The war experiences of 2nd Lt. C. E. Gregory RFC/RAF in 1918
Easter Day, and the last day of the Royal Flying Corps, but no flying again at Yatesbury because of the weather:
Date: 31.3.18 Remarks: [Weather unfavourable]
The chart did not look promising:
and the reported weather for Easter Day was overcast to partly cloudy, passing showers and squalls.
Bad weather again; no flying.
Date: 30.3.18 Remarks: Weather unfavourable
The Met Office synoptic chart reports the barometer falling:
The reported weather on Salisbury Plain was overcast sky, with rain in the morning.
Making up for lost time in view of yesterday’s bad weather, Greg had three outings today in DH.6s, concentrating on practice turns:
Date: 29.3.18 Hour: 4.15 Machine type and No.: DH5452 Passenger: – Time: 20 mins Height: 1500 Course: [Aerodrome] Remarks: Practice turns
Date: 29.3.18 Hour: 6.10 Machine type and No.: DH2130 Passenger: – Time: 35 mins Height: 2300 Course: [Aerodrome] Remarks: [Practice turns]
Date: 29.3.18 Hour: 7.30 Machine type and No.: DH7670 Passenger: – Time: 30 mins Height: 2100 Course: [Aerodrome] Remarks: [Practice turns]
The fact that it was Good Friday did not mean it was a holiday.
Weather unfavourable, hence no flying:
Date: 28.3.18 Remarks: Weather unfavourable
Rain moving in on a stiff breeze from the southwest. The Met Office reported overcast sky, rain, turning to passing showers and squalls:
42 Squadron RFC, Greg’s future squadron, saw multiple enemy aircraft engagements on this day. Aerial combat was by no means the primary role of RE8s, but they defended themselves as well as they could when they had to – successfully on each of the occasions described below.
The squadron had moved to Chocques only the previous Friday, 22 March 1918, but today was back in action in the Somme sector as part of the defence against Operation Michael of the Kaiserschlacht.
Three separate combat reports were filed by the crew of 42 Squadron aircraft that were on reconnaissance or bombing missions. The pilot of the third aircraft was the Squadron Commander, Major R. G. Gould, M.C.
Time: 12 Noon; Locality: between VILLERS & BRAY SUR SOMME
Pilot: Lt A. D. McDonald; Observer: Lt J. Chatterton
Five E.A. Albatros scouts.
Crossed front S. of Albert and West of VILLERS. Just E. of Villers saw body of men and horses apparently in Coy formation. Bombs dropped at these and while observer concentrating on these with Lewis gun, pilot sighted one Albatros some distance below, apparently manoeuvring for tail position. Turned and steered westward, and immediately encountered four more E.A.. Two above and on left, and two about level and nearly behind. Enemy secured about 20 hits on our machine. Observer fired on one attacking machine behind us, and after 10 rounds gun jambed. Owing to mist and very thick haze, we were able to get away .
Time: 5 p.m.; Locality: between BAPAUME & ALBERT
Pilot: 2/Lt A. R. Holthouse; Observer: Capt. M. F. Bridge
Albatros Scouts (7) seven.
After bombing and shooting on ground targets from 3000 ft to 7800 feet, in vicinity of BAPAUME, 7 Albatros scouts attacked us.
Fought down to 3000 feet, when relief arrived by our own scouts, believed to be S.E.5’s.
About 10 shots only obtained out of Vickers gun, when it jambed. Four shots went through propeller. Old Vickers gear on gun – unsatisfactory.
Lewis gun also jambed, and both guns were out of action.
Controls and machine shot about. Large holes in tail, sight, & tank from A.A.
Observer wounded in leg.
Machine landed at No.2 A.F.C. Aerodrome.
Time: 6.30 p.m.; Locality: MORLANCOURT
Pilot: Major R. G. Gould, M.C. ; Observer: 2/Lt. D. G. Smith
Albatross Scout
One drum fired at E.A. after which he turned away, and did not worry us again.
The remainder of the enemy formation was engaged by other British Machines.
More practice, concentrating on landings. Greg was always refreshingly honest when things didn’t go perfectly, including practice landings:
Date: 27.3.18 Hour: 7.50 Machine type and No.: DH7673 Passenger: – Time: 45 mins Height: 2000 Course: [Aerodrome] Remarks: Practice landings
Date: 27.3.18 Hour: 9.15 Machine type and No.: DH5452 Passenger: – Time: 20 mins Height: 1800 Course: [Aerodrome] Remarks: Practice landings (bumpy)
More practice flying in DH.6s:
Date: 26.3.18 Hour: 5.15 Machine type and No.: DH5452 Passenger: – Time: 20 mins Height: 1000 Course: Aerodrome Remarks: Practice
Date: 26.3.18 Hour: 7.25 Machine type and No.: DH7670 Passenger: – Time: 20 mins Height: 1500 Course: Aerodrome Remarks: Practice
It’s hard to tell from the log book whether these were
Sunrise for today in Yatesbury was at 6.58 am and sunset at 7.29 pm (British Summer Time, which had started on 24 March 1918), so it is more likely that they were evening flights. As the afternoon turned to evening and night, the weather, as reported by the Met Office for Salisbury Plain, turned from blue sky (not more than a quarter of the sky covered) to partly cloudy (one half covered), with gentle winds (Force 2) from the northwest. A lovely evening for a 20 minute flight as the sun was setting.
