had been particularly noticed by this Section, dived onto him and passed him. The Sopwith dived on him and then easily climbed again above the whole patrol, drawing them all the time towards the Anti-Aircraft guns. As soon as they were within range, the Anti-Aircraft guns opened fire on the patrol which turned eastward, and the Sopwith returned safely. The officers who witnessed the combat report that the manoeuvring of the Sopwith Triplane completely outclassed that of the “Albatross Scout”.
During the time of the main push one of the main tasks allotted to the Squadron was escort duty in protection of No. 25 Squadron’s recce machines. The Squadron Commander remarked that despite the unpopularity of this type of work the two Squadrons got on very well together.
By April 20th the activity was much less and the advance was so successful that it was decided to move the Squadron further forward. Squadron Commander Bromet, accompanied by OC 10th Wing, Wing Commander Wilfred Freeman, went in search of a new base. They found one at Mon St. Eloi which, after being used as a forward strip for a time, was converted into a permanent site for the Squadron.
On the 24th April the pilots had a grandstand view of one of their number, Flt.Lt. Little, in action. A “Hun” was spotted at 10,000 feet above the airfield and Little took off. At the same time a No. 40 Squadron Nieuport arrived on the scene. The machines engaged at 12,000 feet between the aerodrome and Bailleul. After twenty minutes of “dog fighting” the enemy aircraft had been forced very low and Little managed to fire a burst into the fuel tank. Forced to land by shortage of fuel, the German pilot was followed by Little who made a bad landing finishing up in the inverted attitude. Little crawled out of his machine to claim his prisoner who saluted and said in English: “It looks as if I have brought you down, not you me, doesn’t it”. Then the pair of them set about freeing the German observer who had become entangled in the machine’s gun belt. The German pilot later remarked that the war would finish soon due to England starving. He was given a large plate of meat for lunch at H.Q. No. 1 Balloon Wing.
On May 16th the Squadron moved to St. Eloi where all ranks were under canvas, but the field was popular for its distance from the front - 14,500 yards from Oppy and 11.000 yards from Lievin. The duty of the Squadron at this time was to be the strafing of enemy artillery machines. This was found to be quite a difficult task since such machines were high flying two-seaters. The following passage is an excerpt from the “Summary of Work” for the period 3rd to 16th June.
“The greater part of our work this fortnight has been in connection with Enemy Artillery Machines, and high flying two-seater machines (mostly Aviatick type) attempting reconnaissance of the back areas. Few Offensive Patrols, in comparison with our earlier work, have been carried out, and very few enemy scouts have been seen. It invariably happens that when conditions are most favourable for Artillery Registration, they are equally good for high reconnaissance, and owing to the number of fast and good climbing two-seaters which have regularly crossed our lines, we have not been able to give all our attention to Artillery machines, and consequently their work has not been interfered with quite so much as we had hoped for. However, over fifty Special Missions in search of spotting machines have been carried out, and Special W/T report that enemy machines ceased their calls abruptly on forty occasions.
“Two-seater L.V.G. and Aviatick reconnaissance machines have been very difficult to attack with success, owing to their very fine performance and the fact that they do their work singly and very high. At first we tried to stop them by sending up a machine whenever one was sighted or reported to be crossing our lines, but this policy proved a failure owing to the height and frequency with which they came over. The scheme of keeping one or two machines continually on Line Patrol from 8 a.m. to noon, between Lens and Arras at 15,000 feet or over, was then adopted and proved very successful. The number of enemy machines to cross our lines was considerably reduced, and those which did cross rarely got back without a fight.
“The Aviatick has proved a most difficult machine to bring down, and although many have been heavily and closely engaged and must have been badly hit, only five are known to have been brought down - two of which were on our side of the lines. On two occasions fights have taken place at 19,000 feet and over, and it is the rule rather than the exception for engagements, with these two-seaters to start at 17,000 feet or over”.
Early in July the Squadron began its conversion from Triplane to the Sopwith “Camel”; the new machines were given their own names in the traditional manner. “Dixie”, “Veda”, and “Peter III” were amongst them.
The summer was a hot one and to combat the heat and make full use of the sunshine the Squadron dug a swimming pool. In August a riding school was set up by the loan of six horses and a Sergeant Major. ‘Cross your stirrups terr - r - r - ot!”
About this time Fit. Cdrs. Munday and Draper were distinguishing themselves by their attacks against balloon sheds by night. Here is an account of the first of these attacks on 29th September, contained in a RFC. Communiqué.
“Flight-Commander Munday, Naval Squadron No. 8, left the ground at about 9.45 p.m. and proceeded to attack a German Balloon Shed between Brebieres and Quiery-la-Motte. On finding the objective he dived down to within twenty feet of the ground and fired fifty rounds from each gun into the shed, which burst into flames. Flight-Commander Draper, when over Douai, saw the shed burning furiously so flew towards it and dived down, attacking the men who had gathered round in order to extinguish the fire. There is little doubt that the shed contained a balloon”.
An extract from the notes of R.R. Soar is also available as an eye-witness account of Flt. Cdr. C. D. Booker’s last trip with the Squadron on 13th August, 1917.
“By the way Booker led into that fracas showed he was still swearing about his having to leave the Squadron: no messing about getting in the Sun or manoeuvring for a side-tackle, just under and into the middle of the There seemed to be ten Albatrosses against six Nieuport and six S.E.5s and us three Triplanes, split arsing, dodging collisions, finding out who’s who and firing when the chance came. I peeled off right, saw McCrudden dive left, and I took after the last Hun. Booker went straight at the first he could get at, and as I turned back saw he had fastened on a black Hun which was going down with full engine on and smoke spewing out of the cockpit obviously on fire. Good old Bookie. There were two machines under Booker’s tail; as I shook off my first chap I could only make the last one on Booker and drove him off. Not watching the Hun on fire I did not see him crash, but Bookie himself was flopping about now and at almost ground height I saw him spread out near Parbus, which Jerry started to shell at once. The air was now clear of machines and we had left 13,000 feet to a few hundred in no time.”
