…... we could have achieved nothing. Our victories were their joys and our defeats their sorrows. Their selfless devotion to duty coupled with their skill and conscientious work have built up a monument for all time to the spirit of team work and cooperation.
Having set out briefly certain definite duties which devolved upon the Flight-Commander on the ground I want to describe something of his work
in the air. First and foremost his duty was to bring down, drive down, or prevent from working all enemy aircraft in that sector of the front which his C.O. had ordered him to patrol, and at the same time to preserve the lives of his pilots. How easily written this last sentence, but how difficult of attainment was the preservation of those lives.
Bearing in mind the fact that there were no text books on aerial fighting, experience was hard gained in this new departure. To those who lost their lives in gaining this experience belongs much honour, for they learned and passed on to others the first elementary rules governing procedure in air warfare. Later in the War it was possible so to instruct a pilot on the ground that he went into the air behind his Flight Commander with more chance of surviving than had his early pioneer brothers, for they followed blindly where their leader went, not realising what his plans were, and he might not have been able to give a very clear plan of action, as he had little time or opportunity to think things out. Flung suddenly into the air to lead others - someone had to - truly the life of an early Flight Commander was not a picnic! At that time the enemy aeroplanes were not known by name, for none had been brought down on our side of the lines; we knew them as types, which we identified by silhouettes which had been drawn by various pilots; thus in our combat reports we would refer to an engagement with a type “K” or “C.”
You may possibly have been wondering how a Flight Commander in one small aeroplane could make known his orders to his other pilots in their separate machines. The days of wireless telephony were not yet, but in spite of the lack of this it was remarkable to what pitch of efficiency in manoeuvring a flight could be brought by merely moving the aeroplane; for example, a turn to the right would be signalled by rocking the machine from side to side and then dropping a wing down to the right and commencing the turn. The pilots on the right of the leader would slow down their engines and pull their machines up, slowing them as much as possible, while the leader would fly round in a normal manner; those on the left who had to complete the outer and greater circle, would put their noses down and go as fast as possible to catch up; thus would a turn be made,
