THE CAMELS ARE COMING

by W. E. Johns

VIII. SPADS AND SPANDAUS (Pages 111 – 122)

An S.E.5 makes a bad landing and Biggles sees Wilks walk away from the badly damaged machine. Wilks says that the Richthofen crowd have moved down. He has lost two men as they must have ran into over twenty Huns. Biggles has already done two patrols, so he agrees to go with Wilks to Clarmes for a drink and to talk about the situation. Here they get into conversation with a Captain of the American Flying Corps, commanding the 299^th Pursuit Squadron. This Captain annoys Biggles with his attitude. “You boys just going up to the line?” he asked, “because if you are I’ll give you a tip or two”. When Biggles confirms that the American is just going up, Biggles tells him to never go over the line under 15,000. When Biggles leaves the room, the American asks who he is. “His name’s Bigglesworth,” said Wilkinson, civilly. “Officially, he’s only shot down twelve Huns and five balloons, but to my certain knowledge he’s got several more”. Wilks has got eighteen, he says, when asked. Wilks tells the American about the Richthofen circus and says “They hunt together, and are led by Manfred Richthofen, whose score stands at about seventy. With him he’s got his brother, Lothar – with about thirty victories”. (In reality, Manfred von Richthofen scored his 70^th victory on 26^th March 1918 and got another three the next day. He had reached 80 victories by the time he was killed on 21^st April 1918. Lothar scored his 29^th victory on 12^th March 1918 and didn’t get his 30^th until 25^th July 1918 due to injuries). On the journey back to the aerodrome, Biggles says the Americans will go over the line at 5,000 feet the following day. Biggles and Wilks agree to speak to their C.O.’s to raise as many aircraft as they can and rendezvous over Mossyface (wood) at 6.00 am. If the Americans act as the bait, they should be strong enough together to take on anything the Huns can send against them. Major Mullen decides to lead the show himself. Biggles leads his flight (“C” flight), MacLaren leads “B” flight and Mahoney leads “A” flight. With three machines in each flight and Mullen at their head, they have ten Camels. Major Sharp leads the S.E.5 Squadron and they have nine machines. In due course, Biggles sees the Americans as nine Spads (French fighter planes of World War I produced by Société Pour L'Aviation et ses Dérivés) cross the line. “The fools, the unutterable lunatics,” growls Biggles. “They can’t be an inch higher than four thousand. They must think they own the sky”. Six brightly painted Albatroses dive on the American flown Spads. Biggles, with Batson and Healy in his flight, dive down after the Albatroses and Biggles knows there will be many more Germans above them. A vicious air battle takes place. Biggles rakes a jazzed Albatros. “There was no question of missing at that range; the enemy pilot slumped forward in his seat and the machine went to pieces in the air”. Eventually Biggles’ guns jam, but the fight is over and seven or eight crashed machines are on the ground. Biggles lands back at his aerodrome, only to be followed in by the American pilot he met the day before, who wants to shake hands and who says “Maybe you’ll give me a tip or two”. Wilks flies past and Biggles says they’ll be at the Hotel de Ville tonight for certain. “Do you feel like coming along to tear a chop and knock a bottle or two back?” “Sure,” agreed the Spad pilot, enthusiastically.