Chapter III - Rest and Revenge 1916 - 1918

Both sides were now exhausted. Of the combatants, none were in worst shape than the officers and men of 30 Squadron. The success that failed to crown their efforts, eluded them not from any lack of spirit or determination on their part, but because the task of supplying so many men with so few aircraft was beyond their strength.

Throughout the month of April when they were flying daily over the beleaguered town (Kut), the eight pilots had been on full duty. When the strain was relaxed, all but two yielded to fatigue and the vile climate and were admitted to hospital.

It was not until July with the arrival of new pilots that life returned to the Squadron. Major J. E. Tennant, DSO, MC, took over command in August. Whereas hitherto, the flights had worked practically as separate units, the Squadron was now reorganised on standard Service lines. New machines arrived and a vigorous offensive was carried out on enemy aircraft. The majority of the new pilots, though trained in night flying and fighter tactics had little experience of actual combat. However, any doubts were quickly dispelled when they shot down a Fokker on 13th August; it was the first enemy aircraft to be shot down in air combat on this front.

A BE2c from the Imperial War Museum in London

By mid-August, Squadron strength has increased to 12 serviceable BE-2c’s with an additional 7 undergoing maintenance and another 7 in transit. A major bombing offensive was commenced and determined efforts were made to destroy Shuman Bridge and aircraft on the ground at Shuman aerodrome. Prominent in May was Captain Hereward de Havilland who once destroyed an Albatross on the ground with a direct hit.

Whilst the Squadron headquarters and one flight remained at Baghdad for long range recce duties, the other two flights were dispatched individually to assist the Army on two seperate fronts. The characteristic of the Squadron operating by flights in different areas was to continue for a long time. During the abnormally hot summer weather with temperatures of 122*F in the shade, water in aircraft radiators boiled away and pilots were sick with the heat. New pilots arriving on the Squadron found the fierce climate as unwelcome as the misty skies above the Somme. Soon only 6 of 30 officers and 70 out of 200 men were fit for duty.

As the year wore on, the enemy retired many miles, and long distances over the desert had to be covered by Squadron bombing and reconnaissance machines. SPADs and Bristol Scouts were taken on strength in late 1917 and not long afterwards followed the RE8’s and DH4’s. Fortunately, the Squadron was assisted by the cooler weather and to quote one report in November 1917, ‘Health is good and the weather reminds me of Henley!’ The ays went by with desultory fighting in which more than one pilot, after being forced down was picked up by a Squadron comrade who landed beside him and flew him home.

Offence 1918

Moving forward as the Turks fell back, the offensive spirit of the Squadron could not be checked. On 9th April, 147 bombs were dropped and 7,000 rounds of ammunition fired against Turkish and German ground targets. On 23rd May 1918, Major J. Everidge took command of the Squadron for the last phase of the war.

The Squadron was now called up to operate in widely scattered areas and machines were taken further afield. Operations extended into difficult mountainous countries of Khurdistan and Persia and no doubt this established a record for the extent of front which the Squadron covered at any one time. Throughout these scattered operations, no machine was lost through any mechanical defect. Great credit was due to the mechanics!

At noon on 31st October 1918 the shooting finally came to an end and an armistice was signed between the British and the Turkish governments. The end of the war seemed to be the end for the Squadron, for after a few months in South Persia flying against nomadic tribesmen engaged in a frontier war, 30 Squadron’s strength was gradually reduced until by April 1919 little was left to indicate the power that had once been theirs.