Robert Alexander Little was born on the 19th of July 1895 at Windsor, Victoria he was educated as a youth at the prestigious Scotch College in Melbourne where other great Australian military men such as General Sir John Monash were educated. In 1914 at the age of 19 he was unable to get into the Australian Flying Corps and instead set sail for England in 1915, paying for his own fare. Once in England he also paid for his own flying instruction, received his pilot's license on the 27th of October 1915, then enlisted with the Royal Naval Flying Service and was granted a commision as a probationary Officer.

During this period, another RNAS pilot who was later to share aircraft with Robert Little at 8 Sqn RNAS, was the Canadian ace E.R. Grange who recalls while they were both at the RNAS Aerodrome at Dover in January 1916 that Little on one occasion climbed down the cliffs of Dover to retrieve two fledgling seagulls as pets naming them Alphonse and Gaston. Apparently Little wanted to teach the two to fly. Grange and Little later shared quarters while at St Pol in France in June 1916(1).

Little was posted to fly out of Dunkerque with 1 Wing RNAS flying a multitude of aircraft such as the Sopwith 1 and 1/2 Strutter and the Nieuport series. The main task at this time for the RNAS was observation of German Naval strengths in ports and harbours along the coast of occupied Belgium as well as the occaisonal daring raid on the Zeppelin hangars at Ostende. The RFC though was taking a pasting furthur south with the Albatros fighters of the Jasta's projecting their dominance on the aerial battlefield. This combined with the upcoming British offensive called for greater Squadron strength in the region. From this, 8 Squadron RNAS was formed by the Royal Navy on the 28th of October 1916.

Little's was assigned to "B" Flight and his Flight Commander was another Australian, Major S. Goble of Croydon, Victoria. Goble finished the war with 7 victories and later became an Air-Vice Marshal in the RAF. Initially "Naval 8" flew a mix of Nieuport 17's, Sopwith 1 and 1/2 Strutters and Sopwith Pups but by December of 1916 the squadron was fully equipped with the Sopwith Pup scout, the first in France to be fully outfitted with the type. Little was to become an ace in the Sopwith Pup, shooting down several aircraft with the type. His Sopwith built, Sopwith Pup N5182 later being honoured by the Shuttleworth collection by converting a Sopwith Dove to Pup specifications and then painting it in N5182's scheme. Little's Pup N5182, supposedly bore the name "Lady Maud" on it's side, how ever no photo's have surfaced of N5182 so marked.

Little became known in his squadron as a crack marksman and a skilled and daring pilot in the air. He would often practise for hours on the ground with a rifle and clay pigeons. Little also became known for his willingness to fly extremely close to the enemy to take full advantage of his marksmanship skills, however he was not known for his brilliance when landing aircraft. Flt Cdr G. Simpson wrote of Little , " Little was a most brilliant fighter pilot , probably one of the finest shots then in France....he boasted he had wrecked as many British planes on landing as he had brought down Germans in the air "

An example of his lack of care on landing occurred on the 24th of April 1917 when Little spotted two Nieuports of 40 Squadron RFC attacking a DFW C.V of Fliegerabteilung 17. Little dived on it and his first shots holed the DFW's oil tank, the DFW glided down to a perfect landing. Little attempted to land next to the DFW he had just shot down but Little in a Triplane turned his machine over and got stuck under the cockpit. The pilot and observer of the DFW, Lieutenant Neumuller and Huppertz ran over and pulled Little from under the Triplane.

On the 1st of February 1917, the Sopwith Pups of Naval 8 were passed over to the control of Naval 3 and Little's squadron was re-equipped with the new Sopwith Triplane. The air war at this time was flowing firmly in the German's favour, the next month of 1917 was to become known as "Bloody April" to the RFC. The RFC were predominantly flying old and antiquated aircraft such as the BE2, the FE2.b and the Nieuports. Of the planes that could perform and maneouvre with the Albatros variants, such as the Sopwith Pup, the Nieuport 17 and the Spad VII, there were few of them operational on the Front. The Naval squadrons with their Triplanes, Pups and Strutters were to carve a name for themselves with the German airmen as machines and pilots to be wary of. Little was in no small part, one of the reasons for the reputation and respect the Naval Squadrons were held in.

