Historical flying stories.

[Phil Perry]

William Leefe Robinson VC (14 July 1895 – 31 December 1918).

 

September 1916

 

From: Lieutenant Leefe Robinson, Sutton's Farm.

 

To: The Officer Commanding No. 39 H. D. Squadron.

 

Sir:

 

I have the honour to make the following report on night patrol made by me on the night of the 2-3 instant. I went up at about 11.08 p.m. on the night of the second with instructions to patrol between Sutton's Farm and Joyce Green.

 

I climbed to 10,000 feet in fifty-three minutes. I counted what I thought were ten sets of flares - there were a few clouds below me, but on the whole it was a beautifully clear night. I saw nothing until 1.10 a.m., when two searchlights picked up a Zeppelin S.E. of Woolwich. The clouds had collected in this quarter and the searchlights had some difficulty in keeping on the airship.

 

By this time I had managed to climb to 12,000 feet and I made in the direction of the Zeppelin - which was being fired on by a few anti-aircraft guns - hoping to cut it off on its way eastward. I very slowly gained on it for about ten minutes.

 

I judged it to be about 800 feet below me and I sacrificed some speed in order to keep the height. It went behind some clouds, avoiding the searchlight, and I lost sight of it. After fifteen minutes of fruitless search I returned to my patrol.

 

I managed to pick up and distinguish my flares again. At about 1.50 a.m. I noticed a red glow in the N.E. of London. Taking it to be an outbreak of fire, I went in that direction. At 2.05 a Zeppelin was picked up by the searchlights over N.N.E. London (as far as I could judge).

 

Remembering my last failure, I sacrificed height (I was at about 12,900 feet) for speed and nosed down in the direction of the Zeppelin. I saw shells bursting and night tracers flying around it.

 

When I drew closer I noticed that the anti-aircraft aim was too high or too low; also a good many shells burst about 800 feet behind-a few tracers went right over. I could hear the bursts when about 3,000 feet from the Zeppelin.

 

I flew about 800 feet below it from bow to stem and distributed one drum among it (alternate New Brock and Pomeroy). It seemed to have no effect;

 

I therefore moved to one side and gave them another drum along the side - also without effect. I then got behind it and by this time I was very close - 500 feet or less below, and concentrated one drum on one part (underneath rear). I was then at a height of 11,500 feet when attacking the Zeppelin.

 

I had hardly finished the drum before I saw the part fired at, glow. In a few seconds the whole rear part was blazing. When the third drum was fired, there were no searchlights on the Zeppelin, and no anti-aircraft was firing.

 

I quickly got out of the way of the falling, blazing Zeppelin and, being very excited, fired off a few red Very lights and dropped a parachute flare.

 

Having little oil or petrol left, I returned to Sutton's Farm, landing at 2.45 a.m. On landing, I found the Zeppelin gunners had shot away the machine-gun wire guard, the rear part of my centre section, and had pierced the main spar several times.

 

I have the honour to be, sir,

 

Your obedient servant,

 

(Signed)

 

W. Leefe Robinson, Lieutenant

 

No. 39 Squadron, R.F.C.

 

 

* * * Took off from Sutton's Farm, Hornchurch - sadly did not live to see the end of the war.

 

Close by to Bentley priory and Stanmore airfields a local pub was named after Leefe Robinson.

 

Was changed to the Miller and Carter not long ago. I suspect it's one of those pub/restaurant chains that pretends it's not.

 

 

[M61A1]

Stumbled across this the other day, an interesting read. There is also a doco on youtube about him.

 

Hans-Joachim Marseille - Wikipedia

 

 

[Riley]

A

 

Stumbled across this the other day, an interesting read. There is also a doco on youtube about him.Hans-Joachim Marseille - Wikipedia

A very interesting read. thanks

 

 

[M61A1]

I got myself a copy of Hannah Reitsch's book 'The Sky My Kingdom'.

 

Been a very good read so far.

 

 

[Head in the clouds]

I got myself a copy of Hannah Reitsch's book 'The Sky My Kingdom'.Been a very good read so far.

One of our AUF/RAA and SAAA/AOPA members, Erwin Felkl, was a fascinating fella and good friend. He was a proud Austrian with a penchant for building things, which he did with a standard of craftsmanship that I envied greatly. He built the most glorious home in the forest near Jimboomba, it was a place as if from a fairytale, built from selected timbers of many kinds - and which would make the most fastidious boatbuilder green with envy. Having completed that, he built a KR2 to a similar standard.

I loved listening to his tales, he was one of the few people who didn't have a problem talking about 'the war', although he had some very distressing times during it - he was a Luftwaffe pilot. The stories I most enjoyed were about his flight training, his instructor was Hannah Reitsch - and he maintained a friendship with her 'until the end'.

 

Sadly Erwin passed in his KR, caught in bad weather and downdrafts/rotors, didn't make it over the range ...

 

 

[M61A1]

One of our AUF/RAA and SAAA/AOPA members, Erwin Felkl, was a fascinating fella and good friend. He was a proud Austrian with a penchant for building things, which he did with a standard of craftsmanship that I envied greatly. He built the most glorious home in the forest near Jimboomba, it was a place as if from a fairytale, built from selected timbers of many kinds - and which would make the most fastidious boatbuilder green with envy. Having completed that, he built a KR2 to a similar standard.I loved listening to his tales, he was one of the few people who didn't have a problem talking about 'the war', although he had some very distressing times during it - he was a Luftwaffe pilot. The stories I most enjoyed were about his flight training, his instructor was Hannah Reitsch - and he maintained a friendship with her 'until the end'.

 

Sadly Erwin passed in his KR, caught in bad weather and downdrafts/rotors, didn't make it over the range ...

I don't know if you've met an old bloke named Verner around the traps, but I met him at an Inglewood fly-in and again at Murgon. Tends to sit quietly by himself, but I loved listening to his experiences once I got him talking a bit. Apparently he was a 109 driver at the end of the war as he was quite young at the time. Told me how he was shot down while doing his licence test, and then of his exploits in South Africa as a pilot after the war. I reckon he could write an interesting book.

 

 

[Head in the clouds]

I don't know if you've met an old bloke named Verner around the traps, but I met him at an Inglewood fly-in and again at Murgon. Tends to sit quietly by himself, but I loved listening to his experiences once I got him talking a bit. Apparently he was a 109 driver at the end of the war as he was quite young at the time. Told me how he was shot down while doing his licence test, and then of his exploits in South Africa as a pilot after the war. I reckon he could write an interesting book.

I knew Werner Bekker well, in Victoria, he passed a year or so ago, interesting fella.

Never met this one you mention, but would like to if anyone has details of how to contact him. The older fellas have the best tales to tell, though are often reluctant raconteurs. Most older folks would like to write their memoires but have little confidence in their abilities to do so ... and then there are also many trained and skillful writers without a tale to tell, for want of an introduction, often.

 

The real tragedy is that their stories die with them and are then lost to the sands of time.