The afternoon of 7 May 1917 would prove to be a fateful date for the Royal Flying Corps (RFC). Edward ‘Mick’ Mannock, a rookie pilot, was rocketing along in his Nieuport 23 plane a handful of feet from the ground, racing towards the enemy observation balloons that No 40 Squadron had been harassing for weeks. Simultaneously, No 56 Squadron was attacking the balloons from above, navigating blasts from the German flak cannons below. The squadron’s aerial dynamo Albert Ball, Mannock’s greatest inspiration with 44 confirmed victories, was engaged in a heated dogfight with enemy fighters, darting among the thick cumulonimbus giants. As the aircraft separated, Ball peeled off into a black, brooding thundercloud. The next time he was seen, the young man was flying upside down with a dead propeller and descending fast, having gotten disoriented in the clouds.
Ball’s plane dropped like a stonetarget came within range of his Vickers gun. After a few short bursts the balloon fell rapidly, its pilot parachuting out in the nick of time before his craft burst into flames and plummeted to the ground. This was the first of Mannock’s 61 aerial victories amassed during the First World War, a tally that would make him the first Victoria Cross recipient of the new Royal Air Force (RAF).
