BIRTH OF NAVAL AVIATION SUPPLEMENT, NAVY NEWS, OCTOBER 2009 i
Dawn of aces
The birth of naval aviation
Part 2
It was a declaration of unrestricted
STRIKE AT THE ZEPS
U-boat warfare.
THE CHRISTMAS STAR
Germany’s means to wage such a
war were meagre – three dozen boats
of which perhaps only one third were
THINGS TO COME
taking the fight to the enemy at any
THERE was a hum in the Essex
one time – but across the North Sea,
air at dusk two days before the first
the Admiralty was worried.
Christmas of the war.
Finding, let alone destroying, a
Nine seaplanes, all built by Short
German submarine in early 1915
Brothers, hopped across the mouth
was a mixture of luck and vigilance.
of the Orwell from the fledgling air
Aircraft were dispatched on patrols,
station at Felixstowe and set down
but as the Cuxhaven raid had shown,
in the Stour off Parkeston Quay,
the aeroplane of early 1915 was
Harwich.
unreliable, its duration at best three
As night enveloped the harbour,
hours, its payload puny. The Admiralty
mechanics folded the wings of the
turned to airships – ‘submarine
aircraft back and cranes hoisted the
destroyers’ as the ebullient First Sea
planes on to three former cross-
Lord ‘Jacky’ Fisher called them. “It
Channel ferries. Never vessels of
will make your mouth water and
particular beauty, the silhouettes of
your sleep easy at Scapa,” he assured
all three were now spoiled by sheds –
Jellicoe, the Commander-in-Chief of
primitive hangars – on the stern.
the Grand Fleet. “Everyone thinks
Before dawn on December 24,
I’m mad but I really am not!”
HM Ships Empress, Engadine and
Fisher was not mad. He was
Riviera slipped away from Harwich
forceful and fast. The call went
and headed out into the North Sea,
around the Grand Fleet for 18, 19,
accompanied by a flotilla of cruisers
20-year-olds, mostly midshipmen,
and destroyers.
men who had already showed they
The man leading this unusual force,
possessed the ability to lead – and to
Commodore Reginald Tyrwhitt,
navigate. Some volunteered. Some
thought little of the scheme dreamed
were volunteered. Mid Thomas
up by the planners in the Admiralty.
Elmhurst of the battle-cruiser HMS
Plan Y, as it was codenamed, was
Indomitable was singled out by his
a leap into the unknown, a strike
captain and ordered to report to
at the Zeppelin sheds at Cuxhaven
Fisher.
by seaplanes – and seaplanes alone.
“You young gentlemen are going
“Should the sheds not be found, they
to fly,” the admiral told them. “You’ll
are to attack the enemy’s ships or any
probably be dead within a year – or
positions of military importance.”
you may get the VC.”
Twice before Tyrwhitt and his
The prospect of glory didn’t
force had sailed, twice the weather
especially entice the young men –
had prevented the seaplanes from
but flying pay and the chance to get
taking off. The commodore was livid.
away from dreary Scapa Flow did.
He had led his ships into harm’s way
Before March 1915 was out, the
for nothing. “I am sick to death of
first of these midshipmen were in
everything connected with aviation,”
Dover – flying the very first of
he fumed. “At very great risk, we did
Fisher’s submarine destroyers, SS1.
our part and they utterly failed to do
Submarine Scout 1 was
theirs. We had the finest show in the
rudimentary – a 140ft long ‘blimp’
● A fl ight lieutenant in a SSZ airship – Submarine Scout Zero class – prepares to drop a bomb by hand from the rear cockpit of the
world at our mercy and could have gondola
with a gondola, the fuselage of a
done it with ease if only those idiots
Bristol BE2C, backbone of the Royal
had known their job.”
which moved the entire structure so to the carriers. The crews ditched Flying Corps in the first half of the
THE U-BOAT MENACE
But today, this holiest of days, the leviathans could be launched into
their aircraft in the North Sea and war – slung precariously beneath
Tyrwhitt felt the guiding hand of the the prevailing wind.
were picked up by submarine E11 or, it. The blimps were cheap – £2,500
Lord accompanying his warships. The Royal Naval Air Service had
in the case of one flier, by a Dutch
‘SUBMARINE DESTROYERS’
apiece – generally reliable and
As the force approached the German already shown that these monsters,
trawler; he eventually found his way invariably effective. At first the crews
fortress island of Heligoland, a bright seemingly invulnerable in the air,
back to Britain via Holland.
