No.2 Squadron's DH5 aircraft were pressed into the ground attack role during the Battle of Cambrai. It was dangerous work as the linen and wood aircraft were susceptible to small arms fire at the low levels they worked at. Harry Taylor was shot down while performing a ground attack mission, and surviving the crash had quite an adventure before getting back to the squadron's aerodrome.
On the morning of the 20th of November the Battle for Cambrai was well under way. The dawn horizon clammered with the sound of artillery shells from both sides being fired in never ending barrages and through the impenetrable mist. At the crack of dawn a flight of six aircraft from 2 Squadron Australian Flying Corps took off from their Warloy aerodrome in their DH5 aircraft to strafe and bomb the German rear and offer tactical air support for the allied soldiers. The mist was so dense, as it had been for the whole of the month, that formation flying was impossible and the six aircraft split up into pairs and went off to find for targets of opportunity.
Of this first flight Captain Bell who had been a pilot with 1 Squadron AFC in the Palestinian theatre , in company with Lieutenant McKenzie attacked a series of German Artillery positions at low altitude. The ground attack work was dangerous, often the DH5's would be less than 30 feet off the ground due to the heavy mist. McKenzie after releasing his bombs on a position strafed another with his Vickers gun until he was low on ammunition, his partner however had received a bullet wound in the chest from ground fire and was forced to land near the front lines. Bell unfortunately was to die of his wounds in a hospital, but his downed aircraft was to play a role in another escapade that occurred later in the day.
Before this first morning flight had returned a second flight was taking off from Warloy to attack German positions under the command of Phillipps and Wilson. In the formation was a well respected pilot by the name of Lieutenant Harry Taylor. Taylor had been a Mechanic before the war having found himself in Australia after being born and living much of his life in Birmingham, England, and joined the A.A.S.C on the outbreak of hostilities. Later he transferred to the Australian Flying Corps and was posted to France with 2 Squadron. On November 20th he was flying as a pair to Captain Wilson, who says of the initial attack;
Close together we dived down and opened our machine guns on the Germans, pulling up to the level of the fog again ( about thirty feet off the ground ), and letting a bomb drop as we rose.After another zoom , Wilson noted he had lost Taylor and was looking for him when Wilson saw a red rocket fired up into the sky meaning Taylor was in distress. Wilson wrote;
That he was sufficiently alive to fire those rockets was amazing. His machine was just a heap of wreckage. One wing lay 20 yards from the rest of the heap." Wilson also noticed that 50 yards from Taylor were groups of enemy infantry who had been watching Taylor come down, uncertain as to whether he was crashing or going to strafe them. As he crashed they lifted their rifles to fire on Taylor.Taylor had crouched behind a small mound after crashing and with his automatic starting firing back at the German soldiers. Taylor would run and fire with each strafing run of Wilson's until he was close to a small group of British soldiers who quickly clamoured around him and started firing back at the German soldiers. Wilson saw Taylor pick up the rifle of a fallen soldier and fire alongside the British soldiers at the German infantry who was now surrounding the British position. Wilson continued to strafe the German infantry in an attempt to get them to disengage the British soldiers and break up their attack , but offering himself as a target eventually had consequences. Wilson writes;
Then there was a crashing sound and I was blinded. Two bullets had pierced the wind screen in front of my eyes and dust from the triplex glass had been flung into my eyes. ....... For a while I flew about anywhere, certain of one thing only, that I was climbing up clear of enemy fire. Gradually the glass dust got washed from my eyes and I was able to see again.When Wilson returned to the crashed aircraft the surrounding land was in the control of the Germans and neither Taylor or the British soldiering party could be seen. The men that Taylor had found had lost their Officer and Taylor fought with them as they edged their way back to more easily defensible lines and the main body of troops they were attached to. Taylor left the group once they reached safety and began the long trek back to the advanced landing ground when he came across Captain Bell's machine. Taylor with the help of some troops attempted to get the engine started but they were unable to. Taylor walked back to the airbase , reaching it in time for dinner. The official description of Taylor's escapade for that day read;
attacked parties of the enemy with a German Rifle , joined an advanced British infantry patrol, led it forward, and brought in a wounded man. He found Captain Bell's machine and tried to fly it , but without success. He then rejoined the squadron at the advanced landing ground.Unfortunately Taylor was to die in an aeroplane accident on the 18th of August 1918 while flying as an instructor with the Training Wing of the Australian Flying Corps in England.
