The generally unfavourable weather continues, with a bumpy and windy counter-battery patrol with Lt Scarterfield as Observer. On the ground, the British front line is at Estaires.
Log Book
Date: 2.9.18 Time Out: 12.15 Rounds Lewis: 400 Rounds Vickers: 300 Bombs: - Time on RE8s: 151 hrs 20 mins RE8: E27 Observer: Lt Scarterfield War Flying Time: 2 hrs 45 mins Height: 3000 Course/Remarks: C.B.P. Very bumpy & windy
Bumpy & Windy
The poor weather conditions did not stop flying so much as they did in the earlier years of the war. But they did make it both more difficult and less useful. As an American climatologist noted in a contemporary article:
In aviation, it is increasingly evident that weather conditions which earlier in the war were regarded as prohibitive for flying, are now interfering less and less, at least so far as bombing is concerned. High winds, low clouds and fog, and heavy rain, decidedly lessen aerial activity, and spells of fine weather always greatly increase it, yet month by month, as the reports come in, it is evident that in the intensity of this modern warfare, flying must be done in practically all weather. Nevertheless, aerial reconnaissance and photography, and direction of artillery firing from airplanes, can not be effectively carried out unless there is a reasonably clear view of the ground. The advantage which the prevailing westerly winds give to the enemy aviators on the Western Front is readily recognized. [Robert DeC. Ward, “Weather Controls over the Fighting during the Summer of 1918” The Scientific Monthly, Vol. 7, No. 4 (Oct., 1918), pp. 289-298]
Professor Robert DeCourcy Ward was at Harvard University and was the first professor of climatology in the United States.
The British Front Line
On the ground, British troops of General Birdwood‘s Fifth Army continued to make progress eastwards. By this morning, they were knocking on the doors of Estaires, as the map shows:
