Sqdn. Cdr. R. Bell Davies, RNAS Eastchurch, 1912–13
The role of air power in the Dardanelles Campaign was restricted to the margins of naval and land-based operatives, making it little more than a sideshow within a sideshow.
British involvement in aerial operations centred on the motley collection of aircraft which were officially designated No. 3 Squadron, Royal Naval Air Service, under the command of the enigmatic Sqn. Cdr. Charles Samson DSO. Samson was already a popular hero, having won acclaim as the leader of an intrepid band of airmen during the battle for Belgium in the first weeks of the war. An independently minded leader, he proved a great innovator, operating armoured cars against the German invaders. His new command consisted of twenty-two aircraft, of various types, only five of which were considered of any practical use. The squadron’s primary role was to carry out aerial reconnaissance and artillery spotting. But the adventurous Samson was always seeking out opportunities of carrying the war to the Turks. Apart from occasional brushes with the small force of German and Turkish aircraft, Samson’s pilots flew numerous bombing sorties. On one occasion, Samson bombed a motor car said to be carrying Kemal Pasha, narrowly missing him, and in another sortie, his second in command, Sqn. Cdr. Richard Bell Davies DSO, was credited with a direct hit on an aircraft hangar at the German airfield near Chanak.
Sqn. Cdr. Davies’ involvement in the Dardanelles Campaign began before the landings when he undertook a number of reconnaissance missions over Cape Helles. On the morning of 25 April he acted as aerial spotter for HMS Prince George, which was supporting the French landings at Kum Kale.
By July, the squadron had assembled at Imbros, near to Sir Ian Hamilton’s HQ. Attention was then focussed on the impending operations at Suvla Bay. With Samson having gone away on leave, Davies was in temporary command. It was a difficult and stressful period with huge demands being made on the small force of airmen. Davies, however, came through the test remarkably well. Samson wrote of him: ‘He had nearly done as much as I; but he looked and was unchanged. He only weighed about nine stone, and looked as if a puff of wind would blow him over. Looks deceived, though; it would take a 100lb bomb to knock him out’.
The squadron’s strength was boosted by the arrival of some Nieuport Scouts, of which Samson and Davies each claimed one. In October, while flying his Nieuport on a bombing sortie against Turkish transports, Davies narrowly escaped death when his engine cut out, forcing him to come down in the sea 5 miles off Imbros. A trawler came to his rescue and, having taken him on board, began towing the semi-submerged biplane towards shore. After ten minutes, however, the aircraft sank, prompting the trawler skipper to remark to Davies: ‘Bain’t nobody else in the machine, Mister, be there?’
Bulgaria’s entry into the war widened the conflict and presented No. 3 Squadron with fresh targets. Samson won approval for bombing attacks designed to disrupt communications between Turkey and her new ally. Their first mission was against a railway bridge spanning the River Maritza near the Bulgarian border. The target, which provided one of the main links between Bulgaria and Constantinople, lay 200 miles across the Gulf of Saros, on the Thrace mainland, near Adrianople. Sqn. Cdr. Samson struck the first blow. On 8 November he dropped two 100lb bombs from a specially converted Maurice Farman which shook the bridge’s supports so badly that it was out of action for four days. Two days later, Davies repeated the operation, piloting the same machine, complete with an additional fuel tank. The four-hour-long mission was not without incident. In his flying log, Davies recorded:
Followed road to Burges bridge, passed through rain then clear. Considerable transport on roads … Dropped two 100lb bombs at bridge. Both just missed right. Ht 2,000 feet. Machine hit by rifle fire in wings. Returning throttle wire broke when off Gallipoli. Had to land on switch.
Bad weather so delayed Davies’ return that Samson had given him up for lost. He was in the process of writing to his next-of-kin when the Maurice Farman arrived back at Imbros. On inspection it was found that four bullets had struck the aircraft near to the nascelle. Davies’ bombs had fallen on the railway line at Uzun Kepri station, close to the bridge. Over the next few days Samson maintained the pressure with a series of sorties against the bridge and Army camps dotted along their flightpath. Then, on 13 November, he switched his attentions towards the Bulgarian side of the border.
