"The Battle Below" by H. N Wrigley

[stevedrew]

"The Battle Below - being the History of No 3 Squadron A.F.C."

I just received my copy of this today. I placed it on a "wishlist" through Regimental Books some months ago, and one became available, so I snapped it up, even with its price tag of $AUS 350.

Thumbing through it today, I found it to full of wonderful photographs and detailed maps. It has appendices of all personnel who served with the Squadron, Officers, Other Ranks, Decorations received etc.

The narrative is broken up into the battles in which they participated, and advances they supported.

To quote the author:

"During its period of operations, the Squadron occupied ten different aerodromes, carried out almost ten thousand hours of war flying, and, in the course of this flying, observed and reported the effect of our artillery fire on seven hundred and thirty-five occasions when the artillery endeavoured to destroy enemy batteries, dropped some six thousand bombs and fired approximately half a million rounds of small arms ammunition against enemy targets, and exposed over six thousand plates in the course of photographing some twelve hundred square miles of enemy territory. During this period also, eighty-eight pilots and seventy-eight observers were employed with the Squadron, of whom eleven pilots and thirteen observers were killed in action and twelve pilots and twelve observers were evacuated wounded. The average period of service of a pilot with the Squadron amounted to five months. That the work of the Squadron was not accomplished without opposition is shown by the fact that, in the course of the activities summarised above, the Squadron lost eleven aircraft totally destroyed over the enemy lines, in addition to a number that, although badly damaged, were able to return to the Squadron aerodrome. Against these losses must be balanced the fifty-one enemy aircraft (sixteen totally destroyed, eight driven down out of control, and twenty-seven driven down and damaged on landing elsewhere than on an aerodrome) accounted for by the pilots and observers of No 3 Squadron. The feat of accounting for this number of enemy aircraft constituted a record of no mean order when it is realised that the primary role of the Squadron was not to seek out and destroy the aircraft of the enemy, but to fulfil its primary function and engage the enemy only if forced to do so in the execution of that function".

An excellent read. A limited edition of 200 copies. If you can get your hands on one, I recommend you do it.

Steve Drew

[Barry Hickson]

Originally Posted by stevedrew

"The Battle Below - being the History of No 3 Squadron A.F.C."

An excellent read. A limited edition of 200 copies. If you can get your hands on one, I recommend you do it.

Steve Drew

Thanks for that info Steve. Sounds like a great Read!
Unfortunately the Price Tag is way beyond my finances with all the other Books etc on my Wish List.
Never mind I still have "Fire in the Sky" which gives a good overview of 3 Sqd but obviously not in great depth as your book does.

My finances are even worse after getting hooked on the Wings of War game with the Models!

[dpolglaze]

Beats the price of the 1935 original. I'm not saying what I paid for mine.

Nice book, though.

Dan

[rodrocket]

I received my copy 2 weeks ago, and I'm finding it a great history of 3 squadron AFC. What makes it more interesting is that it was written by H.N. Wrigley, who flew with the squadron during WW1, and was published by E.G.Knox who was the recording officer for 3 squadron AFC during the conflict. Also available from the Australian War Memorial are the squadron records, which have been digitised, and are available in pdf format. These cover all the daily activities, rosters, promotions, medical reports, and combat reports.

What I find most interesting however as noted by Steve Drew, is the success the squadron had in combat, flying RE8's against DVa's, Tripes, and Pfalz's. For years I was led to believe that the RE8 was a slow, cumbersome aircraft, and easy pickings for any scout. In reality a single RE8, in the hands of a good crew, could successfully fend off much larger numbers of EA, and in some cases initiate the combat and score confirmed victories.

What is still missing (at least for me) are the corresponding german reports, which I hope to find in due course.

Rod

[stevedrew]

Rod,

Yes, a single RE8 flown by a pilot who was skilled in not only evasion tactics, but being able to dodge the attacking scout's guns as well as provide his obsever/gunner with good shot opportunities could handle himself pretty well. Sometimes, perhaps on bombing sorties, they flew in tight formation, and were skilled in covering each other's tails. In that case, it would be foolhardy to attack the group, but "orders is orders".

The figures quoted directly from the author DO reflect that indeed, and as stated by him, made more remarkable by the fact that the shooting down of enemy aircraft was not their primary function.

An extraordinary record by extraordinary men.



Well done.

[Michael (Australia)]

Hi Steve

Congratulations on the find. I am still holding out hope that some wealthy benefactor out there might really enjoy 'Fire in the Sky' and buy me a copy (signed by the author and made out to David Blake, the squadron's CO if possible).

I couldn't agree more about 'The Battle Below'. In fact, I'd go as far as saying it is the best AFC related history out there. In terms of placing the AFC's history within the wider context of the RFC/RAF and the war on the ground, Wrigley's work is far more sophisticated than Cutlack's volume of the official history.

To be fair, Cutlack did write over a decade before Wrigley and well before many of the other official histories (British military and air, and Bean's WF histories) were published. Also, by the time Wrigley wrote, the AWM had acquired copies of a number of British records which it didn't have when Cutlack wrote. Also, Wrigley had the benefit of No. 3 Squadron's war diary which is easily to most comprehensive of all those kept by AFC units (a credit to 'Knocker Knox').

Regarding the RE8s my impression is that No. 3 Squadron's crews typically flew alone, not in formations- artillery observation, line recon and contact were all usually solo sorties. Photography more often involved multiple machines, although in mid-1918, 2-3 machines seems to be maximum. It did surprise me that a squadron flying lone RE8s didn't suffer heavier losses- but then I was even more surprised that comparatively few No. 3 Squadron sorties were engaged, even when flying alone, by German scouts. It seems that in 1918, German fighters were incredibly reticent about spending too much time over the line, where the corps squadrons normally worked. When No. 3 flights were attacked by German scouts over the line, it appears they used hit and run tactics- one or two passes before leaving.

Without a doubt, most of No. 3 Squadron's casualties occurred from ground fire during contact patrols. And for this reason, I think, casualties among RE8 units jumped dramatically in August-October 1918, when RE8s tended to be operating over German held territory at low altitudes far more regularly (and artillery observation and photography sorties were comparatively rare).

Anyhow- I ramble.

Glad to hear you're enjoying your book!

Michael