15 June 1915 – 1 Wing RFC assists First Army

1 Wing RFC assisted First Army in an offensive near Chapelle St. Roch-Rue d’Ouvert today.

At the end of May the First Army had taken over from the French a stretch of line from a point south of the La Bassee Canal to the neighbourhood of Loos, and the squadrons of the First Wing were redistributed accordingly.

Sir Douglas Haig had originally wanted to resume the offensive against the village of Loos, but after a study of his air reconnaissance reports he suggested that an offensive against Chapelle St. Roch-Rue d’Ouvert offered better chances of success, and he outlined proposals for an attack on both sides of the canal there. Unfortunately there was insufficient ammunition, and so the attack was confined to the north of the canal.

The assault by the First Army commenced early this morning. Squadrons from 1 Wing provided tactical reconnaissance and artillery observation. The RNAS also lent two aeroplanes with pilots and observers. Given the paucity of ammunition, particular attention was paid to air co-operation between 1 Wing and No. I Group, Heavy Artillery Reserve.

14 June 1915 – Ben-My-Cree begins operations

The HMS Ben-My-Cree commeNced operations in the Dardanelles today, after its arrival on the 12th.

Lt Dacre

The crew practiced hoisting out the seaplanes and setting them up.

Four of the planes carried out torpedo drills. Unfortunately, Lieutenant George Bentley Dacre accidentally dropped the torpedo from his seaplane. Fortunately no one was injured and the torpedo fell harmlessly in the sea.

Dacre qualified as a pilot on 28 November 1911 gaining RAeC Certificate No 162, having studied Engineering at Bristol University joining the RNAS in August 1914. He was originally with 3 Wing before joining the Ben-My-Cree.

11 June 1915 – HMS Campania trials with the Grand Fleet

Out in the North Sea the British Grand Fleet is carrying out exercises. Today the HMS Campania carried out the first aerial reconnaissance with a battlefleet at sea. The Campania used its Sopwith Baby seaplanes to observe movements of ‘hostile’ squadrons.

That said the experience of the Commander-in-Chief with the seaplanes were not a great success. There had been great initial trouble in hoisting out the seaplanes on a rolling sea, and then when they were out their floats broke up. One pilot had got into the air successfully and had made a careful reconnaissance of the whole fleet, but he could send down no information owing to the complete failure of his wireless transmission.

The Campamnia was originally a passenger liner for Cunard Line. In October 1914, she was sold to the shipbreakers T. W. Ward as she was wearing out. The Royal Navy purchased Campania from the shipbreakers on 27 November 1914 for £32,500, initially for conversion to an armed merchant cruiser. The ship was converted by Cammell Laird to an aircraft carrier instead with a 160-foot (48.8 m) flying-off deck. Two derricks were fitted on each side to transfer seaplanes between the water and the two holds. The amidships hold had the capacity for seven large seaplanes. The forward hold, underneath the flight deck, could fit four small seaplanes, but the flight deck had to be lifted off the hold to access the airplanes. HMS Campania was commissioned on 17 April 1915.

5 June 1915 – Another poor day for 8 Squadron

Following the internment of Flight Commander Captain Arthur Douglas Gaye and Captain F H Pritchard on 2 June, there was more bad news for 8 Squadron today. Lt Ernest Edward Hodgson and Lt C H Morrell were out in patrol in their BE2c (1677) when they engine was hit and they were forced to land in Holland and interned. Lt Hodgson had only recently passed his flying certificate on 19 January 1915 (in a Maurice Farman Biplane at the Military School, Brooklands) and was posted to 8 Squadron on 26 March 1915.

31 May 1915 – Panic on the streets of London

The Kaiser had finally given his approval for attacks on London on 5 May – though this was limited to areas East of Charing Cross. On the evening of 31 May 1915 Linnarz finally made an attack on London. – his fifth raid on England in LZ.38.

Linnarz flew over Margate around 9.42pm, proceeded past Southend and then appeared over Stoke Newington in North London around 11.00pm. Surprisingly the defences were caught unawares and LZ.38 escaped detection by any searchlights, and no anti-aircraft guns opened fire as it passed over the capital.

Linnarz dropped his first bomb, an incendiary, on 16 Alkham Road. Heading south, LZ.38 continued to drop bombs, with the first fatalities occurring at 33 Cowper Road, Stoke Newington. An incendiary set the house on fire and claimed the life of 3-year-old Elsie Leggatt and fatally injured her 11-year-old sister, Elizabeth May. Moments later another incendiary set fire to 187 Balls Pond Road, burning to death a married couple, Henry and Caroline Good. Over Shoreditch LZ.38 steered away from the Tower of London, and, over Whitechapel an explosive bomb claimed two more lives in Christian Street: 8-year-old Samuel Reuben and 16-year-old Leah Lehrman. A seventh person, Eleanor Willis, 67, is critically ill as a result of shock caused by the raid.

LZ.38 then bombed Stepney before flying over Bow and dropping a single incendiary on Stratford, and finally then releasing its final five bombs on Leytonstone. In total LZ.38 dropped 91 incendiary, 28 explosive bombs and two grenades. The only ground opposition came from machine gun fire at Burnham and an AA-gun at Southminster, both in Essex.

LZ37 also attempted to raid London, but turned back without dropping any bombs.

30 May 1915 – Synchronisation gear under test

The British continue to struggle with the problems of firing through the propeller. Development is focussing on developing pusher aircraft to avoid the issue altogether.

