ii BIRTH OF NAVAL AVIATION SUPPLEMENT, NAVY NEWS, OCTOBER 2009
● (Left) The master of the skies in the spring of 1917... Sopwith Triplanes of No.1 Squadron RNAS – ‘Naval One’
– at Bailleul, near Ypres; nearest the camera is N5454 flown by Australian Flt Lt Richard Minifie who scored 17
of his 21 kills in Tripes and (above) the triplane’s successor, Sopwith Camels, of No.3 Squadron RNAS lined
up at Bray Dunes in January 1918
CHEERIOH!
worsened by the inferior wors in the new service – it wasn’t so and rain most of the time,” recalled
BOATS WITH WINGS
machines it flewmach . formal, so stuffy as in the Grand Scottish-born Canadian Flt Lt Robert
In the autumn of 1916, In Fleet. An officer berated a handful of Leckie.
The seaplane is m
y Hoodoo,
the the AArmy pleaded to the
THE SPIDER WEB
Australians posted to the air station “A good day was a rarity. I still
I shall not f
ly another
,
Navy for assistance. Nav The at Great Yarmouth for failing to look back on it and wonder just how
Royal Naval Air Service
DREARY PATROLS
It mak
eth me to come do
wn on

Roya salute him. we did it, but it is a fact that I have
answered the call.answ flown for eight hours at a time with
rough waters,
Canadian FltC
A little after dawn on September 22
“Do you know who I am?”
no cloud-flying instruments at all.”
It spoileth m
y reputation.
S/Lt Raymond ‘Collie’S/Lt
1917, Canadian Flt S/Lt Norman
“No idea, cobber.”
The strain of these missions was
Though I f
ly from the harbour Collishaw was among Coll
Ansley Magor headed out over the
“I’m in charge...”
no less demanding than combat over
It retur
neth by to
wing.
those aviators sent to those
North Sea in his Curtiss H12 flying
“Good on yer, mate. You’ve got
the Western Front – or life in the
FFrarance, first to Nancy,
boat. For the next five or so hours,
yourself a good number. See you
trenches for that matter.
Its Magneto discomf
orts me.
then to Cambrai, finally to then
the four-man seaplane would patrol
around.”
“Trips of six to eight hours at a
Its tank r
unneth ov
er.
Flanders. He had downed Fland
its alloted sector of the ‘spider web’,
Such an attitude to life was
stretch seem to do a lot of pilots
Its rods and its engines f
ail me.
four enemy aircraft to date. four e
an invisible grid overlayed on the sea
perhaps understandable given
in,” one officer wrote. “Six to seven
Yea, ev
en by mec
hanics
is my name It was not the tallyIt wa , but the
to help aircraft locate submarines.
the horrific casualty rate aviators
hours over a barren and sullen
manner of his victoriesmann
Invariably the searches were futile,
suffered. Landing was what they
● The smile belies the brain of a
feared most – and a crash landing sea, where engine failure does not
held in laughter
.
which impressed.which
born killer – Sqn Cdr Raymond
but if there was a chance of spotting
invariably sparked a conflagration. mean imprisonment but starvation,
Though I striv
e to ov
ercome them
Flying alone overFl
Collishaw, the Royal Naval Air a U-boat, it was normally at dawn
Men “burned up”, Allingham frequently followed by death.”
Its weaknesses prevail.
French lines in a Sopwith Fren
Service’s leading ace of the – after a night spent recharging the
remembered, “in a matter of seconds. It was ditching, more than
1½ Strutter (it had one
Great War batteries by running on the surface.
In the hour of m
y need its engines
1½ There was nothing anyone could do.” crashing, more than encounters with
and a half struts, hence the and a
An hour into the routine patrol,
just from gritting my teeth,” recalled
There was no thought of rescuing the the Hun, that weighed most heavily
mock me
name) in October 1916, nam
Magor and his comrades were
Collishaw’s Naval Ten comrade,
trapped airmen. The ground crew on the fliers’ minds. A carrier pigeon
And b
ring m
e dow
n wit
h gre
at
Collishaw Col was pounced
roughly 35 miles east of Felixstowe,
the boyish-looking Mel Alexander.
stood back, waiting for the fire to arrived back from Large America
bumpings,
on on by six Albatrosses.
cruising along at a little over 4,000ft.
