Tag: Greg

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January 1919 – 42 Squadron RAF Photograph at Château Lantier, Abscon

In one of Greg’s albums is a photograph that has the caption “42 Squadron R.A.F. (Abscon) Nov 1918”.  The date is quite clear.  It is also quite wrong.  42 Squadron wasn’t at Abscon in November 1918.

Photo of 42 Squadron RAF at Château Lantier in Abscon, January 1919 (not November 1918 as captioned)
42 Squadron RAF at Château Lantier in Abscon, January 1919 (not November 1918 as captioned). Click for larger image. Credit: Greg’s War Collection.

42 Squadron RAF at Château Lantier, Abscon

How do we know that the location is right and the date wrong, and not vice versa?

Well, first, we know that the location – Abscon – is correct. This is because the background is recognisably Château Lantier, a former landmark of Abscon.  

Postcard view of Château Lantier, the officers’ mess for Abscon Aerodrome
Château Lantier in Abscon, from a contemporary postcard. Click for larger image. Credit: www.akpool.co.uk

Seen in this postcard photograph, the grand Château Lantier stood sideways on to what is now la Place du Général de Gaulle in the centre of Abscon.  In Greg’s photo, the officers and men of 42 Squadron are at the back of the château  – the opposite side from that shown in the postcard.

The château was a little over ½ mile (1 km) from the airfield.  But it would have been familiar to the squadron.  It was after all in the middle of the aerodrome’s ‘home town’.  And according to Anciens Aérodromes, some of the squadron’s officers were accommodated there.  Today, the building is no more.  Its site is now occupied by the town hall and various other buildings.  

January 1919, not November 1918

Secondly, we know that the date in the caption of the photograph can’t be right. The squadron wasn’t at Abscon in November 1918.  They were at Ascq at the start of November, and they moved to Marquain on Armistice Day.  Later, on 25 November 1918, they moved again to Aulnoy, near Valenciennes:

Tuesday 22 October 1918 – 42 Squadron RAF Moves to Ascq

When the Guns Fell Silent

Monday 25 November 1918 – 42 Sqn Moves to Aulnoy

Greg in the Frame

Greg is in the photograph, near the middle in the fourth row up:

Detail from 42 Squadron RAF at Château Lantier in Abscon, January 1919
Detail from 42 Squadron RAF at Château Lantier in Abscon, January 1919, with Greg indicated. Click for larger image. Credit: Greg’s War Collection.

We know that Greg came to Abscon from Saultain on New Year’s Day 1919, in what was his last flight.  He would be gone before the end of the month.  So the photograph – Greg’s last group photo – must have been taken in January 1919.  

Possibly the mistake in the date arose because of the similarities with a ‘B’ Flight group photograph at Ascq that was definitely taken in November:

Tuesday 5 November 1918 – B Flight, 42 Sqn RAF at Ascq

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Waiting to Go Home?

Two months after the armistice was signed on 11 November 1918, Greg, like so many others, must have been becoming tired of the waiting to go home from the Western Front.  

Given the hundred years that have passed, none of us alive today knew Greg when he was 19.  In later life, though, he was a calm man, who rarely if ever seemed impatient.  And he was rational enough to know it was pointless to rail against something he couldn’t influence.  This stoical quality seems to come through in this photographic portrait of Greg from his collection:

Undated photo portrait of Greg, almost Karsh-like in its styling.
Waiting to go home? Greg in an undated, almost Karsh-like photograph. Click for larger image. Credit: Greg’s War Collection.

The photograph is undated, and the location is unknown.  But there’s something of a quality of resigned patience about the portrait that seems to say ‘waiting’.  So it may date from this limbo period after the armistice and before going home.  Possibly it was at Abscon.  Wherever it was, his accommodation looks quite comfortable.

The photographer is unknown, too.  Could the photo be a selfie?  Greg by Greg:  an early example of the genre?  Certainly he loved to experiment with that sort of thing.  It’s unlikely to be a self portrait taken with his Vest Pocket Kodak. That doesn’t have a cable release facility.  It is possible, though, that his left hand is covertly operating the shutter release of some other camera.  Or the photographer may have been someone else – possibly someone casting a head-like shadow on Greg in the strong low light.

‘The Karsh Portrait’

In the family, we call this photograph ‘the Karsh portrait’ of Greg.  That’s not to suggest that it was actually taken by the great portrait photographer Yousuf Karsh.  Apart from anything else, young Yousuf would only have been 9 or10 years old at the time!  It’s just that the strong lighting and sharp contrasts are vaguely reminiscent of some of Karsh’s later (and greater) portraits.  Many fine examples can be found on the photographer’s website here. 

