Captain Carleton Main Clement (15 May 1896 – 19 August 1917) was a
Canadian First World War
flying ace officially credited with 14 victories despite being handicapped by flying an obsolete plane.
Early life and service
Clement attended
Victoria University, Toronto, before serving as a private in the
47th Battalion of the
Canadian Expeditionary Force
The Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) was the expeditionary field force of Canada during the First World War. It was formed following Britain’s declaration of war on Germany on 15 August 1914, with an initial strength of one infantry division ...
.
His enlistment form of 17 June 1915 gives his next of kin as W. H. P. Clement, and claims that Clement had previously served as a commissioned officer in the "B. C. Horse". He was half an inch shy of six feet tall, with fair hair and complexion and blue eyes.
Aerial service
He transferred to the
Royal Flying Corps
"Through Adversity to the Stars"
, colors =
, colours_label =
, march =
, mascot =
, anniversaries =
, decorations ...
, being commissioned in March 1916. His assignment to 22 Squadron had him piloting the outmoded
Royal Aircraft Factory FE.2
Between 1911 and 1914, the Royal Aircraft Factory used the F.E.2 (Farman Experimental 2) designation for three quite different aircraft that shared only a common "Farman" pusher biplane layout.
The third "F.E.2" type was operated as a day and n ...
b, with observers such as
Llewelyn Davies Llewelyn Davies is the formal surname of the family whose boys inspired J. M. Barrie to create the characters of Peter Pan and the Lost Boys:
* Llewelyn Davies, Arthur, father of the boys
* Llewelyn Davies, Sylvia, mother of the boys
The boys, in ...
manning the front guns. Between 4 December 1916 and 5 June 1917, he flew this obsolescent model to victory over eight different German
Albatros fighters, sometimes teaming with such other aces as
Gerald Gordon Bell, and earning the MC in the process. Towards the end of this run, he downed German ace
Kurt Schneider
Kurt Schneider (7 January 1887 – 27 October 1967) was a German psychiatrist known largely for his writing on the diagnosis and understanding of schizophrenia, as well as personality disorders then known as psychopathic personalities.
Bi ...
;
[ Schneider would suffer with an infected thigh wound until succumbing on 14 July.]Albatros D.V
The Albatros D.V is a fighter aircraft built by the Albatros Flugzeugwerke and used by the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' (Imperial German Air Service) during World War I. The D.V was the final development of the Albatros D.I family and the last Albatro ...
afire, drove another down out of control, and teamed with other pilots to drive two more D.Vs down out of control.[
]
Death in action
On 19 August, Clement was shot down and killed by antiaircraft fire from Flakzug 99. Hugh Trenchard himself sent a telegram of regret to 22 Squadron.[
]
References
* ''Above the Trenches: A Complete Record of the Fighter Aces and Units of the British Empire Air Forces 1915-1920'' Christopher F. Shores, Norman L. R. Franks, Russell Guest. Grub Street, 1990. , .
* ''Pusher Aces of World War 1'' Jon Guttman, Harry Dempsey. Osprey Pub Co, 2009. , .
Notes
Websites
Canadian aviators
Canadian World War I flying aces
Canadian recipients of the Military Cross
Royal Flying Corps officers
1896 births
1917 deaths
Royal Westminster Regiment
British military personnel killed in World War I
People from Old Toronto
University of Toronto alumni
Canadian Army soldiers
Canadian Expeditionary Force soldiers
Military personnel from Toronto
{{aviation-bio-stub