Victor Maslin Yeates
General
Victor Maslin Yeates, was born in England on 30 September 1897.
In May 1917 he joined the RFC and, after training was posted to 46 Squadron in France in February 1918.
On 3 May 1918 he scored his first victory(a 2 seater of unknown type), following this with the capture of a DFW 2 seater on 6 May, a Pfalz DIII on 15 May and another unknown 2 seater on the 22 May. His 5th, and final, victory was a Fokker DVII on 3 August. He was a deputy Flight Commander by mid 1918. During his war service, Lieutenant V.M.Yeates often flew with Captain
D.R. MacLaren sharing two victories with him. Yeates went on to write a novel closely based upon his experiences in 46 Squadron called Winged Victory, one of the best books ever written about WW1 flying.Yeates was one of the RFC/RAFs relatively rare married pilots. His health suffered as a result of his war service and, after writing his book, he died of tuberculosis(known as Flying sickness D) on 15 December 1934.
Tragically, Yeates never knew of the success of his book and died thinking it a failure. WW1 was not a popular theme for novels in the 1930's but the coming of WW2 saw a resurgence of interest and Yeates's book became much sought after, especially by WW2 aircrew who were known to pay up to five pounds sterling for a copy(this represented almost a week's wages in 1940). The novel has been reprinted numerous times since and is one of the definitive texts on life in the RFC during WW1.
Yeates was not a hugely successful pilot compared to others like
MacLaren, Bishop, McCudden or Mannock. Yet, he survived 9 months of war flying in Sopwith Camels, much of which involved infantry support at low altitude over the trenches, when the average life of a pilot was counted in weeks or days. In many ways he typifies the unknown airmen of WW1, the thousands who risked their lives daily flying frail machines in a dangerous environment yet received little or no recognition or fame. From reading his book you can see that he did this in spite of fear on a daily basis. It is often said that some men have no fear but that true heroes are those who overcome their fears to do what needs to be done. Yeates was certainly one of those.Information researched so far, only records the aircraft flown in three of Yeates's missions during the war. In each of these he flew a different machine. Serial C1637 on 3 May 1918, D6565 on 15 May and D9405 on 3 August. If anyone has any photographs, colour profiles or other information on any of these three serial numbered Camels, the Squadron would greatly appreciate a copy. Email to
rfc46_squad@yahoo.com
More Info:
Winged Victory