1916 Angels over the Somme (British Ace Book 3) (20 page)

Gordy folded his letter and put it in his tunic pocket. “How is Mary?”

He frowned, “The Germans have been bombing London.  She is quite worried.“ He tapped the pocket containing the letter.  “She doesn’t say so but I can read between the lines.” He smiled, “She says she had arranged to meet your young lady. They were going somewhere up west for tea.”

I nodded, “Beatrice went for tea with my sister Alice.  They will probably go to the same place.”

Ted snorted, “All very cosy, this happy families!”

Gordy playfully cuffed him about the ears, “Listen you miserable old scroat, when you get someone who can stand to look at your ugly mug then you will understand!”

“I can get plenty of women.”

Gordy shook his head. “I have served with this chap since 1914 and I have never seen him with a woman yet.”

“Just because I am discreet there is no need to be offensive!” He waved his arm, “Orderly, another beer!”

My pipe was pulling nicely. “Have you and Mary named a day yet?”

“That depends upon leave.  I can’t see us getting a leave until this offensive is over.”

“I know what you mean. We have been pushing for almost twenty days now.  I thought the French fought for a long time at Verdun but this doesn’t look to have an end in sight.”

Gordy shook his head, “They can’t keep bleeding for a few yards of mud.  Germany and Britain don’t have enough men.”

I agreed with Gordy.  I would be surprised if it lasted until August. “Well we are due some more pilots this week. It will mean six aeroplanes in each flight. That might make life easier.”

Gordy’s face clouded over, “I’ll have to make a better fist of training them this time.  I don’t want another Jamie Carstairs.”

“I don’t think you can change a person’s nature. He had the streak in him.  I flew with him, remember?  He knew his own mind and he had great self belief.  We are lucky in 41 squadron. We have fewer casualties than anyone else. That is down to the likes of you, Ted and Charlie.  You are good leaders.”

Ted laughed, “Is this the same shy lad we first met, Gordy? By gum, but he has grown.  He’ll be ready for long trousers soon!”

It was good to talk with my two oldest friends.  They could bring me down to earth when I got above myself.

The following week was uneventful in that we lost no aeroplanes neither did we shoot down any of the enemy. They seemed wary of us and, now that the offensive had stalled, the front line was becoming a little more permanent.  We fitted all of the aeroplanes with two Lewis guns.  As Captain Marshall told us Wing would give us anything we asked for. Our replacements arrived and the lull enabled us to give them air time in the Gunbus.

There were just five of them and that made life easier.  Gordy now had the most inexperienced flight and we flew in tandem with his flight until they were bedded in. The loss of Jamie Carstairs had badly affected the rest of the flight and we knew it would take some time to get them back to full confidence.

It was Bates who gave me the key to it.  When I came back from a training session he saw my furrowed brow. “What is the problem sir?”

I was about to tell him it was nothing when I saw that he really wanted to help.  He had a concerned expression on his face. “Oh it is just Captain Hewitt’s flight.  They are all still thinking of Lieutenant Carstairs.”

He stopped his tidying and said, “I know what they are going through sir.  When my officers died I was close by and watched them.  You feel a range of emotions.  You are sad at the thought of their death but relieved that you have survived and that makes you feel guilty. Then you have the worry that death is just waiting to take you. He is the first officer killed since I have been here and so you are all lucky; luckier than you can possibly know.  You do not see as many deaths.  When it does happen it knocks you for six. The officers who survive in the trenches become hardened to death. They hide their feelings deep inside.”

He went back to his tidying.  “I couldn’t do that sir. It broke me.” There was a catch in his voice and his words hung in the air. You could have cut the silence with a knife. Then I saw him shake his shoulders.  “But you have helped me here sir and I am grateful.  I don’t wake in the middle of the night screaming like I did in the trenches and Craiglockhart.” He turned and I saw that the smile had reappeared.  “I get a good night’s sleep here. So you see sir, it is good that they are upset.  It shows that they still feel and haven’t been damaged.  They will come around soon, you mark my words.”

