Although Greg’s early Counter Battery Patrol was curtailed by a dud engine, and he only flew for 1¼ hrs, something was clearly afoot. In a ‘hot air gust’ in the squadron, three machines were on the line all day.
Log Book
Date: 7.8.18 Time: 6.00 Rounds Lewis: - Rounds Vickers: - Bombs: 4 Time on RE8s: 110 hrs 20 mins RE8: 2649 Observer: Lt Hodgson Time: 1 hr 15 mins Height: 2500 Course/Remarks: C.B.P. Three machines on line. Eng dud.
Diary
Wednesday Aug. 7th. Rec’d Ma’s letter. Great hot air gust in Squadron. Three machines on line all day. CBP at 5.30am. Dud engine, landed on drome after 1¼ hrs.
Hot Air Gust
Here’s this term again. He used it because there was lots of aircraft activity, with three machines being kept on the line at any one time. So the squadron must truly have been busy. Possibly it was an intensive reconnaissance effort in anticipation of the Allies’ final offensive.
There’s more on the term in these two earlier posts: