HOW MANY AIRCRAFT DID BIGGLES SHOOT
DOWN IN WWI?
BY ROGER HARRIS
I thought this would be a
very simple question to answer. Just
read all the stories and make a note of every plane Biggles shoots down. Of course, when I tried to do it – it proved to
be impossible. What do you count? In Johns’ World War One air stories he often
has two planes collide. Have they been
shot down by Biggles? Or bought down by
Biggles? Do they add to his score? In a mass dog-fight do they count for
everybody? Or if it is just Biggles in
the sky and they collide, does that count?
It’s difficult isn’t it? Then of
course, there are times when planes go down in flames but we are not told who
shot it down. Or various people are
shooting at various planes at different times.
What about planes that are not “shot down” but destroyed in other
ways. In one story, Biggles gets a
German plane to fly into a balloon cable.
That has to count as a “kill” surely?
Then on another occasion, Biggles is flying a German plane and he
crashes it. Does that count? Surely not? What about when Biggles shoots down a Sopwith
Camel being flown by a German? That must
count, mustn’t it? Do Balloons count? Or should they be counted separately? If a plane is forced to land, that counts doesn’t
it? You can see the problems.
Johns hits the nail on the
head in the story “Biggles’ Surprise Packet” when he says “The huge dog-fight
lost height quickly, as such affairs nearly always did, and was soon down to
five thousand feet. It was impossible
for any pilot to know exactly what was happening; each man picked an opponent
and stuck to him as long as he could. If
he lost him he turned to find another.
That was precisely what Biggles did, and it was utterly out of the
question for him to see if he shot anyone down.
If a machine at which he was shooting fell out of the fight, someone
else was shooting at him before he could determine whether his Hun was really
hit or merely shamming.”
I decided the best way to
approach this was to list every story and note when Biggles is involved in the
destruction of an enemy plane in some way and then reason it out as to whether
it “counts” or not. Other people will
have different opinions. I want to look
at the ones that definitely count so I can say “Biggles has a score of X number
of planes.” I suppose what is important
is that it is not some ridiculously high number – higher than the “Red
Baron”. It needs to reasonable and realistic
and comparable to what a real “Ace” would have got, otherwise it becomes
incredible. And Johns’ World War One
flying stories are very realistic.
Here I list all planes
“downed” by Biggles and put the number I counted in brackets.
THE CAMELS ARE COMING (1932)
1. THE WHITE FOKKER
Biggles shoots down the White
Fokker of the title, a D.VII (ONE)
2. THE PACKET - None
3. J-9982
A Hanoverana – A Fokker –
Sopwith Camel (No. J-9982) of the story title (THREE)
4. THE BALLOONATICS
A Triplane – One Balloon shot
down in flames and One Balloon captured
If we are just counting the
planes then this will be a total of one.
(ONE)
5. THE BLUE DEVIL
Blue German
Albatros. (ONE)
6. CAMOUFLAGE - None
7. THE CARRIER – None
8. SPADS AND SPANDAUS
Jazzed
Albatros. (ONE)
What is interesting in this story
is that before Biggles gets the Albatros, Wilks is talking to an American
officer about Biggles. “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 70th victory
on 26th March 1918 and got another three the next day. He had reached 80 victories by the time he
was killed on 21st April 1918.
Lothar scored his 29th victory on
12th March 1918 and didn’t get his 30th until 25th
July 1918 due to injuries). So that
would date this story about March 1918, but discussing continuity in the
Biggles stories is a whole other subject!
9. THE ZONE CALL
Pfalz aircraft forced to land. (ONE)
10. THE DECOY
Green
Rumpler. Two chasing Albatroses spin wildly downwards
either as a result of a collision or due to cracking up on the dive. This was caused by Biggles’ dive and the
Albatroses were chasing him. Do they
count? Is that one or three? I’m going to say that Biggles was responsible
for the destruction of all three enemy aircraft. (THREE)
This story presents a bit of
a problem because Johns writes this “The Rumpler had become an obsession with
him. For eight hours a day he hunted the
sky ……… He was due for leave, but refused to accept it. He fought many battles and, although he
hardly bothered to confirm his victories, his score mounted rapidly.” Well, there is nothing to count there! We are not told over what period of time this
is. We can only assume that other
adventures occurred during this period and those victories are counted there!
11. THE BOOB – None
12. THE BATTLE OF FLOWERS –
None
13. THE BOMBER
The
Friedrichshafen Bomber. (ONE)
Interestingly, Biggles is shot
down himself in this story and has to make a forced
landing. It is not uncommon in the
stories for him to be bought down by anti-aircraft fire or engine failure but
rarely by another aircraft shooting at him.
