Captain Albert Ball VC, DSO

Douglass Whetton’s interview with Cyril Ball appeared in the C&C Journal, vol. 2, #2, Summer 1961:

W: Your brother is reported as being a crack shot with a revolver. Is that so?

Mr. Ball: He was good, and I have seen him shoot the centre out of the Ace of Hearts. But then I could clip the card myself, given half a chance.

W: Many writers in the past have written that Captain BALL was something of a violin playing religious person, who, after shooting down a German would retire to his hut to play.

MB: Bunkum! ALBERT played the violin, I played the piano, and my sister sang. Before the war we had our little family sing-songs, but while he could play, he was not in any meaning of the word perfect. He was not so religious that he let the shooting down of a German worry him. After he became engaged it was a little different. Perhaps he looked to God for protection, at least towards the end. I don’t really know.

W: How do you think he met his death?

MB: After all these years, who knows, or even cares?

W: I do. Can you give any details; do you know of the letter your father wrote to the Baroness von RICHTHOFEN, which was in the old RICHTHOFEN home?

MB: First I have heard of it, but my father may have written. He thought a lot of ALBERT. He was so terribly proud of him; thought the world of him, and was never just the same after he had gone.

W: Do you think it possible that LOTHAR von RICHTHOFEN could have shot your brother down?

MB: For a long time the family all thought he had been shot down by a machine gun battery, located in a church tower, but it seems fairly certain that he was engaged with an ALBATROS shortly before his aircraft crashed, and it is possible that LOTHAR’s fire wounded him, just as his fire wounded LOTHAR and he dived into the ground.

W: It is always reported that his aircraft crashed, and that he was unmarked.

MB: While my mother was alive the family never mentioned his end, but after the war I visited the spot, and I found a Frenchwoman who had been the first at the crash, before the Germans arrived. She informed me that she had pulled him from the wreckage and that he was still alive, but barely so. She said he had a head wound. She held him in her arms until he died. During this time he did not speak, but he opened his eyes a few moments before he died.

W: I am sorry if this is painful for you.

MB: After all these years, no. I remember him as he was. We had a little runabout car, which we drove like mad up from Grantham. He was a great lad.

W: Was he as unassuming as he is made out to be?

MB: Yes indeed. He hated any kind of show at all. My father loved it. He like being the father of England’s first real ace. When on leave he stayed in as much as possible, although he always found time to visit the people who worked for him in his little factory, to see how they were getting on, and to thank them for looking after his place.

W: Captain BALL became engaged before he left for France the last time. Do you think this had any effect on him?

MB: Certainly it didn’t make him any more careful. It made him in a hurry to finish the job at hand. He would have come back at the end of May, for a rest, and perhaps to work on his Scout. (Austin Ball Scout.) Unfortunately I did not see him very much, being in the R.F.C. myself. But it was obvious that he was suffering from battle fatigue. He should never have gone back to France in April 1917. He may have looked all right, but he was mentally and physically spent.

W: The AUSTIN BALL SCOUT, do you have any details on this?

MB: Very little. ALBERT drew up a set of plans, of what he considered the ideal fighting scout should look like. These he passed on to my father who had shares in the Austin Company. The plans being redrawn, ALBERT was most annoyed when the Company wanted to call it the AUSTIN SCOUT, and this was one of the very few times I saw him really upset. He made them change the name to the AUSTIN BALL SCOUT. While he hated sham or show off, he liked to be given the credit for his engineering skills.

W: During the last few weeks in France in 1917, did he express any opinions in letters on the German air force?

MB: He did, both to my father and mother. He was convinced the R.F.C. was in for a rough time. He said to me in a letter, “Get out on SPADS.”

Here he showed me a letter, dated March 22, 1917:
“The Hun RFC is far ahead of us this time, in fact about 30 m.p.h. Oh I do wish I had got a NIEUPORT, and above all I wish I had my own machine. The S.E. 5 has turned out a dud. Its speed is only about half NIEUPORT speed, and it is not so fast in getting up. It is a great shame for everybody thinks they are so good ans expects such a lot from them. Well, I am making the best of a bad job. If Austin will not buck up and finish a machine for me, I shall have to go out on a S.E. 5’S and do my best. I am getting one ready. I am taking one gun off, in order to take off weight. Also I am lowering the windscreen in order to take off resisitance. A great many things I am taking off in the hopes that I shall get a little better control and speed. But it is a rotten machine, and if Austin’s machine is not finished I am afraid things will not go very o.k.
“Now re coming home in a month. If I get my own machine I will come home in a month, but if I have to work on S.E. 5’S, the job I am out to do will take longer, so I may be two months. It will help the firm if I stay out a little longer, and this war is not at an end yet.”

W: I know you did get out to France, S.E.5’s wasn’t it?

MB: Yes, with 60 Squadron. I was shot down in February 1918. I was hit in the engine, and down came the ALBATROS D.V I think it was, and finished the job. I came home in December 1918.

W: Did Captain BALL write any last letters apart from those which appear in the books, “Captain Ball of The RFC” and “Captain Albert Ball, VC”?

MB: Yes. One only. It was never posted, but was returned with some other things by the Germans. The field in which he crashed was bought by my father, and the spot was concreted over, and the path made when the Germans carried his body to the road, was also concreted over. I visit his grave and this place every year, as near to May 7th as possible.

[Barrett]

Interesting that his brother describes Ball as Britain's "first real ace." At the end of 1916, Ball had 31 RFC victories while the next two tied at 10. Under Tillman's Realistic System (i.e., destroyed/captured only) Ball had 16.5 but nobody else had more than 6. He really was the class of the field.

[Vin]

Somewhere in the vicinity of Annoeullin is a paddock once owned by Albert Ball’s father or his nominee containing a concreted area and path and to which Cyril made his annual visit in May. Does anyone know what happened to it ? Who is its currently proprietor and is the commemorative concrete slab still there ?

[MikeW]

In 1979, it was said to be 1km east northeast of Annoeullin cemetary. The marker is in a field to the west of the D41C road from Carnin to Allennes-les-Marais, grid ref 964977 on sheet XXV-5 (Carvin) of the 1:50000 M761 series.

The memorial was said to be in good condition in 79.

[frontflieger]

May he rest in peace

Thorsten

[Vin]

Thanks, Mike. Do any of your resources say anything about the field ? When did Ball snr buy it ? Did he use it for anything other than as a memorial ? Is it still owned by Ball descendents ? Curious, if understandable, thing to do.

[MikeW]

Vin,

in 79 it was in the middle of a field of winter wheat - no sign at all of the cairn or memorial supposedly put up by Ball's father. Just seems to be a farmer's field!

Mike O'Connor would be the man to ask, do you want me to get in touch with him?

[Vin]

If it's not too much trouble for either of you, yes Mike. Its curiosity, nothing more so not life or death by any means.

There's a cocky in the mallee (rough wheat belt country to the north of Victoria) who is the grandson of Roby Manuel (2AFC). He has a replica of his grandfather's red SE5A and flies it around the farm from time to time. It attracts the odd article in the press from time to time. I've often though of driving up to his farm and asking him if I can have a look at the 'plane but haven't done so - yet.

Ball snr buying the paddock similarly arouses my curiosity.

[Bulldog90]

Thanks for posting the interview. It was very interesting. This is a little off topic, but has anyone ever read anything about what became of AB's fiance Flora after he was killed?

Bulldog 90

[gilles]

Hello

From Annoeullin official website :

1-the memorial is still there ("at a corner of Carnin wood")

2-the local school was christened "college Albert Ball" in 1999

I'm so glad they still remember Albert Ball .

gilles