Lawrence of Arabia's Secret Air Force

Based on the Diary of Flight Sergeant George Hynes

James Patrick Hynes

• Publisher: Pen & Sword Aviation
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9781844683383
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

X Flight was designated the task of giving close air support to the desert army formed and commanded by Lawrence of Arabia. It flew from advanced desert landing grounds on reconnaissance, liaison, bombing and ground attack missions. The existence and deeds of the flight were kept secret, so much so that even the RFC Paymaster was unaware of their existence.George Hynes was an aircraft mechanic and became responsible for keeping the flights somewhat elderly aircraft airworthy whilst working in the most difficult desert conditions on hastily constructed landing strips and living and working under canvas in temperatures that froze at night and rose to 100 degrees plus at noon.His diary gives a clear insight into the conditions endured, the actions that took place and the many almost insurmountable problems that occurred as they followed Lawrences steady advance against the numerically superior Turkish Army and Air Force. George personally encountered Lawrence on many occasions and maintained contact with him after the war.The diary is supported with the Flights weekly operational records, perspectives of the battle scenarios and other background information.

Lawrence of Arabia’s
Secret Air Force

GEORGE JOINS THE ROYAL FLYING CORPS

In 1914 George Samuel Hynes was serving as a third engineer on a floating workshop run by H & C Grayson Ltd, Shipbuilders and Engineers of Liverpool. He left, made several attempts to join the Mounted Engineers and the Navy as an artificer but eventually enrolled in the Royal Flying Corps formed just two years earlier in 1912. The RFC became the British military air arm whose chief duties were supporting the Army, spotting for artillery and flying on photographic reconnaissance.

In an article in the Liverpool Echo and Evening Post printed on 28 February 1963, George recalled his recruitment:

I joined the old Royal Flying Corps in 1914 as a boy of 19 and became an apprentice engineer. They sent me to Egypt in 1915 with No. 14 Squadron, who were flying biplanes carrying bombs and machine guns.

Formed at Shoreham on 3 February 1915, No. 14 Squadron, commanded by Lt Col Geoffrey Salmond, had sailed out from England to Egypt on the liner, SS Anchises on 7 November 1915. Just after Christmas they moved out of Heliopolis to Ismailia near the Suez Canal, becoming part of the Middle East Brigade formed on 1 April 1916, by which time Salmond was a Brigadier General. At the time the Squadron was equipped with Farman biplanes and a few Martinsydes.

His early RFC service was spent in Farnborough, Hounslow, Shoreham and Gosport before his posting overseas. In his memoirs he mentions being on sentry duty at Hounslow aerodrome in May 1915 when he had to deal with an intruder. He probably went out to Egypt with the Squadron in November 1915 as he mentions a near miss attack by a submarine.

From the outset the RFC expected high standards of fitness, skill, character and behaviour in its recruits and personnel. George wrote:

Discipline was so strong that my Squadron when stationed at Hounslow No. 14 was presented with white woollen gloves as a mark of respect by a titled lady, for the noticeable behaviour in their association with the opposite sex during their term of duties in that area. Permission was given to wear them in public in place of the Army issue in khaki wool.

Whilst in the Middle East, he served with the Squadron in Heliopolis, Ismailia, Arabia, back in Ismailia, the advance on Sinai Peninsula, then Gaza and finally the Special Duty X Flight in Arabia until 28 October 1918.

In either December 1915 or January 1916, George was in Cairo when a revolt broke out among students and members of the Egyptian Army. A few RFC Crossley tenders were sent into the city manned by comrades armed with machine guns and rifles to patrol the streets. Of course the Flying Corps used machines designed for use in the air, then in the Middle East, they soon found that in order to do that efficiently they had to make regular and frequent use of Crossley tenders, camels and horses on land! In 1913, the 20 hp Crossley tenders were put into service with the new RFC and by 1918 they had over 6,000 of them adapted for use as staff cars, tenders and ambulances.

A former commanding officer of X Flight, V.D. Siddons, thought very highly of those Crossleys. In his summary of X Flight operations for the week ending 12 January 1918, Akaba, he wrote, ‘For rough country, the Crossley Light Tender with double wheels all round is an ideal car and is superior to any other type down here, namely: Rolls-Royce, Talbot, new type pattern and Ford.’

In Cairo, George was amused by the fact that the wives of the Sultan of Egypt often passed through the streets in a fleet of red motor cars with red motorcycle escorts on their way to the fun fair, Lunar Park, on Thursdays when the grounds were closed to the public!

