Abscon Archives - Greg's War

28 January 201923 January 2019

Tuesday 28 January 1919 – Homeward Bound

No doubt to his great relief, Greg was today at last on his way home – back to Blighty. Or, as his war record has it, this was the day that he transferred from the British Expeditionary Force to the Home Establishment:

Back to the Channel

He would have made his way to one of the channel ports, most likely Boulogne, probably by train. Perhaps his route took him via Douai, Arras, St Pol-sur-Ternoise, Montreuil and Étaples, in a partial retracing of his journey from Boulogne to Aire-sur-la-Lys back in early June 1918:

Sunday 2 June 1918 – The Long Trail to Aire

Homeward Bound Over the Channel

Crossing the English Channel he took these two photographs, probably with his Vest Pocket Kodak camera:

Photo entitled "Homeward Bound" — “Homeward Bound” – taken by Greg crossing the English Channel. Click for larger image. Credit: Greg’s War Collection

Photo of men leaning on the rail of a ship - taken by Greg crossing the English Channel. — Crossing the Channel – taken by Greg on his way home. Click for larger image. Credit: Greg’s War Collection

Judging by the way the light falls in the contre jour photograph entitled ‘Homeward Bound’, it looks as if it the ship was actually outward bound! Most likely it was passing Greg’s ship on its way to pick up more homecoming troops. And the men in the other photo could be looking into the light at the passing ship.

Greg was probably sailing on the NNW course from Boulogne to Folkestone. This was the reverse of the crossing that he made on the SS Arundel on his way out to France at the end of May 1918:

Friday 31 May 1918 – Across to France

He had crossed the Channel since then, though: he went home on leave on 18 September 1918 and he had probably set off back to the Western Front on 1 October 1918. But this time, it was back to Blighty for good.

Back to Blighty

Despite its misleading similarity to the word ‘blight’, Blighty was an affectionate slang term for Britain or England. Google says that it was first used by soldiers in the Indian army, and gives its etymology as follows:

Anglo-Indian alteration of Urdu bilāyatī, wilāyatī ‘foreign, European’, from Arabic wilāyat, wilāya ‘dominion, district’.

Google’s Ngram viewer shows that the word rapidly gained currency in about 1910, but its usage fell markedly in the mid-1920s. It has enjoyed a modest revival in recent decades. Perhaps this had something to do with increased writings on the First World War as we approached its centenary. Maybe laced with a certain amount of post-modern irony.

The word ‘Blighty’ features on Laurence East’s Christmas card for 42 Squadron. It stretches on his stylised map from the Cheshire plain almost to the Thames estuary, as shown in the post for Christmas Day:

Wednesday 25 December 1918 – Christmas at Saultain

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22 January 20199 January 2019

January 1919 – 42 Squadron RAF Photograph at Château Lantier, Abscon

In one of Greg’s albums is a photograph that has the caption “42 Squadron R.A.F. (Abscon) Nov 1918”. The date is quite clear. It is also quite wrong. 42 Squadron wasn’t at Abscon in November 1918.

Photo of 42 Squadron RAF at Château Lantier in Abscon, January 1919 (not November 1918 as captioned) — 42 Squadron RAF at Château Lantier in Abscon, January 1919 (not November 1918 as captioned). Click for larger image. Credit: Greg’s War Collection.

42 Squadron RAF at Château Lantier, Abscon

How do we know that the location is right and the date wrong, and not vice versa?

Well, first, we know that the location – Abscon – is correct. This is because the background is recognisably Château Lantier, a former landmark of Abscon.

Postcard view of Château Lantier, the officers’ mess for Abscon Aerodrome — Château Lantier in Abscon, from a contemporary postcard. Click for larger image. Credit: www.akpool.co.uk

Seen in this postcard photograph, the grand Château Lantier stood sideways on to what is now la Place du Général de Gaulle in the centre of Abscon. In Greg’s photo, the officers and men of 42 Squadron are at the back of the château – the opposite side from that shown in the postcard.

The château was a little over ½ mile (1 km) from the airfield. But it would have been familiar to the squadron. It was after all in the middle of the aerodrome’s ‘home town’. And according to Anciens Aérodromes, some of the squadron’s officers were accommodated there. Today, the building is no more. Its site is now occupied by the town hall and various other buildings.

