Thanks Maurice,
Just goes to confirm, yet again, how carefully you have to read stuff! I have a copy of Jack’s Flight article and have read the Freeman comments several times. For some reason the key phrase – “Those R.N.A.S. Bristol Scouts which were armed with Ranken darts had two canisters mounted directly under the pilot’s seat.” – had not registered.
Thank you for pointing it out.
Freeman’s report (AIR 1/657/17/122/564) is essentially as Jack had recorded it in the Flight article, with the following added detail:
On his last attacking run, with only 12 darts remaining, he “dropped the remainder of my darts. One of these apparently hit as I saw a small puff of smoke and the Zeppelin almost immediately dropped to 5,000 feet. I followed her down to 5,000 feet in a steep nose-dive with the intention of heading her off from her Westerly course, and she eventually turned due East.”
As L17 returned over the UK later that evening clearly the Ranken Darts had been ineffective. Although L17 did return to Nordholz with 127 holes in her gas bags, thought to be from AA ground fire whilst over the UK. But perhaps some of the holes were due to Ranken darts that failed to work.