Britain's Greatest Aircraft

C H A P T E R  O N E

The Sopwith Camel

For Captain John Trollope of No. 43 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps, 24 March 1918 began in much the same way as many other days on the Western Front, with a morning patrol into enemy territory. On the first patrol of the day, Captain Trollope, leading a flight of Sopwith Camels, sighted three DFW two-seaters and worked his way round to the east to cut off their line of escape. He closed in and fired at the first, but then his guns jammed. After clearing the stoppage he engaged the second DFW and fired 100 rounds at it, seeing it break up in mid-air; he at once closed on a third and set it on fire. Meanwhile, the first DFW had been engaged by Captain Cecil King and 2nd Lieutenant A.P. Owen, who continued to fire at it until it too broke up. Some Albatros Scouts arrived belatedly to protect the DFWs, and Trollope immediately shot one down. At a lower level, another flight of 43 Squadron Camels, led by Captain Henry Woollett, was engaging more DFWs, one of which Woollett set on fire. Lieutenant Daniel of Woollet’s flight, losing contact during the engagement, joined up with No. 3 (Naval) Squadron, which attacked five Pfalz Scouts. Daniel destroyed one of them, bringing No. 43 Squadron’s score on that patrol to seven.

That afternoon Trollope led a second patrol into action, despite deteriorating weather conditions. Soon after crossing the front line he sighted four enemy two-seaters attacking a pair of RE.8 observation aircraft; five or six German single-seat fighters were also in the vicinity. Trollope led his pilots down to the aid of the REs and he singled out one of the two-seaters, firing in short bursts as he closed in to almost point-blank range. He saw pieces fly off the enemy aircraft’s wing, and then the whole wing collapsed. Turning hard, Trollope came round for a stern attack on another two-seater, running through heavy defensive fire from the German observer as he did so. A few moments later the German was dead in his cockpit and the aircraft spiralling down in flames. Almost at once, Trollope engaged a third two-seater which was flying at very low level; after a short burst of fire the enemy aircraft nose-dived into the ground, disintegrating on impact.

Pulling up, Trollope saw one of the squadron’s Camels hard pressed by a dozen German scouts, so he climbed hard to assist, soon joined by 2nd Lieutenants Owen and Highton. He saw each of these pilots destroy an enemy aircraft and engaged one himself, but then his ammunition ran out and he was forced to break off. On another patrol, nine Camels led by Henry Woollett fired 6,800 rounds in strafing attacks on enemy troops, and Woollett also shot down two observation balloons. By the end of the day, Lieutenant ‘Bert’ Hull, No. 43 Squadron’s records officer, could report to his CO, Major Miles, that the unit had broken all previous records, having destroyed twenty-two enemy aircraft without loss in the day’s fighting, and that the destruction of six by Captain Trollope in a single day had created a new RFC/RNAS record.

No. 43 Squadron, now based at La Gorgue, had arrived in France fourteen months earlier. Equipped initially with Sopwith One-and-a-half-Strutters, it had begun to receive Camels in September 1917, and from then on its successes had continued to mount. On the Flanders front, flying operations were severely hampered by foul weather in the first weeks of 1918, but on the few favourable flying days there were some spirited combats between the opposing sides, the RFC crews often finding themselves outnumbered. Most of the activity took place in the second half of the month, and the following extracts from the operations record of No. 43 Squadron are fairly representative of fighter operations during this period:

17 February. Trollope’s patrol of five Camels encountered an enemy formation of eight machines. As a result of the combat which ensued three enemy machines were driven down out of control.

18 February. Captain Trollope while on a special mission (alone) saw three Armstrong Whitworths under attack by six enemy machines. He at once attacked the enemy who were then joined by six more. Trollope fought the twelve for ten minutes until all his ammunition was exhausted, by which time the enemy machines had all flown away to the east.

19 February. Second Lieutenant R.J. Owen whilst on patrol on his own was attacked by five enemy scouts in the vicinity of the Bois de Biez. He fought the five, one of which according to the testimony of anti-aircraft gunners was seen to fall in flames.

26 February. Captain Trollope leading a patrol of nine Camels saw four DFWs escorted by fifteen enemy scouts. He led the patrol into the attack. Although gun trouble prevented him from joining in he stayed in the middle of the fight and saw two enemy machines crash and a third fall out of control.

