Airfields & Airmen of the Channel Coast by Mike O'connor

Author:Mike O'connor
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781783460304
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2013-05-31T16:00:00+00:00

Sopwith Pup N6183 of 3 Naval. It also served with 11 Naval and after a ditching in the sea on 14 August 1917 it was deleted.

At this time 3 Naval were operating the Sopwith Pup and on 17 March 1917 Casey claimed his first victory, a Halberstadt DII. By 2 May he had claimed a total of nine enemy machines, been awarded the DSC and was Mentioned in Despatches. On 3 June he was appointed a flight commander.

Tich Rochford again:

On 11th August Francis Casey was killed. He had been on leave in England and returned to Furnes on the evening of the previous day. Soon after breakfast he took up his Camel and, as was usual with him, commenced doing ‘stunts’ at a very low altitude. He did side-loops and spins each time pulling out of the dive just above the ground. Eventually he put his machine into a spin at a height too low from which to recover and he crashed in a field across the road which ran past the aerodrome. He was unconscious when put on a stretcher and into the ambulance which took him to the hospital in La Panne where he was operated on at once for a fracture of the base of the skull. He died in the afternoon and that same evening was buried in the cemetery at Coxyde. We all attended the burial service which was conducted by the RC padre from Dunkirk and Wing Commander Mulock, Casey’s great friend, also came along from Dunkirk. I noticed he left two wreaths by the graveside. One was from himself and the other from Kathryn Martyn, a young actress who was then in one of the London shows and to whom, I believe, Casey was engaged.

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