Originally Posted by Adger

Cheers mate they sure are, when do the 5,s start arriving for ya pal?


54 Squadron stays with Pups throughout 1917. Then changes to Camels in 1918. 56 Squadron comes over with the first SE5's in April 1917, and 60 Squadron starts getting them in August. So I'll have to transfer out to fly some.

Some more pictures, from 54 Squadron February 1917. I spot a proper melee going on and can't resist getting involved, especially as I've got height on them. I managed to bag an Albatros. Then a couple of sorties later some DFWs decided they wanted to leave big holes in my airfield so I decided to take it up with the leader and put holes in him.

As James McCudden said, 'the Pup could turn twice to the Albatros's once' and was a delight to fly. Yes it was underpowered but it gave the pilot a fighting chance in early/mid 1917 which in DH2's and FE8's up against Albatros DII and DIII's they didn't.

Attached Images
melee.jpg smokingalb.jpg dfwdown2.jpg
"A great deal of an aeroplane could be holed without affecting its ability to fly. Wings and fuselage could be—and often were—pierced in 50 places, missing the occupants by inches (blissfully unaware of how close it had come until they returned to base). Then the sailmaker would carefully cover each hole with a square inch of Irish linen frayed at the edges and with a brushful of dope make our aircraft 'serviceable' again within an hour."