He wanted to keep it as historically accurate asossible, so the fields and the aerodrome layout are reasonably close, within the limits of the hazy photograph interpretation. The raid occurred at midday, in good conditions, allowing me to use bright light and deep shadows on the aircraft.

There wer large numbers of other allied aircraft in the raid - in all either 4 or 5 squadrons were used.  15 Bristol Fighters of 88 Sqn at 13,000 feet and 12 SE5’s of 92 RAF Sqn at 11,000 feet were both flying top cover, with the attacking squadrons including 19 Camels of 4 AFC Sqn followed by 19 SE5a’s of 2 AFC Sqn.  The 4 AFC Sqn history says each squadron flew in a large V formation which is corroborated in the others.  Lt.Col Strange’s book “Recollections of an Airman” says in both raids he had 15 DH9 light bombers from 103 RAF Sqn bombing after 2 AFC Sqn. In Strange’s wonderfully colourful language, he said; “Our uppermost squadrons enjoyed a good scrap with some Huns that showed fight as soon as they saw the main forces of the Wing were engaged on bombing operations below.”

I began the painting on fine canvas stretched over a 50 X 60 cm frame. I stretch my own canvases these days, a lot of work but I get to use the canvas I want, and it is much cheaper. The painting took about ten days to complete, working part-time at it. I am always keen to get the colour right with the camouflages, as it is too often depicted as green, rather than brown. The application of PC10 pigment depended on the medium chosen (e.g. oil varnish or cellulose acetate) to mix it with and the amount of weathering in service, but generally it was observed as a ‘honey brown’ colour.

I was able to make the lead Camel Cobby’s, as he describes leading the attack by the Camels in his diaries. The main Se5 is flown by a Lt. Howard. This is how if eventually turned out:

IIt has the Camels climbing away underneath the Se5s. We decided that the Camels would be better placed above the Se5s, and eventually we settled on this final layout, with the DH9s visible below the Camels, and the Bristol Fighters just specs way above:

'The Raid on Haubourdin Airfield'

I was recently contacted by someone in Australia about commissioning a depiction of some well-documented raids by Australian Flying Corps squadrons on German airfields at Lomme and Haubourdin in France, in 1918. The actions included both 4 Squadron Camels and 2 Squadron SE5a’s coming down to strafe, after providing top cover. The scenes are described in detail in a book by Lt. Col L A Strange, who was the Wing Commander of the 2 Australian squadrons.

The client envisaged a scene depicting the moment when the Camels had nearly completed their bombing and machine gun strafing attack on the airfield, having left a few burning German fighters on the ground.  He also wanted a dog fight occurring between Camels and Fokker DVIIs, some of which managed to take off (so they would be still climbing up to engage).  In the foreground the SE5As would be diving steeply with the airfield and all the strafing and dogfights plainly in view below. As if this wasn’t enough to include, he wanted DH9’s preparing for a bombing run at around 7,000’, as well as a Bristol Fighter escort at 13,000’! I suggested that including all the aircraft might compromise the integrity of the composition, and we eventually agreed on the following:

- Se5a’s would feature primarily
- Camels should be depicted as large as possible, without being in unlikely positions
- DH9s and Brisfits shown in the distance

The client researched three books on the raids carried out by 80th Wing and the descriptions of the actions all differ slightly.  There were 2 raids over 2 days; Haubourdin aerodrome on 16 August and Lomme Aerodrome on 17 August 1918, the height of Summer with between 65 and 80 aircraft.  The first raid was conducted just after midday; the second at about 7 am the next morning.  He decided on the Haubourdin raid, although aerial view and a map of the Lomme aerodrome were also available. My first sketch of the concept was a very small rough oil sketch: