Letter - 31 August 1916 - Observer qualification

Athol writes home to mother. Adah has sent him some photos and he thinks the one of his step-father, whom he calls Pater, makes him look thinner and his mother fatter. He lets Adah know that the ICC have been in action near the Canal and that he has qualified as a Observer as of 25 August 1916. He takes a 4 day camel ride out into the desert to drop some supplies.

No1 Squadron

A.F.C.

31.8.16

Dear Mater,

Two letters 53, 55, two Australasians, two Bystanders, one parcel of clothes and one of socks dated 12.6.16 to thank you for this time. Also 1 parcel of mosquito nets.

This letter will be worse than usual as there is a deuce of an argument going on and I have to have a spoke in now and then.

The snaps you enclosed are good. The one of you and Pater make you look quite fat and Pater a lot thinner. The kitchens at Royal Park are a bit different to the Broadmedows ones of our time. The refreshment stall is really quite imposing.

I can't place the 'D' Company man you mention unless it's Backhouse.
Say I didn't know that Aunt May was sick and have been wondering why I hadn't heard from her and last week I wrote a rotten letter to her about it. Hope she's better by this.
I wrote and acknowledged the birthday cables a long time ago.

The ICC (Imperial Camel Corps) got a bit of a show in the last scrap on the Canal. Only one Australian Company in it, No 4 and did A1 from all accounts. I believe Capt Langley and Lt Cashman did fine work. Miss Adamson knows Capt Langley. She sent me a couple of Heralds by this mail. Please thank her.

Did I tell you that one of our pilots who has just come from the CFS in England met VHA. Hawkins* who served bow in the crew with me is an Assistant Instructor there and will push him I expect. There is a lot of esprit de patrie among Australians when we get into a bunch of Englishmen.

I've been in orders as a qualified Observer dated 25.8.16 so now it's only a matter of a couple of months with ordinary luck. I expect VHA will be a pilot by this and will probably be in France by the time you get this.

Last week we had a long reconnaissance to do and I was sent out by camel to a place about 50 miles out on the desert to fix an advanced landing ground and take out extra petrol etc. It took me four days there and back but next time the same reconnaissance is on I hope to get the job on the bus. 

Give my love to the Aunts and Pater - also anyone I know.

Yours lovingly,

Athol

* Capt. Henry Rupert Hawkins
Henry Hawkins paid his own way to England in order to enlist in the RFC. He was not eligible to enlist in the AIF as he was a medical student. After undergoing a course of military training at Oxford, he obtained his commission and was promoted to Captain on 1st August 1916. It seems he also became an instructor whilst with the RFC in England. He arrived in France in December 1916. On 26th April 1917 he was shot down and taken Prisoner of War. He was detained in Karlsruhe, Strohen and Holzminden Prison Camps until the Armistice. Henry return to Australia in July 1919.

Ada photos

I do not have any of the correspondence Athol received from his mother, Adah, his step-father Guy Sherwood, nor his two Aunts, May and Florence. Athol refers to these letters in almost all his correspondence so I imagine they wrote regularly. They also send newspapers, magazines and lots of parcels. I'm not sure how often his brothers wrote to him but none of those letters survive either.

However, I have found a few photos which seem to have been sent to Athol from his mother. Three of these appear below. They are annotated on the reverse. They are quite small, only 100mm x 60mm, but quite clear and one can make out a lot of the detail. All three photographs were taken by 'Jean' but I don't know who they are. The hand-writing is Adah's.

On the left is Adah Sherwood, Athol's mother, and the gentleman on the right is probably her husband Guy Sherwood (known to his stepsons as Pater). They stand in front of bell tents at the Royal Park army camp which was in Parkville, Melbourne. 

The notes on the reverse read:

'Royal Park Camp - taken by Jean'

I think this photographs shows the Anzac Buffet. Adah was a keen supporter and worker at this valuable support service for returning soldiers. More about the Anzac Buffet can be found at: http://notmentionedindispatches.blogspot.com.au/p/the-home-front-adah-emily-sherwood.html

The notes on the reverse read:

'The best snap we can get of the Soldiers' Refreshment Stall. Base Hospital -

taken by Jean.'