A two-hour patrol was akin, said
burn itself out. 8666 bearing a desperate message
And there is no health in it.
Hopping over the trees, Hop
Half a dozen miles away was an
Alexander, to “carrying a ton of
The Avro and other earlier aircraft from its commander, Flt Lt Vincent
the Canadian not merely the
unmistakeable sight – a “submarine
lead”. He watched as a squadron
were never going to be the panacea to Nicholl: “We are not far from the
Verily, v
erily, if I continue to f
ly
mmaanaged to evade his
of a very large type, about 200 to
with a paper strength of 15 pilots
the U-boat menace. coast as we keep seeing small land
theses things pursuers, he sent two pur
250 feet showing above the water”.
lost more than 60 men during the
It was only with the right machine birds. Sea is still rough. Machine
I shall end by dro
wning. crashing into woods in cra
The boat immediately began to dive,
spring and summer of 1917: killed,
– the Curtiss H12 flying boat, intact still. We will fi re Very’s lights
For my friends they deser
t me fflalames. So impressed
spooked by the growl of the Curtiss’
wounded or nerves shot away.
nicknamed the Large America – and every 45 minutes tonight.” Nicholl
were the French by the we
two Rolls-Royce Eagle engines.
“The bad time for the pilots
the right method – constant, patterned and his crew were eventually rescued.
And call me a Jonah.
action they witnessed act
Magor pushed the seaplane down
was at night, knowing they might
patrols over the North Sea – that the
Henry Allingham remembered
My luc
k smelleth to Hea
ven
that daytha , they awarded
to 800ft, then dropped two 230lb
be making their last patrol on the
aerial campaign against the U-boat
another Curtiss which ditched. With
And I am dishear
tened, the naval flier the the Croix
bombs. Both landed just behind the
began to pay dividends. The searches
no functioning radio and no carrier
Theref
ore shall I tur
n my hand

de Guerrde e.
following morning,” Raymond
conning tower, one a direct hit.
focused on waters around the North
pigeons, it was five days before the
By the time of
Collishaw recalled. Yet he never lost
“The submarine was seen to turn
Hinder lightship, 50 nautical miles
crew were rescued – by chance – by a
elsewhere
Raymond Collishaw’Ra s
his wonderment at the war in the
upside down, and a large bubble with
east of Felixstowe. An invisible
passing destroyer. They had survived
And become a tram driv
er.
aarrrrival at Furnes, the
air, enthralled by the “theatre in the
wreckage and large quantities of oil
octagonal grid radiated from the ship.
by drinking water in the engines’
For ag
ain I sa
y unto you, that of all Strutter had been St
clouds” as he called it.
subsequently appeared.”
It came to be known as the Spider
radiators.
pilots
replaced by a legendary re
“Fighter pilots on both sides
The doomed boat was the small
Web. We can do no better than allow ◆
aircraft, the Sopwith
played to audiences of infantrymen
coastal boat UB32 – not 200 to 250ft
one of the spiders, Canadian pilot
At the height of the war against the
I am the most unluc
ky,
TTrriplane.
cheering them on from the trenches
long, but a mere 120. Small or not,
Sqn Cdr Douglas Hallam, who flew
U-boat, the RNAS devoted nearly
Yea, damned unluc
ky.
In the spring and
below,” he continued. “The waltz
she had been responsible for sending
about this web from the outset, to
300 seaplanes and 100 airships to
– song of
WW1 sea
plane cr
ews
summer of 1917, su
started when one plane would get on
nearly 43,000 tons of shipping to
describe how it worked:
defeating the German submarine,
the th ‘Tripe’ was the
the tail of another. The two aircraft
a watery grave, although her final
either conducting routine recce
interceptor of the dayi .
would fly in ever smaller circles
12-day patrol proved fruitless.