14. ON LEAVE
One Brandenburg Seaplane and
another Sea plane forced to land which crashes. (TWO)
15. FOG
Fokker Triplane (ONE)
16. AFFAIRE DE COEUR – None
17. THE LAST SHOW
Fokker (ONE)
Biggles is well and truly
shot down in this story. He is engaged
in a huge aerial dog-fight and Biggles is caught in a hail of gunfire. “A burning pain paralysed his leg.” Biggles fights on and shoots down a Fokker
but his plane is hit again and he goes down.
“Biggles knew his time had come.
He knew he was going down under a hail of lead in just the same way as
he had seen dozens of machines go down, as he himself had sent them down. He knew he was going to crash, but the
knowledge left him curiously unmoved.”
SO IN “THE CAMELS ARE COMING!
BIGGLES SCORE IS 16 PLANES
DOWNED (AND TWO BALLOONS).
BIGGLES OF THE CAMELS SQUADRON (1934)
1. THE PROFESSOR - None
Biggles and Algy attack and
shoot up a German Aerodrome known as Aerodrome 32. Two Albatroses collide on take-off and
another Albatros gets in the air and Biggles shoots at it and hits it, before
Algy finishes it off. Is this one or
three? And the credit it shared between
two of them so is it one and a half each?
I don’t think I should count the collision on the ground. And surely Biggles would give all the credit
for the other ‘kill’ to Algy. So I will
call this NONE.
2. THE JOY RIDE - None
Although Biggles does crash
the German plane he himself is flying but you can’t really count that. It was no doubt counted in Algy’s score when it was forced down by Algy! (NONE)
3. THE BRIDGE PARTY - None
Biggles and Algy both shoot
down a Pfalz scout. “Biggles and Algy
simultaneously started pumping lead through their props”. The plane plunges down to oblivion. Again, I
say that Biggles would give all the credit for this ‘kill’ to Algy. (NONE)
4. THE BOTTLE PARTY – None
Biggles sees two triplanes
meet head on and break up but he is not responsible for this.
5. THE TRAP – None
6. THE FUNK
An
Albatros. Two Fokker collide and one Fokker sheds it
wings. Again it is hard to say that
Biggles is responsible for the Fokkers so I only count the Albatros. (ONE)
7. THE PROFESSOR COMES BACK – None
8. THE THOUGHT READER – None
9. THE GREAT ARENA – None
10. BIGGLES FINDS HIS FEET
Biggles is manning a machine
gun in the trenches and shoots down a German aircraft.
“I wonder will that one count
on my score?” he asked the Colonel.
“Although I don’t suppose they’ll believe it, anyway.” “I’ll confirm it,” said the Colonel
vigorously. (ONE)
11. THE DRAGON’S LAIR - None
12. BIGGLES’ DAY OFF – None
But bizarrely Biggles does
get a German submarine! Can’t count it as a plane though.
13. SCOTLAND FOREVER! - None
SO IN “BIGGLES OF THE CAMEL
SQUADRON”, BIGGLES SCORE IS ONLY (SURPRISINGLY) 2 PLANES DOWNED (AND ONE SUBMARINE).
THE ACE OF SPADES (1934)
This story was published in THE COCKPIT and then collected in THE RAID and later in Biggles of the Special Air Police so I
have just listed it on its own. Biggles
shoots down the German plane with the distinctive mark. It was a Fokker DVII in the original story
but became a Fokker DVIII in Biggles of
the Special Air Police. (ONE)
BIGGLES LEARNS TO FLY (1935)
1. BIGGLES LEARN TO FLY - None
2. BIGGLES’ FIRST FLIGHT
Biggles flies a two-seater
when at 169 Squadron and his gunner is Mark Way. Initially, Biggles doesn’t have his own gun –
but he does have his own gun in addition to his rear gunner when their aircraft
is upgraded. If Mark shoots down a plane
that would count for the score of both of them I assume. I will count these in this list and then
refer to a separate note of the planes that Mark Way shoots down in order to
establish the number of planes that Biggles himself, actually shoots down. Mark Way gets a blue and yellow German
aircraft (which Biggles doesn’t even see!). (ONE)
3. BIGGLES THE SCOUT
Two German Albatrosses attack
Biggles and Mark but Biggles swerves out of the way and the two German planes
collide. As Biggles was under attack and
Mark was firing on the German planes at the time and there are no other planes
in the sky, it would appear to me that these should be counted. It’s a different situation from a huge melee
in the sky involving loads of planes when two German planes happen to collide
and you can’t really give the “credit” for that to anyone. (TWO)
4. SPY IN THE SKY – None
5. CRASHED FLYERS! – None
6. KNIGHTS OF THE SKY
Mark Way shoots down and gets
a Triplane, blue with white wing tips, and a Yellow Hun. (TWO)
7. THE LAUGHING SPY – None
8. BIGGLES’ BULLS EYE – None
9. BIGGLES BUYS THE SKY
In this story, Mark Way has
been wounded and he is temporarily replaced by a new gunner called Harris. When attacked Harris opens fire. “One Albatros went down in flames; another
glided down out of control with its engine evidently out of action.” Biggles then gets a chance to fly a new
Bristol Fighter where Biggles has a gun as well as his rear gunner. Harris is killed and Biggles goes fighting
mad and shoots down the red and silver Albatros responsible. As these are the “first” Biggles stories
time-wise, this is in fact Biggles first personal “kill”! Biggles is then chased and he leads one of
his attackers, another Albatros, into a balloon cable. The top and bottom left wing is cut off and
the plane destroyed. So here we have
Harris getting two planes and Biggles himself getting two planes. (FOUR)
10. BIGGLES’ BIG BATTLE –
None
11. BIGGLES’ SURPRISE PACKET
Biggles moves from 169
Squadron to 266 Squadron at the beginning of this story and now flies a single
seater fighter. Initially it’s a Sopwith
Pup.
