They were “wood-and-wire wonders”, these early aircraft of World War One – hard enough to fly, let alone fight in! To make things worse for the pilots of the newly formed Royal Flying Corps, the enemy were quick enough to perfect a gun that fired successfully through the propeller arc of their Fokker Eindeckers.
Men like Gus Mathieson had their work cut out to survive – even using their puny pistols until a British gun could be developed to counter the “Fokker Scourge”.
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