Reconnaissance Archives - Page 2 of 2

6 October 20184 October 2018

Sunday 6 October 1918 – Battery Positions Found

In a sign of the changing fortunes of the war, Greg and Lt Scarterfield today had the task of locating battery positions. Nothing unusual about that, you may think, as locating hostile batteries in Counter Battery Patrols was a staple activity for corps squadrons such as 42 Squadron RAF. But the difference here was that the batteries being located were not hostile but friendly. The question being asked of the aircrew was: where have our artillery advanced to?

Log Book

Date: 6.10.18 
Time Out: 8.50 
Rounds Fired – Lewis: - 
Rounds Fired – Vickers: - 
Bombs: - 
Time on RE8s:  164 hrs 45 mins 
RE8: 4889 
Observer: Scarterfield 
War Flying: 1 hrs 35 mins 
Height: 1000 
Course/Remarks: Battery positions. Four found.

Although Greg’s log book doesn’t tell us where the batteries were, the Squadron Record Book does:

Squadron Record Book

Type and Number: R.E.8.4889
Pilot and Observer: P. Lt Gregory. O. Lt Scarterfield         
Duty: Reconnaissance
Hour of Start: 0850.
Hour of Return: 1025.
Remarks: Locating battery positions.
Ground strips at the following places.
  S-  H.17.d.4.4.  )
  P-  H.28.d.5.6.  )
F.J-  H.3.c.5.5.   ) Dropped at C.W.S
B.J.  H.9.a.5.5.   )
===

Returned owing to mist and rain.
Vis. fair.  Height 1000 ft. Obs. by P.&.O.

The S, P, F.J and B.J would have been battery identification letters, marked out in ground strips, discussed in the background article on Shoots. “C.W.S.” is the Central Wireless Station, where the message containing the positions was dropped.

All the four battery locations were to the west and south of Armentières, as the following map shows:

Map showing battery positions on reconnaissance sortie. Adapted from a 1:40,000 scale map. Each numbered square is 1,000 yards. Click for larger image. Map credit IWM/TNA/GreatWarDigital.

Not many weeks before, all these positions were behind the German front line, which was here known to the British as the Estaires-Lys Line. The position in square H.28 was even behind the German second line (the Fleurbaix-Houplines Line).

Today, the battery positions in squares H.9 and H.17 are more or less on the path of the high speed rail line from Calais to Lille. The Eurostar trains smoothly race over a lot of history.

5 October 20184 October 2018

Saturday 5 October 1918 – Reconnaissance in the Rain

Back to work proper today, after yesterday’s brief test flight. A reconnaissance flight with Lt Scarterfield, and it was raining. So the weather hadn’t improved while Greg was away on leave.

Log Book

Date: 5.10.18 
Time Out: 14.10 
Rounds Fired – Lewis: 200 
Rounds Fired – Vickers: 200 
Bombs: - 
Time on RE8s:  163 hrs 10 mins 
RE8: 6740 
Observer: Scarterfield 
War Flying: 2 hrs 10 mins 
Height: 2000 
Course/Remarks: Reconnaissance. Raining.

Squadron Record Book

Type and Number: R.E.8. 6740
Pilot and Observer: P. Lt Gregory. O. Lt Scarterfield
Duty: Reconnaissance
Hour of Start: 1410
Hour of Return: 1620
Remarks:
FIRES & EXPLOSIONS
1430.  Large fire at LILLE at approx. Q.8.a.5.5 (Yellow smoke)
1430.  Two fires at P.14.c.3.5 (Buildings)
1435. Large fire S.E. of LILLE. Q.11. (Unable to pin-point owing to poor visibility.)
1535. Fire in LAMBERSART.
FLASHES.
1450. K.K. on flash in J.22.a. (Unable to pin-point.) [K.K. is a signal of a flash, possibly denoting an enemy gun firing]
1535. K.K. on flash in J.3.a. (Medium sized white flash)
Shell seen to fall in ARMENTIERES after about 35 seconds.
MOVEMENT
No movement seen in Sq. I.6. to 36.
Bridge at P.21.a.0.8. intact.
Rain prevented much observation. Returned with carburettors full of water.
E.K.B. [Enemy kite balloons] Nil.
E.A. [Enemy aircraft] Nil
A.A. [Anti-aircraft fire] Normal.
200.L.G. 200.V.G. [200 rounds from each of the Lewis gun and the Vickers gun] fired into FORT d’ENGLOS (P.1.a) and PERENCHIES from 1200’.
Vis. Poor.  Height 1500’.  Obs.by P.&.O.

The following map shows the locations mentioned:

Reconnaissance

Even though the weather hadn’t got any better while Greg was away, the position of the British front line had improved. The action has moved eastwards, and was now getting towards Lille. The fact that a German shell was seen to land in Armentières shows that the town was by then in British hands.

