Insignia and Markings of 4 Squadron Australian Flying Corps

Markings and Insignia : December 1917 - May 1918

4 Squadron Australian Flying Corps began it's operational service with the Sopwith Camel. The Sopwith Camels were in the standard factory finish of PC10 upper surfaces and CDL lower surfaces. The plywood area were covered clear and the cowl area was either polished aluminium or painted in Battleship Grey depending on the manufacturer of the aircraft. The squadron insignia matched 2 Sqn AFC's insignia with the white boomerang being aft of the roundal on the fuselage. Unlike the 2 Sqn SE5.a's though the boomerang marking on the Sopwith Camels was mimiced on the upper surface of the turtledeck.

The Sopwith Camel depicted above was a Sopwith Camel which was ferried into squadron service by Lieutenant George Jones on the 25th of February 1918. The aircraft was to survive three months in the squadron with C Flight. The New Zealander Lieutenant Herbert G. Watson was to score two victories with the aircraft, sending an Albatros DV out of control on the 19th of April 1918, and downing a Pfalz DIII on the 11th of May 1918. The aircraft is shown above in the worn condition it appears in a photograph taken on the 26th of March 1918 at Bruay aerodrome. The battleship grey paint is flaked around the cowl area and the service panels. Aircraft wore very quickly in appearance at the Western Front.

Markings and Insignia : May 1918 - October 1918

During the German Offensive of May, British Intelligence decided that all squadrons under British operational command should swap their geometric squadron codes with each other in an effort to confuse the enemy. 4 Squadron lost their distinctive boomerang marking to a single white bar fore of the roundal, which was in the center of the fuselage. Once again 4 Squadron and 2 Squadron AFC bore the same squadron markings. Individual markings were added by pilots to their individual aircraft in the squadron, the most famous being Captain A.H. Cobby's Charlie Chaplin marking.

The profile above is taken from a photograph in "High Adventure" of Cobby's Air Mechanic standing infront of Cobby's Camel. Unfortunately the serial isn't viewable. Clearly viewable is the the Chaplin aluminium cutout in it's grey's, black's and tans. Cobby's Camel during the aerodrome attacks at Lille in late 1918 wore a totally white upper wing to aid in recognition with other pilot's in 80 Wing as Cobby was leading the operation.

Markings and Insignia : October 1918 - March 1919

In October the squadron re-equipped with the Sopwith Snipe, the Snipe's coming in standard PC10 upper surfaces and CDL lower surfaces. The plywood area's around the cockpit being painted in battleship grey and the cowl a polished aluminium. In some cases the cowl was also brushed. By the time the squadron was at Bickendorff in Cologne, their Snipe's were a mixture of the early Sopwith produced Snipe with the non balanced ailerons and the two piece rudder, and the later produced Sopwith built Snipes with the horned ailerons and the larger rudder.

The bar fore of the roundal seems to follow the pattern of extending to just lower than the red circle of the British cockade and rising to just above the small white outline. Many of the white bars on the port side of the aircraft were badly scuffed at their tops by the oily boots of pilots clambering in and out of the aircraft.

This profile above is taken from a photograph in the Australian War Memorial Collection of the Sopwith Snipe E8069 which was flown by Captain Thomas C.R. Baker on two operational flights, one resulting in a victory to Baker on the 26th of October when he shot a DVII out of control near Tournai.

4 Squadron continued to operate the Sopwith Snipe into 1919 while being stationed in Cologne as part of the Commonwealth Occupational Forces, at that time the squadron consisted of the following flight structure;