1915 Fokker Scourge (British Ace Book 2) (14 page)

I had my first decision to make.  Did I attack the Fokkers chasing the Avros or help my squadron?  I chose my squadron but, in hindsight, that was the wrong decision.

I peeled off towards the Fokkers.  They had not seen us and that gave us an edge; they had no observer and, largely, looked forward. I felt the shudder from the Gunbuses as the Fokker’s machine guns tore into the aircraft. Major Leach’s gunner died instantly and he was damaged badly.  I watched as he began to glide towards our lines.  The next two suffered almost the same fate.  One exploded in the air while the other began to pour smoke and spiralled down to the ground.  Ted and his flight were on their own.

“Charlie, fire when you
think that you can hit something.”

Charlie was a good shot.  He might hit something when other gunners might miss.  His gun crackled away and I saw the bullets strike the tail of one Fokker. At the same time Ted and his flight opened fire with all
of their six guns.  Ted must have prepared his men for this eventuality. Miraculously they hit a Fokker which began to limp away east with a smoking engine.  It somehow gave us all heart. Gordy and his flight had moved slightly right of me so that we had two flights arriving simultaneously.

Gordy had the first confirmed kill.  His gunner emptied a whole magazine into the tail of the second Fokker in the line. It began to spin towards the earth.  I saw the pilot hurl himself from the aeroplane as it fell to avoid a flaming death. He still died but on his terms.

Sharp emptied his magazine at a second Fokker. Suddenly the neat lines of the two opposing sides disintegrated as it became an aerial melee. Aeroplanes suddenly appeared from every direction. You needed your wits about you to avoid flying into another craft, both German and British. I was just looking for the black cross and a single wing. I knew that Sharp was reloading and, having already cocked my Lewis, I gave a burst as a Fokker drifted across my sights. I saw the bullets strike the lower part of the fuselage, the pilot shuddered and the aeroplane began to drift slowly east. It was damaged.

I felt Parabellum bullets thump into the engine and the Gunbus sudden
ly faltered, we had been hit. “We’re hit Charlie.  I am heading home.  Get on the rear Lewis.”

I banked left.  I hoped that Freddy and Charlie would know why I was leaving and I prayed that they would not follow me. The Fokker which had hit us was on our tail.  I felt the bullets as they continued to strike us.  This new development was frightening.  Then Sergeant Sharp opened fire.  Perhaps the Fokker had been over confident and got too close, I do not know but
Sharp’s bullets struck the engine and parts of it must have flown back and hit the pilot for Sharp suddenly shouted, “Got you, you bastard!”

I was too busy concentrating on keeping the Gunbus steady.  The engine was dying.  I trimmed the eng
ine to save as much fuel as I could and I began to glide down towards our lines.  If the engine cut out then I did not want to fall from a high altitude.

“Come on old girl.  Hang on!” I found myself sweating as though in a Turkish bath.  The ground was so close I could tell
which of the Tommies was close shaven and which had a moustache. When I saw the windsock I almost kissed the dashboard. The engine was coughing and spluttering like an asthmatic but she got us down.  As the bus groaned and grumbled to a halt I looked over and saw them lifting the dead body of Major Leach’s gunner from his aeroplane. The rest of the squadron was fighting for its life under the command of two First Lieutenants.  So much for my promotion.

Archie came over to me.  “You came right on cue Bill but these Eindeckers are deadly.  You do not even have to be a good shot.  You just aim your aeroplane and fire.”

We both looked up as we heard the cough and the splutter of a dying engine. It was Johnny Holt.  I was pleased that Freddy was on his wing watching him.  There was little he could do but I knew that Johnny would be reassured that he was not alone. The undercarriage was sound and the FE 2 rolled along the ground and then the engine died. Freddy taxied next to him.

The two of them walked over to us. Johnny pointed over his shoulder. “One of Lieutenant Thomas’ boys, Lieutenant Jones bought it.  The rest are coming in now.”

