Thrilling Flights

Thrilling Flights was a compilation of articles all of whom had appeared in various issues of Popular Flying under the banner of "My Most Thrilling Flight". The compilation was edited by W. E. Johns and published by John Hamilton in 1936. Johns's own story was the fourth in the compilation and recounts his last flight during WW1 when he undertook a raid into Germany and was shot down and taken prisoner.

Chapters in Thrilling Flights

Most of the stories followed the sequence in which they appeared in Popular Flying but they were jumbled up towards the end, and the first story is actually the last to appear in the magazine.

William Courtenay

William Courtenay describes his experience as a passenger on a long-range demonstration flight from Blackpool to India and back again on board a Spartan Mail Carrier. Among the many adventures, they had to approach Baghdad after nightfall. Fortunately the pilot, Neville Stack, had once served at Hinaidi Airfield and by using some familiar illuminated ground features, was able to land safely. On another occasion, they were caught in a sandstorm and were fortunate to spot Basra and land there. On the homeward leg, they suffered an engine failure and had to forceland in Greece. While the mechanic repaired the engine, Courtenay and Stack went to the nearest village to get food and found themselves being feted like royalty. After much hospitality, the entire village of curious onlookers returned to the aircraft to watch it take off. According to Courtenay, Stack often dropped friendly messages over the village in subsequent years. Courtenay also records an earlier episode where he helped L. A. Strange (see the next story) demonstrate the mail carrier at Antwerpt. (Popular Flying Vol. 3 #12 Mar 1935)

Lt-Col. L. A. Strange, D.S.O., M.C., D.F.C.

L. A. Strange describes an early experience with a Martinsyde scout (Martinsyde S.1). While trying to engage an Aviatik, he had to stand up to try to free a jammed Lewis gun magazine. Somehow the aircraft turned upside down and he found himself dangling in the air clinging on to the magazine which he now hoped would never come free while the aircraft entered a flat spin. By feat of acrobatics, he manoevred his legs into the cockpit and found the stick and righted the aircraft. He fell into the seat but the force had broken it and now his controls were jammed. Finally he managed to clear the controls and landed safely. Strange records that he later met a German pilot von Leutzer (actually Bruno Loerzer) who told him a German observer had claimed an aerial victory for the incident but was ragged because the wreckage was never found. (Popular Flying Vol. 1 #1 Apr 1932)

Capt. C. D. Barnard

C. D. Barnard recounts his experiences as a pilot with the Duchess of Bedford on a record breaking flight in a Fokker named "Spider" (a Fokker F.VIIA) from London to Cape Town. Among their adventures were several occasions when they were almost lost their way in bad weather. Very often they were barely skimming over treetops or feeling their way over mountain ranges in poor visibility. On one occasion several of the crew almost expired from carbon monoxide poisoning from a split heater muff pipe. On the return leg, they suffered low oil pressure over the mountains in Bulgaria and had to force land. (Popular Flying Vol. 1 #2 May 1932)

Capt. W. E. Johns

This is Johns's own account (a lttile briefer than retold elsewhere) of his last flight of WW1 in which he was shot down and taken prisoner. Johns had taken off from Azelot on 16 Sep 1918 as part of a formation of 6 D.H.4s with the mission of bombing Mannheim. Enroute, he was hit by anti-aircraft fire which holed his fuel tank and was forced to leave the formation and head for base. However he was intercepted by a formation of seven to eight Fokkers and for several minutes had to fight them off on his own. His gunner Amey put up a good fight but was wounded (or killed). Eventually the engine was hit and cut out and then the joystick became loose as the controls broke. Johns was saved by the inherent stability of the aircraft--it entered a spin twice but recovered by itself. Eventually the aircraft crashed into the ground but Johns managed to get out alive--he thought his seat belt had saved him. However he was unable to get Amey out. Shortly thereafter Johns was captured. In this article he does not recount his experience as a prisoner of war. (Popular Flying Vol. 1 #3 Jun 1932)

Flight-Lieut. T. E. W. Browne, R.A.F.O.

