Captain Albert Ball VC

[Mark]

"Brave Captain" from the Big Big Train album release, "Grimspound"

A statue of a young man
Defiantly stands
Glove held in left hand
With an Angel close by his shoulder

At the stroke of midnight
When no one's in sight
Beneath the floodlights
What does she whisper?
What has he told her?

Sunshine through the leaves
Back in '73
With my parents and we
Were eating ice cream
In the shade of the old trees

I asked "Who was he?"
My Dad said to me
"Although he was only twenty
He was a hero who'd died for his country"

Well, you should have seen me
Who would believe me now?
Racing around the castle grounds
Wild imagination in full flight
My arms stretched wide
I'll be a brave Captain of the Skies

You were a flying ace
From the history books
Thrilling deeds and dashing looks
Fulfilling your destiny
Simply doing your duty
For King and Country

You were the poster boy
Who shunned your own fame
Who didn't take to the accolades
Even when propaganda
Screamed your name
You believed celebrity to be nonsense
You were a loner, a solitary man
Practical minded
And good with your hands
Your letters sent home
Revealed, this weapon had a conscience

Until at long last your plane emerges
From out of the low cloud
Inverted
Flying upside-down
Too close to the ground to recover
Heading earthbound
No engine sound
Black smoke trailing
Silently falling down
Brave Captain of the Skies

Brave Captain of the Skies

 

 

These are the lyrics of the first track from the "Grimspound" album by the English prog rock band, Big Big Train. After hearing the album on its release, I'm now inspired to do the WnW 1/32 SE.5a as an aircraft flown by Capt. Ball.

 

with such a famous 'Ace' you'd be forgiven to have expected loads of references and decals available, but my own search has revealed very little.

 

Do any of my wise colleagues know of any suitable decals and accurate (as much is as possible with WWI subjects) information or profiles for his SE.5a?

 

 

[Beardie]

As for decals, sadly,  I don't think there are any for the SE.5a in 1/32 scale. If I recall correctly there is one of the 1/32 Nieuport 16 kits (produced by Amodel) which includes decals for a machine used by Albert Ball. I have had a quick glance around the internet and there is a fair amount of information on Albert Ball available although not a lot of profiles.

 

Not much help I'm afraid.

[Bear Paw]

Hi Mark, from what I have read Captain Albert Ball VC definitely seems to have been an atypical man of his time. He cam from an ordinary background and had prodigious talents. 

The track above has fine sentiments I will leave the judgement of the music to others.    

Andrew. 

[AWFK10]

Ball was killed before the SE5a entered service; the aircraft he flew with 56 Sqn was A'4850, a modified SE5 from the first production batch. There's a profile here but it's not entirely accurate - here's the real thing. What isn't apparent from the photo is that Ball had removed the fuselage Vickers gun - which the profile shows mounted in its standard location - and replaced it with a second Lewis firing down through the cockpit floor. As built, apart from having the large and unpopular windscreen, the first batch of SE5s also had a gravity tank above the centre section. Ball had both removed, compensating for the loss of fuel capacity by having a petrol tank inserted in the fuselage forward of the cockpit. When he was told to get rid of the useless downward-firing Lewis and put the Vickers gun back, it could no longer be fitted in the standard position, so it was mounted externally on top of the fuselage. This can be seen in a rather fuzzy photo of Ball in the cockpit of A'4850, taken by a bystander when he landed at another squadron's aerodrome on 6 May 1917, the day before he was killed: the photo also shows that by that stage the aircraft had been fitted with long exhaust pipes, similar to those fitted to the SPAD VII. Also, there's some evidence that the very tip of the nose was painted red by the time of Ball's last flight.

Edited August 29, 2017 by AWFK10
Bad memory!

[Mr T]

Interesting lyrics and I presume they refer to the statue of Albert Ball in the grounds of Nottingham Castle. The museum there has a small exhibit dedicated to him with a few surviving items including his VC. My grandmother lived near him as a child and knew him and so I have always been interested in him. 

[keefr22]

Mark,

 

The old Profile Publlication on the SE5 has a port side profile of A4850, stated to be Ball's aeroplane - there's an on line copy here;

 

http://www.boxartden.com/gallery/index.php/Profiles/Aircraft-Profiles/Britain/WW1/RAF-SE-5-103/RAF-SE5-103-_Page_11-960

 

I haven't looked through the rest of the pages, so don't know if there's a photo....

 

Keith

[AWFK10]

It is Ball's SE5, at London Colney as the caption says - you can see the muzzle of the Lewis gun set up to fire down through the bottom of the fuselage, in between the undercarriage struts. There are three photos on Page 7.

 

I've found an online copy of the last photo of Ball in A'4850, showing the SPAD exhaust pipes and the externally-mounted Vickers.