I saw them.  Gordy had brought them back as low as he dared. It meant that there was no blind spot for the Fokkers to attack but it took great nerve and skill to be able to fly that low. As I expected Ted and Gordy were the last two to land.

I clapped them both on the back as they joined us. “Well done the pair of you. That was a good kill
, Gordy.”

The major looked at Gordy, “You shot one down?”

“Aye.  There were four of them hit and limped off but only one was downed.” He shook his head. “The Avros didn’t stand a chance and how many did we lose, two?”

“Three.”

“A quarter of our force. If this goes on then we last another three days and the Germans will rule the skies.”

Gordy’s words chilled us.  He was
correct for another three of our aeroplanes were damaged and this was just the first day of the attack at Loos. We could not afford this number of losses.

“Well chaps we had better report to Captain Marshall and then get our buses ready for tomorrow. I think that we will fly as one squadron tomorrow. 
What remains of the squadron, at any rate. We will, at least, have protection of numbers.”

“Yes sir, but will there be any reconnaissance aeroplanes to spot for the artillery?  Those Avros took a beating.”

Captain Marshall already had the news.  “I have just had Headquarters on to me.  They are sending a squadron of BE 2 aeroplanes tomorrow.  Our job is to support them.” He looked sadly at our unhappy faces.  It must have been hard for him to watch us put ourselves in danger and then wait for the results. “It might be easier tomorrow.”

Ted stubbed his cigarette out with some force, “And then again, sir, it might be more of the bloody same.”

The BE 2 was an old and a slow aeroplane but it did, at least, have a couple of machine guns.  The Fokkers might not find it so easy.

Major Leach led us the next day with Ted and his flight following. My flight was given the task of
being tail end Charlie. The mechanics and Sharp had performed miracles to get us back in the air.  Luckily the damage had just been a damaged oil line and they could be replaced. We joined the eight BE 2 reconnaissance aeroplanes as they headed ponderously towards the battlefield.  They were a slow aeroplane and it was hard to fly that slowly. 

When we reached the spotting area I was amazed to find it clear of German aeroplanes.  Had they thought that they had driven us from the skies? Even as the thought entered my head I dismissed it.  The Germans were too efficient to play that game.  No, it was more likely that they were waiting to see where we would patrol.  That way they would save fuel. The spotters managed to send back their information for fifteen minutes before we saw the unmistakeable
cross like profile of the deadly monoplane.

They came low over their own lines and I could see that they had thought this through well. They would be attacking the spotters from beneath and the gunners would find it hard to bring their guns to bear. Even though we were just five hundred feet above them
, the climbing Fokkers struck the first of the BE 2. The Parabellum bullet had a steel jacket and they tore through the flimsy biplane. The first one almost disintegrated as it was shredded by the first of the Fokkers. The pilots of the spotters were brave but when three had been hit in the first encounter they began to head west as fast as their ancient engines would take them.

We peeled off to attack them in three lines.  We had worked out, the previous night, that we stood the best chance if three of our aeroplanes attacked one of theirs. I dived down, more confident now that Johnny and Freddy would be able to emulate my every move. The Fokker Eindecker
I targeted was so focussed on finishing off the BE 2 that he failed to notice us as we dived down and Sergeant Sharp began to pour .303 rounds into his fuselage.  He banked away from the danger however the second Fokker began to fire at us.  Sharp switched the Lewis to attack the new danger. The profile of an attacking monoplane is much smaller than that of a biplane and Sharp was missing the rapidly moving German.  Johnny’s gunner came to the rescue.  He was firing from the side where the Fokker was a bigger target and, between them, they drove the German away.  However there were more Fokkers and the next two attacked Freddy who was now isolated in the rear.  I banked and climbed to go to his rescue.  I heard Sharp shout.  “Gun’s jammed!”

