"Only the Beginning"Hoarfrost clutched the wind-whipped stony fields around Belfort Aerodrome that Saturday morning. Temperatures hovered near 3° centigrade while mechanics of Britain's Royal Naval Air Service prepped four freshly uncrated Avro 504 two-seaters, which had arrived in darkness seven days previous. Their maiden flight: a secret mission that would test the limits of their operational endurance; requiring the addition of a second fuel tank, and the invention of one of the first operational bomb racks. Each plane would omit its observer in order to carry the needed petrol and four 20lb Hale bombs (the only aerial bomb available to British forces at the start of the Great War). To preserve confidentiality, all crew involved were required to eat, sleep and work within the cement-floored airship shed on loan from the French
Aéronautique Militaire. Though no airships had yet raided England, the Churchillian doctrine of 'killing the hornet by striking its nest' inspired this preemptive raid against the Germany Zeppelin factory at Friedrichshafen.
One of these four fledgling warbirds never left Belfort's makeshift airfield. Avro #179 (the very first of its type constructed for the Admiralty) snapped its tail skid - preventing it from joining what has been called history's 'first long-range strategic bombing raid' and 'one of the finest air exploits of the war'. The remaining three airplanes of 'Avro Flight', piloted by Squadron Commander E. F. Briggs, Flight Commander J. T. Babington, and Flight Lieutenant S. V. Sippe (mentioned here just three days ago:
https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=13750.msg260912#msg260912) were aloft by 10:00am. It would be a four-hour round trip as they were ordered to follow the Rhine towards their target then skirt around neutral Switzerland before skimming the Bodensee... at an altitude of 10 feet!
(from the Abergavenny Chronicle, 27 November 1914):
(images of Avro Flight via the IWM Collection)
"
They arrived over their objective at about noon, and, although under a very heavy rifle, machine-gun and shrapnel fire from the moment they were sighted, they all three dived steeply to within a few hundred feet of the sheds, when they released their bombs—in all eleven." (London Gazette, 1 January 1915). "
Coming directly over the works they loosed their bombs, and the crash of the explosions mingled with the roar of firing guns, the sharp bark of rifles and the tat-tat-tat of machine-guns—all of which the Germans turned upon the daring aviators, who swept round in wide circles, their planes riddled by the bullets. When the third airman emerged from the cloud-bank he saw that his commander was in trouble: his machine was dropping. An unlucky bullet had pierced the petrol tank, the engine petered out, and the gallant pilot knew that he would have to descend. He kept his head, however, and maintained control over his mount until he had brought it to a graceful landing near the devastated works. A crowd of Germans immediately surrounded him, and their appearance was so threatening that the Commander drew his revolver, thus keeping at bay the angry foe, who did not know that the revolver was empty! In due course a German officer came up and Commander Briggs surrendered, not a little mortified that his successful attack should have come to such an inglorious end." (via heritage-history.com).
"This is only the beginning", Briggs is said to have exclaimed to his captors. One month later the RNAS would strike again with their famous Christmas-Day Cuxhaven Raid: (reported here last January:
https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=12930.msg251267#msg251267)
There's so much more to this story. For further reading:
-
https://www.worldnavalships.com/forums/thread.php?threadid=9619 -
https://www.heritage-history.com/index.php?c=read&author=wood&book=airmen&story=raids -
https://ww1blog.osborneink.com/?p=3021And click here to see photos of Brigg's captured Avro:
https://www.facebook.com/avroheritagemuseum/posts/on-this-day-104-years-ago-the-avro-504-launched-a-daring-bombing-raid-over-germa/895239527342371/Forum member Tim Mixon brings one of these Avro raiders to life with his build of the old 1/72 Airfix kit:
https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=13395.msg248653#msg248653. And to accompany him, here's an updated 3D rendering of the 20lb Hale Bomb I designed last spring presented as how it would have looked like falling from that overcast sky in 1914. Hoping to have these 3D resin prints ready for sale soon. Today the site is home to the Zeppelin Museum Friedrichshafen:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeppelin_Museum_Friedrichshafen.
