Orders, Decorations and Medals

A fine Great War ace’s D.F.C., A.F.C. group of six awarded to Squadron Leader E. D. “Spider” Atkinson, Royal Air Force, late Indian Army and Royal Flying Corps, who was fortunate to escape the clutches of German ace and “Blue Max” holder Karl Schaefer of Jasta 28 in a hair-raising combat in May 1917: he went on to raise his score to at least 10 victories - including a balloon - some of his victims being engaged from a range of just 20 yards

Distinguished Flying Cross, G.V.R.; Air Force Cross, G.V.R.; 1914 Star, with clasp (6002 Cpl., 35/Div. Sig. Coy.); British War and Victory Medals (Capt., R.A.F.); Iraq, King Feisal’s War Medal, mounted court-style as worn, generally good very fine (6) £8,000-10,000

D.F.C. London Gazette 2 July 1918. The original recommendation - for a Military Cross - states:

‘For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He has shown himself to be a brilliant fighting pilot, and the flight under his able and determined leadership has accounted for many enemy aircraft, often in combats where the enemy formation has been numerically superior. Personally he has destroyed enemy aircraft as under:

On 26 May 1918, when on offensive patrol south of Armentieres, he fired 40 rounds at 20 yards range into an Albatross Scout. The enemy aircraft dived vertically, turned over on its back after falling about 3,000 feet, and fell completely out of control.

On 28 May 1918, in a general engagement with enemy scouts south of Estaires, he fired about 20 rounds at 20 yards range into an Albatross Scout. The enemy aircraft fell out of control and was seen by another pilot on the patrol to crash. Later, when flying alone, he saw a Halberstadt two-seater in the vicinity of Bapaume. He obtained a position on the enemy machine’s tail and followed it down, firing all the time, till it crashed in a field between Bapaume and Bancourt.

On 31 May 1918, when on offensive patrol near Steenwerck, he led his patrol to attack a formation of enemy aircraft. He singled out a Pfalz Scout and after he had fired a burst at close range the enemy machine turned over and fell completely out of control. It was confirmed by other pilots on patrol. Later in the day, in a general engagement with a formation of enemy aircraft in the vicinity of Illies, he fired about 200 rounds into a Pfalz Scout. The enemy aircraft fell out of control, crashed and burst into flames.

Previously, when serving with No. 1 Squadron, he shot down two enemy machines out of control and destroyed an enemy balloon in flames.’

A.F.C. London Gazette 1 January 1919.

Edward Dawson “Spider” Atkinson was born in Scotland in 1891, but spent much of his childhood in India, where his father was a merchant. Enlisting in the 25th Signal Company as a Corporal, direct from the Calcutta Volunteer Rifles in August 1914, he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps in the following year and qualifed for his pilot’s licence that December (No. 2145).

Following a period of further training on the home establishment, he was posted to No. 1 Squadron, a Nieuport unit operating out of Bailleul in June 1916, and gained experience on assorted reconnasissance missions over the coming months - thus a photographic sortie over Courtrai on 16 October, from which one of the aircraft escorting him failed to return, an indication of the growing dangers of operating behind enemy lines. By early 1917, Atkinson’s operational experience was sufficient to prompt his appointment to the command of ‘B’ Flight, followed quickly, in fact, by that of ‘A’ Flight, and on 23 March he notched up his first confirmed victory, an enemy balloon:

‘A formation of Nieuport Scouts left the ground at 4.14 p.m. with Le Prieur Rockets, with instructions to destroy a dirigible reported near Wervicq. Clouds were at 5,000 feet - the formation was lost in the clouds, each member acting individually. On coming out of the cloud, I found myself between Wervicq and Warneton - I was then at 4,500 feet and noticed what I thought might be a dirigible closer to Wervicq but owing to A.A. fire had to climb into the clouds once more. I then made in the direction of the dirigible and descended through the clouds once more, and found myself above the dirigible. I had made up my mind to dive steeply out of the clouds firing the rockets as I went - if the A.A. was very strong - and this was the case. I fired my rockets which missed the balloon. I then fired tracers into it which set it on fire. The balloon, however, was being pulled down very quickly, so I dived on the men at the winch and shot two of them who I saw fall. I was then about 50 feet off the ground.’

