The RE8 was the most widely used of the Corps and Army squadrons in the British and Australian services through 1917 and 1918. Despite its less than scintillating performance, the aircraft was workman-like and used effectively by the aircrew who manned it. The Australian Flying Corps used the RE8 in No.1, No.3 and No.7 Squadrons.
Design and Development The Reconnaissance Experimental 8 (RE8) was designed by the Royal Aircraft Factory to replace the BE2. It had many of the innovations that had come from aerial warfare, and the lessons learned over the Western Front in 1916 and 1916. The RE8 had a more powerful engine, the observer was situated behind the pilot with a machine gun to defend the rear of the aircraft. In addition the RE8 was designed to be very stable, so the observer could carry out their tasks with minimal interference from a pitching, yawing and rolling aircraft.
The stability of the RE8 didn't extend to its landing characteristics. It was a difficult aircraft to land at stalling speed, as the torque of the big propeller would cause the aircraft to yaw dangerously to the right. This was controlled by rudder, but caused much concern amongst new pilots to the aircraft. Richard Williams commented, that despite its bad name in this respect, No.1 squadron never had a problem with its landing behaviour and found it a very pleasant aircraft to fly. Williams wrote;
It came to us with a reputation for spinning into the ground soon after take-off but that was not our experience, nor that of No.3 Squadron.
Despite this, No.42 Squadron RFC designed and implemented a larger tailplane. It is believed that these plans and drawings were used by other squadrons, in particular training squadrons, who modified their RE8s with larger tailplanes. It also appears from different photographs, that many squadrons used the BE tailplane as the starting point to expand the area of the RE8 tailplane. Williams also noted other innovations that came with the RE8;
This aircraft had good inherent lateral stability from its dihedral and it was fitted with an adjustable tailplane; we had not had this facility previously.
Even with this, Williams found the RE8 lacking in performance, and unable to compete with the German Albatros or Rumpler aircraft for air superiority in the Palestinian skies. Williams sent the RE8s out in pairs so they could support each other, or gave them Martinsyde escorts.
Over four thousand RE8s were built. They served in eighteen Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force Squadrons. The RE8 served in two operational Australian Flying Corps squadrons, and one training squadron.
No.1 Squadron AFC A total of ten RE8s served with No.1 Squadron, alongside their Martinsydes and odd BE12. The first RE8 was received on the 17th of October, 1917 and went to A Flight. One of the ten was lost over German lines, when the aircraft of Lieutenant J.D.S. Potts and Lieutenant V.J. Parkinson, B5854 was lost in a mid-air collision with an aircraft from No.113 Squadron RAF.
Another RE8 was struck off charge after a terrifying landing accident that involved Lieutenant E.P. Kenny and Lieutenant F. Hancock. Their RE8 hit a telegraph wire that had been strung up between telegraph poles at the approach to the Nuran aerodrome. The aircraft flipped, destroying itself. Thankfully Kenny and Hancock were unharmed. Joe Bull recorded the crash in his diary;
No.5853 ended her career this evening just after dark. She was coming in from a recco a bit late and he forgot about the telephone lines which are near the aerodrome and struck a telegraph pole and made a fearful crash. The engine broke away from the machine. I was almost afraid to go over to them as I expected to find a tangled mass but strange to say neither the pilot, Lieutenant Kenny or the observer Lieutenant Hancock were hurt though the machine was in ruins and was facing the way he came in having done a sort of somersault.
The RE8s claimed three victories, a pair of Out of Control claims by the crew of Austin and Finley on the 29th of November 1917 during a combat with an Albatros in which a Bristol Fighter of No.111 Squadron RAF drove the Albatros away. On the 3rd of January, 1918, the crew of Captain A.R. Brown and Lieutenant O.M. Lee in RE8 A3796 forced down an Albatros out of control near Arras.
Once the Bristol Fighters began to arrive at No.21 Squadron the RE8s were handed back to the aircraft park, or handed over to 5th Wing for the British corps squadrons being formed in the Middle East. The last RE8 was handed over to the 5th Wing on February 11th, 1918.
No.7 Squadron AFC No.7 Squadron was formed as one of four training squadrons to be based in England and to ensure a steady supply of trained, competent air and ground crew to the three Australian Flying Corps squadrons in France. No.7 Squadron was for the training of pilots and observers for No.3 Squadron AFC. As a result they had a large complement of RE8 aircraft. Twenty different RE8s served with No.7 Squadron, alongside BE2s, Airco DH6s, Avro 504s and Bristol Fighters. No.7 Squadron adopted a boomerang marking, which was often replicated on the fuselage and nose of the RE8s.
