Air Stories — page 57: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

NAVAL ONE England. The patrol was kept up for nearly three hours without success and only abandoned when a thick fog blotted out both land and sea. The Defenders of Dunkirk UCH a variety of duties, however, was obviously more than any one unit could efficiently undertake and in March, 1916, the Wing was reorganised into five flights—three of which later became No. 1 (Naval) Squadron while, in April, all bombing operations were taken over by Nos. 4 and 5 Wings, leaving No. 1 free to concentrate all its energies on coastal patrols, fighting and Fleet co-operation work. One of its most important tasks under the last heading was to provide the daily fighting patrols needed to defend the minelayers which, towards the end of April, were. engaged in laying the Belgian Coast Barrage, consisting of 18 miles of moored nets to which mines were attached. On several occasions the fighters had to repulse determined attacks made on the mine- sweepers by seaplanes from Zeebrugge and once Flight Sub-Lieutenant H. R. Simms fought a 15-minute duel with a particularly aggressive German pilot before he was able to out-manceuvre his oppon- ent and send him crashing into the water where the seaplane was blown up by its own bombs. + More victories were claimed by the Squadron the following month when they were called upon to take part in the defence of Dunkirk against a series of violent bombing raids from which it suffered, day and night, from the 19th to the 22nd of May. During one of these raids, made in the afternoon of the 21st, the Squadron’s Nieuports from St. Pol accounted for two of the raiders, the victorious pilots being Flight Commander Mulock and Flight Lieutenant Dallas. Later, on June toth, to facilitate their defence of the Dunkirk © area, the Squadron was offered the use of a French aerodrome at Furnes_ which, situated ten miles nearer the lines than St. Pol, gave them a much better chance of intercepting the raiders before they could reach Dunkirk. 5D The offer was gladly accepted and a special unit, known as ‘‘ A ’’ Squadron and consisting of two flights of Nieuport Scouts under Squadron Commander F. K. Haskins,* was detached from No. 1 Wing at St. Pol and sent to the new advanced landing-ground. It was here, too, that the Squadron received its first Sopwith Triplane, a machine far superior in performance to any other of that time and the type with which, by 1917, the whole squadron was to be equipped. For the rest of the year, both sections of the Squadron, operating from St. Pol and from Furnes respectively, were kept busy on fighting patrols and reconnaissance, and evidence of the pressure under which they worked is the fact that in July alone they made no less than rio fighting patrols and carried out 45 escort jobs. Towards the end of 1916, the fighting strength of the R.N.A.S. units at Dunkirk was drawn upon to strengthen the R.F.C. on the Western Front and to the squadron which resulted—known as No. 8 Naval—No. 1 contributed a flight of Sopwith Pups. So noteworthy was the work of this R.N.A.S. squadron that it was not long before General Trenchard was calling for further support from the R.N.A.S. and in February, 1917, No. 1 (Naval) Squadron, now re-equipped with Sopwith Triplanes, reported for duty at Chipilly, led by Squadron Commander Haskins, who had formerly commanded ‘‘ A ’’ Squadron at Furnes. A Meeting with Richthofen HE Squadron, sixteen strong, arrived on the Western Front on the eve of the Battle of Arras for which it was transferred to the 13th (Army) Wing of the 3rd Brigade and stationed at La Bellevue. Its principal duties were to carry out offensive patrols in small for- mations and to provide escorts for bombing raids up to 20 miles within the enemy lines. In one month, between April 22nd and May 23rd, the Squadron recorded 95 offensive patrols, and engagements with no less than 175 enemy aircraft. * Now Air Commodore, R.A.F.(retired). CO LOO) (©