Spectrum 364 and Spectrum 365. Wind in the wires

Rights Information
Year
1981
Reference
21743
Media type
Audio
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Rights Information
Year
1981
Reference
21743
Media type
Audio
Categories
Documentary radio programs
Nonfiction radio programs
Radio programs
Sound recordings
Duration
01:07:36
Credits
RNZ Collection
Nigel Piper, Interviewee
Radio New Zealand. National Programme, 1964-1986, Broadcaster

A two-part Spectrum documentary in which Nigel Piper recalls the early days of flying, before and during World War I - the days of the Royal Flying Corps and the infant Royal Air Force.

Spectrum 364. [00:00:00-00:30:17]
His family had always been seamen and he had gone to sea too, but after some family members were lost in shipwrecks his parents encouraged them to give up the sea. In 1911, he went to France to see some friends who had a Voisin biplane and he learnt to fly it, getting his 'ticket' at the age of seventeen, even though you were supposed to be eighteen.

He heard about an American named Cody [Samuel Franklin Cody] who had made the first powered flight in England and went to work with him at Farnborough, building aircraft. They built a monoplane in 1912 and he recalls it won flying trials against biplanes.

Then they built a biplane with aileron control and warping wings and he describes how it was tested by the Royal Aircraft factory. He recalls test flights with Cody, Lieutenant Rogers-Harrison, Fred Stickland and himself all sitting on the outside of the aircraft with their feet dangling in the air. Lieutenant Rogers-Harrison was killed in a test flight in a Cody plane in 1913 and he recalls the investigation into the crash.

They began planning a big monoplane that was to fly across the Atlantic in Spring 1914, but on 7 August 1913 he received the news about Cody's death in a crash. He explains his belief that it was the same fault which killed both men. He was with the Royal Flying Corps when in May 1914 all squadrons met on Salisbury Plain for a dress rehearsal for going to France. About sixty to seventy planes went over to France when war broke out later that year.

He recalls the types of planes involved. Monoplanes had been banned in 1913 after some fatalities with planes going into spins, so when Fokker offered them to the Royal Flying Corps they were turned down and so the Germans took them instead. He recalls his own feelings at the start of the war - he was very keen to 'get across and get after the Germans'.

He was carrying out tests with machine guns already when the war broke out, although people initially thought of the air corps as a replacement for the cavalry, for reconnaissance only. No one initially thought of air warfare. The Germans went ahead quickly fitting Fokkers with machine guns. He ran out of ammunition once and fired at a German plane with his light pistol.

Spectrum 365. [00:30:18-01:07:36]
In late 1914 he was piloting observation aircraft in France. He describes how altitudes got higher as the war progressed. At the first battle of Ypres he went up after two earlier planes were shot down. He had an Indian artillery officer, Captain Crane as his observer. They were trying to help a battery get onto its two objectives and had to circle right above the line. They signalled the battery onto the objectives with coloured lights but the battery was out of their ammunition allowance for the day, which angered him. Munitions were very short but soon after this, Lloyd George became Minister of Munitions and supplies improved.

He says there was definite camaraderie between the two enemy Flying Corps early on. If you were shot down over enemy lines the Germans would drop a message over the airfield to tell the British where you were, and the British would do the same if Germans were shot down. This changed by the time Richthofen came to prominence however.

He discusses the development of anti-aircraft guns. Early on the Germans would fire Howitzers and naval guns up at them. He had some time in fighter airplanes, but says he wasn't very good at it. He describes how you would sense an enemy plane coming for you. They were flying mostly as individuals but gradually began to develop formation flying. The Germans developed 'circuses' earlier, however.

He describes the different craft used by the Royal Flying Corps in World War I and their advantages and disadvantages. The average life for a British pilot for a time in 1916 was only nine flying hours. The top German pilot in his opinion, was Boelcke, who taught Richthofen to fly. He didn't rate Richthofen very highly, despite his fame and was sorry when Boelcke was killed.

He was shot down three times and describes his most frightening experience was when his plane caught fire. He landed behind German lines in the first instance and hid in a wood, after burning his machine. He was about eight or nine kilometres from the German line. He took about three days getting back, moving at night and hiding during the day. He got through the German lines in his shirt-sleeves, so they wouldn't recognise his uniform. He spoke a few words of German, enough to get through to no-man's land, but then he had trouble getting across the British lines, as they thought he was German.

The second time he was shot down behind enemy lines, he was in very hilly country, so not many people were around. The third time he was shot down by three Fokkers in Flanders. Again, he deliberately wrecked his machine and hid in a wood. He was able to swim across a canal to get through the German lines.

He was well-known by a British agent working in Germany and was sent in to help him, disguised as a prisoner of war. He deliberately flew in to Germany in an old plane, crashed it and was captured. He was taken to headquarters and met Boelcke. They recognised each other and shook hands and had breakfast together, where they studiously avoided talking about the war.

He was questioned by the Germans and managed to avoid answering with any important information, even though a major pulled a revolver on him. He was put into a prisoner of war camp, but managed to escape under the barbed wire and contacted his friend. He would return to the camp and say he had been out gardening. He often pretended he was simple-minded to avoid questioning.

While he was out of the camp, he went into Emden where he found the Germans were building cargo-carrying submarines. He describes another occasion where he was able to walk straight out of the camp, thought the main gates.

At the end of the war he was in Holland and was asked to try and find a Belgian double-agent who had betrayed Britain. He knew some people who had died because of this man, so he was keen to find him. He spotted him on the docks in Rotterdam and the man was arrested by the Dutch police.

He says his most vivid memory of the war was a premonition he had of his co- pilot being killed, in his mind's eye he saw him being shot. When it actually happened, the man's leg jammed the controls and he had to climb over from his position in the rear cockpit to get control of the plane and land safely.