Paul Hartley Raney

Infobox Person
name =Paul Hartley Raney


image_size =200px
caption =Paul H. Raney, c.1914
birth_date =birth date|1892|12|25|df=y
birth_place =Toronto, Ontario
death_date =death date and age|1917|8|21|1892|12|25|df=y
death_place =Killed in Action; Roulers, Belgium
occupation =Fighter pilot
parents =Hon. William Edgar Raney, KC Jessie Amelia Raney.

2nd Lieutenant Paul Hartley Raney (1892-1917) was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on Christmas Day, December 25th, 1892, the son of the Hon. William Edgar Raney, KC and Jessie Amelia Raney. He attended West Toronto Public School, St. Andrew's College from 1906 to 1908, and Oakwood Collegiate. He studied Applied Science from 1910 onwards, graduating with a degree in Civil Engineering at the University of Toronto in 1914. Raney enlisted in the First World War, training to become a fighter pilot. After a very short tour of duty, he was shot down and killed in action on August 21, 1917.

Royal Flying Corps Service

In February 1917, Paul Raney enlisted in the Royal Flying Corps. Training at Camp Borden, Ontario, he crossed the Atlantic to England aboard the "Magnatic" in May. Raney attended final flight and combat training in England, earning his wings in mid-June. In early July, Raney arrived in France, at the reserve camp, or as it was called "Pool Pilots Mess", which was where new recruits were stationed before "an opening" appeared at active Squadrons. Raney was posted to 66th Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps, then operating at Estreé Blanche in the Ypres area. Arriving in mid-July, Raney began active duty.

At the time, 66th Squadron was equipped with the stable, easy to fly, yet underpowered Sopwith Pup. This aircraft, though an excellent trainer, was relatively outclassed by the mainstream German opponents that were then in the air. In June-August 1917, the Albatros D.III and Albatros D.V were the main fighters of the German airforce. Although nimble and maneuverable, the Pup was nowhere near as fast or powerful as its opponents, and could not hope to outpace or outclimb them. As well, the Pup was equipped with one synchronized Vickers machine gun, while the German planes featured two or more synchronized Spandau machine guns. Although other British Squadrons were equipped with the better fighters that were available, 66th Squadron would have to make due with its Pups until later in the year when they would be outfitted with the much more deadly Sopwith Camels.

Raney's short tour of duty, commencing mid-July 1917 (and lasting just over a month), consisted of unrelenting patrols over enemy territory. Usually two or more per day, early morning and evening, at about an hour and a half to two and a half hours a piece. Wings of two to ten fighters would take off, cross over to enemy territory, and carry out the Allied mandate of air superiority by "keeping the Germans on the defensive".

On July 28th, Raney's friend from training in Canada, 2nd Lieutenant Patrick A. O'Brien, reported for duty at 66th Squadron. Raney and O'Brien were delighted at sharing the same Squadron, and the two became the best of friends. Raney flew in the formation of O'Brien's first flight over the front lines on August 12th - as O'Brien noted, he was "taken over the lines to get a look at things". At dawn the next day (13th of August) both of them flew in formation for O'Brian's first practice flight with the Sopwith Pup, arriving back at the aerodrome around 8:40AM. O'Brien would later fly his first combat patrol over enemy territory the same day, which probably was the case with Raney when he had arrived mid-July.

On the 16th of August, patrol leader Angus Bell-Irving led Raney, O'Brien and three other pilots on the first patrol of the day. (Pilot) Lascelles dropped out of the formation around 9:00AM with gun problems, landing at 1st Squadron’s aerodrome at Bailleul (Asylum Ground). 30 minutes later, O'Brien dropped out of the patrol, landing at 100th Squadron’s aerodrome at Treizennes with engine trouble. He departed 100th Squadron at 11:30AM arriving back at 66th Squadron at 1:50PM.

On August 17th, Patrick O'Brien did not return from his evening patrol over German lines, and was declared missing (O'Brien, after shooting down a D type scout, sustained a gunshot wound to his neck, subsequently losing consciousness. His plane spun down out of control, crashed, and O'Brien was pulled from the wreckage alive, becoming a prisoner of war that evening, and taken to a prisoner's hospital). As Raney's best friend in France, he was quite troubled by the event. After no word on O'Brien for three days, Raney signed for Pat’s personnel belongings and sent them back to Cox & Co, the airforce (RFC) Bankers in England.

