60 FLYPAST April 2018
M
ajor H O’Malley led his unit
across the Channel; below
them the ground echelon had
set sail from Folkestone. On the day
that the de Havilland DH.9s of 98
Squadron touched down at St Omer
they were the first British unit to
arrive in France as a Royal Air Force,
not a Royal Flying Corps, or Royal
Naval Air Service, unit – it was April
1, 1918.
Formed at Harlaxton, Lincs, on
August 30, 1917 as a day bombing
unit, 98 Squadron began training on
a miscellany of types until its DH.9s
arrived in February 1918. The airand ground crew quickly discovered
that the DH.9’s 230hp (171kW)
Beardmore-Halford-Pullinger
(BHP) six-cylinder upright in-line,
or the Siddeley-Deasy Puma, were
disappointingly unreliable.
Having moved down to Lympne
in Kent, 98 worked up to readiness
and, on April 1, deployed to France to
join II Brigade. Three days later, the
squadron moved a short distance to
Clairmarais, its operational base.
The Allied commander, General
Ferdinand Foch, issued a clear
directive on the priorities for the newly
formed RAF: “The essential conditionof success is the concentration of every
resource of [the] bombing formations
on the most important of the enemy’s
railway junctions as it may be possible
to put out of action with certainty.” As
a day bombing unit, 98 would have to
execute this command.
As the squadron settled in, the
Germans were preparing to move
the axis of the massive offensive on
the Somme north to Flanders. This
onslaught was to strike in the plain of
the River Lys between La Bassée and
Armentières.
At Clairmarais, 98’s men noted the
noise of the distant artillery while theyDH.9S OF 98 SQUADRON ARRIVED IN FRANCE ON THE DAY THE ROYAL AIR
FORCE WAS FORMED. THEY WERE SOON PITCHED INTO BATTLE, AS
ANDREW THOMAS EXPLAINS
SACRIFICESACRIFICE
DOGGEDNESS, DETERMINATION,DOGGEDNESS, DETERMINATION,
arrived in February 1918. The air formed RAF: “The essential condition noise of the distant artillery while they1918 2018