OT - 3 Sqn AFC's work

[Check Six 2]

I was just reading an article by Dennis Newton on 3 Sqn AFC in Flypast magazine, and in it it mentions a brief list of the acheivements of 3 Sqn AFC.

 

"During its period of operations, it occupied ten different airfields and carried out nearly 10,000 hours of active flying.

In the course of this, it directed artillery fire on 735 occasions, dropped some 6,000 bombs and fired approximately half a million rounds of ammunition. During reconnaissance sorties, over 6,000 plates were exposed photographing enemy territory. Eleven pilots and 13 observers were killed in action, 12 pilots and 12 observers were wounded.

 

Over the enemy lines, the squadron lost eleven aircraft. Many others were damaged but managed to return to base.

 

Its pilots claimed 16 enemy machines destroyed, eight down out-of-control and 27 damaged. When it is remembered that its principal duty was that of reconnaissance and not combat, this alone is an achievement of some magnitude.

 

The unit was also a pioneer of air-army operations. After the Australian Corps was withdrawn from the line, the squadron gave air support to the 2nd US Corps, which had no such asset of its own, and continued this role until the Armistice. It was the first Australian-US combined operation in World War One."

 

The squadron flew RE8's from September 10, 1917 until the Armistice.

 

On December 17, 1917, one of their RE8's was interrupted doing its work by six Albatros D.Va's, and fought valiantly, driving one of them down on the allied side of the lines. (This aircraft was subsequently presented to the Australain Government, and was restored in the late 60's by our Society, and later on in the early 2000's by the AWM, and is now on display at the Australian War Memorial as part of their "Over the Front" exhibit). The other Albatri continually attacked the RE8 until another RE8 arrived to help, when they broke off and returned home. An approaching RE8 flew alongside this RE8, noticing that it was the machine of Lt Sandy, and that it wasn't badly damaged, and was flying normally. The pilot of the second RE8 was not aware that Lt Sandy and his observer were both dead, killed instantly by an armour piercing shell fired from directly behind, passing through the observer's left lung and travelled on to the base of the pilot's skull. The aircraft continued flying until it ran out of petrol, and crashed about 50 miles from where it was last seen. It had flown in wide left-hand circles until its tank ran dry.

 

Interestingly enough, it was the pilot who did the majority of the artillery spotting and reporting back to the guns, with observers scanning the skies for enemy aircraft. It shows that out of 515 artillery shoots, carried out by the squadron in 1917-18, observers conducted only 6.

Edited September 23, 2009 by Check Six