I must first of all acknowledge my great debt of gratitude to Barbara Gilbert, the Archivist of the Fleet Air Arm Museum, whose unrivalled knowledge of the extensive resources of the Museum’s archive has made this book possible. Both in helping me to select the written material and also in sifting through thousands of photographs, Barbara’s patience and help has been invaluable.
I must also acknowledge the, mostly anonymous, people who have, at various times over the past century, transcribed many written diaries and records into legible typescript. One of the entries in this work is also anonymous, or at least I have been unable to identify its author. This is the ‘Contemporary History’, which was probably written before the end of the war, as it includes a copy of a report in the Daily Sketch of 5 December 1917, entitled ‘Saving Britain from Starvation’. The somewhat triumphalist and jingoistic style of writing in this History would have fallen out of favour soon after the Armistice in 1918.
George Bentley Dacre left copious, well-written diaries. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his exploits over the Dardanelles and retired as an air commodore. In a short foreword to his prisoner of war experiences, he said ‘It is because I have to kill time that I have written this little book … the penalty for keeping a diary is Jail, but should I … bring this back to old England with me, it may prove of interest to those who wish to know how I fared as a prisoner of war in Turkey’.
R. S. W. Dickinson also left lengthy diaries, very revealing in their impressions of a sensitive young man, who had only recently left Eton.
The lower deck is well represented. Petty Officers Watson and Martin both served in the Armoured Car Division, the former in harrowing conditions at Gallipoli, the latter on the Russian front. Their entries appear to have been transcribed from hand-written diaries. Air Mechanic Stammers gives a most detailed description of the lengthy journey to his posting in Malta, at a time when very few young men of his background would have travelled through France and Italy.
Another Air Mechanic, H. Gamble, provides a most detailed description, originally entitled ‘Life in Blimps’. The memoirs of C. Hibberd are drawn from photocopies of his hand-written diary – a most neatly-written and legible document. I was fortunate to be able to study the small pocket diary of William Edward Bryan, who enlisted as a driver in 1916. He kept up his diary for many months, writing in black ink in immaculate, minuscule copperplate. The vivid anecdotes of early flying by E. L. Ford were kindly presented to the Museum by Mrs K. M. Hamel-Jones.
The undated letter, signed by A. Soresby-Gissel and purporting to describe the first flight from a warship, is a curiosity. The original appears to be genuine, although it ascribes a different, earlier, date from the usually agreed one. The photograph of the occasion included in this book is generally credited as ‘photographer unknown’ (although is generally thought to have been taken by an employee of Shorts) so if the author of the letter genuinely did take the photograph, it adds a minor footnote to the history of naval aviation. However, I have found no trace of a Soresby-Gissel in naval records.
The description of the destruction of Zeppelin L-53, although written partly in the third person, seems to have been all the work of S. D. Culley, who took off from a towed lighter and climbed to great altitude to achieve this feat. It is drawn from a typescript dated ‘Milan, Italy, May 1959’. The detailed descriptions of the early days of flying by one of the ‘first four’ naval aviators, E. L. Gerrard, also seems to have been written some time after the events described, as the copy carries the byline ‘Air Commodore Gerrard’.
Commander Locker-Lampson, CMG, DSO, whose report on Armoured Car operations in Russia is included here, was both politician and naval officer. It has been alleged that, while he was serving in Russia, he became involved in the plot to assassinate Rasputin.
All these authors deserve to be acknowledged, both for their various exploits and for recording them so clearly. Finally, I must acknowledge the forbearance of my dear wife, Dorothy, who once again has put up with my almost total absorption for many months in the early days of naval aviation.