Lanoe Hawker

[Pips]

Much is made of Lanoe's seven victories (and Victoria Cross award), achieved at a time when seven was a monster number. He was, at the time he returned to England in September 1915, one of the most experienced pilots of the RFC, and arguably THE most experienced air fighter in the RFC. He had, from October '14 to August '15, flown every type of mission in every type of aircraft in all sorts of weather.

But there was so much more to the man than just air kills.

He was an original thinker and inventor. He had devised new methods of air/ground co-operation schemes, gun sights and brackets, designed hangers and all forms of aerodrome ground installations. And all that while he was on active service in France. On his return to England in September he provided practical advice and encouragement to his dentist, a man named Prideaux, in the development of the Prideaux disintergrating-link machine-gun belt. It was Lanoe who devised the protective fabric for cover of the tips of wooden propellors, and with the help of an engineer named French Lanoe developed the double drum for the Lewis MG. Lanoe also designed the fleece-lined hip boots specifically for DH 2 pilots.

On his appointment as CO of 24 Squadron in January 1916 he found that many pilots had a fear of the new DH 2, there having been several fatal training accidents and the machine had aquired a bad name - the derdd Spinning Incinerator. He quickly put to rest the fears pilots had of the DH 2 by putting on a superb exhibition of flying including stalls and spins. He made sure that his pilots new their new machine inside and out, so thatthey were able to make the most of it.

Hawker was that very rare person - an inspirational leader. He has often been compared to Bolecke, but in reality the two were quite different. Boelcke was a brilliant tactican and air fighter, Hawker's brilliance lay in invention and preparedness. What was common between the two was their ability to think about how war in the air should be fought.

It was Britains greatest loss that Hawker did not survive. As a 'back-room' man he had so much more to offer than simply leading a Squadron into battle.