Bristol Fighter and Martinsyde G100/G102 Elephant in flight over Palestine. This was another photograph taken by Frank Hurley. The Bristol is definitely more elegant in flight than the Martinsyde.

This is a well known color photograph taken by Frank Hurley when he was in Palestine with No.1 Squadron Australian Flying Corps. During his time there in early 1918 he took several color photographs which are very rare for the World War I period. The Bristol Fighter in the photograph is A7194 which was often flown by pilot Lieutenant Len Potts and observer Lieutenant Fred Hancock.

They scored a victory in this aircraft on the 17th of January, 1918 which they described as;

While on reconnaissance of Tulkeran, Nablus area, escorted by another Bristol Fighter at Lubban we met two formations of H.A., one of 5 which was about 500 feet below us, and the other of 3 about 1000 feet above us and about 100 yards East. All H.A. appeared to be Albatros Scouts.

The formation of 5 passed beneath our tail. I turned and dived on the last machine of formation, leaving escort machine above me to look after 3 Scouts above, who did not show any inclination to attack. I fired a burst of about 30 into H.A. who was seen to lose control of machine which turned on it's back and went down completely out of control. I turned my attention ot the other machines so could not follow down. The H.A. then broke off the engagement.

Observer fired 100 rounds at different machines of the formations

The Potts brothers were from the Hawkesbury area in Sydney. One of the brothers was shot down and killed in an engagement with a German aircraft which must have been tough for the surviving brother. It is hard to remember that the men doing the fighting were in their early twenties.

A photo of Bristol Fighter B1148 from the Australian War Memorial. The photo is out of copyright. The early Bristol Fighters during 1918 were painted a mix of white and dark green. The greenish color was known as PC10 which was more of an olive green that had brownish hues or tones. It was more of a protective coat than camouflage.

It is not known why the Australian pilots painted their aircraft in whites or bands of green and white. It has been suggested so they could be spotted if their aircraft went down in the Egyptian, Palestinian and Syrian deserts. However, it appears in about mid March of 1918 they started standardizing on the PC10 upper surfaces (olive green) and CDL (clear doped linen) under-surfaces. So the colour variations pretty much exited the squadron after that date.

These photos are from the Australian War Memorial collection. They are out of copyright and in the public domain. No.1 Squadron Australian Flying Corps received a Handley Page 0/400 in the final months of the war. The main reason was that they had the expertise mechanically to maintain and fly it.

Since No.1 Squadron was in Palestine the big Handley Page was pressed into logistical work in addition to bombing. One of the logistical tasks was supplying Lawrence of Arabia's army with fuel, food and arms. The army at the time was stationed in Azrak and had been bombed by German aircraft. The Australian squadron sent two Bristol Fighters to support them and to give them aerial superiority locally. You can see the two brisfits in the photographs; where they are dwarfed by the Handley Page's huge wingspan.

When the Handley Page flew out to support Lawrence of Arabia's irregulars it caused a bit of a stir. Richard Williams writes;

The aircraft [1 Sqn Bristol Fighters] attached to Lawrences Army at Amman] could not work in the desert east of Amman without supplies and the normal line of supply was via Akaba on the Red Sea. This was useless so the Handley Page was brought into service and used to transport petrol, oil, bombs and ammunition. It went out during daylight to arrive at Azrak just before dark. It was escorted by two Bristol Fighters which went on to bomb the enemy aerodrome at Deraa to distract attention from it.

The Handley Page returned that night but it proved to be the best recruiting agent the Arab Army ever had. They had never seen such a huge aircraft, nor had we for that matter, and considered that if the British could produce an aircraft so much bigger than anybody else they knew of, then they must be the people who would win. .... The only trouble was that the Arabs would show their delight by dancing around the Handley Page and firing pistols and other odd weapons into the air to the consternation and alarm of Ross Smith.

