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, x l , Vi" McCudden flew his last sortie. The famous "ace" left the squadron squadron on 5 May. Another new face was Captain W. O: Boger of on the 5th. A former aero engine mechanic, McCudden tinkered with Winnipeg who reported to the unit on 24 May. all his aircraft, inducing the best performance from them. On 17 Not all sorties were as exciting or conclusive as that of 3 May. On March Irwin crashed on landing; he was issued with 1335, the next-to- many occasions it seemed as though the German air service was on . . last SE.5a used by McCudden. and flew it until I April when it was vacation. At other times enemy machines were seen but not engaged, T f retired from operational use, being employed as a practice machine or combats were inconclusive. An example of this occurred on 10 for new pilots.(3) . June when Irwin, Burden, and two others tried to shoot down a Dr.I. On 21 March 1918 the Germans opened a great offensive, intending The Fokker pilot outmancouvered them all. Finally the SE.5s had to . to defeat the Allies before American manpower began to reverse the break off the action to escape front hostile ground fire. i odds. No.56 Squadron was thrown into ground strafing as well as it was not all work, and no play. On days when the weather was , aerial combat. Four days after the battle began the unit abandoned "tied" the officers and other ranks built a swimming pool. For water 'r, Baizieux in favour of Valheureux airfield. Irwin returned from a they dug small channels from shell holes to the pool. The result was a I. patrol that day to find that the landing round had been evacuated, pleasant, if somewhat muddy, form of recreation) JI leaving only a bowscr crew to refuel the aircraft and direct them to On 28 June Irwin clashed dramatically and conclusively with the F their new base. enemy. His combat report recounts the action in terse, dry, yet vivid it There was a nightmare quality to the next two weeks as the pilots fashion: i saw cities like Albert and Bray-sur-Somme burning. For a time it "On patrol led by Captain Maxwell at 8.10 p.m. met a large forma- i appeared that the Third and Fifth Armies were folding up. In these tion of E.A. (enemy aircraft) south of Suzanne under bank of I: circumstances British fighters were committed to the land battle, cloud at 12,000 feet. l got on one Phalz (sic) tail and fired a short v,", conducting many strafing attacks and low-level raids with 25-pound burst. He turned under me and two Albatross Scouts got on my i. bombs. The enemy soldiers, advancing along roads and through open tail and drove me down. At 2,000 feet l got on one E.A.'s tail and . country, were far more vulnerable to aircraft than they had been in fired a drum of Lewis and about 200 rounds of Vickers. E.A. t' their trench systems, protected by machine guns and anti-aircraft went into a vertical dive with full engine and crashed beside a r batteries. Irwin remembered years afterwards that the SE.5 pilots were wood near Dompicre. I recrossed the lines at 200 feet chased by , particularly keen to catch German infantrymen who might be other E.A." . _ detraining and hence bunched up. He also recalled that a German From time to time Irwin had led patrols, but on July 5 he was it scout got the jump on him during one such attack, putting holes in formally given command of "C" Flight; the next day this was f' his fuel tank. He was lucky that there was no fire; he crash-landed in changed to "B" Flight, Major Crowe having left to take up duties E a shell crater and regained his unit.(4) elsewhere. Promotion to captain followed on the I6th, the day after i" The German Imperial Air Service outnumbered the British at this Hank Burden was designated "C" Flight commander. That meant if point, but enemy aircraft played a less significant part in the battle. that all three night commanders were now Canadians, Bill Boger [5 Their troops were marching away from the enemy air bases, yet having been handed "A" Flight on 1 July. Irwin and Burden in i. capturing few suitable landing fields as they advanced. Consequently, particular maintained a lively, friendly rivalry. For as long as possible i the German pilots found it more difficult to give adequate air cover "Sambo" lorded his seniority over Hank. Later, when Burden i; and conduct attacks on Allied soldiers. The intensity of air fighting received his first decoration, he pointedly reminded Irwin just which i varied greatly from day to day-very hot on 1 April (the birth date of them was a "hero".tn i of the Royal Air Force), minimal on 4 April, and sporadic on other Yet there was bad news as well. On IO July almost all the officers i. days. In No.56 Squadron illness and casualties took their toll. By travelled to Auxi-le-Chateau to attend the funeral of "Mac" r.'