No. 3 Wing - RNAS - page 1

Author's Note: All quotes, unless stated otherwise are taken from the relevant reports written by the aircrew on the day in question. The same holds true for the bulk of the narrative, being made up from the various No.3 Wing records in the AIR1/115/15/39/51 and AIR1/648/17/122/397 files held by the PRO and National Archives of Canada. The Sopwith 1½ Strutter was used by No.3 Wing in both the two seat fighter and single seat bomber variants. In No.3 Wing records they are designated as either 'fighter' or 'bomber', and the same will hold true in this article. All quotes are in their original spelling and punctuation.

N o.3 Wing Royal Naval Air Service, was originally formed in the Aegean from No.3 Squadron RNAS on 21 June 1915 under W.Cdr Samson. Later, they were transferred to Imbros where they were absorbed into No.2 Wing and disbanded on 18 January 1916. However a reformed No.3 WIng was soon to be organized in England for service in France.

Sopwith Fighter 9667 shown in the late Summer 1916, prior to application of individual marking and letter.

The story of the reformed No.3 Wing RNAS begins with a suggestion put forward at the end of 1915 that the French and British should have a combined bombing force to raid German industry. However, this idea was put on hold as it was beyond the presently available resources. Then during February 1916 a squadron of Sopwith 1½ Strutters was formed at Detling under Sqdn.Cdr. Marix, with the intention of raiding the factories in the Essen and Dusseldorf regions of Germany from England. However, due to the distance to the proposed targets from Detling being infeasible, the resources of this unit were available for service elsewhere, to which end Captain W.L. Elder went to France for talks in May 1916. From these talks it was decided to form a Franco-British bombing force, with the British component being based at Luxeuil-les-Bains, over 60 miles to the south of Nancy.

Originally No.3 Wing was to be made up of Sopwith 1½ Strutters and Short bombers, however the Short was found to be unsuitable and was replaced by the Breguet V. An analysis of the Short stated...

As regards the Short bombers, there are now nine at Manstone (sic) and it is hoped to get most, or probably all of these, out to France by the end of the month. The engines of these machines have been giving a great deal of trouble blowing off their exhaust pipes in the air and sometimes even on the ground etc. This is being rectified by our own people at Manstone as the makers fittings are most unsatisfactory. This is taking some little time to do and the machines are not safe to be flown in their present condition. The bomb gears of these machines have been giving a great deal of trouble but it is hoped that they will be rectified by the time the engines have been put right. [Report sent to Capt. W.L. Elder]

The Wing was to be commanded by Capt. W.L.'Daddy' Elder, and contained a large proportion of Canadian pilots, not because of any conscious decision to do so, but because the large contingent of Canadians that had joined the RNAS were just now coming out of flying school and were available for service.

Short Bomber 9307 was an early short-fuselaged example which saw brief service with No. 3 Wing...

The first detachment of one officer and 125 men left for France on 16 June 1916 to begin construction of the future base at Luxeuil. It was initially proposed that the wing would consist of 60 aircraft, later to be expanded to 100 machines. However the transfer of Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutters from the RNAS to the RFC delayed the buildup of No. 3 Wing, and it was not until October that sufficient numbers of Strutters were available for operations at Luxeuil.

The debut of the wing to combat flying actually began at 4.34 a.m. on 30 July 1916, when nine aircraft of a combined French and British force took off to bomb the benzine stores and barracks at Mulheim. The French contribution consisted of four Farmans, one Sopwith and one Nieuport. The British sent two Sopwith bombers flown by F/L C. B. Dalison and F/S/L J.A. Glen, and one Sopwith fighter flown by F/S/L Potter with Sub.Lt. C. Downes as observer. When Dalison broke his propeller on take off, W.Cdr. R. B. Davies attempted to catch up in a spare machine. However by the time he was in the air, all other machines were out of sight and he returned to base as per Capt. Elder's instructions to not cross the lines if not in sight of other machines.

