1914 (British Ace) (23 page)

“Oh.”

“Sorry, Ted.  Look on the bright
side, at least balloons don’t fire back.”

We took off as dawn broke. We flew east.  It was low cloud but there was no rain.  It was just freezing cold. I still had not acquired a leather greatcoat and I was suffering from the wet conditions. I had to put that thought from my mind as we skimmed just four hundred feet above the trenches. We saw the British Tommies waving at us as we roared above them.  We knew when we were over the German trenches as their rifles pop popped at us. I knew from experience that they would have to be extremely lucky to do any damage but it was nerve wracking
nonetheless. We saw the balloons just behind the German lines.  As usual they were trying to get down quickly which was why we had gone in at a lower altitude than normal.

I opened fire and saw my bullets strike the first balloon.  They had machine guns aimed up at us and the air was filled with the hot lead, sounding like a swarm of hornets.  As the captain swept through I heard Gordy firing and I turned as I heard a crump.  He had somehow managed to blow one up.  I saw the observer flung into the air.  I could only hope he was dead already. 
Ted also managed to destroy one.  This was our most successful mission so far.  The other four balloons had made it to the ground.  I heard, in my ears, “Let’s try to get them on the ground.  They should be easier.  They aren’t moving!”

I knew that the others would follow us but it would be a daunting experience.  We were much lower and every German in their trenches would be desperate to bring down a British aeroplane. One advantage we had was our speed.  We were approaching almost a hundred miles an hour as we dived.  The captain flew along the length of the four balloons and I held down the trigger and emptied the magazine.  I changed it as we climbed to escape the ground fire. As I glanced over my shoulder to see how the others had fared I saw twelve
bird like shapes hurrying from the east. 

“Sir, Hun
s to the east.”

“Righto, when the others have fired I will turn west.  You had better get ready to try your new contraption.”

We had already decided that Gordy’s bus would go ahead of us to allow us to protect him. When he tucked in behind us I pointed to the Germans and he nodded.  As his lordship slowed us down he flew in front of us.

It was a Jasta of Albatros
ses.  They had machine guns on the top wing which the observer could fire. Annoyingly they had two of them which gave them twice as much chance of hitting us.  I just hoped that they would not have noticed our modification. I turned and clambered into position. I had had to disconnect my rubber tube but my face was just four feet from the captain’s and I would be able to shout to him.

“Here they
come sir.” We were flying next to Lieutenant Devries and Ted and I would be able to concentrate our fire on the leading aeroplane.  I saw that it was aiming for me because they thought we had no defence.  They were in for a shock. 

Ted opened fire first when they were a hundred yards away and they were
also firing at us.  I waited; I could not change a magazine easily and I wanted all forty seven bullets to count. I saw the bullets as they left the German guns but I didn’t hear anything.  They must have missed.  Half of the F.E.2 is just air.  When the first Albatros was fifty yards away I opened fire.  I saw the bullets clang into the engine and saw a plume of smoke.  The pilot jerked his aeroplane away and Ted’s bullets stitched a line along the fuselage.  I saw the observer slump in his seat and the aeroplane gave a wobble as though the pilot had been struck. I had no time for self congratulation as the next German loomed into my sights. As the second aeroplane fired so did I.  I could not hear Ted’s gun and I assumed he was reloading.  This time chunks of our tail flew off and we banked alarmingly to one side until his lordship regained control.  I flexed my knees and gripped the gun even harder. I would have a problem if I had to try to reload and so I stopped firing. The second Albatros flew off.  Behind it I saw the major and the rest of the squadron engaging the Jasta. The third aeroplane swooped down and this time I heard Ted’s gun.  I finished off my magazine and shouted to the captain, “That’s it sir.  We are out of ammo.”

He nodded and pointed to the ground. As the third Albatros flew by us I took out my Luger and emptied the magazine.  The enemy was only forty yards from our wing and I managed to strike the pilot.  The aeroplane banked to port and I wondered if they would be able to recover. The Albatros almost reached the trenches before the pilot regained control and it limped east over the trenches.

The last aeroplane had seen what had happened to the others and he did not even fire.  He must have thought I still had loaded guns.  As I sat back in the cockpit I breathed a sigh of relief.  We had survived.

We were the first to land.  Gordy jumped from his
bus and chocked it.  By the time we had rolled to a halt he had joined us. He slapped me on the back.  That looks like half an Albatros each for you and Ted.”

“Did it crash?”

He mimed with his hands, “Kaboom!”

I had not heard the explosion but I had been concentrating on the other aeroplanes.  Captain Burscough was delighted. “That gun was a godsend, Harsker.”

“Yes sir but I need to be able to reload; especially if we are to be bait again.”

He nodded and pointed to our shredded tail. “And we nearly came a cropper when the Hun hit us. Still a couple of balloons
aren’t too bad.”

Gordy shouted, “No sir, he and Ted shot down that first Hun.  I saw him crash!”

“Well done Flight Sergeant.”

We turned as we saw the other aeroplanes cough and splutter across the field. It was Ted, lighting a cigarette, who spotted the missing planes. “There are two short.” That dampened our enthusiasm. It had not all gone our way. What had happened to the others?

We found out that one of the aeroplanes had been shot down behind the enemy lines but the second had crash landed on our side. The major had his first kill and so we have broken even.  The other Flight Sergeants were all convinced that at least two of the aeroplanes must have crashed and so we had won but, without confirmation, we had to settle for half each and our balloons.

The snow and the ice put an end to operations and the last two weeks of December 1914 were peaceful. Three things happened the week before Christmas which made our chilly lives more bearable: the barn was made habitable and became our mess. We received a present
of a tin from Princess Mary and a card from King George and the most important event was that we finally got our back mail.

