Adam Claasen, author of Grid: The life and times of First World War fighter ace Keith Caldwell, answers the Author Q&A for Sunday Star-Times:
‘Of all the stories you must have uncovered as a military historian, why did you choose Keith ‘Grid’ Caldwell's?
Caldwell was born in Wellington, raised in Cambridge in a well-known New Zealand business family, and attended Wanganui Collegiate School. He undertook his initial flight training in Auckland and went on to become the nation’s leading fighter pilot and its most successful squadron commander of the war.
In a service in which many men’s lives were counted in days, the longevity of his career is remarkable. Caldwell survived six crash landings and is said to have survived more aerial battles than any other British air service airman, including against members of Manfred von Richthofen’s Flying Circus.
What was your favourite part of the experience of researching for this book?
I really enjoyed interviewing Caldwell’s descendants. All had strong memories and filled gaps in the story. They also furnished me with significant documents, including a vast treasure trove of letters, official documents and photographs.
As part of my research I flew in the very same model machine in which Grid took to the sky in during his first posting: a Royal Aircraft Factory BE2c. I flew as a passenger with a Vintage Aviator Limited pilot as we were ‘attacked’ by the most feared German machine of the war, the Fokker DVII, over Wairarapa farmland. It was both a thrilling and a terrifying experience.
What can Grid's story offer readers today?
Caldwell was the product of a vast empire-wide schooling system that was designed to prepare young men to advance the interests of King, country and God. Physical fitness and sporting activities were, in the eyes of the school’s masters, as important as what was learnt in the classroom and chapel.
Grid’s life exemplified all these qualities, but he also had a healthy distaste for self-promotion. I was constantly struck by his devotion to his men on the Western Front and his willingness to place his own life in danger to extricate a trapped and outnumbered comrade from swarming German machines. On at least two occasions he deliberately re-entered a dogfight with his machine guns not working, diving at the enemy to distract them. On both occasions he saved an empire airman from almost certain death. One was the Canadian Billy Bishop, who wrote later that it was one of the bravest things he had ever seen.’
Read the rest of the Q&A here.
