No 2 Squadron RFC
Diaries 1915 -1918
Captain Allcock's diary No 2 Squadron RFC Dec 1915 continued
Dec 2nd
Malaya 5 rebuilt. Machine test. Found Satisfactory. Looped the loop. 1 hr
Dec 2nd (2nd sortie)
Bomb raid on Don. Three squadrons, No 2, No 10, and No 16 rendezvous over No 2 at 7 000 feet carrying 2 one hundred pound bombs. Crossed the lines north of La Bassée. I went over a little in front of the others and was attacked as I was fixing my bomb sites. Thud, thud as the bullets hit. Getting my machine into the Hun line of fire, I poured into him a drum at 800 feet; he dived steeply apparently hit. After the excitement I surveyed the damage. His first burst had riddled the passenger's seat. Lucky no Observer as he would certainly have been killed. His second burst hit the wing and riddled it, while 2 glancing shots hit my cockpit two inches below my right arm. Having dropped my bombs with good effect I returned, getting Archied terribly but fortunately pulling through all right.
Editor's note: The following is the RFC Communiqué (Comic cuts) account of the aforementioned action.
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RFC Communiqué 23 Dec 2nd 2nd Lt. Allcock (BE2c, 2 Sqn) while bomb-dropping at Don, was attacked by an Albatros which passed underneath him and opened fire at a range of 200 ft over its tail. 2 Lt. Allcock manoeuvred into a position which enabled him to use the pilot's rear-gun bracket when he fired one drum at the enemy machine at 300 ft range. The German dived and went away due East and 2 Lt. Allcock continued to drop his bombs. |
Dec 8th
Artillery Registration on Hun Redoubt at 2000 ft. Weather very cold and thick. One target registered. Solo. 2 hrs
Dec 13th
Artillery Registration on Pont a Vendin Bridges, Washout. Batteries would not fire. Owing to supposed hostile aircraft. 2 hrs
Dec 13th (2nd sortie)
Hun Patrol and Counter Battery Work. While patrolling over Loos I was hit by Archie, he took half of one of my propeller blades away besides hitting a rib and making 12 other holes in the fabric. My engine of course began to vibrate dangerously and lose power so I headed for home and shelter just making the aerodrome with no height to spare. As it was I had to come in very flat to miss a ditch with the result that I pancaked and bent the axle. (Poor old Malaya). 2 1/4 hrs
Dec 14th
Left ground with Lt. Rice or Capt. Caruthers (?Carthew), 50 ft up the engine started to miss. Thinking I could just manage to go round the aerodrome and land into the wind, I started to turn when half way on the turn the engine cut out altogether leaving me nothing else to do but land with the wind, with the result that we landed too fast over ran the landing ground, charged across the road and finished up in a mud lake the other side. The machine with a broken back and we two shaken up. We however immediately got out another machine, reached the lines and did a most successful shoot on the Pont a Vendin town and bridges, smashing up the whole place. We landed at 4.15 thoroughly pleased with our day's work. We straffed with a 9.2 gun firing a 400 lb shell. 2 1/2 hrs
Dec 16th
Tested Malaya 5 - found satisfactory. 45 mins
Dec 19th
Escort to Tactical Reconnaissance Machine (Capt. Sandery). Lille Seclin Don. Saw one Hun over Lille, too far off to attack. Archie active. Hit 3 times. 2 1/2 hrs
Dec 23rd
Engine test. Descended owing to rain. 30 mins
Dec 25th
11.45 am to 1.45 pm Counter battery work and patrol looking for Hun flashes. We were active but Germans were ouiet. While patrolling solo La Bassee to Grenay I reached the height of 15000 ft (3 miles). One of the records on a BE2C (Factory) very cold and hard to breathe. 2 hrs
Dec 28th
Went up twice bomb dropping and testing new propeller found satisfactory. Looped the loop twice. Very funny sensation to fly upside down. On the second loop I stopped on top for a few seconds, flying head down a peculiar haziness comes over you. 2 hrs
Dec 28th (2nd sortie)
Hun Patrol La Bassee to Grenay. One Hun machine chased over Pont a Vendin, no shots exchanged. Fired a drum of ammunition into German trenches. Observer 1 AM Bowers. Landed at 4.20 pm in darkness. 1 hr
Dec 29th
Observer Lt. Nulue. We went up to shoot with the 9.2 gun 13 Siege at Pont a Vendin. We put two shells in.one into the Station Yard, the other right in the centre of the town. We had to come home on account of G Station not receiving our signals. Saw one Hun over Carvin going NE. Machine not climbing well, rotten propeller. 1 1/2 hrs
Dec 30th
Observer Lt. Rice went out to do Counter Battery work, but finding clouds at 1000 ft over the lines it was no good so we went North on Patrol. Just managed to pick out a few trains over Carvin way in between clouds. 2 hrs
Dec 30th (2nd sortie)
Bomb raid on Douai started at 11.45, climbed to 7000 ft and crossed the lines but clouds were too thick to see Douai, so I came down to 2000 ft over Pont a Vendin and in between clouds managed to drop my eggs on the town. Shot at by rifle but not hit. I then steered by compass due W and saw the earth again at Bethune where I came down to 600 ft and finally found my way home. None of the other machines dropped their bombs. 1 1/2 hrs
Dec 31st
Artillery Registration with 13th Siege on Chateau in Hulluch Wood with Lt. Rice. Observations partially successful. Reached 1200 ft, wind from South 50 mph, very bumpy. Chased two Huns away from our lines, no shots exchanged. 3 hrs
Diary © Guy Griffiths
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