Today was the day the fighting stopped. It was also the day of Greg’s last flight in wartime, a joyride with an intriguing passenger. Was “Norman” Norman Gregory? And the day of his first post-armistice flight: travelling from Ascq to Marquain Aerodrome, over the Belgian border near Tournai. Meanwhile, the King sends his thanks to the Royal Air Force. And we give a quick preview of Michael Seymour’s new ‘Setting the Scene’ article: ‘When the Guns Fell Silent‘.
Log Book
Date: 11.11.18 Time Out: 10.25 Rounds Fired – Lewis: - Rounds Fired – Vickers: - Bombs: - Time on RE8s: 190 hrs 40 mins RE8: 2517 Observer: Norman War Flying: 0 hrs 10 mins Height: 1000 Course/Remarks: Joyride
Date: 11.11.18 Time Out: 2.00 Rounds Fired – Lewis: - Rounds Fired – Vickers: - Bombs: - Time on RE8s: 190 hrs 45 mins RE8: 2517 Observer: A.M. Rose War Flying: 0 hrs 05 mins Height: 100 Course/Remarks: Travelling to Marquain
B Flight Orders
B FLIGHT ORDERS FOR 10.11.1918 2872 0800 Lt Bon Capt Gordon Reconn. 6740 1100 Lt Judd Lt Elliott – do - 4889 1400 Lt Sewell Lt Whittles – do - 2517 Lt Gregory Lt Bett Next job All officers’ kits to be packed and outside the mess by 8.15. No breakfast to be served after 0700. C.E. Gregory, Lt for O.C. B Flight
So Lt Bon and Capt Gordon had a pre-armistice reconnaissance patrol at 8:00am. And at 11:00am, Lt Judd and Lt Elliott went up to reconnoitre the situation as the armistice came into effect.
Who was ‘Norman’?
Greg’s first flight of the day was a 10 minute joyride with “Norman” as an observer/passenger. It is recorded in his log book but was not mandated in the day’s orders for the flight, which Greg signed. So who was this Norman who went on this brief and unofficial flight, just half an hour before the armistice?
According to Cross & Cockade’s list of first world war officers in 42 Squadron RAF, there was none whose surname was Norman. There was a George Norman Goldie, but he does not seem to have been in B Flight, and Greg has never mentioned him. In any event, this George Norman Goldie does not appear on a list of B Flight officers dating from December 1918. And, all other things being equal, he was more likely to have been known to his familiars as George rather than Norman.
A more intriguing – and certainly more poetic – theory is that “Norman” was Lt Norman Gregory, Greg’s brother.
Norman Gregory
Norman Gregory was born in 1894 and would have been 24 in November 1918. He was a lieutenant – a proper, two-pip lieutenant, not a second lieutenant – in the Royal Engineers. His available war records are sparse, but we know that he entered the French theatre of war on 21 July 1918. So maybe Norman found himself near Lille and called in to see his baby brother at Ascq. And perhaps in those heady minutes before it all ended, they went up for a quick spin.
If they did, and if their mother knew, she would probably have been horrified. To have three sons in the war – one in each of the three services – was bad enough. But for two of them to go up voluntarily together in one of those dangerous contraptions at the last minute was…well, probably something she didn’t need to be told about until they could laugh about it later.
In fact, they were nowhere near danger, at least danger in the sense of German guns and aeroplanes. Even if they had flown flat out east for five minutes, they would have not have been halfway to the front line before they had to turn back.
A Working Hypothesis
Whether this is the true explanation of who “Norman” was, we will probably never know. But it has a strong draw at least for me, as I rather like the idea of my grandfather taking my great uncle up for a little caper in the air as his last flight before the armistice. And one further, but admittedly tiny, piece of evidence that Norman was someone quite familiar, is that his is the only “observer” on that page of Greg’s log book whose name is written in cursive script rather than block capitals.
So my conjecture is that it was Norman Gregory that Greg took for a joyride, and that can stand until better evidence refutes the theory.
The Final Front Lines
We used to be able to refer to Greg’s sector confidently as the Lys sector, until his squadron no longer operated along the River Lys. This was as forces advanced east to the the next river – the River Scheldt – and beyond. But whatever the sector was called by 11 November, the ground troops of General Birdwood‘s Fifth Army had moved beyond Ath. In fact they had almost reached Grammont and Soignies, which are closer to Brussels than they are to Lille. And here the line was drawn on Armistice Day.
42 Squadron Moves to Marquain Aerodrome
Greg’s second flight of the day was a travelling flight, as part of the squadron’s move that day. (This was why kit had to be packed up and no late breakfasts were served.) After the guns had stopped, Greg and Air Mechanic Rose flew the 7 miles (11 km) to Marquain Aerodrome, just to the west of Tournai. It took them 5 minutes. At 100 ft, they were practically skimming the hedges. And so it was that Greg and the rest of 42 Squadron ended up in Belgium on Armistice Day.
The King’s Message
Meanwhile, the King sent his thanks to his newly formed, and newly tested, Royal Air Force. This printed copy of his message is at the Royal Air Force Museum, Hendon (behind glass, hence the reflections):
When the Guns Fell Silent
Michael Seymour has written a new article for today in the ‘Setting the Scene’ series. In it, Michael reflects on the circumstances of the signing of the armistice, and surveys some of the consequences of the new-found peace:
Next up…
Although this post marks the end of Greg’s wartime activity, it doesn’t – quite – mark the end of the Greg’s War blog. As will become apparent, Greg didn’t go home until the new year. Before then, the squadron made three more moves. And there were new photos to be taken, there were joyrides to be had and crashes to be avoided (sometimes). And of course there was Christmas to be celebrated. So there will be more posts to come, but they won’t be daily, and they will no longer involve the activities that were the core of Greg’s war flying since the beginning of June. No more counter-battery patrols, and no more shoots.
The next entry in Greg’s log book is for 20 November 1918.