Royal Aircraft Factory SE5a

Royal Aircraft Factory SE5a

The Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5

 A British biplane fighter aircraft of the First World War.

It was developed at the Royal Aircraft Factory by a team consisting of Henry Folland and  John Kenworthy, and Major Frank Goodden.

It was one of the fastest aircraft of the war, while being both stable and relatively manoeuvrable.

According to aviation author Robert Jackson, the S.E.5 was: “the nimble fighter that has since been described as the Spitfire of World War one.

In most respects, the S.E.5 had superior performance to the rival Sopwith Camel, although it was less immediately responsive to the controls.

Problems with its Hispano-Suiza engine, particularly the geared-output H-S 8B-powered early versions, meant that there was a chronic shortage of the type until well into 1918.

Thus, while the first examples had reached the Western Front before the Camel, there were fewer squadrons equipped with the S.E.5 than with the Sopwith fighter.

Together with the Camel, the S.E.5 was instrumental in regaining Allied air superiority in mid-1917 and maintaining it for some time, ensuring there was no repetition of “Bloody April” 1917 when losses in the Royal Flying Corps were much heavier than in the Luftstreitkrafte.  

The S.E.5s remained in RAF service for some time following the Armistice that ended the conflict; some were transferred to various overseas military operators, while a number were also adopted by civilian operators.

Tirpitz the Pig Mascot of World War One

Tirpitz the Pig Mascot

In March 1915, the German light cruiser SMS Dresden was scuttled during the battle of Battle of Más a Tierra just off the coast of Chile.

Most of the crew managed to escape, along with a pig who had been kept on board to supply meat.

The pig had managed to swim away from the sinking SMS Dresden and was rescued by an officer of the British ship HMS Glasgow
.

Originally named Dennis, the pig was adopted by the crew as HMS Glasgow’s official mascot and eventually renamed Tirpitz
after German Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz (1849-1930). When the ship returned to Britain, Tirpitz took up residence at the Royal Navy’s zoo on Whale Island in Portsmouth.

Tirpitz, however, proved to be a rather rebellious prisoner of war, and after breaking
into a chicken run, she was rehomed and eventually auctioned by the Red Cross, raising 400 guineas for the charity after she passed.

Corporal Jackie the Baboon

Coperal Jackie the Baboon

Jackie was a chacma baboon who was found and adopted as a baby byAlbert Marr (1889-1973), at his family farm just outside Pretoria, South Africa.

When Marr joined the 3rd South African Infantry Regiment in 1915, he asked whether he could take
Jackie with him, to which the officer commanding the regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Edward Francis Thackeray (1870-1956), agreed.

Jackie was well trained and, having been reared by Marr, had developed a remarkably human-like personality, making him popular among the regiment’s men.

He joined the regiment in drill as they trained (holding a wooden rifle and learning to salute as required.
As the men formally enlisted, Jackie was adopted as the regiment’s official mascot, receiving his own
specially fitted uniform and even a pay book.

The regiment saw active service in Egypt and on the Western Front, where Jackie accompanied Private Marr wherever he went

It was said that when Marr was on sentry duty, Jackie was able to give a warning of enemy action with his keen vision and hearing.
During the German Spring Offensive in 1918, the South African 
Infantry Brigade suffered a large number of casualties, of which Jackie was one.

He received medical treatment, but unfortunately, had to have his leg amputated.

Nevertheless, Jackie and Marr survived the war, and upon their return to Britain, Jackie was promoted to corporal.

Like many animals, Jackie’s fame was put to good use, as he and Marr toured with the Red Cross to raise funds for the charity.

Medium Mark A Whippet British Tank

The Medium Mark A Whippet Tank of World War 1

The Medium Mark A Whippet was a British tank of the First World War. 

It was intended to complement the slower British heavy tanks by using its relative mobility and speed in exploiting any break in the enemy lines

Sopwith Dolphin

The Sopwith 5F.1 Dolphin of World War 1

The Sopwith 5F.1 Dolphin was a British fighter aircraft manufactured by the Sopwith Aviation Company. It was used by the Royal Flying Corps and its successor, the Royal Air Force, during the First World War. 

The Dolphin entered service on the Western Front in early 1918 and proved to be a formidable fighter. The aircraft was not retained in the postwar inventory and was retired shortly after the war.

In early 1917, the Sopwith chief engineer, Herbert Smith, began designing a new fighter (internal Sopwith designation 5F.1) powered by the geared 200 hp Hispano-Suiza 8B. 

The resulting Dolphin was a two-bay, single-seat biplane, 

with the upper wings attached to an open steel cabane frame above the cockpit. 

To maintain the correct centre of gravity, the lower wings were positioned 13 in (33 cm) forward of the upper wings, creating the Dolphin’s distinctive negative wing stagger. 

The pilot sat with his head through the frame, where he had an excellent view. 

This configuration sometimes caused difficulty for novices, who found it difficult to keep the aircraft pointed at the horizon because the nose was not visible from the cockpit. 

The cockpit was nevertheless warm and comfortable, in part because water pipes ran alongside the cockpit walls to the two side-mounted radiator blocks. 

