W.E. Johns - Biggles: The Camels Are Coming

BIGGLES BOOKS PUBUSHED IN THIS EDITION:

Biggles: The Camels are Coming

Biggles in France

Biggles Learns to Fly

Biggles and the Rescue Flight

Biggles Flies East Biggles of the Fighter Squadron

Biggles & Co.

Biggles in Spain

Biggles Defies the Swastika

Biggles Fails to Return Biggles Defends the Desert

Biggles in the Orient Biggles: Spitfire Parade (graphic novel)

Biggles adventures available on cassette from

Tellastory, featuring Tim Pigott-Smith as Biggles:

Biggles Flies East Biggles Defies the Swastika

BIGGLES: THE CAMELS ARE COMING

CAPTAIN W. E. JOHNS

RED FOX

Red Fox would like to express their grateful thanks for help in preparing these editions to Jennifer Schofield,

co-author of Biggles: the life of Captain W. E.Johns published by Veloce Publications, Linda Shaughnessy of A. P. Watt Ltd and especially to John Trendler, editor of

Biggles & Co, the quarterly magazine for Biggles

enthusiasts, the address of which may be found at the

back of the book.

A Red Fox Book

Published by Random House Children's Books 20 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London SW1V 2SA

A division of Random House UK Ltd

London Melbourne Sydney Auckland

Johannesburg and agencies throughout the world

First published by John Hamilton, London

Published as Biggles, Pioneer Air Fighter, Armada

Red Fox edition 1993 3579 10 864 1932 WE Johns

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

RANDOM HOUSE UK Limited Reg. No.

Phototypeset by Intype, London Printed and bound in Great Britain by Cox & Wyman Ltd, Reading, Berkshire

ISBN

Contents

Foreword

The White Fokker

The Packet

J-

The Baloonatics

The Blue Devil

Camouflage

The Carrier

Spads and Spandaus

The Zone Call

The Decoy

The Boob

The Battle of Flowers

The Bomber

On Leave

Fog!

Affaire de Coeur

The Last Show

Foreword

Captain James Bigglesworth is a fictitious character, yet he could have been found in any R.F.C.* mess during those great days of 1917 and 1918 when air combat had become the order of the day and air duelling was a fine art. 'Biggles,' as I have said, did not exist under that name, yet he represents the spirit of the R.F.C. daring and deadly when in the air, devil-may-care and debonair when on the ground.

To readers who are unfamiliar with the conditions that prevailed in the blue skies of France during the last two years of the War, it may seem unlikely that so many adventures could have fallen to the lot of one man. In those eventful years, every dayand I might almost say every hourbrought adventure, tragic or humorous, to the man in the air, and as we sat in our cockpits warming up our engines for the dawn 'show**', no one could say what the end of the day would bring, or whether he would be alive to see it.

Again, it may seem improbable that any one man could have been involved in so many hazardous undertakings, and yet survive. That may be true; sooner or later most War pilots met the inevitable fate of the flying fighter. I sometimes wonder how any of us sur-

* Royal Flying Corps 1914-1918. An array corps responsible for military aeronautics, renamed the Royal Air Force (RAF) when amalgamated with the Royal Naval Air Service on 1st April 1918. ** Slang: operational flight into enemy-held territory.

vived, yet there were some who seemed to bear a charmed life. William Bishop, the British ace, Rene Fonck, the French ace and prince of air duellists, and, on the other side, Ernst Udet, and many others, fought hundreds of battles in the air and survived thousands of hours of deadly peril. Every day incredible deeds of heroism were performed by pilots whose names are unknown, and had the Victoria Cross been awarded consistently, hundreds instead of a few would have worn the coveted decoration.

Nowhere are the curious whims of Lady Luck so apparent as in the air. Lothar von Richthofen, brother of the famous ace, shot down forty British machines; he was killed in a simple cross-country flight shortly after the War. Nungesser, the French champion of forty-five air battles, was drowned, and McKeever, Canadian ace of thirty victories, was killed in a skidding motor-car. Captain 'Jock' McKay of my Squadron survived three years air warfare, only to be killed by 'archie*' an hour before the Armistice was signed. Lieutenant A. E. Amey, who fought his first and last fight beside me, had not even unpacked his kit! I have spun into the ground out of control from 6,000 feet, yet I am alive to tell the tale. Gordon, of my Squadron, made a good landing, but bumped on an old road that ran across the aerodrome, turned turtle, and broke his neck.

Again, should the sceptic think I have been guilty of exaggeration, I would say that exaggeration is almost impossible where air combat is concerned. The terrific speed at which a dog-fight took place and the amazing manner in which machines appeared from nowhere, and could disappear, apparently into thin air, was so

* Slang: Anti-aircraft gunfire

bewildering as to baffle description. It is beyond my ability to convey adequately the sensation of being one of ten or a dozen machines, zooming, whirling, and diving among the maze of pencil lines that marked the track of tracer bullets.* One could not exaggerate the stunning horror of seeing two machines collide head-on a few yards away, and words have yet to be coined to express that tightening of the heart-strings that comes of seeing one of your own side roaring down in a sheet of flame. Seldom was any attempt made by spectators to describe these things at the time; they were best forgotten.

It is not surprising that many strange incidents occurred, incidents which were never written down on combat reports, but were whispered 'with wrinkled brows, with nods, and rolling eyes' in dim corners of the hangars while we were waiting for the order to start up or for the 'late birds' to come home to roost. It was 'H', a tall South African S.E.** pilot who came in white-faced and told me that he had just shot down a Camel*** by mistake. It was the Camel pilot's fault. He playfully zoomed over the S.E., apparently out of sheer light-heartedness. 'H' told me that he started shooting when he only saw the shadow; he turned and saw the red, white, and blue circles, but it was too late. He had already gripped the Bowden control and fired a burst of not more than five rounds. He had fired

* Phosphorus-loaded bullets whose course through the air could be seen

by day and by night.

** Scouting experimental single-seater British biplane fighter in service

-

*** Sopwith Camel, a single-seater biplane fighter with twin machine

guns synchronised to fire through the propeller. See front cover for

illustration.

f The 'trigger' to fire the guns, usually fitted to a pilot's control column.

hundreds of rounds at enemy aircraft without hitting one, but the Camel fell in flames. He asked me if he should report it, and I, rightly or wrongly, said no, for nothing could bring the Camel back. 'H' went West* soon afterwards.

What of TL ' still in the Service, who was attacked by a Belgian scout? For ten minutes he endeavoured to escape, and then, exasperated, he turned and shot the Belgian down, narrowly escaping court-martial as a consequence. Almost everybody has heard the story told by Boelcke, the German ace and he was a man to be believed of how he once found a British machine with a dead crew flying a ghostly course amid the clouds. On another occasion he shot down an F.E.** which, spinning viciously, threw its observer out behind the German lines and the pilot behind the British lines. What of the R.E.8*** that landed perfectly behind our lines with pilot and observer stiff and stark in their cockpits! The R.E.8 was not an easy machine to land at any time, as those who flew it will bear witness.