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Sopwith 2F.1 Ship's Camel - Bernard A. Smart - Tønder Zeppelin Raid


kkarlsen

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For this Navy GB I will try to revive this project. (A year ago, I started on the interior, but somehow it got shelved)

 

It's one of those rare occasions were a Wingnuts Kit actually has a 'Danish angle'.

 

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On 19 July 1918, Bernard A. Smart was sent from HMS Furious ca. 15 miles west of Lyngvig lighthouse as

leader of the attack on the airship base in Tønder, where the air ships L 54 and L 60 were burned in the big Toska hall.

 

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Smart's Camel.

 

Kent

 

Edited by kkarlsen
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In my research I found some photos in a Danish 'Arkiv' of a 'scuttled' Sopwith Ship's Camel, with the header 'Forced Landing in Klegod after attack on Zeppelin Base'

 

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Could be Samuel Dawsons?

 

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Looks to have caused quite the commotion in Klegod, back in the day!

 

Kent

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This is what I've found on the seven 'Camels'...

 

2F.1 Ship's Camel serial numbers:

Jackson                 N6771
Williams                 N6823 
Samuel Dawson    N6605
Smart possibly      N6755
Thyne perhaps      N6777
Yeulett being         N6789, N6798 or N6815

The seven aircraft were split into two flights, with by Captain William Douglas Jackson, 
Captain William Forster Dickson and Lieutenant Norman Edmondson Williams in the first flight 
followed by Captain Bernard Arthur Smart, Capt. Thomas Kenwood Thyne, Lieutenant Samuel Dawson 
and Lieutenant Walter Albert (Toby) Yeulett.

 

N6771 intentionally partly burnt out, N6823 on a sand spit and N6605 outside the village where the pilot had hoped to buy petrol and escape. 

 

The story of the New Zealander Samuel Dawson goes like this: He landed on Holmsland Klit (Klegod). He was dressed in civilian clothes and

fled from Palads Hotel in Esbjerg by bicycle through Denmark, Sweden and Norway.


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The seven 'Camel's aboard HMS Furious. Notice the Camel's to the left are having the band on the middle of the fuselage.

 

Dawson was part of the second wave, together with Smart, Yeulett and Thyne. Thyne was forced to turn around with engine trouble before reaching

the target and ditched his aircraft before being recovered. Williams, Jackson and Dawson, in the belief that they had insufficient fuel to reach the British

squadron offshore, headed for Denmark and landed there. Dickson, Yuelett and Smart flew to sea to find the British ships.

 

 

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If the photos from Klegod, are indeed of Dawson's Camel, this would mean that the Wingnut Wings profile of Dawson's aircraft is wrong?

 

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Another one, interestingly this picture shows only six of the planes three of the Camels having had their roundels obscured.

 

Kent

Edited by kkarlsen
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