The British Navy in BattlePollen, Arthur Joseph Hungerford
History
The British Navy in Battle
Pollen, Arthur Joseph Hungerford
Great Britain. Royal Navy; World War, 1914-1918 -- Naval operations
It was certainly not one in which the seemingly doomed occupants could
have been blamed if they had thought of their safety and of nothing
else. But while the pilot was, quite properly, concentrating his
attention on performing as nice a feat in flying as can be imagined,
Flight-Lieutenant Arnold, content to leave this matter in the skilled
hands of his comrade, continued imperturbably to carry on his duties.
_Severn_, having got the range, naturally continued firing.
Flight-Lieutenant Arnold, having been sent up to observe, continued
observing, and each shot that he observed, on what must have seemed his
last glide to certain death, was signalled to the control parties on
board the monitor. The gist of this was that six out of ten shots were
hitting, and apparently were hitting steadily, but all were striking
_Koenigsberg_ in the bows. Arnold’s last achievement as an observer
was to deflect this fire amidships and to the stern. And he had hardly
succeeded before the ‘plane crashed into the water 500 yards from the
_Mersey_. _Mersey_ had her motor-boat ready and it was sent full speed
to the rescue. Arnold had no difficulty in getting himself free, but
Lieutenant Cull was not so fortunate. In the excitement of his task
he had forgotten to loosen the straps that held his belt and feet,
and was fairly under water before he realized his predicament. How he
wrenched himself free of these impediments is somewhat difficult to
understand, and it is not surprising that his apparel suffered somewhat
severely from his efforts. When he came to the surface he found Arnold
scrambling about the wrecked machine in search of him, and both were
got safely into the boat. The machine, smashed and waterlogged in the
river, was of course past saving, and there was nothing for it but to
demolish it. Take it all in all, few prettier pieces of work in the
air--whether we look at the flight craftsmanship of the thing, or the
practical use that the last moments of flight were put to--have yet
been recorded.
A PROBLEM IN CONTROL
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account