December 2018 - Page 2 of 2

11 December 201821 December 2018

Wednesday 11 December 1918 – 42 Sqn Moves to Saultain

After only a couple of weeks at Aulnoy-lez-Valenciennes, 42 Squadron RAF is on the move once more – to nearby Saultain Aerodrome. Greg and Lt Scarterfield take RE8 2924 to the squadron’s new home.

Log Book

Date: Dec 11^th 
Machine Type: RE8 
RE8: 2924 
Observer: Scarterfield 
Time: 05 min 
Height: 500 
Course/Remarks: Travelling to Saultain

Squadron Record Book

Squadron Record Book (SRB) entry. Click for larger image.

Type and Number: R.E.8.2517*
Pilot and Observer: P. Lt Gregory. O. Lt Scarterfield
Duty: Travelling Flight
Hour of Start: 1135
Hour of Return: 1145
Remarks: Travelling flight to new aerodrome.

*There is a discrepancy in the aircraft serial number between Greg’s log book and the SRB. Probably the log book is correct. As will be seen, the log book records that Greg came back to Aulnoy in a couple of days to ferry 2517 to Saultain. Whereas the SRB has him flying 2517 on both occasions, which would be as pointless as it is unlikely.

42 Squadron Moves to Saultain Aerodrome

This was the shortest move that the squadron made while it was on the Western Front in 1918: a trip ENE of all of 2.3 miles (3.7 km)! Aulnoy is about 2 miles (3 km) south of Valenciennes, and Saultain is about 2½ miles (4 km) southeast .

Aulnoy to Saultain on a modern map (courtesy Google). Click map for a larger image, or click here to go to Google maps.

Saultain, like Aulnoy, is east of the River Scheldt (Escaut), but still in France. These days they are both satellite settlements for Valenciennes. The residents of Saultain can boast that a couple of fields of farmland separate them from the urban continuum – although those fields are bisected by the A2 autoroute.

8 December 20186 December 2018

Sunday 8 December 1918 – Rigging Test

Back in the air again for the first recorded flight since travelling to Aulnoy on 25 November 1918. It was a mere 30 minute rigging test.

Log Book

Date: Dec 8^th 
Machine Type: RE8 
RE8: 2924 
Observer: Scarterfield 
Time: 30 min 
Height: 3500 
Course/Remarks: Rigging test. O.K.

Squadron Record Book

The information in Greg’s log book is sparse. So is that in the Squadron Record Book entry:

Squadron Record Book entry. Click for larger image.

Type and Number: R.E.8.2924
Pilot and Observer: P. Lt Gregory. O. Lt Scarterfield
Duty: Test flight
Hour of Start: 1035
Hour of Return: 1105
Remarks: Rigging test.  Satisfactory.

Rigging Test

Greg’s rigging test was in RE8 2924, with Lt Scarterfield. This was the first time that Greg had flown this aircraft. At a later date, it would be the last RE8 that he flew.

The flight was for 30 minutes. Short, maybe, but the longest flight he had taken since his 1 hr 45 min reconnaissance and message dropping outing on 10 November 1918, before the armistice. And as it turned out, no flight after this one would be longer than 15 minutes.

6 December 20187 December 2018

No-Man’s Land and Trenches

Several vertical aerial photos in Greg’s collection show the devastated wastes of no-man’s land, and systems of interconnected trenches. The photos are all undated, in fact completely unmarked, so the locations aren’t specified on any of them either. The photos might well have been taken during joyrides in these post-armistice days, when it was (a) safer than it used to be and (b) something to do.

No-Man’s Land

Trenches

Locations

No-Man’s Land

I haven’t been able to work out the locations for any of these photographs. The no-man’s land images in particular offer very little to go on: just a few fragments of road, and the odd ribbon of trenches. Wherever they were must have been between the opposing lines for quite some time, given the density of shell holes.

The first photograph is used as the header image for the Western Front page.

Trenches

The photos showing the trench systems ought in principle to be easier to identify since the trenches were regularly mapped. But there were a lot of them, and pinning them down hasn’t (yet) proved possible.

