E C Cramp: photograph album

A machine gun emplaced on a fixed mounting to serve as an anti-aircraft weapon in case of raids by German or Bulgarian planes against the Stavros air base.

The Stavros air station received visits from German aircraft on more than one occasion during the war, including on 10 February 1917, when a “hostile machine of Albatross type” was reported to have approached the base. The raider was chased off by Flight Lieutenant C. E. Wood and his observer 2nd Lieutenant E. P. Hyde flying Nieuport fighter No. N 3175. After a prolonged pursuit and exchange of fire, Wood and Hyde reported the Albatross “dived steeply emitting dense volumes of black smoke” before being lost to sight.

The base was also visited by enemy aircraft in late June the same year, when three planes attempted to bomb the field’s supply dumps, though the raiders were again beaten off, this time without loss to either side.

(Source: RNAS Weekly Operational Reports, British Aegean Squadron, for 1917)