Before the Armistice brought the carnage of the First World War to an end in November 1918, the formidable Sopwith Camel would destroy more enemy aircraft than any other Allied type. In the hands of a novice it displayed vicious characteristics that could make it a killer; but under the firm touch of a skilled pilot, who knew how to turn its vices to his own advantage, it was one of the most superb fighting machines ever built.

Designed by Herbert Smith as a successor to the Sopwith Pup and Triplane, the Camel prototype made its appearance in December 1916. Early production aircraft were powered either by the 130 hp Clerget 9B or the 150 hp Bentley BR1 rotary engine, but subsequent aircraft were fitted with either the Clerget or the 110 hp Le Rhone 9J. Armament comprised twin Vickers guns mounted in front of the cockpit, and four 9 kg (20 lb) Cooper bombs could be carried under the fuselage for ground attack.

The first unit to receive Camels was No. 4 Squadron of the Royal Naval Air service, followed by No. 70 Squadron RFC, both in July 1917. By the end of the year 1,325 Camels (out of a total of 3,450 on order at that time) had been delivered, and were used widely for ground attack during the Battles of Ypres and Cambrai. In March 1917, meanwhile, a shipboard version of the Camel, the 2F.1, had undergone trials; designed to operate from platforms on warships, from towed lighters or from the Royal Navy’s new aircraft carriers, this differed from the F.1 in having a slightly shorter wing span, and, instead of the starboard Vickers gun, a Lewis angled to fire upwards through a cut-out in the upper wing centre section. The 2F.1’s principal mission was Zeppelin interception; 340 examples were built, but the first of these did not become operational until the spring of 1918. By the end of the war, however, 2F.1 Camels were deployed on five aircraft carriers, two battleships and 26 cruisers of the Royal Navy. On 11 August 1918, a 2F.1 Camel flown by Lieutenant Stuart Culley, and launched from a lighter towed behind the destroyer HMS Redoubt, intercepted and destroyed the Zepplin L.53 over the Heligoland Bight.

Early in 1918, while the pilots of the RFC and RNAS in France learned how to master the Camel in combat, the type went into action over southern England against German night bombers. One of the biggest threats was posed by the Zeppelin (Staaken) R Type, known as the Riesenflugzeug (giant aircraft). This monster was capable of carrying a 2,200 lb bomb at 14,000 feet at 80mph under the power of its four 260 hp Mercedes engines; moreover, it was defended by five machine guns, which made it a much tougher target than the Gotha, the other and more prolific bomber type.

The first German bombing raid of 1918 was mounted on the night of 28/29 January, when thirteen Gothas and two Giants were despatched to attack London. In the event seven Gothas and one Giant succeeded in doing so, killing sixty-seven civilians, injuring another 166, and causing damage of nearly £190,000. The raid was thwarted to some degree by fog, as far as the Gothas were concerned, while one of the Giants had engine trouble and was forced to turn back, having jettisoned its bombs into the sea off Ostende.

One of the Gothas involved in the London attack dropped its bombs on Hampstead at 9.45 pm and was then tracked by searchlights as it flew over north-east London. The beams attracted the attention of two patrolling Sopwith Camel pilots of No. 44 Squadron from Hainault – Captain George Hackwill and Lieutenant Charles Banks – who at once gave chase and independently picked up the glow from the Gotha’s exhausts as it passed over Romford at 10,000 feet. Banks was flying a Camel with an unconventional armament; in addition to its normal pair of Vickers guns it also carried a Lewis, mounted on the upper wing centre section and using the new RTS ammunition. Designed by Richard Threlfall and Son, this combined explosive and incendiary qualities. It was Banks who attacked first, closing from the left to about thirty yards behind the Gotha and opening fire with all three guns. Hackwill meanwhile closed in from the right and also opened fire, effectively boxing in the German bomber and presenting an impossible situation to its gunner, whose field of fire was restricted. After ten minutes or so the Gotha caught fire and dived into the ground near Wickford, where it exploded. It would almost certainly have crashed anyway, even if it had not caught fire, for a subsequent examination of the crew’s bodies revealed that the pilot had been shot through the neck. Hackwill and Banks were each awarded the Military Cross for their exploit.

