sink nine of the twelve ships in the convoy. October 18 German forces captured Moon Island and Dago Island during their attack on the Baltic Islands. October 19 A fleet of 11 German Zeppelins carried out an air raid over Southern and Central England. Three of the airships were shot down over France and Germany on their return trip. Nils Eden replaced Carl Johan Gustaf Swartz as Prime Minister of Sweden. October 21 A Turkish attack on the Arab stronghold at Petra was repelled. October 23 An offensive operation on Chemin des Dames ridge was led by General Philippe Petain when French forces attacked the Germans at the town of Malmaison. October 24 The Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo (also known as the Battle of Caporetto) began as Austro-German forces crossed the Isonzo River at Caporetto and launched another attack on Italian lines near the town of Kobarid. October 25 Italian Prime Minister Paolo Boselli resigned. October 26 A further attack during the Third Battle of Ypres, the Second Battle of Passchendaele took place in the Ypres Salient area in and around the Belgian town of Passchendaele. Canadian divisions continued the advance which had started during the First Battle of Passchendaele. October 28 Austro-Hungarian forces advanced in Italy to reach Udine and recapture Gorizia. October 29 Vittorio Emanuele Orlando became the 23rd Prime Minister of Italy following the resignation of Paolo Boselli earlier in the month. October 30 Reinforced with the addition of two British divisions, a second offensive was launched in torrential rains to capture Passchendaele. The Allies initially held the town in the face of repeated German shelling and counterattacks.. October 31 Allied forces under General Edmund Allenby initiated an attack on Turkish positions at Beersheba in Palestine and launched the Third Battle of Gaza.
(From The Great War - Unseen Archives by Robert Hamilton)
"Take the cylinder out of my kidneys, The connecting rod out of my brain, my brain, From out of my arse take the camshaft, And assemble the engine again."