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
“No-man’s land”. Click for larger image. Credit: Greg’s War CollectionAn even more featureless view of no-man’s land. Click for larger image. Credit: Greg’s War Collection
Trenches
Trenches, vertical aerial view. Click for larger image. Credit: Greg’s War CollectionMore trenches, vertical aerial view. Click for larger image. Credit: Greg’s War Collection
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.
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” 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.
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:
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.
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:
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
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.
Although Greg’s log book doesn’t record any joyriding flights after the armistice, it is hard to believe that he didn’t take any. Actually, joyrides were officially sanctioned, no doubt because it was important for airmen to keep their flying skills in trim. They had to police the armistice, and to be ready for any resumption of hostilities. After all, an armistice was not a peace treaty.
Joyriding Orders
Despite the absence of log book entries, we do have a couple of undated pages of the B Flight Orders book to work with. One of them contains official orders on joyriding. The other – more on which below – is distinctly unofficial. From its position between two dated pages, we can pin the page of official orders down to sometime between 11 November and 2 December. All other things being equal, it is more likely than not that the orders were in force by today.
— Joyriding—
Two machines per flight are allowed to joyride every day.
They may go anywhere within reason, provided that —
1. They land on an aerodrome.
2. They return to the Squadron before dusk. Anyone staying out overnight will be severely dealt with.
N.B. Marquise & places at that distance are not within reason.
C. E. Gregory, Lt.
for O.C. B Flight
“Marquise & Places at that Distance”
Marquise is near the coast, between Boulogne and Calais. It was by this stage where No. 1 ASD was based (see the post for 3 June 1918). We don’t know whether this page in the B Flight Orders book was written before or after the move from Marquain to Aulnoy on 25 November 1918. But in either event, Marquise was at some distance: 72 miles (116 km) from Marquain and 86 miles (138 km) from Aulnoy.
Presumably flying east over the armistice line was verboten. But even so, when flying west there were still plenty of places to choose from. Although day trips to the seaside were clearly out, the following places may well have been considered ‘within reason’.
Rely (54 miles, 87 km from Aulnoy)
Aire-sur-la-Lys (54 miles, 87 km)
Villers-Bretonneux (54 miles, 87 km)
Trèzennes (52 miles, 84 km)
Ypres (45 miles, 73 km)
Merville (44 miles, 71 km)
Chocques (44 miles, 71 km)
Lille (29 miles, 47 km)
Ascq (25 miles, 41 km)
Additionally, a good deal of what for much of the war had been the British and German front lines – as well as no-man’s land in between them – would have been within 30-60 miles (50-100 km) of Aulnoy.
Several of the photographs in Greg’s collection were undated, and may have resulted from joyrides in this post-armistice period. Some have already been published in the blog, on significant days for the locations concerned or for 42 Squadron. They include:
Villers-Bretonneux
(What look like freshly dug trenches in the oblique aerial view of this post suggest an earlier date than after the armistice. But the undated photograph is included here for completeness.)
Other undated aerial photographs in the collection will be posted in the coming days and weeks.
The Unofficial Joyriding Rules
A little later – probably after 3 December 1918 – a page of unofficial joyriding rules appeared in Greg’s B Flight Orders book. Despite its probable later date, this seems the best time to release it.
Joy Riding
Officers are forbidden:-
(1) To take ‘bints’ in the buses.
(2) Drop bombs on the Officers’ Mess.
(3) Nose dive at less than 100 feet.
(4) Make ascents in bathing costumes.
(5) Take more than 3 bottles of whisky at once into the air.
(6) Return to aerodrome without observer.
(7) Drop empty bottles near GHQ.
Unlike the other entries in the B Flight Orders book, this doesn’t seem to be a carbon copy. So it’s unlikely that anyone posted a top copy onto a notice board. It’s even less likely that this list was compiled without a liberal quantity of alcoholic inspiration!
After yesterday’s unsuccessful attempt, Greg and Lt Scarterfield today reach Aulnoy Aerodrome (Aulnoy-lez-Valenciennes). This flight was part of 42 Squadron RAF’s move from Marquain in Belgium back into France.
Log Book
Date: Nov 25thMachine Type: RE8
RE8: 2517
Observer: Scarterfield
Time: 20 min
Height: 2000
Course/Remarks: Travelling to Valenciennes
The fact that they reached 2,000 ft during the flight indicated better weather – or at least higher cloud cover – than yesterday.
Aulnoy-lez-Valenciennes
Greg’s Log Book only indicates that they were travelling to Valenciennes. But there were several airfields near the town. Marly, Saultain, Aulnoy, la Briquette and Saint Leger were all local aerodromes, as shown on the following map.
