{"id":1844,"date":"2015-11-30T22:43:13","date_gmt":"2015-12-01T03:43:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/strathroycaradoclions.ca\/?page_id=1844"},"modified":"2016-07-12T14:57:38","modified_gmt":"2016-07-12T18:57:38","slug":"1917-april-9th-billy-bishop-at-vimy-ridge","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/rememberourvets.ca\/index.php\/1917-april-9th-billy-bishop-at-vimy-ridge\/","title":{"rendered":"1917, April 9th, Billy Bishop at Vimy Ridge"},"content":{"rendered":"

1917, April 9 Billy Bishop @ Vimy Ridge pages<\/a><\/p>\n

THE BATTLE OF ARRAS: THE VIEW FROM THE AIR, 9 APRIL 1917<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Billy Bishop, Royal Flying Corps<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

“The British attack at Arras was intended to draw in German reserves, allowing the French general Nivelle to strike a decisive blow against the Hindenburg Line at Chemin des Dames.<\/p>\n

Dawn was due at 5:30 o’clock on Easter Monday, and that was the exact hour set for the beginning of the Battle of Arras. \u00a0we were up and had our machines out of the hangers while it was still night. \u00a0The beautiful weather of a few hours before had vanished. \u00a0A strong, chill wind was blowing from the east and dark, menacing clouds were scudding along low overhead.<\/p>\n

We were details dot fly at a low altitude over the advancing infantry, firing into the enemy trenches, and dispersing any groups of men or working troops we happened to see in eh vicinity of the lines. \u00a0Some phases of this work are known as “contact patrols”, the machines keeping track always of the infantry advance, watching points where they may be held up, and returning from time to time to report just how the battle is going. \u00a0working with the infantry in a big attack is a most exciting experience. \u00a0It means flying close to the ground and constantly passing through our own shells as well as those of the enemy.<\/p>\n

The shell fire this morning was simply indescribable. \u00a0The bombardment which had been going on all night gradually died down about 5 o’clock, and the Germans must have felt the the British had finished their nightly “strafing”, were tired out and going to bed. \u00a0For a time almost complete silence reigned over the battlefields. \u00a0All along the German lines star-shells and rocket-lights were looping through the darkness. \u00a0The old Boche is always suspicious and likes to have the country around him lit up as much as \u00a0possible so he can see what the enemy is about.<\/p>\n

The wind kept growing stiffer and stiffer and there was a distinct feel of rain in the air. Precisely at the moment that all the British guns roared out their first salvo of the battle, the skies opened and the rain fell in torrents. \u00a0Gunfire may or may not have anything to do with rainmaking, but there was a strange coincidence between the shock of battle and the commencement of the downpour this morning. \u00a0It was beastly luck, and we felt it keenly. \u00a0But we carried on.<\/p>\n

The storm had delayed the coming of the day by several minutes, but as soon as there was light enough to make our presence worthwhile we were in the air and braving the untoward elements just as the troops were below us. \u00a0Lashed by the gale, the wind cut our faces as we moved against the enemy. \u00a0The ground seemed to be one mass of bursting shells. Farther back, where the guns were firing, the hot flames flashing from thousands of muzzles gave the impression of a long ribbon of incandescent light. \u00a0The air seemed shaken and literally full of shells on their missions of death and destruction. \u00a0Over and over again one felt a sudden jerk under a wing-tip, and the machine would heave quickly. \u00a0This meant a shell had passed within a few feet of you. \u00a0As the battle went on the work grew more terrifying, because reports came in that several of our machines had been hit by shells in flight and brought down. \u00a0There was small wonder in this. \u00a0The British barrage fire that morning was the most intense the war had ever known. \u00a0There was a greater concentration of guns than at any time during the Somme. \u00a0In fact, some of the German prisoners said afterward that the Somme seemed a paradise compared to the bombardments we carried out at Arras. \u00a0while the British fire was at its height the Germans set up a counter-barrage. \u00a0This was not so intense, but every shell added to the shrieking chorus that filled the stormy air made the lot of the flying man just so much more difficult. \u00a0Yet the risk was one we could not avoid; we had to endure it with the best spirit possible.<\/p>\n

The waves of attacking infantry as they came out of their trenches and trudged forward behind the curtain of shells laid down by the artillery were an amazing sight. \u00a0The men seemed to wander across No Man’s Land, and into the enemy trenches, as if the battle was a great bore to them. \u00a0From the air it looked as though they did not realize that they were at war and were taking it all to quietly. \u00a0That is the way with clockwork warfare. \u00a0These troops had been drilled to move forward at a given pace. \u00a0They had been timed over and over again in marching a certain distance, and from this timing the “creeping” or rolling barrage which moved in front of them had been mathematically worked out. \u00a0And the battle, so calmly entered into, was one of the tensest, bitterest of the entire world war.<\/p>\n