Once again my servant had given me an insight not only in to my men but also myself.

The last week in July saw us, once again, helping our colonial colleagues.  We were back over our old stomping ground of Pozières.  The Australians had been given the task of taking the ridge to give us a strong point.  The artillery barrage went on all day and all night and when the squadron took off the next day to see just how far the Australians had advanced there were still shells being lobbed from the Germans lines.

The day was overcast and I worried about German aeroplanes lurking in the low clouds.  Mercifully they were not. We flew in four lines with half a mile between each flight.  The scene below us was distressing beyond belief.  The ground was strewn with bodies.  You could see the sites of the fiercest fighting from the huddles of grey and brown uniforms twisted together in death.  It looked to me as though the Australians were holding on by the skin of their teeth. My flight was to the north and I could see that the German artillery was dug in around the village of Thiepval. I took it upon myself to lead my flight and investigate the village.

This time they were not hidden in the woods but they were sheltered by the village over which they fired.  They looked to me like the twenty five cm guns.  They were perfect for firing over the village. Each gun was sandbagged and there were the inevitable machine guns ringing them.

I signalled to Giggs and Dunston to begin a bombing run.  I led the rest of the flight to take out the machine guns. This was the first time we had used our new firepower.  I was keen to see the effect. We climbed to the east and dived down to less than a hundred feet.  Hutton and I fired at the same time. I did not worry about conserving ammunition and as soon as one Lewis was empty I fired the second.  The cone of bullets ripped through the machine gunners. Their sand bags protected them against blast and infantry but not against bullets from the skies.  I aimed the Gunbus at their faces.  I could not miss. 

Hutton took the opportunity to spray the artillery positions.  The gunners dived for cover.  As I climbed, I banked north to make another run, this time from west to east. As I climbed I saw my two bombers wreaking havoc with the artillery. We only had eight bombs but they caused devastation for the gunners had taken cover wherever they could and the shrapnel ripped into them. Levelling out I changed the magazines.

We zoomed in again.  We flew down the other set of machine gun nests.  I was just firing my second Lewis when I saw Hutton lob two hand grenades in swift succession. My other pilots knew what to expect when Lumpy did that and I heard the sound of their engines as they screamed to a higher altitude. There was a small explosion and then a larger one. Lumpy said, “Petrol sir!”

We rose to a safer height and circled the village. The guns had stopped which was a mercy for the Australians but we had not destroyed the guns.  Two of them had been knocked from their carriages and others were damage but they looked like they could be repaired.  More devastating would be the loss of trained gunners. We had bought the Aussies some time.

Archie had the rest of the squadron circling to await our return.  We now had the numbers to intimidate the German Jastas.  Our modifications had given us a knot or two more but they were still faster. They could overtake us and they could fly higher but we still ruled the skies.

At the start of August we began to sense a build up on the German side of the lines. It was unbearably hot and had been for some time. It meant that there was a slight heat haze as the temperature approached ninety. Charlie and his flight were doing a reconnaissance one day and reported large numbers of horse drawn guns being brought close to the front and columns of infantry.  The presence of a couple of Jastas prevented him from disrupting their advance or inspecting closer. The heat haze also prevented the perfect report which I know Charlie wanted to deliver. Archie and Randolph took the news themselves to Wing.  Charlie and his maps accompanied them.  He had always had an eye for maps and detail when he had been my gunner and now it proved to be an invaluable ability.

They returned just before dinner and Archie called in the Flight Commanders. “It seems that Charlie has spotted something which might be useful.  The Hun has fortified a line from Maurepas to Longueval.  There is a fortified quarry and many new trenches. More importantly the Hun has observation posts on the ridge.  We have driven the fighters away, temporarily I feel, and so he is resorting to old fashioned methods.  An attack by French colonial troops was badly handled by the Germans.  Tomorrow we will be bombing the ridge.”

