Joy ride Archives - Greg's War

15 December 201817 September 2020

A Last Look at Merville

If there is one place in northern France that was closely associated with the work of 42 Squadron RAF in 1918, it was Merville. This small town on the north bank of the River Lys has featured many times in posts and photographs on this blog (for a collection, click here). But there are a couple of previously unseen photos that are undated and unmarked. Possibly they were taken in December 1918 on a joyride. Although not explicitly identified, the photos are unmistakably of the town. Given the association, it’s easy to imagine Greg wanting to take a last look at Merville from the air. Especially when he wasn’t being shot at.

Here are the photographs, with their present day counterparts from Google maps:

West Merville

Aerial photo of Merville, Pont de Pierre and old church 1918. — Vertical aerial view of west Merville, Pont de Pierre and ruins of old church 1918. North is in the direction of the arrow. Click for larger image. Credit: Greg’s War Collection

In the 1918 image, the long shadows from just west of south indicate that the photograph dates from a winter’s day.

Pont de Pierre

In the middle of the bottom of the photograph is a bridge: the Pont de Pierre. Avid readers of this blog might remember that we have met this bridge before. 213 Siege Battery of the Royal Artillery, firing under Greg’s direction, severely damaged it on 19 July 1918:

Friday 19 July 1918 – Pont de Pierre Bridge

How is it that the bridge is intact in the photo? Well, assuming that the supposition that this is a winter’s photograph is correct, there are two possibilities.

First, the bridge was repaired. This might have been by the Germans before they left Merville. Or it might have been by the British after they liberated Merville on 19 August 1918. I think this is quite likely. This is because the Pont de Pierre carries the main road on the north bank of the River Lys west out of Merville towards Haverskerque, St Venant and Aire-sur-la-Lys. So making it passable would have been a priority.

The second possibility is that the photograph dates from an earlier winter: perhaps 1917-18. But this seems unlikely, as before Operation Georgette in April 1918 the German line was some miles to the east. So the damage to Merville would have been unlikely to have been so great at that stage.

Central Merville

Aerial view of Merville, old church and roads leading north, 1918 — Vertical aerial view of central Merville, ruins of old church and roads leading north, 1918. North is in the direction of the arrow. Click for larger image. Credit: Greg’s War Collection

The 1918 image has the hallmarks of another winter’s day photograph, with long shadows from just west of south.

Merville Church

Merville’s church, in the centre left of the 1918 photograph, is in ruins. A ground level view is in this post:

Monday 26 August 1918 – Dud CPB but the Line Moves East

In the Google maps view, a new, post-war, church is visible some 330 yds (300 m) southeast, to the lower right of the photograph. The original site provided space for a new town hall and a car park.

A Postscript, and a Puzzle

The above two Merville photographs appear in one of Greg’s photograph albums next to another one of ruined streets:

A vertical aerial view of ruined streets. But where? Click for larger image. Credit: Greg’s War Collection.

Again there is no caption, and no location information. So where is it? Well, it doesn’t look like Merville. There are too many streets and too many buildings (ruined ones, but recognisably former buildings). Merville at the time was quite small:

Merville on a 1:10,000 scale trench map dated 18 August 1918. Each numbered square is 1,000 yds. Click for larger image. Map credit: TNA/IWM/Great War Digital.

At the time of writing, I don’t know the location of this photograph. Any information will be very welcome.

6 December 20187 December 2018

No-Man’s Land and Trenches

Several vertical aerial photos in Greg’s collection show the devastated wastes of no-man’s land, and systems of interconnected trenches. The photos are all undated, in fact completely unmarked, so the locations aren’t specified on any of them either. The photos might well have been taken during joyrides in these post-armistice days, when it was (a) safer than it used to be and (b) something to do.

No-Man’s Land

Trenches

Locations

No-Man’s Land

I haven’t been able to work out the locations for any of these photographs. The no-man’s land images in particular offer very little to go on: just a few fragments of road, and the odd ribbon of trenches. Wherever they were must have been between the opposing lines for quite some time, given the density of shell holes.

The first photograph is used as the header image for the Western Front page.

Trenches

The photos showing the trench systems ought in principle to be easier to identify since the trenches were regularly mapped. But there were a lot of them, and pinning them down hasn’t (yet) proved possible.

I had wondered whether at least one of them might have been taken on the Estaires-Lys Line, a few miles east of Merville on the River Lys. This was one of Greg’s regular haunts when he was based at Rely. And there was another reason that he might have paid some attention to the trenches in that area. British forces had (and still have) a habit of giving familiar names to unfamiliar places. On the Estaires-Lys Line, various strongholds and emplacements had names of Welsh towns. Among them was Holyhead, where Greg was from. So you could imagine him taking an aerial shot of “Holyhead” to take back to the family in Holyhead.

Here are the “Welsh towns” mapped in 1918, on this extract from square G of 1:40,000 map sheet 36. The 50 x 50 yd reference for “Holyhead” is 36 G 27 a 1 4, below the Balloon Bed in the centre.

