Aubrey Frederick Albert Patterson, 12 Sqdn

[Raineranton]

Hello All,

who maybe knows what happened to 2Lt. Aubrey Frederick Albert Patterson of 12 Squadron? He was shot down in this BE2d 5873 on 17 September 1916 and died of his wounds in Cambrai on 25 September 1916.

On the backside stands:

Bei Vaulx (Bapaume) abgeschossen.

Regards

Rainer

[Darryl]

An interesting combat .. And a "red letter day".

In this combat MvR shot down his first aeroplane (although NOT Patterson).

I'm tied down today but if nobody else gives you the story before tomorrow I'll fill in the blanks.

Basically 11sqn escorting 12 sqn went on a mission to Marcoing Railway Station, got into deep trouble and were pulled from the fire after heavy loss, by an offensive patrol by 60 sqn.

The Be's of 12sqn were flying without observers due to heavy bomb load.

Darryl



BTW, I'd love a clean copy of the photo for my records (not for pub or dist) if possible.

[Immo_Frese]

Hello Rainer,
according to a Stofl 1 report, 12 enemy airplaines were shot down on 17 Sep 1916 and two of them were brought down by Flak. Perhaps Patterson's BE2d was one of the two...

[Darryl]

Rainer,

As full a story as I can give at the moment (during the week I will try to drag out the 11,12 and 60 CitARs, if any, but I doubt they will contain much as no victoies seem to have been claimed, or at least awarded.)

At 10.00 British (11.00 German) 12 Sqn flying 8 BEs was tasked with bombing Marcoing Railway Station on the 17th September. They flew without observers to maximise bomb load. By this expediant they managed to carry 40 bombs, 8 x 112lbs and 32 x 20lbs..no little tonnage....

Due to the lack of defensive armament, 11 Sqn flying 6 FE 2bs was assigned as escort.

Unfortunately for the British, this was the first time that Boeclke had led his men in force. The aircraft had arrived only the day before. (he had in fact recently come back from a conference where he extolled the virtues of just such formations in regard to how air fighting was developing). The five or six (depending on source) included himself, MvR, and Ltn H Reimann, I don't have the others sorry.

MvR says that they were all, apart from Boelke, "new" and had no victories, which was actually inaccurate..Reimann having been credited with an "EA" on 30th June. Interestingly MvR also misidentified the FE2bs as "seven (not 6, D) great two seater bombers".

The RFC was seen by Boelcke upon crossing the lines but had reached the target before he caught them. The BE's had no sooner dropped their bombs (setting fire to the station and doing some damage) when the formation was set upon. The FEs came to the rescue and a general fight ensued involving the RFC aeroplanes, J2 and some J4 aircraft, probably 7 aeroplanes from "4".

The RFC Communiques offer "heavily engaged by about 20" as the opposition but "no details of the fighting are procurable" except to admit to 6 losses.


The fight occurred around 10.35 -10.40 British.

Immo is, I would think, correct about the Patterson's BE being an Archie casualty and, in fact, so probably was the other lost as the Jastas only claimed the 4 FEs and that was all that were lost in the fight. Boelcke, MvR, Reimann of J2 and Ltn W Frankl of J4 were the victors.

In the end a Patrol from 60sqn joined the fray and helped the rest to extricate themselves from the area. The 60sqn book makes no mention of the action.

Regards


Darryl

[Raineranton]

Thank you both for the answers.

Regards

Rainer