Building up the hours of solo flying:
Date: 25.3.18 Hour: 7.55 Machine type and No.: DH7666 Passenger: – Time: 20 mins Height: 1500 Course: [Aerodrome] Remarks: Practice
Date: 25.3.18 Hour: 8.30 Machine type and No.: DH7673 Passenger: – Time: 40 mins Height: 2000 Course: [Aerodrome] Remarks: Practice
Date: 25.3.18 Hour: 10.15 Machine type and No.: DH7670 Passenger: – Time: 10 mins Height: 1000 Course: [Aerodrome] Remarks: Practice
Puffs – an enigmatic entry.
Date: 24.3.18 Time: Nil Remarks: Puffs
Evidently no time was spent in the air, but this wasn’t because of the weather: the Met Office weather station on Salisbury Plain reported lovely weather (blue sky, with not more than one quarter covered with cloud) for both morning and afternoon of 24 March.
So the day was probably not spent sitting around puffing on cigarettes.
A more likely explanation is that this refers to early instruction in cooperating with artillery, which was the principal duty of the RFC and the core business of Greg’s future squadron. “Artillery puff targets” were used as ranging exercises. See Jefford ‘Observers & Navigators’, 2nd Ed., Grub Street, London 2014 p52 fn2:
The use of ‘puff targets’ involved a full-scale simulation whereby puffs of smoke were released on the ground to represent shell bursts in the vicinity of a ‘target’, the observer flying in an aeroplane being required to estimate the range and bearing of the error and pass an appropriate encrypted correction to the ‘battery’.
There is also a discussion that touches on this point on the Great War Forum.
Addendum (24 March 2018 @ 15:00): It is possible that ‘Puffs’ refers to an indoor exercise involving a modelled miniature landscape. The following account comes from an Imperial War Museum interview with Lt T. E. Rogers RFC, and relates to his training at Brooklands as an Observer in the summer of 1917. Bear in mind that towards the end of the war the Observer’s principal duty was looking out for (and dealing with) enemy aircraft, and the Pilot had taken over most of not all of the artillery liaison work:
They had little model villages and stretches of land down below, and we were up in a balcony. We looked down on this model landscape and there they would have bursts of shellfire, minute little things: puffs of smoke came out of the ground. Then we had to look at this miniature landscape and compare it with a map and get the exact map points that the burst had occurred. (https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80000170 Reel 1, at around 11 mins)
So possibly there was a similar facility at Yatesbury.
Anyone have any further suggestions on ‘Puffs’? Feel free to use the Comments box.
Unconnected with puffs, Sunday 24 March 1918 was significant because it was the first day of British Summer Time for 1918. It had first been introduced by the Summer Time Act 1916, in response to the Germans doing the same a year earlier.
The Royal Museums Greenwich has an article on British Summer Time (BST) and the Daylight Saving Time plan, including the following paragraphs on the history of the whole idea:
The idea of summer time or daylight saving time was first suggested in a whimsical article by Benjamin Franklin in 1784, but it was first seriously proposed in in Britain in 1907 by a keen horse-rider, William Willett. Willett published his feelings in “The Waste of Daylight” – he was incensed at the ‘waste’ of useful daylight first thing in the morning, during summer.
The year after Willett’s death in 1915, Germany adopted daylight saving time. Not to be disadvantaged at a time of war, the UK did the same within a few weeks. Summer time was first defined in an Act of Parliament (the Summer Time Act) in 1916 that stated for a certain period during the year legal time should be one hour in advance of GMT. From 1916 up to the Second World War, clocks were put in advance of GMT by one hour from the spring to the autumn.
Within a few years of its introduction, most countries reasonably north or south of the equator had adopted Daylight Saving Time. However, it has been controversial since the day it was first proposed.
Read more at https://www.rmg.co.uk/discover/explore/british-summer-time-and-daylight-saving (opens in new tab)
At 1 hr 55 mins, this was Greg’s longest – and highest – flight to date: the exhilaration of flying solo.
Date: 23.3.18 Hour: 1.45 Machine type and No.: DH6.2130 Passenger: – Time: 1 hr 55 mins Height: 2000 Course: [Aerodrome] Remarks: Practice