Mail (Adelaide, SA : 1912 - 1954), Saturday 4 October 1919, page 15


Cycling and Aviation

LIEUT. W. B. RANDELL, A.F.C. Will Join Air Force.

He is not so much enamoured of the air that he dislikes the motor cycle, or the '"dinkum bus" as he used to call it, but Lieut. W. B. Randell of the A.F.C., says he is going to join the permanent Australian Air Force if the Government favourably considers his application. More familiarly known as "cocker," Lieut. Randell is one of the most daring of South Australia's motor cyclists, who earned con-considerable credit in the early part of 1914 by establishing a world's record for the half-mile on a Rudge machine. He was the thirty-second, man to enlist in this

State, and left with the ammunition column in the first contingent on October 20, 1914. Landing at Egypt first, he went to Gallipoli and then to France, and was one of the first Australian cadets sent to Oxford (England) for the purpose of being trained for the Australian Flying Corps. In October, 1917, he secured his pilot's certificate and went to France again with the 4th Squadron under Mjr. McLaurie, together with Capts. Pflaum and Cobbie. This squadron, by the way, had the record for the number of Huns brought down during the period it was there. In February, 1918, Lieut. Randell was shot down while flying in a bombing ing plane over Lille at 2,000 feet from the earth, and was taken prisoner. He was placed in the Lille Citadel and underwent some of the Huns "Kultur" in the form of solitary confinement. Later he was taken to Bavaria and placed in a reprisal camp. Lieut. Randell can speak of Hun cruelty from personal experience. He had nine months in German hands, as it was not until after the signing of the Armistice that he got back to England. However, his many friends are glad to see him back again looking hale and hearty, and we are sure that everyone wishes him the best of success.