The war experiences of 2nd Lt. C. E. Gregory RFC/RAF in 1918
…the grey skies of St Floris have no reflection of the hazards they witnessed in 1918…
…and the ultra-dwarf crops at Trézennes hold no clues of the crash landing 100 years ago this morning from which a lightly damaged 2nd Lt Gregory was extracted.
Header image credit: IGN France 1:25k/GreatWarDigital. St Floris is on the extreme right, and Trézennes is on the extreme left.
This was Greg’s first day on the Western Front, and it nearly ended in disaster, as his log book (laconically) and diary (rather more more fully) explain:
Date: 4.6.18 Hour: 10 am Machine type and No.: RE8 No.: E102 Passenger: Lt. Marsh Time: 1 hr Height: 2500 Course: Inspection of line. Remarks: Engine conked. Crashed at Triezennes (102 written off)
Tuesday June 4th 1918. RE8. E102. Went up at 10am with Lt Marsh as observer. At 11pm [sic, sc. 11am] engine cut out east of St Flories, just over our line, due to inlet valve stuck open. Managed to make disused aerodrome at Triezennes but found Infantry Battalion on parade. Turned off into an adjoining field, – standing crops 6 feet high. Crashed very badly, machine turned complete somersault. Observer thrown clear, – self buried under debris, succeeded in getting out safely, – sprained shoulder & split lip. Had lunch with C.O. of the Battalion & returned to Squadron by tender.
The day’s events are shown on this map:
St Floris, a settlement on the River Lys just to the east of St Venant, was where the British Amusories-Havaskerque-La Motte Line – a line just behind the most forward positions – crossed the canalised river:
At this point, Greg was 10 miles (16 km) from the squadron’s airfield at Rely, and needed somewhere nearer to land. He had 2,500ft of altitude to play with.
Trézennes, also variously spelt as Treizennes and Tresennes, was an airfield just south east of Aire-sur-la-Lys. The admirable Anciens Aerodromes website gives the location of Trézennes aerodrome as 50°37’24″N, 2°25’25″E (here on Google maps).
The airfield was known to 42 Squadron, as the squadron had moved there from Chocques on 9 April 1918 when Operation Michael of the Spring Offensives began:
Tuesday 9 April 1918 – Operation Georgette Begins and 42 Squadron Relocates
The squadron’s subsequent move from Trézennes to Rely was on 25 April 1918.
Although from Greg’s description Trézennes airfield had clearly been colonised by the army on 4 June 1918 (even if, as he was later to say, “they had no bloody business being there”) the Imperial War Museum has a couple of aerial photos of Trézennes that pose a bit of a puzzle. They are described as showing the airfield in use by 14 Squadron RNAS (Hadley Page bombers) on 1 June 1918. Here is one of the photos:
Trezennes© IWM (Q 11552)
It is rather hard to reconcile this description with Greg’s experience three days later. And it is odd that the IWM description should refer to the RNAS when it had ceased to exist on 1 April 1918. Possibly the IWM photographs are mis-dated.
Although 6 ft (1.8 m) may seem implausible for a crop height to modern readers, it is easy to forget that today’s crops of cereals such as wheat and barley are ultra-dwarf varieties. Their forebears of the decades and centuries before the “Green Revolution” of the 1960s were much taller. For example, an ancient Italian variety of wheat (Mirabella) could reportedly grow 84 inches (7 ft, 2.1 m) tall, as reported here. Or, of course, the crop might not have been a cereal but may have been something like sunflowers! So, even allowing for a less than perfectly accurate assessment of its height by Greg, something growing to 6 ft in the field was perfectly feasible.
The official casualty report bears out Greg’s account of the day. This image is courtesy of Andrew Pentland of the hugely informative www.airhistory.org.uk website:
Short report: Pilot and Observer uninjured. Machine left aerodrome 10.0am. R.P.M. dropped to 750 and engine backfiring badly, tried to land on TREIZENNES Aerodrome, found ground covered with troops drilling, turned to the right and had to land in standing crops, turning upside down at 11.0am. Damage:- All main planes damaged. Fin and rudder damaged. 2 rear upper cross members of fuselage broken. 2 centre section struts broken and all fittings damaged. L.H. joint plate L & M damaged. Fuselage fitting R.H. at top of No 3 strut damaged. Undercarriage damaged. Scarff gun mounting wrecked. L.H. and R.H. magnetos damaged. Magneto platform broken. Camshaft doubtful. Exhaust pipes damaged. Recommended to be struck off charge of No 42 Squadron and transferred to No 1 A.D. for repair. Recommended to be struck off charge of 1st (Corps) Wing and No 42 Squadron and transferred to No 1 A.D. for repair.
So, a mere three days after E102 had been accepted by 42 Squadron, it was struck off its charge. Not quite a write-off, but certainly a major repair job.