This image shows the camp kitchen at the Royal Park army camp, Parkville. 

The notes on the reverse read:

'Kitchen, 23rd Battalion, A.B.C.D. Companies

Royal Park Camp

taken by Jean.'

Letter - 19 August 1916 - Adah plans a trip to Egypt

Athol writes home to mother. It seems that Adah is considering a trip to Egypt and England to see her two youngest sons. Athol tries to dissuade her. It is two years since Athol joined the 1st AIF in Melbourne. He sailed from Australia with the 5th Battalion in October 1914. Adah had not seen her youngest son since then.

No1 Squadron

A.F.C.

19.8.16

Dear Mater

Just a line in answer to 54. No.53 is still to come. Also for 2 Punches and Table Talks of June 15 and 22. This will be quite short as it's late (9:00pm) and I've got a reconnaissance tomorrow morning, and is only to let you know what I think about your coming to Egypt in November.

If you are thinking of coming solo I don't think it would be much good for the following reasons:- I might be at an out lying station and leave is not very easy to get; I might be in France or some other front and might not be able to get leave at all. By the time you get to England VHA (Athol's elder brother - Valentine Harold Adams) will probably be either in France or one of the other fronts. In any case it is highly probable that you would be able to see very little of either of us unless we were stationed at a flying school or station at a principle town in England or Egypt. There is a Flying School starting at Alexandria where I will probably do my course but I hope to be a pilot before the end of November.

Taking all these facts you can see that by yourself you would be mighty lonely and there wouldn't be nearly the same chance of your occupying yourself in Red Cross work, at least in Egypt as there is in Melbourne. Also there are all your friends in Melbourne and I don't suppose there are in Cairo.

Against these things if you have Pater with you or why not Bill (eldest brother Arthur Parker Adams known as Bill), it would be all right as Egypt won't be flooded with tourists and you could get round without falling into cheap .... though again many, in fact nearly all, of the best hotels are closed. Also you would not be wise to build too much on seeing a great deal of me or VHA if any at all. Also there are our friends the Huns to be considered and the submarines there of which are as ubiquitous as ever. So mother mine before buying passage think well and weigh the points on both sides, of which I have named but a few and though I'd like to have you here don't build very high on the hypothetical fact of my being get-attable or also of VHA either. Remember we have to stay where we're put. 

Love to Pater and Aunts also any E.F. (enquiring friends).

Yours lovingly,

Athol

PS Please let me know Tom's* address also VHA.

*Tom would be Thomas Parker - Athol's first cousin. The son of Adah's only brother, Ernest Parker. Tom was not eligible to enlist in the AIF due to poor eyesight, so he sailed to England and joined the Royal Horse Artillery.

Letter - 17 August 1916 - swimming, wireless training

Athol writes home to mother. In one of his longest letters Athol seems to be replying to queries sent in Adah's letters. He is able to swim about 3 times a day in the Officers' pool when not studying for his observer tests and spending time in the air. He needs more practice at receiving wireless messages.

No.1 Squadron

A.F.C.

Egypt

17.8.16

Dear Mater,

Two letters to thank you for 51 & 52. I have had quite a lot of letters from Pater this last six weeks, about five. Also many thanks for the Australasians etc. I received four recently but forget the dates. Also every now and then I get Punches and Arguses from one of the Womens' Leagues, the National, I think. 'Camel Transport Corps' must have been a slip of the pen on my part.

The scrap Alex Ramsay was in would be on Xmas day and we only went down there in February. The last real scrap was 26.2.16, the very day we left Cairo to go down there. Haven't heard a word of Sperry for months, in fact since January last when I met him (in the 7th Battalion) at Tel-el-Kebir. I will enclose a couple of snaps of myself to fill the gap you speak of, but I don't believe in getting this face of mine perpetuated by a professional.

Before I left Lemnos I got that leather case you mention. I had given the shirt to Norm Marshall and he found the watch case and gave it back to me. I think I acknowledged it at the time, but as I went to hospital during the next few days I may not have done so.