A pair of single-panel shutters, one in front of each radiator core and operated by the pilot, allowed the engine temperature to be controlled.

 

Sopwith Snipe

The Sopwith Snipe

The Sopwith 7F.1 Snipe was a British single-seat biplane fighter of the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was designed and built by the Sopwith Aviation Company during the First World War, and came into squadron service a few weeks before the end of the conflict, in late 1918.

The Snipe was not a fast aircraft by the standards of its time, but its excellent climb and manoeuvrability made it a good match for contemporary German fighters.

It was selected as the standard postwar single-seat RAF fighter and the last examples were not retired until 1926.

In April 1917, Herbert Smith, the chief designer of the Sopwith Company, began to design a fighter intended to be the replacement for Sopwith’s most famous aeroplane, the successful Sopwith Camel. 

The resultant design, called Snipe by Sopwith, was in its initial form a single-bay biplane, slightly smaller than the Camel, and intended to be powered by similar engines. 

The pilot sat higher than in the Camel while the centre-section of the upper wing was uncovered, giving a better view from the cockpit. 

Armament was to be two Vickers machine guns.

In the absence of an official order, Sopwith began construction of two prototypes as a private venture in September 1917. 

This took advantage of a licence that had been granted to allow construction of four Sopwith Rhino bomber prototypes, only two of which were built. 

The first prototype Snipe, powered by a Bentley AR.1 rotary engine was completed in October 1917.

The second prototype was completed with the new, more powerful Bentley BR.2, engine, which gave 230 horsepower (170 kW) in November 1917. This promised better performance, and prompted an official contract for six prototypes to be placed, including the two aircraft built as private ventures

Sergeant Billy the Goat

Sergeant Billy the Goat

Sergeant Bill was a Canadian goat from Saskatchewan who served as the mascot of the 5th Infantry Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the First World War.

Bill was able to hear and warn soldiers of incoming shell explosions, pushing 3 soldiers into a trench within seconds of an incoming shell.

In another instance, he cornered 3 enemy guardmen.

 He also assisted in guarding prisoners.

Bill survived being wounded and gassed on multiple occasions.

For his actions, he was awarded the 1914 Star, the General Service Medal, and the Victory Medal.

He faced courts martial on two occasions, once for eating his battalion’s personnel roll and the other time for an altercation with another sergeant. He lived the remainder of his life in Winnipeg

Henri and Maurice Farman

Henri Farman (26 May 1874– 17 July 1958 was an Anglo-French aviator and aircraft designer and manufacturer with his brother Maurice Farman. 

Before dedicating himself to aviation he gained fame as a sportsman, specifically in cycling and motor racing. 

Henri took French nationality in 1937.

He started practicing in 1907 with a homemade biplane glider on the sandhills of Le Touquet, after first experimenting with model aeroplanes of different sizes. 

Henri then decided he wanted a machine powered plane, and ordered a Voisin 1907 biplane on 1 June 1907. 

He used this aircraft to set many official records for both distance and duration.

On 26 October 1907, at Issy-les-Moulineaux, France, he made flights, among others, of 363, 403, and 771 metres in the plane. And he also started to turn the plane in the air on this date.

The distance of 771 metres was completed in 52 seconds. It was the longest flight in the world that year, and won Farman the Ernest Archdeacon Cup. 

He made a complete circular flight of 1,030 metres, in 1 minute 14 seconds on 10 November 1907 at Issy. This was the first time that a European aeroplane had completed a full circle. And the first time that an aeroplane, other than a Wright brothers one, had stayed in the air for longer than a minute.

The Voisin-Farman I was also the first biplane in Europe, to fly a circular circuit of 1 kilometre, over a predetermined course, on 13 January 1908.

This again occurred at Issy-les-Moulineaux, France, and won Henri the 50,000 franc Grand Prix d’Aviation offered by Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe. 

And on 21 March 1908 at the same place, he made a flight of 2.004 Kilometres.

On 30 October 1908, Farman went on to make the first cross-country flight in Europe. 

Henri flew from his hangars at Camp de Châlons, Bouy, to Reims, landing at the Cavalry ground. It was a distance of 27 Kilometres.

MF.11 “Shorthorn”

The passenger transport Goliath
By early 1909, Farman fell out with Gabriel Voisin because Voisin had sold an aircraft that had been built to Farman’s specifications to J.T.C. Moore-Brabazon. This aircraft was named the Bird of Passage by Brabazon. 

So Henri started manufacturing aircraft to his own design. 

The first of these, the Farman III, first flew in April 1909. It was an immediate success and widely imitated.

In 1909, he opened a flying school at Châlons-sur-Marne at which George Bertram Cockburn was the first pupil.
In this same year he made further record breaking flights. One of 180 kilometres in just over 3 hours, at Reims on 27 August. And one of 232 kilometres in 4 hours 17 minutes and 53 seconds,at Mourmelon-le-Grand on 3 November. 

In October 1909 he appeared at the Blackpool Aviation Week, Britain’s first air show, at which he won over £2000 in prizes.

