James McCudden’s account:
“By now, having flown a good deal with major Hewitt, I intensely disliked ever going up with anyone else, for I can assure you that I knew when I was flying with a safe pilot…… on December 30, 1915, I went up with a sergeant Bayetto to escort some B.E.2c’s of No.2 Squadron who were going to bomb Douai aerodrome. However the weather became very cloudy, and we returned west above the clouds. We were above the clouds for about 10 minutes, and so I told the pilot to go down, and as we saw the ground under the clouds we found we were over a slag heap half a mile from our aerodrome. I need not add that this was much more by luck than judgement.”
P83 Flying Fury, James McCudden VC
.