McDonald Archives - Greg's War

25 June 20185 December 2018

Tuesday 25 June 1918 – Direct Hit on Bridge

Back on Counter Battery Patrol after recovering from the flu, with Lt Roche (also recovered), meant a 5:30am start that was rewarded with a direct hit with a bomb on a bridge near Merville. Mac (Lt. Hugh McDonald), who died yesterday, was buried later in the day.

Log Book

Date: 25.6.18 
Hour: 5.30 
Machine type: RE8 
No.: E27 
Observer: Lt Roche 
Time: 1 hr 30 m 
Height: 3000 
Course/Remarks: CBP. Direct hit on bridge. Wat. in Carb.

Diary

Tuesday June 25^th. CBP at 5.30 am.  Very heavy mist.  Dropped bombs on bridge near Merville, (direct hit).  Observer fired 100 rounds behind Merville.

Heavy low bands of clouds appeared about 6.45 to windward.

Engine became very rough owing to water in carburettor so came home.  No Archie.  No Huns. 

Good landing.

Developed a cold as after effect of P.U.O.

Mac buried.

“Dropped bombs on bridge near Merville, (direct hit)”

An opportunistic departure from a counter battery patrol. Which bridge was it? Hard to tell, as there are so many, as this map extract shows:

Merville 20k map — Extract from a 1:20,000 map of Merville, May 1918 edition, with trenches revised to 19 June 1918. German works in red. Numbered squares are 1,000 yards. Map credit: IWM/TNA/GreatWarDigital

Merville still has still lots of bridges. One of today’s tourist information boards proudly says:

As the heart of the town is surrounded by water, it can only be reached by crossing one of the seventeen bridges.

It seems unlikely that even a direct hit with one of the 20 lb Cooper bombs that were carried by an RE8 would actually have brought a bridge down. And Greg would surely have proudly said so if he had done. (Spoiler alert: he did on a later occasion!)

Water in Carburettor

A recurrent problem, with the heavy mist and low cloud.

Lt. Hugh McDonald (Mac) Buried

Lt. Hugh McDonald lies buried at plot III.D.33 at Aire Communal Cemetery, next to his observer 2nd Lt. Cuthbert Alban Marsh at III.D.34.

24 June 201819 June 2018

Monday 24 June 1918 – Marsh & McDonald Died in Hospital

After yesterday‘s crash on take-off from Rely, Marsh and McDonald both died in hospital. Greg did not fly – his final day off flying after the flu.

Monday June 24^th. Marsh & Macdonald [sic, should be McDonald] both died in hospital.  Marsh buried in afternoon.  Did not fly.

So neither of them made it. 2nd Lt. Marsh, who had had such a lucky escape earlier in the month, had celebrated his 24th birthday just two days earlier, on 22 June 1918. Lt. McDonald was 19, the same age as Greg. A reminder, if one was needed, of how dangerous flying was even before anyone wished you harm.

“Marsh Buried in Afternoon”

2nd Lt. Cuthbert Alban Marsh lies buried at plot III.D.34 at Aire Communal Cemetery.

23 June 20185 December 2018

Sunday 23 June 1918 – Feeling Groggy, Crash at Rely

Greg’s first day out of bed (just) after the flu was a bad day for the squadron, with a crash at Rely aerodrome.

Diary

Sunday 23^rd. Got up, & walked round a bit feeling groggy.  Macdonald [sic, should be McDonald] & Marsh spun into the ground & caught fire, both rescued & taken to hospital.

McDonald & Marsh Crash at Rely

Lt Hugh McDonald (as his name was spelt in the official report) was the pilot.

And 2nd Lt Cuthbert Alban Marsh was the observer, and was also Greg’s observer on his near-disastrous first day on the Front, when they crashed in crops at Trézennes. On that occasion, Marsh was thrown clear:

Tuesday 4 June 1918 – Near Disaster on the First Day on the Front

Today, neither McDonald nor Marsh was so lucky. An extract of the official casualty report said:

[C2348 RE8] Got into spin owing to loss of speed on a turn crashed and caught fire on t/o for artly obs [take off for artillery observation].

Thanks to http://www.airhistory.org.uk/rfc/home.html for the casualty information.

“Taken to Hospital”

There were two hospital facilities at Aire-sur-la-Lys at the time. User mhifle of The Great War Forum says that the 54th Casualty Clearing Station came to Aire on 16 April 1918. This CCS was also known as the ‘1/2nd London CCS’. He gives its previous locations with the BEF in France as:

Hazebrouck 1 April 1915 to 31 July 1915
Merville 1 Aug 1915 to 28 March 1918
Haverskerque 29 March 1918 to 15 April 1918

At Aire, the 54th CCS joined No 39 Stationary Hospital, which was there from May 1917 to July 1918 according to The Long, Long Trail. So McDonald and Marsh may have been taken to one of these hospital facilities.

“British Casualty Clearing Station”

The Greg’s War collection includes the following aerial photograph captioned “British Casualty Clearing Station”, which is otherwise unidentified.

It is possible that this was the 54th CCS at Aire (maybe with No 39 Stationary Hospital also in shot). The landscape looks similar to that just west of Aire, upstream along the Lys valley, near the village of Mametz – Mametz (Pas de Calais) that is, not Mametz (Somme).

A high-angle oblique view created in Google maps. (It’s not entirely successful, as Google has not 3D-imaged the area.) The aspect is looking northeast from just south of the Route de Mametz. Click to go to Google maps to see the location.

But I’m not entirely sure that this is the same place. In this instance, it’s hard to tell how much the landscape has changed over the years. Without any hard evidence of where the photo was taken, and without even knowing just where in or around Aire the 54th CCS was located, I can only identify it provisionally.