Both Greg and 2nd Lt. Marsh were evidently very lucky on this occasion. It was probably truer to say that Greg was only slightly injured (hurt shoulder, split lip) rather than uninjured. And all his life he had a slightly weepy left eye, as his tear duct became permanently blocked when the bridge of his nose banged on the combing above the dashboard. On that subject, Rob Parsons (Greg’s son-in-law and my stepfather) remembers him saying that when he recovered he tried to get in the same position on another aircraft, but found it impossible to get the whole of his body below the level of the cockpit combing, where he had been trapped.
2nd Lt. Marsh’s luck, however, was to desert him before the month was out.
42 Squadron RAF, Greg’s future squadron, moves the 4½ miles (7 km) southwest from Trèzennes (aka Trezennes or Triezennes), just outside Aire-sur-la-Lys to Rely, Pas-de-Calais, on top of the low chalk hills to the southwest.
It was no doubt the continuing westward advance of German forces in Operation Georgette that occasioned the move to Rely, although by 25 April 1918 the line had practically been held some 6½ miles (10½ km) to the east of Trèzennes. For more on Georgette and the Spring Offensives in General, see:
The outlook is grim. Operation Georgette progresses apace, as the header image shows, and the front line reached the middle of Merville by nightfall as German forces advance west.
In fact, the outlook is so grim, that on this day General Haig issued his famous ‘backs to the wall’ order:
SPECIAL ORDER OF THE DAY
By FIELD-MARSHAL SIR DOUGLAS HAIG
K.T., G.C.B., G.C.V.O., K.C.I.E.
Commander-in-Chief, British Armies in FranceTo ALL RANKS OF THE BRITISH ARMY IN FRANCE AND FLANDERS.
Three weeks ago to-day the enemy began his terrific attacks against us on a fifty-mile front. His objects are to separate us from the French, to take the Channel Ports and destroy the British Army.
In spite of throwing already 106 Divisions into the battle and enduring the most reckless sacrifice of human life, he has as yet made little progress towards his goals.
We owe this to the determined fighting and self-sacrifice of our troops. Words fail me to express the admiration which I feel for the splendid resistance offered by all ranks of our Army under the most trying circumstances.
Many amongst us now are tired. To those I would say that Victory will belong to the side which holds out the longest. The French Army is moving rapidly and in great force to our support.
There is no other course open to us but to fight it out. Every position must be held to the last man : there must be no retirement. With our backs to the wall and believing in the justice of our cause each one of us must fight on to the end. The safety of our homes and the Freedom of mankind alike depend upon the conduct of each one of us at this critical moment.
(Signed) D. Haig. F.M.
Commander-in-Chief,
British Armies in FranceGeneral Headquarters
Thursday, April 11th, 1918
More background and detail in The Spring Offensives by Michael Seymour.
An RE8 of 42 Squadron RAF, Greg’s future squadron, saw aerial combat around Béthune:
Time: 2.42 p.m. Locality: BETHUNE
Pilot: 2/Lieut B. Martin; Observer: 2/Lieut J. R. Bono
Five hostile scouts. All were of same type, single seaters, believed to be Albatross Scouts, biplanes and no extensions, with Spad tails, marked black and white
Upon getting above clouds, Observer drew Pilot’s attention to 5 planes coming from North East. Upon reaching 3000 feet the E.A. formation was seen to swerve round and try to drive us over the line. Pilot turned slightly to West and by this time two of the leading E.A. dived on us, one diving directly on our nose which was engaged by the Pilot’s gun, nose to nose, and the other on the right wing was engaged by the Observer’s gun. The machine engaged by Pilot gave way and went under the machine and was not seen again and is believed to have been hit. Meanwhile the E.A. attacking on the right and engaged by Observer was seen to glide down and disappear in cloud, the Observer having fired one magazine into it. One of the other hostile planes was seen to fly towards and parallel to ours and Observer emptied another drum into it. Pilot was then entering clouds and E.A. went away. Ten minutes later 4 machines were seen approaching from enemy line from further North than place where last 5 E.A. were seen. They approached and Pilot disappeared under the clouds.
Header Image: Adapted from Map 7 of Haig’s Despatches ‘The German Offensive on the Lys, April 1918’. Credit: Imperial War Museum and Great War Digital
Operation Georgette – the Battle of the Lys – began at dawn, following a long artillery bombardment.
Michael Seymour writes:
On 9 April, the Germans opened their second phase of the offensive, code-named ‘Georgette’. From the vicinity of Passchendaele (with its higher ground) in the north of the sector, to Neuve-Chapelle in the south, the attacks replicated the experiences of ‘Michael’ – almost.
Read more here.
On the same day, 42 Squadron RAF, Greg’s future squadron in France, moves 9 miles (14 km) northwest from Chocques to Trezennes, near Aire-sur-la-Lys:
Although 42 Squadron would have moved from Trezennes by the time Greg joined it in early June, he would get to know Trezennes rather better than he would wish…