‘That fateful day’: Added photos of Lt. E.C. Banks, friends and foes.

Updated images of aviator Edmond Banks have been added to Souveniring history: Lt. E.C. Banks and the Red Baron’s last flight

Lt E.C Banks

Pilot Nigel Love (centre) with two of the Observers who flew missions with him, Max Shelley (left) and Edmond Banks (right). [Nigel Love Collection]

Nigel Love (in fur flying boots) of 3AFC at Bailleul France (behind the Ypres salient) 17 February 1918. Nigel’s Observer on his first operational flight was 1st Lt Banks (at left). [Nigel Love Collection]

The photos are from the 3 Squadron website. A book on Bank’s co-pilot during that flight, Lt. Simpson, was published within days of completing the story.

Lt Simpson

Barrow & Garret

The interior of one of the huts for officers of B Flight, 3rd Squadron, AFC, at Bailleul. Left to right: Lieutenant (Lt) Athol B. Cochrope; Lt N. Clark, Signals Officer; Lt A. V. Barrow. AWM E01639

3 Squadron

A flight of Australian aircraft of (No 69 Squadron AFC (later No 3 Squadron)) at the Bailleul Airfield, France used for artillery observation and the registration of gun fire. Identified in the foreground are, left to right: Corporal (Cpl) A. P. Bigum; 1st Air Mechanic G. Knox; Chief Mechanic A. M. Sidey; Lieutenant (Lt) W. R. E. Scott; Captain (Capt) H. Storrer; Capt H. N. Wrigley; Lt C. R. Andrews; Lt H. C. Miller; 2nd Air Mechanic Douglas; 2nd Air Mechanic W. R. Terry; Cpl Oldfield (Douglas, Terry and Oldfield are working on the aircraft); Lt A. V. Barrow; Lt N. Clark; Lt B. L. Learmonth. AWM E01358

Citars

Richthofens Circus: JG 1;

Jasta 11

Dr.1s of Jasta 11 at Lechelle. MvR’s machine is possibly extreme right. Change of Maltese to ‘straight arm’ Cross indicates photo taken post-Mar. 17. Source: A.E. Ferko, ‘Richthofen’. ‘In front of the aircraft are three ill-fated pilots…Uffz R. Eiserback…the 16 victory ace Ltn Hans Weiss, who was killed in action 2 May 1918, and Vfw E. Shotz…’ Source: Greg Van Wyngarden ‘Richthofen’s Circus’.

Jasta 5

‘Naval 8’ Canadians:

Roy Brown

‘Wop’ May

At around 10.30am a pair of two-seater RE8 aircraft from No. 3 Squadron set off on a reconnaissance mission over the German lines. A third RE8 was to act as escort and, in the words of its observer, to “drop a few bombs on the way”.

Three planes from our A.F.C. squadron were dispatched on the day of this engagement, two on photographic reconnaissance and the third in which I was an observer to act as an escort, drop a few bombs on the way and carry out a three hours patrol of the front line.

From an altitude of about 7000 feet Stan Garrett’s observer, Alf Barrow, looked up and saw two Fokker triplanes diving towards them.

The RE8s were well armed but slow and cumbersome in comparison with the agile German machines. While Garrett tried to get rid of the triplane on his tail, Barrow fired his Lewis gun. In a letter Garrett described the Fokker as a “gaudy red one [that] seemed to be all over us at once, but Barrow was pouring in lead at 800 shots per minute and apparently the Hun got fed up, for we last saw him in a funny roll, with Barrow firing for all he knew”. Catching sight of a formation of British Sopwith Camel scouts, the triplanes flew off, leaving the Australians to resume their reconnaissance.

Returning to Poulainville, the RE8 crews found the aerodrome “all excitement”. Private Frank Rawlinson, in a memoir written after the war, wrote:

“It was my good luck to have the first news of Richthofen having been shot down. Lieut’s Barrow and Garret[t] … beckoned me over and … Lieut. Garret[t] told me they had the dickens of a fight with the Circus. They had been pounced on by a swarm of Fokker triplanes and he was sure that they had downed Richthofen’s Red Plane … They thought that they were very lucky, but they had saved themselves by putting up a mighty fight … The red nosed Camels flew low over our tents on their way to the old R.N.A.S [Royal Naval Air Service] squadron landing ground nearby. They had never done that before.”

https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/blog/who-killed-the-red-baron-2