Raymond Collishaw - First World War

First World War

When war broke out in 1914, his first idea was to join the Royal Navy, but did not hear from them for some time. Toward the end of 1915, Collishaw heard that the Royal Naval Air Service was hiring, and so he applied to them instead, and attended flight training in Toronto (at his own expense) and then in England. He qualified as a pilot in January 1916. He spent seven months patrolling the British coast. Then, on 2 August 1916, he joined the RNAS's 3rd Wing which was operating at Ochey, France, flying the British Sopwith 1½ Strutters. Some of the Sopwiths were equipped as bombers, while others were configured as two-seat fighters.

"Collishaw's first recorded victory came while he was flying escort on the Wing's first large-scale raid into Germany, on October 12th, 1916. The raid was against the Mauser Rifle Factory at Oberndorf, Germany. The bombers had nearly reached their target when they were attacked by six German Fokkers. Collishaw got into position to allow his observer to fire on one, and he evidently damaged it. Lt. Collishaw then turned, gained height, and fired a burst with the front gun. The Fokker dived out of control, and, according to the British crews, crashed to the ground, a total wreck. According to the German authorities, they lost no aircraft during the engagement, but it was not unheard of for combatants to attribute their losses to accident rather than enemy action.

Collishaw's next two victories were properly witnessed by thousands of French troops. He was ferrying a new aircraft from Wing Headquarters when six enemies dived out of the clouds and attacked him. It was six to one, and the Germans had the advantage of height. Collishaw, like Barker and McKeever, was happiest when close to the ground in such a spot. He went down. At tree-top level the advantage of numbers meant much less. In two quick bursts, he sent two Albatroses crashing into the trees, after which the others flew off. The flight so impressed the French that they awarded him the Croix de Guerre.

On December 27th, while returning from a raid on the steel works at Dillingen, Collishaw's machine was damaged in flight; he only just succeeded in gliding back over French lines near Nancy, where he crashed, and his plane was a total wreck. It was the first of a number of crashes, and Collishaw on that occasion set the pattern which he followed throughout. He stepped out of the wreckage grinning, and ready to fly again."

In February, 1917, Collishaw was posted to No. 3 Naval Squadron, which was operating with the army near Cambrai. During his two months there, Collishaw was employed as escort to the Corps Squadron bombers, downing one German aircraft in the process. In April, he returned to the coast, being transferred to No. 10 Naval Squadron, engaging in mainly coastal patrols.

By the end of May, the Royal Flying Corps was badly in need of reinforcements, much due to the after-effects of Bloody April. As a result, Collishaw was posted to his previous No. 10 Naval Squadron as a flight commander. Collishaw's "B" Flight would be composed entirely of Canadians. Although British commanders had strongly discouraged pilots painting their aircraft, Collishaw's flight painted their Sopwith Triplanes black (though appearing dark brown), and called themselves the All-Black Flight, later known more simply as the Black Flight.

"The aircraft of the All-Black Flight were christened with suitable names. Ellis Reid, of Toronto, flew Black Roger; J. E. Sharman, of Winnipeg, flew Black Death; Gerry Nash, of Hamilton, called his machine Black Sheep; and Marcus Alexander, of Toronto, christened his plane the Black Prince. The flight commander, Collishaw, flew a machine which gloried in the name Black Maria."

During their first two months they claimed a record 87 German aircraft destroyed or driven down - which, strangely enough, brought Collishaw and the unit no wide publicity, though garnered a great deal of renown among their German opponents in the area. Collishaw later claimed that this was because officials in the regular Royal Flying Corps were loath to give credit to naval pilots.

"June 6, 1917 was their grandest day. They were flying offensive patrols with 10 Triplanes. Collishaw was leading a patrol when they came across an Albatros 2-seater escorted by 15 Albatros and Halberstadt fighters. In the "fur ball" that ensued Collishaw dropped three Albatroses, Nash downed an Aviatik two-seater and an Albatros, Reid downed a Halberstadt scout, Sharman and Alexander each downed an Albatros. In total the RNAS shot down 10 German aircraft without any losses."