Meanwhile Anthony Fokker has been pressing ahead in the development of an interrupter gear. The initial version of the Fokker synchronization gear was designed to actively fire the gun rather than interrupt it, and (like the later V. It takes its primary mechanical drive from the oil pump of a rotary engine. The “transmission” between the motor and the gun was by a push-rod. The main difference was that instead of the push rod passing directly from the engine It was driven by a shaft joining the oil pump to a small cam at the top of the fuselage.

Fokker’s team had adapted the new system to the new Parabellum MG14 machine gun, and fitted it to a Fokker M.5K, a type which was at the time serving in small numbers with the Fliegertruppen as the A.III. This aircraft, bearing IdFlieg serial number A.16/15. This prototype was demonstrated to IdFlieg by Fokker himself on 19–20 May 1915 at the Döberitz proving ground near Berlin. Leutnant Otto Parschau began test flying this aircraft today.

29 May 1915 – A busy day for the flying schools

10 pilots qualified for the flying certificates today in a busy day for the various flying schools.

At RNAS Chingford, Alexander Robb Cox and Charles Laverock Lambe (Former Captain of the HMS Hermes before it was torpedoes in October 1914) passed in a Maurice Farman Biplane.

At the Grahame-White School. Hendon, two more RNAS officers Edward Alexander de Lossy de Ville and William Douston Wain passed in a Grahame-White Biplane.

Edward de Ville

RFC officers Albert Charles Hagon and Godfrey Wigglesworth passed in a Maurice Farman Biplane at the Military School. Shoreham.

At the Military School. Brooklands, Oscar Greig passed in a Maurice Farman Biplane, whilst Gordon Mountford also passed in a Maurice Farman Biplane at the Military School. Harrow.

Australian Edward Watson Powell who was recently serving with the forces in Gallipoli passed in a Maurice Farman Biplane at the British Flying School. Le Crotoy. France.

Also passing in a Cauldron Biplane, at the Beatty School in Hendon, was Frenchman Maurice Chapelle. It is not known if he has any plans to join the air services.

27th May 1915 – ‘You English….we’ll come again soon’

True to his promise following the raid on Southend on 10 May, Hauptman Erich Linnarz raided the town again with LZ.38 last night. LZ.38 approached Clacton at around 22.30 and then crossed the Blackwater estuary before approaching Southend. At around 22.50 it began dropping bombs – 47 incendiary and 23 small high explosive. Bombs landed at Leigh, Westcliff and Southend.

Damage was less than in the previous raid on the 10th, though 4 buildings were set on fire, at Dowsett Avenue, Anerley Road, St. Helen’s Road and at All Saints’ Schoolroom, Sutton Road.

Miss May Fairs, aged 35, from Bow, London, was staying at the family’s holiday bungalow in Westbourne Grove, Westcliff. She was returning from meeting her father at the station. Shrapnel from a falling anti-aircraft shell struck May on the head and killed her.

7-year-old Marion “Queenie” Pateman of 3 Broadway Market, Southend, was in bed when an incendiary bomb smashed through the roof and set her bed on fire. The child, suffered severe burns to her head, back and legs before she could be rescued by her 16-year-old sister. She is in a critical condition.

Mrs Florence Smith, who was standing at the door of her house in Westminster Drive, Westcliff, during the raid. It appears she also suffered shrapnel injuries from an anti-aircraft shell, which landed in the road about eight or ten yards away. She is also in a critical condition.

A 1-pounder pom-pom at Southminster and a 3-inch gun positioned at Shoeburyness fired at the departing Zeppelin without success. A company of the 2/8th Battalion, Essex Regiment fired their rifles also without success. Five aircraft from RNAS Eastchurch and Grain took off but failed to intercept.

26 May 1915 – Maiden flight of new C-Class airship

Following the success of the Sea Scout Airship launched on 18 March, the team at RNAS Kingsnorth have been busy designing a new airship. The purpose of the new C-Class airship is to detect and attack submarines in the English Channel and the Western Approachese and carry out extended patrols in those areas.

The prototype was built using the envelope from the No. 10 Astra-Torres airship, and a gondola built using the front-sections of two Avro seaplane fuselages joined together back-to-back to provide one tractor- and one pusher propeller. The envelope is composed of rubber-proofed fabric that is also doped to hold the gas and resist the effects of weather. It has a distinctive trilobe shape in which the two lower lobes are situated side-by-side, and the third is positioned centrally above them.
C-Class Airship showing the distinctive trilobe design.

25 May 1915 – Balloon spotting at last

After arriving in Frnace on the 8th of May, getting attacked on the 22nd, 2 Balloon Section finally got down to work today.

Captain William Foster MacNeece and Flight Sub-Lieutenant W. H. E. Campbell ascended near Poperinghe, and spotted for V Corps artillery on a group of German trenches.

Captain MacNeece was born on 21 August 1889 in Aldershot, Surrey, England, the eldest son of Colonel T. F. MacNeece RAMC. He was educated at Cheltenham College, and then at Sandhurst. He was commissioned on 6 February 1909 into The Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment) as a second lieutenant. He trained as a pilot gaining RAeC Certificate number 671 on 31 October 1913. On 28 April 1914, he was transferred to the reserve of the Royal Flying Corps.

At the outbreak of War he served with 3 Squadron RFC, conducting air reconnaissance over France. He was seconded to the RNAS on 19 April 1915 for balloon work.