Griggs was an American who joined the Australian Flying Corps and flew with No.2 Squadron. Unfortunately he lost his life during the Battle of Cambrai.
Source: AWM Honour Roll. Griggs is fourth from left in the back row. The Australian Imperial Force [AIF] in the First World War was monoracial, but outside that policy, the AIF was multi-ethnic. Consequently there men of many different nations that served in the AIF; Russians, Danes, English, Singaporeans, Canadians, New Zealanders, etc - and Americans. When the gold rushes in California had petered out, many Americans flooded the Victorian goldfields, and then migrating on to the Western Australian goldfields before ended up in the South African goldrushes. It should be remembered that the groups which resisted the British most at Eureka when it came to arms were Americans.
Albert Griggs was from Meridian, Mississippi and was living in Hobart when he signed up to the AIF. He went through the Fifth (flying) Training Course at Point Cook, which was rare too, as the common path for joining the
Australian Flying Corps [AFC] was to be recruited from the Australian Light Horse. After completing his training in Britain he was posted to No.2 Squadron AFC.
No.2 Squadron flew the Airco DH5 which was unusual for having 'back-staggered' wings. This caused some problems in a fighter aircraft design as the pilots couldn't see what was behind them, or what was on their tail. To add to the concern of the wing design the DH5 was not a fast aircraft by any means which meant it was easy for German aircraft to catch them up if they wanted to.
The advantage was that the pilot had an excellent view in-front as no upper wing obstructed their vision. Partly as a consequence of this realisation, and the fact that during the Battle of Cambrai all available aircraft were needed to support the offensive on the ground, the DH5s were pressed into a ground attack role. It was very dangerous work and the casualty rate in No.2 Squadron was high during this period.
Griggs, unfortunately, was one of those who were lost during the support of the offensive. On November 23rd the allied offensive stalled at Moevres where three Irish Battalions where trying to take the town. An Irish company was pinned down by a German defensive position and they watched a back-staggered DH5 return to attack the position again and again; until it crashed into ground; killing Albert Griggs.
Two weeks later, the Irish Fusiliers put a notice in The Times: "To an unknown airmen, shot down on November 23rd, 1917, whilst attacking a German strongpoint south west of Bourlon Wood, in an effort to help out a company of Royal Irish Fusiliers when other help had failed."