The last view of many a German airman. This Camel, seen taking off from Hainault Farm in Essex, was flown by Major Murlis Green, night-fighting specialist. (IWM)

An hour after the last Gotha had cleared the coast, the Riesenflugzeug was over Sudbury, having made landfall over Hollesley Bay, east of Ipswich, and was droning towards London via a somewhat tortuous route. By this time, at least forty-four fighters were searching for it. Shortly after it had released its bombs over London, the Giant was picked up east of Woolwich by a Sopwith Camel of No. 44 Squadron flown by Lieutenant Bob Hall, a South African. Hall followed it as far as Foulness, cursing in helpless frustration all the way because he could not get his guns to work. The Giant got away. The anti-aircraft barrage scored one success that night, but unfortunately its victim was a Camel of No. 78 Squadron flown by Lieutenant Idris Davies, whose engine was stopped by a near shell burst at 11,000 feet over Woolwich. Davies tried to glide back to Sutton’s Farm, but he hit telegraph wires near the Hornchurch signal box and was catapulted out of the cockpit. He fell between the railway lines, amazingly without injury, but the Camel was a complete loss. Forty minutes later Davies was sitting in another Camel, ready to take off if need be.

The following night witnessed the most remarkable night battle of the war, when three Giants out of four despatched attacked southern England. The fourth, having developed engine trouble over the Channel, bombed fortifications near Gravelines before returning to its base, while the other crossed the English coast between Southend and the Naze. One of these, the R.26, developed engine trouble soon after crossing the coast and began losing height, so its crew jettisoned the bomb load and limped back across the Channel on two engines, eventually landing at Ostende. A second Giant, the R.39, came inland via the Blackwater estuary and approached London from the north-west at approximately 11,000 feet. It was sighted by Bob Hall of No. 44 Squadron, who pursued it until it became lost in the haze near Roehampton. Once again, Hall’s guns gave trouble and he had no opportunity to open fire. Meanwhile, the Giant had dropped its bombs on residential areas between Acton and Richmond Park, the crew having apparently mistaken Hammersmith Bridge for Tower Bridge, which was several miles to the east.

South of the Thames, the R.39 was attacked briefly and with no visible result by Captain F.L. Luxmoore of No. 78 Squadron, flying a Sopwith Camel. He fired fifty rounds on his first pass, but as he made a second firing run one of his bullets struck the Camel’s propeller and the brilliant tracer element flew back into his face, temporarily blinding him. By the time his night vision was restored, the bomber had vanished. Shortly after this the R.39, now down to 9,500 feet and travelling very fast, was located by Captain G.H. Hackwill of No. 44 Squadron, who was also flying a Camel. Hackwill gave chase and fired 600 rounds from long range before shortage of fuel compelled him to break off. The Giant was last seen as it crossed the coast near Hythe by 2nd Lieutenants F.V. Bryant and V.H. Newton, the crew of an Armstrong Whitworth FK.8 of No. 50 Squadron. They too gave chase, but lost the bomber in haze.

The third Giant, the R.25, crossed the coast near Foulness at 22.50 hours and was almost immediately attacked by 2nd Lieutenant F.R. Kitton of No. 37 Squadron, flying a BE.2e. Diving his aircraft at a shuddering 100 mph, he got under the Giant’s tail and fired a complete drum of ammunition at it, observing several hits, but lost the bomber while he was busy rearming. The R.25 was next attacked by Bob Hall of No. 44 Squadron at 23.15 hours over Benfleet, but his guns kept on jamming as he pursued it. He was joined by 2nd Lieutenant H.A. Edwardes, also of No. 44 Squadron, who fired three long bursts before his guns also jammed.

By this time the R.25 was taking violent evasive action. The battle had now attracted three more Camels, all from No. 44 Squadron; the first on the scene was 2nd Lieutenant T.M. O’Neill, who fired 300 rounds before his guns jammed too. Next came the squadron commander, Major Murlis Green, who was flying a Camel equipped with two Lewis guns using RTS ammunition. He had already made one run, only to break away when he almost flew into O’Neill’s fire. Now he closed in again to be greeted by the full attention of the Giant’s rear gunner. Undeterred, he fired three quarters of a drum at the bomber before suffering a stoppage which he was unable to clear. As his second Lewis also refused to function, he had no choice but to return to base to have the trouble put right.

