1/48 Sopwith Camel 43sq

CORGI
1/48 Sopwith Camel, RAF No.43 Sqn, Henry Winslow Woollett, Spring 1918, #AA38104

Henry Woollett began the war serving in the Lincolnshire Regiment and fought at Gallipoli in 1915. In 1916 he transferred to the RFC and quickly gained a reputation as a fearless balloon busting pilot. He returned to England in 1917 to work as a flight instructor but returned to the front in March 1918 and served with No. 43 Sqn RFC.

On 12th April 1918, flying Sopwith Camel D6402, he achieved no fewer than six kills in one day and set an unbeaten record for a fighter ace of the First World War.

He finished the War with a total of 35 kills and was awarded the Military Cross and bar, the DSO as well as the French Legion d'Honneur and Croix de Guerre. Woollett died in October 1969

The Sopwith Camel took its first flight as a prototype in 1915 and gets its name from the humped fairing over the twin synchronised machine guns.

It was quite a temperamental animal, with pilot, engine, armament and controls all crammed into a 7ft space at the front of the airplane, and more novices sadly died while learning to fly the aircraft than pilots did in battle.

In the hands of skilled pilots, it was an agile aircraft and after being introduced to the Western Front in 1917, the single fighter biplane scored more victories than any other allied plane during World War I.

DUE TO SMALL PARTS THAT MAY BE SWALLOWED KEEP AWAY FROM CHILDREN AGE 3 AND YOUNGER.