Ted stubbed his cigarette our, “Sir, how come they can’t use the Martinsyde Elephants for this? They can carry a bigger bomb load.”

“I am afraid we are a victim of our own success.  They are using DH 2s to escort the Elephants in other sectors.  They think we can handle this on our own.”

I began raking out the ash from my pipe. “The thing is, sir, the German squadrons have been quiet for a couple of weeks. I can’t see that lasting. It normally means they are planning something. If they have observation posts and spotters for the artillery on the ridge then you can bet that they have telephones and radios there. When they see us coming they will call in air support.  It won’t be like the last time when we surprised them at Thiepval.  There, we jumped their artillery without warning.  We can’t do that here.”

Archie stood up and walked to the map. “You are right.” He circled the ridge with his finger. “This is the only place we have made a serious advance and we have to hang on to it. We will be bombing tomorrow, Bill.  But you are correct, the Germans will be waiting and there is nothing we can do about it.”

I slowly filled my pipe as I spoke.  It gave me time to think. I smiled as I looked at the picture on the tobacco tin.  It was a baby.  The tobacco had been sent by my dad and was called ‘Baby’s Bottom’ it made me smile.

“Something funny Bill?”

“No sir.” I held up the tin lid and they all smiled. I now had my thoughts marshalled.  I got my pipe going. “There is something we could do sir. We now have more aeroplanes than we did.  Why not have two flights flying as high as we can and watching for the Germans while the other two flights have their bombing run. When the first flights have bombed they climb and take over Fokker watch.  The next two flights begin their bombing run.”

“That might work sir.” Charlie sounded quite animated. “We haven’t bombed as a squadron since we raided the German airfield.  We usually just use a couple of buses to bomb. The Germans will start to clear up after the first bombing run and we might catch them with their trousers down.”

Randolph nodded and said, in an absent minded fashion, “Lederhosen.”

“What, sir?”

“German trousers, Charlie.  We will catch them with their Lederhosen down!”

We all laughed and Archie said, “We’ll try that then. You are right Bill and it can’t hurt. I’ll try a fill of that baccy myself. It seems to stimulate the mind!”

“Help yourself sir!”

We were elected to be the first Angels along with D Flight. We were at eight thousand feet when Charlie and Ted led their Gunbuses down the ridge.  They flew from the north west to a point close to Guillemont. We circled watching to the east. Ted’s flight had just finished their first bombing run when we saw the unmistakable shape of the Fokkers in the east. “Right Sergeant here we go!”

“Righto sir.” To my amazement he took out a bugle and played the cavalry charge.

“What was that Lumpy?”

“I learned to play the bugle in the Boys Brigade.  Me mam sent it to me.  Me and the lads thought that if we are the cavalry flight we ought to use the charge.”

“Well it works for me.”

We had the height advantage for the German airfield was just a few miles east of us.  Gordy flew to my left and I saw that they were in their usual formation of four aeroplanes in a V.  There looked to be about eight aeroplanes in total.  For once we outnumbered them.  Then Lumpy shouted. “Sir, look to the south.  Another Jasta; looks like Eindeckers and Fokker D1s.”

I was wrong. They would outnumber us.

There was little point in worrying about the odds.  Archie would bring the rest of the squadron to our aid as soon as he could.  Until then we would have to do our best. The first Jasta began to climb towards us. Gordy and I had flown together so many times that we almost knew what the other was thinking.  We would isolate the central flight of four and try to destroy that.  The risk would be to Gordy and me. Sergeant Hutton had reinstated his bully beef and cardboard bullet proofing.  It made his seat difficult but it did afford him some protection.

I saw him arm his Lewis and I did the same with mine.  Behind me I could hear the machine guns of the rest of the squadron and the explosions as the bombs struck.  They had not seen our danger yet. The wisdom of our plan could now be plainly seen.