Lanoe Hawker - With The RFC

With The RFC

Hawker was posted to France in October 1914, as a Captain with No. 6 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps, flying Henri Farmans. The squadron converted to the Be-2c and he undertook numerous reconnaissance missions into 1915, being wounded once by ground fire. On 22 April he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for attacking a German zeppelin shed at Gontrode by dropping hand grenades at low level (below 200 ft) from his B.E.2c. He used a tethered German balloon to help shield him from enemy ground fire as he made successive attacks. During the Second Battle of Ypres, Hawker was wounded in the foot by ground fire. For the remainder of the battle he had to be carried to and from his aircraft, but refused to be grounded until the fight was over.

Returning to 6 Squadron after hospitalization, the squadron now received several single seat scouts, and some early F.E.2 'pushers'. One aircraft received was a Bristol Scout that Hawker, with assistance from Air Mechanic Ernest Elton, equipped with their design of Lewis gun mount, enabling the machine gun to fire forward obliquely at an angle, missing the propeller arc.

Hawker's innovative ideas at this time greatly benefited the still fledgling RFC. He helped to invent the Prideaux disintegrating link machine-gun belt feed, and initiated the practice of putting fabric protective coverings on the tips of wooden propellers, the use of fur-lined thigh boots, and devising a primitive 'rocking fuselage' for target practice on the ground. In 1916 he also developed (with W.L. French) the increased capacity 97-round 'double drum' for the Lewis Machine gun. It was issued for trials in July and after modifications was issued generally to the RFC and RNAS.