First Through The Clouds by Frederick Warren Merriam

Author:Frederick Warren Merriam [Merriam, Frederick Warren]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Military, Aviation, Biography & Autobiography, Transportation, General
ISBN: 9781526726179
Google: -tPLDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
Published: 2018-11-30T22:30:26+00:00

Chapter 14

First Zeppelin Raid

On the night of May 15th 1915, there took place the first Zeppelin raid on London. As usual, the unpreparedness of our forces to deal with these enemy raids was the subject of a public outcry. The best Service aeroplane we had at that time was the B.E.2c, a general favourite with the pilots because it was easy to fly and able to remain in the air for a considerable time, but lacking speed and climb. Unless luck was very much on their side, pilots in B.E.2c’s were no match for the Zeppelins at night. But we were even more handicapped on the ground. Our night land ing facilities, such as they were, could hardly have been more dangerous, and it was to their inadequacy that we owed most of our casualties in night operations. For these deficiencies in the air and on the ground there were excuses that could be accepted by those aware of our circumstances, but there was another weak ness for which there was no reasonable excuse, and that was the hesitancy of the Government in deciding who should have charge of London’s air defences. It was a good thing Germany did not possess as many Zeppelins as we supposed or she would have been able to inflict far more damage while the pundits at Whitehall con tinued to argue. I took a personal part in the first night raid over London, as well as in most of the others that followed, and can truly say they were dangerous and nerve-wracking ordeals.

On this memorable first night, orders had already come through for all available pilots and aircraft to stand by, and, with them we received instructions that, should we encounter a Zeppelin and fail to destroy it with our rifles and hand grenades, we were to ram it! The fact that most of the Chingford pilots had very little flying experience by day and practically none by night worried me considerably. With this in mind, although, after a long day at tuition and testing I was supposed to be off duty, I decided to join the others. There was a toss up as to who should fly with me. Sub-Lieut. J.S. Morrison won and was my observer on the 100 h.p. Deperdussin monoplane. This particular aeroplane was a brute to land in a small aerodrome by day, let alone by night, and was dangerous even in capable hands. As a forced landing would more than likely entail a serious crash, night flying was far from appealing. In addition to the gun and grenades carried by Morrison I had a revolver which was lent to me by Sub-Lieut. Thompson.

When the alarm finally came through we took off in a thick ground mist and flew over Central London. There we cruised about for two hours without seeing a sign of a “gas-bag” any where. At the end of these two hours the light on my dashboard failed, and I was unable to read any of my instruments.

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