Bristol Fighter, pilots and observers of No.22 Squadron, RAF, Vert Galland, 1 April 1918 [IWM Neg. No.: Q11993]

The combat debut of the two-seat Bristol Fighter during the Battle of Arras in April 1917 was far from auspicious. Four out of six aircraft from No.48 Squadron were shot down on their first patrol by five German fighters led by Manfred von Richthoven, the famous Red Baron.

The Royal Flying Corps crews had used the standard two-seater tactic of leaving the observer to defend the aircraft but when the British pilots began to fly the aircraft as it it were a single-seat fighter and used the forward-firing Vickers gun to full effect, the 'Brisfit' was extremely effective.

The Royal Air Force was formed on 1 April 1918 and it was Bristol fighters of No.22 Squadron that flew the first sortie of the new Service. When production of the Bristol Fighter ceased in 1927 more than 5,250 had been built and in the post-war role of army co-operation the type served in Britain and overseas until 1932. Bristol Fighters were attached to the Duxford-based Cambridge University Air Squadron well into the 1930s.