HISTORY

T he swag from

t he Hout huls t

forres t

TEXT: RICHARD PLOS

Photo: sbírka Jörna Leckscheida

It was a dreary, cloudy Wednesday on January 23, 1918,

and a trio of Jasta 7 Pfalzs took off from the airport in

Belgium Aertrycke for another of countless sorties to the

nearby Houthulst forest, witness to many air brawls. Eight

Camels from the 3rd Navy Squadron headed in the same

direction. The German fighters were escorting four D.F.W.

bombers and Brits having spotted them intended to stop

their mission.

January 23, 1918, was quite an important day

for the 3rd RNAS. Raymond Collishaw, already

a well-known ace, assumed command of the

unit replacing Lloyd Breader. Collishaw on that

day seemed to be too busy with the command

transfer to personally lead the unit on its mission. This task was assumed by Ft.Com. Armstrong

flying the Camel B7193. Flying with him were F.Lt.

Anderson (B6241), F.Lt. Hayne (B3785), F.lt. Ireland (B6242), F.S.Lt. Britnell (B3809), F.Lt. Pierce

(B3858), F.S.Lt. Youens (B7184) and F.S.Lt. Bawlf

(B6417). Their mission was to patrol the line Ostende, Thorout and Roulers which was some eight minutes of flight away from their base in Bray

Dunes (five kilometers East of Dunkirk). They encountered the German formation at approximately four pm right over Houthulst forest.

RNAS Headquarters report later stated that: “Eight (Sopwith) Camels from No.3 Squadron (RNAS)

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were conducting the offensive sweep south of the

line Ostende, Thorout and Roulers. Over the Houthulst forest our formation encountered seven

enemy airplanes. Four D.F.W. (two-seaters) and

three fighters (new type)”. This mention of a “new

type” may have caused a frequently repeated

error. Various articles and books started to publish the information that on that day the British fighters clashed with new Fokkers D.VII. It was not

possible though. At that time only prototype test

flights commenced at Adlershof as a part of the

first contest for the new German fighter and D.VII,

the ultimate winner, did not even exist in its final

configuration, only as V.11 prototype. The deployment of its successor, D.VII, took place almost

four months later…

As a matter of fact, on that day the German fighters took off in their old Albatros D.Vs and

newer, but not-so-new Pfalz D.IIIs and engaged

in combat with Camels. The formations broke

down to the individual duels. F.Lt. George B. Anderson later stated in his combat report that he

had shot down one D.F.W., which was confirmed,

but also that all three German fighters had been

shot down. That was inaccurate since all of them

returned to the base. Things were different as far

as the British were concerned. One Camel was

missing, and Armstrong had omitted this fact in

his report… The missing aircraft, Camel serial

B7184 was flown by a young, rather inexperienced F.S.Lt. Hubert St. John Edgerley Youens.

An unlucky pilot

At the time of these events Jasta 7 was without

its commander. Not that he was killed. Josef Carl

Peter Jacobs was one of the experienced combat

fighters, and leaders who were invited to Adlershof to participate in the aforementioned contest

for a new fighter aircraft which commenced on

January 20 and was scheduled until February 12. In the middle of January Jacobs traveled

to Adlershof then. He entrusted the leadership

to his deputy and Carl Degelow was among his

pilots. At that time a fairly experienced flier who

joined the unit in August 1917 he could not claim

a single confirmed kill to his credit as a fighter

pilot. It seems he had a hard luck since he claimed several unconfirmed victories. On January

23 over Houthulst forest however he claimed

a victory which he believed could not be doubted. What could be possibly a better proof than an

enemy aircraft grounded behind the frontline and

its captured pilot?

INFO Eduard - January 2022