January 1919, not November 1918

Secondly, we know that the date in the caption of the photograph can’t be right. The squadron wasn’t at Abscon in November 1918. They were at Ascq at the start of November, and they moved to Marquain on Armistice Day. Later, on 25 November 1918, they moved again to Aulnoy, near Valenciennes:

Tuesday 22 October 1918 – 42 Squadron RAF Moves to Ascq

When the Guns Fell Silent

Monday 25 November 1918 – 42 Sqn Moves to Aulnoy

Greg in the Frame

Greg is in the photograph, near the middle in the fourth row up:

Detail from 42 Squadron RAF at Château Lantier in Abscon, January 1919, with Greg indicated. Click for larger image. Credit: Greg’s War Collection.

We know that Greg came to Abscon from Saultain on New Year’s Day 1919, in what was his last flight. He would be gone before the end of the month. So the photograph – Greg’s last group photo – must have been taken in January 1919.

Possibly the mistake in the date arose because of the similarities with a ‘B’ Flight group photograph at Ascq that was definitely taken in November:

Tuesday 5 November 1918 – B Flight, 42 Sqn RAF at Ascq

15 January 20198 January 2019

Wednesday 15 January 1919 – A Scruffy RE8 4889

In another photo taken at Abscon, RE8 4889 (actually D4889) stands on the airfield with the cité ouvrière and the spire of Abscon church in the background. Pilot and observer are in position, as is the Lewis gun on the Scarff ring – but so are the wheel-chocks. And there are no ground crew in evidence, so this looks like a posed photo.

RE8 4889

In January 1919, RE8 4889 was in a scruffy state. Scratches, patches and scuff marks are all over it. It used to be pristine. In fact, this is the shiny state in which we saw the same aircraft previously. In the post for 27 August 1918 it was pictured with Capt. Bill Ledlie standing proprietorially in front of the gleaming aircraft:

In this older photograph (probably taken at Rely, to where 42 Squadron had moved on 25 April 1918) the aircraft was clearly pretty new. It had been built by Napier and delivered to the squadron on 8 July 1918. It stayed with them until 28 January 1919. On that day Lt Judd ferried 4889 to St Omer, where 13 Squadron took charge of it. It had survived its time of active war service without major incident.

Possibly 4889 was the aircraft that Capt. Ledlie often flew. The squadron designation was ‘B1’, and Capt. Ledlie was the flight commander of ‘B’ flight. So he might have been the pilot in the photo at Abscon. But Capt. Ledlie didn’t have exclusive use of it. For instance, Greg flew 4889 on 6 October 1918 and 7 October 1918. More likely, since the photograph came from Lt McDermont, who later emigrated to New Zealand, it was he who was the pilot in the January 1919 photo.

The Abscon RE8 Photographs

This photograph is one of a series of aeroplanes and crew taken – probably at least semi-officially – at Abscon. Two others have been posted in previous weeks, one (of 2872) from Greg’s collection and one (of 2924) from the Air Force Museum of New Zealand, as this one was.

Wednesday 1 January 1919 – Greg’s Last Flight

Wednesday 8 January 1918 – RE8 2924 and Lt McDermont

No doubt there are others in museums and dusty attics around the world. And more still that have been lost or destroyed.

Abscon Church

In the January 1919 photograph of 4889, the stubby spire of Abscon church rises above the house behind the tail of the aircraft. That church is now gone. According to French Wikipedia:

The old church, built in 1892 and closed to worship in July 1969 because of mining subsidence, was replaced by a new building inaugurated in 1981.

It was the stubbiness of this spire that made me think that the spire in the photograph in the post for 28 December 1918 was probably not Abscon’s, but more likely to be that of Saultain:

Saturday 28 December 1918 – Last Few Days at Saultain

Thanks once more to…

Matthew O’Sullivan, Keeper of Photographs at the Air Force Museum of New Zealand for granting permission to use the photo.
Andrew Pentland of www.airhistory.org.uk, whose Royal Flying Corps pages contain information about RE8 D4889.

11 January 201910 January 2019

Waiting to Go Home?

Two months after the armistice was signed on 11 November 1918, Greg, like so many others, must have been becoming tired of the waiting to go home from the Western Front.

Given the hundred years that have passed, none of us alive today knew Greg when he was 19. In later life, though, he was a calm man, who rarely if ever seemed impatient. And he was rational enough to know it was pointless to rail against something he couldn’t influence. This stoical quality seems to come through in this photographic portrait of Greg from his collection:

Undated photo portrait of Greg, almost Karsh-like in its styling. — Waiting to go home? Greg in an undated, almost Karsh-like photograph. Click for larger image. Credit: Greg’s War Collection.

