KIRSTY ELSON'S BIPLANE MODEL & WORLD WAR 1 FLECHETTES...

Biplane & Flechettes…

 A pair of fixed wooden wings

Are certainly made to measure

To the very inch indeed;

Bent nails form the wheels and tail,

Whilst a screw-top propeller

Turns at its leisure,

Attached to a worn fuselage-

A fishing float, of all things;

But the whole is a biplane,

Constructed from treasures…

Evil arrows of tough steel,

Were cruelly crafted to kill,

Every inch a weapon indeed;

Like designer shrapnel at trenches aimed,

Whilst a spinning propeller

Spluttered through hell…

Flechettes fell from the fuselage-

Its exposed covering fabric sealed;

But the whole was a biplane,

Maiming at will…

Pete Ray

July 2017

Kirsty Elson’s biplane model made me think of how these aircraft were used so dangerously during World War 1.

Love the nails for wheels, the fishing float for a fuselage and especially the wooden ruler pieces for the fixed wings.  

I understand that French and British aviators in biplanes dropped batches of flechettes, or five inch steel darts or arrows from canisters onto German trenches, even onto airships, although the damage to those was minimal.

The problem was accuracy. However it was believed that if one struck a soldier it could pierce both helmet and skull.

It was said that British aviators were ‘too gentlemanly’ to want to use flechettes…

One test involved dropping flechettes onto a cow and apparently the animal was pierced and an arrow passed through its body, before the creature fell dead.

When the Germans used them, they labelled the flechettes:

‘INVENTION FRANCAIS.

FABRICATION ALLEMANDE’

So, invented in France and made in Germany…

KIRSTY ELSON'S GREAT MODEL...

FLECHETTES...

ARTISTIC IMPRESSION...

...& AGAIN...

BEING DROPPED...