WW1 Combat Pilot (1897-1967)
William Leefe Robinson, was the youngest of seven children of Horace Robinson and his wife Elizabeth Leefe.
William ’Billy’ was brought up along with his siblings on his parent’s coffee plantation in Coorg southern India. The Robinsons had three sons and four daughters, and when Billy was just 14, he returned to England with his older brother Harold, they were schooled at St. Bees School in Cumberland (Cumbria).
After leaving school the three sons pursued careers in the armed forces. William enrolled at Sandhurst just ten days after the outbreak of World War I on 14th August 1914. By the 16th December he was commissioned as Second Lieutenant in the 5th Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment. Three months later, on 29th March 1915, he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps as an observer for flying duties, and was posted to France.
During a reconnaissance on 8 May, Robinson was wounded in the arm by two pieces of shrapnel from a German anti-aircraft shell. After being treated in hospital, Robinson was given a month’s leave and, on 29 June, he was posted to Farnborough to begin flying training. On 18 July he went solo for the first time and on 28 July qualified for his Royal Aero Club Certificate. At the end of September, he joined 19 Squadron, based at Castle Bromwich, where his duties included the delivery of aircraft and the taking aloft of trainee pilots and observers.
Originally intended for reconnaissance duties, the airships of the German Army and Navy were first used to bomb the UK in January 1915. During the later months of 1915, the attacks on the UK by both German airships were increasing in frequency and boldness.
On the night of 2/3 September 1916 over Cuffley, in what was then Essex, now
Hertfordshire, Lieutenant Robinson, flying a converted B.E.2c night fighter No. 2693, sighted a German airship – one of 16 which had left bases in Germany for the largest airship raid of the war over England. The airship he encountered was the wooden-framed Schütte-Lanz SL 11, although at the time and for many years after, it was misidentified as the Zeppelin L 21. Robinson was in the air for several hours. After initially spotting the airship, he lost it in clouds. Later, he again made contact and attacked at an altitude of 11,500 ft (3,500 m), approaching from below and closing to within 500 ft (150 m) raking the airship from below with machine-gun fire of incendiary bullets. However, these two runs were unsuccessful. He then tried his third and last ammunition drum, and the airship burst into flames and crashed in a field behind the Plough Inn at Cuffley. Commander Hauptmann Wilhelm Schramm and his 15-man crew were killed.
An example of a combat report
Memorial to William
Leefe Robinson at Cuffl
Robinson landed his damaged biplane at 2.45 a.m. to tremendous acclaim from the squadron, and immediately wrote his combat report. He woke up to find that he had become a national celebrity overnight. He was splashed across all the major newspapers, and young actresses from the West End jostled to get an introduction to him. Tens of thousands of people made their way to see the remains of the airship at Cuffley.
Just two days later, Robinson was awarded the Victoria Cross – thought to be the fastest on record – and received the medal on 9 September at Windsor Castle, with huge crowds of admirers and onlookers in attendance. Robinson was also awarded £3,500 in prize money and a silver cup donated by the people of Hornchurch. Unfortunately, on 16 September, he crashed his plane (2693) when attempting to take off for a night patrol. It was a total wreck; he escaped just before it was consumed by fire. This incident led to his being grounded, as he was too valuable a national figure, with a long string of official engagements, to run such risks. Only the propeller survived and is on public display in the Armoury of Culzean Castle in Ayrshire. It was given to the Marquess of Ailsa in thanks for letting his land at Turnberry be used for an RFC flying school.
However, the combat technique of using concentrated upward fire and mixed incendiary bullets had been proven by Leefe Robinson, and more successes quickly followed. On 23 September 1916, Frederick Sowrey, also of 39 Squadron, shot down the Zeppelin L.32. On the night of 1/2 October 1916, 2nd Lieutenant W. L. Tempest of 39 Squadron, flying a B.E.2c, spotted the Zeppelin L.31, illuminated by searchlights over southwest London, and shot it down with the loss of the entire airship crew. In all, five more German airships were destroyed by Home Defence B.E.2c interceptors between October and December 1916.
After continual pestering of the authorities to allow him to return to active service, in April 1917 Robinson was posted to France as a flight commander with No. 48 Squadron, flying the then new Bristol F.2 Fighter.
On the first patrol over the lines, on 5 April Robinson's formation of six aircraft encountered the Albatros D.III fighters of Jasta 11, led by Manfred von Richthofen. Four were shot down. Robinson, flying Bristol F2A A3337, was shot down by Vizefeldwebel Sebastian Festner, and was wounded and captured.
He was posted as dead until two months later a letter arrived from him in a POW camp. During his imprisonment, he made several attempts to escape and was moved around to several camps, including Zorndorf and Holzminden. He was kept in solitary confinement at the latter camp for his escape attempts. It is thought his health was badly affected during his time as a prisoner.
Robinson was repatriated in early December 1918, and was able to spend Christmas with his friends and family. However, this freedom was short-lived. He contracted the Spanish flu and died on 31 December 1918 at the Stanmore home of his sister, Baroness Heyking. It was thought that his imprisonment had left him particularly susceptible. He was buried at All Saints' Churchyard Extension in Harrow Weald, with great ceremony. Thousands turned up to line the route of the procession, which was led by the Central Band of the RAF, and a fly-past of aircraft dropped a wreath which was laid on the grave.
A memorial to Robinson was erected on the East Ridgeway
in Cuffley, close to the spot where the airship crashed
Source: Wikipedia
Images: Believed to be in the Public Domain or used with permission
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