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.
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.
Today was a day for reconnaissance. Greg, with Capt. Gordon as his observer, was among those flying reconnaissance patrols, which were to leave the ground every hour. B Flight’s Orders for the day, which were signed by Greg, said that patrols were to fire all their small arms ammunition before returning.
Log Book
Date: 9.11.18
Time Out: 10.10
Rounds Fired – Lewis: -
Rounds Fired – Vickers: -
Bombs: 4
Time on RE8s: 188 hrs 25 mins
RE8: 2517
Observer: Cpt. Gordon
War Flying: 1 hrs 10 mins
Height: 7000
Course/Remarks: Reconn. Engine dud.
Later in the day, Greg took up Air Mechanic Corkhill to test the engine.
Date: 9.11.18
Time Out: 15.00
Rounds Fired – Lewis: -
Rounds Fired – Vickers: -
Bombs: -
Time on RE8s: 188 hrs 45 mins
RE8: 2517
Observer: A. M. Corkhill
War Flying: 0 hrs 20 mins
Height: 2000
Course/Remarks: Engine test – OK.
B Flight Orders
B FLIGHT ORDERS FOR 9.11.1918
6740 0700 Lt. Judd Lt. Elliott Reconn. Bombs.
2517 1000 Lt. Gregory Capt. Gordon – do –
2707 1300 Lt. Wallington Lt. Paton – do –
2872 Lt. Sewell Lt. Whittles Next job
Lt. Bon Lt. Bett Next job
4889 0930 Ready for Major Hunter with bombs
-------------
Patrols will leave the ground at every hour and may return after 1¼ hours on the line, providing that all SAA [small arms ammunition] has been fired and they have a decent report. Bombs are to be taken if clouds are at 2000 ft or over.
C.E. Gregory, Lt
for O.C. B Flight
Patrols left every hour. Reconnaissance was clearly the priority of the day. This was because a lot was happening on the ground. The British front line was moving rapidly eastwards from the River Scheldt as the German armies withdrew east from Tournai towards Ath.
Line held 9 November. Click for larger image. Map credit: Map Archive
The small arms ammunition was the .303 rounds that the Vickers and Lewis machine guns fired. For some reason, Greg and Capt. Gordon didn’t fire any. That could have been because the engine gave them trouble, and they went back to the aerodrome prematurely.
This was to be Greg’s last flight with Capt. Gordon before the armistice.
42 Squadron RAF only arrived at Ascq Aerodrome on 22 October 1918, and would be leaving in three days time. Among Greg’s collection are two photographs of him and a few fellow officers, taken on the airfield, with some still identifiable houses behind them. Meanwhile, the everyday business of B Flight – reconnaissance and counter-battery patrols and a shoot – continues. As it turned out, these would be the last counter-battery patrol and the last shoot flown by the flight in the war. Greg did not fly today.
B Flight Orders
B FLIGHT ORDERS FOR 8.11.1918:-
2707 10.00 12.30 Lt Judd Lt Elliott RECON & CBP
4889 when fit Lt Bon Capt Gordon SHOOT
Lt Sewell Lt Whittles NEXT JOB
Lt Wallington Lt Bett - do –
E27 will be ready to leave the ground at 630.
Wm. Ledlie, Capt.
Ascq Aerodrome
The Anciens Aerodromes website pinpoints the site of Ascq aerodrome as being just south of the junction of the Rue des Fusilés and the Rue de la Tradition/Rue Gaston Baratte. The road junction is itself only a few hundred yards/metres southwest of the centre ville of Ascq itself, as can be seen on this embedded Google map:
Today, the site of the airfield is mostly an industrial estate, with a bit of scrubland and some allotment land – with what looks like an asparagus bed on the right! –
The site of Ascq aerodrome, June 2018. Looking south from the Rue de la Tradition towards the marker in the Google map, above. Click for larger image.
Photos with the Rue des Fusilés in the Background
Here are the two photographs of Greg and others. They are taken with buildings on the Rue des Fusilés being visible behind them.
The first:
Greg (second from left, front row) and others on the airfield at Ascq. Third from left in the front row is probably Capt. Bill Ledlie. Click for larger image. Credit: Greg’s War Collection
The houses on the left of the group are still there, on the Rue des Fusilés, although somewhat altered and built around:
Houses on the Rue des Fusilés in June 2018. The cream house on the left and the red-roofed building, since refashioned but recognisable by its chimneys, were there in 1918. Click for larger image
And the second, probably taken on the same occasion:
Greg (on the right in the back row) and others on the airfield at Ascq. Seated in the middle in the in the front row is Capt. Bill Ledlie. Click for larger image. Credit: Greg’s War Collection
Note the house with the patterned roof, visible between the observer standing on the left and other other five. It is still quite conspicuous on the Rue des Fusilés:
House with pattered roof on the Rue des Fusilés in June 2018. Click for larger image
It was another non-flying day for Greg, but today we can see why. For the last few days of the war, we have copies of the daily orders for B Flight, 42 Squadron RAF. And today’s entry shows that Greg was the first reserve pilot on the list for any job that fell due after the already scheduled reconnaissance flights and shoots. As it turned out, he stayed on the ground.
B Flight Orders
B Flight Orders
B FLIGHT ORDERS FOR 6.11.1918
2707 0800.1030 Lt Sewell Lt Whittles RECON.
6740 1400.DUSK Lt Judd Lt Elliott - do –
E27 Capt. Ledlie Lt Mulholland SHOOT
4889 Lt Bon Capt. Gordon - do –
Lt Wallington Lt. Bett - do –
Lt Gregory
Wm. Ledlie, Capt
Presumably other flights from the squadron will have fielded aircraft for further reconnaissance patrols and other jobs during the day.
The flight’s daily orders, and presumably those for the other flights, were nothing very grand. They were hand written and signed by the Officer Commanding the flight or his deputy. What we see above is evidently a carbon copy of the orders in Army Book 152, a correspondence book for field service. Probably a notice board or somewhere equally prominent displayed the original for all concerned to see.
