Bristol Aircraft Factory BE.2a

This was quite an early version of the type and entered service with the RFC Detachment, that was to become 30 Squadron, in 1915. The B.E.2a joined the Detachment along with the Farmans and other types available at the time. Other B.E.2 variants also arrived in quick succession from England to serve on the Detachment.

It mostly carried out reconnaissance missions for the Army in Egypt, but when called upon, it did drop bombs on the Turks.

The British Aircraft Factory B.E.2a

However, 30 Sqn was the first ever Sqn to carry out air-dropping and it took place during the siege of Kut-al-Amara!

The siege of Kut in 1916 was the worst case of its kind in the history of the British Army at that point, approximately 13,000 British-Indian soldiers surrendering to the Ottoman Army after 147-days when they were starved of supplies. 

As the perilous nature of the troops trapped at Kut became clear, desperate measures were needed, so eight BE.2 planes from No. 30 Squadron, along with a further seven RNAS aircraft, dropped food and supplies by parachute to the besieged garrison. Despite continuing their perilous missions for 15 days until April 29, 1916, they could not keep up with demand of both troops and civilians, so the infamous surrender was agreed; four unsuccessful attempts to free the Allied troops and the prolonged nature of the impasse resulted in a total of 40,000 killed or wounded.

The air drops came two years after the then un-numbered unit’s formation at Farnborough in November 1914, flying its first operations in Egypt, the majority of its work during the First World War taking place in Mesopotamia, now modern-day Iraq – the No. 30 moniker not arriving until March 24, 1915.