Geoffrey Hornblower Cock, Strutter Ace

The Sopwith 1½ Strutter, also known as the Sopwith Two-Seater by the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and the Sopwith Type 9400 by the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was a versatile aircraft that served in the roles of two-seat scout, or fighter, single-seat bomber, single-seat night fighter and two-seat reconnaissance aircraft. It was also the first British aircraft to sport a synchronized Vickers gun for the pilot as well as air brakes, while the observer was armed with a Lewis gun. The 1½ Strutter got its name from the “W” shaped centre section cabane struts, and the first unit to operate it was No. 5 Wing, RNAS, in April 1916. The RFC’s No. 70 Squadron started using the 1½-Strutter in July 1916, and the aircraft was also used by France, the United States, Belgium, Romania and Russia. In all more than 6,000 1½ Strutters were built, with France building most of them, or around 4,500 aircraft.

The 1½ Strutter was powered by a 110 hp Clerget rotary engine, although it was eventually re-engined with a 130 hp Clerget 9B. The last unit to use the 1½-Strutter was No. 70 Squadron RAF which was a Home Defense unit flying from Goldhangar and Stow Maries in Essex. The aircraft was also used in the Russian Civil War and in the Polish-Soviet war of 1919 to 1921.

A replica of a Sopwith 1½ Strutter with 1916 RNAS markings.

Geoffey Hornblower Cock.  

The Sopwith 1½ Strutter was a clean design that tended to “float” when attempting to land, and being very stable and having stiff controls, it was not a good fighter. The distance between pilot and observer also led to communication difficulties, which further reduced combat effectiveness. However, the armament initially compensated for this to a considerable degree, but by October 1916 the Sopwith was already facing serious problems with the new German Albatros Scouts. The long range of the Sopwith was still useful, though, and it was used for reconnaissance and bombing missions with suitable escorts, even if casualties were fairly heavy. “Bloody April” 1917 saw No. 43 Squadron alone suffer 35 casualties out of a compliment of 32 officers.

Nevertheless, the 1½ Strutter did score successes up to the last unit on the Western Front converted to Sopwith Camels in October 1917, and the leading Strutter ace scored all of his victories between April and July 1917. Enter Geoffey Hornblower Cock.

Geoffrey was the son of James and Adeline Anna Cook, and he was born on January 7, 1896, in Shrewsbury, England. He joined the 28th Battalion of The Artists Rifles Officers’ Training Corps in December 1915. This unit is actually a bit curious, since it was formed in 1859 by Edward Sterling, an art student, as volunteer light infantry unit comprised of painters, musicians, architects, actors and other creative professions as part of a widespread volunteer movement in response to a potential French invasion. The unit served throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, and in this day it has become the 21st Special Air Service Regiment (Artists’ Rifles).  

After his officer’s training, Cock transferred to the RFC in June 1916. He trained with No. 25 Reserve Squadron in Thetford, and he received Pilot’s Certificate No. 2157 in September that year. His next unit was No. 45 Squadron RFC, which was in the process of relocating from Gosport to the area north of Ypres, France, and it left England on October 14, 1916. This unit was mainly equipped with Sopwith 1½ Strutters, although it also had a few Nieuport 20 two-seaters, and both of these types would be facing serious difficulties with the German scouts in the months to come. It should be added that No. 45 squadron included a number of future prominent airmen, including a flight commander by the name of Arthur Harris, who eventually became the commanding officer of No. 45 Squadron, and a quarter of a century later the leader of RAF Bomber Command.

The 1½ Strutters were used by Nos. 43, 45 and 70 Squadrons of the RFC, while the RNAS had additional Strutters in both France and the Adriatic. The aircraft were initially used defensively, flying in stepped-up pairs. This formation was supposed to mediate the effects of anti-aircraft fire (the ever-present “Archie”), but the German anti-aircraft had rudimentary ways of determining height and speed of a formation, so shells would burst at various heights of the formation to cause damage. The Strutters did want to retain formation to provide better defense against enemy scouts, so the formation was changed into a group of “vees” with each aircraft occupying different height. This formation was easier to maneuver in ways that would be much more difficult for anti-aircraft gunners to predict. If attacked by scouts, the Strutters would typically form circles to defend themselves like the Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.2b pusher aircraft.

