Today was the day that Greg was “placed on [the] unemployed list”. Demobbed from the Royal Air Force, he was free to go home.
The newly demobilised Greg would no doubt have travelled by train back to Holyhead on a travel warrant. There, an enthusiastic welcome from his family would have been waiting.
Holyhead Station approach, much as it would have looked in 1919. The central hotel and administration building was flanked by two train sheds. The ferries for Ireland docked immediately behind. Image Credit: Old UK Photos (click here to see a larger version on their site).
Greg would soon return to life as an undergraduate student. He had had a wait of around eleven weeks since Armistice Day, which he probably found tedious. But apart from that modest inconvenience, his repatriation, demobilisation and reintegration into civilian life were not apparently problematical. But that wasn’t the case for everyone. Michael Seymour reflects here on the issues arising from this huge logistical exercise:
And what of Greg’s squadron? Was that too demobbed and placed on the unemployed list? As it turned out, the squadron was disbanded a few months later, on 26 June 1919. Disbandment was at Netheravon in Wiltshire, just 15 miles from Yatesbury, where Greg began his flying training on 14 March 1918.
The badge of 42 Squadron RAF (St Edward’s crown version). Used under Crown copyright licence.
42 Squadron had later incarnations before, during and after the Second World War. Its aircraft were, in turn: Vickers Vildebeests, Bristol Beauforts, Blenheims, Hurricanes, Thunderbolts and Bristol Beaufighters. Its final role was in marine reconnaissance. For this task, it flew first Avro Shackletons and then Nimrod MR.2s. Its last mission was in 2010. The squadron therefore began and ended with reconnaissance roles. It was formally disbanded on 26 May 2011. See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._42_Squadron_RAF.
The Perseus Connection
42 Squadron’s association with the Vickers Vildebeest – its third aircraft after the BE2s and RE8s of the First World War – lives on. When Royal Air Force heraldry was rationalised in the 1930s, the badge that was awarded to 42 Squadron was blazoned:
In front of a Terrestrial Globe Azure/Argent the figure of Perseus Or.
The reference to Perseus served two functions. First, Perseus was of course the famous slayer of the Gorgon – an allusion that any fighting unit would wish to have. So Perseus embodied the squadron’s motto fortiter in re[1] (resolute in deed). And, yes, the similarity of sound between fortiter and forty two is quite deliberate. This ‘canting’ motto is an example of what passes for a joke in heraldry.
Secondly, and more specifically pertinent for the squadron, the Vickers Vildebeest was re-engined with the Bristol Perseus engine, which the squadron was the first to use.
And the globe behind Perseus is a reference to the international deployment of the squadron.
[1] The motto comes from the writings of Claudio Acquaviva (1543-1615), the fifth Superior General of the Jesuits. He advocating being fortiter in re, suaviter in modo (resolute in deed, but gentle in manner).
In another photo taken at Abscon, RE8 4889 (actually D4889) stands on the airfield with the cité ouvrière and the spire of Abscon church in the background. Pilot and observer are in position, as is the Lewis gun on the Scarff ring – but so are the wheel-chocks. And there are no ground crew in evidence, so this looks like a posed photo.
RE8 4889 (D4889) – squadron number B1 – at Abscon. Click for larger image. Credit: Air Force Museum of New Zealand
RE8 4889
In January 1919, RE8 4889 was in a scruffy state. Scratches, patches and scuff marks are all over it. It used to be pristine. In fact, this is the shiny state in which we saw the same aircraft previously. In the post for 27 August 1918 it was pictured with Capt. Bill Ledlie standing proprietorially in front of the gleaming aircraft:
Capt. Bill Ledlie, CO B Flight, 42 Sqn RAF, standing in front of RE8 4889 (D4889), squadron number B1. Click for larger image. Credit: Greg’s War Collection
In this older photograph (probably taken at Rely, to where 42 Squadron had moved on 25 April 1918) the aircraft was clearly pretty new. It had been built by Napier and delivered to the squadron on 8 July 1918. It stayed with them until 28 January 1919. On that day Lt Judd ferried 4889 to St Omer, where 13 Squadron took charge of it. It had survived its time of active war service without major incident.