DEAD OR EARN THE VC
dropped bombs by hand. Later a more
light burned through the low-lying were vulnerable on the ground
With the skies empty, Reginald
Thursday February 4 1915 was a
‘sophisticated’ method developed:
fog to the east. Perhaps it was a after destroying one in a shed at
Tyrwhitt turned for home. “I wish the bombs would be slung over the
searchlight, maybe even a Zeppelin. Düsseldorf ten weeks earlier.
all ships a Merry Christmas,”
glorious winter’s morning in the
side, held in place by rope which
“Do you know that it is Christmas The gods might have favoured
he signalled his force from the
great port of Wilhelmshaven.
was cut using knives when it came to
Day and that light bears due east?” Tyrwhitt as he launched his
Arethusa.
A tug made its way across the
attacking a target.
Tyrwhitt’s navigator Bertram Watson seaplanes almost within sight of
Thus ended what became known
harbour carrying His Imperial
“To fly a ship on a nice day was
pointed out. “It then dawned on me,” the German fleet, but they did not
as the Cuxhaven Raid. In its aims, it
Majesty, Kaiser Wilhelm II, and his
a really delightful experience,” Lt
the senior officer recalled, “that favour the pilots and observers who
had singularly failed. The Zeppelin
leading admirals. It would take a few
Frederick Verry enthused. “One felt
this was the Star in the East. From arrived over the mainland to find the
sheds still stood, no damage of any
minutes for the vessel to reach the
that the air was entirely one’s own
that moment on, I had no doubts or Cuxhaven peninsula sheathed by fog
significance had been inflicted on the
battle-cruiser SMS Seydlitz, almost
– you could go where you liked, fly
fears. I firmly believe the Almighty this Christmas morning.
Kaiser’s empire.
fatally wounded at the Dogger Bank
at
arranged for that star to act in this None of the aircraft found the
Yet like so many deeds in the
ten days before.
what height you liked, what speed
you liked.”
peculiar manner.” sheds. Indeed, few found any targets
opening months of the Great War,
The Dogger Bank had been a
Nice days in the North Sea were
Under the dull, early morning
of military importance – although the
Cuxhaven was a presage of what
wake-up call for the German Navy.
rare. The men were never warm in
light of a midwinter’s day, the
The rather loose handling of shells
drone of their engines could be heard
● A very fanciful contemporary
could be possible. Dreams and their open cockpits; the wind would
seaplanes were swung out, their
through the fog by German ground
propaganda postcard produced
imagination outmatched the tools of
and charges in battle – which had
batter them and the rain poured
wings unfolded on the water. Pilots
crews at Nordholz. Two bombs were
by the French ‘depicting’ the
the day.
almost done for the Seydlitz – was
down their necks. And if things went
and observers clambered in. The
aimed at the hydrogen gas plant
Cuxhaven Raid
“One can well imagine what might
overhauled. The action had been
wrong in a Submarine Scout, it was
mechanics gave the propellers a jolt
nearby, but they drifted into a wood
have been done had our seaplanes
yet another failure orchestrated by
the Empress zig-zagging furiously
particularly unpleasant. At 7,000ft,
and seven aircraft – two would not
and exploded harmlessly.
carried torpedoes,” wrote the attack’s
Admiral von Ingenohl, in charge of
and her ship’s company taking pot
the engine of SS14 – dragging the
start – began gathering speed in the
Elsewhere, the naval aviators
leader Sqn Cdr Cecil L’Estrange
the High Seas Fleet. The admiral was
shots at the Germans with rifles.
airship through the sky at up to
Heligoland Bight.
reported spotting gun batteries,
Malone – an odd chap who would
sacked. In his place stepped Hugo
L6 now closed in – her pennant
50mph – packed up. “We took it in
None could fly faster than 80mph.