Aerodromes around Valenciennes. Adapted from a 1:20,000 scale Barrage Map dated 9 October 1918, when British ground forces were preparing to attack. Each numbered square is 1,000 yds. Click for larger image. Map Credit: TNA/IWM/Great War Digital.
I’m grateful to Great War Forum user fetubi for identifying which aerodrome that 42 Squadron moved to at this stage. (He says that the move was on 28 November 1918, so perhaps that was the date of its completion. There was of course less pressure to complete such moves swiftly now.) And the ever useful Anciens Aerodromes site enabled me to distinguish between the adjacent aerodromes known as Aulnoy and la Briquette.
42 Squadron Moves to Aulnoy-lez-Valenciennes
So, from these various sources of information, we can establish that Greg and Lt Scarterfield flew the 21 miles (34 km) SSE from Marquain to Aulnoy.
Marquain to Aulnoy-lez-Valenciennes on a modern map (courtesy Google). Click the map for a larger image or here to go to Google maps.
The squadron’s new aerodrome was just 2 miles (3 km) south of the centre of Valenciennes. The site is now a housing development, next to a Carrefour supermarket and Junction 21 of the A2 autoroute.
Today was exactly two weeks after Armistice Day, which was when the squadron had moved to Marquain. So Greg’s stay in Belgium lasted just 14 days.
Next Up…
The next entry in Greg’s log book is for 8 December 1918. But it seems likely that there was some joyriding to be done before then. And we will have a couple of entries in Greg’s B Flight Orders notebook to look at in early December.
42 Squadron RAF was on the move again, after 13 days at Marquain, near Tournai, in Belgium since Armistice Day. But today’s attempt to reach the squadron’s new aerodrome near Valenciennes was unsuccessful.
Log Book
Date: Nov 24thMachine Type: RE8
RE8: 2517
Observer: Scarterfield
Time: 20 min
Height: 500
Course/Remarks: Attempt to reach Valenciennes
Attempt to reach Valenciennes
Why was the attempt to reach Valenciennes unsuccessful? We can only guess, but judging by the height at which they were flying (500 ft) it looks likely to have been bad weather. Just because the fighting had stopped, it didn’t mean that the dismal weather would improve.
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
Lt. Norman Gregory RE, an elder brother of Greg, who may have been the ‘Norman’ in today’s joyride. Click for larger image. Credit: Greg’s War Collection.
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.
Greg’s ‘observers’ in November 1918. ‘Norman’ is the only one in cursive script. Click for larger image.
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
Front Lines on 11 November. Click for larger image. Map credit: Map Archive
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.
Ascq to Marquain on a modern map (courtesy Google). Click to go to Google maps.
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):
The King’s Message to the RAF. Click for larger image. Photograph of printed copy at the RAF Museum, Hendon.
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:
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.
Things were moving fast on the penultimate day. B Flight was fully engaged in reconnaissance, and then message dropping with the latest information. But they had to see the C.O. or the Battalion Intelligence Officer before going up. Greg and Lt. Bett had the first flight of the day.
Log Book
Date: 10.11.18
Time Out: 6.15
Rounds Fired – Lewis: 200
Rounds Fired – Vickers: -
Bombs: 4
Time on RE8s: 190 hrs 30 mins
RE8: 2517
Observer: Bett
War Flying: 1 hrs 45 mins
Height: 3000
Course/Remarks: Reconn. Successful.
Allied forces were keeping up the pressure on the retreating German forces. The Lewis gun was firing, and bombs were dropping from Greg’s aircraft. But, for him, this was the last use of weaponry.
B Flight Orders
B FLIGHT ORDERS FOR 10.11.1918
2517 0600 Lt Gregory Lt Bett Reconn: Bombs
4559 0900 Lt Sewell Lt Whittles – do –
2872 1200 Lt Bon Capt Gordon – do –
2707 1500 Lt Wallington Lt Paton – do –
2500 0930 Lt Judd Sandbags MARQUISE.
2924 To be ready at 10.30.
All Pilots to report to the C.O. [Commanding Officer] or B.I.O. [Battalion Intelligence Officer] before going up. All machines when coming home are to drop a message at Divisions giving position of the Hun front line troops, M.G.s etc. The same message to be dropped to our advanced troops.
C.E. Gregory, Lt
for O.C. B Flight
The position of the front line was changing rapidly. In 24 hours it advanced 17 miles (27 km) from Tournai to just east of Ath:
Line held 9 November. Click for larger image. Map credit: Map Archive (adapted)
Lt Judd was nor part of the main action, though. He was detailed to take RE8 2500 to Marquise, where No. 1 ASD was now based, as explained in the post for 3 June 1918.
