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Description: | British officer served with 20 Sqdn Royal Flying Corps on Western Front, 2-9/1917; shot down German ace Lt Karl Schafer, 5/Jun/1917
REEL 1: Aspects of period with British Army in GB, 1914-1916: enlisted as private with Honourable Artillery Company, 8/1914; commissioned as 2nd Lieutenant in Royal Warwickshire Regt, 12/1914; posted to Parkhurst Barracks, Isle of Wight; description of training; story of meeting Bill Slim; posted to Bovington Camp, Dorset; story of being appointed 55th Bde PT instructor; reason for volunteering for Royal Flying Corps, 1916. Aspects of training as pilot with Royal Flying Corps in GB, 1916-1917: description of training and types of aircraft; story of seeing first tanks and question of secrecy; description of flying Farman single seater; problem with engine valves and repairs; flying training; story of bringing down naval wireless aerial during practice flight and threat of court martial; posted to 20 Sqdn Royal Flying Corp in France, 2/1917. Recollections of operations as pilot with 20 Sqdn Royal Flying Corps in France, 2-9/1917: description of training; question of landing speed; problem of engine failure; take-off speed; flying height; reason for not having parachute; problem of starting engine in morning and use of boiling water; starting propeller; flew in fours; use of instruments; opinion of engines; recreational activities; aerobatics; description of manoeuvre to avoid German bullets; question of fear; attitude to loss of friends and casualties; opinion of German efficiency in reporting British casualties; comparison of war in trenches and in air; attitude to image of pilots; story of crashing into shell hole on front; story of death of Canadian observer and replacement; medical kit on aircraft; question of observers re-mustering as pilots.
REEL 2 Continues: description of combats; height; problem of lack of oxygen and open cockpits; problem of blood pressure and cold; flying clothing; loss of power at high altitude; opinion of ground crew; attitude to survival; amusing story of Violet Lorraine; story of being sent back to GB by Trenchard, 9/1917; description of night flying; use of green lights over British trenches; use of coloured flares when approaching airfield and lighting of petrol cans to guide aircraft onto runway at night; question of aircraft taking off one at a time; problem of aircraft going into spin; opinion of reliability of Rolls Royce engines; problem of engine stalling.
REEL 3 Continues: Aspects of period with British Army in GB, 1914-1916: enlisted as private with Honourable Artillery Company, 8/1914; description of camp in Essex and problem of snow; posted to billets in Lewisham; memory of lining funeral procession for Lord Roberts, 1914; amusing story of pipe; story of being commissioned as 2nd Lieutenant in Royal Warwickshire Regt, 12/1914; posted to Parkhurst Barracks, Isle of Wight; story of parade and meeting Bill Slim; pay; uniform; reads extracts from logbook and German reports describing shooting down of German ace Lt Karl Schafer, 5/Jun/1917.
REEL 4 Continues: story of crashing into shell hole; role as CO at Training Depot Station, 1917-1919; story of leaving RAF, 9/1919. Post-war life and employment: description of employment as stoker and driver on railways in GB and as engineer in GB and US. | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Satchell, Harold Leslie | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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