The photograph is undated, and the location is unknown. But there’s something of a quality of resigned patience about the portrait that seems to say ‘waiting’. So it may date from this limbo period after the armistice and before going home. Possibly it was at Abscon. Wherever it was, his accommodation looks quite comfortable.

The photographer is unknown, too. Could the photo be a selfie? Greg by Greg: an early example of the genre? Certainly he loved to experiment with that sort of thing. It’s unlikely to be a self portrait taken with his Vest Pocket Kodak. That doesn’t have a cable release facility. It is possible, though, that his left hand is covertly operating the shutter release of some other camera. Or the photographer may have been someone else – possibly someone casting a head-like shadow on Greg in the strong low light.

‘The Karsh Portrait’

In the family, we call this photograph ‘the Karsh portrait’ of Greg. That’s not to suggest that it was actually taken by the great portrait photographer Yousuf Karsh. Apart from anything else, young Yousuf would only have been 9 or10 years old at the time! It’s just that the strong lighting and sharp contrasts are vaguely reminiscent of some of Karsh’s later (and greater) portraits. Many fine examples can be found on the photographer’s website here.

Yousuf Karsh

Yousuf Karsh, master photographer of the 20th century. Photo © Yousuf Karsh.

Yousuf Karsh

8 January 20198 January 2019

Wednesday 8 January 1918 – RE8 2924 and Lt McDermont

On New Year’s Day 1919, Greg had ferried RE8 2924 (strictly speaking RE8 C2924) from Saultain to Abscon in his last recorded flight. The aircraft would remain at Abscon until 6 February 1918, when it was handed over to 13 Squadron RAF at St Omer. So on 8 January 1919 it would have been at Abscon, where this photograph was taken.

Houses of Abscon’s cité ouvrière are clearly visible in the background. Lt John G. McDermont is believed to be standing on the left.

Photo of RE8 C2924 at Abscon with Lt John Gilchrist Johnston McDermont. — RE8 C2924 at Abscon. Lt John Gilchrist Johnston McDermont is believed to be standing on the left. Click for larger image. Photo credit: Air Force Museum of New Zealand, MUS05056.

This photograph looks as though it is one of a series that includes the photograph in the 1 January post:

Wednesday 1 January 1919 – Greg’s Last Flight

John Gilchrist Johnston McDermont

Lt John Gilchrist Johnston McDermont was born on 10 May 1896. This would make him 22 when the photograph was taken, and a little over two years older than Greg.

Lt McDermont was a pilot with B Flight, 42 Squadron RAF. When the squadron moved from Aulnoy to Saultain on 11 December 1918, he and his observer Lt Elliott crashed on landing RE8 D6740 at Saultain, but were both recorded as ‘OK’ in the casualty report, as previously noted here. (On the same occasion Greg and Lt Scarterfield had ferried RE8 2924 to the new aerodrome.)

After the war, Lt McDermont emigrated to New Zealand.

Thanks to…

Matthew O’Sullivan, Keeper of Photographs at the Air Force Museum of New Zealand for sending me the photograph and information about Lt McDermont, as well as for granting permission to use the photo here.
Andrew Pentland of www.airhistory.org.uk, whose Royal Flying Corps pages contain information about RE8 C2924 and Lt McDermont.

1 January 20199 January 2019

Wednesday 1 January 1919 – Greg’s Last Flight

In the last flight recorded in his log book, Greg ferried another RE8 from Saultain to Abscon. This time it was 2924, and his passenger was Capt. Gordon.

Log Book

Date: 1919 Jan 1st
Machine Type: RE8
RE8: 2924
Observer: Cpt. Gordon
Time: 15 min
Height: 2000
Course/Remarks: Travelling to Abscon

Greg’s Last Flight

This was the last time that Greg took to the air at the controls of an RE8. It was some 9½ months after his first ever flight: an air experience trip in a BE2e on his first day of flying training:

Thursday 14 March 1918 – Flying Training Starts

And it was exactly nine months since Greg’s first flight in an RE8, on the day that the Royal Air Force was founded:

Monday 1 April 1918 – A Significant Day

Total Flying Hours

Greg’s total flying hours up to armistice day had been recorded in his log book as follows:

Greg's Log Book entries for 1-11 November 1918 — Greg’s log book entries for 1-11 November 1918, with total flying times. Click for larger image.