Browne narrates his experience flying a Handley Page bomber (probably a HP 0/400) from Autrevville on a night raid to Frankfurt on 21 Aug 1918. The early part of the flight was uneventful although they began to meet serious anti-aircraft fire over the target. After dropping the bombs, he turned the aircraft and headed for base. Over friendly lines, his port engine died. The aircraft could not maintain height with one engine and he was too far from Autreville. However, there were at that time, various "lighthouses" flashing beacons to guide the night flyers back. He spotted one at Ochey, a base he was familiar with, and thought he might just make it. However the starboard engine also died and he was forced to make a crash landing. The aircraft caught fire shortly after impact and he and his crew just managed to get away in time. They returned the next day ti inspect the wreckage and found the cause of their crash: shrapnel from anti-aircraft fire had punctured the main tank. As he writes, "To crash is bad, but to fly for three hours knowning that one can hardly escape doing so is sure the very devil...." (Popular Flying Vol. 1 #4 Jul 1932)

"Brevet"

"Brevet" describes a flight in India (presumably in the 1920s) which justified a nickname during service in WW1. The nickname was "Jammy" (which appears to mean someone who was very lucky). "Brevet" was assigned as the observer/gunner in a formation of 6 D.H.9A bombers taking off on a raid on some hostile hill tribes in Waziristan. All kinds of mishaps happened to his aircraft on the way. To begin with, the engine would not start, and were late in taking off. Once airborne, the ground crew signaled to them that they had lost their starboard wheel. Just after the raid, he heard a metallic sound in the cockpit and his pilot signaled that his controls had jammed and could not gain height. "Brevet" tried his backup controls and they were jammed also. Suddenly the pilot jerked up--he had been hit by a sniper on the adjacent hillsides. "Brevet" grabbed his controls and managed to free them. Climbing out of danger, he turned for base and managed, after several tries, to land the aircraft at their small airfield base, albeit ending up almost on the edge of a ditch. His C.O. and his colleagues congratulated him. He had never had any flying instruction and did not really know what to do. He had managed a safe landing, with only had one wheel, narrowly missing the windsock and hangars, and also managed to end up with both him and his injured pilot surviving the crash. (Popular Flying Vol. 1 #5 Aug 1932)

Squadron-Leader B. J. W. Brady, D.S.M., R.A.F.

Brady describes his experience flying a Sopwith two seater (probably a Sopwith 1½ Strutter) on the Salonika front during WW1. Out on a routine dawn reconnaissance, he overflew an enemy airfield and spotted a Rumpler and proceeded to attack. With both his and his gunner's eyes focussed on the target, they did not notice when another aircraft, a Halberstadt attacked them. the first burst holed hsi main tank and the second shot away his aileron controls. Brady and his gunner Marsh fought back desperately but without controls, it was only a matter of time. Both Brady and Marsh were wounded and Brady lost consciousness. He regained it briefly only to see the aircraft down towards rough scrubland littered with boulders and intersected by deep ravines. Just before the crash, he lost consciousness again. He wakes up in a Bulgarian hospital and meets Marsh who tells him that somehow, as if by a miracle, they had managed to crash land on the only piece of level ground for miles around. (Popular Flying Vol. 1 #6 Sep 1932)===

Com. Joachim Breithaupt

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Joachim Breithaupt describes his flight in command of the zeppelin LXV which took off from Hage in March 1916 for a raid on London. Approaching London, the LXV was picked up by search lights and the craft heavily attacked by anti aircraft fire and later by some aircraft which continued after he dropped his bombs and turned for hom. Heavily damaged and losing gas, the zeppelin lost height and crashed into the Thames estuary. All but one of his crew were rescued by a British torpedo boat. There is a note by the editor (Johns) summarising the fate of the various zeppelins employed by the German Navy. He notes that this arm suffered appalling casualties and that the campaign could not be considered successful. (Popular Flying Vol. 1 #10 Jan 1933)