The soap case also came to hand and is very useful as a shaving mug, cup etc as well as soap-dish. At present rate though I won't need many refills for it as the first piece is still going strong. You see at Sollum I bathed so much that soap wasn't very necessary and the same thing applies here as I always have a swim before breakfast, lunch and tea. Glad to hear the Kid (VHA - Valentine Harold Adams - Athol's elder brother) arrived in Blytee alright. I expect he'll have his pilot's wings before I do as they get straight on to the job and miss having to be observers first. I wonder will he be transferred to A.F.C? I'd hate being his observer, as the pilot is top dog all the time. 

Do you remember a Capt Stapleton-Cotton I wrote about from Sollum? He is a pilot in the R.F.C. I got a letter from him yesterday to tell me.

Did I ever tell you that while I was in Cairo waiting to get in here that I got a letter addressed to 2nd Lieut A G Adams, Red Cross Hospital. Rouen? When I got it, it had been all over France and Egypt and on opening it it started 'Dear Arthur' but finished up your loving sister 'Winifred'. Well I knew there weren't any girls in our little lot so I guessed it wasn't for me. I sent it back to the lady writing at the same time to apologise and explain the circus. This mail I got a very nice letter from Miss W. enclosing a couple of snaps of the same and family and a note from 2Lt A.G.A. thanking me for it. They live in Milford Haven and he is in Devon and is on sick leave from France.

I have done all my tests now and passed everything except receiving wireless. We're supposed to take eight words of five letters per minute. I could only manage five and a half, but Capt Sheldon says that he thinks the CO will pass me and anyway I'm doing half an hour morning and afternoon with one of the wireless operators and hope to do the eight words by Sunday next. I can send about 10 but that's a lot easier than receiving. 

I've got 18 hours and 48 minutes in the air to date.

It's getting cooler here now and only makes about 100F and the nights are quite cool.

My love to Pater and the Aunts and anyone I know.

Yours lovingly,

Athol

Letter - 6 August 1916 - total of 12hrs and 55 minutes in the air

Athol writes home to mother. He receives a parcel of socks. His flying hours total 12 hours and 55 minutes. Athol hopes to sit his tests for Observer Wings soon. And along with two others from his unit, he visits a ruined temple 8 miles from Sherika.

Sherika

Kharga Oasis

6.8.16

Dear Mater

Many thanks for parcel of socks 15.5.16 also lot of Vermin Killer which arrived yesterday. I don't know if I thanked you for your letters 48 & 49. I have an idea I did but, as I only keep letters until I am sure I have the sequence and no gaps, or until they are answered, I don't seem to have done so. These letters came in reverse order from 51, so perhaps that accounts for it.

I have now got 12 hours 55 minutes in the air and will shortly do my tests for Observers Wing then it is only a matter of a few months before I go to a school for my pilots wings. Perhaps VHA (Valentine Harold Adams, Athol's elder brother) will get through first because in England one can do the pilots course without being an observer.

Now please forget all about stars promotion etc. If I'm not worrying I don't think you have any grouch. At present I'm not considering keeping in the Army after the war unless they offer me something out of the way, so what difference does a star or two matter. I'm getting good experience all the time and anyway I don't think I've ever been a marvellous success as an officer, because I hate grousing and have always followed the line of least resistance all my short life. All of which you probably know. Good officers don't get from one unit to another as easily as I've done.

Yesterday ??, one of the pilots, Hanmer, one of the observers, and I went down the railway line about eight miles and got dropped at a ruined Temple of Hibis, had a look round, took some photos and bought 4 water melons and had a feed of fresh dates and came home.

I have bought a camera and so you will be getting some pictures soon I expect.

Love to Pater and Aunt Puff also any E.F. (enquiring friends).

Yours lovingly,

Athol.

Temple of Hibis today

Ref: http://www.egypttoursplus.com/temple-of-hibis/

Australian Flying Corps - beginnings of an Air Force

I thought it might be interesting to provide a little background about the 1^st Squadron, Australian Flying Corps.

