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.