Possibly 4889 was the aircraft that Capt. Ledlie often flew. The squadron designation was ‘B1’, and Capt. Ledlie was the flight commander of ‘B’ flight. So he might have been the pilot in the photo at Abscon. But Capt. Ledlie didn’t have exclusive use of it. For instance, Greg flew 4889 on 6 October 1918 and 7 October 1918. More likely, since the photograph came from Lt McDermont, who later emigrated to New Zealand, it was he who was the pilot in the January 1919 photo.
The Abscon RE8 Photographs
This photograph is one of a series of aeroplanes and crew taken – probably at least semi-officially – at Abscon. Two others have been posted in previous weeks, one (of 2872) from Greg’s collection and one (of 2924) from the Air Force Museum of New Zealand, as this one was.
No doubt there are others in museums and dusty attics around the world. And more still that have been lost or destroyed.
Abscon Church
In the January 1919 photograph of 4889, the stubby spire of Abscon church rises above the house behind the tail of the aircraft. That church is now gone. According to French Wikipedia:
The old church, built in 1892 and closed to worship in July 1969 because of mining subsidence, was replaced by a new building inaugurated in 1981.
It was the stubbiness of this spire that made me think that the spire in the photograph in the post for 28 December 1918 was probably not Abscon’s, but more likely to be that of Saultain:
On New Year’s Day 1919, Greg had ferried RE8 2924 (strictly speaking RE8 C2924) from Saultain to Abscon in his last recorded flight. The aircraft would remain at Abscon until 6 February 1918, when it was handed over to 13 Squadron RAF at St Omer. So on 8 January 1919 it would have been at Abscon, where this photograph was taken.
Houses of Abscon’s cité ouvrière are clearly visible in the background. Lt John G. McDermont is believed to be standing on the left.
RE8 C2924 at Abscon. Lt John Gilchrist Johnston McDermont is believed to be standing on the left. Click for larger image. Photo credit: Air Force Museum of New Zealand, MUS05056.
This photograph looks as though it is one of a series that includes the photograph in the 1 January post:
Lt John Gilchrist Johnston McDermont was born on 10 May 1896. This would make him 22 when the photograph was taken, and a little over two years older than Greg.
Lt McDermont was a pilot with B Flight, 42 Squadron RAF. When the squadron moved from Aulnoy to Saultain on 11 December 1918, he and his observer Lt Elliott crashed on landing RE8 D6740 at Saultain, but were both recorded as ‘OK’ in the casualty report, as previously noted here. (On the same occasion Greg and Lt Scarterfield had ferried RE8 2924 to the new aerodrome.)
After the war, Lt McDermont emigrated to New Zealand.
Thanks to…
Matthew O’Sullivan, Keeper of Photographs at the Air Force Museum of New Zealand for sending me the photograph and information about Lt McDermont, as well as for granting permission to use the photo here.
Andrew Pentland of www.airhistory.org.uk, whose Royal Flying Corps pages contain information about RE8 C2924 and Lt McDermont.
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
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:
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, 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:
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:
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.
42 Squadron RAF were on the move for the last time before both the Squadron and Greg returned to the UK. Today, as part of the move, Greg flew RE8 2872 from Saultain to Abscon Aerodrome, accompanied by sandbags in the observer’s compartment. It was to be his penultimate flight.
Log Book
Date: Dec 30thMachine Type: RE8
RE8: 2872
Observer: Sandbags
Time: 15 min
Height: 2000
Course/Remarks: Travelling to Abscon
42 Squadron Moves to Abscon Aerodrome
In their last move on the Western Front, 42 Squadron relocated 12 miles (19km) west from Valenciennes, broadly in the direction of Arras.
Saultain to Abscon on a modern map (courtesy Google). Click map for a larger image, or click here to go to Google maps.
So now they were back west of the River Scheldt (Escaut).
The aerodrome occupied a triangular site on the southern edge of the small town of Abscon.
Abscon Aerodrome location on Google Maps satellite view. Click map for a larger image, or click here to go to Google maps.
