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Clip description
Ground staff swing the propeller on an RE8 aircraft of No. 3 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps, at an airfield in northern France, in late 1917 or early 1918. At Clairmarais aerodrome – probably around late April or May 1918 – squadron pilots show off aerobatic skills in Sopwith Camels, one of the best new designs of the war. A brief shot shows the same squadron on 26 March, lined up for take-off at Bruay, during a critical period of operations. The final sequence shows No. 3 Squadron at Savy, taking off in SE5a fighters.
Curator’s notes
The Sydney Morning Herald of 20 July 1920 carried an advertisement for what appears to be this film, as part of a series of films to be screened at the Theatre Royal. ‘War In the Air’ was the title of ‘a thrilling lecture’ to be given by Colonel R Williams, ‘including an amazing film taken early in 1918 by Captain Frank Hurley from Captain Ross Smith’s aeroplane’. That footage is in clip three, but it is likely that the whole film was shown as part of this week-long series, intended to drum up public support for Charles Bean’s plans for an Australian war museum (which became the Australian War Memorial, the custodians of this film). There was enormous popular interest in aviation at this time, after Ross and Keith Smith, former AFC pilots, won the UK-Australia air race of 1919.
The construction of this film is chaotic and unchronological, jumping backwards and forwards in 1918 and 1919, suggesting it was put together in a hurry – or that what survives is incomplete. Nevertheless, it contains some fascinating footage that rewards investigation. Most of the footage from France is by Hubert Wilkins, all of the Palestine material is likely by Frank Hurley, and the 1919 England footage is by someone unknown. Hurley’s footage is the most thrilling, being shot from a fighter as it took off, but Wilkins probably did this well before him. He was a trained pilot who had been taking a newsreel camera into the air from around 1912 – although it’s strange that the sequences in France do not include any scenes shot in the air. It may be that Wilkins was not allowed to make such shots over the Western Front, where it was much more dangerous to fly.
The most interesting shot in clip one is towards the end of the clip, after the Sopwith Camel aerobatics. A Camel lands and taxis from right to left. Then we see a title: ‘Another type of fighting machine used by the Australians’, but the image that follows is of more Sopwith Camels, with prominent numbers (2, 3) and letters (W,Z,Y are visible). These planes carry a boomerang insignia, which tells us they are from No. 4 Squadron. Notice the smoke in the background. This matches a still photograph held by the AWM (E01878), taken from a position about 50 metres forward of where the cine camera sits in these moving images. The still photo is dated 26 March 1918 and identifies many of the names of the ground crew, and the location at Bruay.
Charles Bean’s Diary 103 (AWM38, 3DRL606/103/1, March 26, p 7) confirms that Wilkins stayed on 24 March with ‘our 71st squadron AFC at Savy’ (the 71st was the British designation for No. 3 Squadron, AFC). He appears to have filmed with them on the 25th and moved to nearby Bruay on 26 March. The dates are significant. These were some of the busiest days of the war for these Allied airmen.
The German army began its spring offensive on 21 March and had driven the British forces back along a wide front. There was serious concern that the German advance could be decisive in breaking the deadlock on the Western Front, thus ending the war. The British and the Australian squadrons were flying every possible minute in these days to bring back photographs and drop bombs on the advancing German troops. That is probably why we see people running in this footage, rather than walking. Bean writes, ‘Our planes were out by day bombing the Germans for all they were worth – they first drop their bombs and then come home using their mg’s (machine guns). They told Wilkins that they had to go pretty well behind the German lines as they could not tell exactly where the front line was’.
The title introducing this shot is inaccurate, in that it suggests these aeroplanes are not Sopwith Camels. It’s possible that the title is referring to the shot that follows this 26 March shot, because those are ‘another type of fighting machine’ – the SE5a fighters flown by ‘C’ flight, No. 2 Squadron at Savy. The first plane to lead off from the line of four is marked with a ‘V’, ahead of machines marked W, Z and Y. The identifying number on the tail plane of V is C9539. This machine was flown in March 1918 by Captain HG Forrest, leader of ‘C’ flight. On page 41 of Charles Schaedel’s book Men and Machines of the Australian Flying Corps (Kookaburra Technical Publications, 1972), there is a photo of this same plane with its nose buried in the ground on the Savy airfield in March 1918, after Capt. Forrest lost control. The AWM holds another photograph (E01881) showing this same aeroplane intact, with Captain Forrest and others taken on 25 March 1918. That suggests that Wilkins shot the cine film of these SE5a planes and other still photographs that same day, March 25.
Forrest became the squadron’s fourth-highest scoring ace, with a claim of 11 enemy aircraft brought down. Many of these were made in this aircraft – C9539. It’s clear that the two young airmen at the end of the clip, Lieutenants RC Nelson and VGM Sheppard, pilots of No. 4 squadron, are slightly embarrassed to be filmed – probably because some of their mates were looking on. Someone throws a ball at the left figure near the end.
