Leonard Taplin

Lieutenant Leonard Thomas Eaton Taplin (16 December 1895 – 8 July 1961) was an Australian World War I flying ace. During his service in Palestine, he helped pioneer the use of aerial photography for cartography. He then transferred to the Western Front and was credited with 12 official aerial victories. Postwar, he was an aviation pioneer in Australia, and a leading citizen in his adopted hometown.

Early life Taplin was born on 16 December 1895, his father was C. E. Taplin, an architect. On 8 May 1907, while living in Malvern, the ten-year-old Taplin broke his arm playing leap frog at school. In an early example of his courage, he first walked home, then a half mile to the doctor's, where he submitted to having the compound fractures of the bones in his arm set without anesthetic.

World War I After training in England, Taplin served nine months in France as a sapper. He applied for transfer to the Australian Flying Corps. On 8 November 1916, he was accepted for transfer. After pilot's training, he was assigned to No. 1 Squadron AFC in the Middle East as a Royal Aircraft Factory BE.2 pilot. He had not been in B Flight of the unit too long when he was in a crash near Khan Yunis. On 8 November 1917, while flying BE.2 serial number 4312 on a bombing sortie against a junction station, Taplin wrecked the plane. His observer perished in the wreck, and Taplin was seriously injured.

However, Taplin had healed enough by the New Year that he was available to be assigned by General Allenby to a pioneering use of aerial photography for mapping. In January 1918, General Allenby used five Australian pilots from No. 1 Squadron AFC to photograph a area in Palestine as an aid to correcting and improving maps of the Turkish front. Taplin and fellow lieutenants Allan Runciman Brown, H. L. Fraser, Edward Patrick Kenny, and L. W. Rogers photographed a block of land stretching from the Turkish front lines deep into their rear areas. Beginning 5 January, they flew with a fighter escort to ward off enemy fighters. Using Royal Aircraft Factory BE.12 and Martinsyde airplanes, they not only overcame enemy air attacks, but also bucked 65 mile per hour winds, antiaircraft fire, and malfunctioning equipment to complete their task circa 19 January 1918.

On 17 January, during one of these photo sorties at , Taplin was plagued by a jamming camera while mapping Nablus. He decided to hold the joystick with his knees and dismantle the camera to clear its jam. Once the camera was disassembled, he was attacked by a German Albatros. Taplin drove him away with a burst of 30 rounds of machine gun fire, then completed repair of the camera and completed his mission. On 26 July, he was taking off at 0420 hours on a dawn bombing raid with Very flares and a high explosive and a phosphorus bomb in addition to his usual load of fuel and ammunition. When his speeding Camel hit a rut and broke its landing gear axle, Taplin unfastened his safety harness and exited the crash-in-progress post haste. The ensuing explosion slightly singed the fleeing pilot.

Post World War I Leonard Taplin would not be repatriated from his prisoner of war camp until 1919, arriving home on 23 August 1919. He joined Norman Brearley's fledgling Western Australian Airlines as a pilot for Australia's first scheduled airline. After Brearley sold out, Taplin settled in Port Hedland and became one of its leading citizens. He supplied electricity to the town, and served as both its butcher and undertaker. He died on 8 July 1961.

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