ships, perhaps a seaplane base. They
later become an anti-communist MP,
von Pohl, an advocate of the U-boat.
number clear to anyone on the upper
turns to climb out and stand on the
The slowest could manage a mere
released their bombs and headed
and then a committed communist
To Hugo von Pohl, the submarine
deck of the Empress. On his flagship,
skids to try to spin the propeller –
65mph. Between them they carried a
back out to sea to rendezvous with
who wanted to swing Churchill from
war was being waged too timidly – as
HMS Arethusa, Reginald Tyrwhitt
which wasn’t very funny, considering
little over 80lb of explosive.
their carriers.
a lamppost. “Several of the ships in
he told the Kaiser forcefully on this
dismissed the Zeppelin. “Stupid great
you’d a drop of 7,000 feet if your
The seven seaplanes set a course
Had the raiders struck the Nordholz
the Schelling Roads would have been
short tug ride across Wilhelmshaven
things, but very beautiful. It seemed
foot slipped,” recalled pilot S/Lt
for the left bank of the Elbe estuary.
sheds, they would have found
torpedoed.”
harbour. Pohl browbeat Wilhelm
a pity to shoot at them.”
Thomas Williams. The efforts failed,
Their destination, as laid down in
them empty. For while the German
While their Army brethren were
into submission. That same day,
It did not seem a pity aboard
the airship plummetted to the ground
their orders, the Zeppelin sheds at
Fleet took few steps, if any, to deal
kicking footballs around in France the official organ of government,
HMS Empress, whose sailors were
– but landed safely. The junior officer
Cuxhaven. In fact, the sheds lay half
with the intruder on its doorstep,
and Belgium, on Christmas Day Deutscher Reichsanzeiger, warned:
directing all their firepower at the
made for the village store, bought
a dozen miles south of the small
the Navy’s air wing responded
1914 a handful of British naval
airship lumbering 2,000ft above them,
some chewing gum, plugged the
The waters around Great
fishing town on the edge of the
vigorously. Two Zeppelins, L6 and
aviators set the pattern for every
while the Germans poured machine-
holes in the radiator, poured in water
Britain and Ireland, including
village of Nordholz.
L5, were dispatched from Nordholz
strike by a carrier force – Taranto,
Nordholz was the spiritual – and
gun fire down on the seaplane carrier.
from the village pump and the blimp
the whole of the English
to intercept the English force
Pearl Harbor, Midway, Palembang,
actual – home of German naval
The Zeppelin dropped its load – three
returned to base.
Channel, are hereby declared
strutting around in German waters
Iwo Jima, Suez, the Falklands – in a
aviation. One in every two airships
100lb bombs. All missed, but not by
If flight was perilous for the aircrew,
to be a war zone. From
with apparent impunity.
century of conflict: surprise, launch,
Germany flew between 1914 and
much. Concerted fire from Tyrwhitt’s
it was scarcely less dangerous for the
Seaplanes also took up the hunt.
attack, recovery.
February 18, every enemy
1918 operated from Nordholz.
ships finally drove the airship away.
men handling the battlebags on the
They found the Empress, lagging
In 1914, the raid was more H G
merchant vessel encountered
The twin sheds, each just short
As for the Cuxhaven attackers,
ground. When the airships returned
behind the rest of the force thanks to
Wells than Nelson, or even Jellicoe
in this zone will be destroyed,
of 600ft long and almost 100ft high,
they were struggling to find their
to base, they would throw down their
poor-grade coal. They straddled the
or Beatty. But the Cuxhaven attack
nor will it always be possible
were marvels of modern engineering,
mother ships. Disorientated by the
trail ropes for the ground staff to
was the shape of things to come.
to avert the danger thereby
converted ferry – two bombs landed
mounted on a gigantic turntable
morning fog or running short of fuel,
catch – but if they caught it before
threatened to the crew and
within 50 feet of the ship – despite four of the planes never made it back
● ●
passengers. marina Continued on page ii◆
Birth of Naval Aviation2.indd 1 11/9/09 10:38:55
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