frankbarnard.com

22-23 April 2009

As part of my research into World War 1 flying for my next novel I’ve just spent time in France visiting Royal Flying Corps airfields; St Omer, Le Hameau (also known as Filescamp) west of Arras, nearby Avesnes-le-Comte and Vert-Galant north of Amiens.
St.Omer was the largest British airfield on the Western Front, occupied continuously from 1914 to 1918. Over fifty separate squadrons operated from there and, as well as an operational base, it was the major RFC (eventually to be the RAF) aircraft repair and storage depot. A memorial to the 50,000-plus personnel who served there was erected by Cross & Cockade, the WW1 aviation historical society as recently as 2004, better late than never you might say, given the achievements of the St Omer airmen and ground-crew. Like Le Hameau and Avesnes, Vert-Galant proved elusive to locate, despite lying on crossroads on the busy N25, but was spookily identifiable with many farm buildings, once used as billets and workshops, just as they are in contemporary photographs showing a variety of aeroplanes and crews on the grass airfield nearly a century ago.

Was this Biggles?

I also called at the war cemeteries at Izel-le-Hameau and Avesnes-le-Comte containing the graves of numbers of young pilots, some of whose stories are documented, others not. At Avesnes for example the headstone of 2nd Lieutenant G.Wiglesworth struck a chord; an unusual name that prompted the inevitable speculation that Lt Wiglesworth might have been the inspiration for that fictional ace Bigglesworth, immortalised as Biggles by Captain W.E.Johns, who himself had a distinguished flying career in the RFC. But so far, checking various W.E.Johns and Biggles websites, I can find no confirmation. Was Wiglesworth known to Captain Johns? Certainly Johns didn’t fly in the same sector, being further south near Nancy, but perhaps they trained together? An interesting possibility that might be worth investigating but, given my time schedule, not by me unfortunately because here comes the tough bit: confronting that blank screen and starting the real work.