AN EARLY NO. 14 SQUADRON INCIDENT

From the outset, No. 14 Squadron engaged in fairly routine tasks such as photographic reconnaissance and occasional sorties to pick up downed pilots or to bomb and strafe the enemy in support of ground troops. One such desert rescue is recounted in a copy of the magazine Flight:

In May 1916, machines from No. 14 rescued Lieutenant (Later Sir Pierre) Van Ryneveld, who had been forced landed in the Sinai desert. [Van Ryneveld was serving in the South African Aviation Corps. In 1920 he became Director of Air Services in South Africa.]¹

The article continues:

About the same time Lt. Kingsley forced-landed on a flat mountaintop in South Sinai. The pilot repaired the engine while his observer kept the Turks at bay with a rear gun. Eventually the pilot took off, diving over the mountain side after a too short run and flew back home.

George mentions an amusing incident when he was in Ismailia on or about 5 June 1916:

One morning an Egyptian newsboy came to the camp to sell the Egyptian Mail. The boy was shouting as he sold his papers, ‘Berry good news dis mornin. Kitchener dead, berry good news!’

George continues:

It was a great surprise to us that Lord Kitchener had met his death on the destroyer that was taking him to Russia, and a shock; but the boys were amused to hear the newsboy declare it as ‘berry good news’.

George concluded that some Tommy must have played a trick on the newsboy coaching him to shout that it was very good news!

The Squadron’s early brush with the enemy took place on 18 June 1916, when its aircraft bombed and strafed German Rumpler C1 bomber/rec, two-seaters and Pfalz EII single-seat escort aircraft at El Arish in the Sinai. Eleven British aircraft, eight from No. 14 Squadron and the rest from No. 17, successfully bombed the site. Three aircraft failed to return; one pilot was captured but later managed to escape; a second managed to take to the air again after a forced landing and the third landed in the sea but was rescued.²

GEORGE IN ISMAILIA

George’s comments about General Murray may have reflected the views of all the common soldiers out in the Middle East when he wrote:

I had a good look at Murray when he arrived at Ismailiya [Ismailia] to award the Military Cross to Lt Yates only a couple of weeks after Yates had struck a heavy blow against the Turks with his two, one hundred pound bombs. Murray surrounded by professional military and intelligence experts depended a lot on the photographs taken by our aircraft.

Murray liked the Indian type of pomp and ceremony so when he arrived he was escorted by the Bengal Lancers. He stood in front of us and when he walked along our ranks during ‘close inspection’, he passed through with hardly a look at our unit on parade.

We also knew that within twenty-four hours General Murray was being sent home and shortly afterwards, Allenby was on his way out in a British destroyer. A rumour broke out that our troops had taken Gaza but someone had given the order to retire but nobody knew who.

I was fortunate enough to be on duty, alone, in a tent on guard and acting as telephone orderly. A field telephone had been rigged to convey messages directly to Cairo. An officer pilot and his observer reported that there were signs of evacuation of Turkish troops from El Arish.

A TRIBUTE TO ALLENBY

George comments:

Allenby reacted very quickly saying he would not attack Gaza until he had plenty of guns. Soon they were rolling out to him. Although the press called him ‘The Bull’ he was a gentleman in looking after the welfare of his men making sure he had enough weapons to finish the job. Allenby put the full weight of his mounted troops into battle along with Salmond, with every available aircraft raining hell on the retreating enemy. His greatest friend in that enterprise was the amateur soldier, Thomas Edward Lawrence, without doubt or contradiction.

Allenby speedily livened up the Cairo Savoy headquarters, joining his new army in the field and making sure he got more staff into the field with the army where they belonged. It had come to our ears that there were far too many staff officers winning military crosses for their services in Cairo!

Allenby, showed that he was a soldier who was active in the field, not back in an office. He went on to demand guns, guns and more guns for his army and they began rolling off the railway tracks at night strengthening the only two Pom Pom guns that had no doubt been relics of the Boer War.

