The History of No.10 Squadron Royal Naval Air Service in World War I - Mike Westrop.pdf - Schiffer Publication - jasiu72

ISTORY OF NaJO SQ1lADRON

ftOYAL NAVAL AIR SER~ E

WORLD WAR I

A HISTORY OF Na.lO SQl.JADRON ROYAL NAVAL AIR SERVICE IN WORLD WAR I

A HISTORY OF No.10 SQ1JADRON

ROYAL NAVAL AIR SERVICE

IN WORLD WAR I

Mike Westrop

Schiffer Milita,'y History

Atglen, PA

Acknowledgements

This book would not have been possible without the support and encouragement of my wife and

ch iIdren, and the enthusiasm and assistance of many friends and contacts around the world. I wou Id

like to mention the following who have so generously provided help and research materials, and

spurred me on:

Les Rogers, Stuart Leslie, Trevor Henshaw, orman Franks, Andrew Smith, Steve Drew, Mike

O'Neal, Hugh Halliday, Jim Du Bois-Tyson, Stewart Taylor, the late Don Neate, the late Jack Bruce,

the late Phi I Markham, Jan Keohane at the Fleet Air Arm Museum, and staff at the Royal Air Force

Museum. I must especially thank Mark Miller for his wonderful illustrations, and Frank Cheesman

for proofreading the work.

CONTENTS

Introduction

Glossary

Expansion of RNAS at Dllnkerque

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Formation and early days of No.1 0 Squadron, RNAS

Reorganisation & The Black Flight..

Book design by Robert Biondi.

Worki ng for the RFC

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In Disgrace

Back Under Naval Control

The Royal Air Force

115

Appendices

Appendix A: Aircraft Markings

120

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Appendix B: Roster of pilots

142

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Appendix C: Roster of non-flying officers

172

Appendix D: Squadron claims

173

Appendix E: Casualties, crashes, and incidents

176

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Appendix F: Aircraft used

181

193

Bibliography

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T his book is the first in a series outlining the history of

:0 fa (j3asse

squadron's pilots who survived the war came to post war

prominenc in vastly differing fields, and, where appropriate,

I hav detailedth ir post war successes and failures.

Readers should be aware that the author takes a ceptical

view of combat claims and where the original documentation

does not upport them the more outrageou claims. made by

or on behalf of certain pilot. have been discounted. The

reference to original documentation is significant, much of

the content of this work being based upon original squadron

documents, backed up by pilot's log books. letters written by

the pilots, and transcripts of interviews. The author does not

wish to be dragged into disputes over how many victorie a

certain pilot did or did not score. For this reason the following

notes may clarify the criteria used in the presentation of this

aspect of the work.

Combat claims were generally regarded as either

"decisive" or "indecisive". A decision that was initially made

by the Squadron's Commanding Officer after reviewing the

combat and associated reports. The ultimate decision of

wheth I' a claim was granted would not be made until the claim

and all associated evidence had been considered by Wing HQ

and R S HQ. or in the silUation where a naval squadron

was working for the RFC. by Wing. Brigade and then RFC

HQ. Evidence might well be obtained from sources such as

balloon observers. infantry and artillery units, intelligence

agencies and other flying units.

A decisive claim generally fell into one of two camps:

'0 Lens o Jfenin Lietara

OcVll/IY

the Royal Naval Air Service squadrons. and the naval

derived Royal Air Force squadrons of the Great War. I

have chosen to start with one of the most famous, but

paradox ically. least known naval squadrons.

0 ([)ouai

o 1/itry

0.10 Squadron.

R AS.

0.10 Squadron R S, often informally referred to as

0.10 a al quadron. aval 10, and No.1 O( ) Squadron.

and its successor. NO.21 0 Squadron. Royal A i I' Force. have

always been something of an enigma. Everyone with an interest

in World War I aviation has heard of Raymond Collishaw's

legendary "Black Flight" of Sopwith Triplanes. and no book

dealing with Sopwith Camels is complete withoUl a photograph

of a brightly striped aval 10 Camel, but what else is really

known of the squadron? When compared to equivalent RFC

squadrons, or even one of the more popular naval squadrons,

No.IO Squadron RNAS has been unjustifiably ignored by

historians and researchers for many years.

My aim in this work, is to address this omission, starting

with a discussion of the R S expansion at Dunkerque and

working through to RNAS and RFC amalgamation on the lSI

April 1918 [0 form the fledgling Royal Air Force. The book

deals with the people, the machines, the plac s. the incidents

and the day-to-day victories and losses. The Black Flight is

dealt with in what I hope is a dispassionate manner. and will

certainly be at ariance with the hyperbole that has been

published in the past. [ have taken a detailed look at the

unprecedented incident that provided the impelUs for the

famous striped colour scheme to come into existence, and

hown that at least one Camel continued to carry stripes for

far longer than other authors have surmised. Many of the

o Cam6rai

•

Jl.eroaromes associateawitli 'No. 10 Squaaron (]?J{JLS

. -

- rrTie Western 'Front

Sketch map shOWing the area of operations for NO.1 0 Squadron RNAS, 1917-1918.

• "Out Of ontrol" where an opponent's machine was

considered to fall in an uncontrolled manner with little

chance of recovery.

• We now know that gross over-clai mi ng on the part of

the Allies was a regular occurrence.

• When trying to match Allied claims with German losses,

unless the German mach i ne was destroyed com plete! y,

or the German pilot was unable to return to his unit, no

loss was recorded in the German records,

Of course, the second category was open to signi ficant personal

interpretation and abuse. It must be remembered however, that

whether an opponent left the battle zone in an inverted spin

and after a fright recovered at a much lower altitude or simply

stalled his machine and spun away to fight another day, he

ceded the baltle zone to the victor. An important objective of a

scout machine wa to make the sky safe to enable the

observation. spotting and bombing machine to go about their

normal business. An "Out Of Control" achieved this objective.

When discussing victory claims, it help

• In the heat of battle, even the most experienced pilot

sometimes made mistakes in observation.

The claims presented in this book are pilots' declarations, 170l

corroborated victorie . The claims ar all supported by primary

documentation sources. squadron record books and Combat

Reports, This work does not place a trong emphasis on R S

and RFC Communiques which were basically summaries

produced by clerical staff and were often umel iable_ It does

not place any emphasis at all upon secondary published

sources, many of which have fed off their predecessors.

to remember a few

truths:

• Most encounters took place over enemy territory making

verification difficult.

• "Destroyed" where an enemy machine was seen to break

up in the air. fell in flames. or was seen to crash.

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