Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 82]
REPORT OF FORCED LANDINGS
BY
LIEUT. A.V. TONKIN
On returning from Strategical Reconnaissance on MAAN-KALAAT EL HASA area on the 13th August 1918, Lieut. A.V. Tonkin who was accompanied by Lieut. C.J. Vyner as Observer, was compelled through engine trouble to land about 10 miles E.N.E. of AT TAFILE.
They were seen to go down by Lieut. E.C. Stooke, D.C.M. and Lieut. A.V. McCann (Observer) who were in escort machine. They followed them down and flew over them at a height of about 50 feet. They saw both occupants get out of the machine, and shortly after the machine was set on fire. A ground signal in the form of an arrow pointing West was then put out, indicating that Lieut. Tonkin and Lieut. Vyner were walking in a Westerly direction.
Lieut. Stooke, who by this time was running short of petrol flew to BEERSHEEBA, where he landed. He returned later in the afternoon, and found the remains of the machine, but was unable to locate the missing officers.
In the meantime, the Military Governor of BEERSHEEBA, to whom the matter had been reported, took prompt measures to arrange for a search to be made for the missing officers. He organised a party under the charge of Bimbashi Chetwynd, who left BEERSHEEBA the same evening with a number of men, and 40 camels to carry out the search.
The following morning, three machines flown respectively by Capt. R.M. Smith, MC., D.F.C., and Lieut. H. A. Blake, and Lieut. E.C. Stooke, D.C.M. with Lieut. L.W. Sutherland, M.C., D.C.M. and Lieut. A.V. McCann as Observers were sent out to fly over the area in question. They succeeded in locating the missing officers in a Bedouin encampment near EL BUSIERA. Messages were dropped on them and they replied by means of ground signals that the Arabs they were with were friendly. Lieut. Blake then landed about 1½ miles from the encampment. Bedouins came from all round the neighbourhood in the direction of his machine. The first of these to arrive covered him and his observer with a rifle, and at the same time asking if they were 'Sherif'. They replied in the affirmative, whereupon the Bedouin lowered his gun, approached them, and greeted them in a very friendly manner. Lieut. McCann then went off to get into contact with Lieuts. Tonkin and Vyner.
In the meantime several Bedouins, led by a local notable, came up to the machine, and intimated to Lieut. Blake that they had two British Officers who were to stay there until 'bakhshish' was forthcoming. Lieut. Blake informed them that a reward of £50 (fifty pounds) would be paid at BEESHEEBA to whoever returned these Officers there. He further stated that a party had already left BEERSHEEBA in search of them. He told the Sherif the route the party proposed to follow. The leader of this band thereupon invited Lieut. Blake to a neighbouring village, but he politely declined to go.
By this time, a large concourse of Bedouins, a great number of whom were armed with rifles many of them were of the Lee-Metford type) and knives, had assembled in the vicinity, together with eight Turkish prisoners. SHERIF MUSTUR and SHEIK HAMD ABN GAZI were among the company. The Sheikh wrote a note which he handed to Lieut. Blake and directed that it be taken to BEERSHEEBA.
The note was in Arabic, a translation of which is as follows:-
"The men who have now got the flying officers are the Arabs of the IBN GAZI HAMD. The men who claim them are SHEIKH HETAB IBN and YEM IBN GAZI. After three days we will mount them and send with Sheikh to BEERSHEEBA. Do not be anxious about the. Salaams to the General and to Parker"
(Signed) HAMD ABN GAZI
Sherif of the Howeitat.
[Transcribed by Jean Hart, Betty Smith for the State Library of New South Wales]