![]() In the air the reserve disappeared and his habit of suddenly appearing underneath an enemy aircraft earned him the nickname of the ‘Berserker’, after the Viking warriors who fought in a trance. He was something of an enigma to them not a clubbable man and one happier sleeping in his hut than in a comfortable billet. Squadron mates had got used to him playing his violin outside in the evening, lit only by a flare. So he packed up the hut he had built on No.11’s airfield and left his vegetable garden to be tended by a local. Ball’s family, and Hubbard his commander, knew of the stress that had so sapped his energies, but Higgins could not make a special case of him. For a pilot so used to only considering his own mortal danger, it was a heavy blow as the planes he now flew also carried observers. He asked for a rest after a particularly hot period of fighting – a request that offended Brigadier General Higgins, who sent him back to reconnaissance. Other pilots were scared of the unpredictable Nieuports Ball used them with reckless abandon to great effect.Īs his list of victories grew, he gained a reputation for being difficult. Ball’s modus operandi was now to use those same rockets to bring down German kite balloons in the first months of the Battle of the Somme. Three men in particular influenced Ball that summer: his squadron commander, the gentle Major Thomas ‘Mother’ Hubbard whose empathy for the young men who were so often flying to their deaths soothed their terrors the sergeant, Foster, whose ingenious tinkering in squadron workshops gave Ball a flexible machine gun with a wide range of fire, and the equally diminutive Captain Cooper, the Kiwi who stood on tip-toe to fly.Ĭooper was killed when his Nieuport Scout, loaded with incendiary rockets, crashed into the ground. Sent to one of the world’s first fighter squadrons in May 1916, there was now a perfect opportunity for him to evolve into an extraordinarily effective combat pilot. Ball surprised his colleagues by throwing them around with gusto his lack of fear was only matched by his curiosity about the mechanics of the machines. Speed thrilled him and before long he was seconded to the North Midlands Divisional Cycle Company, zooming around on a motorbike for king and country.īeing earth-bound wasn’t enough for this intense teenager: he used the bike to ride to Hendon Aerodrome in Middlesex for private flying lessons and by the autumn of 1915 the Royal Flying Corps (fore-runner of today’s Royal Air Force) accepted him for their own ground school at Mousehold Heath in Norwich.Īrriving on the Western Front in the spring of 1916, his apprenticeship was spent in slow and steady aeroplanes used for reconnaissance. Born in 1896, he worked for an engineering company before war broke out and in 1914 joined the Sherwood Foresters. ![]() ![]() Albert is with the angels, both literally and metaphorically and looks out over the city of his birth.īall was the son of a director of the Austin Motor Company and Lord Mayor of Nottingham. ![]() Not of the eponymous Sheriff, but of a 20-year-old fighter ace of the Great War, Albert Ball VC. On a rock shared with Nottingham Castle, there is a statue. ![]()
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