The war experiences of 2nd Lt. C. E. Gregory RFC/RAF in 1918
The first of Ludendorff’s Spring Offensives, Operation Michael, is brought to a halt along a line that ran near Villers-Brettoneux, some 10 miles/16 km east of the important railway junction of Amiens.
Read more on the Spring Offensives here:
Villers-Bretonneux has not seen the last of the fighting. More action was to follow later in the month…
Header image credit: Mjchesnel
Another day of work in both an RE8 (dual control, with Lt Thomas) and a DH.6 (solo). Plenty of landings in the RE8, and a somewhat hard to decipher log book entry for the DH.6:
Log book entry
Date: 5.4.18 Hour: 6.45 Instructor: Lt Thomas Machine type and No.: RE3551 Passenger: Self Time: 45 min Height: 1500 Course: Aerodrome Remarks: Landings (9). Dual.
Date: 5.4.18 Hour: 3.25 Instructor: – Machine type and No.: DH2130 Passenger: – Time: 1 hr 20 min Height: 2000 Course: [Aerodrome] Remarks: Ground stps & Pann: Successful
So, what is “Ground stps & Pann” all about – if that is indeed what it says?
My best guess is that it is referring to artillery cooperation work and, specifically, to the use of ground strips and panels.
Although by 1918 the reconnaissance aircraft of the RFC and RAF were equipped with radios, and although those radios were by then small enough so that they did not take the place of the observer – who by this stage was principally responsible for the defence of the aircraft in flight – there was still a problem. That was that radio communication was one way only: from air to ground. Signals from the aircraft were received by RFC/RAF wireless operators attached to artillery units, which in Greg’s case were typically Royal Garrison Artillery Siege Batteries.
So how did the ground wireless operator communicate back to the aircraft? Various methods were tried during the course of the war. Signalling lamps were not an enduring success, not least because of the need for the pilot to be actually looking in the direction of the lamp at the moment of signalling, which was not always feasible. A better solution proved to be the more primitive sounding strips of cloth laid our on the ground: ground strips. These were typically 12 ft x 1 ft (3.7 m x 0.3 m) strips of white cloth, which could be arranged into pre-designated code symbols or letters. Here are some examples, taken from The Illustrated London News of 23 January 1915 p107, which were stated to be “merely typical signals, and do not represent any actually in use” – just in case it should fall into the wrong hands:
¦ Direction of Target L Observe for line X Observe for range Z Observe for fuze V Observe for effect of fire N Repeat last signal T Land F Fresh target (additional letters are used with this signal)
And if there was snow on the ground, then dark coloured strips were used instead.
So much for “Ground stps”. What about “& Pann”?
I have hazarded above that “Pann” refers to panels. An apparent difficulty with this theory is the rather imperfect abbreviation: too many ‘n’s. But although current dictionaries spell the word with one ‘n’, the Oxford English Dictionary (completed in 1933) lists “pannel” as a variant of “panel”, as does the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary. So that objection does not seem to be fatal. Furthermore, the meaning is a good contextual fit.
The Popham or T-signalling panel was an alternative means of ground-to-air communication introduced towards the end of the war, in use by the infantry in particular. In the official pamphlet SS135 “The Division in Attack” (available for download here) issued by the General Staff in November 1918 it is described as consisting of:
…a black or dark blue cloth to which are sewn strips of white Americal cloth in the shape of the letter “T”.
From this “T” project nine arms of white American cloth. These arms are provided with flaps of black or dark blue cloth, so that any or all of them can be covered or exposed to view from the air at will.
These arms are numbered consecutively from 1 to 9, as shown in the following diagram, and are always known by these numbers:
Then by covering and exposing appropriate arms, a large number of combinations of numerals may be set out, of which the following are three examples:-
… A simple figure code is used with the panel, each group of numerals representing a phase or sentence which the infantry are likely to wish to send to the aeroplane.
It niggles me that this was principally an infantry means of communication, rather than artillery, and Greg’s future role was in artillery cooperation. But maybe his speciality hadn’t yet been decided upon. And the question remains: if “Pann” doesn’t refer to Popham T panels, what does it mean?