Reg Kingsford of Nelson, who served with the Royal Flying Corps during World War I, talks about his experiences in England and France during the war. He gives a detailed account of early flying and bombing raids over the Verdun front.
In 1915, Reg Kingsford was based with the New Zealand forces outside Cairo at Heliopolis, where he was fascinated to see his first aircraft. Then he later saw one in the Somme and was keen to "give it a go" and transferred to the Royal Flying Corps. He trained at Denham in Buckinghamshire before undertaking advanced training at Queen's College, Oxford. He found the training tough, especially Morse Code.
Upon graduating, none of the trainees had yet been in an aircraft and some subsequently turned out to be unsuited to flying. He describes his first flight and how easy it was to crash the early aircraft. He was posted to Hounslow Aerodrome which was not well-located for flying. He gives details of the aircraft flown and mentions that he was punished for joyriding, by doing night flights.
He was posted to Ochey, France near the Swiss border as a night bomber. Targets in Alsace-Lorraine included factories, railways, power stations, etc... that were supplying the Verdun front near Metz. He describes the types of bombs carried and bombing runs.