What Was Life Like for a British WW1 Pilot: Experiencing the Forefront of Flight

picture yourself at the scene the early morning sun is already arcing its way into the sky as you step across the field in northern France which has been made damp by the morning dew leaving your boots squeaking underfoot as you walk with your Observer out to your kite kite is an appropriate term you've been assigned to fly the Royal aircraft Factory be2 the Mainstay of the royal flying Corps the air arm of the British Army in August of 1914. the bee-2 for all its Wonder to those old enough to remember that time just over a decade earlier when powered flights was the stuff of Science Fiction still looks like a kite with an engine strapped onto it the bones of the aircraft give its shape consisting of a wire brace construction and it is skinned in fabric with two positions arranged in tandem for the pilot in the rear behind the wings and the observer in front under the central section protruding out the front of the aircraft is the tiny 60 horsepower v8 Renault engine a mess of cylinders tubes and pipes all exposed to the elements the be2 is so light that even with the relatively mild Breeze running across the Fields the aircraft wobbles slightly as it sits on the ground you greet the ground crew who will help you start the engine and remove the chocks from the wheels freeing your Steed to begin your takeoff run as you look over the aircraft to which you will entrust your life over the next few hours your Observer opens the Box he's been carrying and removes the large cumbersome black camera before carrying it into his cockpit once you are both seated you begin the startup procedure as a ground crewman Yanks on the propeller blades and the engine coughs and sputters into life it is your first mission as a pilot over the Western Front in August 1914. like thousands of men all across Europe and indeed the whole world you are preparing to go to war but unlike those on the ground or in ships out at Sea the future is far from clear for you for they all have the advantage of having some idea what war will look like for them but for you and the rest of the royal flying Corps and Military aviators all across the world you're still learning the ropes just flying is an incredible achievement to say nothing of engaging in a military role yet here you are less than 20 minutes from the front lines you are one of the astonishing pioneers of military Aviation this is a day in the life of a World War One Pilot welcome to Wars of the world [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] well-to-do middle class British family it was always expected that you would pursue a career in the Army many of the men in your family across several Generations have served in the Cavalry and you've spent many a night in thrall in daring Tales of their exploits policing the British Empire across the world while picturing yourself one day adding your own Tales to these incredible stories from an early age you showed excellence in sports particularly team sports such as rugby which were always seen as being a good introduction to military life with every man having his place and learning how to work together it is as you are about to complete your education in 1912 that your life takes a different course from the one you expected on one bright sunny day a strange Contraption gargled slowly over your boarding school and skirts to a halt in an adjacent field this is the first time you have seen an airplane and it is flown by one of your teachers who has taken an interest in aviation he is one of the first people in the United Kingdom to have an air worthiness certificate after signing up to an Aero Club the aircraft is a small right biplane not dissimilar to the legendary aircraft the Wright brothers first took off with in 1903 but with some improvements and you have been among the lucky students selected to have a ride over the school it is a daunting experience the aircraft can barely get airborne and stutters along at a little over 30 miles per hour at any moment it feels as though it is simply going to drop from the sky but after one five-minute circuit over the school the wheels make contacts with the ground again you have mixed emotions on one hand you're glad to be back on the firm Earth but on the other you now know you can survive the experience and want to go again in your excitement your teacher suggests you apply to join the Army's newly established Royal flying Corps passing these stringent entry exams which as well as judging you on your mental and physical abilities also tested your coordination and the fact that you could be physically carried in the little aircraft of the day you are posted to farnborough to begin your training although you have only been in the Army a short time it's clear that the Royal flying Corps or RFC less than two years old in 1914 is not popular among the regular soldiers many view it as a waste of men and material and that aircraft will prove nothing more than a fat it doesn't help that the RFC itself is still trying to learn its own trade and hasn't had a chance to properly demonstrate what it can achieve accidents are Rife amongst the members of the RFC be they on the ground with inexperienced aircraft handlers and Engineers or in the air with the pilots themselves being the first truly technical branch of the army the mechanics take on an importance like no other non-commissioned Soldier as their skill in maintaining the often Troublesome early Aero engines is desperately relied on for every flight as such discipline between them and you and your fellow Pilots is not as strictly enforced as in other units but there Still Remains some distance between you and the mechanics in whose hands you place your life hoping to jump straight in and start flying you find yourself learning as much about engine repair and maintenance as most of the mechanics as it is expected that should you get into trouble you should be able to repair the aircraft after landing in a field and fly it back to base you are also required to become proficient in cranking the propeller for other Pilots a difficult and potentially fatal undertaking if done wrong finally you get your first lesson in another right flyer it lasts only a few seconds as you briefly leave the ground and learn how to slowly and gently bring it back to