There was another air combat today at Neuf Berquin near Merville:
Air combat report. Click for larger image
Time: 6.30 a.m.
Locality: MERVILLE
Pilot: Capt. R. A. Archer, M.C.
Observer: 2/Lieut. H.C. Grimes
5 Albatros Scouts of whom only 3 persisted.
While over NEUF BERQUIN saw 5 aeroplanes patrolling about same height over ESTAIRES. Went on South. the 5 aeroplanes who proved to be hostile got into the sun over us. We turned towards our own lines. When about over L'EPINETTE, L.7.c, 3 dived on us firing. Seeing none of our own machines about we side-slipped home, recrossing the line at about 1500' at LE SART. During the whole of the fight, the Observer fired his gun at the E.A. but Pilot made no effort to get the Vickers on. 3 of the E.A. persisted in the attack until our lines were reached.
Map extract of Neuf Berquin, Estaires and Le Sart, from 1:40,000 series. Estaires is 15 miles (24 km) west of Lille and 4 miles (6 km) east of Merville. Each numbered square is 1,000 yds. Click for larger image. Credit: IWM/GreatWarDigital
Looks a bit like a late realisation that the aircraft were hostile. And then the pilot was fully preoccupied in getting them back to safety.
Having started his journey from Berck Plage to Aire-sur-la-Lys yesterday at 8pm, and having got as far as Étaples, Greg continues – slowly – today:
Diary
Sunday June 2nd 1918. Got up in time to catch the 6.30am train, which did not appear till 10.30am. Train left Etaples at 12.30pm – fearfully slow travelling. When tired, we got off and walked alongside.
Long Stop at St Pol[-sur-Ternoise].
About 10pm arrived within sight of the gun flashes.
When passing through Chocques about 2½ miles from the front line there was a strafe on.
Arrived at Aire about 1.30am (about 80 miles in over 13 hours!).
Couldn’t get rooms in Aire, populace having fled; after wandering round about an hour, we slept in a railway truck.
So Greg had his first encounter – if not a particularly close encounter – with the Western Front. This is the somewhat circuitous route that he followed:
Greg’s route from Berck Plage to Aire-sur-la-Lys , shown on a modern map (courtesy Google). Click for a larger, zoomable image (opens in new tab).
An Earlier Battlefield
Two thirds of the way from Étaples to St Pol, Greg passed a few miles south of Azincourt, the scene of the major battle between Henry V’s English and Welsh army and the French forces of Charles VI in 1415. 500 years later, the British (including the English and Welsh) and the French were on the same side…and this time there were now longbowmen.
It was Quicker Before the War…
Greg says that it took him 13 hours to travel the (indirect) 80 miles (130 km) from Étaples. From Berck Plage – only a few miles further – it took a total of 29½ hours! And the irony is that before the war there was a twice-daily direct (albeit cross-country) service from Berck Plage to Aire that took under 7 hours:
Bradshaw’s 1913 timetable for the direct Berck-Aire servicePre-war route from Berck Plage to Aire-sur-la-Lys , shown on a modern map (courtesy Google). Click for a larger, zoomable image (opens in new tab)
A Night in a Railway Truck
The railway station at Aire-sur-la-Lys has now closed, and the tracks have mostly been ripped up. But here is the site of the station and yard in June 2018, showing where Greg probably spent the night in his unorthodox – and probably uncomfortable – accommodation.
Site of Aire-sur-la-Lys railway station and yard, seen in June 2018. Click for larger image. Photo: Andrew Sheard
