1916 - 1917 Bromet 10

Still, we quickly forgot these little worries and we were very soon settled comfortably into our new quarters and eager to let the Huns try conclusions with the triplanes. Our new aerodrome was just off the main road between Lozinghem and Auchel, west of Bethune and about twelve miles from the lines, and adjoined No. 25 Squadron R.F.C. Aerodrome.


We were now attached to the 1st Army (General Horne), and a Unit of 1st

Brigade, R.F.C. (Brigadier-General Shepherd), and 10th Wing, R.F.C. (Lieut.-Col. W. R. Freeman). The weather remained very bad - gales and snow storms - until April 5th, so we occupied ourselves exchanging visits with neighbouring Squadrons, cultivating a few vegetables, and doing some practice flights. Some of our pilots hadn't got the hang of the triplanes yet, and minor crashes were a daily occurrence. “Rattey” Chambers, who had just become liaison Officer at R.F.C. Headquarters, came over one day, and we had a visit from the Army Commander and his Chief-of-Staff (Major-General Anderson).


It wasn’t until April 5th that the weather cleared up sufficiently to allow serious work over the lines to be started, and then the efforts of all Squadrons on this Front were concentrated on preparing the way for the Vimy Ridge push, the attack on which was launched at 5.30 a.m. on April 9th. Our  neighbours, No. 25 Squadron, R.F.C., created a record on Easter Sunday, April 8th, by doing eighty hours flying with fourteen pilots, and by taking 237 photographs over the lines.


Our pilots soon got into their stride, and Little in particular had been making full use of his time since operations started on this Front. Two combats of his deserve special mention as showing his dash and ingenuity. The first concerns a Bosche artillery machine and a gun jamb. One day, whilst on his own near Arras, he saw a two-seater enemy machine doing artillery work. After firing a few rounds at it he had a gun jamb. He tried to clear it and failed, but, instead of going away and leaving the fellow to carry on his work undisturbed, he decided to act as though his gun was O.K., and by constantly diving on the Hun kept the observer busy firing at him instead of being able to get along with his proper job. His dives and zooms away were so persistent and annoying that the Hun soon tired of the game and cleared off. Having watched him safely away, Little landed at a convenient spot near Arras, cleared his gun jamb, and went up again to look for further trouble.


The second combat concerned a crowd of “Albatross”
Scouts. Click here for a report of the incident,
as related by eye-witnesses in the Anti-Aircraft
Artillery Group of the 3rd Army:

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