The History of 3 Squadron Australian Flying Corps

Mobilization in Australia

In the last week of 1916 a unit equipped with the RAF RE8 reconnaissance aircraft and under the command of Major D.V.J Blake arrived from Australia. The air crews embarked on an training schedule to make the new pilots and observers familiar with their roles with in the artillery and army co-operation role. In August of 1917 the men and Machines of 3 Squadron AFC set out on the first leg of their journey to France. Due to a spate of bad weather it wasn't until the 9th of September when the pilots finally crossed the channel and navigated their way to the depot aerodrome of St Omer. After an overnight stay at St Omer, the squadron was deployed at Savy aerodrome. Here they worked closely with two RFC squadrons until 3 Squadron was confident enough to be given their own sector in early November when they were moved to Bailleul. This sector covered the Messines area and 3 squadron was in direct support of the Australian Infantry.

The reconnaissance planes of the RFC had been used to high casualty rates for most of the war, the 2 seater was outclassed in speed and maneuverability by the German Scouts and subsequently the reconnaissance planes were easy pickings for the German pilots. The British 2 seater machinery was poor in the extreme and the allied reconn squadrons had to soldier on with old, slow and antiquated machinery. The pilots of 3 squadron decided they had as much right as the enemy to their particular patch of sky and they fought grimly and with extreme aggression to maintain their piece of sky. The offensive spirit of the squadron is displayed in the fact that during their 12 month tenure at the front, they accounted for 50 aircraft being forced out of the sky. This included the capture of an Albatros and an Halberstadt. The squadron's first victory was recorded on the 6th of December when a DFW crashed after having been exposed to the Lewis Gun of Lieutenant J.R. Bell.

The Ghost RE8

On the 17th of December, Australia received a war trophy courtesy of 3 squadron's pilots , Lieutenant J.L Sandy and Sergeant H.F. Hughes. The trophy came with the loss of these two airmen. The Australians fought so doggedly against this plane it was forced down in British lines and salvaged by ground crew of 3 AFC. The Albatros was then sent back to Australia and today sits in the Australian War Memorial in the colours of Jasta 5 as it was when it was forced down. Sandy and Hughes in the same engagement were still holding off several other attackers. More RE8's from 3 squadron flew in to help them and eventually drove the German Scouts off. The aircraft of Sandy and Hughes was now carrying a dead pilot and a mortally wounded observer. The RE8 continued to fly in large circles, slowly working it's way behind the Allied lines and coming to land near a Hospital 50 miles away when it ran out of fuel. The plane landed itself and was undamaged by the landing.

3 squadron carried out their main operations of photographing German concentrations of troops and supplies, their eyes ever watchful for a German Scout diving down on them from up sun, or the burst of an anti-aircraft shell next to their airplane. The squadron lost two machines to enemy shellfire in the early part of the year. Bailleul became an artillery and enemy bomber target as the Germans tried to prepare the way for their offensive of early 1918 and by the end of March the Australians moved to aerodrome at Abeele. In April the squadron moved to Poulanville, south in the Somme sector. On the 21st of April, Lieutenants S.G Garrett, A.V Banks and Lieutenants T.L Simpson and E.C Banks were attacked by a flight of Triplanes led by Manfred von Richthofen, Gemanies Red Baron. The Australians fought of the Red Baron's Circus until help arrived in the form of a squadron of Camels, one of which bearing the cherry nose of Roy Brown's particular mount. The Australians continued on with their objective, unaware they were one of the last people to see Manfred von Richthofen alive.

The Red Baron

Richthofen crashed and died just behind Australian lines where his body and aircraft were taken to the aerodrome of 3 squadron. There was doubt as to whether Richthofen was killed by the guns of Roy Browns Camel or by ground fire from Australian Soldiers in the trenches. The Australian veteran, Harold Edwards, who only died this year at the age of 102, was a 22 year old mechanic and instrument fitter with 3 squadron AFC assigned on the 21st of April to be the Guard over Richthofens dead body. Edwards is quoted as saying "I saw the wounds. The bullets went in below the right arm and emerged at the left breast." Either way Manfred von Richthofen was low well behind enemy lines, with the Canadian Roy Brown on his tail and firing, and the gunners from the Australian trenches firing from the ground as well. Richthofen was on a hiding to nothing, history says he died. 3 squadron buried the Red Baron with full military honours, Harold Edwards even doing the bronze engraving for the plaque on the coffin.

On the 9th of May an Australian pioneer of flight was wounded in action flying a reconnaissance mission behind enemy lines. Captain Duigan was accredited as the first Australian to fly in a locally made machine. He also spotted the large German railway gun from the air, when the gun was finally captured it was presented to Australia as a war trophy. One of the dangers the squadron faced was the inclement weather and the deep fogs which developed in that part of Europe. Lieutenant W.V Herbert was caught in one of these blind fogs and was without any visual aids to align himself and his RE8. He dropped the aircraft to ground level and found himself on the wrong side of the lines. In danger of being shot down by ground fire, or colliding with one of the high objects that was continually flashing past the RE8's nose, Herbert could do nothing but concentrate on keeping the RE8 in the air. The observer Lieutenant F.A Sewell was firing his Lewis Gun at anything that popped it's head up until finally the inevitable happened and Herbert ran the plane into a tree which caused the port aileron to be jammed by a stick. Herbert forced the RE8 up through fog to the clear air above despite the difficulties the jammed aileron was causing, and Sewell climbed out on the top wing and grimly edged his way to a position where his weight was enough to overcome the imbalance caused by the immovable aileron. Herbert was eventually able to get the stick to fall out of the aileron by judicious movements of the stick, to which Sewell no doubt breathed a sigh of relief. Sewell returned to the observer's cockpit gratified he didn't have to land with his weight perched over the top wing to keep the aircraft flying straight.

Capturing a Halberstadt

On the 9th of June, Lieutenant R.C Armstrong and Lieutenant F.J Mart attacked a Halberstadt 2 seater near Flesselles. The aerodrome was shocked and disturbed by the hurried landing of the Halberstadt until the aircraft or Armstrong and Mart landed. They had attacked the Halberstadt but the German aircrew, lost and inexperienced avoided fighting. Armstrong guided the plane back to the base where the German plane promptly landed and the aircrew surrendered. This Halberstadt was handed over to the Australian Government as a war trophy and taken back to Tasmania. One of the Australian RE8's was too, to go back home as a war trophy, the RE8 from 3 squadron known as Sylvia or by it's serial number A4397. The RE8 set a record amongst British and Commonwealth Forces by completing 440 hours of service flying in 147 flights across enemy lines. A4937 was later sent to Australia where it was displayed in an aircraft exhibition in Melbourne. Unfortunately, the whereabouts of this aircraft is unknown today and it is unlikely it has survived.

The squadron continued through to the end of the war keeping their record of successful missions alive as well as their reputation for aggressiveness and spoiling for a fight in their slow RE8s. With the coming of the Armistice, the squadron was retained in Belgium and flew the mail routes for the occupational forces, which is a rather auspicious job for what had been described as the best Corps squadron in France. In February of 1919 the squadron was disbanded and the surviving members of the squadron returned to Australia leaving behind them a history with a proud record and a level of achievement for future Australian Squadrons to live up to.