I had wondered whether at least one of them might have been taken on the Estaires-Lys Line, a few miles east of Merville on the River Lys. This was one of Greg’s regular haunts when he was based at Rely. And there was another reason that he might have paid some attention to the trenches in that area. British forces had (and still have) a habit of giving familiar names to unfamiliar places. On the Estaires-Lys Line, various strongholds and emplacements had names of Welsh towns. Among them was Holyhead, where Greg was from. So you could imagine him taking an aerial shot of “Holyhead” to take back to the family in Holyhead.

Here are the “Welsh towns” mapped in 1918, on this extract from square G of 1:40,000 map sheet 36. The 50 x 50 yd reference for “Holyhead” is 36 G 27 a 1 4, below the Balloon Bed in the centre.

Map of German trenches on the Estaires-Lys Line — German trenches, with features named after Welsh towns, on the Estaires-Lys Line. From a 1:10,000 trench map dated 10 July 1918. Each numbered square is 1,000 yds. Click for larger image. Map credit: TNA/IWM/Great War Digital.

And here is the location today:

The location of Holyhead today on an image adapted from Google maps. — The location of “Holyhead” on the Estaires-Lys Line today on an image adapted from Google maps. (For some reason Google labels the River Lys by its Flemish/Dutch name of Leie, even in France.) Click to go to Google maps.

But, attractive though this theory is, I have been unable to match up the trench photographs with the trench maps! So the locations must remain unidentified, for now at least.

3 December 201813 August 2024

Tuesday 3 December 1918 – Message Dropping

After yesterday‘s practice session at message dropping, Lt McDermont takes up 2517 to drop messages for real.

             B Flight 3/12/18
0930
2517 Lt McDermont  Lt Whittles Message Dropping
2707 Lt Wallington Lt Paton    Reconn & Zone Calls

                C.E. Gregory, Lt.
                O.C. B Flight

Message Dropping

Not quite the excitement of war flying, of course. But at least he has Lt Whittles for company, rather than a couple of sandbags.

Meanwhile, Lt Wallington and Lt Paton are on reconnaissance duty and keep their zone calls in trim.

B Flight Orders

This is the last dated entry in Greg’s B Flight Orders book. Everything is now winding down.

2 December 201829 November 2018

Monday 2 December 1918 – Parades

Two aircraft from B Flight, 42 Squadron, were in the air today. But the main activity was a couple of parades.

B Flight Orders

             B Flight 2/12/18

0900 Parade
For Officers only, outside B & C Flts.
CHATEAU
Dress. Drill Order. Gumboots, shoes & stockings drill not be worn.

Flying Orders
(2517) 0930 Lt McDERMONT & Sandbags.   Practice message dropping.
(2707) 0930 Lt SEWELL    Lt MULHOLLAND Zone calls

MEN’S CHURCH PARADE
10.30 Lt SCARTERFIELD is detailed to take charge of B Flight.

          C.E. Gregory, Lt
          O.C. B Flight

Parade for Officers

The weather was evidently still bad. Gumboots compulsory, and shoes and stockings forbidden. But the reason for the parade wasn’t specified.

Flying Orders

Practice message dropping and zone calls: some of the skills of war still being practised. It is a while since zone calls were mentioned on these pages:

Counter Battery Patrols and Zone Calls

Men’s Church Parade

It is a bit of a mystery why the men should have been on a church parade on a Monday. It is not as if it was a major saint’s day. The Catholic church recognises 2 December as the feast day of a little known 4th century Roman martyr, Saint Bibiana (or, variously, Viviana, Vivian, or Vibiana). But that seems an unlikely reason for a Monday church service for the air force of a country whose established church was protestant.

Perhaps it was just a question of helping to fill the men’s day. And maybe that explains what the officers were doing too.

1 December 201831 December 2018

June to November 1918: Flying and Armaments Statistics

At the back of Greg’s log book is a table, in which he compiled some summary statistics. They show his flying hours and armaments used over the months he was on the Western Front.

