and when all were on an even keel after the turn each pilot would close up to his original distance from his next man. Such a manoeuvre came easily after practice but, to an inexperienced pilot, it was extremely difficult. I remember being told, shortly after my arrival in France, to go up and practice formation flying with a brother officer, but when we were both in the air it seemed impossible to get close together. So used were we to flying in left hand circles round the aerodrome at the flying school that we
continued to follow each other at a distance of about a mile, nor during the whole flight did we get closer than this. It might amuse you to hear, but I do not think the editor would pass for publication, the remarks which were made to us when we landed; but I am glad I did not take the advice of one fairly senior officer, who suggested that I might find my wartime vocation as a lighthouse keeper or some such job where movement was neither required nor looked for and where judgment of distance was not imperative. But I diverge from my theme, which was to tell you how many aeroplanes there were in a flight. As a general rule six were used and the shape of the formation was a “V” - similar to that used by wild geese-but, instead of flying on a level with one another, each pilot would be slightly higher than the man in front, thus lessening the risk of collision and making for easier visibility. The formation of five or six was considered to be the most manoeuvrable, although larger formations were used in other, spheres of air work. Once I prevailed on my commanding officer to let me lead the whole Squadron (18 aeroplanes) over the lines and we solemnly set out in “V” formation; the result was really amusing. As we approached the lines I saw a few enemy machines underneath us, but rather too low for us to waste our height; I watched them for a while, and when they saw us, how they scuttled for home! We must have looked like a cloud of locusts. Of course, we defeated our own object, for every enemy machine we saw dived down to its aerodrome as soon as this cloud of British aeroplanes approached. I told the C.O. when we landed that a close parallel to what happened could be seen in the evening by walking suddenly into a forest glade full of rabbits feeding. I had hoped that we should be able to engage the famous Baron von Richtofen’s Squadron. But the times of our patrols did not coincide, and of him more anon.
To return once more to the formation of a flight, it was my custom to put the newest arrivals in the Flight as numbers four and five or five and six in the formation, because here they were higher than the other three of us and could watch everything which took place. I did my best not to lead them into any scrap where enemy aircraft would be above them, and from this comparatively safe altitude they quickly gained experience of aerial combats and what I call “air sight.” Let me explain what I mean - it does not follow that because a man can see a figure a mile away on the ground and be able to see whether it
