A Fine Collection of Awards to the Royal Flying Corps, Royal Naval Air Service and Royal Air Force (Part II)
But the truth be known - and once again as confirmed by squadron records - Ridley was fighting combats on virtually a daily basis, and sometimes against appalling odds. Thus a run-in with 10 enemy scouts on 21 April 1918, from which he somehow emerged unscathed even though his guns jammed. In fact, a quick survey of relevant records reveals he flew well over 200 operational sorties in the period April 1917 to April 1918, many of them ‘special missions’, including a combat with Gothas off Westende on 13 November 1917, flown with fellow Naval ace, a South African, Flight Lieutenant S. M. “Kink” Kinkead - one of around 40 recorded combats he fought in this period. No surprise then that one version of his D.S.C. recommendation credits him with 17 enemy aircraft destroyed (T.N.A. AIR 1/74/15/9/165 refers).
Yet his gallantry in air-to-air combat was also matched by his low-level ground work, as cited in the opening lines of the citation for his D.S.C. - a strafing attack in September 1917, delivered from 30 feet and one that resulted in him receiving the personal thanks of General Birdwood. The following extracts taken from the Squadron Record Book reveal further daring low-level attacks, including one delivered from 10 feet:
13 July 1917:
‘Flight Lieutenant Ridley attempted an attack on Rechem. He fired 150 rounds from 250 feet at troops on the ground in a small town probably near Menin, being unable to find the aerodrome. He experienced very severe machine-gun and A.A. fire and flying onions. He encountered E.A. in mist and returned with his machine riddled with bullets’.
20 September 1917:
‘Flight Lieutenant Ridley observed bodies of troops in shell holes and trenches just in front of our advancing troops near Becelaere. He went down to within 10 feet of the ground and was much below the level of the trees at times. He dived at these batches of troops who ran from shell hole to shell hole pursued by the triplane. Our troops waved and cheered as the pilot flew over them and dived towards the enemy who were in complete panic.’
26 September 1917:
‘Flight Lieutenant Ridley saw a block-house behind which were about 100 men. Some appeared to be climbing over the top or perhaps sniping our troops. He fired 150 rounds at these men and took several dives at them until too close to the ground, when he had to pull off. Apparently some of these troops were shot. Position N. of Becelaere.’
Rested from operations in July 1918, Ridely’s immense experience was quickly put to use in testing new aircraft, among them a flight in R.A.M.B. 8783, and he was as uncompromising in his subsequent report as he had been with the enemy:
‘Having flown this machine, I consider it very slow, exceedingly heavy on controls, and unmanageable for manoeuvring near the ground. I therefore consider it unsuitable for low-flying and ground strafing work. After I had been in the air for fifteen minutes, the engine failed, owing to a broken piston liner, and I was forced to land.’ A few days later, in a memorandum to the Air Ministry, the Brigadier-General, R.A.F., in the Field, concluded there is ‘little doubt that this machine is unsuitable for any military purposes.’
Remaining in the newly established R.A.F. after the War, he was killed in a flying accident at Cologne on 17 May 1920, while serving in No. 12 Squadron, his aircraft colliding with that of Captain J. D. de Pencier.
Sold with a quantity of original documentation, including the recipient’s commission warrants for the rank of Flight Sub. Lieutenant, R. N.A.S., dated 25 June 1916, and Captain, R.A.F., dated 1 April 1918, several portrait photographs and newspaper obituaries, and an extensive file of research, with photocopied flying log book entries for 1918-19, and an evocative array of copied photographs taken from an old album (approximately 40 images), the whole relative to Ridley’s active service.
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