Since armistice day, Greg had only flown for a further 2 hrs and 20 mins, at least according to the flights in his log book. (I’m still not sure whether he went for joyrides that were unrecorded in his log book.) Although his war flying total was unaffected by this extra time in the air, we can update the other totals as follows:

TOTAL TIME ON RE8s: 193 hrs 5 mins
TOTAL TIME IN AIR: 238 hrs 0 mins
           SOLO: 227 hrs 55 mins

With Capt. Gordon at Abscon

So Greg brought Capt. Gordon to Abscon on the first day of the new year. Two days ago he had ferried RE8 2872 from Saultain to Abscon, with only sandbags for company. In this photograph, taken either on or shortly after 1 January 1919, Greg and Capt. Gordon (and Waso the dog) pose in front of 2872:

Photo of Greg, Capt. Gordon and Waso the dog in front of RE8 2872 at Abscon, January 1919. — Greg, Capt. Gordon and Waso the dog in front of RE8 2872 at Abscon, January 1919. (Image retouched to reduce blemish.) Click for larger image. Credit: Greg’s War Collection

Although the photograph is undated, the background shows it to be at Abscon Aerodrome. More particularly, we can pin it down to to the northwest edge of the airfield, on the site of the more recently built housing as shown in the photos of Abscon Aerodrome in the post for 30 December 1918.

La Cité Ouvrière

The reason that it’s possible to be so precise about the location is the characteristic housing in the background. It is an example of une cité ouvrière.

This translates somewhat unsatisfactorily into English as ‘a workers’ city’. But that doesn’t properly get the meaning across. French Wikipedia defines une cité ouvrière (in translation) as a “concerted group of working-class housing, generally single-family”. By way of explanation, it continues:

It is originally an essentially residential area exclusively for workers in a particular factory and their families. It can be accompanied by communal facilities. In most cases, it is provided by the proprietor of the factory.

So in English we would probably say model village – but one in an industrial rather than rural context. British examples that have achieved some fame include Saltaire, Port Sunlight, Bournville and New Lanark, but French instances are probably more numerous even if less well known.

In any event, the housing above the rear part of the RE8’s fuselage in the above photo is part of Abscon’s cité ouvrière, named on the 1:40,000 map sheet 51A as la Cité de la République. It’s still there today, forming a rather more appealing living environment than the modern developments across the road on the airfield site:

Photo of la cité ouvrière at Abscon — La cité ouvrière d’Abscon (la *Cité de la République*) in 2018, across the road from the former aerodrome. Click for larger image.

And the name of the road that separates la cité ouvrière from the site of Abscon Aerodrome? Appropriately enough, it’s la rue du 11 Novembre.

30 December 201829 December 2018

Monday 30 December 1918 – 42 Sqn Moves to Abscon

42 Squadron RAF were on the move for the last time before both the Squadron and Greg returned to the UK. Today, as part of the move, Greg flew RE8 2872 from Saultain to Abscon Aerodrome, accompanied by sandbags in the observer’s compartment. It was to be his penultimate flight.

Log Book

Date: Dec 30^th 
Machine Type: RE8 
RE8: 2872 
Observer: Sandbags 
Time: 15 min 
Height: 2000 
Course/Remarks: Travelling to Abscon

42 Squadron Moves to Abscon Aerodrome

In their last move on the Western Front, 42 Squadron relocated 12 miles (19km) west from Valenciennes, broadly in the direction of Arras.

Route from Saultain Aerodrome to Abscon Aerodrome on a modern map (courtesy Google). — Saultain to Abscon on a modern map (courtesy Google). Click map for a larger image, or click here to go to Google maps.

So now they were back west of the River Scheldt (Escaut).

The aerodrome occupied a triangular site on the southern edge of the small town of Abscon.

Abscon Aerodrome location on Google Maps satellite view. Click map for a larger image, or click here to go to Google maps.

From 1914 it was a German airfield. But had been in Allied hands since its liberation by Canadian forces on 18 October 1918. This was the day after the liberation of Lille. The first RAF occupants were 19 Squadron (Dolphins), who moved in on 24 October 1918 and were still there when 42 Squadron arrived. So it is possible that the previously discussed photograph of a Sopwith Dolphin in Greg’s collection was taken when 19 and 42 Squadrons shared Abscon as a home:

Monday 23 September 1918 – Sopwith Dolphin

98 Squadron (DH.9s) arrived shortly after 19 Squadron had taken up residence, but left a few days before 42 Squadron arrived.

Thanks to Anciens Aerodromes for the squadron information.

Today, the former aerodrome at Abscon is partly a housing development, and partly farmland.

Abscon

Abscon itself was a small mining town, with various other industrial activities (including a sugar refinery and a glassworks, according to French Wikipedia). Just before the outbreak of the First World War the population was a little over 3,000. Today it is about 4,500.