With the Arras offensive underway, the Squadron was now constantly in action, and Atkinson’s score began to mount, an Albatross Scout falling to his guns over Lille on 22 April - ‘I kept under his tail and fired a full drum into him. He circled over sideways and went down spinning laterally out of control’. Then, following an inconclusive combat with another enemy aircraft east of Ypres on 26 April, he brought down an Albatross Scout over Pont Rouge in the Armentieres sector on the 29th, getting in 25 rounds at 30 yards range - the enemy observer appeared to be hit and the machine went down in a vertical dive.

Next came one of the most hair-raising encounters of his operational career, when, on 1 May, he became locked in mortal combat with ‘von Richthofen’s ace pupil’, Karl Schaefer of Jasta 28, a holder of the “Blue Max”, flying in his all-red Albatross and out seeking revenge, for Atkinson had just downed his comrade Leutnant Kutscher:

‘He fought for at least 10 minutes and he was an exceptionally good pilot with a machine superior in every way to the Nieuport, and got in quite two bursts of fire to my one (among other things, he shot away my carburettor). Then, having lost my engine, I spun. The enemy aircraft chased me down to 3,000 feet, firing, but the only time he hit the machine in coming down was when for a short time I stopped spinning to see where he was. After getting out of the spin, I landed with no further damage near Elverdinghe.’

Atkinson’s Nieuport was a write-off.

A week or so following this memorable encounter, he was ordered home, but not before he had poured two drums into an Albatross two-seater over Wytschaete on the 4th - ‘I passed very near the enemy aircraft and when within a few yards directly saw the Observer was shot’.

Back home, Atkinson became an instructor, and by early 1918 was working-up the the pupils of No. 1 School of Aerial Fighting at Ayr, which establishment’s staff then boasted two V.Cs (Rees and McCudden). As it happened, he was shortly to come into contact with a future V.C.-winner, namely “Mick” Mannock, for about this time Atkinson was ordered to London Colney in Hertfordshire, another training establishment, at which No. 74 Squadron was about to be made fully operational. The command of ‘A’ Flight was duly given to Mannock, who chose Atkinson as one of his pilots, but as it transpired - and possibly because Atkinson had already served as a Flight Commander himself - he was quickly despatched to No. 56 Squadron, an S.E. 5a unit, for ‘a refresher course under combat conditions’. Arriving on 26 April 1918, he showed that he had lost none of his old combat prowess, downing a brace of enemy aircraft in separate sorties on 3 May, the first over Montauban and the second south-east of Bapaume.

Posted a few days later, as a Flight Commander, to No. 64 Squadron, another S.E. 5a unit operating out of Le Hameau, his score - as outlined in the above cited recommendation - quickly mounted. Having downed an Albatross DV over the Erquinghem-Lys sector on 26 May, using 40 rounds from a range of just 20 yards, he added another of the same, and a Halberstadt C. to his score, on the 28th, both over the Bapaume-Bancourt sector. The first of these he once more engaged from just 20 yards (it was seen to crash by another pilot and A.A. observers), and the second he followed down to 3,000 feet, from where he saw it crash into a field. Another “double whammy” followed on the last day of the month, when he claimed a Pfalz DIII east of Merris in the morning, and another one over La Bassee in the evening, the last of these in a combat of 20 minutes duration, and in which he expended 50 rounds.

Atkinson was posted back home to resume his valuable instructional duties in June 1918, and was awarded the A.F.C. in early 1919. Remaining a regular officer, he gained advancement to Squadron Leader in 1924, in which year he assumed command of his old Great War unit, No. 1 Squadron, although on this occasion in somewhat hotter climes - namely at Hinaidi, near Baghdad. It was an unhappy posting, the men suffering regular bouts of sandfly fever and dysentery, and Atkinson the additional problem of a his fondness for whisky - he was probably relieved to be ordered to home in 1926.

Placed on the Retired List as a result of ill-health in January 1932, and having once more commanded No. 1 Squadron at Tangmere in the late 1920s, “Spider” Atkinson died in Glasgow in June 1954.