Thirty Canadian V.Cs., 23d April 1915 to 30th March 1918Roberts, Theodore Goodridge
History
Thirty Canadian V.Cs., 23d April 1915 to 30th March 1918
Roberts, Theodore Goodridge
Victoria Cross; World War, 1914-1918 -- Canada
There is no trick of aircraft that this young Canadian does not know,
though he is not a showy flyer. The number of his exploits is endless,
and as his squadron moved from one part of the line to another he
constantly found new pastures for adventure, new opponents to defeat,
more Germans to kill. He has fought German airmen high over the waves of
advancing battalions and has heard, as a faint whisper coming up to him,
the cheers of his fellow countrymen when he shot down his enemies at
their feet. He has chased a German Staff automobile along a dusty road
and opened fire on it so that the driver lost his nerve and ditched the
car, and the occupants threw their massive dignity to the winds and
scrambled for shelter into a dug-out.
Not very long ago, when he was roaming alone, twelve thousand feet high,
he heard the stutter of machine-guns from out the clouds, and drove in
their direction to find his own juvenile major fighting single-handed
against five formidable German battle machines. Down swooped the captain
on the tail of the nearest enemy, riddled the pilot and observer with
bullets, fought another for a few minutes and sent him also to the
ground, dived down, reloading his gun as he went, then up again and blew
a third into eternity with a terrific burst of fire; and then, joyfully
and with calm happiness, escorted his major home in a merry, zig-zag
course which told the watchers of his aerodrome that all was well with
the world.
The incident which brought him his Victoria Cross occurred one June day
in 1917, when he was working, as usual, independently. He _zoomed_
across No Man's Land, over the German front and support trenches,
driving on to where he thought was game worth seeking. The game in this
instance was an aerodrome. But as he circled above the enemy hangars at
fifteen thousand feet the place seemed to have a strangely deserted
appearance. Down he came to within three hundred feet of the hangars to
investigate; and the only occupant of the aerodrome proved to be a very
nervous gunner who feebly turned a machine-gun on him. The nervous
gunner was sent scuttering to cover by a few bursts of fire. Then the
disappointed captain turned the nose of his machine upwards, wondering
whether he would find any hostile craft waiting for him above the
clouds. Through the thin clouds he mounted into the clear spaces above.
No enemy was to be seen, nothing but the blue void; and the warm, soft
atmosphere was very pleasant that day. The captain was out for
adventure. He flew on deeper into the German lines.
Twelve miles from the German front line he looked over the side of his
'plane and saw, basking in the pleasant sunshine, the very thing he had
come to smash. It was another German aerodrome, with a number of
machines lined up in front of the sheds, ready for a journey.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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