Hornblower Cock survived the winter and spring of 1916-17, but as he became more experienced, Cock started handling his 1½ Strutter in a more aggressive fashion, much like the Bristol Fighters would be flown later in the war. He engaged the enemy with the front machine gun while his observer handled any opposition to the rear of the aircraft. His first victories came at just about 1030AM on April 6, 1917, when he destroyed an Albatros D.III and drove another down and out of control above Lille. According to Cock, “the first hostile machine came up on the front of the formation, flew along at the side and slightly in front, firing at about 300 yards range; he then crossed well in front of the formation and I got in a burst of about seventy rounds from the front gun. Then the other hostile machines came up behind the formation and attacked the rear and middle machines of the formation.”

No. 45 Squadron was under intense pressure during the spring of 1917, and casualties mounted rapidly in the skies above Arras as the Battle of Arras started on Easter Monday, April 9, 1917. It was to last for almost a month, until May 4. The objective was to take Vimy Ridge and the offensive was to be aggressively supported by 25 RFC squadrons in two brigades, one supporting the I Army and the other the III Army, and a reserve Wing. The German defenders were determined to make sure that British air power remained checked, and the German units defending the German lines included many veteran units, first and foremost Jasta 11 at Douai, which was commanded by Manfred von Richthofen. No. 45 Squadron was not initially part of the Battle of Arras, but being based in the immediate vicinity they were rapidly drawn into the carnage. Hornblower Cock commented himself that “every hostile machine completely outmanoeuvred us and were capable of beating us in climbing, turning and speed.”

Hornblower Cock was appointed flight commander at some point in May, and more victories followed despite the adverse circumstances. At 450PM on May 9, 1917 and with three victories under his belt, Cock flew at the rear of a formation north-west of Seclin when he spotted an enemy aircraft behind the formation of Strutters. He fired a red Very flare to alert his comrades, and then he spun his Strutter around to engage the enemy. His accurate fire sent one Albatros down almost right away, and after a ten-minute battle, yet another Albatros D.III was spinning down in a nose dive. Cock then swerved right, and his observer, 2nd Lieutenant John Murison, poured machine-gun fire into yet another Albatros. The end result was one enemy aircraft destroyed and the other one destroyed and shared with future ace 2nd Lieutenant William Wright and his observer, 2nd Lieutenant Edward Caulfield Kelly. Back safely on the ground, Cock handed in his combat report, and someone added a footer that stated: “This is gallant, but is all against orders and common sense.”

It is interesting to note that Hornblower Cock flew with no less than seven different observers while scoring his victories. Pilots and observers tended to form long-standing teams, with both aviators being quite dependent on each other. It is not known if the change of observers was due to casualties among the pilots and observers of the Squadron, procedures within the squadron to rotate pilots and observers, personality issues or some other reason, but going through so many observers seems odd. The most notable observer to fly with Hornblower Cock was 2nd Lieutenant Victor White MC and Bar, who scored his first aerial victory on July 13, 1917, and then proceeded to shoot down another five enemy aircraft as an observer in Bristol F.2b Fighters

The luck of Hornblower Cock ran out while flying his 97th sortie on July 22, 1917. He did shoot down an Albatros D.V in flames at 1035 in the morning, but he was in turn shot down by Hauptmann (Captain) Wilhelm Reinhard of Jasta 11 over Warneton as the first of his in all 20 victories. Hornblower Cock was the last survivor of the pilots of No. 45 Squadron that had reported for duty in France some nine months earlier. He did however survive being shot down, but he ended up on the German side of the trenches, and he became a prisoner-of-war. An attempt to escape the prisoner-of-war camp failed, and Hornblower Cock was repatriated in December 1918. He was awarded the Military Cross on July 26, 1917, and he eventually claimed 19 victories, although 15 of these were considered to be certain. Nine victories were accomplished with the front machine gun while the observer’s rear gun counted for the remaining six. However, the total may have included several claims of aircraft “driven down”, a term that was no longer used by 1917, and records exist of 13 claims of aircraft shot by Cock and his observers, three shared victories, one aircraft shared and destroyed and nine aircraft “out of control”.

