Great War>The War in the Air

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No. 7 Squadron Royal Flying Corps    No. 7 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps formed at Farnborough on 1st of May 1914, the last squadron of the RFC to be formed before the outbreak of war, but was disbanded to bring other Squadrons up to strength. It was reformed on 28th September 1914 and proceeded to France in April 1915. The squadron was engaged in both bombing and reconnaissance during the Battles of the Somme in 1916 and 1917, and at Ypres in 1917, and in support of Belgium forces in the closing months of the war. Becoming No. 7 Squadron, Royal Air Force in April 1918, it disbanded at the end of 1919. 19th January 1915  6th Jul 1915 Aircraft Lost 1st Dec 1915 Aircraft damaged 6th Dec 1915 Aircraft Lost 14th Dec 1915 Aircraft Lost 19th Dec 1915 Aircraft damaged 3rd Jan 1916 Aircraft damaged 8th Jan 1916 Aircraft Crashed 13rd Jan 1916 Aircraft Wrecked 20th Jan 1916 Aircraft damaged 7th Feb 1916 Aircraft damaged 4th Mar 1916 Aircraft damaged 18th Mar 1916 Aircraft damaged 18th Mar 1916 Aircraft damaged 2nd Apr 1916 Aircraft damaged 2nd Apr 1916 Aircraft damaged 24th Apr 1916 Aircraft damaged 26th Apr 1916 Aircraft damaged 28th Apr 1916 Aircraft damaged 4th May 1916 Aircraft Lost 5th May 1916 Aircraft damaged 25th May 1916 Aircraft damaged 3rd Jun 1916 Aircraft Lost 25th Jun 1916 Aircraft damaged 10th Jul 1916 Aircraft damaged 25th Jul 1916 Aircraft Lost 2nd Aug 1916 Aircraft damaged 3rd Aug 1916 Aircraft damaged 6th Aug 1916 Aircraft damaged 9th Aug 1916 Aircraft damaged   26th Aug 1916 Aircraft damaged 2nd Sep 1916 Aircraft damaged 14th Sep 1916 Aircraft damaged 15th September 1916 New Positions 24th Sep 1916 Aircraft damaged 24th Sep 1916 Aircraft damaged 25th Oct 1916 Aircraft Lost 26th Oct 1916 Aircraft Lost 28th Oct 1916 Aircraft damaged 1st Nov 1916 Aircraft damaged 1st Nov 1916 Aircraft damaged 2nd Nov 1916 Aircraft Lost 2nd Nov 1916 Aircraft damaged 4th Nov 1916 Aircraft Lost 16th Nov 1916 Aircraft Lost 21st Dec 1916 Aircraft Lost 27th Dec 1916 Aircraft damaged 27th Dec 1916 Aircraft damaged 1st of October 1918  Allies Attack   22nd of October 1918 A Combined Attack   24th of October 1918  Advance Continues   If you can provide any additional information, please add it here. Want to know more about No. 7 Squadron Royal Flying Corps? There are:51 items tagged No. 7 Squadron Royal Flying Corps available in our Library   These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Great War. Those known to have served with No. 7 Squadron Royal Flying Corps during the Great War 1914-1918. Bewes Reginald Charles Hope. Lt. (d.23rd May 1915) Dowding Hugh Caswell Tremenheere. Group Capt. Liddell John Aidan. Capt. (d.31st Aug 1915) Liddell MC VC. John Aidan. Captain (d.31st August 1915) Wilson C. E.. 2nd Lt. (d.16th April 1917) All names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed, please Add a Name to this List Records of No. 7 Squadron Royal Flying Corps from other sources. 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He joined the 1st Battalion King's (Liverpool) Regiment in October 1910, and was promoted to Lieutenant on 11 September 1913. At the outbreak of the 1914 - 1918 War, Roy was seconded for service with the Royal Flying Corps, and appointed Flying Officer in the RFC on 6th of August 1914. He served in France from September 1914 until 27 December 1914, and then had seven weeks sick leave. He then joined No 7 Squadron at Netheravon, and flew from Folkestone to St Omer on 9 April 1915. As a Lieutenant at the age of 24, he was killed when on reconnaissance duty, along with his observer Lt Frederick Hunter Hyland, on Pentecost Sunday, 23 May 1915, his RE-5 falling at Vieux Berquin in France, where he was buried in the village cemetery. He had gained for himself a first-class reputation for gallantry in the air. One of his enterprises in dropping bombs on St Andre Station, near Lille, was particularly meritorious. At the time of his death he was engaged to be married. His name is recorded in the War Memorial Arch at Clifton College. My wife, Nicola, and I visited Roy's grave on the centenary of his death, I paid for a pair of RFC wreaths from the British Legion and we took them over. Roy's observer, 2nd Lt Frederick Hunter Hyland, who was 23, from the Yorkshire Regiment, was also killed in the crash. I would guess that the relationship between pilot and observer would have necessarily been close and it seemed fitting that we should remember them both, so we laid wreaths on the two graves, which are beside one another. We were met at the main church of Vieux-Berquin (which was bombed by the British in WWII, though only because it was being used by the Germans at the time). Our reception party was 3-4 councillors from the town council of Vieux-Berquin, about a dozen or more members of Histoire Locale de Vieux-Berquin and about half a dozen veterans from the local veterans association including two flag bearers, plus the President of the French equivalent