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Spying for the BEF

Photo Details
Pete Hill



Two-seater Pilot

Registered: January 2006
Location: Murtoa Vic. Australia
Posts: 147
users gallery
This painting (completed in Gouache medium on paper) depicts a Bleriot of the fledgling RFC on August 22 1914 on a recconaissance mission near Mons. The pilot spotted the advancing German army bearing down on the exposed flank of the smaller British army contingent. The pilot's information helped to warn BEF commander General John French of the vulnerable position of his troops and prompted him to cancel an order to advance that would have sent his outnumbered men to their doom. Instead he ordered his troops to dig in at Mons and thus begin a series of defensive actions that inflicted heavy losses on the Germans. I based this work on information from Lyn MacDonald's "1914" which only mentions that it was a 'pilot of the RFC'. Knowing that the small force of about 70 aeroplanes possessed, in August, Bleriots, Farmans and BE2s, I simply took a guess. I am not even sure I got the markings correct. Can anybody out there tell me?
· Date: Mon - 13 February 2006 · Views: 4040 · Filesize: 26.0kb · Dimensions: 420 x 295 ·
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Rating: ********** 9.67
Keywords: Spying for BEF
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Yellowtail
Observer

Registered: November 2005
Mon - 20 February 2006 2:02am Rating: 10.00 

Like the little moment of history being captured here
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Old Man
Two-seater Pilot

Registered: September 2004
Posts: 273
Sat - 4 March 2006 10:11am

I believe the mission you are representing here, Sir, was flown by two machines, a Bleriot and a B.E. 2a. I am basing this on recollection of a drawing in a pictorial history of the R.A.F. that is not immediately to hand to check, but that I think is accurate, and includes the serial numbers.


I regret to inform you no R.F.C. machine flying in August, 1914 would have sported roundels. The original finish of R.F.C. machines was simply clear doped linen, clear varnished wood, and bare metal, with the aeroplane's serial marked on the vertical tail surface. Towards the end of August, after an R.F.C. crew forced to land had some difficulties with local French authorities who mistook them for Germans, it was directed that machines be marked with a small Union Jack on the lower portion of the rudder. About the same time, the Union Jack was marked on the undersurface of the wings in the hopes of reducing the friendly fire taken from infantrymen, who tended to take pot-shots at anything in the air above them. The measure did not help, and indeed, the red cross of the Jack sometimes registered as a German cross. The decision to copy the French cockade, in reversed colors, was not taken until near the end of 1914, and the introduction of the device was not uniform until early 1915. In many instances, the roundels were marked only on the undersurfaces of the wings.


However, Bleriot types did remain in R.F.C. service into the period where roundels were generally employed, both in front-line and training units. You have made an excellent picture, very well executed and splendid to look at.
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Roadhog

Forum Ace

Registered: June 2005
Location: The Joad homestead north of Abilene, Kansas.
Posts: 834
Fri - 28 July 2006 3:56pm Rating: 9.00 

Great concept put down on canvas. It takes something utilitatian and makes it beautiful. Great work. Roadhog
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