In partnership with his two brothers Maurice and Richard (Dick), he built a highly successful and innovative aircraft manufacturing plant. 

Their 1914 model was used extensively for artillery observation and reconnaissance during World War I. 

The Farman Aircraft company’s Goliath was the first long-distance passenger airliner, beginning regular Paris-London (Croydon Airport) flights on 8 February 1919.

He was made a chevalier of the French Légion d’honneur in 1919. 

Along with Maurice, he retired in 1937 when the French Popular Front government nationalised the aircraft industry; Farman’s company becoming part of the Societe Nationale de Constructions Aeronautiques du Centre.

Henry Farman took French nationality in 1937.

He died in Paris and is buried in the Cimetière de Passy in Paris.

In 1988, Farman was inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame at the San Diego Air & Space Museum

The First Battle of Ypres

The First Battle of Ypres 

(French: Première Bataille des Flandres; German: Erste Flandernschlacht 19 October – 22 November 1914) was a battle of the First World War, fought on the Western Front around Ypres, in West Flanders, Belgium. 

The battle was part of the First Battle of Flanders, in which German, French, Belgian armies and the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) fought from Arras in France to Nieuport on the Belgian coast, from 10 October to mid-November. 

The battles at Ypres began at the end of the Race to the Sea, reciprocal attempts by the German and Franco-British armies to advance past the northern flank of their opponents. 

North of Ypres, the fighting continued in the Battle of the Yser (16–31 October), between the German 4th Army, the Belgian army and French marines.

The fighting has been divided into five stages, an encounter battle from 19 to 21 October, the Battle of Langemarck from 21 to 24 October, the battles at La Bassée and Armentières to 2 November, coincident with more Allied attacks at Ypres and the Battle of Gheluvelt (29–31 October), a fourth phase with the last big German offensive, which culminated at the Battle of Nonne Bosschen on 11 November, then local operations which faded out in late November. 

Brigadier-General James Edmonds, the British official historian, wrote in the History of the Great War, that the II Corps battle at La Bassée could be taken as separate but that the battles from Armentières to Messines and Ypres, were better understood as one battle in two parts, an offensive by III Corps and the Cavalry Corps from 12 to 18 October against which the Germans retired and an offensive by the German 6th Army and 4th Army from 19 October to 2 November, which from 30 October, took place mainly north of the Lys, when the battles of Armentières and Messines merged with the Battles of Ypres.

Attacks by the BEF (Field Marshal Sir John French) the Belgians and the French Eighth Army in Belgium made little progress beyond Ypres. 

The German 4th and 6th Armies took small amounts of ground, at great cost to both sides, during the Battle of the Yser and further south at Ypres. 

General Erich von Falkenhayn, head of the Oberste Heeresleitung (OHL, the German General Staff), then tried a limited offensive to capture Ypres and Mont Kemmel, from 19 October to 22 November. 

Neither side had moved forces to Flanders fast enough to obtain a decisive victory and by November both sides were exhausted. 

The armies were short of ammunition, suffering from low morale and some infantry units refused orders. 

The autumn battles in Flanders had become static, attrition operations, unlike the battles of manoeuvre in the summer. 

French, British and Belgian troops in improvised field defences, repulsed German attacks for four weeks. 

From 21 to 23 October, German reservists had made mass attacks at Langemarck, with losses of up to 70 percent, to little effect.

Warfare between mass armies, equipped with the weapons of the Industrial Revolution and its later developments, proved to be indecisive, because field fortifications neutralised many classes of offensive weapon. 

The defensive firepower of artillery and machine guns dominated the battlefield and the ability of the armies to supply themselves and replace casualties prolonged battles for weeks. 

Thirty-four German divisions fought in the Flanders battles, against twelve French, nine British and six Belgian divisions, along with marines and dismounted cavalry. 

Over the winter, Falkenhayn reconsidered Germany strategy because Vernichtungsstrategie and the imposition of a dictated peace on France and Russia had exceeded German resources. 

Falkenhayn devised a new strategy to detach either Russia or France from the Allied coalition through diplomacy as well as military action. 

A strategy of attrition (Ermattungsstrategie) would make the cost of the war too great for the Allies, until one dropped out and made a separate peace.

The remaining belligerents would have to negotiate or face the Germans concentrated on the remaining front, which would be sufficient for Germany to inflict a decisive defeat.

Ypres: The First Battle 1914

When This Lousy War Is Over

When This Lousy War Is Over

When this lousy war is over, no more soldiering for me,
When I get my civvy clothes on, oh how happy I shall be.
No more church parades on Sunday, no more putting in for leave,
I will miss the Sergeant-Major,
How he’ll miss me how he’ll grieve.

No more standing to in trenches,
Only one more church parade,
No more NCOs to curse us,
No more tickler’s marmalade.

When this lousy war is over,
No more soldiering for me,
When I get my civvy clothes on,
Oh how happy I shall be.
People said when we enlisted,
Fame and medals we would win,
But the fame is in the guardroom,
And those medals made of tin.

When this lousy war is over,
No more soldiering for me,
When I get my civvy clothes on
Oh how happy I shall be.