Fly Past

DE HAVILLAND DH.9A 100 YEARS OF THE ROYAL AIR FORCE

Left

Westland-built ‘Nine

Ack’ H3510 of 8

Squadron based at

Hinaidi, Iraq, with

the gunner training

his Lewis gun on

the terrain below.

This machine served

8 Squadron from

early 1925 until 1926.

Note the upper wing

long-range tank,

the spare wheel

housed between the

main undercarriage,

night-landing fl ares

under the outer wings

and an empty stores

‘cage’ under the

centre section. KEC

Below

Siddeley Puma-

powered DH.9 D

in typical 1918

colours. This machine

was built by London-

based furniture

manufacturer Waring

and Gillow.

© ANDY HAY http://www.

fl yingart.co.uk

BOMBERS RAF CENTENARY CELEBRATION 11

to Murmansk in Arctic northwest
Russia on August 2, 1918. The air
element, including DH.9As, set up
at Bereznik, southeast of Archangel.
The Bolsheviks were labelled by
the world’s press as ‘Reds’ and the
counter-revolutionary forces became
the ‘Whites’.
Communications with White
forces were chaotic, the freezing
conditions neutered most operations
and the supply chain – by sea
around Scandinavia – was tortuously
long. It was no surprise when British
forces were instructed to withdraw
in August 1919.
The Murmansk adventure was
not the only British incursion into
the Russian Civil War. Another
expeditionary force landed on the
northern shores of the Black Sea,
at Batum in Georgia on January 3,

1919. Equipped with DH.9s and
      Nine Acks, 221 Squadron deployed
      eastwards – by train – to Petrovsk on
      the Caspian Sea. From there 221 was
      engaged in sporadic sorties until it
      was disbanded in September 1919.
      By May 1919 the mixed bag of
      DH.9s and Sopwith Camels of 47
      Squadron was based at Ekaterinodar
      on the Black Sea. The unit was
      swollen by DH.9As from the former
      221 Squadron in October. During
      that month, it was decided that
      politically it was wrong to have
      operational RAF units within Russia
      and 47 was renamed as ‘A’ Squadron
      of the British Training Mission. The
      instructional intent not withstanding,
      this unit carried out its last bombing
      raid on suspected Soviet cavalry on
      March 28, 1930.
      To return to the fortunes of 221

Squadron, in RAF Operations 1918 to

1938 (Kimber, 1988) Chaz Bowyer

quoted the diary of armourer D B

Knock for mid-February 1919. “Two

Nine Acks go on reconnaissance

north, each with two 65- and two

230-pounders. South of Astrakhan

they spot a parade of cavalry with

red pennons flying. Drop the ‘pills’

[bombs] and get photos. Return and

develop [the pictures] in glee showing

much carnage. One up against the

Reds.”

Knock recorded that three days later

the unit had a visit: “Cossack officer

of high rank arrives with interpreter.

Story gets around. That was no Red

cavalry bombed, but the side we are

supposed to be assisting. Our planes

had decimated a squadron of White

cavalry... Thought that Cossack

looked furious. No wonder!”

“Our planes had decimated a squadron

of White cavalry... Thought that Cossack

looked furious. No wonder!”