Just after Greg landed at the end of his counter-battery patrol as covered in this morning’s post, the next aircraft of 42 Squadron to take to the air from Rely aerodrome was on contact patrol. Greg wasn’t the pilot, but there’s a nice reason to take a look at what the crew reported. The information in the Squadron Record Book (SRB) for this patrol gives the precise positions of troops on the ground in the Lys Sector as they approach Laventie. We get a good sense of their rate of progress, as we know where the British line was yesterday morning.
So here, 100 years to the hour after their patrol, is the report that Lts Newson (Pilot) and Griffiths (Observer) filed.
Squadron Record Book
Type and Number: RE8 2300
Pilot and Observer: P. Lt Newson. O. Lt Griffiths
Duty: Contact Pat’l
Hour of Start: 12.45
Hour of Return: 2.15
Remarks: 13.03 Called for flares. White panels observed at M 3b 5.5, M 9a 7.5, G 32a 7.5, M 15d 6.4, M 15b 6.3
Troops observed along main ESTAIRES ROAD from G 26.c 2.0 – M 21a 5.0
Troops observed walking along from M 14b 7.7 to M 9c 20.35
14.45 Fi[r]es in WOODS at M 10c 5.2 and M 16d 6.8
Fire in HOUSE at M 4c 70.35
2 EKB’s in direction of AUBERS.
Vis good. Height 500’. Obs by P & O.
Troops advance on Laventie
The troop locations and fires mentioned in the report are shown on this map:
It looks like Estaires is now in British hands, and that units are positioning to take Laventie. The eastward advance continues.
Contact Patrol
Two earlier posts have dealt (briefly) with contact patrols. They were essentially low altitude (e.g. 500 ft, as here) patrols gathering troop location information to feed back to HQ: