Page 36 - BBC History - September 2017

WWI eyewitness accounts

OUR FIRST WORLD WAR British troops await an order
to move forward during the
battle of the Menin Road,
20 September 1917
Ypres: the

battle above

and below

In part 40 of his personal testimony series, Peter Hart takes us
back to September 1917, when scraps of territory continued to be
won and lost on the western front. He is tracing the experiences of
20 people who lived through the First World War – via interviews,
letters and diary entries – as its centenary progresses

ILLUSTRATIONS BY JAMES ALBON

James McCudden my nose, got him well in my guns. By now the fighting was
sight, and pressed both triggers. very low, and I had temporarily
James qualified as a pilot in April 1916 and As soon as I fired, up came his lost sight of the triplane while
shot down his first aircraft in September. By nose at me, and I heard clack- changing a drum of my Lewis
June of 1917 he had been made a captain. clack-clack-clack as his bullets gun. When I next saw him, he
That year he was flying the Sopwith Pup passed close to me and through was very low.
Scout with 66 Squadron, before transferring my wings. I distinctly noticed
to fly the SE5a Scout with 56 Squadron. the red-yellow flashes from his Voss’s accurate fire forced
two SE5s to retire damaged.
parallel Spandau guns. As he Perhaps Voss could have
On the early evening of in the middle of our formation, flashed by me I caught a glimpse escaped, but he chose to fight
23 September, 2nd Lieutenant and its handling was wonderful of a black head. on. At last, Lieutenant Arthur
McCudden led his SE5a to behold. The pilot seemed to be Rhys Davids managed to get
Scouts on a patrol over the firing at all of us simultaneously, Voss had claimed 48 victories on to the Fokker’s tail.
German lines. Suddenly he and although I got behind him a and was second only to McCudden saw the end of
saw another SE5a being second time, I could hardly stay Richthofen among the their brave opponent.
attacked by a Fokker triplane, German aces. McCudden
which it later transpired was there for a second. and the SE5s tried their I noticed that the
being flown by Lieutenant His movements were so quick best to shoot down their triplane’s movements
Werner Voss. and uncertain that none of us elusive opponent. were very erratic, and then I saw
could hold him in sight. I now
Down we dived at a got a good opportunity as he was At one time, I noted the him go into a fairly steep dive
colossal speed. I went to coming towards me nose-on, triplane in the apex of a and so I continued to watch, and
the right, Rhys Davids to the left, and slightly underneath, and had cone of tracer bullets from at then saw the triplane hit the
and we got behind the triplane apparently not seen me. I dropped least five machines simultane- ground and disappear into a
together. The German pilot saw ously, and each machine had two thousand fragments, for it
us and turned in the most seemed to me that it literally
disconcertingly quick manner, went to a powder.
not a climbing nor Immelmann “As soon as I !red, up came his nose at Young Arthur Rhys Davids
turn, but a sort of flat half-spin. me, and I heard clack-clack-clack-clack would be killed in action
By now the German triplane was himself just four weeks after
as his bullets passed through my wings” his triumph over Voss.

36 BBC History Magazine