earth eventually you move on to bigger aircraft such as of course the be2 which is quickly becoming the backbone of the RFC just as news comes through that the austro-hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand has been assassinated and Europe is on the March towards War your flight hours are barely into the double figures but soon you are heading over to France to meet the German onslaughts your mission will be to give the generals a God's eye view of the battlefield the be2 takes its time to ascend into the heavens its Small Engine croaking to turn the propeller that is hauling the biplane along filling the cockpit with soots and petrol smoke although from the rear cockpit you are somewhat shielded by your Observer as your wheels leave the ground they temporarily keep spinning while you feel the aircraft start to swing to the left a common Quirk of taking off in a be2 and you counter with foot pedals that control the rudder as you climb you are careful not to pull back too far on the stick in case you lose speed and stall or alternatively starve the engine of fuel since it is fed from a tank underneath your Observer by nothing more than gravity still ascending you have time to start contemplating the effectiveness of your mounts in the days ahead the be2 is classed as a military aircraft but you know that in reality There is almost no difference between a military aircraft and a civilian one the be2 was not designed to do anything more than fly with a reasonable chance of the pilot returning to Earth safely a key feature in itself in these early days of military flying where anyone with flight hours in double Figures were considered an experienced flyer in fact the rfc's first casualties of the war were killed while attempting to deploy to France when their aircraft crashed while still in England the pilot in question Lieutenant Robert Skeen who you've met had been the first British pilot to Loop an aircraft you've seen the man fly he was no beginner you understand how dangerous this game is as for Weaponry you carry standard service revolvers and your Observer has a rifle the idea of attaching a weapon to the actual aircraft at this point in time seems laughable opinion amongst your comrades and Senior officers is divided on just how an airplane might be used as a weapon or even if it should some Pilots hold on to the notion of a code of honor amongst Airmen that killing a brother flyer is simply not the done thing however already there are those itching to turn their planes into flying instruments of death looking to fit bombs underneath their fuselage and guns with which to shoot down German planes for now though your role is reconnaissance after six and a half minutes of climbing you are now at 3 500 feet the world seems so much smaller and you level outs feeling for the first time safe of course deep down you know that this is far from True on all August 22 1914 the RFC lost its first aircraft to enemy fire when German infantry shot down second Lieutenant Vincent waterfall and his Observer Lieutenant Charles George Gordon Bailey flying an Avro 504 biplane over Belgium both men were killed in the subsequent crash pottering along at just 60 miles an hour the patchwork image of the green and brown of the world below slowly passes underneath broken only by the old wispy Cloud suddenly your Observer spots something and signals for you to look down to the right below you are British and French troops amassed in long lines like ants swarming around their colony marching Eastward to meet the German advance and stop them from trampling across Belgium and France looking down upon them you feel disjointed from their War as they trundle across rough roads or Gallop on Horseback across the French Countryside from your high Viewpoint you feel like less a soldier and more a spectator to some Grand show taking place For Your Entertainment now you begin to understand why the RFC is viewed with such contempt by ordinary ranks as you break your gaze from the people below you look out to the Horizon searching for familiar landmarks with which to confirm your position on the map you have tucked away in your cramped cockpits air navigation is still a skill yet to be fully mastered in the RFC and tales of pilots flying low and slow over road signs or even Landing in fields to ask the locals for directions are not as absurd as one might first assume it is as you're scouting the area that you notice a small hole in your lower left wing it is then you realize that as you flew over friendly soldiers at least one of them had taken a few shots at you and one bullet got lucky there is no significant damage to the aircraft save for the small hole the size of a coin in the fabric but it is what the hole implies that leaves you unnerved it's not just the enemy who you should be afraid of powered aircraft are still so new a Contraption and unfamiliar a sight in the sky that many a frightened infantryman automatically assumes that any plane is the enemy it's a situation made worse by the lack of any recognizable symbol painted on the aircraft to allow them to be identified quickly from the ground Union Jacks have been painted on the tail of your be2 but these can barely be made out from a few yards let alone a few thousand feet the French have experimented with painting cockades the national colors of France in circles on their aircraft and the Germans have also started painting black crosses on theirs so surely the RFC will eventually adopt their own simple but highly visible markings for now though oh you are as good as an enemy to the man on the ground this was all assuming the shot was unintentionally aimed at a friendly aircraft just how much do they hate you down there British officers have already launched complaints that they believe the RFC are giving their position away when they fly overhead is it possible one of them ordered his own men to fire upon you a church to the east a river to the West a railway station to the north these are your markers that show you are in your designated area of interest for your reconnaissance mission somewhere down there are several hundreds maybe thousand German troops amassing readying to push on with the eventual aim of capturing Paris using the stick and the Rudders you Bank the plane over to the left heading north towards the railway station and it is