page_title: Keith Caldwell
section_title: No. 74 Squadron RAF
hierarchical_section_title: Keith Caldwell / No. 74 Squadron RAF
caption_attribution_description: James McCudden's SE5a.
context_page_description: Air Commodore Keith Logan "Grid" Caldwell CBE, MC, DFC & Bar was a New Zealand fighter ace of the Royal Flying Corps in World War I who also rose to the rank of Air Commodore in the Royal New Zealand Air Force during World War II.
context_section_description: In March 1918 he was promoted to Major and given command of 74 "Tiger" squadron equipped with the SE5A, which he took to France on 30 March. Under Caldwell's guidance the squadron claimed a creditable 140 aircraft destroyed and 85 'out of control' in the remaining eight months of the war, for a modest 15 pilots killed or prisoner. Caldwell fought his last combat on 30 October 1918, claiming his 9th Fokker D.VII. Altogether he is credited with 11 aircraft destroyed, 2 shared destroyed, 1 shared captured, and 10 and 1 shared 'out of control'.  Virtually all of his victims were single-seat scouts.  He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in December 1918, the citation being "A fine fighting airman of courage and determination. On 4th September, when on offensive patrol, he, in company with another machine, attacked four Fokker biplanes; one of these was driven down by this officer. He has accounted for five enemy machines."
  Although never shot down, he once survived a mid air collision with his 74 Sqn colleague Sydney Carlin, nursing his crippled aircraft to ground level before climbing out of the cockpit and jumping clear as it crashed. Caldwell fought inconclusive dogfights with German Aces Werner Voss and Hermann Becker. A natural pilot with excellent eyesight and a talent for finding enemy aircraft, Caldwell's weakness was that, as a poor shot, he frequently was unable to destroy the aircraft he engaged—a flaw that stopped him joining the ranks of top Allied aces in which he moved. He knew James McCudden, flew with Albert Ball in 60 Squadron and commanded Mick Mannock in 74 squadron.
  A common story is that while an instructor, Caldwell disciplined Mannock for "showboating" in a DH2—and then chose the talented pilot for his squadron. This appears chronologically implausible, although Caldwell obviously admired Mannock and may have hand-picked him. Caldwell also criticised Mannock for shooting two German airmen who had crash landed behind Allied lines. He wrote: "The Hun crashed but not badly, and most people would have been content with this—but not Mick Mannock. He dived half a dozen times at the machine, spraying bullets at the pilot and observer, who were still showing signs of life...On being questioned as to his wild behaviour after we had landed, he heatedly replied, 'The swines are better dead—no prisoners for me!'".
caption: Se5a
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