Among Greg’s collection of photos from 1918 is a vertical aerial view dated 30 June 1918 and entitled “S. Mametz”, presumably an abbreviation for South [of] Mametz. My first thought was that this referred to the village of that name a couple of miles west of Aire-sur-la-Lys and not much further north from Rely. But, despite the village being on the doorstep of 42 Squadron’s airfield, I couldn’t reconcile the photo with a present day aerial view on Google maps.
It was only when I purchased a set of digitised trench maps of the Western Front and learnt to read First World War map references that I realised the answer. The line in the photo’s titling strip that reads 62d.F.11.12.17.18 is a reference to four 1,000yd squares on map sheet 62d – which lie just south of another village of the same name, near the Somme and a couple of miles east of Albert. So the photo relates to Mametz-en-Picardie, which is 44 miles (71 km) southeast of Rely, not Mametz-en-Artois.
Aerial ViewsThen and Now
Here are Greg’s photo and the equivalent view today on Google maps:
The settlement visible in both photographs is Carnoy. Mametz itself is just off-camera, to the top left.
It isn’t clear how the photo from the Somme theatre came to be in Greg’s collection. It isn’t particularly clear even why it was taken, other than for general reconnaissance purposes. Possibly it was taken for the forthcoming Final Allied Offensive. Mametz had seen major action two years previously in the Battle of the Somme, and in fact the village was taken from the Germans in fierce fighting on 1 July 1916. For an account of its capture, see this article from The Long, Long Trail website:
Since late March 1918, Mametz had been back in German hands. This was as a result of Operation Michael – their major push westwards towards Amiens in the Spring Offensives. It was not to be under British control again until it was liberated in August 1918. The Final Allied Offensive began on the 8th of that month.
Mametz is about 4 miles (6½ km) north of Bray-sur-Somme, where a German kite balloon was photographed on 15 May 1918:
Update at 15:30 30 June 2018
205 Squadron RAF
The negative number in the titling strip is 205.v.1521. I’m grateful to Timothy Slater (who blogs here and tweets here) for the following information in reply to a tweet of this post:
@GregsWar both this photograph and your previous kite balloon photo were taken by 205 Sqn RAF (previously 5 Sqn RNAS). At the time they were flying DH4s on bombing missions for V Bde RAF. I can’t identify any obvious links between 205 & 42 Sqns though.