Cock described his flying experiences in 1967: “The 1½ Strutter was a good aircraft, but the front gun was quite useless. I, however, was lucky in getting the Ross interrupter gear on trial, and this speeded up the rate of fire of the front gun to almost normal rate, and I got most of my victories with it. Of course, both front and rear guns were operating in a fight, but if the Hun was shot down while the rear gun was firing at him, the gunner got the credit, and very rightly too.”

The Ross interrupter gear was unique to the 1½ Strutters, and it enabled the pilots to fire the Vickers without engaging the interrupter gear, thus increasing the rate of fire but increasing the risk of damage to the propeller. Noman Macmillan, MC, was a flight commander in No. 45 Squadron, and he claimed that “some aircraft came back with as many as twenty bullet holes in the propeller, but no one was known to have been lost because of a shot-off [propeller] blade.”

Hornblower Cock remained in the Royal Air Force after the end of the war. He was promoted from Flight Lieutenant to Squadron Leader on January 1, 1928, as part of the Air Ministry’s New Year Honours, and he commanded No. 9 Squadron at Boscombe Down in 1935. Hornblower Cock finally served on Malta during the siege of the island before retiring as a Group Captain in 1943. He passed away on February 16, 1980, at the age of 84.

Citation for the award of the Military Cross:

Temp 2nd Lt. Geoffrey Hornblower Cock, Gen. List and R.F.C.
   “For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. On many occasions he showed great courage and determination in attacking and destroying hostile aircraft, and in dispersing hostile troops from a low altitude. His skill as a formation leader has set a fine example to the other pilots of his squadron.” 

(Supplement to the London Gazette, July 26, 1917)

Aircraft claimed by Geoffrey Hornblower Cock:

April 6, 1030AM, in aircraft # A1075 above Lille: Albatros D.III destroyed (obs 2/Lt John Murison)

April 6, 1030AM, in aircraft # A1075 above Lille: Albatros D.III out-of-control (obs 2/Lt John Murison)

May 7, 630PM, in aircraft # A8260 above Don-Lille: SS D.I out-of-control (obs 2/Lt John Murison)

May 9, 450PM,  in aircraft # A8260 NW Seclin: Albatros D.III destroyed (obs 2/Lt John Murison)

May 9, 500PM, in aircraft # A8260 NW Seclin: Albatros D.III destroyed (obs 2/Lt John Murison) 

May 20, 430PM, in aircraft # A8226 above Lille: Albatros D.III out-of-control (obs 2/Lt A S Carey) 

May 27, 0630AM,  in aircraft # A1016 above Menin: Albatros D.III out-of-control (obs 2/Lt Edward Kelly)

May 28, 100PM, in aircraft # A8299 above Menin: Albatros D.III destroyed (obs 2/Lt W G Corner) 

June 16, 600PM, aircraft unknown above Warneton: Albatros D.V out-of-control (obs 2/Lt John Murison)

July 6, 300PM, aircraft unknown NW Comines: Albatros D. III out-of-control (obs Lt C T R Ward)

July 7, 500PM, aircraft unknown, above Wervicq: Albatros D. III out-of-control (obs Lt C T R Ward)

July 13, 315PM, aircraft unknown, E Polygon Wood: Albatros D.III out-of-control (obs Lt Victor White)

July 22, 1035AM, in aircraft # B2576 above Wernet: Albatros D.III destroyed (obs 2/Lt William Wright)