War hero Lanoe Hawker amazing story to be turned into Hollywood film
When people are asked to name a few wartime flying aces they tend to recall Battle of Britain hero Douglas Bader or Guy Gibson, leader of the famed Dambusters’ squadron.
Lanoe George Hawker rarely gets a mention, despite the fact he was awarded the Victoria Cross and Distinguished Service Order for his aerial heroics during the First World War.
Shamefully, he has been almost overlooked by history. But now his extraordinary skills are being immortalised in a film, which, ironically, is struggling to take off, perhaps because so little is known about this largely unsung national hero.
Filmmaker Daniel Arbon has written, directed and produced a 23 minute film called Hawker on a budget of just £20,000, which was largely raised through crowdfunding.
It is what is known in the film industry as a “proof of concept” film made to secure major funding and producers so that a feature length film can be made.
Already Peter Jackson, a First World War aviation enthusiast, who made the epic Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films, has shown some interest, but the project is still a long way off being fully realised.
Incredibly, Arbon has managed to shoot dogfights which evoke what it must have been like back in the days of the Royal Flying Corps, the precursor to the RAF.
“I was amazingly taken with the story of Lanoe Hawker when I read about him and I really wanted to watch the story on film,” Arbon tells the Daily Express.
“I decided to investigate the possibility of achieving an impossible dream. The big question was how I would be able to shoot a realistic flying sequence. I spent a lot of time experimenting before convincing myself I could do it.”
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An engineering genius, Hawker fitted a Lewis gun to the side of his Scout biplane so he could return fire on German aircraft trying to knock him out of the skies.
Born in Hampshire in 1890, Hawker became interested in mechanics and qualified as a second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers in 1911.
He joined the Royal Flying Corps in August 1914 and went to France in October of that year with No6 Squadron to do aerial reconnaissance flying.
In the Bristol Scout aircraft he adapted himself, he brought down three German aircraft near Ypres in a single day – a feat for which he was awarded the VC. By September 1915, he had notched up seven victories and returned to Britain to command the newly formed 24 Squadron, the Royal Flying Corps’ first fighter squadron which flew De Havilland DH2 aircraft.
He took the squadron to France in February 1916 and they were based at Bertangles, north of the Somme. During this time, Hawker invented so-called “fug boots”, thigh length fleece-lined boots for pilots. He also devised a way of doubling the Lewis gun’s ammunition drum.
Buoyed with a philosophy of “attack everything”, British airpower quickly dominated skies over the Somme with 24 Squadron claiming 70 victories.
Then on November 23, 1916, a week after the end of the Battle of the Somme, Hawker attacked up to eight German aircraft over Achiet before coming across The Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen.
The German ace wrote later: “I discovered I was not meeting a beginner. He had not the slightest intention of breaking off the flight.” After 30 intense minutes and running out of fuel, Hawker was finally brought down and killed. He was just 25.
Air Vice Marshal Peter Dye, OBE, President of the Great War Society, said: “Hawker was an outstanding and inspirational leader who was responsible for several important innovations, including the introduction of formation flying and the development of the side mounted Lewis gun, which helped end German air superiority in 1915, known as the Fokker Scourge.”
The society has given financial support for the Hawker film and is keen for his place in aviation history to be recognised in a
full-length film.
Arbon says: “In the 1930s, aviation films were huge, attracting the biggest budgets and stars in Hollywood. They had a comeback in the 1960s and 1970s with many people claiming The Blue Max in 1966 as the best film of the genre.
This project has been my life for the last three years and I’m thankful for everyone who has supported us.”
To tackle the complex filming demands, Arbon built life-size cockpits. Miniatures and CGI visual effects were also added. Ground footage was shot around his house in Ayrshire, Scotland.
There was also filming at the Old Warden airfield, part of the Shuttleworth Collection in Bedfordshire. The 1264 Bristol Scout used for scenes was a replica of a machine which was flown by David and Rick Bremner’s grandfather, Captain F D H Bremner.
The Bremners, with a friend Theo Wilford, began building the aircraft in 2008 from an original rudder bar, joystick and magneto found in the family garage.
The maiden flight of the replica was on July 9, 2015. For filming, the aeroplane was fitted with the side-mounted Lewis gun and markings changed to Lanoe Hawker’s 1611. It was flown by David at Old Warden Airfield. The aircraft is currently hangared at the Shuttleworth Collection, Bedfordshire.
In the short film, Hawker is played by Tom Lewin, with Arbon himself playing Lt Col Charles Burke. The Red Baron is played by Nick Kanoa. Schoolboy Lanoe Ertl, nine, the great, great, great nephew of Hawker, appears in the film as a farm boy who is spellbound by the birth of wartime aviation.
His mother, Wyn, great great niece of Hawker, said from the family home in Germany: “As some of Lanoe’s living relatives we are absolutely delighted to see his legacy honoured with this new film.
“It will help a new generation to understand the bravery and sacrifice of First World War aviators at a time when the average life expectancy of a pilot on active service was often measured in months if not weeks.”
With the film, Hawker’s legacy lives on.
- Hawker is available via Vimeo, where it can be streamed for £0.99 or purchased for £1.99. Watch the trailer via youtube.com/watch?v=XsOK33BRlsQ
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