A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF CAPTAIN W. E. JOHNS
PART ONE
Please note that this brief summary of Johns' amazing life is just
that, a brief summary. If you are interested in the full details of his life
you MUST read By Jove,
Biggles! - The Life of Captain W. E. Johns by Peter Berresford Ellis and Jennifer Schofield.
This book was first published on 15th October 1981.
HIS EARLY LIFE
William Earl Johns (his name
is often incorrectly spelt with an 'E' on the end of Earl) was born on Sunday 5th February 1893 at Mole Wood Road, Bengeo in
Hertfordshire. He father, Richard Eastman Johns was a tailor and his mother
Elizabeth Johns (nee Earl) was the daughter of a master butcher. Johns had a
younger brother, Russell Ernest Johns, who was born on 24th October 1895. Johns' early ambition was to be a
soldier. In January 1905, Johns went to Hertford Grammar School
(now the Richard Hale School, Hertford) where the headmaster was Major Kinman.
Some of his experiences here went into his book BIGGLES GOES TO SCHOOL. Not a particularly able scholar, Johns
was a crack shot with a rifle. In the summer of 1907 Johns was apprenticed to a
county municipal surveyor for four years and in 1912 was appointed as a
sanitary inspector in Swaffham in Norfolk. Soon after, his father died of
tuberculosis at the age of 47. Johns soon spotted a "pretty girl"
called Maude Hunt who was the daughter of the Reverend John Hunt, a vicar at
Little Dunham. Maude was actually eleven years older than Johns. On 4th October 1913, Johns joined the Territorial Army as a
Private in the King's Own Royal Regiment (Norfolk Yeomanry). This was a cavalry
regiment so Johns had his own horse. In August 1914 the Great War began and Johns' regiment was mobilised. Johns
later wrote that he "galloped down the drive to what, in my youthful
folly, I supposed was going to be death or glory. I had yet to learn that in
war there is plenty of death but little glory; that in war only death is real;
that glory is simply gilt and tinsel to wrap around the other so that it looks
less like what it really is". Like many other couples, faced with an
uncertain future, Bill Johns and Maude Hunt got married on Tuesday 6th October 1914. His brother, Russell was his best man.
Johns' regiment was in training and on home defence duties until September 1915 when they received embarkation orders for
duty overseas.
THE FIRST WORLD WAR
Travelling in the SS Olympic
to Gallipoli, Johns' regiment went to fight alongside the ANZAC's (Australian
and New Zealand Army Corps) against the Turks and the Germans. Disease was the
biggest problems for Johns' regiment but he served under fire in the trenches
until the regiment was withdrawn in December 1915.
Johns was to recount a number of tales of instant death from these times. Sent
initially to Alexandria, the regiment next went to form part of the defences to
the Suez Canal. On 18th
March 1916, Maude gave
birth to Johns' son who was christened William Earl Carmichael Johns but known
as 'Jack' to distinguish him from his father. Johns trained as a machine gunner
and was transferred on 1st
September 1916 to a
new force, (only founded in October 1915),
the Machine Gun Corps. He was also promoted to Lance Corporal. After brief leave
in England, Johns was then sent to Salonika in Greece. Here he served in the
trenches and fought in a number of battles. In April 1917 he took part in the
spring offensive. Johns came down with malaria and whilst in hospital in
Salonika he put in for a transfer to the Royal Flying Corps. On 26th September 1917, Johns was granted a temporary commission
as Second Lieutenant and posted back to England to learn to fly. Johns learnt
to fly at No. 1 School of Aeronautics at Reading, taught by a Captain Ashton.