In what was almost certainly the first British air attack launched against their new enemy, squadron commanders Samson and Davies, both flying Nieuports, raided Ferejik Junction, a rail station just inside Bulgarian territory near the Maritza River. Davies was the first to attack. His log noted: ‘Dropped 3 20lb bombs at Stn at Ferejik straddled line. Heavy clouds and rain.’ Samson, who arrived just as Davies completed his attack, saw one bomb hit the railway track outside the station. Both aircraft came under heavy rifle and machine-gun fire but escaped unscathed. The return flight, however, proved uncomfortable as they ploughed through a heavy rainstorm. The Maritza Bridge defences having been considerably strengthened, Samson continued his attacks on Ferejik Junction. Two more raids were carried out over the next five days, and they culminated in the squadron’s biggest operation, in which all five available aircraft were to be employed against the Bulgarian railhead.
The squadron’s three previous visits had already torn up track and ripped the roof off of one of the station buildings. But for the next attack each aircraft was to have a specific target. At supper on the eve of the raid, Samson passed round his order book. He would lead the mission in his Nieuport, with Davies in the other Nieuport, Flt. Sub-Lt. Gilbert Smylie, a 6-ft-tall, newly arrived pilot, and Flt. Lt. Barnato, piloting two Henri Farmans, and Flt. Lt. Heriot and his observer Capt. Edwards in the Maurice Farman. Davies, who had not flown since the first attack on Ferejik, was less than pleased with his CO. He later recalled:
I was deeply engaged with the operation of building winter quarters and was rather annoyed to find he had put me down to fly one of the Nieuports, carrying 20lb bombs, to Ferrijik [sic] Junction. I did not think those little bombs could do much harm, and I wanted to press on with supervising the building work.
Whether he voiced his disapproval is not clear. If he did it was to no avail. Shortly after 10.00 a.m. on 19 November Davies took off in a Nieuport 12, No. 3172, a two-seater converted to a single seat by the simple expedient of covering the second cockpit. Slung beneath the fuselage were six of the 20lb Hales bombs which he considered almost useless.
The flight out was uneventful. Arriving over Ferejik in company with Samson and Smylie, Davies carried out his attack and was turning for home when he spotted Smylie’s Henri Farman on the ground. In making his low-level bomb run, Smylie had been caught by heavy ground fire. With his engine stopped, he glided to a safe landing in one of the dry watercourses which cut through the Maritza marshes, within a mile of the railway station. Smylie clambered out of the aircraft unharmed and immediately saw a party of Bulgarians making towards him. Preferring the prospect of a Turkish prison camp to a Bulgarian one, he set fire to his aircraft and headed across the marshes towards Turkish territory. He had not ventured far, however, when, much to his surprise, he saw one of the squadron’s Nieuports descending. It was Davies. Having circled low over the marshes in search of a possible landing site, he decided to set his aircraft down in one of the dry watercourses and pick up Smylie. It was a manoeuvre fraught with danger. Aside from the proximity of the Bulgarians, the ground, baked firm by the sun, was extremely rough and the high landing speed of the Nieuport meant there was a risk of the aircraft crashing. As an experienced aviator, Davies would have been well aware of the hazards but he chose to ignore them. Many years later, he modestly wrote:
It never occurred to me that we were likely to be interfered with by enemy troops. The marshes were wide and rough with tall banks of reeds and scrub. What did worry me was the possibility of finding two men to rescue, for I knew that some of our military observers had been detailed to take part in the operation as bomb aimer [in fact, Capt. Edwards was the only one] … I could only carry one passenger …
As I circled down I could see the Farman burning. I flew low round it looking for Smylie and received an almighty shock when the plane suddenly blew up. I had no idea there was a bomb still on board and, in case there were any more, I hastily climbed away. Then I saw Smylie emerge from a little hollow in which he had been lying and wave.
Having realised that the Nieuport was preparing to land close to his burning aircraft, Smylie had deliberately exploded a bomb still slung beneath his Farman in order to prevent it detonating as his would-be rescuer touched down. Going as close to the aircraft as he dare, Smylie fired at the bomb’s fuse with his revolver and succeeded in hitting it at the third attempt.
Shortly afterwards, Davies made a safe, if bumpy, landing close to the downed pilot. While he took care to keep his engine running, Smylie turned the Nieuport by its wing-tip. Then, with Smylie steadying the aircraft, Davies taxied back across the river bed to allow himself the best possible take-off run. Smylie then had to climb in, which was no easy matter. An engine cowl covered the space where the passenger seat had been. Davies recorded: ‘He had to climb over me, slide under the cowl and crouch on all fours between the rudder bar and the engine bearers with his head bumping on the oil tank. He managed somehow to stow himself away looking most uncomfortable.’
