During Bloody April one Royal Flying Corps airmen was killed, on average, every 18 hours. Friday April the 13th was no exception, a black day for the RFC, and one Mosman family.

FE2b one of the ‘…appallingly makeshift aeroplanes…optimistically called a “battleplane” by the authorities’ Photograph and quote from Tayor, P.G. ‘Sopwith Scout 7309’

A digital render of Sopwith Pup A7309 flown by Taylor in June 1917. Image: Panthercules, Rise of Flight forum

2/Lt. ‘Bill’ Taylor joined 66 Squadron just before the Royal Flying Corps worst month of the war. He wrote about what is was like flying in the cockpit of a Sopwith scout, and survive his first combat experiences.

Visiting Canberra? Those with an interest in Mosman’s connections with WWI are well served by the National Gallery of Australia’s exhibition, Artists of the Great War.

A good crowd filled the Mosman Room for this month’s talk, delivered by Gareth Morgan, President of the Australian Society of WWI Aero Historians.