Death

On August 21st, 1917, at the age of 24, Raney took off in his assigned Sopwith Pup, B2177 (which had arrived on strength just three days earlier), with five other pilots in their evening patrol over enemy territory. Although unconfirmed, it seems likely that the squadron was trying to comb the general area where O'Brien may have been patrolling when he went missing.

The only information of Raney's last momments comes from O'Brien himself, as he witnessed and later wrote in his intruiging novel about his entire wartime experiences: being shot down, captured, and escaping Germany and Belgium into Holland.

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From "Outwitting The Hun" (1918), by Pat O'Brien (Harper & Brothers Publishers: New York, London)

"From my hospital bed as prisoner in Germany, I was musing over the melancholy phase of the scout's life when an orderly told me there was a beautiful battle going on in the air, and he volunteered to help me outside the hospital that I might witness it, and I readily accepted his assistance. That afternoon I saw one of the gamest flights I ever expect to witness.

There were six of our machines against perhaps sixteen Huns. From the type of the British machines, I knew that they might possibly be from my own aerodrome. Two of our machines had been apparently picked out by six of the Huns and were bearing the brunt of the fight. The contest seemed to me to be so unequal that victory for our men was hardly to be thought of, and yet at one time they so completely outmaneuvered the Huns that I thought their superior skill might save the day for them, despite the fact that they were so hopelessly outnumbered. One thing I was sure of; they would never give in.

Of course it would have been a comparatively simple matter for our men, when they saw how things were going against them, to have turned their noses down, landed behind the German lines, and given themselves up as prisoner, but that is not the way of the R.F.C. A battle of this kind seldom lasts many minutes, although every second seems like an hour to those who participate in it and even onlookers suffer more thrills in the course of the struggle than they would ordinarily experience in a lifetime. It is apparent even to a novice that the loser's fate is death.

Of course the Germans around the hospital were all watching and rooting for their comrades, but the English, too, had one sympathizer in that group who made no effort to stifle his admiration for the bravery his comrades were displaying. The end came suddenly. Four machines crashed to earth almost simultaneously. It was an even break--two of theirs and two of ours. The others apparently returned to their respective lines.

The wound in my mouth was bothering me considerably, but by means of a pencil and paper I requested one of the German officers to find out for me who the English officers were who had been shot down. - A little later he returned and handed me a photograph taken from the body of one of the victims. It was a picture of Paul Raney, of Toronto, and myself, taken together! Poor Raney! He was the best friend I had and one of the best and gamest men who ever fought in France!"

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A photo of Raney and O'Brien was therefore found on Raney's body, and given to O'Brien by the Germans. When Raney did not return from his patrol, a letter was dispatched two days later to his family in Canada, stating that he had gone missing. A letter later arrived from Patrick O'Brien, detailing their son's ultimate fate. O'Brien escaped from Courtnai prison in Belgium and wrote that he later visited Raney's parents in Toronto to bring them a map of his grave site. He preserved this map through a difficult escape which included swimming through canals. The map and the location have been lost, however, and his grave near Roulers, Belgium, wherever it is, remains unmarked.

From a technical standpoint, six Sopwith Pups against sixteen of any armed enemy aircraft would be a nearly hopeless situation, especially when Raney and his comrades were fighting what were likely (from the German squadrons stationed in the area) the more powerful Albatros D.IIIs and D.Vs. Outnumbered, outclassed, and outgunned, it is inspiring that the squadron even attempted resistance. An unconfirmed source suggests that Raney possibly went down as the result of gunnery by a Lieutenant Alfred Welss of Jasta (Squadron) 28.

He is remembered on the Arras Memorial in the Faubourg-d'Amiens Cemetery, France. The Flying Services Memorial commemorates over 1,000 men of the Royal Naval Air Service, the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Air Force, who have no known grave.

External links

* [http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers/sub.cfm?source=collections/virtualmem/Detail&casualty=1620141 PAUL HARTLEY RANEY - Veterans Affairs Canada]
* [http://kilby.sac.on.ca/ActivitiesClubs/cadets/History/MilitaryOldBoys/WWI/RaneyPaul.html Second Lieutenant P. H. Raney SAC 1906-1908]
* [http://www.earlyaviators.com/eraney.htm earlyaviators.com]