Biggles forces down a Rumpler
two-seater and captures it intact. He is
later involved in a huge dog-fight.
Johns says “The huge dog-fight lost height quickly,
as such affairs nearly always did, and was soon down to five thousand
feet. It was impossible for any pilot to
know exactly what was happening; each man picked an opponent and stuck to him
as long as he could. If he lost him he
turned to find another. That was
precisely what Biggles did, and it was utterly out of the question for him to
see if he shot anyone down. If a machine
at which he was shooting fell out of the fight, someone else was shooting at
him before he could determine whether his Hun was really hit or merely
shamming.” Later in the story, Biggles’
Squadron of nine Pups attacks two Triplanes.
“It was impossible to say which machine actually scored most hits.” Both are shot down but can’t be credited to
Biggles. Biggles is then part of an
attack on seven German aircraft and he personally gets a Triplane. A lonely straggler is also sent down under a
hail of lead but we are not told that this is specifically Biggles. With the Rumpler and the Triplane that is
two. (TWO)
12. BIGGLES’ REVENGE
Biggles Squadron has now been
equipped with Sopwith Camels “for nearly a month now.” Biggles gets a dark blue Albatros. (ONE).
SO IN BIGGLES LEARNS TO FLY BIGGLES SCORE IS 12 PLANES DOWNED (OF WHICH HIS GUNNERS GOT FIVE. MARK WAY GETTING THREE AND
HARRIS GETTING TWO). BIGGLES
HIMSELF THEREFORE GOT 7 PLANES AND
THIS INCLUDES THE 2 IN THE COLLISON AND THE ONE THAT HIT THE BALLOON CABLE.
BIGGLES IN FRANCE (1935)
1. BIGGLES GOES BALLOONING
Biggles shoots down an
Albatros and captures a German balloon.
(ONE)
2. BIGGLES AND THE RUNAWAY TANK
Biggles gets a Roland Green
two Seater. But with the “Runaway Tank”
of the title he also destroys Mahoney’s Camel and probably others. Best not to count those! (ONE)
3. FLYING LUCK – None
4. BIGGLES AND THE MAD HATTER – None
5. BIGGLES SKY HIGH HAT TRICK
In an effort to try and break
records, Biggles shoots down four aircraft in one day!
A dark
green Hannoverana, a yellow Albatros, a Fokker Triplane and a Gotha.
However, Johns says this
about it at the outset “The occasion on which he scored four successes was a
very different proposition, and not without a certain amount of humour,
although it must be admitted that only three of these victories were
confirmed. The anti-aircraft gunners put
in a claim for the last one, and although Biggles was quite satisfied in his
own mind that he shot it down, the subsequent court of inquiry, for reasons
best known to themselves, gave the verdict to the gunners.” So I am afraid we can only credit him with
three for this! However, the story also
relates how Biggles has previously got three German aircraft “before
breakfast”. Three “enemy scouts”. So although this would appear to add seven to
Biggles score, we can only give him six because the court of inquiry said
so. (SIX)
6. BIGGLES AND THE FLYING CAMERA
The high
flying Halberstadt. (ONE)
7. BIGGLES SKY HIGH SPY
Biggles gets an
Albatros. Another Albatros dives into
the ground but we are not told who is responsible. (ONE)
8. BIGGLES CARVES THE TURKEY
An
Albatros. (ONE)
9. BIGGLES PAPERCHASE – None
10. BIGGLES AND THE FLYING
WARDROBE – None
11. FLYING CRUSADERS
Biggles takes on an Albatros
which burst into flames, although it wasn’t Biggles shooting at it. He gets an orange and black Hun and another
plane with green streamers. (TWO)
12. BIGGLES’ BORROWED PLUMES
– None
SO IN “BIGGLES IN FRANCE”
BIGGLES SCORE IS 13 PLANES
DOWNED (AND ONE BALLOON)
BIGGLES – AIR ACE (1999)
1. BIGGLES’ XMAS BOX
Fokker DVII. Bizarrely, Biggles brings this German plane
down by throwing a package of sausages at it.