The R.25 was now in trouble. The Camels’ fire had put one of its engines out of action and some of its instruments had also been smashed. Although unable to maintain height with a full bomb load, and with their speed down to about 60 mph, the crew decided to press on to London. The Giant’s bombs fell in open ground near Wanstead. Up to this point the R.25 had been harried by Bob Hall, who was able to fire only five rounds before each stoppage; he now lost his target, but encountered the R.39 a few miles to the west. The R.25 scraped home to Ostende, having survived successive attacks by five fighters. They had collectively fired over 800 rounds at her, and after landing she was found to have taken no fewer than eighty-eight hits. Had the fighters not suffered continual gun stoppages, there seems little doubt that they would have brought down the bomber. However, there were other factors in their failure to do so; analysing the action later, the Camel pilots of No. 44 Squadron realised that the Giant’s sheer size had led them to believe that they had been firing from a much closer range than was actually the case. Instead of closing to within fifty yards, as they had thought at the time, they must have been anything up to 250 yards away.

The last German aircraft raid on Britain in the First World War took place on the night of 20/21 May 1918. Twenty-eight Gothas and three Giants set out to attack London, and were met by a vastly more effective night fighter force than had been the case four months earlier, at the time of the previous night raids. Seventy-four Camels and SE.5s went up to intercept the bombers, shooting down three Gothas, while the anti-aircraft defences claimed two more and a sixth crashed in Essex after engine failure. It was the biggest loss suffered by the German bombers in a single night’s operations over England, and it was to be more than two decades before they came again.

At the beginning of March, despite continuing bad weather, the enemy’s air effort in Flanders intensified, with much activity by observation aircraft. There were some brisk engagements, and on 13 March seven Camels of No. 43 Squadron, escorting a pair of FK.8s, encountered a mixed force of fifteen Albatros and Pfalz Scouts and attacked them. Captain Henry Woollett fired at one, which broke up in mid-air, then engaged a second, which went out of control and crashed. Two more were shot down by 2nd Lieutenant Peiler, and one each by 2nd Lieutenants Lingham, Lomax, King and Dean. A ninth enemy aircraft was shot down by an observer in one of the FK.8s, which belonged to No. 2 Squadron, whereupon the remainder broke off the action and flew away.

On 16 March, seven Camels of No. 4 (Australian) Squadron, which was part of the 10th (Army) Wing, took off from Bruay to attack targets near Douai with 20 lb bombs. The attack was carried out without incident, but as the Camels were climbing to 16,000 feet to cross the front line they were hotly engaged by a formation of sixteen brightly-painted Albatros Scouts, readily identifiable as belonging to the Richthofen Geschwader. While four of the Albatros remained at altitude, ready to dive down and pick off stragglers, the other twelve attacked in pairs. The Australian flight commander, Lieutenant G.F. Malley, and Lieutenant C.M. Feez avoided the first pass and went in pursuit of the two Albatros, which were diving in formation. The Australians shot both of them down. Meanwhile, Lieutenant A.W. Adams, some 2,000 feet lower down, fought a hectic battle with two more scouts and destroyed one of them, while Lieutenant W.H. Nicholls, pursued down to ground level, was forced to land behind the German lines and was taken prisoner. Another Camel pilot, Lieutenant P.K. Schafer, was attacked by three Albatros of the high flight; as he was attempting to evade, the Camel flicked into a spin and fell 10,000 feet before the shaken Australian managed to recover. He landed at Bruay with sixty-two bullet holes in his aircraft. On the following day, Captain John Trollope of No. 43 Squadron sighted six enemy scouts while flying alone on an altitude test (a favourite ploy of pilots lacking the necessary authorization to carry out lone patrols over the front line). He climbed above them and attacked, sending one down out of control. The other five dived away. Shortly afterwards, while returning to base, Trollope sighted four more enemy aircraft and attacked one at close range. It caught fire and broke up. Trollope at once turned to engage the rest, but they flew away eastwards.