"Their first loss came when they had achieved an aggregate of fifty victories. On June 26th, the All-Blacks found themselves engaged with Richthofen's Jagdstaffel 11. Gerry Nash found that he was fighting two German pilots single-handed. One of the Germans was Lieutenant Karl Allmenröder, victor in some 30 air battles, and second only to Richthofen among the German pilots then in action. Nash's other opponent was Richthofen himself.

Yet, faced by the two deadliest German pilots, Nash fought a tremendous battle. He twisted and turned, looking for openings, but at last Allmenröder got in a telling burst, and Nash's controls were damaged. He fell out of the fight and managed to land safely - but behind the enemy lines, where he destroyed his plane before he was captured.

The four survivors were bitterly grieved by the loss, for they had grown into a band of brothers, and they swore to keep a sharp eye out for the Albatroses of Richthofen's squadron which had brought down Nash. At the same time they thought that Nash was dead. On the morning of June 27th they met the Richthofen Staffel near Courtrai, and this time Collishaw found himself engaged with the bright-green Albatros of Allmenröder - though he was not aware at the moment that he was fighting the conqueror of Nash. It was one of the classic dogfights of the war, like Barker against Linke, like Hawker against Richthofen - two skilled and experienced fighters, who knew every trick, had met.

They met head-on, then they went into the "waltz" , but at last Collishaw found an opening, and Allmenröder went down out of control, to crash to his death near Lille. Nash, lying in a cell, heard a church bell tolling that afternoon, and learned from his guard that it was the funeral of Allmenröder, who had shot him down. Allmenröder, the guard said, he been shot down by the leader of the Black Triplanes."

While there have been claims that Collishaw shot down German ace Karl Allmenröder as described above, this has been disputed and remains difficult to verify.

In August, Collishaw returned to Canada for two months' leave, the British Empire's second-highest-scoring living ace. He was virtually unknown, in stark contrast to the grand reception given to the top-scoring living ace, Billy Bishop, when he returned on leave at about the same time. At this point, he had been awarded two British decorations during the summer: the Distinguished Service Cross, and the Distinguished Service Order. Returning to the war late November, he was given command of No. 13 Naval Squadron, which was operating from Dunkirk, doing escort duty with the Channel Patrol.

"His most amazing experience on that tour of duty was an air battle between his squadron and a formation of German Scouts in which no shot was fired. The squadron was providing protection for an observation machine, which was ranging guns for a fleet firing on Zeebrugge. The German formation approached, and Collishaw led his pilots to the attack but found that his guns had jammed, owing to the congealing of the oil in the low temperature. Several times he turned to attack the Germans, and each time they withdrew, until the navy's shoot was finished. Then Collishaw learned that all the squadron's guns were jammed - possibly all the guns of the German Scouts as well."

On 23 January 1918, Collishaw returned to the embattled area of the Western Front to command No. 3 Naval Squadron, which was equipped with the more deadly British Sopwith Camel fighters. On 1 April, the RNAS and the RFC merged and No. 3 Naval became No. 203 Squadron Royal Air Force. Collishaw remained in command with the new rank of major, finding that serving as a Commanding Officer took up a great deal of his time with "paper work". But he was able to make time for flying, and by the end of the summer, he had been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, and a bar to his Distinguished Service Order.

Collishaw had quite a few close escapes during the war. His plane was hit often by bullets, but Collishaw escaped unscathed in the air. His aircraft was shot down out of control and crashed several times. Once, lost in a fog, he landed on a German aerodrome, and was actually taxiing to the tarmac when he saw German insignia on the grounded planes, and German troops rushing out to arrest him. He opened his throttle wide, took off, and escaped. On another occasion, his goggles were shattered by an enemy bullet. He once had his controls disabled by German machine gun fire from the ground and had to ride out the flight until the aircraft crash-landed – luckily near the British front trenches.

Collishaw was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Distinguished Service Order with bar and the French Croix de Guerre. He scored 60 victories, consisting of 28 enemy aircraft destroyed (including one shared victory), 30 enemy aircraft driven down "out of control" (including two shared wins), and one enemy aircraft "driven down."