Normally balloons were hauled down at night, and often deflated, but the particular German balloon that Munday had in mind was in a wind shelter. He intended to dive down and attack it with incendiary ammunition.
Operational night flying was still in its infancy, and the flare-path arrangements were most primitive. They consisted of rags and waste soaked in paraffin. Munday took off in the dark and I followed after an
interval of fifteen minutes to inspect the damage. He found his target, having carefully noted its position in daylight, dived at it and got in about fifty rounds of Buckingham. The shed burst into flames and was razed to the ground, so there was little doubt that our bird had been roosting. Attracted by the flames, I flew over the scene and fired at the crowd of onlookers, who quickly dispersed. A few nights later Munday went out on a similar stunt, but could not locate any more sitting balloons.
It is a popular misconception that Camel squadrons such as ours were engaged only in aerial combat. That is far from the truth. My returns for the fourteen days October 7 to 20 show that we were required to fly certain regular offensive patrols and that on many other occasions we were called out to deal with two-seater artillery observation aircraft spotting for the enemy guns. On only four occasions did we actually have combats, and then all were indecisive, although we did drive the spotting machines away east each time. On the other hand, my returns showed the expenditure of 3,350 rounds of ammunition fired at low altitude into the enemy trenches and at targets behind the lines and eight 20-lb. bombs dropped on various billets. By Western Front standards this was a quiet period.
Taking off just after dark on October 22, Munday dropped four twenty-pounders on to the aerodrome at Mancheaux, and then went down to fifty feet to machine-gun the hangars. Not satisfied with that he continued east in an attempt to find Bersee aerodrome and then lost his bearings. Recognising Cambrai station, into which he fired his remaining rounds, he struck off for our lines and was forced to come down in open country somewhere east of Amiens.
On the 7th of the next month, Munday went balloon hunting again. This time it was at dawn. Crossing the lines between Hulluch and Lens, he switched off his engine and dived towards the balloon site near Bauvin, hoping to catch the gun crews unawares at that early hour. As he dived on the shed, firing his guns, he noticed the balloon nearby. Pulling out and banking sharply he turned to attack this more positive target which, to his satisfaction, burst into flames. He then returned to the shelter and shot that up for good measure and made his way back,
