In late February of 1918, Lieutenant W.B. Randall a two month veteran of the Western Front and flying with 4 Sqn AFC had just completed a fruitless offensive patrol. The squadron pilots had orders to expend their ammunition on any targets of oppurtunity before returning to their aerodrome. Randall was above the trenches which cut a streak through the French countryside when he spotted some German machine gun emplacements. He dived down and began the hazardous task of strafing them. After shooting up several machine gun emplacements and receiving ground fire he found himself heading directly towards an enemy observation balloon. He pulled his nose up and headed directly for the balloon, firing as he neared. A swathe of heavy ground fire hit the Sopwith Camels engine and the revs dropped to zero. Randall had no choice but to glide down to a field and land his aircraft.

Rapidly losing height, Randall was forced to land in a field near the machine gun emplacements he had been shooting up earlier. The German survivors of those attacks ran out and met him with their bayonets fixed. The Germans were not pleased at the toll he had taken on their comrades and they held a bayonet to his throat. Fortunately for Randall a German Officer saved him from the potential nasty situation he was in and took Randall prisoner. Only two months earlier Randall had been threatened with a court martial for insubordination and threatening a British Officer. A peculiar chain of events had led to Randall being in German occupied territory as a Prisoner of War, rather than in a British Military Prison.

The first overseas contingent of Australian Soldiers to come under the British military heirarchy were the Australian contingents of the ANZAC Army Corp at Gallipoli. The British Officers didn't understand the Australian system of discipline in 1915 and still hadn't understood it by the end of the war. The Australian method of being forthright was confused as mutiny and often charged under the banner of ill discipline. Even as late as 1918 General Haig was pushing for capital punishment for Australian offenders of army discipline. The Australian Government never allowed it.

The Australian Flying Corps , like the Australian Soldiers had it's fair share of clashes with the British heirarchy. 4 AFC reached England in March and for six months did operational training under British supervision. Randall was amongst the pilots who had come from Australia and disembarked in March. The pilots did furthur training in a variety of planes before they finally received their new Sopwith Camels. One of the common topics amongst the Australian Flying Corps pilots was the RE.8 they had for training and how it required constant and heavy pressure on the rudder to keep it steady in the air.

Randall was a very short man and had difficulty extending his legs to keep constant pressure in the scout aircraft, so when an Officer told him to fly the RE.8 he agreed and jumped in the pilots seat. Randall discovered he could only just reach the rudder pedals if he stretched his short legs and decided it would be his death if he tried to fly it. He promptly jumped out of the cockpit. Randall with his feet back on the ground was ordered to return to the aircraft and fly it. Randall responded with a length of expletives and several very Australian gestures describing to the Officer what he could do with his RE.8. To which , Randall was threatened with a Court Martial.

When Randall found himself the following February in a French field surrounded by a cadre of German soldiers brandishing their bayonets at him and thinking to himself what life in a prison camp might be like. He was there due to the Australian heirarchy deciding to waive the court martial and instead send him with 4 Squadron Australian Flying Corps to France. He received the much smaller and for Randall's short legs, a more fitting Sopwith Camel by way of punishment.