Meanwhile in France…
…it was another day of aerial combat for an RE8 of 42 Squadron, which was – alarmingly – outnumbered 12 to 1 but survived:
Time: 12.10 p.m. Locality: K.28 Pilot: Capt. A. E. Davis Observer: Lieut. J. Chatterton, M.C. 12 single seater machines, type unknown. Machines had extension on top planes and slight dihedral. At 12.10pm two formations of six machines each appeared over MERVILLE. One machine dived on us and fired about 50 rounds. Observer fired a burst of 25 rounds with Lewis into this machine which then turned away. A second E.A. then dived and followed us down to 4000 feet, firing all the time. Observer fired another 70 rounds into this machine which did a sharp "Immelmann" and turned East. Vickers [the pilot's gun] fired about 50 rounds at machines retreating.
K.28
“K.28” refers to a 1,000 yd x 1,000 yd square just west of Merville, itself 17 miles (30 km) west of Lille:
The centre of K.28 was a mile or so behind, i.e. to the east of, the German front line at the time.
“Immelmann”
The “Immelmann Turn” is associated with and was possibly devised by the German Pilot Max Immelmann.
According to Wikipedia:
In World War I aerial combat, an Immelmann turn was a maneuver used after an attack on another aircraft to reposition the attacking aircraft for another attack.
After making a high-speed diving attack on an enemy, the attacker would then climb back up past the enemy aircraft, and just short of the stall, apply full rudder to yaw his aircraft around. This put his aircraft facing down at the enemy aircraft, making another high-speed diving pass possible. This is a difficult maneuver to perform properly, as it involves precise control of the aircraft at low speed. With practice and proper use of all of the fighter’s controls, the maneuver could be used to reposition the attacking aircraft to dive back down in any direction desired.
The manoeuvre is illustrated in a 1918 RNAS handbook as follows:
Immelmann famously flew Fokker Eindeckers, including the E.III as pictured (probably at Upavon in Wiltshire) in this post:
