The continuing service of Albert "Mushroom" Ward:




26 Feb 1917 @ 09h00 Close air support for our troops in the Thelus, Oppy, Vimmy sector.

After 8 days of bad weather we are finally able to fly. We were to escort 6 B.E. 2c’s of RFC-10 out of Chocques airfield. We had 8 kn winds from the NW, and scattered high billowing cumulous from 3000 to 7000 ft.
I lead the flight with Carter, the new man on wing and Mack accompanying. “A” flight sent Collishaw, Rochford, Beamish and Travers to follow as top cover. As we approached Bellevue airfield we circled waiting for the B.E.’s to arrive. “A” flight peeled off and disappeared and we never saw them again. Once we met up with the B.E.’s we set course for the lines and it was a quiet flight until we were 4 miles west of Thelus. At that point I spotted what turned out to be 5 DFW C.V.’s approaching from the west. They passed over us by 400 ft and kept heading east, ignoring us. I seached the skies for a possible escort but the skies seemed clear. Not to longer our quiet flight was interrupted by what I assumed to be the escort for the DFW’s. 5 Albs now approached from the west about 600 ft above us and they clearly wanted to play. I turned into them and waggled my wings to Carter and Mack and so the dance began. I stayed high tangling briefly with anything that came into range and then I quickly broke off to maintain height advantage.
I had hits of at least 4 of them in the course of the melee but none of my shots were vital and finally they broke off one by one and headed home. I saw Mack and Carter below break off and head home and so I did likewise but not before taking some ground fire which hit my engine. I headed across the lines for Etrun airfield but had to ditch on the road short of making it there. I took some port wing damage as it dug in on the final few feet before coming to a stop. Both Carter and myself had damage requiring 2 days and 1 days repair respectively. Mack touched down safely. I met up with both Carter and Mack at Etrun, having been given a lift by one of our gun implacement support trucks.
We were happy to have come out of the scrape safely, the bonus being that we had diverted the Albs from our B.E. 2c’s. They all completed their mission safely.

Since we were likely to be here for 2 days I phoned in to Verty Galand and gave my status report. I also asked if any word had come in about the results of our boxing team.
All they could tell me was that both Pierce and Cam had made it to the final. There was some uncertaintly about the physical condition of Cam as it was reported that he had some swollen parts that might affect his boxing stance. I knew then, that there would likely be some sport made of this when they got back to the squadron. It’s always good to have some humour around the front lines to keep the spirits up.

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Raine, you were too quick on the draw with your latest report, you beat me to the punch! Oh well, I can chalk up the late reporting to the front on your episodes due to the vagaries of war!

Marvelous writing Raine! You missed your calling. When does the book come out about Cam's DiD campaign?