All this time, the Bulgarians were closing in on their quarry. A hail of fire was directed at the Nieuport as it sped across the dry river course. Davies, however, controlled his take-off to perfection. Forty-five minutes later, at 12.20 p.m., Davies touched down at Imbros, complete with his unscheduled passenger. Long overdue, Davies had been given up for lost and Samson later admitted to having retired to his office ‘feeling more depressed than I have felt for years’. The emergence of Smylie was greeted with astonishment by the squadron’s aircrew. But Davies, in Samson’s words, was ‘absolutely unperturbed’. Davies’ entry in his flying log was a model of understatement:
Dropped 3 20lb bombs at Stn at Ferejik. Comdr and Smylie in compy. One bomb burst on line. Returning saw Smylie’s machine burning in marshes. Landed and picked him up. Ground firm and fairly level. Kept engine. He got under cowl. Returned, machine climbing well. Time 10.5–12.20.
Samson was struck by the gallantry of both rescuer and the man he rescued. He noted how Smylie, having risked his life to detonate the bomb hung up under his own aircraft, had taken off his flying coat and coolly scribbled a message, which he left for the Bulgarians, stating: ‘Please return my coat, which I have had to leave, to No. 3 Wing.’
Both Davies and Smylie were recommended for the Victoria Cross. Samson also put Davies’ name forward for early promotion. Smylie’s award was down-graded to a Distinguished Service Cross. But there could be no question of Davies’ selfless courage and outstanding skill, and on New Year’s Day in 1916 the London Gazette duly announced the award of a VC to Sqn. Cdr. Richard Bell Davies DSO. The citation accompanying both Davies’ VC and Smylie’s DSC stated:
On the 19th November, these two officers carried out an air attack on Ferrijik Junction [sic]. Flight-Lieutenant Smylie’s machine was received by very heavy fire and brought down. The pilot planed down over the Station, releasing all his bombs except one, which failed to drop, simultaneously at the station from a very low altitude. Thence he continued his descent into the marsh.
On alighting he saw the one unexploded bomb, and set fire to his machine, knowing that the bomb would ensure its destruction. He then proceeded towards Turkish territory.
At this moment he perceived Squadron-Commander Davies descending and fearing that he would come down near the burning machine and thus risk destruction from the bomb, Flight Sub-Lieutenant Smylie ran back and from a short distance exploded the bomb by means of a pistol bullet. Squadron-Commander Davies descended at a safe distance from the burning machine, took up Sub-Lieutenant Smylie, in spite of the near approach of a party of the enemy, and returned to the aerodrome, a feat of airmanship that can seldom have been equalled for skill and gallantry.
Davies arrived back in England shortly after the announcement of his VC, following the British abandonment of the peninsula. Promoted wing commander, he went on leave before taking up his new appointment as district commander of RNAS stations in northern England. Three months later, on 15 April, he went to Buckingham Palace to receive his Cross from George V.
Richard Bell Davies, one of the pioneers of naval aviation, was born on 19 May 1886, at 3 Topstone Road, Kensington, the son of William Bell Davies and his wife Mary Emma (née Beale). Both his father, a successful civil engineer, and his mother died before he was six years old. The young orphan was brought up by his mother’s brother, Dr Edwin Beale, a throat and chest specialist at the Victoria Park and Great Northern hospitals.
Educated at Bradfield College, Davies enlisted in the Royal Navy on 20 April 1901 as a cadet on HMS Britannia, Dartmouth. It was the sight of aerial pioneer Claude Grahame-White’s flight at the fleet’s summer manoeuvres of 1910 that helped shape the rest of his life. That autumn he accepted an offer of flying lessons to naval officers. But by the time he arrived, the privately owned aircraft had been taken over by the Admiralty. Fearing he would not be selected for training, Davies undertook a course of private instruction. Under the tutelage of Grahame-White, he qualified during his Easter leave. His flying certificate was British Empire No. 90.
Davies had to wait until 1913 to fulfil his ambition of joining the Navy’s fledgling air service. It was while at the Naval Flying School at Eastchurch that he first came into contact with Acting Cdr. Samson, then the base commander. Davies swiftly made an impression and his rapid progress was marked by his appointment as first lieutenant at Eastchurch shortly after qualifying as a ‘flying officer’. By the close of 1913 Davies was a squadron commander in the Royal Flying Corps, Naval Wing. Following a brief spell in Somaliland, where he reported on the viability of using aircraft to quell the ‘Mad Mullah’, Davies returned to Eastchurch, arriving shortly before the outbreak of war.
