17th Pursuit Squadron

Hi,

Does anyone know where this units base was in august 1918 ?
This concerning the DFC and DSC of Lt. Lloyd Andrews Hamilton.

Thanks,

Johan

[Ron_F]

Hi,
As near as i can tell in the reading of The Camel drivers, they were at Petite Synthe (?) until about the 16th when they went to Auxi-le-Chateau. Its kind hard to figure it out, but those are what i see in the text i skimmed through..

Petite Synthe (?) is south west of Dunkirk, and Auxi is north of Amiens and WNW of Doullens.

regards,
Ron

Thank you very much Ron, this helps me a lot further. Petite Synthe is written correct.

Regards,

Johan

I have 2 'first hand whitness reports' on the attack of 13th august at the airfield of Jabbeke by Lloyd Andrews Hamilton.
Anyone interested ?

Johan

Yes

I would very much appreciate an opportunity to see the reports. VBR. Lee

Concerning the two first hand witnessreports on the attack let me first of all tell you this :
They are interviews I did with two local persons who saw everything happen, one of them had probably made up a few details, the other one was much more serious, as it came from my grandfather, who knew I was able to check his story at least partially. However they are perhaps rather short but certainly to my personal view interesting.
I will put the text of what they told me and what really happened on the Forum friday or saturday afternoon, as I now have a very busy evening coming up.
Thanks for your patience.

Regards,

Johan

Ok, here comes part I
The stories as they told them to me
Both knew very well that it was on the 13th of august 1918, about 6.30 AM. One said there were 70 planes attacking the other said 75, so numbers were quite close to eachother. They both saw the attack from a different angle. It was still very quiet on the airfield of Jabbeke and my grandfather told me that they probably had another party, which seemed to have been not so unusual. A number of planes flew over bombing the airfield. During this first bombingpart it seems that a number of AA guns started firing, one from a farm near the road Brugge-Gistel at the southern edge of the airfield and one from near the castlelane at the extreme east of the airfield. Both agree that one plane was hit. One source says the plane landed and took again off moments later. The other source says the plane landed, fired its guns empty, the pilot destroyed his plane and took of in another plane that had landed in this time.
Then a second bombing round followed and there was also an attack on the castle, both agreed on the fact that they saw smoke coming from the castle of the family de Pelichy, were the pilots were staying. There was also smoke coming from other parts of the airfield. They also said that the Germans were firing with everything they had, but saw no (further) losses. Both agreed on the fact that it was a terrible experience, to see things happening from that close.

When the German troops retreated, many local people went to the airfield to destroy the barracks to have firewood. My grandfather found it more interesting to bring home from it a beautifull small desk, the one I am now sitting on to write this story on my computer. Thanks grandpa !

Part II what was claimed and what really happened.

The story of my both eyewitnesses seems to be quite accurate. The raid was done by 17th P.S. together with squadrons of the 5th Group. The plane they thought that they saw landing, was probably nothing else then the attack of Lloyd Andrews Hamilton at only a few meters above ground on a number planes.
In the communique the British claimed to have destroyed six Fokkers on the airfield, two in a hangar and a big hangar, half demolished another one, destroyed one personnel barrack and damaged several others. There also was they said destroyed a fuel dump that also put afire a ammo dump. The castle was totally destroyed and there were 26 pilots killed.

Of course this looks very good. The attack was very good, but not that good... Five Fokkers were destroyed (a big succes at the time!) on the ground, one of them with a pilot who burned alive in it, something my grandfather had always told me too, one hangar was destroyed, several personnel barracks damaged, but the fuel dump and the ammo would have given such a firework the witnesses would have seen it. And this was not the case. The castle destroyed ? No way, there was a small fire, that was it. It finally burned down at 1929. 26 pilots killed ? no way. 3 pilots were killed and one mechanic, a few other pilots and personnelmembers were wounded. At the 18th of august there was a service for the dead at the castle Blauwe Toren at Varsenare.
The DFC and DSC of Hamilton were well owned ! The day after the attack, coincidence or not, he shot down a plane near Brugge-Oostkamp of the I Marinefeldjasta manned by Flugmt Karl Goldenstedt. At the time of the attack the I, II, III Marinefeldjasta's were stationed on the Flugplatz Jabbeke. What really happened was partially told by The Osterkamp himself to the late Wilfried Roels of jabbeke at 15/9/1973 when he was there for the 5oth anniversary of the Guynemer monument.
Hope you enjoyed it a little.
Johan