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.
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
Although Greg was not flying again today, it was business as usual for B Flight, 42 Squadron RAF at Ascq. Reconnaissance and counter-battery patrols and shoots were in today’s daily orders. An apparent dual role for Lt Sewell is resolved.
B Flight Orders
B FLIGHT ORDERS FOR 7.11.1918
2517 6.0 830 Lt Wallington Lt Bett Recon & CBP
4889 1200 1430 Lt Bon Capt Gordon – do –
6740 Lt Sewell Lt Sewell Shoot
2707 Lt Judd Lt Whittles do
E27 Capt Ledlie Lt Paton do
Lt Mulholland
Pilots and observers who have not passed all tests will please arrange to do so tomorrow.
The early machine will send down a weather report at 6.45 so that, if fit, the people on shoots can get into the air without any loss of time.
W. Ledlie, Capt.
There are obviously a couple of mistakes here. I have corrected Capt. Ledlie’s implication that he himself was still a lieutenant. But then there is Lt. Sewell’s designation as both pilot and observer in 6740! Judging from other entries in the B Flight Orders, he was in fact a pilot. And he often flew with Lt Whittles as observer. So probably Lt Sewell’s name should just be deleted from the observer’s column, and those named beneath him shunted up.
Lt Denis Charles Sewell
Lt Denis Charles Sewell was born on 31 October 1898. Prior to being commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in 42 Sqn, he was in the Honourable Artillery Company.
‘Tests’
The nature of the ‘tests’ that both pilots and observers must pass is not explained.
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.
On one of the first few days of November 1918, when other duties didn’t interfere, B Flight of 42 Squadron had a group photograph taken. If it wasn’t taken on this day, then for various reasons it can’t have been more then four days earlier or five days later.
B Flight, 42 Squadron RAF. Click for larger image. Credit: Greg’s War Collection.
Faces of B Flight
Some of the faces are recognisable, but many are not. Of those that are:
Lt. John Macmillan is second from the left of the front row. (Thanks to Douglas Macmillan, John Macmillan’s grandson, for identifying him.) More on Lt. Macmillan here:
Next to Capt. Gordon is Lt Edward Ives (fourth from right), who had evidently returned to the squadron after his posting to the home establishment on 28 June 1918. Thanks to Julian and Les Ives for confirming their grandfather’s identity. More about Lt Ives here:
Today’s photograph looks like a more or less complete grouping of the officers and men of B Flight, 42 Squadron. The photos taken at Rely and recorded in the post for 25 August 1918 were apparently just of the officers of the flight:
No flying for Greg today, for unrecorded reasons. So we take a look at some photos of the officers of B Flight, 42 Squadron RAF.
42 Squadron, B Flight Photographs
It would have been sometime around now when the following photographs of some of Greg’s fellow officers were taken. The location is almost certainly in front of the flight’s hut on the aerodrome at Rely. Greg isn’t in either of them, so he may have been the photographer.
Officers of 42 Squadron RAF, probably B flight, almost certainly taken in front of the flight’s hut at Rely aerodrome, Summer 1918. Click for larger image. Photo credit: Greg’s War CollectionAnother group photo of officers of 42 Squadron RAF, probably B flight, almost certainly taken in front of the flight’s hut at Rely aerodrome, Summer 1918. Click for larger image. Photo credit: Greg’s War Collection
In both of the above photos, the person in shorts in the middle of the front row is Captain William (‘Bill’) Ledlie, who was the commanding officer of the flight. More on him another time. And sitting on the sandbags at the end of the second row on the right, in both photos, is Lt Edward Ives – thanks to his grandsons Julian and Les for the identification. More about Lt Ives here:
