Officers and men of 103 Squadron probably taken in France after the war. Photo courtesy of the Australian War Memorial Neg no. P02163.009.

In 1917 with World War One three years old the British War Cabinet decided to increase the number of squadrons in the Royal Flying Corp to 200. 103 Squadron was formed on the 1st September 1917, with the role of a day bomber unit. The commander was Major T Maxwell-Scott at Beaulieu in Hampshire, England. The nucleus of the Squadron came from 16 TS with a variety of different training aircraft on strength whilst the squadron worked up to operational readiness. The embryo Squadron moved to Old Sarum, Wiltshire, England on the 8th September 1917 and continued intensive training.

Maxwell-Scott was succeeded as Squadron CO by Major W A S Rough on the 1st February 1918 and he was in turn succeeded by Major E N Fuller on the 26th March 1918. Fuller was a very experienced airman having obtained his flying certificate in 1912. Under his command the crews commenced further intensive programmes of dive-bombing, air to ground firing and formation flying.

The Squadron was equipped with the DH9 on the 19th March 1918. This aircraft was a 2 seater single engined biplane day bomber and was a development of the successful DH4. Unfortunately the performance of the DH9 was below expectations largely due to the indifferent Puma engine.

The long awaited move to France came on the 12th May 1918 and the Squadron flew across the Channel to their new base at Azelot on the Western Front. The unit was attached to 80 Wing of the 10th Brigade under the overall command of General Ludlow-Hewitt and was tasked with day bombing and reconnaissance operations. Fighter escort was provided for the bombing riads but if the fighters were engaged over the front then the DH 9s had to look after themselves for the remainder of the trip. Fighter cover was in always in short supply and the Germans developed a tactic of engaging the escorting fighters on the way to the target and then having further fighter squadrons available to attack the bombers in the target area.

Amongst the first crews to fly operations was Lieutenant E A Windridge and 2nd Lieutenant V W Allen. On the afternoon of the 20th May 1918 they flew a bombing raid to Seclin and were attacked by eight German Albatros fighters. Lieutenant Allen fired about 100 rounds at the attackers, which broke off the engagement.

Two days later the same crew were en route for a bombing raid on Douai when five enemy aircraft attacked them. Lieutenant Allen returned fire and hit the leader who went down out of control. The others broke off and Windridge and Allen managed to get back to base in spite of engine troubles.

As losses mounted the Squadron morale suffered accordingly. There were doubts as to the success of the raids and the crews felt they were not getting adequate fighter escort. In addition there was criticism of the DH 9 and it's inadequate Puma engine. The minimum safe height to cross the front line was considered to be 12,000ft and, with a heavy bomb load, this meant a very long and cold climb with the possibility of engine trouble.

Attempts were made to improve the performance of the Puma engines by enlarging the carburettor air intake pipes and altering the mixture controls. These made a slight improvement but overall the DH 9 was still thought of as unreliable.

In June 1918 Lieutenant Colonel L A Strange DSO MC took over command of 80 Wing. He was a most experienced pilot with a strong character and he immediately made a powerful impression on the Squadron.

Strange set about rebuilding morale and devised new tactics whereby the height at which the bombers would cross the front lines was reduced to 6000ft. This height was easily within the capabilities of the DH 9 and meant the reduction of the flying time by about an hour. Crews were instructed that once they were over the lines they were to commence a shallow dive to the target. This added an extra 20 mph to their speed. Bombs were to be released over the target at a height of 2000ft, which improved accuracy significantly. The return flights were made in tight formation with the aircraft, now without their bomb load and half of their fuel, able to climb easily.

One ex 103 pilot later commented that, after shedding the bomb load, the DH 9 with a good gunner was capable of quite a lot of fighting. It was possible to tight turn a Fokker DVII into a full power stall and, in addition, the DH 9 could be looped quite well and tightly.

In August Lieutenant Colonel Strange decided to strike at the German air force directly. On the 16th August 1918 he detailed 65 aircraft of the Wing to attack the German airfield at Haubourdin. 88 and 92 Squadrons acted as fighter cover. 4 Squadron started the attack diving on to the airfield and releasing their bombs amongst the aircraft and buildings on the ground. 2 Squadron and 103 Squadron followed releasing their bombs at low level.

Many buildings on the airfield were hit and an ammunition dump was blown up. A nearby railway station was also attacked with German troops machine-gunned and a train brought to a standstill in a cloud of steam. On an adjacent road an enemy troop column was strafed causing considerable casualties. Strange observed the effects from above and noted the destruction of over 30 enemy aircraft on the ground. The Wing returned to their base without having sustained a single casualty.

The following morning the Wing was in action again. This time the attack was the German airfield at Lomme. The target was heavily defended by anti aircraft guns. The Wing suffered little damage from anti aircraft fire but some aircraft were badly knocked about by the blast from their own bombs, which were dropped from as low as 50ft.

Several hangers and buildings on the airfield were hit and set on fire.

In another attack on the same target, this time from higher altitude, 4 aircraft from the Squadron were attacked by eight Pfalz fighters. Captain Sparks held his fire until one of the attackers closed to within 40 yards and then opened fire. The fighter shot up vertically into the air and then fell away out of control. It was seen to crash soon after and was confirmed by Lieutenant Poole.

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