This tremendous spider web
patrols or providing air cover for
It was, CollishawI
until finally one could bring his guns
Magor’s flight that morning was
was 60 miles in diameter. It
convoys. On just eight occasions
recalled, “a delightful r
to bear on the other – then the dance
one of more than 700 conducted that
allowed for the searching of
did a U-boat dare to attack shipping
machine” – immensely hi ”
ended.”
month in home waters and the North
4,000 square miles of sea and
when there was air power present.
marina Continued from page i
manoeuvrable, able to climb to almost
By the end of the summer of 1917,
Sea by patrol planes and airships.
was right across the path of
Kills may have been few, but the
it touched the ground and earthed,
20,000ft, fast. Its only drawback was
Collishaw had chalked up his 38th
Between them, they reported 28
the submarines. A submarine
U-Bootmann was ever fearful of the
“a man could easily get more or
that it was undergunned.
victory, 34 of them in the Tripe. Kills,
sightings of enemy submarines – and
ten miles outside it was in
British seaplanes. On a fine day
less electrocuted,” recalled Lt Victor
The Canadian was given command
tallies, numbers – he became the first
attacked 18 of them. UB32 was the
danger of being spotted, so
in late June 1918, Kapitänleutnant
Goddard. “A chap could take a very
of one of Naval Ten’s three flights,
man to shoot down six enemy aircraft
only kill.
at cruising speed it took ten
Werner ‘Fips’ Fürbringer was taking
nasty shock – enough to make him
B. The men painted the tails and
in a single day, July 6 – meant little
In fact, UB32 was the only ‘kill’
hours for a U-boat to cross
his new charge, UB110, along
fall backwards.” Even when earthed,
cowlings black to distinguish them
to the Canadian. “Most of the ‘stars’
by British aviators in the entire war.
it. Under ordinary conditions,
the Flanders coast to Ostend for
the ropes were dangerous – they
from A and C Flights, then gave
were extremely conscientious about
Kills, however, only tell half the
a [flying] boat could search
repairs. As his nickname suggested,
could easily drag men across the
each aircraft suitable names – Black
making sure they were given full
story.
two sectors – a quarter of
Fips was an affable character who
ground at speeds up to 20mph before
Death, Black Prince, Black Sheep
credit for their victories,” one fellow
the whole web – in five hours ◆
got on well with his men. He also
sufficient sailors could grab hold to
and, Collishaw’s own, Black Maria.
pilot recalled. “Collishaw wasn’t like
As with everything else in these
or less. The tables were
possessed a ruthless streak: only five
bring the blimp to a halt.
Black Flight was born.
that. He seemed at times indifferent
pioneering years of aviation, the first
turned on Fritz the hunter,
men sank more Allied shipping in
More than 150 Submarine Scouts
Naval Ten was finally thrown into
to confirmation of his victories.” Not
patrols over the North Sea in the
for here he was the hunted,
the Great War. Four years of war
were built – later models, the SSZ
the fray in earnest in early June,
merely did he not claim victories,
opening months of the year were
the quarry, the fly that had
had taught Fips to be cautious –
(Z for Zero) were given purpose-
committed in support of the attack
Collishaw would even ‘give away’
basic, rather hit-and-miss, but always
to pass through some part of
especially now as the tide of war was
built gondolas, although the crew
at Messines – prelude to Third
his kills to novice pilots to bolster fraught with danger.
the web. The flying boat was
beginning to turn against the Reich.
were still exposed to the elements.
Ypres. The Albatross was Raymond
their confidence. “If he and a rookie Apart from the Submarine Scout
the spider.
Two aircraft appeared overhead and
Despite ‘Jacky’ Fisher’s ‘submarine
Collishaw’s unfortunate prey: nine
fired on the same plane, Collie would blimps, land-based aircraft, or
Hallam arrived at Felixstowe in turned towards his boat. His officer
destroyer’ tag, not one U-boat fell
fell victim to the Canadian’s guns in
always maintain that it was the aeroplanes with floats to take off
the spring of 1917 with the grand- of the watch assured him they were
victim to these blimps.
the first week of June.
rookie’s bullets that had got it.” from – and land on – water, would
sounding title Commanding Officer German.
