The leading Belgian ace of WW I, Willy Coppens de Houlthulst, was born on July 6, 1882 at Watermael Belgium. The son of a successful artist, Willy was called up for military service in 1912. After several years in the infantry, Willy was able to join the air arm as a pupil pilot in 1915.

In 1914, following the German invasion of Belgium, Coppens transferred to The Motor Machine Gun Corps. On 6 September 1915, he signed up for flight training in the Compagnie des Aviateurs. Ultimately, due to insufficiencies in Belgian training, he took eight weeks of leave to train to fly.

He went to Britain for his flight training where he met Albert Ball, later to win fame as a brilliant fighter pilot whose exploits earned him the highest award for gallantry, the Victoria Cross.

He and 39 other Belgians learned to fly on their own expense in Britain. He received his pilot's certificate on 9 December 1915. After this training in Britain he had further training at the Farman School in Étampes, France and joined the Sixieme Escradrille as a sergent 1ere class (Sergeant First Class) on 8 April 1917 flying BE-2c two seaters. Later that month, he was assigned to Quatrieme Escadrille to fly a Farman pusher. On 1 May, he received a Sopwith 1½ Strutter two seater and promptly flew it into his first aerial combat.

He experienced his first aerial combat in May of 1917 when he survived an attack by four German fighters. Still disappointed about being in a reconnaissance unit, Willy was delighted in 1917 when he was transferred to Fighter Escadrille No. 1 based at Les Moeres airfield.

Initially flying Neuport Scouts, the unit was re-equipped with a capable French-made single seat fighter, the Hanriot HD.1. Designed by M. Dupont in 1916, the HD.1 was a single-seat, staggered-wing, biplane powered by a 120-HP Le Rhone rotary engine. The HD.1 had an interesting open fronted cowling, and metal panels reached as far back as the cockpit. In standard configuration the HD.1 was armed with only a single Vickers machine gun, and was capable of 114 mph.

And on April 11 1918 he attained his first victory over a German fighter, downing a Rumpler two seater.

However, on March 18, 1918 he agreed to attack an enemy balloon. These attacks were not easy because observation balloons were almost always protected by anti-aircraft batteries. His first attack was unsuccessful, and the young pilot learned that he must get special incendiary bullets, if future attacks were to succeed. On 8 May he finally found his metier, when he shot two balloons down in flames.

This fine print of Coppens is available from Cranston Fine Arts

In May, Coppens received a very small allocation of incendiary bullets. He decided that he would fire only four bullets at a time, and would fire only from very close range. This formula proved unstoppable for the young pilot who went on to attain 36 more victories during the remainder of 1918, making Coppens clearly the Balloon Buster Extraordinaire. Working in the Houthulst Forest region, Coppens would pounce almost every time the Germans put up an observation balloon.

On 19 August Coppens was promoted to Adjutant. He continued his nervy but unsuccessful combat career against enemy aircraft until 17 March 1918. On that day he carried out his first attack on German observation balloons, as an aid to a ground assault by the Belgian Army. Though handicapped by lack of incendiary ammunition he punctured two balloons, causing the observers to bail out and the balloons to collapse to the ground.

This lack of fire power caused many of the Italian pilots who flew the HD.1, including the top Italian ace to survive the War, to add a second gun. Although generally ignored in France, more than 800 were built for the Italians and more than 100 for the Belgians during WW I. Throughout the winter of 1917-18 Coppens had no meaningful enemy engagements.

Using his usual tactics of close range fire, Coppens cut a balloon loose from its ties. It bounced up beneath him and momentarily carried his Hanriot skyward. After his aircraft fell off the balloon, he restarted its engine and flew back to base. The balloon sagged into an explosion.

Later when on another attack run, he got shot at from a balloon. He parked his plane on top of the damaged balloon, shut down his engine in order to protect its propeller, and waited until the balloon descended to slide off the balloon and fly away.

From then on, Coppens' record was spectacular. Between April and October 1918 he was credited with destroying 34 German observation balloons and three airplanes, nearly as many victories as Belgium's other five aces combined. Unlike most fighter pilots of World War I, who used .303 caliber or 7.92 mm guns, Coppens used a larger bore 11 mm Vickers machine gun, having upgraded his weaponry prior to June 1918.

In September of 1918 he was awarded the Legion of Honour from Georges Clemenceau.

The balloon busting ace decided to repaint his Hanriot from green to blue, because the original color reminded him of a toy snake.

19 May 1918: five minutes after Adj Willy Coppens landed with his Hanriot HD.1 H-D 24 having scored his 5th victory. Congratulated by his fellow fighter pilots from left to right.: Adj P. Dubois, Cdt F. Jacquet, Adj G. Kervyn de Lettenhove, 1SM G. Kervyn de Meerendre, Lt M. de Crombrugghe de Looringhe, Adj A. De Meulemeester and Lt J. Olieslagers (Photo: Courtesy Daniel Brackx)

Victories:

In June, he was promoted to sous lieutenant, thus becoming an officer. His royal blue plane with its insignia of a thistle sprig wearing a top hat became so well known that the Germans went to special pains to try to kill him. On 3 August he shot down a balloon booby-trapped with explosives that when detonated from the ground narrowly missed killing him. The flaming wreckage of the balloon 'fell swift as doom on the watching [German] staff officers, killing many and injuring the rest'.

(Left: Coppens being decorated by King Albert)

On his last mission, 14 October, Coppens downed a balloon over Praatbos and was attacking one over Torhout when he was severely wounded by an incendiary bullet, smashing the tibia of his left leg and severing the artery. Despite a severed artery and intense pain, he shot down his target and managed to crash land within the safety of his own lines. Coppens crash landed near Diksmuide and was taken to hospital, where his leg was amputated.

Coppens achieved all his victories flying a Hanriot HD.1 fighter.

Before he retired from the army in 1940, Coppens served as a military attaché in France, Great Britain, Italy and Switzerland.

Sources: Belgian Archives, Wikipedia, theaerodrome.com, private sources in Netherlands, belgian-wings.be

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© Aircrew Remembered Last Modified: 11 April 2021, 14:34

Alan 2018-03-18

Superb story. This guy must have been an amazing pilot to land on the balloon itself! What a character! Thanks for these WW1 stories, too little is known about this important era.

Editor: Thanks for your comments. We really agree about the importance. We are always looking for specialists to contribute their stories.