Fort d’Englos

One of the target for small arms fire was the Fort d’Englos, in sub-square P.1.a. This was one of the “forts Séré de Rivières” that formed a belt around Lille and other cities. They were built from 1874 under the aegis of General Raymond Adolphe Séré de Rivières, who gave his name to them. In the First World War, Fort d’Englos was used by the Germans as a garrison site and ammunition depot – which made it a good target for two reasons.

Back to Rely in the Rain

“Rain prevented much observation. Returned with carburettors full of water” says the entry in the Squadron Record Book. And so a wet pilot and observer made their way back to the aerodrome at Rely. It was quite a distance back. When the aircrews had been operating around Merville, they had to fly about 13½ miles (22 km) to get back home. From Lille, it was more than double that. Soon the squadron’s base would have to move further east, or a disproportionate amount of their sortie times – not to mention fuel – would be taken up with travelling.

3 August 20183 August 2018

Saturday 3 August 1918 – Reconnaissance and Concert Party

Back in the air again after two days of miserable weather. But a dusk reconnaissance ended in rain. The evening brightened with entertainment by a concert party – Leslie Henson’s ‘The Gaieties’.

Log Book

Date: 3.8.18 
Time: 7.35pm 
Rounds Lewis: 400 
Rounds Vickers: - 
Bombs: 4 
Time on RE8s: 103 hrs 40 mins 
RE8: E27 
Observer: Hodgson 
Time: 1 hr 25 mins 
Height: 3000 
Course/Remarks: Dusk reconnaissance. Rain.

Greg had by now adapted his log book entries. He now not only recorded the ammunition fired from each gun and the number of bombs dropped but also noted the cumulative time he had flown on RE8s.

Diary

Saturday 3^rd August.  Wrote home.  Dusk reconnaissance.  Returned in rain, engine nothing great.  Four bombs & 400 rounds Lewis.

Concert party – ‘Gaieties’ in Hangar.  Leslie Henson, Errol & Teddie Horton [sic., probably should be Holton]

‘Gaieties’

‘The Gaieties’ was a troupe of army entertainers under the direction of Leslie Henson. Henson had begun his professional stage career before the war, appearing in Edwardian musical comedies, among other productions, in the West End and elsewhere. He joined the RFC, but in 1918 was asked by General Gough to form a touring concert party to entertain the troops of the 5th Army in France. Evidently this survived Gough’s removal and the re-formation of the 5th Army under General Birdwood. So here were ‘The Gaieties’ at 42 Squadron in Rely, just over three weeks after General Birdwood’s visit on 12 July 1918.

Among the members of the troupe was Bert Errol, ‘a noted female impersonator’. Quite possibly it is Errol, and maybe others members of The Gaieties cast, in this photograph from Greg’s collection:

A concert party by Leslie Henson's 'The Gaieties' — A concert party by Leslie Henson’s ‘The Gaieties’ was held at Rely on 3 August 1918. Greg is third from the right in the middle row, next to one of the ‘ladies’. Click for larger image. Credit: Greg’s War Collection.

Greg’s diary entry also mentions ‘Teddie Horton’. Possibly this was meant to be Teddie Holton, who (spoiler alert) was certainly performing with Henson, Errol and others in The Gaieties in early November 1918. More on them then…

21 May 201818 June 2018

Tuesday 21 May 1918 – Closer to Conditions on the Front

Greg returns to the Hampshire skies this afternoon for a fairly lengthy (2 hr) outing that will more closely resemble conditions on the front:

Log book entry

Date: 21.5.18 
Hour: 2.30 
Machine type and No.: RE      
Passenger: – 
Time: 2 hr 0 m 
Height: 3000 
Course: Shoot. Gr. Str. & Recon. 
Remarks: Successful

Greg had already had a practice shoot at Yatesbury a couple of weeks ago:

Saturday 4 May 1918 – Shoot, but No Photos

The basic procedure of a shoot was covered in that post, as was the use of ground strips, also covered here:

Friday 5 April 1918 – Landings and Ground Strips

But this time the flight was longer, with the sortie lasting more like the 2-3 hours that would be typical for a shoot in Greg’s squadron on the Western Front. Greg would have been flying in figure-of-eight patterns, as suggested in the SS 131 booklet “Co-operation of Aircraft with Artillery”, Revised Edition, as issued by the General Staff in December 1917:

Figure-of-eight circuits flown when observing a shoot. The points ‘G’ are when the aircraft signals ‘Fire’. The battery’s ground aerial is laid parallel to the ‘corrections’ leg.

And as a coda, there was some reconnaissance to end the day.