of the British Legion. Finally, to round it all off, there was a local journalist. At the cemetery, I laid a wreath on Roy's grave and Nicola laid the other on Frederick Hyland's. I then spoke for about 5 minutes - why we thought it was important to come over on that particular day, an explanation of the poppies (the French use a different flower) and an explanation of why they each had a Regimental name as well as RFC. Gerard Pique (retired English teacher) was thankfully there to translate. When I explained how moved we were that so many people turned up when all we were expecting was someone to unlock the gate, Gerard replied for them all that they were all still very appreciative of the sacrifice Roy and his observer made in the defence of France. He later explained that they honour all the war graves every 11th November, just like we do. Gerard's brother-in-law, Bernard Roussel, then suggested a minute's silence, which we then observed. We then repaired to the local municipal centre near the church where a presentation took place, comprising some words of welcome from the deputy mayor and a presentation of the historical society's research. In it, he explained the context in which the crash took place (the stage of aeronautical development, the dispositions of the allied and enemy forces, where Roy would have been flying from etc), plus what was known about Roy. He explained that there are actually Three accounts of how the crash happened: The first, described as a school of thought in the only source we know of, suggests it is a theory and not much more than that, this is the one that says it was a grenade on board that exploded. The second was from a French Army interpreter, who was working with the British; his account was the one about the pure white smoke of British Artillery; this fits with the positions of opposing artillery at the time and also with the observed circles the plane flew in as it came down. Also, it was an interpreter's job to pay attention to detail, so this is probably the most likely explanation and might account for why a school of thought came up with the grenade idea. The third was the one given in the local paper Le Cri Des Flandres, namely, engine failure, this does not fit with a plane circling down as a pilot's instinct would be to dive to achieve some speed before gliding to a field to land. We were given copies of the research in French and English, a book of the history of Vieux-Berquin and one of the two remaining copies of Le Cri Des Flandres of 30th May, with the report of the crash highlighted. Bernard Roussel, who had done much of the research, then drove us to Le Pont Rondin. The plane came down close to this bridge. Bernard, his sister Cecile and her husband Gerard then took us both for a late but very nice lunch at a restaurant in Hazebrouck. Colin Bewes Add to this record. 225847 Captain John Aidan Liddell MC VC RFC 7 Squadron (d.31st August 1915) John Aidan Liddell was born in Newcastle upon Tyne on 3rd August 1888. He studied zoology at Balliol College Oxford. At the outbreak of war he joined the 2nd Btn, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, where he was appointed Captain in command of the machine gun section of the Battalion. He was in the front line at Le Maisnil, France. He was wounded and invalided home, and received the award of the Military Cross on 14th January 1915. Prior to the war Aidan Liddell had already obtained privately a flying certificate and, on being declared fit for further service, he joined the RFC. Ha was posted to No.7 Squadron in France on the 24th July 1915. On the 31st July, on only his second mission, his plane was attacked by ground fire during a reconnaissance patrol over Ostend in Belgium and he was seriously injured and the aircraft was badly damaged. Although he successfully returned to his base, and saved his observer Second Lieutenant R.H. Peck and his plane, his leg had to be amputated and he died of septicaemia a month later. For his courage and skill he was awarded the Victoria Cross. Add to this record. 218778 Capt. John Aidan Liddell 7 Sqd. Royal Flying Corps (d.31st Aug 1915) Capt. John Liddell died 31st August 1915, aged 27 and was buried in Basingstoke South View or Old Cemetery. He served with 3rd Bn. Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders before transferring to 7 Squadron RFC. He was the son of John and Emily C. Liddell, of Sherfield Manor, Basingstoke. An extract from The London Gazette, dated, 23rd Aug., 1915, records the following:- "For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty on 31st July, 1915. When on a flying reconnaissance over Ostend-Bruges-Ghent he was severely wounded (his right thigh being broken), which caused momentary unconsciousness, but by a great effort he recovered partial control after his machine had dropped nearly 3,000 feet, and notwithstanding his collapsed state succeeded, although continually fired at, in completing his course, and brought the aeroplane into our lines - half an hour after he had been wounded. The difficulties experienced by this officer in saving his machine, and the life of his observer, cannot be readily expressed, but as the control wheel and the throttle control were smashed, and also one of the under-carriage struts, it would seem incredible that he could have accomplished his task." s flynn Add to this record. 