R.I.P., Albert.

[Paddy]

Rest in peace, Captain Ball. Your spirit lived on in 56 Sqn.

Thanks Paddy,
I would forget if you did not remind...Albert Ball is one of my favourite aces and perhaps most favourite among allied forces. I think it is important to remind Allied aces as well as German aces. BTW that day another start arose... Arthur Rhys Davids.
Regards Honza.

[Jos]

Painting of Albert Ball's last flight.

http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k1...LastFlight.jpg

Greetings,


Jos

[Roadhog]

Albert was so young and such a gifted pilot. According to the an alleged German "eye witness" to his crash, he emerged from the low clouds inverted and crashed trying to right his aircraft. Sounds like severe combat fatique to me. From everything I have read, I honestly believe that what Ball needed more than accolades was a month away from the front.

At the risk of sounding like Ginger, I don't think any German alive could have killed Ball when he was healthy and at the top of his game. What do you all think. VR, Roadhog "Memento mori."

[alex_revell]

Road hog,
Why do you say 'alleged witnesses' to Ball's crash. There is no doubt that Ltn Hailer, his brother, and two other officers were present. Their testimony was accepted by the German authorities. The only thing that Lothar von Richthofen and the other pilots of Jasta 11 didn't like about Hailer's testimony was his statement that there was no sign that the SE had been brought down by any combat damage - either by bullet or shell. There were a few isolated and superficial bullet holes, not sufficient to have brought down the SE, and hardly surprising giving that Ball had been in action previously, and Ball had no injuries other that those sustained in the crash. When Jasta 11 phoned Hailer in the evening asking for any details of British aeroplanes brought down in his sector he told them that one had been flown by Albert Ball, but that, in his opinion, the SE had not been brought down by either aerial combat or anti-aircraft fire.
The early SE's engines had a tendency to flood the air intake if flown anywhere near a vertical bank, or in aerobatics of any kind, and would stop. A problem which was solved by 56 Sqdn's engineering officer in June 1917. My own opinion, for what it's worth, it that Ball became disoriented in the heavy cloud, the SE became inverted, the air filter flooded, stopping the engine, and when Ball came out of the cloud, inverted, at a very low height with no power, he had neither the skill or knowledge of how to right the SE before crashing. Don't forget that Ball was one of those early pilots whose knowledge and theory of flight was rudimentary to say the least. Even if his engine had not stopped I doubt he would have been able to reinvert the SE before hitting the ground. Personally I don't think there is any mystery regarding the manner of Ball's death. The people who speculate endlessly about it are merely another aspect of the conspiracy theorists who love to make a mystery out of any well know person's death, be it Monroe, or Lady Diana.

[Paddy]

Roadhog: Agreed! That is not an unreasonable supposition at all. He was a very experienced, very aggressive and often very lucky fighter pilot. If I remember correctly, he had come from a "rest" being an instructor before being posted to 56 as a Flight Commander. (How much of a rest could that really be?) He got back into his stride pretty quickly when 56 was unleashed against the Huns, even though at first he did not like the SE5. The war in the air had changed since his time over the Somme, but he seems to have begun to adapt. Lothar?? Haw Haw Haw! Certainly not!
-
Alex: unbelievably, but apparently the same thing that took McCudden a year and a bit later! Tragedy

Originally Posted by Paddy

Lothar?? Haw Haw Haw! Certainly not!

Of course not. But Lothar even never claimed he shot down any SE5. Alex said it well... No mystery in fact.
Regards Honza.

[alex_revell]

Paddy, Yes, I knew about McCudden's crash. In all modesty, it was I who found the answer to the question of the reason for the crash. While I was researching HITEB I found 56 Sqdn's old engineering officer, H N Charles, who told me about the air filter problem. By July 1918 he was accident investigating officer for the RAF. He was sent to investigate the reason for McCudden's crash and found that the old type, unmodified air filter had been fitted. McCudden had a penchant for taking off in a steep climbing turn, which the eyewitnesses to the crash mistook for the beginning of a roll. More power was needed as bank increased, opened throttle, air filter flooded, engine chocked and stopped. McCudden had no chance. All because of the incompetence, not to say stupidity, of the people at the Royal Aircraft Factory. Charles told me that he and other sqdn's engineering officers were often, through their respective COs, informing the Factory of modifications to the SE5 which they had found necessary. The Factory's response was they they knew best. In essense: 'We build them, you fly them. Mind your own business' Incredible, but true. When I pointed out to Charles that there was no report on the accident in the files for the day and certainly no sign of his report, a copy of which he remembered had been sent to Trenchard, and that did he think that this meant the possbility of a cover up, he clammed up and said he'd rather not comment, but that, in his opinion, the air filter was definitely the reason for McCudden's fatal crash. Even when he later recorded his memories for the IWM I 'm pretty sure he didn't mention it.

[Skippy]

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.

[jastaflieger]

This may not be the appropriate spot to ask this question, but i have a question that to date has gone unanswered and so i hope that perhaps someone reading through this thread can offer some assistance.
In sagitarrius rising, Lewis mentions his last flight with Ball and mentions that Ball's se5 was "red-nosed". The painting mentioned earlier in this thread is definitely red-nosed!
Are there any experts out there that can confirm the markings of Ball's se5?