Earlier this week I wrote a post about a Medal of Honor recipient from WWI, 1st Lt. Harold E. Goettler. Unfortunately, my research left out one important piece of information, his back seater (at the time the title was Observer) was also awarded the medal. So, to rectify this, here we go.
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Erwin R. Beckley entered service as a member of the Kansas National Guard, was commissioned as an artillery officer, then volunteered for aviation training and duty. Essentially, a weapons systems officer in modern terminology. They arrived in theater on 24 September 1918 and flew their first combat mission on the 26th.
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| DeHaviland DH-4 |
On the 6th of October they were assigned to drop ammunition and supplies to the "Lost Battalion" which was surrounded by German troops. Their first mission went ok, although they had taken some bullet holes and their engine was running rough. Volunteering to go back and drop more supplies they borrowed another aircraft. With the heavy AAA they had seen in the morning mission, they elected to go in much lower. *
Unfortunately, as they made their approach, the gunfire from the ground hit the airplane and Lt Goettler, his pilot, was killed. The airplane crashed severely injuring Lt Beckley who later succumbed to his injuries.
Rest in peace, Heroes!
*IMHO this is a mistake, AAA can still shoot at you low and every enemy soldier with a rifle can also. But the Air Service was new and still trying to develop tactics.
Interestingly, in researching this and his pilot's story, I learned that there were only 4 flying Medal of Honor recipients in WWI. I suspect that since they were in the Army, there might have been a bit of problem understanding their mission and its dangers by the officers who decided MOH awards. Just sayin'.
"AAA can still shoot at you low"
ReplyDeleteBut they spot you at maybe a few hundred yards, not a couple of miles. Much less time to get the guns into action and trained on you.
Or that's the theory.
Pilots in that era had about the same life expectancy as a Lieutenant going over the top. And that's not counting the horrendous rate of training accidents.
Joe, I don't disagree, but coming down low allows more weapons to be brought to bear as well as increasing the noise of the airplane which can help figure out where it is approaching from. Woulda, coulda, shoulda, I think I would have tried a diving run, approach our of rifle range, find the troops and then dive down to drop the supplies. But, hindsight is always 20/20 and these two were killed doing their duty. The Medal is well deserved.
Deletejuvat
Not that they knew but so close to the Armistice. Time to do some more reading off that list later today juvat.
ReplyDeleteYeah, being killed in war would suck, being killed in war within a week or so of Armistice is going to way heavily on Family and Friends for, pretty much, ever. RIP Heroes!
Deletejuvat
Trying to spot troops in contact in that region of France was tough. Rugged terrain, forested, it seems logical to fly lower in order to deliver the goods. But ...
ReplyDeleteThe enemy always gets a vote.
There's always pro's and con's to every air engagement tactic (probably, the same for Naval and Land tactics, but what do I know about that). And...Just plain luck has a lot to do with it.
Deletejuvat
To return back into heavy fire....just wow.
ReplyDeleteAs I said, they CLANKED when they walked.
Deletejuvat