Some historical and other data:
The first Allied offensive of 1917 involved a major French attack on the Aisne while the British pinned down a large part of the enemy forces in the north, the main objective in their sector being capture of Vimy Ridge. The offensive began on 17 March and ended on 4 April. The First and Third British Armies were supported by 25 RFC squadrons, about half of them equipped with single-seat fighters.
It was during this battle that a new British combat aircraft, the Bristol F.2A Fighter, made its operational debut. Fifty F.2As were built; powered by a 190hp (141,6kW) Rolls-Royce Falcon engine giving it a top speed around 115mph (185km/h) and armed with centrally mounted forward-firin Vickers gun and a single Lewis mounted in the rear cockpit, the first examples arrived in France with No 48 Squadron towards the end of March.
The squadron had only six Bristols in operation at the time of its arrival at its new base, Bellevue, and they were rushed into action before their pilots had time to get used to them or develop proper tactics with them. At first they were flowen like earlier two-seaters, orientated around observer's gun as the primary weapon, and losses were haevy. During their first patrol on 5 April 1917, six Bristols led by No 48 Squadron's CO, Major W.Leefe Robinson VC (who had earlier didtinguished himself by shooting down the German Schutte-Lanz airship SL11 at Cuffley on 2 September 1916) encountered five Albatros D.IIs led by Manfred von Richthofen. The British pilots adopted the standard two-seater tactic of turning their backs on the enemy to allow their
observers to bring their guns to bear. It was a serious mistake, and four of the six - including Leefe Robinson, who spent the rest of the war in a prison camp - were shot down.
Later, in an interview with a Berlin newspaper, Richthofen was openly contemptuous of the British machine, with the result that many German pilots came to regard the Bristol Fighter as easy game - with fatal
consequences to themselves. When flwen offensively, in the same way as a single-seat fighter, it proved to be a superb weapon and went on to log a formidable record of success in action.
Several hundred Bristol Fighters were ordered in 1917, these being the F.2B version with 220hp (164kW) Falcon II or 275hp (205kW) Falcon III engine, wide-span tailplanes, modified lower wing centre sections and an improved view from the front cockpit. The F.2B eventualy served with six RFC
squadrons - Nos 11, 20, 22,48,62 and 88 - on the Western Front, as well as with No 67 (Australian) Squadron in Palestine, No 139 Squadron in Italy, and with Nos 33,36,76 and 141 on home defence duties in the United Kingdom.
The pilot who perhaps did most to vindicate the Bristol Fighter was Canadian, Lt Andrew McKeever, who destroyed 30 enemy aircraft while flying F.2Bs, his various observers shooting down 11 more.(from the book: "The World's great Fighters, from 1914 to the present day"
by Robert Jackson, Silverdale Books 2005)
Bristol F.2B Fighter technical data:
Crew: 2
Powerplant: one 205kw (275hp) Rolls-Royce Falcon III in-line engine
Performance: max speed 198 km/h (123mph); endurance 3 hrs; service ceiling 5485m (18000ft)
Dimensions: wingspan 11,96m (39ft 3in); lenght 7,87m (25ft 10in); height 2,97m (9ft 9in)
Weight: 147kg (3250 lb) loaded
Armament: one forward-firing Vickers 7.7mm (0.303in) machine gun; two 7,7mm (0.303in) Lewis guns in rear cockpit
Total produkction was 5308 aircraft, and type also saw service with 10 overseas air forces.
RAF did not retire the last of its F.2Bs until 1932.from the book: "The encyclopedia of aircraft"
general editor Robert Jackson
Silverdale Books 2004.