No.3 Squadron AFC The RE8 was used extensively by No3 Squadron over a period of twelve operational months starting in September of 1917 with the squadron's deployment to France. The squadron had a total of one hundred and four RE8s serve with the squadron. This included the remarkable RE8, A4397, who, with Captain R.G. Francis as its pilot set a record on the Western Front with 440 hours and 147 across flights over the front lines. The squadron flew over 10,000 hours of operational flights, dropping 600 bombs, firing half a million rounds, and photographing one hundred and twenty square miles of German territory. The RE8s of No.3 Squadron were well used.
The Squadron despite being involved in high profile events such as fighting the Red Baron on the day of his death, or the Ghost RE8; were first and foremost a working squadron, doing long hours to support the Army in reconnaissance, artillery spotting, bombing and counter-attacks. They flew for over 10,000 hours during operations, they dropped 6000 bombs, fired half a million rounds of ammunition, photographed 120 squarre miles of enemy territory,
This record came at a cost, the squadron lost eleven aircraft, and their crews, over the lines. The squadron accounted for sixteen enemy aircraft destroyed, eight driven down out of control, and twenty-seven forced down. After the war, the squadron flew mail in their RE8s, throughout France and Belgium, until they were demobilised and returned home to Australia in 1919.
Capturing a Halberstadt Lieutenant R.C. Armstrong and Lieutenant F.J. Mart of No.3 Sqdn were an exceptionally aggressive RE8 crew from a squadron that was well known on the Western Front, despite operated the RE8, for its aggressiveness in attacking German aircraft. On the 9th of June Armstrong and Mart were carrying out an artillery reconnaissance in RE8 D4689 near Abencourt when they spotted a German aircraft flying through allied artillery shells.
Armstrong headed to cut the Halberstadt off from its own lines, and unusually, despite a couple of feeble attempts to get past Armstrong and Mart, the Halberstadt allowed itself to be shepherded by Armstrong and Mart toward No.3 Squadron's aerodrome. The Halberstadt landed under guidance of the RE8, much to the shock of the squadron air and ground staff at the aerodrome. The crew and the aircraft were captured, earning a congratulations from General John Monash of the AIF.
Parachute Supply Captain Lawrence Wackett had earned himself a name for engineering brilliance while with No.1 Squadron in the Middle East. During the March offensive in 1918, he was faced with the issue of how to get supplies of ammunition and food to rapidly advancing troops. Previously, low-flying aircraft had dropped boxes, which the troops then scrounged to try and find enough undamaged ammunition to continue fighting.
Wackett devised a reliable parachute delivery system that removed the wastage of dropping boxes. He demonstrated the system to senior officers at Villers Bocage while flying his own RE8, C4581 from No.3 Sqdn. Wackett was consistently dropping the parachuted boxes within an area of ten yards of the target, and without any damage to the containers, or their contents. When asked is this system could scale to support a major operation, Wackett answered without hesitation that is could.
Wackett oversaw the production of the dropping devices, the manufacture of parachutes, and the training of the crews for the operation. On the 4th of July, No.9 Squadron RAF delivered approximately ninety boxes of ammunition to front line troops - totalling somewhere near one hundred thousand rounds which were supplied to advance forces by air.
The design for the supply dropping system, and operational methodology was used by British and Australian forces throughout the rest of the war. Wackett was later recommended for a Distinguished Flying Cross in September of 1918 when dropping supplies with his parachute system to isolated American troops near Bouvincourt.
Low Flying Through Fog On the 24th of April, 1918, Lieutenant W.V. Herbert and observer, F.A. Sewell were performing reconnaissance over German lines near Corbie when the weather closed in. Initially Herbert tried to climb out of the pea-soup, but found his aircraft was losing height in a steep spiral. he shut off the engine to achieve level flight, but quickly saw the ground ahead of him, and fired the engine up quick-smart. Herbert flew at under fifteen feet, desperately trying to avoid ground obstructions - like trees and German batteries. While Herbert was madly trying to keep the aircraft from hitting anything, Sewell fired at anything he saw on the ground through the mist.
Eventually Herbert flew through a canopy of trees. A branch got stuck in the starboard aileron, jamming it tight. Herbert flew the aircraft above the fog into clear skies. In order to balance the aircraft while Herbert tried to work the branch loose with the joystick, Sewell climbed out onto the top wing of the RE8 to balance the flying attitude of the aircraft now that it had an immovable flying surface. Eventually Herbert got the branch to work free, and the pair flew home.
These kinds of acrobatics and daring were not unique to the Australian squadrons. One one occasion a British RE8 was struck by ground fire while over the German lines. One of the round holed the fuel tank of the RE8. The observer promptly climbed out onto the wing, and stuck his finger in the hole, preserving the petrol for the flight home. He flew like this until they were ready to land, where-in he jumped back into the rear seat.