Pauline Gower

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Pauline Gower describes her night flying test for the "B" licence. She had taken off from Croydon in a Moth but soon lost all ground reference in mist and then thick fog. After flying a compass to Penshurst, she failed to sight the aerodrome and steered a reverse course hoping to find Croydon but again could see nothing. Finally, with fuel running short she sighted a flashing light and headed for it and landed safely. It turned out to be Hornchurch. According to Gower, her only night flying experience before this was a few landings with her instructor a few hours before the test. Her aircraft did not have blind flying instruments and it would appear she did not have much experience with instrument flying at this point. (Popular Flying Vol. 1 #11 Feb 1933)

A. C. S. Irwin (late R.F.C.)

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A. C. S. Irwin describes a bombing raid he took part in in 1917. He had taken off from Boisdingham in a formation of 5 D.H.4s to bomb the German aerodrome at Heule Bissingham. The raid went through smoothly. On the flight back, Irwin spotted a lone German two seater below them and got permission from the flight leader Captain Minot to attack it. Diving down, Irwin shot it down with just a few short bursts of fire but his elation was short-lived. High above were about thirty small specks, enemy aircraft plunging through the D.H.4s above and diving down on him. Irwin felt that he could not just run for it. He had discussed with squadron mates what they should do when they met "the Great Circus". If he ran away what would they say? In the event he had little choice as the enemy were soon upon him. After fighting desparately for some minutes, his gunner Leete scored a victory but soon he was down to his last drum of ammunition. Finally Irwin himself was hit in the leg. This was the end. Irwin did a manoeuvre also done by Biggles--he put the aircraft into a spin, intending to recover just above the ground--and hope that no enemy aircraft would follow. This succeeding in evading his attackers and he brought his D.H.4 safely back to base. Irwin ended up in hospital. His formation had suffered many casualties. Minot had lost his gunner and now partnered up with Leete as his gunner. They promised to visit him the next night but they never came back. (Popular Flying Vol. 3 #4 Jul 1934)

A. J. Insall (late R.F.C.)

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A. J. Insall describes a mission he undertook as a gunner on a Vickers fighter (Vickers F.B.5) with 11 Sqn towards the end of 1915. Armed with his Lewis gun and an Enfield rifle, Insall took off with his pilot to escort some B.E. 2s who were to bomb Bray-sur-Somme. They encountered a strong tailwind that took them to the target quickly but when they turned for base, they discovered that the wind was so strong that the aircraft was actually travelling backwards, further and further to the east! They struggled for a long time making little progress, then they saw an airfield through the clouds with some of the dreaded Fokker monoplanes taking off. Fortunately, they too decided that the weather was too difficult for flying and landed again. Finally, with fuel almost exhausted, and helped by the fact that their mechanic had overfilled their tanks, Insall and his pilot make to British lines by which time time they had already been posted as "Missing, believed shot down." (Popular Flying Vol. 3 #9 Dec 1934)

Lieut. S. J. Wise

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Lieutenant S. J. Wise relates his experience while serving as a R.N.A.S. bomber pilot in 1917. He took off from Lemnos in a Handley Page bomber (a H.P. 0/100) with H. Aird and John Alcock (of Alcock and Brown fame) with the intention of bombing Constantinople. En route, they suffered a catastrophic port engine failure ("the port propellor, plus a portion of the nose reduction gear housing, vanished into the blue...."). They tried to turn back for base but were unable to maintain altitude and after about sixty miles, were forced to ditch near Gallipoli. They then swam ashore and were captured by Turkish troops and were kept as prisoners of war, sometimes in terrible conditions, until the end of the war. He asserts that "although these events were indirectly the cause of a complete breakdown in my health, I would not have missed the experience for anything." (Popular Flying Vol. 3 #5 Aug 1934)