FSL Glen returned at 6.40 - he reports that the weather was misty, but he was able to see his bombs exploding apparently on the objectives. He was violently attacked by anti-aircraft guns just after crossing the lines between Mulhausen and Mulheim but was not hit. He encountered three German machines west of Mulheim, but they were flying low and did not attack." FSL Potter and Sub.Lt Downes returned at 6.55. They also report having been shot at, but although shells burst near them they were not hit. [Capt W.L. Elder]

On this first combined raid a total of 24 50-lb. and 12 65-lb. bombs were dropped for a loss of one French aircraft brought down in German lines. The wing had suffered its first loss when F/S/L G.K. Williams was killed on the afternoon of 10 June 1916. He had been instructing a French pilot on a 'Scout' (possibly a 1 1/2 Strutter) when they collided with a French biplane and all four occupants were killed. This was followed in July by the loss of F/S/L D.H. Whittier as described in a report to Capt. Elder, possibly by W.Cdr. Davies.

I regret to report that FSL Whittier was killed at Manstone (sic) on Thursday July 19th, while flying a Bristol Scout and attempting to loop the loop within about 1500 feet of the ground. The machine apparently side slipped and got into a spinning nose dive hitting the ground before pilot could regain control. [Report to Elder]

L-R: Stephens, Shirriff, Shearer, Dissette, Beasley, Glen, and de Wilde. Glen flew on No. 3 Wing's first raid when he accompanied six French machines to Muehlheim on 30 July 1916.

F/S/L Douglas H. Whittier was flying Bristol Scout C. 1245 when he was killed. A third pilot was killed when F/S/L James D. Scott of Montreal fatally crashed on 20 September. One further loss to the wing was Sqdn.Cdr Marix. He and Draper were ferrying two Strutters to Luxeuil, when they stopped off at Paris.While there they each took up a Nieuport - Marix spun in and ended up having one of his legs amputated.

Even though aircraft were continually arriving at Luxeuil-les-Bains, the number of available machines still wasn't enough to allow operations to begin in earnest. In addition not all of those sent to Luxeuil arrived as planned. F/S/L C.H. Butterworth was flying to France in Short bomber 9312 when his engine seized short of Paris and he was forced to land in a garden on 31 July. After repairs to the undercarriage, 9312 was at Luxeuil by 11 August.

With October an adequate number of aircraft were on hand to begin operations. The problem now was the weather, which was becoming more and more unsettled with clouds and fog rendering formation flying difficult. It was not until 12 October 1916 that the weather cleared sufficiently to allow a raid on the Mauser works at Oberndorf to be mounted. This was carried out by 22 British and between 21 and 34 French aircraft. The British contributed nine Sopwith bombers, six Breguet V bombers and seven Sopwith fighters. While the French force comprised 12 Farman F.42, seven Breguet IV, one Breguet V and one Sopwith fighter (both borrowed from the RNAS). In addition four Nieuport 17s of Escadrille N.124, the 'Escadrille Americaine' would provide escort.

At 1.p.m. reports were received that weather conditions were favourable over the Black forest. At 1.15 p.m. the first flight of French Farman machines started, followed ten minutes later by another flight. At 1.30 a flight of English Sopwiths left followed at 1.45 by a French Breguet flight, and at 1.50 by an English Breguet flight. At 2.0 pm a second English Sopwith flight left, and at 2.15 a third. The course followed was direct from the aerodrome to Oberndorf, returning via Schlettstadt, & Corcieux (a French aerodrome) and back to Luxeuil. The total distance being 225 miles. Unfortunately, a heavy bank of cloud intervened as the last Sopwith flight was leaving the ground, and they failed to form in squadron formation, the bombing machines returning without crossing the lines. From the reports received from the pilots the remaining machines achieved their objective - the Mauser Rifle Factory at Oberndorf. [Capt. W.L. Elder, OC No.3 Wing]

The force lost a total of three British and seven French machines. One of the pilots lost on the raid was F/S/L C.H.S. 'Charlie' Butterworth, a Canadian from Ottawa. He was flying Sopwith bomber 9660 when he was forced down with a slight wound to his neck and damage to his engine after an attack by a Fokker D.II flown by Vzfw Hanstein. Fortunately, Butterworth was able to land on an airfield at Freiburg and was taken prisoner.

Sopwith Fighter 9708 According to the records, this was later coded as a/c No.20., however 9408 is also given as being No. 20. This isn't totally unlikely as photos of N5098 and N5094 both show the number '32'. (Bruce/Leslie Collection)