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,
- 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!”