William Lancelot Jordan - Military Service

Military Service

Jordan enlisted in the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) as a mechanic in September 1916, and subsequently volunteered to fly as a gunner. He received his pilot's training in 1917 and was posted to RNAS 8 Naval Squadron to fly Sopwith Triplanes. Shortly after his arrival, Naval 8 upgraded to Sopwith Camels. Jordan scored all 39 of his victories flying a Sopwith Camel. He became the leading ace of the 25 who served with Naval 8, and the third highest scoring ace ever on Sopwith Camels.

Jordan scored his first victory on 13 July 1917, driving a German Rumpler down out of control. His third through seventh victories were triumphs shared with other squadron members. One of these victories, his fourth, was achieved over German ace Adolf Ritter von Tutschek on 11 August 1917.

His string of victories was interrupted after five by his suffering a leg wound in September 1917. He continued his success after recovering, resuming scoring on 6 December 1917.

It was only with his tenth victory that Jordan was credited with an actual destruction of an enemy, as opposed to driving them down out of control. From then onwards, he tended to score his triumphs singlehandedly, and to destroy about a third of his opponents. He had nine victories in both January and July 1918, with scattered wins in other months. His 39th and last victory came on 12 August 1918.

RNAS 8 became No. 208 Squadron of the Royal Air Force when the latter was founded by amalgamation of the RNAS and the Royal Flying Corps on 1 April 1918. Jordan thus scored 18 victories for the RNAS and 21 for the RAF without changing squadrons. His official score totaled 6 aircraft destroyed (with a further 5 shared destroyed), and 14 'out of control' (with a further 14 shared 'out of control'). Jordan was removed from operations before the end of the war, and thus survived.