“Fancy having to admit you were shot down with a packet of dead
pig.” (ONE)
2. BIGGLES CHRISTMAS TREE – None
3. BIGGLES AND THE JOKER – None
4. BIGGLES’ NIGHT OUT – None
5. THE FLEDGLINGS – None
6. BIGGLES ON THE SPOT
Blue
Albatros. Later there is an attack on a German
Aerodrome by Biggles’ Squadron. Two
German planes collide on the ground and a third piles into them. It is not possible to credit those three to
Biggles though. (ONE)
7. BIGGLES’ EXCITING NIGHT
Red and
Silver Fokker Triplane. (ONE)
8. BIGGLES TAKE THE BAIT
Biggles shoots down two
Fokkers and the second one crashes into a third Fokker
on the way down. Biggles is therefore
responsible for the destruction of all three aircraft. (THREE)
SO IN BIGGLES – AIR ACE BIGGLES SCORE IS 6 PLANES DOWNED
BIGGLES FLIES EAST (1935)
THIS WAS A FULL LENGTH NOVEL
In chapter four, Biggles
(flying a Sopwith Pup) shoots down Leffens in his Pflaz Scout and in chapter thirteen; Biggles borrows Algy’s Camel to shoot down Kurt Hess in his new red and
white Pfalz D.III scout. (TWO)
THE RESCUE FLIGHT – A
BIGGLES STORY (1939)
THIS WAS A FULL LENGTH NOVEL
In chapter three, Biggles
shoots down a German scout. In chapter
four, Biggles shoots down an Albatros with a purple stripe. In chapter eight, Biggles and Algy turn and
fight pursuing German planes to protect the young hero of the novel. He sees a red Triplane fall smothered in
flame and another Triplane with a dead propeller going into a spin. He sees Algy nearby. We are not told who shot down these two
planes but the inference appears to be Algy.
So these are not to be credited to Biggles. In chapter ten, two Albatroses collide wing tips and one goes down spinning and the other
goes down under control. There is no
reason these should be credited to Biggles either. In chapter twelve a German Albatros is shot
down, by either Biggles or Algy but we are not told by whom. As I can’t be sure it was shot down by
Biggles, I won’t count it. In which
case, in this novel, Biggles gets two German planes. (TWO)
TOTALS
THE CAMELS ARE COMING – 16
planes and 2 balloons
BIGGLES OF THE CAMEL SQUADRON
– 2 planes and 1 submarine
BIGGLES LEARNS TO FLY – 12
planes (but 5 were shot down by the rear
gunners) so 7
BIGGLES IN FRANCE – 13 planes
and 1 balloon
THE ACE OF SPADES – 1 plane
BIGGLES: AIR ACE – 6 planes
BIGGLES FLIES EAST – 2 planes
THE RESCUE FLIGHT – 2 planes
In which
case Biggles has a “score” of 49 aircraft, 3 balloons and 1 submarine. (Wilks has
said Biggles had got 5 balloons officially)
If it wasn’t for that court of inquiry (see story 5 from Biggles in
France) denying Biggles a plane he was certain he got, then it would be a nice
round 50! Biggles was sure he got that
one. So as far as Biggles is concerned
it is 50! If you were to add on the
score of his rear gunners you can add another 5 to that figure.
THE TOP TWENTY AIR ACES OF WORLD WAR
ONE
1. MANFRED VON RICHTHOFEN (“THE RED BARON”) 80
2. RENE FONCK 75
3. WILLIAM BISHOP 72
4. ERNST UDET 62
5. EDWARD MANNOCK 61
6. RAYMOND COLLISHAW 60
7. JAMES McCUDDEN 57
8. ANDREW BEAUCHAMP-PROCTOR 54
9. ERICH LOWENHARDT 54
10. DONALD MACLAREN 54
11. GEORGES GUYNEMER 53
- 54
12. WILLIAM BARKER 50
- 52
13. JOSEF JACOBS 48
14. WERNER VOSS 48
15. GEORGE McELROY 47
16. ROBERT LITTLE 47
17. FRITZ RUMEY 45
18. ALBERT BALL 44
- 47
19. CHARLES NUNGESSER 43
- 45
20. RUDOLF BERTHOLD 44
So Biggles “score” would put
him just outside the first dozen of the real Air Aces.
Researched and written by
Roger Harris. www.wejohns.com