Recollections of an Airman (Vintage Aviation Series) by Louis Arbon Strange

Author:Louis Arbon Strange [Arbon Strange, Louis]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781612003863
Publisher: Casemate
Published: 2016-05-31T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 10

GORDON SHEPHERD

Although Major Gordon Shepherd, the new commander of No. 6 Squadron, never spared his pilots when there was urgent work to be done, he always showed us as much consideration as he could. After the incident related at the end of the last chapter, he evidently thought I could do with a few days’ rest from our daily work over the enemy’s lines, and therefore assigned me to a job which took me to England for a few days.

One of No. 6’s original B.E.2cs had been presented to the Squadron by the City of Liverpool, and bore the word, “LIVERPOOL,” written in bold, black letters on the fuselage. This machine easily held the record for the number of hours flown in the Squadron, but she was now feeling the effects of her war service to such an extent that it was necessary for her to undergo a complete overhaul if she was to remain in use. Major Shepherd detailed me to fly her back to England and return her to a squadron in training near Liverpool, after which I handed over her log book to the Mayor of the city, amid much pomp and ceremony.

He asked me what kind of machine we should like in her place, and I replied, “Anything that is twice as fast and can carry a machine gun.” I flew another Bristol Scout back to St. Omer, where I found a kind of general conference going on as to what would be the best type of fighting aircraft to request the Home Establishment to produce. When asked for my opinion, I stuck to the points I had emphasized in Liverpool, namely, that speed and good machine guns were all that really mattered, but that if speed could be obtained from pushers, so much the better. I characterized the Bristol Scout as the best machine turned out at the moment, but the time was evidently not yet ripe for the formation of purely scouting squadrons. The authorities insisted on our No. 6 Squadron continuing to fly two-seaters, whereupon I took the F.E.2b as the next best alternative in preference to the Vickers Fighter.

The F.E.2b was destined to do wonderful service in the next year of the war, and proved to be the only type produced by the R.A. factory at Farnborough that was better than any similar type turned out by private firms. I am sure, however, that we should have done much better as regards the aviation side of the war if we had gone in for a mass production of Bristol and Sopwith Scouts about this period, instead of waiting until the S.E.5 was brought into general use. Our casualty lists in 1915 and 1916 would have certainly been lighter, but our authorities had to learn their lesson by bitter experience when the Germans introduced the Fokker, with its synchronized machine gun. They reaped their reward, and Immelmann’s successes forced us to make use of the Scout type.

With the example of Hawker’s V.C. before us, all we pilots of No.

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