Ghost RE8 The RE8 was known as a stable aircraft when flying, this led to one of the more unusual combats when the aircraft of Lieutenant J.L. Sandy and Sergeant H.F. Hughes' RE8 flew for many hours over the Western Front with its aircrew dead. It came to land in a field in France. Harry Wrigley tells the complete story in "The Battle Below";
Lieutenant J. L. Sandy, with Sergeant H. F. Hughes as observer, was engaged in observing fire for the 151st Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery (8inch Howitzers). This work had been in progress for some thirty-five minutes when Lieutenant Sandy was attacked, between Deulemont and Armentieres, by a formation consisting of six Albatross D.5a Scouts. Lieutenant Sandy, refusing to dive away, turned and engaged the enemy and succeeded in bringing down one, which landed intact in our lines about a mile and a half north of Armentieres, the wounded pilot being taken prisoner by Infantry of the 21st Battalion, 2nd Australian Division.
Meanwhile, the unequal fight continued, and another R.E.8 aircraft of the squadron, piloted by Lieutenant E. J. Jones, with Lieutenant K- C. Hodgson as observer, seeing Lieutenant Sandy so hotly engaged, went to his assistance, with the result that the enemy aircraft withdrew to their own lines. Lieutenant Jones flew round close to the other R.E.8 aircraft and identified it by its number as Lieutenant Sandy's aircraft. About this time a third aircraft of No. 69 Squadron, piloted by Lieutenant H. N. Wrigley, with Lieutenant J. R. Blair as observer, came upon the scene and, to the crews of both these aircraft, Lieutenant Sandy's aircraft and crew appeared to be all right, so Lieutenant Jones returned to Bailleul aerodrome to replenish his ammunition supply. and Lieutenant Wrigley proceeded on his way to carry out an artillery reconnaissance. Lieutenant Sandy's aircraft, not having, returned to the aerodrome at the conclusion of flying for the day. information concerning it was sought by telephone, but it was not until tile following night that a telegram was received from No. 12 Stationary Hospital, St. Pol, to the effect that the dead bodies of Lieutenant Sandy and Sergeant Hughes had been found in a crashed R.E.8 aircraft in a field about 8 kilometres north-east of St. Pol, near the main Bruay-St. Pol road.
An armour piercing bullet had passed through the observer's left lung and thence into the base of the pilot's skull, and the medical opinion was that they had been killed instantly during their combat with the enemy aircraft. They had not been injured at all in the crash on landing, nor was the damage to the aircraft very extensive. This afforded a striking example of the stability and flying qualities of the R.E.8. From an examination of the crash it appeared that after the crew had been killed the aircraft had flown itself in wide left-hand circles until the petrol supply ran out, and this theory is supported by the fact that the wind on that day was north-east and would cause a southwest drift. The place where the aircraft was found was on an air distance of 50 miles from the scene of the combat. The Albatross D.5a, brought down by Lieutenant Sandy and Sergeant Hughes was salved by a party of mechanics under Captain Ross under shell fire on the night of the 17th/18th December from the forward position in which it landed. It was brought back to the aerodrome and later, by order 2nd Brigade, Royal Flying Corps, sent to No. 1 Aircraft Depot at St. Omer. A claim to the aircraft was subsequently made, however, by the Australian authorities and it was then handed over to the Australian War Museum.
The Albatros which Sandy and Hughes shot down was the Albatros D5390/17 from Jasta 29 flown by Franz Claus. The aircraft was recovered by 3 Squadron AFC and then shipped by the order of 2nd Brigade Royal Flying Corps to No.1 Supply Depot at St Omer and given the "G" Number G101. The Albatros was test flown in England before finally being presented to the Australian Government as a War Trophy. This aircraft is now displayed in the Australian War Memorial.
Profiles RE8 A3816, No.3 Squadron AFC. Lieutenant J. L. Sandy and Sergeant H. F. Hughes.
RE8 A'4397 of No.3 Squadron AFC. Captain R.G.D. Francis.
RE8 B5853 of No.1 Squadron AFC. Lieutenant E.P. Kenny and Lieutenant F. Hancock
RE8 D4975 of No.7 Squadron AFC.
www.australianflyingcorps.com
I am an Australian living in the United States as a permanent resident.
I am a software developer by trade and mostly work in Java and jump between middleware and front end.
I originally worked in the New York area of the United States in telecommunications before moving to Washington DC and
working in a mix of telecommunications, energy and ITS. I started my own software company before heading out to
Arizona and working with Shutterfly. Since then I have joined a startup in the Phoenix area and am thoroughly enjoying myself.
I do a lot of photography which I post on this website, but also on flickr. I have a photo-journalistic website which lists
the modernist and contemporary restaurants in phoenix. I have a site on the Australian Flying Corps [AFC] which has been around since the 1990s and which I unfortunately
lost the .org URL to during a life event; however, it is under the www.australianflyingcorps.com URL now.
The AFC website has gone through several iterations since the 90s and the two most recent are Australian Flying Corps Archives(2004-2002) and
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2002-1999) which are good places to start.
