page_title: Oswald Watt
section_title: World War I
hierarchical_section_title: Oswald Watt / World War I
caption_attribution_description: Captain Oswald Watt, an English-born Australian aviator who was a member of the French Foreign Legion before joining the Australian Flying Corps.
context_page_description: Walter Oswald Watt, OBE was an Australian aviator and businessman. The son of a Scottish-Australian merchant and politician, he was born in England and moved to Sydney when he was one year old, returning to Britain at the age of eleven for education at Bristol and Cambridge. In 1900 he went back to Australia and enlisted in the Militia, before acquiring cattle stations in New South Wales and Queensland. He was also a partner in the family shipping firm.
  The first Australian to qualify for a Royal Aero Club flying certificate, in 1911, Watt joined the French Foreign Legion as a pilot on the outbreak of World War I. He transferred to the Australian Flying Corps in 1916, quickly progressing from flight commander with No. 1 Squadron in Egypt to commanding officer of No. 2 Squadron on the Western Front. By February 1918, he had been promoted to lieutenant colonel and taken command of the AFC's 1st Training Wing in England.
  A recipient of France's Legion of Honour and Croix de Guerre, and twice mentioned in despatches during the war, Watt was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1919.
context_section_description: In May 1914, the francophile Watt left Egypt with his aeroplane and took up employment at the Blériot factory and airfield in Buc, outside Paris. Fired by the widely held conviction that Britain would stay out of a European conflict, Watt offered his services and his plane to the French government on 2 August, the day France declared war on Germany. This gesture was welcomed and he joined the Aviation Militaire section of the Foreign Legion as a pilot. Though he was ranked an ordinary soldier, his colleagues in Bleriot Squadron No. 30 referred to him as "Capitaine" in deference to his previous status in the Australian Militia. Posted to Maurice Farman Squadron No. 44 in April 1915, he earned the Legion of Honour badge after he and his observer crash-landed in no man's land and succeeded in making their way back to French lines with valuable intelligence under intense fire from German positions. Soon afterwards, Watt was awarded the Croix de Guerre—with palm leaves personally presented by General Joffre—and promoted to the provisional rank of captain. As a foreigner, however, he was not eligible to command a French unit. Watt always proclaimed his antipodean connection while serving France, painting a kangaroo on the nose of his plane, which he named Advance Australia. Considered a no-nonsense type, he once introduced himself to a British pilot with the words "I am an Australian and I haven't got any manners".
  The French recognised that Watt's talents were not being fully utilised due to his ineligibility to lead a squadron, and recommended that he transfer to the Australian Flying Corps. Watt did so on 1 March 1916, with the rank of captain. Posted to Egypt in May, he was made commander of B Flight, No. 1 Squadron, and took charge of the unit's first contingent of Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2s the following month. No. 1 Squadron was engaged mainly in aerial reconnaissance and army co-operation duties, but the two-seat B.E.2 proved inferior to German Fokkers and Rumplers in speed, time-to-climb, and manoeuvrability.  In September 1916, Watt was promoted to major and given command of No. 2 Squadron, which was formed in Kantara. He was mentioned in despatches by General Archibald Murray, Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, on 13 October; the commendation was promulgated in the London Gazette on 1 December. No. 2 Squadron's personnel was composed largely of former Lighthorsemen, as well as thirteen mechanics from the Australian Flying Corps' first combat formation, the Mesopotamian Half Flight, led by Flight Sergeant George Mackinolty. Watt personally trained the force in England commencing in January 1917, before deploying it to the Western Front that September.  He was "a born leader of men", according to one officer, while another recalled that "In the things that mattered, his men knew he stood for absolute obedience. They also knew that when discipline could be safely relaxed he would be quick to grant them some relief from the strain."
  In the vicinity of Saint-Quentin on 2 October, No. 2 Squadron became the first AFC unit in Europe to see aerial combat when one of its patrols engaged some German two-seaters, which managed to escape. Because the Airco DH.5s in the squadron were handicapped as fighters by engine problems and low speed, the squadron was employed mainly in ground support duties. During the Battle of Cambrai that commenced on 20 November 1917, Watt led his pilots on daring low-level bombing and strafing attacks against enemy fortifications and lines of communication. Their loss rate reached 30%, but morale remained high. After visiting the squadron, the Royal Flying Corps' Major General Hugh Trenchard described its airmen as "really magnificent" while Charles Bean, war correspondent and future editor of the Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918, commented on their "remarkably high level of conduct and general tone". Six of Watt's officers were awarded the Military Cross for gallantry during the battle, prompting General Sir William Birdwood to send him a personal message 
caption: Watt in the Aviation Militaire
exif: {}