The First Eagles by Gavin Mortimer

Author:Gavin Mortimer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MBI
Published: 2014-07-02T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11

Chills Down My Spine

On June 3, 1918, 32 Squadron moved seventy miles south from Beauvois to Fouquerolles, one of nine RAF squadrons (162 aircraft in total) detailed to augment the stretched French air service struggling to cope with the latest German offensive.

Their new aerodrome was deserted when Rogers and his fellow pilots touched down. The column of trucks containing the ground crews and equipment had yet to arrive. With nothing to do Major Russell led his men into Fouquerolles. They found a small café where the owner was delighted to see airmen. Airmen meant money and soon she was serving them all “horrible wine and lemonade.”27

The move south had brought 32 Squadron closer to the war. Two nights after their arrival, there was an air raid on Fouquerolles, and, on June 5, the squadron had what Rogers described to his fiancée as a “stiff scrap” with several German Albatross. Callender had a lucky escape, said Rogers, his S.E.5 going down “for several thousand feet belching flames and smoke.…[I]t surely looked like curtains for him but he dove the fires out and came home with nothing worse than a pale face and rather shaky nerves.”

Callender made light of the terrifying incident in his own account, written to his sister on June 8. He began the letter in characteristically chest-thumping fashion. “It’s a lovely war,” he declared, before giving a flourishing account of his second victory. Set upon by an Albatros, Callender evaded the enemy fire and then turned on his assailant, already running for home. “He certainly was funny,” he recounted. “I laughed so hard I could hardly shoot because he was such a fool, he shot wild, turned and dived. I whipped my machine over as soon as I heard him, and was right on top of him with both guns going.”

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