Log Book

MONTH	BOMBS	VICKERS	LEWIS	TOTAL	HOURS
JUNE	24	1,000	1,500	2,500	23 hrs 55 m
JULY	44	1,200	2,200	3,400	55 hrs 0 m
AUGUST	54	4,100	5,300	9,400	46 hrs 20 m
SEPTEMBER	8	500	700	1,200	12 hrs 15 m
OCTOBER	13	400	300	700	22 hrs 05 m
NOVEMBER	12	100	600	700	7 hrs 50 m
TOTALS:	155	7,300	10,600	17,900	167 hrs 25 m

Flying and Armaments Statistics

There are a few interesting points that emerge when comparing the figures month-by-month, and when looking at how they were built up. As a reminder, the pilot fired the Vickers gun through the propeller, which was safeguarded by a synchronisation mechanism. The observer fired the lighter and more manoeuvrable Lewis gun, which was mounted on a Scarff ring around his compartment. More on the RE8 and its armaments here:

The Royal Aircraft Factory RE8

June

Greg arrived at the squadron as a new pilot on 3 June 1918. He had a rocky start, with engine failure and a crash landing on 4 June 1918. As a result of his minor injuries he didn’t fly for a few days. According to his log book:

his observer first fired from his Lewis gun on 13 June 1918;
Greg first fired from his Vickers gun on 15 June 1918; and
he dropped his first bombs on 16 June 1918.

Shortly afterwards he was off for a few days with an attack of “Merville Fever” (Spanish flu), starting on 20 June 1918.

So his first month was not a full one: 17 flying days in all.

July

In terms of hours flown, July 1918 was Greg’s busiest month. He spent 55 hours in the air, which works out at an average of just over 1 hr 45 mins per day (including non-flying days). To start with he was mostly flying counter-battery patrols. There were more observations of artillery fire (“shoots”) later in the month. A big day was 18 July 1918, when he directed fire onto Merville railway bridge that brought it down.

On 20 July 1918 Greg began to record in his log book the number of rounds fired and bombs dropped. This was refined on 29 July 1918, when he began separately recording the number of rounds fired from the Lewis and Vickers guns. Possibly this was part of an effort to encourage aircrew to shoot and bomb the enemy more. The numbers certainly increased.

August

Another busy month. In fact, by the measure of small arms fire, it was by far the busiest. The 9,400 rounds fired by both Lewis and Vickers guns were more than the rounds fired in all the other months that Greg was on the front put together. His 46 hrs 20 mins in the air averaged out at about 1 hr 30 mins per day, again including non-flying days. The work was – as had now become usual – a mix of counter-battery patrols and shoots. One of the shoots was on 8 August 1918, the day of the start of the Allies’ Final Offensive. It was a shoot on a hostile battery just west of Merville, and Greg was evidently proud of it.

September

Greg was on leave for most of the second half of the month (from 18 September to 2 October 1918). But, even so, the figures are quite light for the time that he was in the field. This is partly accounted for by eight non-flying days from 4-11 September 1918 for unknown reasons. In fact, he was only in the air on six days in September. So his total of 12 hrs 15 mins in the air for the month works out at just over two hours per flying day. Small arms fire was well down on the previous month, even allowing for the reduced flying.

October

There were 17 flying days this month. On 13 October 1918 the squadron moved from Rely to Chocques. By this time, the German army was on the run, and Greg’s work was a mixture of counter-battery and reconnaissance patrols. His first patrol east of Lille – quite a milestone – was on 17 October 1918. And five days later, on 22 October 1918, the squadron itself moved east of Lille to Ascq. Greg didn’t direct a single shoot in the month, and there wasn’t much small arms fire.

November

The November statistics only cover the time up to the armistice, which is proper since they relate to war flying. During the time, the bomb tally and the small arms fire was essentially the same as for the whole of October. This probably shows that in the closing days some increased pressure was being applied to the retreating enemy. And the small arms figure also includes the large number of rounds fired in the château-shoot up adventure that Greg and Capt. Gordon had on 2 November 1918. That was the last day Greg fired small arms ammunition in the war. He didn’t fly for five days after 3 November 1918, possibly because of another attack of flu. On 10 November 1918 Greg dropped his last bombs. Armistice Day itself saw merely a joyride and a travelling flight to the squadron’s new home at Marquain, across the border in Belgium, untroubled by the newly silent guns.

November flying during the armistice only amounted to a further 55 mins.