Two outings today: a bomb raid, and a shoot with 323 Siege Battery with whom Greg hadn’t worked for almost a month.
Log Book
Date: 11.8.18 Time: 11.15 Rounds Lewis: 300 Rounds Vickers: 200 Bombs: 4 Time on RE8s: 117 hrs 25 mins RE8: E27 Observer: Hodgson Time: 45 mins Height: 2500 Course/Remarks: Bomb raid. Very hot & bumpy.
Date: 11.8.18 Time: 17.10 Rounds Lewis: - Rounds Vickers: 100 Bombs: 4 Time on RE8s: 120 hrs 30 mins RE8: E27 Observer: Hodgson Time: 3 hrs 5 mins Height: 4000 Course/Remarks: Shoot with 323 SB on Q6. Successful.
Diary
Sunday Aug 11th. Up twice – bomb raid for 45 mins in morning & shoot with 323 on Q6 in evening, successful.
Bomb Raid and Shoot
It wasn’t often that Greg went on a bomb raid. But it was this morning’s duty, and possibly carried out in support of initial ground operations in the Lys sector that were part of the Allies’ ‘100 Days’ Final Offensive.
323 Siege Battery (6″ howitzers) was previously a partner for Greg on a shoot on 17 July 1918. Square Q6 is south of Merville, on what is now part of Merville-Calonne Airport:
More on shoots here:
Previous shoot with 323 SB:
For more on kite balloons see The Balloonatics by Alan Morris, published by Jarrolds in 1970. Attacking balloons was not a popular assignment, except perhaps to the likes of Albert Ball, because they were heavily defended. Aircraft were armed either with rockets or “Buckingham” ammunition, phosphorus-filled bullets invented by J.F. Buckingham, a Coventry engineer in 1915. These were loaded every third round into the Lewis gun magazine.