12 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps

No 12 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps, was formed at Netheravon on 14 February 1915, out of a flight of No 1 Squadron. The original intention was that one flight should have Avro 504s and the other, Moranes.

The Avros arrived, but by April of that year, the Squadron was completely equipped with BE 2cs, using the Avros only for training.

Work up for France commenced and on 6 September, 12 Squadron arrived at St Omer to become Headquarters squadron for long-range reconnaissance. It flew its first operation, a photographic reconnaissance mission of the Hanbourdin-Seclin-Lille-Roubaix area, on 9 September.

Three days later, the squadron scored its first 'kill' when, flying an 80 HP Gnome-engined Bristol Scout, Captain Strange, C Flight Commander, drove down a German aircraft over Comines.

Although never intended for armour, as the war escalated the BE2c carried a variety of weapons and soon found a role as a light-medium bomber.

Most of the two-seat aircraft carried a single mounted Lewis Gun for the observer in the front cockpit mounted on pipes designed by Capt. L.A Strange. These became known as "Strange Mounts" and were often in place in different locations. Lieutenant-Colonel L. A. Strange, officer commanding 80th Wing, Royal Air Force author of Recollections of an Airman 1933

Faces of the First World War

Find out more about this First World War Centenary project at www.1914.org/faces.

This image is from IWM Collections.

• The Museum released this image on a custom licence - IWM Non-Commercial license. However where the photograph has no known author, these are public domain under the 70 rule and where they were owned by the Ministry of Information, any other government department or agency, taken by a member of the military during their service or by a photographer commissioned by the services, these are now out of copyright restriction.