From 1914 it was a German airfield. But had been in Allied hands since its liberation by Canadian forces on 18 October 1918. This was the day after the liberation of Lille. The first RAF occupants were 19 Squadron (Dolphins), who moved in on 24 October 1918 and were still there when 42 Squadron arrived. So it is possible that the previously discussed photograph of a Sopwith Dolphin in Greg’s collection was taken when 19 and 42 Squadrons shared Abscon as a home:
Today, the former aerodrome at Abscon is partly a housing development, and partly farmland.
Site of Abscon Aerodrome in 2018. Looking northwest from the southern edge of the former airfield. Click for larger imageSite of Abscon Aerodrome in 2018. Looking northeast from the southwestern corner of the former airfield. Click for larger image
Abscon
Abscon itself was a small mining town, with various other industrial activities (including a sugar refinery and a glassworks, according to French Wikipedia). Just before the outbreak of the First World War the population was a little over 3,000. Today it is about 4,500.
42 Squadron RAF were soon to be on the move again. Another group photograph in Greg’s collection was taken sometime around now. The setting is an airfield with an RE8 behind the group, and a church spire in the distant background. This time it looks like a personal snapshot. Quite possibly the photographer was Greg. And the location was – probably – Saultain.
Group Photograph, Probably at Saultain
Group of RAF personnel (42 Squadron, B Flight officers?), probably at Saultain. Click for larger image.
Who Were They?
It’s hard to say precisely who they were. But the field can be narrowed substantially. By virtue of Greg’s allegiance, the odds are that they’re from 42 Squadron and more likely than not B Flight. Judging by the flying kit at least three of them are pilots or observers. In fact, they’re probably all officers – there’s a certain insouciance that suggests that! But that’s about as far as we get. Unfortunately, the headgear and the blurry quality of the image conspire to make it hard to match the faces with those on the better quality photographs of B Flight officers in these earlier posts:
Probably at Saultain. The evidence is a little slender. In fact it principally rests on the slenderness of the spire of the church in the background. The spire can just be seen emerging above the second man from the right in the photo.
We know from the thick coats and mackintoshes of those not in flying kit that this was a winter photo. That means it was most likely to be taken at:
It is the spires that help us choose between these locations. Aulnoy church has a tower without a spire. Saultain church has a spire that looks fairly like the one in the photo. And Abscon church, although completely rebuilt in recent years, used to have a spire that was not so slender. That will be visible in some photos still to come.
So, by a nose – and by a church with a slender spire – Saultain wins the competition for the most likely location of the photograph.
Christmas Eve, 1918: an RE8 of “A” Flight, 42 Squadron RAF crashes on take-off at Saultain. Nobody seems particularly hurt, or in fact bothered. The only casualties looks as if they were the aircraft, and the young pilot’s wounded pride. It’s an occasion for a group photograph. This was probably the most exciting event of the day, by some margin. The squadron’s Daily Routine Orders are consistent with essentially nothing happening.
Daily Routine Orders
42 Squadron’s Daily Routine Orders for Christmas Eve 1918. Click for larger image.
Apart from the routine appointment of the Orderly Officer and the NCO in charge of the Guard: nothing.
‘Finis’
Here is the evocative group photograph, which is in Greg’s collection with the simple caption ‘Finis’:
‘Finis’ – crashed RE8 C2969 at Saultain on Christmas Eve, 1918. Click for larger image. Credit: Greg’s War Collection.
Although the photograph is undated and otherwise unmarked, there is enough information in it for us to find out what happened, when, and where.
Investigating the Crash at Saultain
The aircraft is (or at least was) an RE8. The photograph’s presence in Greg’s collection is already a strong indication that it was on the strength of 42 Squadron. The large ‘A’ on the fuselage shows that it was an “A” flight machine. But the key to unlocking further information is the serial number on the tail: C2969.
came to 42 Squadron RAF from No 1. Aero Supply Depot (ASD) only on 1 November 1918;
crashed on 24 December 1918; and
returned (in bits) to No 1. ASD on 1 January 1919. (More on No. 1 ASD in the post for 3 June 1918.)
