The war experiences of 2nd Lt. C. E. Gregory RFC/RAF in 1918
Date: 23.7.17 Time: - Rounds: - Bombs: - RE8: - Observer: - Time: - Height: - Course/Remarks: Weather dud, raining.
Tuesday July 23rd. Wrote home, Dad & Albert. Dud day.
Possibly ‘Albert’ was Albert Gertrey, whom Greg knew from training in Yatesbury:
More on flying training at Yatesbury here:
More on ‘dud’ here:
On a murky and misty day – “frightfully dud” was the verdict – Greg was down for a Counter Battery Patrol/Artillery Patrol in the morning but signalled that the weather was unfit. He dropped one bomb, had an elevator rocking bar shot, made a bad landing and bust the prop. Then he took another machine up, but the weather was still bad.
Date: 7.7.18 Hour: 8.15 Machine type: RE8 No.: E27 Passenger: Lt Pring Time: 30 mins Height: 1500 Course/Remarks: CBP. V Dud. Elevator rocking bar shot.
Date: 7.7.18 Hour: 9.45 Machine type: RE8 No.: 2327 Passenger: Lt Pring Time: 1 hr 10 m Height: 1500 Course/Remarks: CBP. Very misty & cloudy.
Sunday July 7th 1918. Wrote AD [?]. Sent field card home. 8.15-8.45 Took off with four bombs. Could only get one of them off. Frightfully dud morning, low clouds and heavy mist. Got the right hand elevator rocking bar shot. Overshot on landing & ran into some boxes & broke propeller. 1 bomb. 9.15-11.0 Took up Hutchinson’s bus with a shoot. Too dud. Good landing.
The day’s flying is fleshed out a bit in the official report:
Type and Number: R.E.8.27 Pilot and Observer: P. Lt Gregory. O. Lt Pring Duty: Artillery Patrol Hour of Start: 8.15am Hour of Return: 8.45am Remarks: 8.30am 1-25lb bomb dropped at K.34.b.5.5. [Rue de Bournoville, Merville] Burst unobserved. 8.35am sent U.L. U.R. U.D. C.8. [Unfit for counter-battery work; unfit for artillery registration; unfit for photography; clouds at 800 ft] Very heavy ground mists and fog. Machine hit on elevator rocking bar. No E.A. A.A. or E.K.B. [No enemy aircraft, anti-aircraft fire or enemy kite balloons] Vis. very poor. Obs. By P. & O.
Because there were no enemy aircraft and no anti-aircraft fire, it looks as if the rocking bar must have been hit with small arms fire from the ground. Something of a lucky hit for the shooter at 1500 ft through cloud.
Type and Number: R.E.8.2327 Pilot and Observer: P. Lt Gregory. O. Lt Pring Duty: Artillery Patrol Hour of Start: 9.55am Hour of Return: 10.55am Remarks: 10.0am small explosion at E.30.d.4.4. [La Couronne, between Vieux Berquin and Neuf Berquin] 10.5am sent U.L. U.R. U.D. C.15. [Unfit for counter-battery work; unfit for artillery registration; unfit for photography; clouds at 1500 ft] Clouds in places below 1200'. Very thick mist prevented observation. No E.A. A.A. or E.K.B. [No enemy aircraft, anti-aircraft fire or enemy kite balloons] Vis. very poor. Obs. By P. & O.
So there was time left for correspondence. Not sure who “AD” is – or even if it is AD. If it were AG (which is just possible), it could be either Alice Gregory (Greg’s sister) or Albert Gertrey (Greg’s fellow student from flying training in Yatesbury).
Greg’s last-but-one day at Yatesbury, and the last on which he would fly DH.6s saw a couple of outings around the aerodrome, for aerial fighting and general practice:
Date: 5.5.18 Hour: 8.0 Machine type and No.: DH 5155 Passenger: – Time: 55 m Height: 2000 Course: Aerodrome Remarks: Aerial fighting
Date: 5.5.18 Hour: 3.5 Machine type and No.: DH 5463 Passenger: – Time: 50 m Height: 2000 Course: [Aerodrome] Remarks: Practice
Perhaps Greg would miss friends he’d made at Yatesbury. A later entry in his diary suggests that he was in touch for a while with Albert Gertrey, at least. And maybe Holmes and Jones were particular friends, too:
Two flights for Greg today, both in a DH.6, which was his principal basic training aircraft:
Date: 15.3.18 Hour: 10.30 Instructor: [Thomas] Machine Type and No: DH7666 Passenger: CE Gregory Time: 50 min Height: 1200 Course: [Aerodrome] Remarks: Dual
Flight’s log book entry
Date: 15.3.18 Hour: 5.10 Instructor: [Thomas] Machine Type and No: DH7666 Passenger: CE Gregory Time: 25 min Height: 1200 Course: [Aerodrome] Remarks: Dual
So today was the first day of instruction proper, as opposed to air experience.
Quite possibly it was today that the photograph that’s used for the main image for this blog was taken:
This seems to a posed shot taken of student pilots generally. Greg’s co-student Albert Gertrey is seen here in the same pose, and probably the same aircraft.
The DH.6 was designed by Geoffrey de Havilland, who had moved to The Aircraft Manufacturing Company Limited (‘Airco’). Airco’s successor in business today is BAE Systems, who have this to say about it:
The DH6 was first flown in late 1916 and was an angular tractor biplane with a resolutely rectangular wing plan-form allowing the individual wing panels to be interchangeable. As a result, the 1919 edition of Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft conferred the following description: ‘it has rather the appearance of having been built by the mile and cut off to order’. Performance was limited by the low power and the high drag of the rather crude engine installation.Most aircraft used the Royal Aircraft Factory 1A engine but supply shortages led to the 90hp Curtiss OX-5 and 80hp Renault engine being used is some production batches.The two prototypes A5175 and A5176 were fitted with fins and rudders of the archetypal de Havilland shape, whereas production machines featured a more angular rudder, without an aerodynamic balance.
The type also featured a heavily cambered wing leading edge to ensure benign stalling characteristics. This (and possibly the low performance) led to the type acquiring the soubriquet ‘Clutching Hand’ although many also considered this appropriate due to its forgiving nature when flown by inexperienced pilots. Other nicknames included ‘skyhook’ and ‘flying coffin’ (the latter not on account of its safety record, but rather because of the shape of the cockpit opening). In fact some maverick instructors actually claimed it to be useless as a trainer because it was too easy to fly.At least 2,282 DH6 were built, including those sub-contracted to the following companies: The Gloucestershire Aircraft Co. Ltd; The Grahame-White Aviation Co. Ltd; Harland & Wolff; Kingsbury Aviation Co. Ltd; Morgan & Co. Ltd; Ransomes, Sims & Jeffries Ltd; and Savages Ltd.In 1917, the training role within the RFC was revamped with the aim of making flight instructors into specially trained pilots. After initial use of the DH6, it was replaced with the much larger Avro 504K and surplus aircraft were transferred to the Royal Naval Air Service as anti-submarine patrol aircraft. It was in this role that the DH6 found another surprising accolade as it was found that in the unfortunate occurance of an enforced ‘ditching’, the aircraft remained afloat for up to 10 hours.However, it was severly underpowered which resulted in the majority of convoy escorts being flown solo, a complicated arrangement considering most air to ship communication was via an Aldis lamp. By the end of the conflict over 1,000 aircraft were still in service albeit in second-line roles.
https://www.baesystems.com/en/heritage/airco-dh6—–
The RAF 1a engine was an 8.8 litre V8, developing 108 hp/80 kW.