Australian Ace Major R.S. Dallas

[Regulus]

Hi,

On the 20th may 1916 he claims his 2nd victory, a seaplane (of Seeflugstation Flandern) that is destroyed 4m of Blankenberge at 0700 hrs in the morning (British time).
I know of operation between 02.00 and 06.00 hours, German time, of 6 seaplanes who bombed Dover, Deal, Margate and Ramsgate. Not aware of any losses. Am I missing a piece ? Can anyone fill me in on this ?
Thanks ! :

VBR from Regulus

[MikeW]

In his own words:

1.40pm Nieuport 3993

.....when off Blankenbergue encountered German seaplane dived and shot him down, saw him sink. .......


I don't have the squadron record or the CITAR for this so can't confirm what they say.


Mike

[MikeW]

aaarrrggghh, sorry, bum information, the 1.40 was not the time, but was his time in the air - he does not specify the time of day.

Mike

[Regulus]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for that ! So it could also have been the morning reconaissance flight that was done day after day over the Northsea.

Should be able to clear this up in the following two weeks with a little luck.

VBR from Regulus

[Soderbaum]

Hi

Which German crew of SFS I flew a/c 521 on this day(of the seven a/c) and what possible happened to this a/c...?

The other six a/c all seems to have returned OK..

???
Gunnar

[Soderbaum]

Hi again

The data presented by Andrew a few days ago in "Medals" on this Forum indicates that Dallas actually made his claim on 21 May 1916....

And according to this report there is NOTHING said about Seaplanes...

The German a/c was also reported attacking Dunkirk, but actually the Seaplanes of SFS I attacked towns at the british coast....

The a/c 521 mentioned by me above actually survived and served througout the summer 1916...

If it was during a German bomb attack against Dunkirk possible a/c from either KG 1 or KG 3 could have been involved...

Can anyone clear up this mess please...
:-/
Gunnar

[MikeW]

Gunnar,

In his log book, Dallas is quite specific about a seaplane and the entry is for the 20th May.....However, I believe that Dallas was, just like Collishaw, a very sloppy notekeeper, and didn't bother to keep his log book up to date. Instead, as was fairly common practice, just before the CO's inspection he probably rushed round like a headless chicken trying to find out what he had been doing for the last week or so.

I have certainly found serious discrepancies between some of his later log entries and the squadron records - unfortunately he was not yet flying the triplane at this time, so I don't have A squadron's records for May 16.

Not much help am I?

Mike

[MikeW]

I have just had a look at the entry for the 21st May, and I would say that it ties in with his medal citation reasonably well - it was a different situation, and he attacked a large flight of bombing machines using someone else's Nieuport!

He seems to be claiming one shot down in the log book.


I would say that the events quoted for the 20th and the 21st were two completely separate occurances.


Mike

However, I believe that Dallas was, just like Collishaw, a very sloppy notekeeper, and didn't bother to keep his log book up to date.

Mike you are quite right. Dallas was notorious for his lack of paper work. It has been often written that he didn't bother to submit CITARS after successful combats. If that is the case I guess his log book suffered the same lack of attention.

Andrew.

[Soderbaum]

Thanks guys..!

Your answers made the incidents a "bit" clearer...

However I am still missing these possible sources...

1. The War Diary/squadron recordings for these two days..

2. The Wing reports for these two incidents...

3. The possible equivalent Naval reports to RFC communiqes

It seems that most of the activities of the British Naval flyers still are a complete "Black hole" regarding informations(except 3 Naval Wing)

Where can I read about the 4 and 5 Naval Wings which both units were active in the Flanders area in 1916 with bombing..??


Gunnar