MRAF Sir John Slessor action in Sudan
On May 23 1916, Lt (later MRAF) John Slessor of 17 Sqn was in action in the Sudan and was wounded in the thigh. He managed to return to base and the offending bullet was recovered. It is mounted on a small wooden base marked with his initials (JCS), place, date and aircraft number. It also bears the initials WFF. Does anyone know what or to whom this refers? https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....610331922.jpeg |
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Probably the Western Frontier Force (WFF) organised by Sir Reginald Wingate, British commander of the Egyptian Army in 1915 for a British offensive against the Sultanate of Dafur to the west of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.
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Diameter of bullet
This might sound a bit macabre, but what is the diameter of the bullet? From what I can see in the photo, it looks quite large - possibly 600/1000" Minie-style round used by rifled muskets and early breachloaders such as the Snider Enfield .577 or similar sized Martini-Enfields (both which were abundance in that region in that time)
If so, it means that Sir John Slessor was hit by a black powder musket round whilst flying a then state of the art aircraft! That would be a rare, possibly unique, event, akin to, say, a Typhoon pilot being taken out by a single SLR round. |
Shades of the opening scene to Air America (1990). |
Originally Posted by Peter G-W
(Post 10533016)
Shades of the opening scene to Air America (1990). |
I'd forgotten I'd already done a piece here om PPRuNe way back in 2016 about Slessor's flying in the Sudan, including a contemporary press cutting from The Times about his wounding in Sudan.
It can be read here: https://www.pprune.org/military-avia...ml#post9474753 |
Originally Posted by Whenurhappy
(Post 10532616)
This might sound a bit macabre, but what is the diameter of the bullet? From what I can see in the photo, it looks quite large - possibly 600/1000" Minie-style round used by rifled muskets and early breachloaders such as the Snider Enfield .577 or similar sized Martini-Enfields (both which were abundance in that region in that time)
If so, it means that Sir John Slessor was hit by a black powder musket round whilst flying a then state of the art aircraft! That would be a rare, possibly unique, event, akin to, say, a Typhoon pilot being taken out by a single SLR round. |
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Originally Posted by Warmtoast
(Post 10532538)
Probably the Western Frontier Force (WFF) organised by Sir Reginald Wingate, British commander of the Egyptian Army in 1915 for a British offensive against the Sultanate of Dafur to the west of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.
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Originally Posted by Bratman91
(Post 10534458)
I last saw the bullet about 5 years ago and, from memory, it was around .5 inch diameter. Sir John was bombing a fairly large force of Darfur soldiers and was flying low enough to recognise their leader and blow him and his camel to bits. Actually, it turned out that it wasn’t the leader but Sir John must have been pretty low and I imagine that large numbers of troops were firing at him, so it is not surprising that at least one round hit the aircraft. The bullet was recovered from Sir John’s thigh, which probably indicates a poor propellant like black powder. |
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