W. E. Johns - Military Service

Military Service

In 1913, while living in Swaffham, and working as a sanitary inspector, Johns enlisted in the Territorial Army as a private in the King's Own Royal Regiment (Norfolk Yeomanry). The regiment was mobilised in August 1914 and was sent overseas in September 1915, embarking on RMS Olympic. The Norfolk Yeomanry fought at Gallipoli until December when they were withdrawn to Egypt. In September 1916 Johns transferred to the Machine Gun Corps. While serving on the Macedonian front in Greece he was hospitalised with malaria. After recovering he was commissioned into the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) in September 1917 and posted back to England for flight training.

Johns undertook his initial flying training at the short-lived airfield at Coley Park in Reading, flying the Farman MF.11 Shorthorn aircraft. He was then posted to No.25 Flying Training School at Thetford in Norfolk, closer to where his wife Maude, and son Jack lived.

On 1 April 1918, Johns was appointed flying instructor at Marske-by-the-Sea in Cleveland. Aircraft were very unreliable in those days and he wrote off three planes in three days due to engine failure - crashing into the sea, then the sand, and then through a fellow officer’s back door. Later, he was caught in fog over the Tees, missed Hartlepool and narrowly escaped flying into a cliff. Shooting one’s own propeller off with a malfunctioning, synchronised forward-mounted machine-gun was a fairly common accident, and it happened to Johns twice. The Commanding Officer at Marske was a Major Champion, known as 'Gimlet', a name used later by Johns for the hero of a series of stories. Johns served as a flying instructor until August 1918 when he transferred to the Western Front.

He performed six weeks of active duty as a bomber pilot with No. 55 Squadron RAF, close to the average in the latter part of the war. This squadron was part of the Independent Air Force, a section the Royal Air Force that had been formed for the purpose of bombing strategic targets deep inside Germany.

On 16 September 1918, he was piloting one of a group of six De Havilland DH4s, that were to bomb Mannheim. Johns' aircraft was hit by anti-aircraft fire and was forced to drop out of formation. He jettisoned his single 250-pound (110 kg) bomb and turned for home, but was attacked by a large group of Fokker D.VII fighters. During a lengthy, furious, but one-sided battle, Johns' observer and rear–gunner, Second Lieutenant Alfred Edward Amey, was badly wounded and the aircraft shot down. The victory was credited to German pilot Georg Weiner, the commander of Jagdstaffel 3. Johns and Amey were quickly taken prisoner by German troops. Johns had received a leg wound during the battle and was slightly injured in the crash, however Amey died of his injuries later that day. Johns was imprisoned until the end of the war.

After the war, Johns remained in the Royal Air Force, apparently with the substantive rank of Pilot Officer. His promotion to the rank of Flying Officer was gazetted on 23 November 1920. Johns worked in Central London as a recruiting officer and, notably, rejected T. E. Lawrence (of Arabia) as an RAF recruit for obviously giving a false name, but was later ordered to accept him.

By 1923, Johns had left his wife. His RAF commission had been extended a further four years and he had moved to Birmingham, again working as a recruitment officer. It was in Birmingham he met Doris 'Dol' May Leigh (1900–1969), daughter of Alfred Broughton Leigh. They later moved Newcastle when Johns was posted there. Although he never divorced Maude Hunt, Doris Leigh was known as 'Mrs Johns' until her death. Johns continued to pay for his wife and son's upkeep and for her nursing care (she suffered from acute arthritis).

On 15 October 1927, he was transferred to the reserves. Four years later, on 15 October 1931, he relinquished his commission.