. early April the unit had only eleven pilots fit for duty, rather than the McCuddcn. The great British pilot-victor in more than 50 i' normal eighteen. Every healthy pilot was required for each patrol. combats-had been killed during a routine take-off the previous " The Somme front (Arleux-Moreuil-Chauny) was stabilized by S evening. i' April, which brought relief to the squadrons in that sector. Mean- It was a perilous business, and the hazards were not restricted to i' while the Germans opened fresh attacks-in Flanders (9-29 April) and enemy aircraft. On 17 July Irwin was on a patrol which had to return 'e then down the Ainsc and Marne valleys (27 May-6 June). These met to base in a thunderstorm. They were just getting their aircraft into it with initial successes before bogging down short of their principal the hangars when hail began pelting down. On the evening of the 24th f. objectives. he participated in another patrol over the lines which was jumped by F, Although No.56 Squadron was on a relatively quiet front during Pfalz scouts. Bill Boger shot down two, but the hard part was getting f.' much of April, there remained enough action for all. Ken Junor was home. The SE.5s had to descend through more than I0,000 feet of F lost on the 23rd-one month after being awarded the Military Cross. thunderclouds, with rain hammering away at them. They landed after , At the time of his death he had been credited with eight victories over dark; several pilots had resorted to their emergency fuel tanks before ii enemy aircraft-two crashed, two in flames, and four driven down reaching Valheureux.(8) 's out of control. "A most brilliant fighting pilot" was how Balcombe- The RAF undertook a major attack on Epinoy airfield in the early f,. Brown had described him. As if fate were determined to maintain the afternoon of I August. Nos. 3 and 56 Squadrons (Camels and SE55) '3. level of "Canadianization" of No.56, Lieutenant H. A. S. Molyneux escorted by Nos. 11, 60, and 87 Squadrons (Bristol F.2b, SE.5, and [i. of Toronto was posted in, effective 28 April. Dolphin aircraft) had been preparing for days for this operation, with .' On 2 May Lieutenant Irwin lost a friend. Major Balcombe-Brown specific targets allocated to each pilot in the raiding force. A total of E was shot down in a battle between thirteen SE.5s on one hand and 65 aircraft participated, and 104 twenty-five pound bombs were 'i', about ten Pfalz scouts and Fokker Dr.I triplancs on the other. No dropped. Everything in sight was strafed mercilessly. The RAF .'/ one saw the New Zealandcr go down. There was some consolation in communique covering the raid reported that six hangars had been set 3 knowing that three Pfalz aircraft and a Dr.I had been shot down.(5) alight, two more hit directly with bombs, sixteen aircraft set on fire ',," The next morning the squadron was out in force-ten SE.5a and one blown to bits. Smoke from the burning buildings ascended tr; f fighters patrolling east of Albert. Lieutenant Trevor Durrant attacked 10,000 feet. For his own part Irwin hit two sheds with his bombs .t' a Rumplcr two-settler, killing the observer. Gun jams forced him to then strafed hangars and men. On the homeward flight he attacked ' i break off the action, but Irwin and Captain E. D. Atkinson took up truck on the Cmnbri-Arras road and machine-gunned enemy trench a ., the chase, firing at the diving enemy machine. Irwin followed it down cast of Arras. In all it was a most successful operation. (9, cs i: until it crashed at Montauban. At l0.I5 a.m. the pattern was repeated The Allied armies, having halted the German spring and summ I on another Rumpler, this one at 16,000 feet over Beaucourt. Durrant offensives, and even regained some ground, were now ready to atta e; ", took out the observer; Atkinson and Irwin peppered it until it began in their turn. New equipment, new tactics, and the growing 'ni,',': cf to descend, smoking and unsteady, yet taking no evasive action. Both American manpower now combined to give Generalissamo F0ch J 'r', victories (one crashed, one out of control) were shared among the edge over his opponents. Enemy morale had not yet broken but e 'ii, three men. Later that day Irwin and Burden crossed the lines to drop it became apparent that time was on the Allies' side, the. 'dld1lcf,', i'irl message bags, inquiring of the Germans if they knew anything about would crack, particularly at the General Staff level, ans [f, five pilots of No.56 who had gone missing in the previous week. The Battle of Amiens---the first in a series of Allied offensi ... Major E. J. L. W. Gilchrist MC arrived to take command of the opened in the early morning mist of 8 August, the assaril, "dit: i. . _ emg , 70 CAHS JOURNAL '2.- tj _