here you get your first sight of the enemy a short distance from the station your Observer points to dozens of men scurrying around the tracks repairing Damage Done by the retreating French army to slow down the German troop trains this is important intelligence and as you line up perpendicular to the tracks your Observer starts to climb out of his seat with a camera in hand not strapped in he's relying on you to hold the aircraft as steady as possible as he prepares the camera and snaps the first picture it is not easy for him to take photographs of the ground with the be2's wings and rigging blocking much of his viewpoints but he skillfully manages to get a few shots some Pilots have started taking the pictures themselves with their Observer loading the film and passing it back to them so they can take the picture with their better view this is not official policy in the RFC and could prove potentially catastrophic since the pilot stops focusing on flying to take the best pictures possible but sometimes the need to complete the mission override standard practice turning Southeast it's not long before you spy numerous tents amassed in fields around a solitary Farmhouse these are obviously the troops stuck here while they wait for the railway to be repaired you line up the aircraft for more pictures but as you do you start seeing puffs of blue smoke emerge from behind sandbags and on hastily constructed platforms the be2 starts to feel as though it is fidgeting and you observe more holes start to appear in the wings and along the fuselage as you are hit by German machine gun fire you are fighting the instinct to turn the aircraft away but you know you have to hold steady to allow your Observer to take his picture the most infuriating thing for you is that you can see the target area clearly from your position in the aircraft but he has to wait a little longer for the right angle you curse yourself for being such a stickler for the rules and begin contemplating taking the pictures yourself in the future anything to minimize your time in the face of those guns finally he gives the signal that he has taken the picture and you're to turn away from the encampments you wonder how much damage has been done to your kites but there is no way of knowing until you land right now it's handling okay and neither you or your Observer have been hit so you focus on getting back to the Airfield and handing over your vital photos you've been in the air for nearly two hours now and as you approach friendly lines again you start wondering if you can expect more British bullets your way and if one of them will be the bullet that finishes you off your train of thought is suddenly broken by your Observer who starts frantically waving his right arm over towards the North West you look to see where he is pointing but you don't see anything on the ground it's then you realize what he has seen is Airborne you focus your eyes on the black silhouettes of what looks like an odd-shaped bird but then you realize you are looking into the eye of a German plane it is called a Taub and is actually designed to look like a bird the taob swoops down from above your flight level and then appears to turn towards you your observer looks over your shoulder and signals to you that he intends to fire on it you acknowledge and you turn your aircraft's nose in the direction of the German plane both aircraft are now flying towards one another and knowing he cannot fire forwards you wait for the opportune moment to turn to the side and allow your Observer to take shots at the Germans with his rifle it feels like lifetimes until the German plane comes to within a few hundred yards and presents a possible Target you Bank the aircraft to the left and with some trepidation watch as your Observer aims over your head and starts firing the rifle the German has turned two allowing his own Observer to fire on you and you exchange shots for several seconds before the two of you start flying away from each other despite all the rounds fired it has proven all but impossible to hit one another sway your Observer is anxious to go after them but you know fuel is getting critical and the German plane is flying back towards their lines it is more important you return to your Airfield with your photographs of the German positions than try and Chase down an enemy plane your Bee 2 hits The Grass of the Airfield with a bump causing you to hop along the ground several times diminishing its Forward Motion a little more reach time until it can no longer achieve flight and starts running across the grassy field skids protruding out from under the futilege help keep the propeller from striking the ground as you travel along the uneven service and as you bleed away the last few miles an hour ground crewmen rush out to restrain the aircraft bringing your flights to a stop with your mission over you hand in the camera and the notes that your Observer has taken before speaking with the ground crew about the damage to your kite after that it's a bit of rest some food food and then probably another mission for the generals directing the war you have provided valuable intelligence intelligence that would have been impossible just over a decade before aircraft of all but eradicated the element of surprise and while the troops on the ground may not always appreciate you you know that the RFC is proving instrumental in keeping the Germans at Bay you are certain that over the coming years the aircraft will only grow in importance but what you could never know is that it will come at a terrible price in lives and there you have a day in the life of a World War One Pilot within four years of this early mission air Warfare would mature at a dramatic Pace giving way to the legendary dogfights that often typifies the view of air combats in World War One it would also include long-range bombing of cities anti-ship attacks using Torpedoes and a never-ending quest for faster and better aircraft today military planning at almost every level is focused around air power and it began with a few brave men and their magnificent flying machines in the cold open air of a morning in France 1914.

Channel: WarsofTheWorld

Views: 145,398

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Id: THIJOmZg05Y

Length: 21min 38sec (1298 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 14 2021