This is an extract from the now out of print autobiography of Lt Colonel Louis Strange, "Recollections of an Airman". Strange commanded the 80th Wing RAF with which the two Australian Flying Corps scout squadrons were attached, 2 Sqn AFC and 4 Sqn AFC. In this extract he describes the Australian squadrons in the air and on the ground and the techniques he used to get the best out of the Australian pilots. Strange is probably best known for hanging from a jammed Lewis gun drum in an upside down spinning Martinsyde. He survived by kicking his way back into the cockpit, in doing so smashing the instruments and putting the seat through the floor.
(more)
An issue in World War I aviation history which gets revisited occasionally is the question of the Sopwith Snipe as successor to the Sopwith Camel. In particular one prominent World War I Aviation historian has put forward that the Sopwith Snipe was not up to 1918 or 1919 standards for performance and would have resulted in the Sopwith Snipe Squadrons failing operationally through 1919. The alternative viewpoint is that the Sopwith Snipe allowed the allied squadrons to meet the German fighters and in particular the Fokker DVII scout on equal terms at heights where the Sopwith Camel was outclassed.
(more)