For days the battle continued, and it was hard work and no play for everyone concerned. \u00a0The weather, instead of getting better, as spring weather should, gradually got worse. \u00a0It was cold, windy, and wet. \u00a0Every two or three hours sudden snow-storms would shut in, and flying in these squalls, which obliterated the landscape, was a very ticklish business.<\/p>\n

On the fourth day of the battle I happened to be flying about 500 feet above the trenches an hour after dawn. \u00a0It has snowed during the night and the ground was covered with a new layer of white several inches thick. \u00a0No marks of the battle of the day before were to be seen; the only blemishes in the snow mantle were the marks of shells which had fallen during the last hour. \u00a0No Man’s Land itself, so often a filthy litter, was this morning quite clean and white.<\/p>\n

Suddenly over the tops of our parapets a thin line of infantry crawled up and commenced to stroll casually toward the enemy. \u00a0To me it seemed that they must soon wake up and run; that they were altogether too slow; that they could not realize the great danger they were in. \u00a0Here and there a shell would burst as the line advanced or halted for a moment. \u00a0Three or four men near the burst would topple over like so many tin soldiers. \u00a0Two or three other men would then come running up to the spot from the rear with a stretcher, pick up the wounded and the dang, and slowly walk back with them. \u00a0I could not get the idea out of my head that it was just a game they were playing at; it all seemed so unreal. \u00a0Nor couldI believe that the little brown figures moving about blow me were really men – men going to the glory of victory or the glory of death. \u00a0I could not make myself realize the full truth or meaning of tall. \u00a0It seemed that I was in an entirely different world, looking down from another sphere on this strange, uncanny puppet-show.<\/p>\n

Suddenly I heard the deadly rattle of a nest of machine guns under me, and saw that the line of our troops at one place was growing very thin, with many figures sprawling on the ground. \u00a0For three or four minutes I could not make out the concealed position of the German gunners. \u00a0Our men had halted, and were lying on the ground, evidently as much puzzled as I was. \u00a0Then in a corner of a German trench I saw a group of about five men operating two machine guns. \u00a0They were slightly to the flank of our line, and evidently had been doing great amount of damage. \u00a0The sight of these men thoroughly woke me up to the reality of the whole scene beneath me. I dived vertically at them with a burst of rapid fire. \u00a0The smoking bullets from my gun flashed into the ground, and it was an easy matter to get an accurate aim on the German automatics, one of which turned its muzzle toward me.<\/p>\n

But in a fraction of a second I had reached a height of only 30 feet above the Huns, so low I could make out every detail of their frightened faces. \u00a0With hate in my heart I fired every bullet I could into the group as I swept over it, then turned my machine away. \u00a0 A few minutes later I had the satisfaction of seeing our line again advancing, and before the time had come for me to return from my patrol, our men had occupied all the German positions they had set out to take. \u00a0It was a wonderful sight and a wonderful experience. \u00a0Although it had been so difficult to realize that men were dying and being maimed for life beneath me, I felt that at last I had seen something that dogged determination that has carried British arms so far.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The next ten days were filled with incident. \u00a0The enemy fighting machines would not come close to the lines, and there was very little doing in the way of aerial combats, especially as afar as I was concerned, for I was devoting practically all of my time to flying low and helping the infantry. \u00a0Al of our pilots and observers were doing splendid work. \u00a0Everywhere we were covering the forward movement of the infantry, keeping the troops advised of any enemy movements, and enabling the British artillery to shell every area where it appeared concentrations were takin place. \u00a0Score of counter-attacks were broken up before the Germans had fairly launched them. \u00a0Our machines were everywhere behind the one,y lines. \u00a0IT was easy to tell when the Germans were massing for a counter-stroke. \u00a0First of all our machines would fly low over the grey-clad troops, pouring machine-gun bullets into them or dropping high explosive bombs in their midst. \u00a0Then the exact location of a mobilization point would be signalled to the artillery, so that the moment the Germans moved our guns were on them. \u00a0In General Orders commending troops for their part in the battle, Field-Marshall Sir Douglas Haig declared that the work of the Flying Corps, “under the most difficult conditions,” called for the highest praise.<\/p>\n

We were acting, you might say, as air policemen.”<\/p>\n

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