“BIGGLES” OF THE CAMEL SQUADRON

by Capt. W. E. Johns

XII. BIGGLES’ DAY OFF! (Pages 213 – 231)

“Eighteen thousand feet above the tangled maze of trenches that marked the greatest battlefield the world has ever known, Captain Bigglesworth, of 266 Squadron, throttled back to glide down to a lower altitude for the early autumn morning air was chilly”. There is no enemy activity and has not been any for a week. A German prisoner has told the British authorities that some of the German planes had been sent back to Germany with the task of harassing the British long-distance bomber squadron of the Independent Air Force. “Kent!” Unconsciously his lips formed the words, and following his train of thought, Biggles wondered what his old godfather, the eccentric Dr. Duvency, was doing, for he had neither seen nor heard of him since the day he enlisted. Biggles decides to fly to his godfather’s home not far from Dover and go and look him up. (Now I would have thought that without a leave pass, this was akin to desertion and you were likely to be shot for that, but apparently not!). In 20 minutes Biggles is over the French coast and soon he is over the English coast and heading towards “a small village not far from Walmer, where the doctor’s house was situated”. Landing in a meadow, Biggles meets the doctor, who is only too pleased to see him. The doctor has something he wants to show Biggles. It’s a bomb: an anti-submarine bomb that the doctor has invented. The bomb is fitted onto an ancient Farman aeroplane kept locked in a large wooden shed, with a corrugated iron roof. The doctor says he has built the plane and he intends to fly it. The bomb has an instantaneous fuse and no safety devices. Biggles is horrified. “If ever I saw a death trap, that’s it! When I commit suicide, I’m going to do it cleanly, and leave something for people to bury in a wooden coffin, not scatter bits of meat and hair all over the landscape for someone to collect in a sandbag!” When the doctor insists on flying it, Biggles says he himself will fly it. Biggles laments not being able to get the bomb onto his Camel, “but the bomb-racks aren’t made to carry things like that!” He agrees to drop the bomb as a test in the sea off Dover. As Biggles takes off, the doctor says he will follow in his car to view the test. Biggles takes off carefully and with great misgivings, heads off towards the sea. “I shall lose my commission over this business!” he mutters to himself. Seeing three Fairey seaplanes, Biggles realises there must be a Hun raider nearby. “I’m flying Camels or nothing in future!” Biggles sees a small airship, known as a ‘Blimp’ and a Navy destroyer. He realises they are tracking a German submarine and from his height he is able to see the cigar-shaped shadow under the water. Biggles realises that this is where he needs to test the bomb and he duly drops it over the submarine. “His next conscious recollection was of swimming feebly in a sea of oil”. He is only half conscious when he is hauled into a boat and taken on board the destroyer. His plane has been destroyed in the resulting explosion – but so has the submarine. There is oil everywhere. Biggles suddenly realises “I’m supposed to be flying on patrol over Bapaume!” The destroyer is bound for Rosyth in Scotland. Biggles persuades the Captain of the destroyer to get the Blimp to come down and sit on the water, so it can take him onboard and put him ashore at Yarmouth. Biggles thinks he will be able to get someone to fly him from Yarmouth to Manston, which isn’t far from where he left his Camel. At four o’clock that afternoon, Biggles arrives back at Dr. Duvency’s house. The doctor has already been cabled by the Air Ministry to report to them with his plans and formula for his new explosive. He intends to call it ‘Biggelite’. “You dare, and I’ll blow you and your works up with your own bombs!” retorted Biggles, coldly. Biggles suggests ‘Finalite’, “because it finishes things off”. “It was a weary pilot who landed at Maranique that evening in the light of last rays of the setting sun”. “Where have you been all day?” demanded Algy sternly. Biggles says he is going to make out his combat report. “One U-boat shot down out of control and totally destroyed”. “That’s more than any of you stick-in-the-muds can boast!”