THE
CAMELS ARE COMING
by W. E. Johns
XIII. THE BOMBER (Pages 179 – 190)
Biggles is flying alone when he sees a
well-armed German bomber that he can’t identify. When Biggles tries to attack from underneath,
he is shot at from twin Parabellum guns in a trap door in the floor of the
bomber. (The colour frontispiece used in the fourth edition onwards, illustrates
a scene from this story – ‘The Camel soared up like a bird under the big
fuselage’. The scene is on page 181 of
the first edition and page 158 of the fourth edition (which was the first
edition to have the colour frontispiece). “Biggles, shaken as
never before in all his flying experience, kicked out his left foot
spasmodically and flung the stick over and back into his stomach”. His propeller stops and he has to make a
forced landing, but he is able to reach 287 Squadron. Wilkinson tells Biggles “That’s our pet
Friedrichshafen”. Wilkinson says a
number of pilots have had a go at attacking this particular enemy plane, all
without success. Two, Lacie of 281 and
Crickson, of 383, have died. Back at his
own aerodrome, Biggles draws the enemy bomber from memory and tries to work out
a plan of attack. He decides to attack
under the nacelle using his Lewis gun firing upwards. The next morning Biggles goes up alone and
looks for the bomber. He is shelled by
the enemy. “Good morning, Archibald, you
dirty dog”. Finding the bomber and
approaching 500 feet above it, “The gunner in the rear cockpit gave him a mock
salute, and he waved back”. Biggles
dives down and comes up under the nacelle at no more than twenty feet. Holding his joy-stick between his knees, he
fires the Lewis gun up at the bomber and his gun jams! Biggles has to fly away and unjam the gun
before returning, running the gauntlet of the gunners again to get back into
position. This time there is no mistake
and Biggles’ shots get the pilot.
Pulling out, Biggles sees the rear cockpit is empty as the rear gunner
tries to land the German bomber. Biggles
holds his hands up to indicate that he won’t shoot again, and the plane
crashes. Biggles decides to go and tell
Wilks, “He’ll be tickled to death!”