Today Greg has a one-way flight, with sandbags for company, as 42 Squadron RAF makes the move to Chocques.
Log Book
Date: 13.10.18 Time Out: 11.45 Rounds Fired – Lewis: - Rounds Fired – Vickers: - Bombs: - Time on RE8s: 169 hrs 30 mins RE8: 6740 Observer: Sandbags War Flying: 0 hrs 15 mins Height: 3000 Course/Remarks: Travelling flight to Chocques.
Squadron Record Book
Type and Number: R.E.8. 6740 Pilot and Observer: P. Lt Gregory. Duty: Travelling Flight Hour of Start: 1220 Hour of Return: 1235 Remarks: Travelling from RELY aerodrome.
Move to Chocques
The air above Lillers would have been abuzz with the noise of a squadron of RE8s moving the 10½ miles (17 km) ESE from Rely to Chocques:
As well as moving east, they also went downhill. Rely Aerodrome, in the Artesian hills southwest of Aire-sur-la-Lys, was just on the 100m contour mark. Chocques Aerodrome was just on the southern edge of the Lys Valley – elevation 20m, about 3m higher than Merville. Interestingly, the contours on the trench maps (1:10,000, 1:20,000 and 1:40,000) were all in metres, even though the grid squares were resolutely in yards.
The location of the aerodrome at Chocques was the subject of the post for Friday 11 October 1918.
For the old hands in the squadron – few as they may have been – there must have been a sense of being back in old haunts. 42 Squadron RFC, as it then was, had moved here on 22 March 1918:
Chocques had been the squadron’s first base in the Lys Sector, and its first operational base since it had moved to France from Italy the week before. After only 18 days, it was driven west to Trèzennes and then Rely in the Spring Offensives:
But now the tide was flowing the other way, and the move to Chocques was part of the Allies’ final offensive. Moving back to their old base must have been a source of some satisfaction for the officers and men of 42 Squadron RAF, including Greg. Though maybe not for his unresponsive companion Lt Sandbags (see here under ‘Crew’).