185828 Group Capt. Hugh Caswell Tremenheere "Stuffy" Dowding My Stepfather, Hugh Dowding, was educated at his father's preparatory school at Moffat and then Winchester, after which he entered the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich in 1899. Failing to gain a commission in the Royal Engineers, he joined the Royal Garrison Artillery, being posted to Gibraltar, then to Ceylon and Hong Kong. In 1904 be was posted to No 7 Mountain Artillery Battery – NWF, in India. From January 1912 he attended Army Staff College. In 1913 he joined the Garrison Artillery on the Isle of Wight He learnt to fly at the Vickers Flying School, Brooklands, gaining his RAeC Certificate (No 711), on the day he passed out from Camberley, after 1 hour 40 minutes. At the Central Flying School his instructor was Capt. John Salmond. Having gained his 'Wings', he was added to the RFC Reserve List returning to his Garrison Artillery duties on the Isle of Wight. In 1929, following the escalation of trouble in the area, he was sent to Palestine to undertake an inquiry into the need and form of possible re-inforcements for the area. At the outbreak of war in August 1914 he was Commandant - Dover Assembly Point and later that month he was posted as a Pilot to No 7 Sqn RFC, transferring to No 6 Sqn on the 6th of October 1914. On the 18th of November he was transferred to GSO3, HQ RFC and on the 8th December 1914 he was appointed Flight Commander of No 9 Sqn RFC. On the 27th of January 1915 he became Flight Commander of No 6 Sqn RFC. On the 4th of March 1915 he was appointed Officer i/c Wireless Flight, No 4 Sqn RFC and from 17th March 1915 he became Officer Commanding No 9 Sqn/Wireless Experimental Establishment RFC. From July he was Officer Commanding No 16 Sqn and on the 1st of February the following year was posted to Farnborough to become Officer Commanding, 7th Wing RFC. On the 22nd June he became Officer Commanding, 9th (HQ) Wing RFC. On New Year's day 1917 he was promoted to Officer Commanding, Southern Group Command and on the 5th of August 1917, he became Brigadier-General Commanding, Southern Training Brigade. In 1918 he was Brigadier-General (Administration), HQ No 4 Area. and then Brigadier-General (Administration), HQ North-Eastern Area. In January 1919 he became Brigadier-General (Administration) York, HQ North-Western Area and in June, Brigadier-General (Administration), HQ Northern Area. On the 1st of August 1919 he became Group Capt (Administration), HQ Northern Area and was Re-Seconded to the RAF for further two years.On the 1st of September he became Temporary AOC, Northern Area and on the 18th of October 1919, Officer Commanding, No 16 Group. Between the wars he was Officer Commanding, No 1 Group then Chief Staff Officer, Inland Area. In August 1924 he became Chief Staff Officer, HQ Iraq Command. In May 1926 he became Director of Training ad in December 1929 AOC, Fighting Area, Air Defence of Great Britain. On 28 January 1936 he was one of three officers representing the Air Council at the funeral of HM King George V. On the 14 July 1936 he became AOC in C, Fighter Command. As Air Member for Research and Development in the 1930's he was in a position to oversee the development of the eight gun fighters, Hurricane and Spitfire, but even more importantly his previous experience in wireless experiments gave him an excellent insight into possibilities of it's use in the detection of aircraft. He was able to take these preparations to their logical conclusion when given command of the newly formed Fighter Command in July 1936. He immediately set about developing a system able to make best use of his limited resources and it was this system as much as anything that ensured success in 1940. He established the coastal chain of radar stations (then known as RDF), but the success of radar really lay in the reporting and control system he set up which allowed aircraft to be placed in the right place at the right height in time to meet the threat. During the Battle of Britain his most difficult problem was the conflict between AVM Leigh-Mallory and AVM Park over tactics in which he supported both Group Commanders and saw that both sets of tactics had their advantages but that they were not necessarily suitable in both situations. From 1938 Dowding was advised of five separate retirement dates, but each one was rescinded for various reasons, therefore, his replacement in November 1940 as AOC in C Fighter Command, when flush with success in the Battle of Britain was seen as a snub by many, although it had in fact been planned. A Whiting Add to this record. Recomended Reading. Available at discounted prices.

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