This was Greg’s first day on the Western Front, and it nearly ended in disaster, as his log book (laconically) and diary (rather more more fully) explain:
Date: 4.6.18 Hour: 10 am Machine type and No.: RE8 No.: E102 Passenger: Lt. Marsh Time: 1 hr Height: 2500 Course: Inspection of line. Remarks: Engine conked. Crashed at Triezennes (102 written off)
Tuesday June 4th 1918. RE8. E102. Went up at 10am with Lt Marsh as observer. At 11pm [sic, sc. 11am] engine cut out east of St Flories, just over our line, due to inlet valve stuck open. Managed to make disused aerodrome at Triezennes but found Infantry Battalion on parade. Turned off into an adjoining field, – standing crops 6 feet high. Crashed very badly, machine turned complete somersault. Observer thrown clear, – self buried under debris, succeeded in getting out safely, – sprained shoulder & split lip. Had lunch with C.O. of the Battalion & returned to Squadron by tender.
The day’s events are shown on this map:
The Front Line at St Floris
St Floris, a settlement on the River Lys just to the east of St Venant, was where the British Amusories-Havaskerque-La Motte Line – a line just behind the most forward positions – crossed the canalised river:
At this point, Greg was 10 miles (16 km) from the squadron’s airfield at Rely, and needed somewhere nearer to land. He had 2,500ft of altitude to play with.
Trézennes
Trézennes, also variously spelt as Treizennes and Tresennes, was an airfield just south east of Aire-sur-la-Lys. The admirable Anciens Aerodromes website gives the location of Trézennes aerodrome as 50°37’24″N, 2°25’25″E (here on Google maps).
The airfield was known to 42 Squadron, as the squadron had moved there from Chocques on 9 April 1918 when Operation Michael of the Spring Offensives began:
Tuesday 9 April 1918 – Operation Georgette Begins and 42 Squadron Relocates
The squadron’s subsequent move from Trézennes to Rely was on 25 April 1918.
Although from Greg’s description Trézennes airfield had clearly been colonised by the army on 4 June 1918 (even if, as he was later to say, “they had no bloody business being there”) the Imperial War Museum has a couple of aerial photos of Trézennes that pose a bit of a puzzle. They are described as showing the airfield in use by 14 Squadron RNAS (Hadley Page bombers) on 1 June 1918. Here is one of the photos:
Trezennes© IWM (Q 11552)
It is rather hard to reconcile this description with Greg’s experience three days later. And it is odd that the IWM description should refer to the RNAS when it had ceased to exist on 1 April 1918. Possibly the IWM photographs are mis-dated.
“Standing Crops 6 feet High”
Although 6 ft (1.8 m) may seem implausible for a crop height to modern readers, it is easy to forget that today’s crops of cereals such as wheat and barley are ultra-dwarf varieties. Their forebears of the decades and centuries before the “Green Revolution” of the 1960s were much taller. For example, an ancient Italian variety of wheat (Mirabella) could reportedly grow 84 inches (7 ft, 2.1 m) tall, as reported here. Or, of course, the crop might not have been a cereal but may have been something like sunflowers! So, even allowing for a less than perfectly accurate assessment of its height by Greg, something growing to 6 ft in the field was perfectly feasible.
The Official Casualty Report
The official casualty report bears out Greg’s account of the day. This image is courtesy of Andrew Pentland of the hugely informative www.airhistory.org.uk website:
Short report: Pilot and Observer uninjured. Machine left aerodrome 10.0am. R.P.M. dropped to 750 and engine backfiring badly, tried to land on TREIZENNES Aerodrome, found ground covered with troops drilling, turned to the right and had to land in standing crops, turning upside down at 11.0am. Damage:- All main planes damaged. Fin and rudder damaged. 2 rear upper cross members of fuselage broken. 2 centre section struts broken and all fittings damaged. L.H. joint plate L & M damaged. Fuselage fitting R.H. at top of No 3 strut damaged. Undercarriage damaged. Scarff gun mounting wrecked. L.H. and R.H. magnetos damaged. Magneto platform broken. Camshaft doubtful. Exhaust pipes damaged. Recommended to be struck off charge of No 42 Squadron and transferred to No 1 A.D. for repair. Recommended to be struck off charge of 1st (Corps) Wing and No 42 Squadron and transferred to No 1 A.D. for repair.
So, a mere three days after E102 had been accepted by 42 Squadron, it was struck off its charge. Not quite a write-off, but certainly a major repair job.
“Pilot and Observer uninjured”
Both Greg and 2nd Lt. Marsh were evidently very lucky on this occasion. It was probably truer to say that Greg was only slightly injured (hurt shoulder, split lip) rather than uninjured. And all his life he had a slightly weepy left eye, as his tear duct became permanently blocked when the bridge of his nose banged on the combing above the dashboard. On that subject, Rob Parsons (Greg’s son-in-law and my stepfather) remembers him saying that when he recovered he tried to get in the same position on another aircraft, but found it impossible to get the whole of his body below the level of the cockpit combing, where he had been trapped.
2nd Lt. Marsh’s luck, however, was to desert him before the month was out.
When Greg related this story to me about half a century ago I didn’t know about the log book and diary, and it wasn’t until Andrew put it all together that we realised it happened on his first operational flight. Quite an introduction. I just remember being amused by the mental picture of the observer being catapulted out of his seat to disappear into the corn some yards beyond the wreck, to be rescued by some enthusiastic Tommies, grateful because it was more fun than a parade.
Reading the details today one might conclude that it would have been better to continue on the approach to the landing ground, since it must have been obvious to watchers on the ground that from the noise of the engine, this was a forced landing, and parades can be dispersed and reformed on a word of command, though one might speculate what those spontaneous commands might have been since there would have been nothing in the regimental drill book to cover the situation. However, those who have spent time in one of the services might pause to reflect on how much in awe of authority they were at the age of nineteen. Also, in the seconds that Greg had to decide he wouldn’t have had time to consider that with a fixed undercarriage complete with axle, this wouldn’t be a soft landing. In fact the U/C would been stopped almost dead by the standing corn while the rear of the A/C would have tried to continue at the same speed, as did the observer, who had probably undone his lap strap ready for a quick exit in case of fire. He certainly achieved that.