Davies became a member of Samson’s mobile squadron, later officially styled No. 3 Squadron, RNAS. The unit flew out to Ostend at the end of August and there followed a nomadic existence during which their exploits made Samson one of the war’s first heroes. Forced by the speed of the German advance to repeatedly move their landing fields, the squadron’s pilots carried out a variety of missions, from reconnaissances to attacks on military installations. Davies was fully engaged in these operations. On 20 December he carried out a solo bombing raid against a suspected airship shed at Brussels. A month later, together with Flt. Lt. R.E.C. Peirse, he took part in a gallant sortie against the German submarine base at Zeebrugge, which resulted in both pilots being admitted to the Distinguished Service Order. Their joint citation stated:
These officers have repeatedly attacked the German submarine stations at Ostend and Zeebrugge, being subjected on each occasion to heavy and accurate fire, their machines being frequently hit. In particular, on 23rd January, they each discharged eight bombs in an attack upon submarines alongside the Mole at Zeebrugge, flying down to close range. At the outset of this fight, Lieutenant Davies was severely wounded by a bullet in the thigh, but nevertheless he accomplished his task, handling his machine for an hour with great skill in spite of pain and loss of blood.
By the time the awards were gazetted, on 10 April, Davies was fully recovered and stationed on the island of Tenedos in preparation for the operations at Gallipoli. Following the failure of the campaign, Davies was appointed, in early 1916, to the reformed 3 Wing, RNAS. From its base in France, the unit, which was to form the nucleus of Britain’s first strategic bombing force, launched a series of raids against German industrial targets. As the wing’s chief of flying operations, Davies directed and flew on a number of these missions.
Promoted senior flying officer of the Grand Fleet the following year, he took command of air operations from the seaplane carrier HMS Campania. Davies was heavily involved in the development of the Navy’s first aircraft carriers and in July 1918 he helped plan the audacious raid by seaborne Sopwith Camels on the airship sheds at Tondern. In recognition of his involvement in the development of the early aircraft carriers, which included carrying out a number of dangerous, experimental flights, Davies was awarded an Air Force Cross. His war services were further recognised by the French, who made him a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour and awarded him the Croix de Guerre avec Palme.
Davies was appointed lieutenant colonel in the Royal Air Force on the formation of the new service in April 1918. But in May 1919 he returned to the Navy. Promoted commander, he was head of the Naval Air Section from August 1920 to February 1924.
On 29 September 1920 he married Mary Montgomery, only daughter of Maj.-Gen. Sir Kerr Montgomery KCMG, CB, DSO. They had one daughter, and a son who followed him into the Navy.
After his four-year term in command of the Naval Air Section, Davies returned to general service as executive officer of HMS Royal Sovereign. For the next thirteen years he balanced air service with sea-going commands, rising to the rank of flag captain and chief staff officer to the rear-admiral commanding the First Cruiser Squadron. He was promoted commodore of the RN Barracks, Devonport, before becoming the first rear-admiral, Naval Air Stations in 1937.
Davies retired in 1941 with the rank of vice-admiral, but shortly afterwards returned to active service as a convoy commodore. Given command of HMS Dasher, an escort carrier under construction, Davies was recalled to the Admiralty before the vessel became operational. In 1943, however, Davies was given a new command; the Pretoria Castle, a Union Castle liner which was in the process of being converted to an aircraft carrier. After the work was completed, the ship was used for aircraft landing experiments and, much to Davies’ disappointment, her only active employment was as a convoy escort between Scapa Flow and Iceland. In 1944 Davies retired for the second and last time. His final honour was to be appointed a Companion of the Bath. His last twenty years were spent in peaceful retirement. Shortly before his death in Haslar Naval Hospital, on 26 February 1966, he completed his memoirs, which were posthumously published as Sailor in the Air. His account, reflecting his genuine modesty, made no mention of his Victoria Cross award.
In a remarkable career, Richard Bell Davies played a leading and influential role in the development of the naval air arm from its pioneering days at Eastchurch through to its dominant status in maritime strategy. Yet it might be said that his finest epitaph came from the pen of his former chief and friend, Charles Samson. Writing of Davies in 1930, he declared:
He was a splendid fellow … No one could have had a more loyal second-in-command than I had, and to a large extent the happiness of the Squadron was due to his tact and popularity, a man without any conceit or selfishness, a brilliant pilot, and a doughty man of war if ever there was one.