Across 3/4 August 1916, the Squadron helped Anzac troops repulse Turkish troops in battle near Romani by directing artillery fire, bombing and strafing and harassing them back to El Arish. On 5 August an unnamed crew shot down an enemy Rumpler but 2/Lieuts Hursthouse and McDiarmid in a BE.2c (Bleriot Experimental) were wounded. On 10 August, another BE was brought down by both ground fire and an attack by two Rumplers. 2/Lieut Edwards received several wounds. His observer, who was about to go on leave, had been shot through the chest but when an ambulance arrived he refused treatment until he had given his report but the unfortunate airman then died.³

Although the Arabs would not allow Christian troops into the region, in October 1916, C Flight along with six machines and appropriate personnel were allowed to set up in Rabegh on the eastern coast Red Sea after leaving El Qantara. By December 1916 the Turks had abandoned El Arish where they had previously deployed 160 Rumplers, mechanically superior to the aircraft used by the British.

LAWRENCE AND AIRCRAFT SUPPORT NEAR WEJH

Lawrence could paint a vivid picture of some of the Squadron’s activities using a broader brush than George whose knowledge was immediate and rather more restricted within his own personal experiences. For example, Lawrence expresses his admiration of the pilots in the following accounts of air action carried out by No. 14 Squadron back in 1916:

We could also prick the Turks into discomfort by asking General Salmond for his promised long-distance air raid on Maan. As it was difficult, Salmond had chosen Stent, with other tried pilots of Rabegh or Wejh, and told them to do their best. They had experience of forced landing on desert surfaces and could pick out an unknown destination across unmapped hills: Stent spokeArabic perfectly. The flight had to be air-contained, but its commander was full of resource and display, like other bundles of nerves, who, to punish themselves, did outrageous things. On this occasion he ordered low flying, to make sure the aim; and profited by reaching Maan, and dropping thirty-two bombs in and about the unprepared station. Two bombs into the barracks killed thirty-five men and wounded fifty. Eight struck the engine-shed, heavily damaging the plant and stock. A bomb in the General’s kitchen finished his cook and his breakfast. Four fell on the aerodrome. Despite the shrapnel our pilots and engines returned safely to their temporary landing ground at Kuntilla above Akaba. That afternoon they patched the machines, and after dark slept under their wings. In the following dawn they were off once more, three of them this time, to Aba el Lissan, where the sight of the great camp had made Stent’s mouth water. They bombed the horse lines and stampeded the animals, visited the tents and scattered the Turks. As on the day before, they flew low and were much hit, but not fatally. Long before noon they were back in Kuntilla.⁴

JANUARY 1917

George describes an incident when two of the Squadron’s aircraft were shot down by ground fire in the first month of 1917, although he mistakenly wrote Seagraves instead of Seward.

We had two Martinsydes shot down, Captain Kingsley and Lieutenant Seagraves. They had gone low over their target and heavy rifle fire did the damage.

During that attack our chief in command Geoffrey Salmond flew his own machine a B.E. 2c over with them to direct the operation as he was not the type to sit at the Savoy Hotel like General Murray and his staff. He was as keen as the pilots in the front to see that the work went as planned. He played a very important part in capturing El Arish and Rafa and resulted in a General Allenby coming to join us later.

George writes:

Captain Kingsley I think was rescued but Lieutenant Seagraves burnt his machine, jumped into the Med and swam back to our lines. I did hear that some Arabs and Australians came to Kingsley’s rescue and must mention that Kingsley was one of the rankers of the early pilots of the Royal Flying Corps at the outbreak of the War with such as Sergeant Dismore, McCrane and McCudden, Lieutenant Lorraine (Bobby Lorraine, the actor) the first pilot injured in France and later our pilot instructor.

This latter, Lt Col Robert Lorraine, RAF, DSO, MC, was an exceedingly controversial person, a man about whom Flight magazine’s obituary in January 1936 said:

For his first aircraft he decided to purchase a Blériot machine and went to France in April 1910 to learn to fly at Blériot’s base at Pau. It was in his diary at this time that he used the term ‘joystick’ in describing the aircraft’s control column – the first recorded use of the term.

Lorraine was born on 14 January 1876 in New Brighton, Merseyside, England, and died on 23 December 1935 in London.

An account of the same incident in Flight magazine gives more detail about Seward:

In the beginning of 1917 after the evacuation of El Arish and when the pipeline was being laid across the desert, Lt Seward was hit by ‘Archies’ near Gaza. He descended into the sea to prevent his machine being captured. On being fired at by the Turks, he swam further out to sea, then for four hours followed the coast, and eventually landed exhausted, being pic...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• Introduction
• Lawrence of Arabia’s Secret Air Force
• Bibliography
• Index