Leonard H. Rochford - I Chose the Sky

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The author when serving with the RAF in World War II.

Published by
Grub Street
4 Rainham Close
London SW11 6SS

First published 1977 by William Kimber & Co. Limited
Leonard H. Rochford 1977
This edition first published 2015
Grub Street 2015

A CIP data record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN-13: 9781909808324
EPUB ISBN: 9781910690901

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

Printed and bound in the Czech Republic by Finidr

Grub Street Publishing only uses FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) paper for its books.

Contents

by Air Vice-Marshal Raymond Collishaw

FOREWORD

This book has been written by one of the most distinguished pilots and Flight Commanders of the Royal Naval Air Service and the Royal Air Force in the First War.

He served for almost two years as a fighter pilot in France with No 3 (Naval) Squadron, attached to the Royal Flying Corps, and later with No 203 Squadron, RAF. This long service on the Western Front was performed at a time when the normal tour of duty was limited to nine months.

Tich was a truly remarkable person. He stood only a bit over five feet and I think I could have worn him for a watch charm. He had a quiet, gentle and unassuming manner but when he got into the cockpit of a fighter he was absolute hell on wings. No one would suspect that inside such a tiny frame was such a heart of a lion. Not unless theyd seen Tich in action as I did many times.

Tich Rochford not only had vast experience as a fighter pilot but he also went all through the dangerous and exhausting straffing operations carried out against German ground forces which so significantly contributed to the final Allied victory in 1918.

I think that readers of this book will find the story of absorbing interest.

AIR VICE-MARSHAL RAYMOND COLLISHAW,

CB, DSO, OBE, DSC, DFC

Vancouver, B.C.

INTRODUCTION

During the Battle of the Somme, in the summer of 1916, the Royal Flying Corps wrested a temporary supremacy in the air from the German Air Force. This situation proved to be short-lived, however, with the introduction of more and better equipped fighter units by the enemy on the Western Front.

Major General Hugh Trenchard, greatly concerned about the resulting heavy losses sustained by the RFC, requested reinforcements of more squadrons with aeroplanes of improved performance with which to meet the German challenge.

An approach for assistance was also made to the Admiralty who agreed to form additional Royal Naval Air Service fighter squadrons for attachment to the RFC.

Thus, in the late autumn of 1916, No 8 (Naval) Squadron was formed at Dunkirk. Commanded by Squadron Commander G.R. Bromet DSO it moved to Vert Galant, on the Somme, in October and there commenced operations under the control of the 22nd Wing, RFC.

The formation of No 3 (Naval) Squadron was by then in progress with Squadron Commander R. H. Mulock DSO as CO. On 1st February 1917 it left Dunkirk for Vert Galant where it relieved No 8 and took over the latters Sopwith Pup aeroplanes.

This book is mainly the story of No 3 (Naval) Squadron (or, No 203 Squadron RAF as it became) from January 1917 to December 1918 during which period I served in it continuously as a pilot, taking part in many of the great battles on the Western Front.

As I did not keep a diary at the time the story is written primarily from memory but with the help of my Log Book and notes made from contemporary documents of that time.

Although the narrative is almost entirely devoted to my own and other pilots activities in the squadron I feel compelled to take this opportunity to express appreciation of the quite magnificent work done by our ground staff of all ranks. In No 3 Naval/203 RAF it was the inviolable practice to leave maintenance responsibility entirely to the Technical Officers, Warrant and Chief Petty Officers and their skilled mechanics. Pilots were only expected to report troubles. Thereafter the matter was left to the professionals.

Without them we pilots could have achieved nothing. At all times their morale was high and despite often having to work day and night frequently under the most trying conditions to keep the machines serviceable the standard of maintenance of aeroplanes, engines, guns and transport was always exceptionally high.

It is with the greatest pleasure that I now pay this tribute to their invaluable efforts.

L. H. ROCHFORD

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My grateful thanks are here expressed to all who assisted me during the writing of this book. In this connection I would especially mention the following: Frank Cheesman, for all his encouragement, help and the use of many documents and photographs; the late Air Vice-Marshal Raymond Collishaw, CB, DSO, OBE, DSC, DFC, for his constant support and the generous Foreword; the late Lt. Col. Y. E. S. Kirkpatrick, OBE, TD, for making available his letters written home in WWI; Messrs H. F. Beamish, E. Pierce, J. A. Shaw, R. Sykes, R. V. Dodds, A. E. Ferko, the Canadian DND, Public Archives Canada and the J. M. Bruce/G. S. Leslie Collection.

The much appreciated co-operation of these donors and friends some of whom were fellow pilots in WWI will, I am sure, enhance the interest of the book for the reader.

CHAPTER I

HENDON A TYRO TAKES OFF

I was born on 10th November 1896 in the parish of Enfield, Middlesex. My father, John Rochford, was one of the pioneers of the glasshouse industry in the Lea Valley. He owned nurseries at Enfield Highway where vast quantities of some of the finest grapes, tomatoes and cucumbers in the world were grown and taken by horse-drawn vans to Covent Garden Market to be sold by Geo. Munro and Sons.

When my fathers first wife died at an early age, she left him with five young children two sons and three daughters. Later, he married again and my mother presented him with four sons of whom I was the eldest.

I was nearly nine years old when I was sent to a preparatory boarding school at St Leonards-on-Sea and I think it was there that I first became interested in aviation. At the end of my final term, when waiting on the platform at Warrior Square station for the train to take me and other boys to London and home for the summer holidays, I remember reading on a newspaper placard at the bookstall BLRIOT FLIES CHANNEL.

In September I commenced my first term at Ampleforth College, a school belonging to the Benedictine monks of Ampleforth Abbey on the southern slopes of the Hambleton Hills in the beautiful countryside around the Yorkshire moors. Less than five miles away was the market town of Helmsley, where my grandfather, Michael Rochford, had once lived with his wife and family when he was steward to the Earl of Feversham at Duncombe Park.

During my four years at Ampleforth, my interest in flying increased and in the school holidays I often went to the Hendon aerodrome where every weekend public flying displays took place and for a fee of two guineas one could fly as a passenger. Many of the pioneer aviators of those days gave flying demonstrations at Hendon, but I think the events which thrilled me most were the races which took place round the perimeter of the aerodrome, the competitors banking their machines quite steeply and close to the pylons, usually at a height of less than fifty feet. Sometimes there were night flying displays at Hendon and I remember going to one of these and seeing Frank Goodden loop-the-loop in a Caudron biplane. In order that his machine could be seen against the dark sky its outline was lit up by a large number of electric lamp bulbs.

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