During "Bloody April" , Naval 8 found itself based opposite the famed German squadron of Jasta 11 lead by Manfred von Richthofen. Naval 8 was to clash with the Jasta's of JG1 and Jasta "Boelcke" numerous times over the ensuing months. Richthofen was to draw first blood with Naval 8 though when on the 29th of April he shot down a Sopwith Triplane of Naval 8 for his 52nd victory. Little's favourite aircraft of the period was the Triplane N5493 with the word "BLYMP", named for Little's son, emblazoned across it's side. In this aircraft Little flew into a flight of 11 enemy scouts over Arras and outflew them single handedly for half an hour. Legend has it that these aircraft were from Jasta 11 and that Richthofen saw the fight from the ground and reported to Anthony Fokker as to the Triplanes abilities.

Geoffrey Bromet, later an Air-Vice Marshall did see the engagement however and reported, " At 6.45 on April 7th,1917, a sopwith triplane , working alone , attacked eleven hostile machines, almost all Albatros scouts, North East of Arras. He completely outclassed the whole patrol...diving through them and climbing above them. " Of the same battle a 3rd Army AA officer witnessed the dogfight as well and records, " At 6.45 on April 7th 1917 ....drawing them all the time towards the AA guns .... the AA opened fire on the patrol which turned eastwards ... the manoeuvring of the triplane completely outclassed that of the Albatros scout. "

Little's aggressiveness in combat was earning him a regular number of victories. Herbert Thompson of C flight in 8 RNAS wrote of Little, " In our squadron , No 8 RNAS , R.A. Little was the clumsiest lander and in the air drove his triplane to the verge of disintegration. He flew in B flight and I was in C but at times I went up with him... He had an eye like a telescope. I remember one patrol when we were flying at 17000 feet and he picked out a well camouflaged two seater crawling along at 1000 feet. He waggled his wings and went away down in a terrific dive. None of us could keep up and he had got the German into a spin before we arrived. What the speed of our dives were I shudder to think...in the same week Dixon, spinning his triplane with engine on at 10,000 feet tore off all his wings...".

On another occasion Little, now flying with 203 RAF attacked a formation of twelve aircraft from Jasta 2 " Boelcke ", shooting up the rearmost machine but was badly shot up by the remaining aircraft and without controls his Sopwith Camel fell towards the earth. His plane flattened out at low altitude and Little with his seatbelt unstrapped was thrown out of the aircraft when it crashed. Unperturbed by his predicament he stood up and blazed away with his handgun at the two enemy aircraft who had followed him down. The enemy aircraft attempted to strafe him until guns of the British infantry joined in. In "Above the Trenches" this engagement as noted as Little shooting down Uffz Kaufmann of Jasta 47, who was wounded in Little's attack, Little was then shot down by Vzfw Ehmann also of Jasta 47. Little crashed in allied lines immeadiately after.

By May of 1918 Little had 47 victories to his credit and was flying the Sopwith Camel in 203 RAF. During this period the German bomber formations were doing night raids along the front upon allied airfields and the lrger german bombers were travelling to England to unload their cago of bombs. many squadrons flew dusk and night patrols to attack the enemy bombers , Robert Little was on such a patrol when he attacked a Gotha bomber on the 27th of May 1918. A searchlight searching for the bomber swung onto Little and blinded him, the rear gunner of the Gotha took the oppurtunity to fire at the Camel and Little was hit in either the stomach or both thighs. Little crash landed near Noeux but by the time his plane was found he had bled to death. The next day a gendarme called upon Major C Booker, Commander of 201 squadron and reported an Allied machine had crashed nearby. Booker accompanied the gendarme to the plane and was horrified to see his old friend Robert Little dead ( note Booker mentioned the wound as being in the heart ) . Robert Alexander Little was buried in Wavans cemetary and survived by a wife and a child.


1. Information taken from the unpublished memoirs of E.R. Grange with the permission of the extended Grange family.

1. Shared with Lt Napier in Nieuport A6778 of 40 Sqn. This is the victory mentioned where Little crashed when landing beside the captured German aircraft from FA18
2. Shared with FSL R.P. Minifie in Sopwith Triplane N5446, of 1 Naval RNAS
3. Shared with F/Cmdr C.D. Booker in N5482.
4. Shared with FSL P.A. Johnston N6255.
5. Shared with FSL R.R. Soar N6292.
6. Shared with FSL R.R. Soar N6376.
7. Shared with FSL J.H. Thompson, FSL R. MacDonald N6375, FSL W.M. Davidson N6376.
8. Shared with FSL R. MacDonald N6375.
9. Shared with Lt A.B. Ellwood B7229, Lt J.A. Glen B7185.
10. Shared with Lt E.T. Hayne D3376.