December 19, 191 8 
LAND & WATER 
17 
two-seater, secured a firing position and sHot him down. 
Turning north he saw a Rumpler above him at about 17,000 
feet, and after a long hard twenty-minute climb attacked him. 
The Rumpler put up a hard fight and it was only after they 
had fought down to 8,000 feet that McCudden got in a burst 
with both guns that shot off the wings of the Hun and sent 
him down in wreckage. Twenty minutes later he climbed 
again and attacked a couple of E.A., but they fought well, 
and as McCudden was n^nning out of ammunition he had 
to break off. In the afternoon he was out with his formation, 
and seeing a Rumpler, pursued, caught him, fought him down 
to 6,000 from 13,000 and crashed him. He reformed his 
patrol and taking them over the lines met and engaged a 
number of Alba- 
tross scouts, but 
without securing 
any to his own 
gun. Reforming 
the patrol, how- 
ever, after the 
Huns had fled, he 
saw an L.V.G., 
went off after 
and shot him 
down with the 
first twenty- 
roundburst. This 
E.A. went down 
in rather unusual 
fashion, stalling, 
turning upside- 
down, spinning a 
short distance. 
before stalling, 
etc., again, until 
he hit the ground 
in a vertical dive 
— or rather hit a 
train on the line. 
It took the 
machine five 
minutes to fall 
the 12,000 feet. 
A few days 
later he shot 
down two E.A. 
in our own lines, 
and on another 
day, about a 
month later, dur- 
ing one flight he 
fought four ene- 
mies [and shot 
three of them 
down in our lines. 
One of these he 
shot the [right- 
hand iwings off, 
the second he 
putjdown " with 
flames issuing " 
into a flat spin 
and a crash, and 
a third, a two- 
seater, he got 
after a fashion 
that was excel- 
lently typical of 
McCudden and 
his coolly metho- 
dical judgment 
and deliberate 
tactics in the 
middle of a hot 
fight. He got position and opened fire at rather long 
range from astern and closing on the enemy with the intention 
of forcing him to dive away. Tlie Hun did so and McCudden 
followed " on his tail " and forcing him into a steeper dive 
and faster and faster pace, and sticking close astern. The 
E.A. went 'down from about 16,000 to 9,000 at the terrific 
speed of over 200 miles per hour, a speed that, as McCudden 
himself told me, gave the observer no chance to take good 
aim. Then when the speed wa'fe so great that McCudden 
estimated the enemy machine was on the verge of its breaking 
strain, and the slightest damage to it would force some part 
over that verge, he began to pot at it in short bursts. Some 
of his bullets took effect, the E.A. spurted a lick of flame, and 
smashed to pieces in air. 
A fortnight later he had five fights in the course of a two- 
hour flight, and crashed three of his opponents. The first 
of these again he got after his own clever stalking fashion, 
circling wide out from his quarry until he got between him 
and the sun-^nd then gliding down on him with engine shut 
off and the sun glare on his back and in his enemy's eyes. 
This manoeuvre brought him to within fifty yards without 
being discovered, and at that range one short burst from both 
guns finished the performance and sent the enemy dowTi in 
a crash. The quick-following engagements are worth re- 
cording. He engaged the first machine and shot it down at 
9.50 a.m. ; saw two others, pursued and engaged, shot one 
down, chased the other some distance, returned and saw two 
more at 10 a.m. ; attacked and shot one down at 10.15 ; 
at 10.30 met and engaged another which escaped him ; and 
landed again at 
II-5 
McCudden was 
going his strong- 
est about this 
time (January, 
1 918), (getting 
Huns on his own 
and with his 
patrols almost 
every day, one 
such patrol under 
his leadership de- 
stroying six Huns 
in a single flight. 
In February 
he repeated his 
performance of 
getting four 
Huns to his own 
guns in a single 
day, and on an- 
other day he en- 
gaged and de- 
stroyed an enemy 
at such speed 
that he only 
required to fire 
four rounds from 
his two guns to 
send him down 
in flames. 
He was sent 
home soon after 
this and put in 
a period of home 
service. But he 
could not rest at 
this and at last 
was sent out 
again as Major 
to take command 
of a squadron in 
the field. He flew 
over from Eng- 
land, landed in 
France, and then 
taking off to pro- 
ceed to his_Squa- 
dron, was acci- 
dentally killed. 
He was credited 
with having offi- 
cially " crashed " 
forty-five Huns. 
The Air Force 
has had many 
great fighters and 
victors, some of 
them known to 
the public, others 
hardly ever heard of outside the Force where, however, they 
were justly famed. 
Colonel Bishop, a Canadian, has the amazing record of 
having downed fifty-two Huns, and still lives to enjoy his fame. 
Although his name was not given at the time it was Bishop who 
was paragraphed some time ago as having gone out alone one 
morning, destroyed five Huns, two of them colliding in mid-air 
in an attempt to evade his attack, returned, had an early 
lunch, motored to Boulogne and caught the boat to England. 
To crash five Huns after breakfast, lunch in France, and dine 
in London is certainly a record. 
During the past year especially there were always cropping 
up fresh names of pilots of whose victories and daring stories 
were constantly being told. Major Mannock was one of these, 
and week by week his record of Huns destroyed mounted 
rapidly until it totalled thirty-seven enemy machines. 
THE END OF RICHTHOFEN 
By Joseph Simpson, R.B.A. 
The Red Baron" was brought down in a scrimmaging "dog-fight" on the day the German 
papers announced his 79th and 8oth " aerial victories." 
