IT STANDS out of as a glimmer of humanity amid the horror of the Western Front.
Two British airmen failed to return from a patrol over enemy territory, their fate unknown, until a German aircraft took a perilous mission over the British lines to drop a note confirming their deaths.
But that was not the only act of gallantry extended to Sydney Sutcliffe, 24, and Justin McKenna, 21. For, back behind the German lines, the two second lieutenants were also granted a funeral with full military honours.
Other British servicemen, imprisoned nearby, were permitted to attend, along with senior German officers.
Photographs of the burial were taken and sent to the men’s families. The Germans also ensured that an account of the pair’s heroic deeds – in a dogfight in which they were heavily outnumbered – got back to the British.
The dead men’s treatment at the hands of the Germans reflects the code of honour observed by airmen of both sides during the war. The chivalry was not so easily expressed on the front line, where the two sides were in closer proximity and the number of deaths much higher.
The tale has emerged in response to an appeal by The Sunday Telegraph for readers to share their stories of the First World War, as we publish a series of supplements dedicated to the conflict.
One of hundreds to get in touch is Tony Roberts, 80, from Horley, Surrey, who is Sutcliffe’s nephew. He had grown up knowing no details about
The funeral with full military honours of Lts Justin McKenna and Sydney Sutcliffe. British PoWs were among the mourners
his uncle’s fate but, decades later, he began to do some research and was able to piece together what had happened after the two officers took off on their final flight.
Sutcliffe, the son of a seaside entertainer, and McKenna, the nephew of a wartime chancellor of the Exchequer, both from 11 Squadron, took off along with other British aircraft at 4.45pm on October 2 1917 from La Bellevue airfield, near Arras, for a “distant offensive patrol” over enemy territory.
They were in the Bristol F2B biplane A7138, with McKenna piloting and Sutcliffe as observer and gunner. On their way back to base, just over an hour later, the flight encountered a group of German planes over Wasnes-au-Bac, near Cambrai. The British flight split up and the others returned to base safely but A7138 did not and none of the other airmen had seen what had happened to it.
The men’s families were told they were missing until, the following month, their deaths were announced.
In the National Archives, Mr Roberts found a letter, written in February 1919, by a British soldier who had just returned from captivity in Germany. Sgt T Nixon, from the East Lancs Regiment, wrote to the officer in charge of 11 Squadron to say that he had been held at a camp at Bouchain, near Cambrai, in October 1917 and had seen the British aircraft pass over the camp, heading towards the British lines when seven enemy aircraft attacked, isolating the rear British one.
“Then the great air battle began, seven of the enemy against that of one British,” he wrote.
Sgt Nixon recounts that the battle lasted between 15 and 20 minutes and that the Brit- ish aircraft was able to send four of the German aircraft “to their doom” until, “finally, the three remaining German machines with their machine gunfire brought it to the ground in pieces”.
Sgt Nixon said that he and several other prisoners went to the funeral, with “a great number of German flying officers”.
After the ceremony, he was approached by the German flight commander who had paid tribute to the airmen’s bravery at the graveside. He asked him to make special mention of the “brave fight” to the Royal Flying Corps.
German military records show that the “kill” was credited to Vizefeldwebel Hans Oberlander, from Jagdstaffel 30 (Royal Prussian) squadron, flying an Albatros fighter. He was wounded in September 1918 but survived the war, having shot down six British aircraft.
Mr Roberts does not believe the information from Sgt Nixon was ever passed on to his grandparents but, following his mother’s death, a photograph of the funeral was found in her possessions.
Another elderly relative told him that it was thought to have been sent to the family by a German from the squadron who had been present at the burial.
Mr Roberts, a former aviation worker, said: “I never knew anything of the story growing up. I think my mother and grandmother found it so traumatic. I just started digging into the background after I retired.
“You can’t help but think about the war, and how many men were killed, and yet, for these two airmen, people went to all this trouble.
“I suspect that the war in the air could be a bit more gentlemanly than the war below. It just seems that there was a touch of humanity amid such an awful war.”
Sutcliffe, from Llandudno, had volunteered in September 1914, a month after the outbreak of the war, and served, initially, with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, serving at Ypres and on the Somme. He received the Military Medal in 1916, for his actions during a gas attack by the Germans, near Wulvergem. He later transferred to the Royal Flying Corps.
Mr Roberts did not know anything about McKenna but research by The Sunday Telegraph found that he was born in March 1896 in Marylebone, London, the son of a solicitor and nephew of Reginald McKenna, a Liberal MP who served as home secretary from 1911 to 1915 and then chancellor until 1916.
McKenna had worked as a “satirical draughtsman” before signing up and had been involved in a publication called Hun Hunters. Before joining the RFC, he served with the King’s Royal Rifle Corps. He was killed on one of his first flights in France.
His niece, born 14 years after his death, is Virginia McKenna, the actress and wildlife campaigner. When contacted, she said that she had named her second son after her uncle.
“I always felt it was such a tragedy someone so fine and young was killed at the start of his life,” she said.
After the war, both McKenna and Sutcliffe were reinterred at Cabaret-Rouge cemetery, near Arras.
As planning for the centenary takes place, The Sunday Telegraph is continuing its Lest We Forget campaign to ensure the country’s memorials are in a fitting state for the anniversary.