GROUPS AND SINGLE DECORATIONS FOR GALLANTRY
H.M.A. “Old Carthusian” in India- one of Handley Page’s magnificent V/1500s, she had a wing span of 126ft. and four Rolls-Royce engines, between them developing 1,400 h.p., with a fuel capacity of 1,000 gallons, and a top speed of 95-100 m.p.h. With a weight of 13.5 tons, her four under-carriage wheels were 5ft. in diameter
After taking off and gaining height over their aerodrome, they steered a course to D lighthouse, one of a number of automated signalling lights on the Allied side of the lines which continually flashed a predetermined Morse Code letter as a guide to the night bombers. By figuring their ground speed and drift en route, the two men calculated that they could reach Frankfurt and return safely, despite the wind, if they steered a direct course there and back. Even then, their margin for error was almost nil, as they calculated they would have no more than five minutes over Frankfurt itself if they were to regain their own lines safely afterwards, and then with only 10 minutes of fuel to spare.
Steering a 39 degree course from D lighthouse, at an average altitude of 6000 feet, they encountered no more than sporadic flak from each town as they flew north of Saarburg, Bitsche and Pirmasens, then south of Kaiserslautern before crossing the Vosges mountains. They then crossed the Rhine River valley north of Oppenheim and flew on to Mainz. Here they followed the Main River to Frankfurt, arriving at their target at midnight. They were greeted by a heavy anti-aircraft barrage and numerous searchlights, but switching off engines briefly, Halley quickly glided their aircraft down and Reece dropped their bomb load, comprised of a single 550lb and four 112lb bombs, as close as possible to the Hauptbahnhof, or main railway station.
All of their bombs missed the intended target, falling in a ragged line across the properties alongside the river front, near the Westhafen. One bomb that landed on the Westhafen itself caused considerable damage to material stored there. This was possibly the 550lb bomb. The rest of the bombs damaged private property. Overall damage was considerable, however, amounting to 100,000 marks.
Having dropped their bombs, Halley and Reece hastily steered the most direct course for their own lines, over 100 miles away against a strengthening headwind. To add to their problems, they were approaching a storm ahead, which they dared not climb above as they did not have the fuel to spare. They elected instead to fly right underneath it, and found themselves being tossed about by fierce winds while being illuminated by lightning flashes and soaked by driving rain for hours. They were also being caught periodically in searchlights and their aircraft received numerous shrapnel hits from the accurate anti-aircraft fire, although none of these were serious enough to bring them down.
They finally cleared the first storm as they passed over Kaiserslautern, only to fly straight into another storm on the other side of the town. This storm too was cleared briefly, sufficient for them to again check their course and make a course correction, before they flew into a third and even more violent storm than those before. Fortunately, this storm was over quicker than its two predecessors, as Halley was unable to do more than keep the aircraft flying while it lasted, with no chance to follow a compass course. They arrived south of the Marne-Rhine canal as dawn was breaking, and steered for the nearest aerodrome, but shortly after crossing into friendly territory their engines stopped through lack of fuel, and the exhausted crew were forced to make a safe landing in a field near Luneville, eight and a half hours after they had set out.
Having striven against almost impossible weather, this brave crew had succeeded in reaching Frankfurt and dropping their bombs there, causing some considerable damage, albeit in the wrong place. They had then returned to a safe landing on their own side of the lines.
Their chief enemy this night was not the Germans however, but the weather, which may well have caused a less experienced crew to fail in their mission. They did not encounter enemy fighters during the entire flight, but had been subjected to accurate anti-aircraft fire from various towns en route, as they were forced to fly low in a storm, and were being illuminated by lightning flashes as well as searchlights from the ground.’
Halley was awarded a well-deserved Bar to his D.F.C. and was next chosen as one of four pilots for a top secret mission - namely an attack on Berlin in a “Super Handley V/1500”. As it transpired, the Armistice intervened before such a raid could be carried out, but a week or two later, he was invited to team up with Major A. C. S. MacLaren as a co-pilot for the first ever through flight to India from the U.K.
A.F.C. - Pioneering Through Flight to India As Halley later recalled in his lively account of the flight for Aeroplane Monthly (December, 1978):
‘It was indeed a great moment. MacLaren and I had a lot in common, except that he was 6ft. 2in. and I 5ft. 3in wearing my thick socks! He was also a Scot and had already flown to Egypt in an 0/400 with General “Biffy” Borton. Our considerable experience on heavy aircraft had brought us together ... A day or two later we were at Martlesham Heath, as it was from there that we were gong to start, and Rolls-Royce mechanics were working on the aircraft. All the crew were now assembled there. Flight Sergeant Smith and Sergeant Crockett, fitters, and Sergeant Brown, rigger, had been selected as maintenance crew. Going with us as a passenger was General Norman McEwan, who was to take over as A.O.C. in India on arrival. As General MacEwen and MacLaren were both at school at Charterhouse, the aircraft was named H.M.A. Old Carthusian. We also had another passenger, “Tiny”, a little Maltese Terrier belonging to MacLaren that had already flown to Egypt earlier in the year. He was mad keen on flying and whenever the engines started he ran to the bottom of the ladder to be taken up into the cockpit!’
Thus ensued an extraordinary journey, via Paris, Rome, Malta, Cairo, Baghdad and Karachi, the whole enacted between 13 December 1918 and 15 January 1919, a journey ‘full of incidents, some of them not easy to cope with’, not least the final flight into Karachi - Christopher Cole and Roderick Grant take up the story in But Not in Anger:
www.dnw.co.uk
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