Great Britain’s famed Sopwith 1F.1 Camel of World War I was a fearsome aircraft not only to its enemies but also to its pilots. Because of and despite this, it was the most successful aerial fighter of the war. The plane shot down 1,543 enemy aircraft—a tally not equaled by any other type.
The 1F.1’s great strength was its ability to turn quickly—some pilots claimed it could reverse its flight within twice the length of its stubby 18-foot, 6-inch fuselage. While apocryphal, the assertion emphasized the difference between the Camel and its contemporaries. Aiding this ability was the concentration of mass—engine, guns, pilot, and fuel—within a mere seven feet of the fuselage. The torque provided by a powerful rotary engine in a diminutive airframe allowed the turns. It also caught many a new pilot off guard, often with deadly results.
The attribute, however, allowed the aircraft to literally dance in the sky. U.S. Navy Lieutenant (junior grade) David S. Ingalls wrote in his diary of his first flight in a Camel on 10 January 1918: “It’s so touchy it just seems to jump if you shiver, and goes into a spin every time you take a turn unless you do it perfectly. I was full of pride that I got back in the same world as when I started.”
A total of 5,914 Camels, including 317 2F.1 naval variants, were delivered to Commonwealth air forces by 12 manufacturers. The prototype was delivered to the Royal Navy Air Service (RNAS) on 22 December 1916, with production beginning in early 1917. The aircraft was “over square,” with its 28-foot-long equal-span wings dwarfing its length by 10 feet. Depending on the manufacturer and available supplies, a Camel could be powered by one of eight rotary engines built by four companies, with power ranging from 110 to 180 horsepower.
The fighter was equipped with a pair of 0.303-inch Vickers air-cooled machine guns mounted side-by-side under a distinctive humped fairing, which gave the plane its name. The guns fired through the propeller arc by means of an interrupter gear. A feature almost unique to the Camel was the layout of its single-bay wings. The top wing was flat, with no dihedral, while the bottom ones were canted up at a 5-degree angle. Because of this, the type could be readily identified at a distance.
The first test Camels were delivered to France at RNAS Depôt, Dunkerque (Dunkirk), in late February 1917, with several delivered the next month to the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) at St. Omer. By mid-June, 41 had been delivered to the RNAS in France. An additional 15 were with the RFC by the end of July but based in Britain with Home Defence units. Front-line units received large numbers of 1F.1s by the end of 1917.
The Camel’s first combat, albeit unproductive, occurred on 4 June 1917, when the commander of 4 (Naval) Squadron, Alexander M. Shook, attacked a German aircraft, which dove and disappeared into the dense sea haze off Nieuport. The next day, Shook was more successful, claiming one kill and one probable.
Eighteen-year-old David Ingalls took a step closer to becoming a Sopwith Camel pilot on 26 March 1917, when he and 28 others of the First Yale Unit enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve Flying Corps. Founded in 1915 by a dozen students of Yale College, the group of volunteers unofficially trained as the Yale Aerial Coastal Patrol, Unit No. 1, during the summer of 1916. Unit members founded the Yale Flying Club that fall, which Ingalls joined.
On his enlistment, he was rated as Machinist’s Mate First Class. He reported to the Naval Aviation Detachment at West Palm Beach, Florida, for initial flight training at the end of April, followed by a move on 1 June to the Naval Aviation Detachment, Huntington, Long Island. By late July, Ingalls had logged more than 50 hours in the air. He received the designation of Naval Aviator No. 85 on 14 August, was discharged on 1 September, and advanced to ensign on the 4th.
On 23 September, Ingalls left for Liverpool, England, on board the American Line liner Philadelphia. Over the next six months, through March 1918, the ensign attended a series of French and British training establishments, beginning at Le Moutchic, France, and ending in Ayr, Scotland, at the RFC School of Aerial Fighting.
Ingalls was promoted to lieutenant (junior grade) on 23 March. Six days later, he was assigned to RNAS No. 13 Squadron at Dunkirk, which on 1 April, with the merger of the RFC and RNAS, became No. 213 Squadron of the Royal Air Force (RAF). In a Camel on 6 April, the now 19-year-old flew his first and uneventful combat sortie. On the 11th, he and six others each dropped one 50-pound bomb on a mole at Zeebrugge, Belgium. He remained with the squadron through late April and then moved back to the Navy at Dunkirk, patrolling for submarines.
From May to August, Ingalls received assignments with the Northern Bombing Group, the Navy’s large force of day and night bombers against U-boat bases. During the first three weeks of July, he was seconded to No. 218 Squadron flying De Havilland DH.9 day bombers. Despite volunteering for and undergoing transition training to bombers, Ingalls and his fellow Navy officers were left without an aerial role when the Navy gave the mission to the Marine Corp. Ingalls received his often-requested transfer back to No. 213 Squadron and Camels in early August.
While Ingalls flew at least four different Camels during training and 19 1F.1s while with No. 213, four of the squadron’s Camels were especially important to him, one of which is significant. These were the aircraft he flew during victorious combat missions that earned him recognition as the U.S. Navy’s first aerial “ace.”
From 11 August to 24 September, Ingalls is credited with shooting down five aircraft and one balloon. (He had claimed one aircraft and a balloon while briefly flying with No. 218 Squadron, but their records are lost and the claims disallowed.) He shared victories over four of the aircraft and the balloon with three RAF pilots. Three of the kills took place with him at the controls of D9649 (with which he flew 21 of nearly 50 sorties) and the others while flying C73 and N6376. His sole lone victory was against a most vaunted of enemies, a Fokker D.VII, on 20 September while flying Camel D8177.
At 0900 on the 20th, No. 213 Squadron had been up in force to escort DH.9 bombers of No. 218 Squadron against Bruges, Belgium. Later that day, Ingalls wrote to his mother: “To-day was fairly good. This morning, we went out and had a scrap, and I got one, confirmed, and one other, whom I’m sure I hit perhaps in the engine, for he went down about 10,000 feet out of control, then, so someone else says, leveled out.”
The RAF flight report for that day was equally cryptic but added important details:
Observed four E.A. [enemy aircraft] heading towards D.H.’s at about 15,500 feet. Camels attacked head on. . . . Dog fight ensued. Lieut. Ingalls attacked an E.A., which was pursuing a D.H.9. [Ingalls] fired 100 rounds at 100 yards range and E.A. dived vertically emitting white smoke. Machine last seen out of control very low near Bruges, still smoking and descending. (Confirmed) Lieut. Ingalls then attacked another E.A. at 25 yards range and E.A. turned on its back, diving and then spun slowly. It is thought that this machine flattened out very low down. Remaining E.A. dived and spun away when Camels attacked.
D8177 was one of 1,575 Camels built by Ruston, Proctor & Co. Ltd. Delivered to No. 213 Squadron in May 1918, it was one of 385 1F.1s powered by a 150-horsepower Bentley BR.1 engine. RAF Lieutenant Colin Peter Brown claimed his first of seven victories flying D8177 on 14 July. His next two with the aircraft came on 24 September, four days after Ingalls flew it to claim his solo victory. Ingalls was detached from No. 213 on 3 October. The next day, Brown claimed three enemy aircraft with the airplane, closing out his total of 14 victories for the war. Ten days later, D8177, being flown by RAF Second Lieutenant Francis Robert Leslie Allen, was shot down. Allen’s patrol had attacked 14 D.VIIs north of Dixmude (Diksmuide), Belgium, and he died in the action.
