Graham Broad
22 February 2018, 12:56 PM
All,
An entry from a diary I'm editing for publication. As I mentioned on another thread, Leslie Miller was in the signals in the 5th Battalion CEF and his very literate and detailed diary is forthcoming for publication. Anyway, Miller often noted air activity when it occurred nearby. He was on the Ypres salient when he wrote the following entry:
"Much aeroplane activity overhead all day long. Germans had three sausage balloons up about the salient by 4:30 am. About 9 am one of our battle planes chased a German plane southward over Dickebusch, the British being much above the Hun.
Suddenly ours swooped directly down upon the enemy as if to attack him, but passed him, and in a steep narrow spiral dropped down and down until he disappeared head downward behind the trees to the left of Dickebusch. I hear that when he swooped to attack his enemy, something went wrong which made it necessary to land at once. This was carried out successfully though the pilot was unconscious and lost two fingers in the engine trouble. We could not be sure whether the unfortunate plane was ours or German, whether he was hit by shell splinters or machine gun fire, and whether he could land safely when coming down so suddenly. It was an astonishing spectacle to see a large plane dive from a height of fully a mile right to the ground in a few seconds.
I learn that a British plane was brought down by German shell fire and wrecked today behind our lines near Zillebeke. A German plane was also brought down behind our lines on the south side of the salient."
The British plane brought down by shell fire was probably a DH-2 flown by E.W. Barrett of 29 Squadron (KIA) according to The Sky Their Battlefield 2. Having trouble, though, with Miller's somewhat confused account of a British (?) machine crashing around 9 AM also the German machine brought down behind British lines.
As always, your expertise is appreciated and will be acknowledged in the work when published!
Best,
GB
An entry from a diary I'm editing for publication. As I mentioned on another thread, Leslie Miller was in the signals in the 5th Battalion CEF and his very literate and detailed diary is forthcoming for publication. Anyway, Miller often noted air activity when it occurred nearby. He was on the Ypres salient when he wrote the following entry:
"Much aeroplane activity overhead all day long. Germans had three sausage balloons up about the salient by 4:30 am. About 9 am one of our battle planes chased a German plane southward over Dickebusch, the British being much above the Hun.
Suddenly ours swooped directly down upon the enemy as if to attack him, but passed him, and in a steep narrow spiral dropped down and down until he disappeared head downward behind the trees to the left of Dickebusch. I hear that when he swooped to attack his enemy, something went wrong which made it necessary to land at once. This was carried out successfully though the pilot was unconscious and lost two fingers in the engine trouble. We could not be sure whether the unfortunate plane was ours or German, whether he was hit by shell splinters or machine gun fire, and whether he could land safely when coming down so suddenly. It was an astonishing spectacle to see a large plane dive from a height of fully a mile right to the ground in a few seconds.
I learn that a British plane was brought down by German shell fire and wrecked today behind our lines near Zillebeke. A German plane was also brought down behind our lines on the south side of the salient."
The British plane brought down by shell fire was probably a DH-2 flown by E.W. Barrett of 29 Squadron (KIA) according to The Sky Their Battlefield 2. Having trouble, though, with Miller's somewhat confused account of a British (?) machine crashing around 9 AM also the German machine brought down behind British lines.
As always, your expertise is appreciated and will be acknowledged in the work when published!
Best,
GB