Orders, Decorations and Medals

Pair: Squadron Leader E. M. Pollard, Royal Air Force, late West Yorkshire Regiment and Royal Flying Corps, who flew operationally in No. 3 Squadron throughout the battle of the Somme in 1916, latterly on co-operation duties with newly arrived tanks: he was killed in a flying accident in Iraq in July 1925, shortly after having submitted a paper to the Air Ministry on his wartime experiences

British War and Victory Medals (Capt., R.F.C.), in their card boxes of issue, extremely fine (2) £400-500

Eric Miller Pollard transferred from the West Yorkshires to the Royal Flying Corps in May 1915, underwent flying instruction at Joyce Green and qualified for his aviator’s certifcate in August of the same year - ‘I did about one hour with various instructors in the back seat of a Maurice Farman, without flying the machine myself, and was then sent solo’.

In February 1916, he was posted to No. 25 Squadron at Thetford, where, in his own words, ‘my Observer was an American Air Mechanic named Waller, who afterwards shot down Immelman’. Ordered to France, No. 25 operated out of St. Omer, carrying out daily formation reconnaissances and anti-Zeppelin night patrols - on one occasion Pollard had a near squeak after being “Archied” by our own defences at 11,000 feet.

In September 1916, he was ordered to join No. 3 Squadron, an Army Co-operation unit, at Bruay, where he found ‘the enemy’s A.A. defences were fairly active and accurate - most machines were hit when they went out’, while his new Observer ‘was more anxious to look for a fight than to co-operate with the artillery’. In April, the Squadron moved to Bertangles, and thence to La Houssoye, to work alongside 15th Corps, 4th Army:

‘ I always did shoots myself, and I think that there is nothing more interesting in flying than working with several batteries at once ... The Morane was a very good machine for this work, easy and light to fly, and the view of the ground was excellent from the parasol, and fairly good from the front seat of the biplane ... When we first came down to the Somme there were some Battery Commanders who preferred observations from balloons, but after working with aeroplanes they were all converted.’

Shortly before the Somme battle proper, Pollard’s No. 3 flight was allocated to experimental air-to-ground signalling work ‘with a mysterious weapon which was going to end the War’ - the tank. While on the morning of 1 July 1916, and in the weeks ahead, he found many opportunities of turning our batteries on to fleeting targets. In August ‘Contact Patrols begun in earnest and practically every day some sort of trench reconnaissance was carried out. At this time the Contact patrol machines used to fly from 2,000 to 1,000 feet. Fire from the ground seemed to be quite ineffective, though on two occasions when flying low during an intense bombardment our machines were hit by our own shells.’

In September, when tanks were employed for the first time, Pollard’s flight was assigned to them on co-operation duties:

‘The Contact Patrol’s machines simply reported their movements by message dropping and by fuller reports on landing. As far as I could see on 15 September the tanks did not do much material damage, but seemed to encourage our infantry, who advanced behind them. At the end of the day most of them were out of action in the Flers sector, though whether as a result of enemy action or mechanical breakdown I do not know. A fast moving tank directed by an aeroplane should be an invaluable weapon in the future, if warfare is of a similar nature.’

In January 1917, the Squadron moved to Lavieville, a little nearer the frontline line, but in March Pollard returned home to take up appointment as C.O. of No. 81 Squadron, a training unit - ‘There were many crashes, some of them with fatal results, due principally I think to the necessity for producing pilots quickly’. Pollard concluded his report:

‘I do not think training will ever be as improved in the future as it was from 1914 to 1918 as probably during the next war most men will be able to fly, much in the same way as nearly everyone can drive a car nowadays. The important part of the work will then be the ground training and possibly the teaching of fighting tactics.’

Post-war, Pollard served as an Instructor at the Central Flying School until attending the Staff College at Andover in mid-1924. In the following year he was posted to Hinaidi in Iraq, where he took command of No. 6 Armoured Car Company, but he was killed in a transit flight bound for Kirkuk on 26 July, when his Vickers-Vernon plunged into the store shed as a result of engine failure on take-off; sold with a file of related research, including a photocopy of his report to the Air Ministry, dated in July 1924, and MIC entry confirmation of his sole entitlement to the British War and Victory Medals.