You will have noticed that Athol’s letter (15 July 1916) was stamped with “'A' Flight 1st Squadron A.F.C.” The Squadron was formed at Point Cook outside Melbourne, Victoria, in January 1916. Only a few weeks later, on 16 March 1916, the unit sailed from Melbourne. A total of 28 officers and 195 other ranks arrived in Egypt on 14 April and, shortly after their arrival, the less experienced pilots went on to England for further training. The remaining airmen stayed in Egypt as part of the British Expeditionary Force. This modest Australian unit was dovetailed into the British Flying Corps and under its command. As part of this process the 1^st Squadron, AFC was re-named No.67 (Australian) Squadron R.F.C. However, the unit itself never regarded itself as part of the RFC, and never used its official RFC number. There was no consultation with the new Australian Flying Corps personnel about this change and the men strongly resented the implication that the Squadron was a unit subsumed into the British RFC. Richard Williams, a flight commander of 1st Squadron AFC, put it this way in his autobiography: 'There was no more authority for calling us a squadron of the Royal Flying Corps than there was, for example, for calling the 9th Battalion AIF, the 23rd Battalion of the Middlsex Regiment.' Hence Athol’s letterhead with ‘A’ Flight 1^st Squadron A.F.C. In February 1917 the General Officer Commanding, Royal Flying Corps, issued an order giving effect to the wishes of the Australians and the Australian Squadrons thereafter retained their original Australian names.

In 1916, the Australian Flying Squadron was comprised of 3 Flights - A, B and C. Athol was in ‘A’ Flight. To start with, each Flight only had 4 planes. The Squadron also brought with it from Melbourne other transport equipment which amounted to 2 motorcars and 7 'motor-bicycles' which were all the property of the airmen themselves. This small crew formed the beginning of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and was soon on active duty.

Major T.F. Rutledge*, an Australian from the Western districts of Victoria, arrived from England to command the Squadron. We know from his 15 July letter that Athol reported to Major Rutledge the day before being sent to Sherika to join ‘A’ Flight in mid-July 1916. One interesting aside is that the CO of 1^st Squadron AFC, Major Rutledge, had no previous experience of Army administration and did not produce a War Unit Diary. Therefore there is no official record of from April 1916 til December 1917. This is noted in Clifford's book - reference below.

In mid June the the Australian Squadron took over the machines of the 17 Squadron RFC which had been sent to Salonica. The Australians also took over the 17^th’s Canal stations and headquarters at Heliopolis. The Australians’ ‘B’ Squadron was the first to be sent out on active duty to the Suez station. ‘C’ Flight remained at Squadron Headquarters at Heliopolis. Captain Sheldon and ‘A’ Flight were sent to Upper Egypt and the base at Sherika within the Kharga Oasis on 9 July 1916.

‘A’ Flight stayed at Sherika until 8 November 1916. The reconnaissance flights from Sherika flew over hundreds of miles of desert much of which was occupied by the Senussi. The AFC's mission was to find the enemy and report their location and strength so that the BEF ground forces could pursue them.

The BEF (British Expeditionary Force) in the Kharga Oasis was a composite force. They were known as the Kharga Oasis Detachment under the command of Lieut. Colonel Angus MacNeil, 2^nd L.S. Yeomanry. Apart from the Yeomanry, the other sections under his command were the Highland Mounted Brigade, a squadron of Egyptian Lancers, a company of the ICC, a company of Royal Engineers, a battery of Sikh Mountain Gunners, an Australian Flying Corps unit (1^st Australian Flying Corps, 'A' Flight), 1,000 baggage Camels and 2,000 Egyptian Light Cavalry. There was also a bakery section and a slaughter-house and later another ICC company were added. At their disposal were three 15-pounder guns.

* See http://www.raafa.org.au/sites/default/files/Clifford%20book-pgs-A3.pdf at p.7.

Reference: Cutlack, Frederic Morley (1941)

 The Australian Flying Corps in the Western and Eastern Theatres of War, 1914–1918. Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918. Volume VIII (11th ed.). Canberra: Australian War Memorial

D.D. Ogivy's book 'Fighting on Three Fronts: A Black Watch Battalion in the Great War' is also a useful reference.