“We never saw a submarine,” Lt
Those ‘kills’ made Collishaw an
Such magnanimity was even head out over the Channel or into the
War Flight. He had one shed, two “Fair enough,” said Fürbringer,
Victor Goddard conceded. But, he
ace. They earned him the DSC. He
extended to the Hun. “The fighter North Sea on reconnaissance patrols.
flying boats and a handful of men. “but I think I’ll still give the aircraft
added, “when I or any of the others
would add the DFC and DSO and
pilot never thought of the man in the Henry Allingham climbed into an
“There was no intelligence hut, alarm all the same.”
were about no ship was ever attacked
bar to his name before the war was
machine,” Collishaw said. “He didn’t Avro biplane as a mechanic/observer.
no flying office, no telephone in As he did so, the aircraft dropped to
by a submarine.”
over. And through it all, he retained
see him – he thought of the enemy There wasn’t a great deal he could
the shed, no pigeons,” he recalled. 500ft, the roundels on their fuselage
his sense of humour, his generous,
aircraft simply as a target, as a kind do in either capacity – he couldn’t
Hallam himself had never flown in clearly visible. The machine-gun
TRIPES OUTFOX HUN
warm nature – pictures invariably
of game which he had to assault.” fix the engine in flight, only listen to the new Curtiss seaplane, although on UB110’s upper deck began to
show him smiling. He told his fellow
Game or not, Raymond Collishaw its pitch and advise the pilot whether his co-pilot had, but neither man had spew lead and iron while Fürbringer
CANADIAN ‘COLLIE’ aviators – most of Black Flight were was an outstanding player. No naval he should continue or turn back; ever seen a U-boat. took evasive action. A large dustbin-
kinfolk from Canada – to live life
aviator shot down more enemy as for weapons, all he had was a The Curtiss carried a crew of four: shaped object fell from m one one of of the the e
ACE OF ACES to the full. “I encouraged plenty of
aircraft than the Canadian – 60 in Lee Enfield rifle, plus two homing two pilots, an engineer and a radio aircraft. “This looked s so c coomomimical
singing and drinking at night, though all. Only five men in the Great War pigeons to signal back to base – if operator. For the next 18 months, that we all burst into laughterlaughter,”,” the th e
On a mid-spring day in 1917, the many pilots found it very difficult
claimed more kills. they found it. “I don’t know what these Large Americas and their U-boat commander recalled. ecalled. ThTheThe
latest pilot assigned to ‘Naval Ten’ to drown their sorrows. If you got a
By the time of kill number 60, I’d have done if I had encountered a British counterparts, the Felixstowe submariners stopped laughing
– No.10 Squadron Royal Naval Air half-day off, you’d go to the nearest the Tripe had long since faded into German ship. It was pretty futile to F2, would prowl the spider webs
when the bomb crashed into d into
Service – arrived in the village of town and raise hell.” history. Its star was brief but bright pitch a slow-moving aircraft into a – apart from the North Sea there
the sea 100ft away. A
Furnes, a dozen miles from Dunkirk. The men would be airborne at least – like the men who flew it. Its pre- hail of fire let loose by a ship.” were similar patrols in the Channel,
second landed barely y
It wasn’t just the Army which twice, sometimes as many as four eminence in 1917 has largely been Allingham had decided the naval Irish Sea and Bristol Channel –
30ft from the U-boat.
was being ground down by the bitter times a day, flying two-hour patrols eclipsed by its German copycat, as air service was the life for him. A constantly.
The second aircraft t t
fighting on the Western Front. The at a time. The strain gnawed at the favoured by the Red Baron, and by coach builder by trade, Allingham “More often than not, the patrol
now closed in. His first t
battles of the Somme and, later, nerves of many. “I used to grit my the aircraft which replaced it, the loved things mechanical – he even would be carried out in the most
attack was wide of the he
Arras severely denuded the Royal teeth so tightly when I was under the Sopwith Camel. owned a Triumph TT motorbike. fi lthy weather I have ever fl own
mark. But not so thhe
Flying Corps – whose position was tension that my jaws would be sore
● ●
But he also liked the atmosphere in. The North Sea was full of fog
second. His ‘dustbin’n’ ◆
Birth of Naval Aviation2.indd 2 22/9/09 12:24:53
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