1916 Angels over the Somme (British Ace Book 3) by Griff Hosker

circled over our front lines as we awaited the arrival of our bombers. We saw them lumbering along.  It took real courage to fly the BE2.  They were a stable platform and that was about all that you could say in their favour.  The bomb load was not a great deal better than ours.  There had been an attempt to make them into a single seat fighter- it had failed.
    I ascended slowly to a position north of the bombers.  They too began to climb to avoid the inevitable ground fire. “Lumpy, keep checking that the two young lads are keeping station.”
    He leaned out and looked back. “They are sir.  Their gunners are nervous too.  They’ll be better once they fire on their first Hun and realise they aren’t that good.” I smiled at Sergeant Hutton’s lack of modesty.  The Germans were good.  Other squadrons were not having the success that we were.  It was just that we had a good bus and a good combination of pilots and gunners.
    Shells began to burst around us.  We had learned not to worry too much about them.  The odds on a hit or damage were slim.  You risked more danger by jinking around the sky to avoid them. With our huge wingspan we were in great danger of crashing into another Gunbus if we did that. “Better arm your weapon.”
    “Right sir!”
    I glanced down and saw the front line we had visited yesterday.  I could see that the Australians had attacked and the stretcher bearers were bringing back the wounded already.  Another two days and the Scousers would be back on the line.  The nerves would be getting to them already.  They would be viewing their comrades and wondering who would buy it this time. We would have to make sure that we did our job and, perhaps, fewer would die.
    Having flown the area before I knew where Warlencourt was. “Keep your eyes peeled we are almost there.”
    I began to climb a little.  When the bombers dropped their bombs they would begin to ascend ready to head west.  I wanted to give them plenty of room. I saw them begin their bombing run. There was a great deal of ground fire. They only had a rear facing gun and had to endure the gauntlet of steel which was thrown at them. They were brave men. We should have gone in with them and machine gunned the defenders. Hindsight was always perfect!
    The bombers were accurate, far more so than the artillery would have been even had we been spotting for them.  However there was a cost. One of the bombers was hit and plunged to the ground. It had not dropped its bombs and it must have hit a vehicle loaded with fuel.  There was an enormous fireball. I saw two more bombers damaged by shrapnel.  The eleven survivors turned to head west. Even as they turned one of them began pouring smoke from its engine and I saw it crash land in a field. Archie and his flight zoomed down to check on the crew. We had heard that some air crews were shot out of hand by angry Germans but it was with some relief that we saw them taken prisoner.
    We were to wait until the bombers had crossed the front line before we were to leave but that went by the board as two Jastas buzzed towards us like angry wasps. They must have scrambled and taken off in a hurry for there was none of the usual German efficiency.  They were not in any particular order or height.  That suited us.
    “Right Lumpy, let us go amongst them!”
    As we had planned Gordy and his two aeroplanes were on my port side.  I hoped that our two aeroplanes could plough a lane through the Germans and send them away from the bombers in disarray.  We had the height advantage and we began to dive. It gave us a greater speed and meant that when we turned we might be slightly faster for a few hundred yards.  That could make all the difference.
    The German aeroplanes opened fire too soon. The bullets zipped around us but were merely an annoyance. I waited until Lumpy had opened fire before I put my fingers on the trigger. His bullets smacked into the engine block of the first Fokker which did