Flight Lieutenant Charles Herbert Collet (4 February 1888 – 19 August 1915) was a British naval airman during the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...
, regarded as one of the best naval airmen of his day.
Early life and education
Charles Collet was born in India, the son of an engineer James Francis Herbert Collet and his wife Teresa Collet (née Pilley). For a time the family lived on Guernsey. At the time of his death, Charles Collet's parents lived in Woodleigh,
West End
West End most commonly refers to:
* West End of London, an area of central London, England
* West End theatre, a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London, England
West End may also refer to:
Pl ...
,
Southampton
Southampton () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire, S ...
. He was educated at
Dulwich College
Dulwich College is a 2–19 independent, day and boarding school for boys in Dulwich, London, England. As a public school, it began as the College of God's Gift, founded in 1619 by Elizabethan actor Edward Alleyn, with the original purpose o ...
.
Naval career
Collet was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the
Royal Marine Artillery
The history of the Royal Marines began on 28 October 1664 with the formation of the Duke of York and Albany's Maritime Regiment of Foot soon becoming known as the Admiral's Regiment. During the War of the Spanish Succession the most historic achi ...
on 1 September 1905, and was promoted to lieutenant on 1 July 1906. On 21 October 1913 Collet was awarded Aviators' Certificate No. 666 after flying an Avro biplane at the
Central Flying School
The Central Flying School (CFS) is the Royal Air Force's primary institution for the training of military flying instructors. Established in 1912 at the Upavon Aerodrome, it is the longest existing flying training school. The school was based at ...
at
Upavon
Upavon is a rural village and civil parish in the county of Wiltshire, England. As its name suggests, it is on the upper portion of the River Avon which runs from north to south through the village. It is on the north edge of Salisbury Plain ...
.
At the outbreak of the war on 4 August 1914, Collet was based at
RNAS Eastchurch
Royal Air Force Eastchurch or more simply RAF Eastchurch (formerly RNAS Eastchurch) is a former Royal Air Force station near Eastchurch village, on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, England. The history of aviation at Eastchurch stretches back to th ...
. On 10 August he took part in the ''
Daily Mail
The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...
''–sponsored "Circuit of Britain" race, which was not cancelled despite the declaration of war. He flew a German-built
DFW Mars __NOTOC__
The DFW Mars was an early German military utility aircraft built in 1913 and was the first original design manufactured by DFW. The aircraft was produced in both monoplane and biplane versions, which shared a common fuselage and empenn ...
(No. 154), which the RNAS had bought in 1913, and refitted with a
Beardmore 120 hp
The Beardmore 120 hp was a British six-cylinder, water-cooled aero engine that first ran in 1914, it was built by William Beardmore and Company as a licensed-built version of the Austro-Daimler 6. The engine featured cast iron cylinders ...
engine. Unfortunately mechanical problems forced him to make an emergency landing at Scarborough racecourse, where he was promptly arrested and questioned. After repairs were made, Collet completed the race, coming second.
Collet's unit, under the command of Wing Commander
Charles Rumney Samson
Air Commodore Charles Rumney Samson, (8 July 1883 – 5 February 1931) was a British naval aviation pioneer. He was one of the first four officers selected for pilot training by the Royal Navy and was the first person to fly an aircraft fr ...
, initially flew patrols along the North Sea coast, but on 27 August 1914 was moved to France. Renamed
No. 3 Squadron RNAS 03 may refer to:
__NOTOC__ Dates
The years 1803, 1903, or 2003
Music
* ''03'' (Twelve album), 2007
* ''03'' (Son of Dave album), 2008
* ''03'' (Urban Zakapa album), 2013
Other uses
* 03 numbers, a non-geographic telephone number range in the ...
, they were based at
Saint-Pol-sur-Mer
Saint-Pol-sur-Mer ( vls, Sint-Pols, lang) is a former commune in the Nord department in northern France. Since 9 December 2010, it is part of the commune of Dunkirk.Dunkirk
Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label= French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France.
The Düsseldorf Raid
On 22 September 1914 Collet, flying a
Sopwith Tractor Biplane
The Sopwith Three-seater was a British aircraft designed and built prior to the start of the First World War. One of the first aircraft built by the Sopwith Aviation Company, it was operated by both the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) and the Ro ...
, led a raid by four aircraft, which flew two hundred miles to attack the
Zeppelin
A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, ...
sheds at Düsseldorf and Cologne, in the first British air raid of the war. Thick mist in the
meant that only Collet found his target, and he accurately dropped two bombs from on the shed at Düsseldorf, although the bombs failed to explode. Despite being hit by enemy fire, he returned safely, as did the other three aircraft; they had spent more than an hour flying over Cologne attempting to find their target, but after failing to do so they returned to base without dropping their bombs.
Collet's feat was described thusly:
:Flight Lieutenant Collet approached the Zeppelin shed at Düsseldorf at an altitude of . There was a bank of mist below, which he encountered at . He traversed the depth of this layer and emerged there from at a height of only above the ground. His objective was barely a quarter of a mile ahead. Travelling at high speed he launched his bombs with what proved to be deadly precision, and disappeared into cover almost before the enemy had grasped his intentions.
Collet was subsequently awarded the
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, as well as formerly of other parts of the Commonwealth, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typi ...
on 21 October 1914.
On 23 February 1915 he was granted the temporary rank of captain whilst serving as a flight commander, and was promoted to the rank of flight lieutenant the following day. He was also twice
mentioned in despatches
To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches, MiD) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face ...
.
In March 1915 his unit was moved from France to the island of
Tenedos
Tenedos (, ''Tenedhos'', ), or Bozcaada in Turkish, is an island of Turkey in the northeastern part of the Aegean Sea. Administratively, the island constitutes the Bozcaada district of Çanakkale Province. With an area of it is the third lar ...
to take part in the Gallipoli campaign, were they flew reconnaissance and bombing missions over the Turkish positions. On 22 June Collet was flying a Voisin aircraft, with Major R.E.T. Hogg as observer, when he intercepted a German aircraft near
Achi Baba Achi Baba ( tr, Alçıtepe) is a height dominating the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey, located in Çanakkale Province.''Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary'', p. 5 Achi Baba was the main position of the Ottoman Turkish defenses in 1915 during ...
. Hogg shot at it with a rifle, hitting it in the engine, and forcing it down.
Death
On 19 August 1915, Collet took off from an airfield on
Imbros
Imbros or İmroz Adası, officially Gökçeada (lit. ''Heavenly Island'') since 29 July 1970,Alexis Alexandris, "The Identity Issue of The Minorities in Greece And Turkey", in Hirschon, Renée (ed.), ''Crossing the Aegean: An Appraisal of the 1 ...
, and had reached a height of when his engine failed. Collet turned to attempt a landing, but in the strong winds from the nearby cliffs he lost control, and his aircraft fell vertically to the ground, bursting into flames. His passenger, Chief Petty Officer Michael Sullivan Keogh of , broke his thigh in the crash, but nevertheless dragged Collet from the wreckage, receiving severe burns. However, Collet was fatally injured and died 30 minutes later. Keogh was awarded the Albert Medal (2nd Class) for his attempt to save Collet's life. Collet is buried at the
Lancashire Landing Cemetery
Lancashire Landing Cemetery is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery located on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey. It contains the graves of some of the Allied troops killed during the Battle of Gallipoli.
It is located 500 metres inla ...
in
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
.
Other notable achievements
Collet was also the first naval officer to
loop the loop
The generic roller coaster vertical loop, where a section of track causes the riders to complete a 360 degree turn, is the most basic of roller coaster inversions. At the top of the loop, riders are completely inverted.
History
The vertical l ...