I cocked my Lewis and watched in horror as the two Eindeckers poured bullets into Lieutenant Carrick’s craft.  His gunner’s head disappeared in a bloody mess and smoke began to pour from his engine. A monoplane came into my sights and I emptied the magazine. I had been aiming at the pilot but I struck the engine.  I saw the propeller slow and then stop.  The aeroplane began to glide back to the east.  Had the situation not been so dire I would have followed him down and finished him off but there was a second Fokker.  Lieutenant Holt opened fire.  His bullets struck the undercarriage.  The Fokker wobbled alarmingly and then, it too, headed east.

Freddy waved to show that he was still alive and he headed his stricken bird west. With Johnny watching my tail I turned to seek out other foes.  The sky around us was empty. I could see burning aeroplanes on the ground and, to the east and the west there were smoke trails showing where damaged aircraft had departed.

As we approached the airfield I counted the aeroplanes.  Unless there was another one behind us we had lost a fourth craft. Rolling along the turf I saw that most of the aeroplanes had suffered damage of one kind or another.  I saw two shapes covered by tarpaulin.  Freddy’s gunner had not been the only casualty.

That evening in the mess the euphoria of my acquittal had dissipated.  We had suffered too many deaths in a short space of time.  Even older pilots like Gordy and Ted, who had both lost a pilot each were affected.  For the younger ones it was a harsh lesson in flying.  A little over a week ago we had ruled the skies and now we flew at our peril. The previous day we had shot down one aeroplane for the loss of three of our own.  Today we had shot down none for the loss of two. As we all looked around the mess tent you could see the pilots wondering who would be next.  Two or three pilots would die the next day and soon we would be a squadron in name only.

It was with some relief that we
were stood down the following day.  It was not of our choosing but the attack had been halted while the small gains the infantry had made were consolidated. I wondered if Bert had been involved.  I knew nothing about tunnelling and so I had no idea what he would have done in that battle. We spent the next few days repairing our aeroplanes and conducting the regular maintenance. Every day I was grateful for the Rolls Royce engine. I was convinced that it had saved us on more than one occasion.

The colonel returned from a hastily convened meeting of senior officers.  Archie let us know the outcome. “We got off lightly.  Whole squadrons of the BE 2 were decimated.  Even a couple of the FE 2 squadrons were badly handled. It seems we have to patrol now in groups.”

Gordy nodded, “Which is what we were doing anyway.”

Archie grimaced, “Unfortunately some of the squadrons just used single aeroplanes to patrol.  They were able to cover a wider area.”

“So what do we do now?”

“Regroup and wait for the new pilots and gunners. There is no point putting our head in the lion’s mouth until we have to eh?”

Sergeant Sharp and I had discovered that his improvised bullet proofing had not been a total failure.  We found one spent 9mm shell in the bottom of the nacelle.  If it had come through then it would have struck Charlie.  The problem was that it made the front cockpit crowded but Charlie was happy with the discomfort.

We flew again during the first week of October. All twelve aeroplanes were involved. The Germans had been using Aviatik aeroplanes to spot for their artillery in an attempt to retake the small amount of land they had lost near Loos. They were protected by the Eindecker. We were going to prod the lion. It was a nervous bunch of pilots who gathered before dawn on the chilly October morning.

“We will fly together but attack in four flights.” Archie nodded towards me, “Captain Harsker now has the most experienced flight.  He will be leading the attack.” I saw pride and fear in equal measure on the faces of Johnny and Freddy. “They will attack the spotting aeroplanes.  I am gambling that they will head for home.  The rest of us will take on the Fokkers. We know that they will try to attack from underneath and behind.  For that reason I want Lieutenant Thomas’ flight to leave a gap so that they can attack any aeroplanes who attempt that.” He picked up his pipe and began to fill it.  “Let me make it clear gentlemen, I want all of you to return to the field today. Anyone who does not return will be given a detention!”

We all laughed, before the war Archie had been a school teacher in Scotland. Many of the new pilots were young enough to remember school vividly.

“I say sir, this is quite an honour.”

It is Johnny but I know you realise it is also highly dangerous. I have decided, therefore, that when we attack Freddy will lead, you will watch his tail and I will be at the rear.”