Fly Past

8 RAF CENTENARY CELEBRATION BOMBERS

1918 2018

DE HAVILLAND

VICKERS VIRGINIA

Top right

and above

The second prototype

DH.10, C8659, at a

muddy Hendon in the

spring of 1918. It was

powered by a pair of

tractor 36 0hp Rolls-

Royce Eagles and fi rst

fl ew on April 20.

BOTH PETER GREEN

COLLECTION

AMIENS

1918 TO 1923

Type: Four-seat day bomber

First fl ight: March 4, 1918, entered service November 1918

Powerplant: One 400hp (298kW) Packard Liberty 12 V

Dimensions: Span 65ft 6in (19.96m), Length 39ft 7½in (12.07m)

Weights: Empty 5,585lb (2,533kg), All-up 9,000lb (4,082kg)

Max speed: 112mph (180km/h) at 10,000ft (3,048m)

Range: Endurance 6 hours

Armament: One machine gun in nose and dorsal positions. Up to 900lb (408kg)

of bombs

Replaced: De Havilland DH.9s from late 1918

Taken on charge: About 260

Replaced by: De Havilland DH.9As and Vickers Vimys by 1923

DE HAVILLAND AMIENS III

O

fficially named Amiens,

the de Havilland biplane

bomber was referred to

almost exclusively by its designation,

DH.10. Geoffrey de Havilland was

employed as designer and test pilot for

George Holt Thomas’s The Aircraft

Manufacturing Company – widely

shortened to Airco – from May 1914.

During this time, all of Geoffrey’s

creations carried his initials.

By 1920, Airco had reached the

DH.18 and the end of the economic

road, closing its Hendon factory that

year. Geoffrey de Havilland went on

to form his own company in his own

name.

As a response to the bombing of

Britain by Imperial German forces

with Zeppelin airships in January

1915, larger aircraft capable of taking

the fight to German territory were

ordered by the Air Ministry. Geoffrey

de Havilland responded with the

twin-engined DH.10, which he took

for its maiden flight on March 4,

1918. This prototype was powered
      by a pair of pusher BHP engines of
      240hp (179kW).
      Nineteen days after the formation
      of the Royal Air Force, the second
      DH.10 was air tested. This one was
      fitted with tractor powerplants, a pair
      of 360hp Rolls-Royce Eagles, and its
      performance was very promising.
      On May 13 the formation of the
      Independent Air Force was announced
      with the main aim of hitting targets
      in Germany and Major General Sir
      Hugh Trenchard took command on
      June 6. There were great hopes that
      this force would provide the hammer
      blow that would bring Germany to
      surrender.

A surge in bomber orders resulted

and 1,300 DH.10s were requested

from Airco. To meet this huge

demand, sub-contracts with five

other manufacturers were placed.

Production versions of the Amiens

were designated Mk.III and fitted

with American-made Packard Liberty

V12s.

The first unit to operate the type

was 104 Squadron at Azelot, south

of Nancy, taking delivery in the early

days of November 1918. Part of the

Independent Air Force, 104 took

part in a large raid on aerodromes in

German-held northern France on

November 10. Captain Ewart John

Garland flew F1867 of 104 Squadron

to attack Sarrebourg, to the east of

Nancy.

The following day, at 11 o’clock

the armistice came into force and

the DH.10’s contribution to the

war remained solitary. As with many

other types, contracts for Amiens

were slashed and only about 260 were

completed.

FIGHTING WARLORDS

A small number of DH.10s

soldiered on into 1923 with two

units claiming the honour of being

the last to fly the big biplane. In

Egypt, 216 Squadron had flown

DH.10s since December 1919.

Amiens were used to fly personnel

and air mail from Cairo to Baghdad,

Iraq. Navigation across the

featureless desert was facilitated by

a simple aid, ‘pointers’ in the sand

made from a mixture of thick oil

and hessian.

Retirement began in the summer of

1922, but it was April the following

year before the last example was

withdrawn at Heliopolis in favour of

Vickers Vimys.

Captain Garland’s sortie of

November 10, 1918 turned out not

to be the only time that the Amiens

dropped bombs in anger. On April 1,

1920 at Lahore in India, 60 Squadron

was re-formed and moved to Risalpur,

between Islamabad and Kabul.

Equipped with never more than six

DH.10s, during November 1920 the

squadron was involved in almost daily

punitive raids against Afghan warlords

in what the British ‘Raj’ referred to as

the North West Frontier. That area

flared up again in 1922 and, during

the same year, the unit was also in

combat with Waziristani tribesmen to

the south.

By February 1923 there was just a

pair of airworthy DH.10s with 60

Squadron. In April the much more

flexible and durable DH.9A took

over from the lumbering Amiens.

‘Nine Acks’ – see page 10 – served 60

Squadron, quelling dissident warriors

until 1930.