NO 60 SQN RFC/RAF
by Alex Revell, Osprey Publishing, Oxford, England, 2011, $25.95.
Among the last offerings in Osprey’s “Elite Aviation Units” series, pending further notice, No 60 Sqn RFC/RAF exemplifies how entertaining and informative unit histories can be. Dealing with an outfit that evolved from a mixed bag of Morane-Saulnier single-seat monoplane scouts and two-seat biplanes, neither of which were very successful, to a pure fighter unit equipped with Nieuport sesquiplanes, to success in S.E.5s and S.E.5as, the history of 60 Squadron encompasses a period of heartbreaking losses, outstanding heroism and ultimate victory.
For Alex Revell, best known for his extensive work on No. 56 Squadron, this latest narrative involved a similar balance between the technical, the chronological and the personal. Like “Fighting 56,” 60 Squadron had its fair share of characters, such as England’s Albert Ball, South Africa’s Henry “Duke” Meintjes and New Zealand’s Keith “Grid” Caldwell. Also prominent is William A. Bishop, though Revell avoids adding to the controversy surrounding his status as the British Commonwealth’s ace of aces. Of the June 2, 1917, aerodrome raid that earned Bishop the Victoria Cross, the author does note that there were no eyewitness reports to confirm it, not even from the Germans; that the recommendation bypassed the regular RFC chain of command; and that Canadian researcher Philip Markham concluded, “I have been unable to discover any supporting evidence; in fact it has been quite the reverse.”
As with Revell’s earlier book on 56 Squadron, firsthand accounts, many from personal acquaintances of the author’s, abound in No 60 Sqn RFC/RAF. So do color profiles, with 28 covering a variety of aircraft, including four S.E.5s in the prominent red, blue or yellow flight markings that appeared from July to late August 1917, when the RFC brass ordered them replaced by more sober liveries.
Although the unit’s overall record of more than 320 victories was laudable, posterity’s interest in 60 Squadron—as with Escadrilles N.3 and N.124, Jasta Boelcke and Jasta 18—is largely personality-driven. Revell packs this lively unit history with personalities aplenty.
Originally published in the September 2013 issue of Aviation History. To subscribe, click here.