Consider that Ross Smith was carrying a large load of petrol, bombs and ammunition, it is not surprise he was concerned. After the war ended a second Handley Page (C9700) was flown by Ross Smith and General Borton to India. It was to be the start of record breaking flights for Ross Smith in the post-war period.

The Fighting Instructors of the Australian Flying Corps squadron's painted their aircraft up in whites and reds so the future fighter pilots they were training could see them easily in the sky. Cobby noted in his memoirs that it was stressful dog-fighting recruits as they consistently threatened to collide with the fighting instructors through lack of flying skill. This was before parachutes were used in aircraft. More on Les Holden's SE5a.

The Airco DH5 was flown by No.2 Squadron Australian Flying Corps in 1917, specifically during the hectic Battle of Cambrai. The DH5 has a strange origin, as its wings are back staggered, while most of the World War aircraft that are its contemporaries had forward staggered wings with the upper being in-front of the back wing.

There was history behind this engineering decision. Originally aircraft couldn't fire a machine gun through the propeller. This was first solved by the Germans and when machine gun were fitted to Fokker Eindeckers with this interrupter mechanism they dominated the air over the trenches very quickly.

The French response was to fit machine guns on the top wing of their Nieuports that fired over the propeller and consequently didn't require an interrupter. The British response was to put the engine behind the pilot so that the machine gun didn't need to fire through a propeller. The best known of these pusher aircraft was the Airco DH2.

The photo above shows the pusher engine arrangement and how the front nacelle does not have a propeller in front of it to get in the way of a machine gun being fired forward. There were reconnaissance machines made with a similar layout, namely the FE2 aircraft.

Originally the British had success with the DH2, especially in the hands of skilled pilots like Lanoe Hawker, however, the Eindecker had old engineering such as wing-warping and an aileron controlled machine could easily out maneuver it. Once the powerful twin gun Albatros reached the front the British aircraft were once again hopelessly out-classed.

The British solved the engineering problem of an interrupter mechanism and rushed new aircraft to the front in response to the Albatros. These included the Sopwith Pup, the Sopwith Triplane and the Airco DH5. The Dh5 kept the back staggered wing structure, but did so with an engine in front and with a machine gun fitted with an interrupter mechanism.

The back staggered wings decreased visibility drastically. The RFC pilot who was doing the trials on the aircraft when it was being evaluated wrote, "it was found impossible to get a view of a Sopwith Scout [the aircraft it was mock dogfighting with], once one let the machine get one ones tail."

Another issue with the DH5 was speed. The Airco DH5 was put into operational service approximately eight months after the Sopwith Pup which was about the same speed as the Airco DH5 and by that time most of the German Aircraft, including the two seater reconn aircraft, had increased their engine horsepower such that the DH5 was too slow to catch them. The Australian pilots of No.2 Squadron AFC complained that they were unable to catch German aircraft of they didn't hit them in an initial dive.

The early DH5 aircraft were discovered to have extremely bad vibration problems, to the point that the instruments in the cockpit refused to work and the joystick was difficult to maintain in a constant position. It was thought that the vibration was a culmination of badly balanced engines and the stiff main bearer plate that the DH5 carried. Though the squadrons in France reported that the DH5's they flew vibrated no worse than the Sopwith Camel. Finally 32 Sqn RFC in France experimented with stiffening rods from the fuselage to the engine bearers which reduced some of the vibration but not all. Other engine cowls were stiffened with six chordwise stiffeners.

he "Men and Machines of the Australian Flying Corps" contains the passage, "One of it's [the DH5] less endearing features was the fact that it's rotary engine shed a valve tappet rod ( a quite common occurrence, which was eventually overcome by the fitting of a simple clamp ), this rod would cut through the thin engine cowling like a demented tin-opener before coming up against the relatively immovable mass of the of the Vickers Gun, which projected out forward above the engine. This solid resistance was sometimes enough to wrench the motor right out of it's mountings, with disastrous results for the poor pilot."