Map of German trenches on the Estaires-Lys Line — German trenches, with features named after Welsh towns, on the Estaires-Lys Line. From a 1:10,000 trench map dated 10 July 1918. Each numbered square is 1,000 yds. Click for larger image. Map credit: TNA/IWM/Great War Digital.

And here is the location today:

The location of Holyhead today on an image adapted from Google maps. — The location of “Holyhead” on the Estaires-Lys Line today on an image adapted from Google maps. (For some reason Google labels the River Lys by its Flemish/Dutch name of Leie, even in France.) Click to go to Google maps.

But, attractive though this theory is, I have been unable to match up the trench photographs with the trench maps! So the locations must remain unidentified, for now at least.

27 November 201826 November 2018

Wednesday 27 November 1918 – Joyriding

Although Greg’s log book doesn’t record any joyriding flights after the armistice, it is hard to believe that he didn’t take any. Actually, joyrides were officially sanctioned, no doubt because it was important for airmen to keep their flying skills in trim. They had to police the armistice, and to be ready for any resumption of hostilities. After all, an armistice was not a peace treaty.

Joyriding Orders

Despite the absence of log book entries, we do have a couple of undated pages of the B Flight Orders book to work with. One of them contains official orders on joyriding. The other – more on which below – is distinctly unofficial. From its position between two dated pages, we can pin the page of official orders down to sometime between 11 November and 2 December. All other things being equal, it is more likely than not that the orders were in force by today.

                    — Joyriding—

Two machines per flight are allowed to joyride every day. 
They may go anywhere within reason, provided that —
1. They land on an aerodrome.
2. They return to the Squadron before dusk.  Anyone staying out overnight will be severely dealt with. 
N.B.  Marquise & places at that distance are not within reason. 

                         C. E. Gregory, Lt.
                         for O.C. B Flight

“Marquise & Places at that Distance”

Marquise is near the coast, between Boulogne and Calais. It was by this stage where No. 1 ASD was based (see the post for 3 June 1918). We don’t know whether this page in the B Flight Orders book was written before or after the move from Marquain to Aulnoy on 25 November 1918. But in either event, Marquise was at some distance: 72 miles (116 km) from Marquain and 86 miles (138 km) from Aulnoy.

Presumably flying east over the armistice line was verboten. But even so, when flying west there were still plenty of places to choose from. Although day trips to the seaside were clearly out, the following places may well have been considered ‘within reason’.

Rely (54 miles, 87 km from Aulnoy)
Aire-sur-la-Lys (54 miles, 87 km)
Villers-Bretonneux (54 miles, 87 km)
Trèzennes (52 miles, 84 km)
Ypres (45 miles, 73 km)
Merville (44 miles, 71 km)
Chocques (44 miles, 71 km)
Lille (29 miles, 47 km)
Ascq (25 miles, 41 km)

Additionally, a good deal of what for much of the war had been the British and German front lines – as well as no-man’s land in between them – would have been within 30-60 miles (50-100 km) of Aulnoy.

Several of the photographs in Greg’s collection were undated, and may have resulted from joyrides in this post-armistice period. Some have already been published in the blog, on significant days for the locations concerned or for 42 Squadron. They include:

Villers-Bretonneux

(What look like freshly dug trenches in the oblique aerial view of this post suggest an earlier date than after the armistice. But the undated photograph is included here for completeness.)

Thursday 25 April 1918 – N’oublions jamais l’Australie

Casualty Clearing Station, possibly the 54th CCS at Aire

Sunday 23 June 1918 – Feeling Groggy, Crash at Rely

Ypres

Saturday 28 September 1918 – Ypres

Lille

Thursday 17 October 1918 – Flying East of Liberated Lille

Other undated aerial photographs in the collection will be posted in the coming days and weeks.

The Unofficial Joyriding Rules

A little later – probably after 3 December 1918 – a page of unofficial joyriding rules appeared in Greg’s B Flight Orders book. Despite its probable later date, this seems the best time to release it.

                 Joy Riding

Officers are forbidden:-

(1) To take ‘bints’ in the buses.
(2) Drop bombs on the Officers’ Mess.
(3) Nose dive at less than 100 feet.
(4) Make ascents in bathing costumes.
(5) Take more than 3 bottles of whisky at once into the air.
(6) Return to aerodrome without observer.
(7) Drop empty bottles near GHQ.

Unlike the other entries in the B Flight Orders book, this doesn’t seem to be a carbon copy. So it’s unlikely that anyone posted a top copy onto a notice board. It’s even less likely that this list was compiled without a liberal quantity of alcoholic inspiration!

6 July 20183 July 2018

Saturday 6 July 1918 – Dud Day with a Joy Ride

Greg was down to do a shoot but it didn’t happen, presumably because of the weather. The only flying was a brief joy ride with an infantry officer in the evening. A good opportunity to catch up on correspondence.

Log Book

Date: 6.7.18 
Hour: - 
Machine type: RE8 
No.: E27 
Passenger: Inf. Chap 
Time: 15 mins 
Height: 2000 
Course/Remarks: Joy ride.

Diary

Saturday July 6^th 1918.  Wrote Home.  Down for a shoot.  Too dud all day, but took up an infantry officer for a joy ride in the evening.