The casualty report for the crash, recordedin The National Archives’ file AIR 1/865 and also in Air History’s RFC pages, was as follows:
Crashed in climbing turn to avoid trees and church on t/o [take off] for test. 2Lt WY Gothorp Ok/2Lt DF Turpin Ok
And since 42 Squadron was based at Saultain at the time, that is where Lts. Gothorp and Turpin would have taken off from, and crashed.
2/Lt William Yeats Gothorp
Lt Gothorp, the pilot, was even younger than Greg – by almost a year. Perhaps he is the one in the photograph by the pilot’s compartment, in flying kit, standing on the root of the lower wing. Certainly he looks very young. He also looks mortified. From the casualty report it’s difficult to attribute the crash to anything other than pilot error. It’s not as if the church and the trees were new obstacles that had suddenly arrived. No wonder he has the expression of one who wishes that the ground would open up and swallow him.
William Yeats Gothorp was born on 10 December 1899, which meant that he celebrated his 19th birthday only two weeks before this day, which he would probably have preferred to forget. A register in Bedale, Yorkshire records his birth as having been entered in January 1900, which would tally with his pre-Christmas birth date. Sadly, another Yorkshire register, this time in Ripon, records in March 1920 the death of a William Y. Gothorp, who was born “abt 1900”. If this was the same William Gothorp, then he didn’t live long beyond his 20th birthday.
2/Lt Douglas Frederick Turpin
The observer was Lt Turpin, who was bit older. Maybe he’s the one sitting on top of the fuselage, by the observer’s compartment, with his feet dangling down the side. He looks pretty fed up.
Born on 4 March 1898 in south London, Douglas Frederick Turpin would have been 20 at the time of the crash. The London Gazette for 10 December 1918 records that he was granted a temporary commission as a Second Lieutenant (Observer Officer) on 16 November 1918. So he’d not been long in the job.
Post-war records show that a Douglas Frederick Turpin of the right age to be our man was a commercial traveller in textiles when he married Marjorie Eleanore Taylor on 8 April 1925. The death of a Douglas F. Turpin, born “abt 1899” is recorded in a March 1964 northern Surrey register.
Thanks to Margaret Sheard for sourcing the register information.
The Others in The Photograph
The identifications above of Lts. Gothorp and Turpin are tentative. But that’s better than we can do for the rest of them. Just possibly, the figure on the right in a peaked hat and a mackintosh, with one arm akimbo and a rueful grin, is Greg. He had memories from 4 June 1918 of what it was like to write-off an RE8! But I wouldn’t swear it was him.
And the rest? Well, the facial expressions and bodily attitudes still speak to us over the intervening 100 years. The sergeant standing apparently in the observer’s compartment to the left of Lt Turpin seems to be thinking “These kids…”. And to the left of him, the NCO (warrant officer, maybe?) wearing the forage cap and gloves standing in front of the fuselage almost has written on his face “What a bloody shambles”. While the young airman on the far left looks as if he knows that it would be a lot better for him if he said nothing at all.
At the front of the wrecked plane are a pair also in flying kit who seem to be relieved that it wasn’t them. To their right, there’s another very young and worried looking fellow in flying kit, apparently thinking “There but for the grace of God…” Next to him is a grinning officer who looks as if he’s going to be ribbing the unfortunate flight crew mercilessly in the mess that evening. And on the far right, there are some boys who no doubt came scuttling on to the scene as soon as they saw the plane come down: “Qu’est-ce qu’il se passe ici, M’sieurs?”
The Photograph Itself
It’s interesting that the photograph was evidently posed and taken with a ‘proper’ military camera. This wasn’t a mere snapshot taken with a VPK – a Vest Pocket Kodak – such as Greg had (as explained in About). Perhaps it was symptomatic in these post-armistice days that everyone had enough time on their hands to take part. Even if poor Lt Gothrop wished they had better things to do than memorialise his evident discomfort.
