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 Lieutenant Walter Albert Yeulett DFC,
"Toby" to his family, was my great uncle and in World War 1 he was awarded
a Distinguished Flying Cross for his part in a famous bombing raid on the Tondern
Zeppelin base during which he was killed at the age of just
19.
I remember
seeing pictures of him when I was a child but I never knew why he'd been awarded a DFC
so in April 2000 I decided to try and find out. At the time I had no idea what I was
letting myself in for.......
As a starting point
I found the citation for his DFC (London Gazette, 21st Sept 1918) which
read: "Lieut.
Walter Albert Yeulett (Sea Patrol) was engaged in a long distance bombing raid on an enemy
aircraft station, under very difficult circumstances, and carried out a successful attack
from a low height in the face of severe enemy fire."
I thought
I'd be happy just to find the above citation but a visit to The Aerodrome
website told me that he'd died on a bombing raid from an aircraft carrier
and that it was a hugely significant event. As a result I found myself with a
major project that has now occupied me for over 10 years.
I discovered that
the Tondern Raid in July 1918 was the first ever bombing raid to be launched from an
aircraft carrier and that prior to joining the carrier, HMS Furious, he had taken
part in the very first trials for landing aircraft on ships. In his short career he
had thus played a crucial part in the development of those early carriers and this website
tells the story of his career, of those early trials and of course the Raid on Tondern
itself.
During the
project we found my Great Uncle's photograph album of his RNAS career and this
largely inspired this website since I felt these rare pictures should be seen.
They obviously belong to my family and so I would ask that they are not used or
published elsewhere without our express permission so please ask! Please get in touch via the Contact link below
if you would like to see or use the
original pictures or any of the other material that I have
collected.
Throughout the
project I have been contacted by a great many
people and have received wonderful help from historians, museums, aviation and
history fora, researchers and authors so please visit
the Links and References page which is
there to thank all the people who have helped.
Please drop me a
line if you find this site interesting (NB. Amend the address to include the @ symbol)
Contact
me
William Casey
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