12 / 60
10
ST EDWARD’S
r
h
u
b
a
r
b
F E AT U R E S
Louis Strange (E, 1905-1907): An
amazing escape over the Menin Road
By
Chris Nathan
(G, 1954-1957), School Archivist
Louis Strange was, with
Noel Hudson
(D,
1903-1912), the most decorated service
man in the Great War from the School.
He was one amongst the first thirty-seven
British pilots in the Royal Flying Corps to
fly across the Channel to commence the
aerial war with Germany in 1914. He later
became one of the foremost experts on
early bombing techniques as well as one of
the foremost pilots who fought throughout
the war. His younger brother Gilbert (also
an OSE), also a pilot, was shot down and
killed in 1918.
By the end of the war Louis Strange
was a Wing Commander and was awarded
the DSO, DFC, MC and was Mentioned
in Dispatches. In 1915 Strange had an
extraordinary escape over the Western
Front at Menin when he was in an
engagement with a German Aviatik aircraft
whose pilot was taking pot shots at him with
a pistol. To his horror Strange realized that
his ammunition drum on his own machine
gun had jammed. He therefore wedged his
control stick between his knees and stood
up in the aircraft to replace the faulty drum.
In so doing he inadvertently relaxed his
knees and his aircraft (a Martinsyde Biplane)
went into a downward spin, turned over and
emptied Strange from the cockpit. He now
found himself hanging in the air, clinging with
both hands to the still wedged drum in his
machine gun. Only seconds earlier he had
been cursing the gun for becoming jammed –
now it was his life saver. With no parachutes
available at this time, his only option was to
save himself which he somehow managed
to do, by taking one hand off the drum and
making a grab with the other ‘in the general
direction of the central control section strut’.
Still upside down he found the vital strut
transferred his other hand onto it and after
several attempts swung his legs back into
the cockpit, managing once again to jam
the control stick between his knees. In his
own words: “I do not know what exactly
happened then, but the trick was done. The
machine came over right way up, and I fell
off the top plane into my seat with a bump!”
By now the plane was no longer spinning but
diving however he throttled back, bracing
himself against the fuselage and managed to
lift the plane’s nose, just clearing the
trees on the Menin Road.
His comment the next day was “But Lord,
how stiff I was next day!”
Amazing though this whole instance
was, it was not that uncommon and there
were other similar stories to be told in the
aerial Great War. Nevertheless Strange’s
story appeared in the national press of
the day and a generation later appeared
as a cartoon strip in the then popular
magazine ‘Top Spot’ (Amalgamated Press
Ltd). One of the cartoon pictures (there
were nine) appears here, together with a
portrait of Louis Strange a year earlier. In
the Second World War, although over fifty
years of age, Louis Strange again served
with the Royal Air Force where he founded
a parachute school as well as serving as
in Northern France as an Aerodrome
Control Officer. For his service in the
conflict he was awarded the American
Bronze Star, the OBE and Bar to his DFC.
He died in 1966.
From the cartoon series in 'Top Spot'
Louis Strange