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This is the report of Commondante Tenente di Vascello Bologna of the Gruppo Squadiglie Da Caccia of an incident occuring during the end of an escort flight and either 28 Sqn RFC, 66 Sqn RFC or 45 Sqn RFC. All three squadrons had flights out that morning and as the British aggressor aircraft was marked with a C it was from 'A' flight of one of those three squadrons. The report is of particular interest to the AFC website as Ray Brownell, the Australian Ace of 45 Sqn often flew the aircraft marked C of A flight in 45 Sqn. Brownell does not mention any incident on the 5th in his biography.
The report is beautifully descriptive and offers an insight to the situations these men faced continually in the air. Hopefully the aggressor pilot can be identified and his side of the story discovered as well. The report is courtesy of Paollo Varriale. The Report is in Italian and English. The English translation is courtesy of Alberto Casirati.
Gruppo Squadriglie Idrovalanti
Ho l'onore di riferire dettagliatamente sull'incidente di volo occorso mi il goorno 5 Febbraio c.a. verso le ore 11,15.
Ero uscito in volo con gli altri apparecchi della 260o e 261o Squadriglia per scortare apprecchi da bombardamento. Tutti gli odrovolanti da me dipendenti sono monoposti - con mitragliatrici fisse in caccia e tutti indistin tamente sono dipinti coi colori regolamentari sotto leali. Hanno le coccae de nazionalisopra le ali superiori - il timone di direzione col tricolore italiano ed 'oltre a questo hanno dippinto sul boat lateralmente e sotto la prua le coccarde nazionali e finalmente tutti gli apparecchi della 260o Squadriglia alla quale appartiene quello che io pilotavo hanno dipinto su tutta la coda delle fascie tricolori.
Rientrando dalla missione ho avvistato poco a Nord del Cavallino uno dei miel apparecchi attorniato do 3 aeroplani terrestri da caccia chesulle pri me non ho riconosciuto. Mi sono naturalmente avvicianato al gruppo ed ho esequito la manovra per attaccare uno di questi aeroplani che aveva velocita inferiore all mia. Raggiuntolo a circa 1800 m: di quota l'ho riconosciuto per Inglese. Gli sono passato accanto a breve distanza tanto che ho scambia to un saluto colla mano col pilota. Quest' apparecchio portava la lettera F. Mi sono poi avvicinato ad un altro che potava la lettea C. Abbiamo insieme eseguito diverse evoluzioni e ad uh tratto l'ho perso di vista sotto di me Ho allora diretto per rientrare a Venezia abbassandomi in plane rettilineo. Poco dopo ho inteso dietro di me una scarcia che sapevo essere stato pendere da imperfetto funzionamento del mio motore che sapevo essere stato colpito dall'artiglierra nemeica sulla linea del Piave. Ho seeuitato la mia discesa regolare e rettilinea e sono rientrato al campo.Un altro mio pilota che stava piu alta mi riferiva che la scarica da me intesa era dovuta alla mitragliatrice dell'aeroplano al quale mi ero avvicinato segnato colla lettera C.
La sola avaria riportata e stata un buco nel paino fisso orizzomtale del la coda. L'idrovoloante da me pilotato porta il No.7 ed ha come disegno distitivo una testa di gato.
Il COMANDANTE GRUPPO SQUADIGLIE DA CACCIA
Gruppo Squadriglie Idrovalanti
I have the honour to report in detail on the incident which happened during the bomber escort flight carried out by the aeroplanes of the 260a Squadriglia and of the 261a Squadriglia on the 5th of February.
All the flying boats I was leading are single-seaters - with fixed machine-guns for combat and painted with the prescribed colours under the wings. They have national roundels over the upper wings, rudders with the Italian tricolour and cockades on the hull's sides and under the nose - finally, all the airplanes of 260a Squadriglia to which the I belong have the tricolour bands painted on their tails.
Returning from the mission I sighted to North of the del Cavallino one of the bomber airplanes surrounded by three land based airplanes from a fighter squadron that I did not recognise. Naturally I believe them to be hostile to the group and I manoeuvred in order to attack one of the enemy aeroplanes, which was slower than my machine. At a distance of approximately 1800 metres I recognise it to be English. I approached it and flew alongside it at a very short distance, so as to repeatedly exchange salutes with the pilot. This aeroplane was marked with a F letter. Then I approached another aeroplane, which was marked with a C letter. We performed various evolutions together until I lost sight of him under me, so I left, heading on a straight descending line towards Venice. A little after I heard a burst behind me and thought it was the engine, which I supposed was hit by anti-aircraft fire over the Piave. I carried on descending and reached my base with no troubles. Once landed, one of my pilots, who was flying higher than me, told me that the burst was from the guns of the English "C" aeroplane.
The only damage from the operation was a hole in the fixed wing of the tail.
The aeroplane I was flying is n. 7 and is marked with a cat head.
Il COMANDANTE GRUPPO SQUADIGLIE DA CACCIA
Da Caccia - Venezia
Tenente di Vascello
fo BOLOGNA
Da Caccia - Venezia
Tenente di Vascello
fo BOLOGNA
So who did it? Andy Kemp of Cross and Cockade, matched the SRB's on the day for the three Sopwith Camel equipped RFC Squadrons on the Austrian Front. On the day mentioned in the report by Commandante Vascello, all three Sopwith Camel RFC squadrons had their A Flight out operating over the Front and all of the Flights had one aircraft marked C in the air with A Flight. The patrol from 28 Sqn reported when they returned, "4 EA, type unknown seen over Porto di Piave Vecchia [15 Km NE of Venice] at 4,000ft [approx 1,800 metres ] at 10:50 am. Engaged by patrol - no definite results observed. One driven down by Lieutenant A.G. Jarvis ["C"] and one by Lieutenant O.W. Frayne, but not seen to crash."(1)
A Flight from 28 Sqn on that day contained, B6285 "C" flown by Lieutenant A.G. Jarvis and B6345 "F" flown by Lieutenant G.D. McLeod. The flight was 4 strong, lead by Capt HH Baron in B5401 and also containing B6342 flown by Lt OW Frayne. They were "out" from 09:50 to 12:00
It appears that the most likely candidate is Lieutenant Jarvis as being the one who fired on Commandante Vascello.