Greg’s diary contains the laconic entry “propeller shot” during counter battery patrol today, amid active ground machine gun fire. He also sees propaganda balloons sailing away. And the Squadron CO’s daily orders contain a reminder about discipline.
Log Book
Date: 9.8.18 Time: 11.30 Rounds Lewis: 400 Rounds Vickers: 300 Bombs: 4 Time on RE8s: 113 hrs 55 mins RE8: 2526 Observer: Lt Hodgson Time: 2 hrs 50 mins Height: 2500 Course/Remarks: C.B.P. M.Guns active. Bumpy.
Diary
Friday Aug 9th. C.B.P. 11.30 to 2.15. Ground machine guns active. Propeller shot. Saw four of our propaganda balloons go sailing over Hunland.
We can see that it was an active day for small arms fire, both received – not least by the shot propeller – and given (700 rounds fired between the Lewis and Vickers guns).
Propaganda Balloons
According to Sergeant Major Herbert A. Friedman, writing for the www.psywarrior.com website:
Early in the war when the Germans threatened to put leaflet-dropping pilots before a firing squad, the British mastered the art of dropping the leaflets and newspapers from unmanned balloons. The leaflet balloon was invented by Mr. A. Fleming who stated that 48,000 were produced. He treated the paper in such a way that the balloons could stay afloat for three days when filled with hydrogen.
Captain L. C. Pittmann tells more about the balloons in an article entitled “Propaganda by Balloon” published in The Royal Engineers Journal, April 1919. Some of his comments are:
“In March 1918, the Royal Engineers took up the supervision and manufacture of these balloons and releases…the balloons dispatched to France two to three times a week (a staff of nearly 100 girls was specially employed on this work). During the period of Match, 1918, to the signing of the Armistice, over 35,000 balloons and 20 million leaflets attached to releases were dispatched from France. As many as 400 balloons, each carrying 500 to 1,500 leaflets, have been sent over the lines in a single day.
The Germans did their utmost to prevent the circulation of the leaflets, and as much as five marks was offered for each leaflet brought to headquarters, but many Germans were captured with leaflets in their possession…”
Greg writes that the balloons went “sailing over Hunland”. This says something about the direction of the prevailing wind. The other side of the coin was that returning British aircraft often had to fly into the wind. Apart from the slower speed that implied, they had to allow enough fuel to get home.
On Discipline
Today’s daily orders from the CO of 42 Squadron contained a reminder about discipline in the infant Royal Air Force. Allied to this, proper saluting was “an index to the standard of discipline in a unit”:
6 Discipline:- The necessity for a high standard of discipline in the R.A.f. is pointed out by the Air Council in the following terms:-
(1) "The Royal Air Force is now forming its traditions, and this stage of development will affect its whole future history. It has shown before the world the highest standard of intelligence, courage, initiative and devotion in the face of the hardest tests. The binding and inspiring force of discipline must not be absent - it must be developed to the highest possible extent. In the R.A.F. loss of life by accident is due to a lack of a measured sense of discipline more than to any other cause."
(2) Attention is also directed to the necessity of ensuring that proper attention is paid by all ranks to correct bearing, dress and saluting. The manner of saluting in the R.A.F. has been promulgated in A.M.W.O.517 of 1-7-18, and smartness and correctness in saluting are an index to the standard of discipline in a unit.