Ace of the Month

[Barrett]

November's ace of the month is selected owing to a series of happy coincidences. While reading Wayne Ralph's excellent Barker biography (get it if you haven't), I'm reminded that his favorite wingman's grand daughter has visited this site.
Gerald Alfred Birks hailed from Montreal. He soloed in 2.5 hours and went to Italy with the unusually high total of 138 hours flight time, where he joined No. 66 Squadron in March 1918. Assigned to C Flight, he soon became a favorite wingman of Capt. William Barker, and the aggressive pair cut a wide swath, almost constantly flying air-air and air-ground sorties. On 24 May, in a large dogfight, Birks shot down the Berg flown by Josef Kiss, CO of Flik 55J. Birks, who genuinely mastered the Camel, also was credited with another Austro-Hungarian ace, Karl Patzelt, CO of Flik 68J. By late June Birks was credited with 12 confirmed victories (all destroyed or captured), with 10 positively identified and two more likely. Eight of his victories came in May alone.
Barker asked Birks to go with him to France but by then Birks was tired and in need of a rest. Years later he said that he didn't think he'd have survived Barker's epic VC mission, being largely worn out. Very, very few RFC/RAF scout pilots came close to Birks' ratio of verified victories.
Interesting to note is that Birks did a little training in Canada after return from Italy and finished his aviation career with 311 hours total time!
A patron of the arts, he remained an active painter until shortly before his death in Toronto in May 1991, age 96.
In connection with Birks and Barker, I also take this chance to designate our own Wayne Ralph as Author of the Month!

[leo]

The Berg Fighter seemed to have some structural problems and would probably have been easy meat for a Camel. I wonder how the Alb DIII of the 253 series stood up to the Camel? Anyone have any opinions or facts?

leo

[Barrett]

Barker fought a couple of prolonged engagements with A-H Albatrii. Any aircraft that could give the Barker/Camel combo a tussle was some machine!

[stephen]

I have an opinion that is at least based on fact... how's that?

The A/H Alb was vastly superior to its German counterpart in nearly every respect. Its biggest flaw, the wings ripping off in extreme maneuvers, was virtually eliminated with better wing construction. The engines of the 53, 153 and 253 series were progressively more powerful and had an airframe more capable of handling it. So you gotta believe that while the Camel could still turn circles around it, the Oeffag Albatros must have had an edge in strength, climb, and likely top speed (at least with the 253 series). As an extreme example, these two aircraft may have matched up much like the DrI and SPAD.

And Barrett, very good stuff on Birks. I'm sorry I never got to hear from him, but at that point they were dying off faster than I could write letters.

[Barrett]

Barker, Birks & Co. repeatedly had to abandon chases of A-H Albatrii because the Camel simply couldn't keep up. I suspect the KuK lads may have used vertical tactics to negate the Camel's unparalleled turn radius, as otherwise it'd be very difficult to fight a prolonged engagement, which did happen fairly often.
It's possible that some of Gerry Birks' records may become available. Will keep the group informed.

[Barrett]

Good timing; just heard from the Birks family again. Those who want to round out the entry in ATT may note that he was born in Montreal 30 October 1894; died Toronto 26 May '91.