Yousuf Karsh
Yousuf Karsh

Yousuf Karsh, master photographer of the 20th century. Photo © Yousuf Karsh.
Yousuf Karsh Yousuf Karsh

 

 

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Wednesday 1 January 1919 – Greg’s Last Flight

In the last flight recorded in his log book, Greg ferried another RE8 from Saultain to Abscon.   This time it was 2924, and his passenger was  Capt. Gordon. 

Log Book

Log Book entry for Greg's last flight

Date: 1919 Jan 1st
Machine Type: RE8
RE8: 2924
Observer: Cpt. Gordon
Time: 15 min
Height: 2000
Course/Remarks: Travelling to Abscon

Greg’s Last Flight

This was the last time that Greg took to the air at the controls of an RE8.  It was some 9½ months after his first ever flight: an air experience trip in a BE2e on his first day of flying training:

Thursday 14 March 1918 – Flying Training Starts

And it was exactly nine months since Greg’s first flight in an RE8, on the day that the Royal Air Force was founded:

Monday 1 April 1918 – A Significant Day

Total Flying Hours

Greg’s total flying hours up to armistice day had been recorded in his log book as follows:

Greg's Log Book entries for 1-11 November 1918
Greg’s log book entries for 1-11 November 1918, with total flying times. Click for larger image.

Since armistice day, Greg had only flown for a further 2 hrs and 20 mins, at least according to the flights in his log book. (I’m still not sure whether he went for joyrides that were unrecorded in his log book.) Although his war flying total was unaffected by this extra time in the air, we can update the other totals as follows:

TOTAL TIME ON RE8s: 193 hrs 5 mins
TOTAL TIME IN AIR: 238 hrs 0 mins
           SOLO: 227 hrs 55 mins

With Capt. Gordon at Abscon

So Greg brought Capt. Gordon to Abscon on the first day of the new year. Two days ago he had ferried RE8 2872 from Saultain to Abscon, with only sandbags for company.  In this photograph, taken either on or shortly after 1 January 1919, Greg and Capt. Gordon (and Waso the dog) pose in front of 2872:  

Photo of Greg, Capt. Gordon and Waso the dog in front of RE8 2872 at Abscon, January 1919.
Greg, Capt. Gordon and Waso the dog in front of RE8 2872 at Abscon, January 1919. (Image retouched to reduce blemish.) Click for larger image. Credit: Greg’s War Collection

Although the photograph is undated, the background shows it to be at Abscon Aerodrome. More particularly, we can pin it down to to the northwest edge of the airfield, on the site of the more recently built housing as shown in the photos of Abscon Aerodrome in the post for 30 December 1918.

La Cité Ouvrière

The reason that it’s possible to be so precise about the location is the characteristic housing in the background.  It is an example of une cité ouvrière. 

This translates somewhat unsatisfactorily into English as ‘a workers’ city’.  But that doesn’t properly get the meaning across.  French Wikipedia defines une cité ouvrière (in translation) as a “concerted group of working-class housing, generally single-family”. By way of explanation, it continues:

It is originally an essentially residential area exclusively for workers in a particular factory and their families. It can be accompanied by communal facilities. In most cases, it is provided by the proprietor of the factory.

So in English we would probably say model village – but one in an industrial rather than rural context.  British examples that have achieved some fame include Saltaire, Port Sunlight, Bournville and New Lanark, but French instances are probably more numerous even if less well known.  

In any event, the housing above the rear part of the RE8’s fuselage in the above photo is part of Abscon’s cité ouvrière, named on the 1:40,000 map sheet 51A as la Cité de la République.  It’s still there today, forming a rather more appealing living environment than the modern developments across the road on the airfield site:

Photo of la cité ouvrière at Abscon
La cité ouvrière d’Abscon (la Cité de la République) in 2018, across the road from the former aerodrome. Click for larger image.

And the name of the road that separates la cité ouvrière from the site of Abscon Aerodrome?  Appropriately enough, it’s la rue du 11 Novembre.

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Tuesday 5 November 1918 – B Flight, 42 Sqn RAF at Ascq

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.

Group photo of B Flight, 42 Squadron RAF.
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:

Saturday 26 October 1918 – Prop. Split by Shrapnel

  • Next to John Macmillan, Greg is third from the left of the front row .
  • Capt. Bill Ledlie is seated fifth from the left, in the centre.  At his feet are a shield and Waso, Capt. Gordon’s dog.  More about Capt. Ledlie here:

Tuesday 27 August 1918 – No Flying – Bill Ledlie

  • Next to Capt. Ledlie is Capt. Cedric Gordon, seated sixth from the left.  More about Capt. Gordon here:

Friday 1 November 1918 – Shoot with Capt. Gordon

  • 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:

Saturday 29 June 1918 – CBP Cancelled by Weather

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:

Sunday 25 August 1918 – Did Not Fly – 42 Sqn B Flight Photos

 

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Sunday 5 May 1918 – Penultimate Flying Day at 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:

Log book entry
Log book entry
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:

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