He learnt in "an old Rumpity"; a Maurice Farman Shorthorn and many of
his experiences were to go into the book BIGGLES LEARNS TO FLY. Johns had an aptitude for flying and
soon went solo, but stalled and crashed on his first flight. On 20th January 1918, Johns was posted to No. 25 Flying
Training School at Thetford, close to where his wife and son lived. A Home
Establishment posting sounds very cushy but in fact Flying School was
dangerous. People crashed and died on a weekly basis and sometimes there were
fatalities on a daily basis. There are many astonishing tales of death and
disaster from this time, which make fascinating reading. Johns himself had a
number of spectacular crashes and forced landings from failed engines. He once
wrote off three planes in three days due to engine failure and the planes he
destroyed must number in double figures. Had he been a German pilot he would
have been an Ace! (For that was the status granted to German pilots who
destroyed 10 enemy aircraft). It has to be said that this was not uncommon and
many planes were destroyed by various accidents. In April 1918, Johns was posted to Marske-on-Sea in
Yorkshire. The CO here was a Major Champion, who was nicknamed 'Gimlet', a
nickname Johns was to later borrow for one of his characters. On 20th July 1918, Johns received notification that he was
being posted to the front in France.
BIGGLES GOES TO WAR
It is a common misconception
that William Earl Johns was a fighter pilot with the Royal Flying Corps. In
fact, on 1st April 1918, the Royal Flying Corps had merged with
the Royal Naval Air Service to become the Royal Air Force and Johns was
actually a bomber pilot. Johns effectively posted himself to No. 55 (Day)
Bombing Squadron stationed at Azelot, near Nancy in France. Here they shared an
airfield with No. 99 Squadron and No. 104 Squadron.
No. 55 Squadron was equipped
with De Havilland DH4 aircraft. These two-seater aircraft were heavy bombers
with 275 hp Rolls-Royce Eagle engines. They were nicknamed "flaming
coffins" because the petrol tank was between the pilot and his rear
observer and a good target for enemy aircraft. It has to be said that life
expectancy was low for many First World War pilots. At one stage, average life
expectancy was 11 days. Johns arrived in late July 1918 (although due to various paperwork
problems he wasn't officially posted to the squadron until 21st August 1918). Johns only had to last until 11th November 1918 and the war would be over but such was the
nature of his job, that like many others, he didn't make it. He flew on
numerous bombing raids on an almost daily basis and had a number of close
shaves with enemy aircraft. It was on Monday 16th September 1918 that Johns "failed to return".
The night before had been spent in Nancy but for various reasons he got lost on
the return journey and stopped at a magnificent French house at 3.00 a.m. to
ask for directions. Here he met a beautiful French girl and was able to spend
some time with her. She was to become the inspiration for the love of Biggles'
life, Marie Janis in THE
CAMELS ARE COMING. On Monday 16th September 1918, whilst flying in formation on a bombing
raid to Mannheim, Johns, together with his observer and rear gunner, 2nd Lt. A.
E. Amey, were hit by German anti aircraft fire ("archie") and their
fuel tank holed. Forced to drop out of formation they were then easy prey for a
dozen or so German fighters and shot to pieces. Amey was killed and Johns hit
in the thigh and had his goggles smashed by bullets. Eventually his engine was
hit and stopped, spraying petrol vapour everywhere. The flames held off and
Johns crashed in a German field and passed out. Coming round, Johns was able to
get out of the plane but couldn't get Amey's body out. He was captured by the
Germans and given a rough time, due to the recent bombing of a Sunday school
and the death of a number of local children. The pilots who shot him down came
to see him and he was treated with great camaraderie. The pilot who claimed to
have eventually got him wore the Blue Max and in later years, Johns became
convinced he had been shot down by Ernst Udet, the famous German Ace who scored
62 kills (second only to the infamous Red Baron who scored 80). This cannot be
correct, as Udet was not there at that time. Johns was sentenced to be shot by
a firing squad, but this was never carried out and he was sent to a Strasbourg
gaol. After an initial escape attempt here, he was sent to another camp at
Landshut, 30 miles east of Munich. From here he escaped, towards the end of October 1918, and was at liberty for four or five days
before being recaptured whilst stealing apples. He was then transferred to a
'bad boys' camp at Ingolstadt and it was whilst Johns was here that the war
ended on 11th November 1918. Johns returned to his family on Christmas Day 1918, much to their astonishment as he had
been listed as missing and they had presumed that he had been killed, until the
moment he walked through the door.