Since the DH5 was not fast enough to be a scout and a fighter it did manage to find a place for itself in the army support role. During the Battle of Cambrai the Australian and British DH5 squadrons were used heavily in trench strafing, bombing and support. Richard Howard writes,

During this series of operations our squadron made quite a name for itself. It even made a name for the type of machine it was flying, which hiherto had been considered as rather a 'washout'. This machine is now to be standardised for low flying work.

Low flying work and strafing is dangerous and No.2 Squadron AFC took 35% casualties during the Battle of Cambrai while doing this work. The DH5 was used by 2 Sqn AFC, 24 Sqn, 32 Sqn, 41 Sqn, and 64 Sqn RFC. After the Battle of Cambrai it was quickly replaced by SE5a aircraft as they became available. It is safe to say that the DH5 arrived on the front as an obsolete aircraft and probably only because the British were not able to produce enough Sopwith Camels and SE5a aircraft in sufficient numbers to outfit their scout squadrons.

Airco DH5 of Captain R.C. Phillips, No.2 Squadron Australian Flying Corps.

Airco DH5 of Lieutenant L.H. Holden, No.2 Squadron Australian Flying Corps.

Airco DH5 of Captain G.C. Wilson, No.2 Squadron Australian Flying Corps.

Airco DH5 of Lieutenant R.W. McKenzie, No.2 Squadron Australian Flying Corps.

I love these photos of Bristol Fighters in the air. They are from No.1 Squadron Australian Flying Corps which flew in the Middle East through out World War I. Originally the squadron flew old and slow BE2 aircraft, before they started receiving other reconn aircraft such as the BE12, Martinsyde and RE8. None of them were particularly great as aircraft.

In late 1917 the Royal Flying Corps squadron, No.111 was formed in Egypt and had a mix of scout aircraft including the Bristol Fighter. They were transitioned to a pure scout squadron with SE5 aircraft and No.1 AFC received their Bristol Fighters.

Major Richard Williams made a pitch for them as they were having difficulty timing the No.111 escorts and the Australian reconn aircraft. Which meant the Australian aircraft were often short of fuel during a mission after waiting for their escorts.

The main value of the Bristol Fighters was that they could do both the escort and reconn role at the one time. They were the perfect aircraft for the form of aerial combat in the Middle East. They were long range, they had a pilot and an observer, they could bomb, and they could fighter the German Albatros scouts on relatively equal terms.

The Australian squadron excelled once they received the Bristol Fighters and gained air superiority quickly with them. The aircraft went through some weird color schemes. For some reason, and it is not recorded, they painted many of them white or a mix of green (PC10) and white. Eventually it seemed they standardized on the normal colors of green (PC10) with linen colored undersides (CDL). In some of the photos from late 1917 and early 1918 you will see white Bristol Fighters - like in the top photo.

This is the "Ghost RE8" of World War I which flew with two crew members for several hours over the Western Front before coming to land in a field in eastern France. Harry Wrigley who was one of the pilots who came to Sandy and Hughes rescue tells the complete story in "The Battle Below";

Lieutenant J. L. Sandy, with Sergeant H. F. Hughes as observer, was engaged in observing fire for the 151st Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery (8inch Howitzers). This work had been in progress for some thirty-five minutes when Lieutenant Sandy was attacked, between Deulemont and Armentieres, by a formation consisting of six Albatross D.5a Scouts. Lieutenant Sandy, refusing to dive away, turned and engaged the enemy and succeeded in bringing down one, which landed intact in our lines about a mile and a half north of Armentieres, the wounded pilot being taken prisoner by Infantry of the 21st Battalion, 2nd Australian Division.

Meanwhile, the unequal fight continued, and another R.E.8 aircraft of the squadron, piloted by Lieutenant E. J. Jones, with Lieutenant K- C. Hodgson as observer, seeing Lieutenant Sandy so hotly engaged, went to his assistance, with the result that the enemy aircraft withdrew to their own lines. Lieutenant Jones flew round close to the other R.E.8 aircraft and identified it by its number as Lieutenant Sandy's aircraft. About this time a third aircraft of No. 69 Squadron, piloted by Lieutenant H. N. Wrigley, with Lieutenant J. R. Blair as observer, came upon the scene and, to the crews of both these aircraft, Lieutenant Sandy's aircraft and crew appeared to be all right, so Lieutenant Jones returned to Bailleul aerodrome to replenish his ammunition supply. and Lieutenant Wrigley proceeded on his way to carry out an artillery reconnaissance. Lieutenant Sandy's aircraft, not having, returned to the aerodrome at the conclusion of flying for the day. information concerning it was sought by telephone, but it was not until tile following night that a telegram was received from No. 12 Stationary Hospital, St. Pol, to the effect that the dead bodies of Lieutenant Sandy and Sergeant Hughes had been found in a crashed R.E.8 aircraft in a field about 8 kilometres north-east of St. Pol, near the main Bruay-St. Pol road.

An armour piercing bullet had passed through the observer's left lung and thence into the base of the pilot's skull, and the medical opinion was that they had been killed instantly during their combat with the enemy aircraft. They had not been injured at all in the crash on landing, nor was the damage to the aircraft very extensive. This afforded a striking example of the stability and flying qualities of the R.E.8. From an examination of the crash it appeared that after the crew had been killed the aircraft had flown itself in wide left-hand circles until the petrol supply ran out, and this theory is supported by the fact that the wind on that day was north-east and would cause a southwest drift. The place where the aircraft was found was on an air distance of 50 miles from the scene of the combat. The Albatross D.5a, brought down by Lieutenant Sandy and Sergeant Hughes was salved by a party of mechanics under Captain Ross under shell fire on the night of the 17th/18th December from the forward position in which it landed. It was brought back to the aerodrome and later, by order 2nd Brigade, Royal Flying Corps, sent to No. 1 Aircraft Depot at St. Omer. A claim to the aircraft was subsequently made, however, by the Australian authorities and it was then handed over to the Australian War Museum.

The Albatros which Sandy and Hughes shot down was the Albatros D5390/17 from Jasta 29 flown by Franz Claus. The aircraft was recovered by 3 Squadron AFC and then shipped by the order of 2nd Brigade Royal Flying Corps to No.1 Supply Depot at St Omer and given the "G" Number G101. The Albatros was test flown in England before finally being presented to the Australian Government as a War Trophy. The aircraft was displayed until 1948 when it was removed from the public eye due to a dilapidated condition and stored at the Military Academy at Duntroon.

While at Duntroon it was damaged by vandals, a chunk was broken off from the propeller, a hole kicked in the ply skin and a Spandau gun removed. Though the gun was later recovered. In 1966 - 68 the Albatros was moved to Camden in Sydney where it was restored to it's present day condition. The Albatros was on display in the Australian War Memorial's Aircraft Hall until 1999 when it was moved to the Treloar Centre for reconditioning and restoration. D5390/17 is currently undergoing restoration in the Australian War Memorial's Treloar Centre. (more)

You wouldn't know it to look at him, but Frank Alberry only had one leg. He is also one of two known one-legged aces in World War I. Alberry was born in Hobart and grew up in Port Arthur and as a young man worked his way from Burnie, to Melbourne, to Bendigo, to England and Edinburgh. Eventually he ran out of work and joined the English Regular Army. In 1911 while on leave he got the opportunity to return to Australia on a ship - he reconciled his desertion by telling himself if war broke out he would return.

Three years later that event happened and he turned up at an Australian recruitment station and was given the option of returning to his English unit or joining the Australian Army; he chose the latter and posted to the 1st Division's 8th Battalion. In July 1916 the 8th Battalion were involved in the Somme offensive at Pozieres, Alberry was awarded a Distinguished Conduct Medal in the battle but a bullet shattered his kneecap and his leg was amputated above the knee. (more)