The tin was a nice memento.  Even though I was a non-smoker I was given the one intended for smokers.  It had a pipe, pipe tobacco, tinder lighter, cigarettes and a photograph of the young Princess Mary.  I didn’t mind.  I would give dad the pipe and tobacco when I was granted leave and the cigarettes I could trade.
The photograph I would send to mother as a Christmas present.  The letters were the most important Christmas present we received.  I waited until I could read them in the lighted barn drinking my rum ration.  I wanted to savour every word.

I read mum’s first.

October 31
st
1914

Dearest William,

I pray that you are safe. This war is an evil visited on us by wicked foreigners.

I have some bad news to give you.  Your brothers Jack and Tom were both killed in the Battle of Ypres. Their commanding officer said that they were both brave soldiers and had saved the lives of many others. I wish someone had saved their life. We never had the chance to speak with them after that terrible night. I hope that they can hear me now as I tell them I wish we had not parted on such bad terms.

Your father has taken the news particularly badly.  He blames himself and says he should have forgiven them before they went to France.

Your brother Albert is desperate to join up.  He is old enough to do so next month.  I hope the war is over by then but I do not believe it will be.

Kathleen is walking out just now with a fine young man.  He is the new curate in the church.  I am just grateful that they cannot take him to war. Sarah’s husband is also safe.  Now I worry each night that you will be taken from me. Please, my dearest son, take care of yourself for you are precious to us now.  Keep this letter and, when you read it, remember your mother and your father for we think of you constantly.  Each night we talk of you and wonder how you are doing.

Pray God he spares you.

Your loving Mother

xxx

I could not believe it; my older brothers were both dead.  They had lasted, in the army, barely two months.  I had flown over the site of their end and I had never known it. I raised my glass and sipped my rum.  “To you John and Tom, I am sorry we fell out.”

I saw Ted and Gordy looking at me curiously but there was an unwritten rule that a man’s letters from home were private.

I opened Sarah’s letter.

20
th
November 1914

Dear Bill,

I suppose you have received Mother’s letter about John and Tom.  It is heartbreaking to see the two of them now.  They both blame themselves for the argument but I know it was drink that did it.  John and Tom would never have said what they did if they had been sober.  The whole estate is shocked. Dad is a shadow of his former self.  Even Lord Burscough is worried.  He brought round some flowers for mother and spent the longest time talking to them.  He does care.

I have tried to talk Bert out of joining up but he is adamant.  He wants to be just like you.  Please write to him and tell him not to join.  He will listen to you. Mother could not bear to lose another son.

Kathleen has a young man now.  I am not keen on him but she is besotted and Mother likes him.  He is pompous and full of himself.  He believes we have a God given right to fight.  That is all very well but he will be safe.

We do worry about you and read in the newspapers about the Royal Flying Corps and their endeavours.  We are proud of what you are doing but we can’t help being afraid for you.  Promise me that you will take care of yourself.

I would not be doing my duty as a sister if I didn’t chastise you.  Where are the letters you promised? Poor Mother waits for the postman each day and when there is no letter she then waits for the boy with the telegram to say you are dead. I know you mean no harm but it is killing Mother slowly and our Father too.

I pray to God that he keeps you safe,

Your loving sister

Sarah xxx

That was worse than the first letter and I felt so guilty. I felt tears springing into my eyes.  Why was I such a heartless bastard?  I had promised that I would write and I had not. I swallowed my rum and hurried from the barn.  I had letters to write.

It took me several hours but I wrote letters to my mother, Sarah and Albert. I put everything in my heart into those letters. I suppose I was saying to them what I had not said to Tom and John. Now it was too late.  I would not make that mistake with my family. 
I put the photograph in mother’s letter. I made a parcel of the pipe and the pipe tobacco and addressed that to my dad.  I did not write a letter but I put in a note which I hoped would tell him how I felt.  The men in our family did not go in for shows of emotion. It was late when I had finished but I felt that a weight had been lifted from my shoulders.  I now had even more responsibility; I was the hope and dreams of my whole family.  That was far more important than a Government and even a King and Queen.

The next day I was asked by the captain what was wrong and I told him. Even though he was a different class and an officer, he understood far better than either Gordy or Ted.  He had known Tom and John. A day or so later he took me to
Armentières, a small town not far from Ypres.  They had met recently at a bar behind the front. A chum of his was an officer at the front.  The man looked like a skeleton and even the captain was shocked. He told us of the Battle of Ypres. It seemed the battle had raged for many days.  In fact the battle of the Yser had been the preliminary engagement and I had been in hospital at Winwick when my brothers had died.  The young major knew of my brothers’ regiment. They had fought with the Dragoon Guards and the London Scottish regiments. Outnumbered by twelve to one they had allowed the rest of the army to stabilise the line and foil the enemy attack.  It was when he described the conditions: the weather and the mud that I realised how hopeless it had been for my brothers.  They must have known it was hopeless and yet they continued to fight.  They had redeemed themselves. I would not commit this to a letter home; the censors would not allow it through but I vowed to tell my family of the bravery of my brothers.

After Christmas we endured freezing temperatures when it was impossible to fly. It was all that we could do to keep the engine warm. We wrapped blankets and tarpaulins around each engine.  Every morning we struggled to start them and run them for fifteen minutes to stop them freezing completely.  We, at least, were not having to fight off enemy attacks and we had somewhere warm to go each evening. I could not get the picture of Tom and John struggling through mud with frozen fingers and limited ammunition out of my mind. It made me more determined than ever to do the best job that I could and that job meant killing Germans.  I would do that with a passion.