Above: An R.E.8 – they were colloquially called ‘Arry Tate’s
Of all the names on the Anstruther and Cellardyke War Memorials only one is of an airman. Lieutenant Philip Oliphant Ray, a former Waid pupil, was studying engineering at Glasgow University when war broke out. His father Rev. James Ray, the popular minster at Cellardyke, had proclaimed that the young men of Anstruther would rise willingly and promptly when danger threatened Britain. His middle son was one of the first to do so. (His oldest son, Robert Ray BSc, FRS, FRSSA offered his services to the government as a scientist and in 1916 became Chemist in Charge of the Nitro Glycerine Section of HM Factory Gretna.)
Above: Lieutenant Philip Oliphant Ray
Unlike others of his background, Philip Ray did not seek a commission, even though he had been a member of the Officer Training Corps at University. Instead he joined the Cameronians as a private, going to the front in July 1915. He seems to have always been on the look out for action. By the Battle of Loos he was a lance corporal in charge of a machine gun unit. He wrote a long account home of how his unit moved up to the front line arriving there just before midnight “Rain still fell but most of us had a good sleep for an hour or two in the trenches with nothing else for shelter than a waterproof sheet. The artillery roared all night. When clear enough the gas and smoke could be seen being slowly wafted to the German lines. Shortly afterwards a shout went up, the attack had commenced.” After the battle where he had seen many casualties he expressed his wonderment that he had survived. “How I ever came out of it I do not know; my gun was hit once by a bullet and twice with shrapnel while I was carrying it.”
He was offered a commission and was made a second lieutenant in the 8th Battalion Black Watch. By October 1916 he can be found having to write letters of condolence home to the families of local men who were his contemporaries. Maybe it was his engineering background which drew him to aviation, maybe it was the opportunity to rise above trench warfare. Whatever the reason, by the time Arras came around he was attached to the 59th Squadron, Royal Flying Corps based at Bellevue about 20 miles north east of Amiens.
His squadron was new to the front having arrived only in February 1917. It was equipped with 21 R.E.8s, a new type of two seater plane which rapidly acquired an evil reputation. When it first arrived at the front it had a marked tendency to spin, leading to fatal flying accidents. And if it did crash and pitch on its nose it would almost certainly burst into flames as the engine was pushed back into the emergency and main fuel tanks – leading to the immolation of crews who initally survived crash landings.
By 1917 the Royal Flying Corps had developed its functions so that it had fighters to aggressively patrol over enemy lines, bombers to attack strategic targets, spotter planes to assist the artillery in finding its range on a target and reconnaissance planes which flew photograph missions to capture images of troop and artillery movements. However although the British had more machines the Germans were technically superior in planes and pilots. In a dogfight the British planes were outperformed and losses were high. German aces such as Immelman and Boelcke became household names. At the beginning of 1917 the even more feted Baron von Richthofen was given command of his own Jagdstaffel, and was awarded the Orden Pour le Merite, the coveted Blue Max.
In the gunsights of such experienced fighter pilots, reconnaissance planes in particular were sitting ducks. Yet their work was vital in terms of establishing enemy positions, gauging the success of bombardments and, once a battle was underway, reporting whether infantry had actually broken through to their objectives. To protect them, fighter aircraft were required to fly escort. Usually the fighters did not take off with the two seaters but were expected to meet up with them in the air. However in an age when there was no air- to- air, or even ground- to- air, radio communication this could be a hit or miss affair.
When the battle of Arras begun the RFC expected to be busy in support. But on April 9 1917, Easter Monday there was a drizzle of snow and visibility was poor. The aerial bombing programme was cancelled and offensive patrols curtailed. So when the first day of fine weather broke every plane took to the air.
At 8.15 am on 13 April six R.E.8s of 59 Squadron set off once more to photograph the Drocourt – Queant line. Philip Ray was the one given the responsibility of getting the pictures in a plane flown by another Scotsman, Lieutenant Philip Bentinck Boyd of the Gordon Highlanders. The others were there to provide close escort, as the RE did have the capacity to defend itself if it could get the forward firing Vickers synchronised gun lined up or the observer could swing his Lewis gun on the enemy. But in reality they needed more cover than that. For the reconnaissance to be successful they needed to fly attentively along the whole line of their objective, and that would take them close to Douai aerodrome where von Richthofen was based. It was intended that the RE8s would meet up with the offensive fighter patrols in the area. Needless to say this did not happen. The SPADs were 20 minutes late in taking off; the FE2d’s got caught up in a dogfight and the Bristol Fighters saw nothing of the reconnaissance planes. So on flew the 59th Squadron’s isolated planes. And down onto them plunged six German single seaters led by von Richthofen himself, in his distinctive red Albatross biplane. (This was not his famous circus, which actually appeared for the first time on the following day.) There was no contest. The evidence appears to show the RE8s desperately trying to get away and being rapaciously hunted down by the Germans. The Red Baron scored the 41st kill of his career in the attack and his brother Lothar von Richthofen got two more of the British planes. But the Jasta 11 squadron’s record shows that only five of the R.E.8s were shot down by them that morning. The sixth plane not accounted for – RE8 A3203 – was that in which Philip Ray was flying. What had happened to it?
Above: Oberleutnant Hans Klein
In fact a lone pilot of another German squadron, Jasta 4, had joined the dogfight and shot down Philip Ray’s plane at 8.56 am. The German pilot was Oberleutnant Hans Klein, a 26 year old German ace from Stettin who shot down a total of 22 British aircaft in the war and went on to become a Major General in the Luftwaffe before his death in 1944.
On 13 April 1917 Philip Ray was posted missing, presumed dead. In one of those sad coincidences of history, it was his father’s birthday. Reverend Ray, unaware of his son’s loss, quietly turned 58.
That month in the Battle of Arras became known by the RFC as Bloody April as the British lost 245 aircraft, 211 aircrew killed or missing and 108 taken as prisoners of war. Philip Ray’s body was never recovered, and he is commemorated on the Arras Flying Services Memorial.