The Camel could be a tricky aircraft to handle, as the pilot of this one discovered while attempting a forced landing. (via J.R. Cavanagh)

On 21 March, the Germans launched a massive offensive against the British Third and Fifth Armies. A magnificent defence by the British infantry divisions in the centre of the Third Army’s sector, south-east of Arras, kept the line intact, but the right flank near Bapaume was hard-pressed and fighting a desperate rearguard action as the troops strove to maintain contact with the fragmented and retreating Fifth Army. It was in this sector, on the 23rd, that some of the most intensive air operations took place. The Camels of No. 4 (Australian) Squadron were in the thick of the fighting here. On the morning of the 23rd, the Squadron received orders to attack the Germans near Vaux-Vraucourt and along the Bapaume-Cambrai road. Two flight of six Camels took off just after 10.00 am, led by Captain Courtney, and flew to their objective at low level, keeping under 500 feet the whole way. The low-level attack took the enemy troops by surprise, the bombing and strafing throwing the Germans into confusion and panic. Top cover during the initial attack was provided by Lieutenant G.F. Malley’s six Camels, which dived on several Albatros attempting to attack the strafing flight. Malley shot down two of the enemy fighters, and 2nd Lieutenant Scott destroyed a third. Bapaume was now in enemy hands, and later in the day No. 4 Squadron was ordered to attack British ammunition dumps there which had not been destroyed by the retreating troops. Whether the dumps were hit or not is not recorded, but the Camels were attacked by enemy fighters soon after dropping their bombs. One Australian pilot, Lieutenant A.E. Robertson, shot down one Fokker Triplane and ‘drove two others down out of control’.

Strafing attacks by the Camel squadrons played a major part in containing the German offensive, which eventually petered out, and during the remaining months of 1918 the Camel established a degree of air superiority over the Western Front that it would never lose, even though the enemy now deployed formidable new fighter aircraft such as the Fokker D.VII, arguably the best fighter to see operational service in the 1914–18 War.

By the end of the conflict the Camel squadrons had begun to rearm with the Sopwith Snipe, which was built around the new 230 hp Bentley BR.2 rotary engine and was considered to be the best Allied fighter in service at the time of the Armistice. Ordered into production at the beginning of 1918 after a somewhat protracted development programme, the Snipe was issued to No. 43 Squadron in France in September, followed by No. 208 Squadron and No. 4 (Australian) Squadron. By 30 September 161 Snipe Mk.Is had been delivered. Over 4,500 examples of this very effective fighter were ordered, but there were heavy cancellations and only 497 were built.

The Sopwith Camel went on to see action after the Armistice of November 1918, in support of the Allied Intervention Force in Russia. In South Russia, the RAF deployed No. 47 Squadron from Amberkoj in Greece to Ekaterinodar in April 1918, and No. 221 Squadron, together with ‘A’ Flight of No. 17 Squadron, from Mudros to Petrovsk in December. No. 47 Squadron was commanded by a renowned air fighter, Major Raymond Collishaw, the third-ranking ace of the British Empire with sixty-two victories to his credit. The function of Nos 17 and 221 Squadrons, both of which were equipped with DH.9s, was to bomb the Bolshevik bases on the Caspian and provide air support for the Royal Navy, which was operating a small armada of vessels in the area. By May 1919, following a series of limited air-sea actions against the Bolsheviks, the whole of the Caspian with the exception of Astrakhan was in Allied hands.

The Camel’s immediate successor was the Sopwith Snipe, which equipped the RAF’s fighter squadrons in the immediate post-war years. (Source unknown)

Rare photograph of Sopwith Snipes in South Russia, 1919. (Source unknown)

No. 47 Squadron comprised three flights, two equipped with DH.9 and 9A bombers and one with Sopwith Camels, all of them war-weary. In March 1919, the squadron moved to Beketovka to lend direct support to White Russian ground operations, carrying out reconnaissance, ground attack and escort work, and in May the pilots were ordered to step up their operations and destroy as many enemy aircraft as possible in support of the White Russian advance on Tsaritsyn. Attacks centred on Urbabk airfield, where several red air units were based, and the squadron mounted a series of ground attack operations in the Tsaritsyn area. By the end of the month, No. 47 Squadron’s aircrews had accounted for some twenty enemy aircraft in air engagements.

The squadron flew