And the caption is symbolic. ‘Finis’ – the end. Not the end of the fighting. That was on 11 November 1918 on the Western Front. And not the end of 42 Squadron’s time in France. That would be in the new year. But it conveys the sense of the end of an era. This chapter is closed; time to move on.
Yesterday’s post was about a flight that was in Greg’s log book, but not in the Squadron Record Book (SRB). Today’s post is about a flight that is in the SRB, but not in Greg’s log book. Did today’s flight happen? Or were these two accounts of the same flight, albeit with some errors in the data?
Squadron Record Book
Here in its entirety is the sheet from the SRB on which the flight is recorded.
Squadron Record Book – Sheet No. 1 for 21 December 1918. Click for larger image.
And here is a transcript of Greg’s flight – flight no. 5 on the sheet:
Type and Number: R.E.8.2517
Pilot and Observer: P. Lt Gregory. O. AM Dix
Duty: Aerial Navigation
Hour of Start: 1115
Hour of Return: 1125
Remarks: Height 1000’. Visibility poor.
The details are similar, but not identical, to those of yesterday’s flight as recorded in the log book:
Log Book
SRB
Date
20 December 1918
21 December 1918
Aircraft
2517
2517
Passenger
A/M Dix
A/M Dix
Duration
10 mins
10 mins
Height
1,500 ft
1,000 ft
Purpose
Engine test
Aerial navigation
Same or Different?
They might be different flights, but I think it’s the less likely explanation. The fact that each only appears in one source (log book or SRB) is suspicious. And there’s some evidence that record keeping had become a bit sloppy after the armistice. See the post for 11 December 1918, where there was clearly a mix-up in aircraft numbers:
So my money would be on the log book and SRB entries being different accounts of the same flight – with added errors. It wouldn’t be surprising if people’s minds were wandering by this stage. To the prospect of going home, for example. Or Christmas.
It’s been a week since Greg was last in the air, at least according to the flights recorded in his log book. And this one was just a short engine test with A/M Dix.
Log Book
Date: Dec 20th Machine Type: RE8 RE8: 2517 Observer: A.M. Dix Time: 10 min Height: 1500 Course/Remarks: Engine test
Engine Test
Ten minutes in the air, up to 1,500 ft, with Air Mechanic Dix in the observer’s compartment. The log book has nothing else to tell us. All that we can deduce is that in short time they can’t have gone far from the aerodrome!
This was Greg’s only flight with A/M Dix.
Today’s flight was the last one recorded in Greg’s log book as having been in RE8 2517. 2517 was Greg’s usual machine in the few weeks before the armistice, and the one he flew second most often overall – after E27.
It looks as though there is no Squadron Record Book entry for this flight. But there is an SRB entry for a ten minute flight with A/M Dix tomorrow – 21 December 1918 – for which there is no log book entry. Possibly there was a mix up and the two entries refer to the same flight.
Two days after 42 Squadron moved to Saultain, Greg went back to Aulnoy Aerodrome to pick up another aircraft. It wasn’t far: a few minutes’ drive in what was then open countryside. Or he could have walked it in under an hour.
Back to Aulnoy Aerodrome from Saultain to fetch another aircraft. Click for larger image. Adapted from a 1:20,000 scale map dated 9 October 1918. Each numbered square is 1,000 yds across. Map credit: TNA/IWM/Great War Digital.
Log Book
Date: Dec 13thMachine Type: RE8
RE8: 2517
Observer: Scarterfield
Time: 10 min
Height: 500
Course/Remarks: Travelling to Saultain
Squadron Record Book
Squadron Record Book. Click for larger image.
Type and Number: R.E.8.2517
Pilot and Observer: P. Lt Gregory.
Duty: Travelling Flight
Hour of Start: 1140
Hour of Return: 1150
Remarks: Travelling from AULNOY
The Squadron Record Book makes no reference to an observer, whereas Greg’s log book indicates by ditto marks that Lt Scarterfield accompanied him on this short flight from Aulnoy Aerodrome to Saultain. Can’t say which is right. But either this flight or the travelling flight two days previously on 11 December 1918 was Greg’s last with Lt Ralph Scarterfield. They had first flown together on 30 August 1918 from Rely:
