42 Squadron RAF was on the move again, after 13 days at Marquain, near Tournai, in Belgium since Armistice Day. But today’s attempt to reach the squadron’s new aerodrome near Valenciennes was unsuccessful.
Log Book
Date: Nov 24thMachine Type: RE8
RE8: 2517
Observer: Scarterfield
Time: 20 min
Height: 500
Course/Remarks: Attempt to reach Valenciennes
Attempt to reach Valenciennes
Why was the attempt to reach Valenciennes unsuccessful? We can only guess, but judging by the height at which they were flying (500 ft) it looks likely to have been bad weather. Just because the fighting had stopped, it didn’t mean that the dismal weather would improve.
In a quieter day than yesterday, Greg was down to do a counter-battery patrol. But the weather was dud, as confirmed on a brief test flight with Capt. Gordon (and his dog, Waso). This evening saw the opening under allied auspices of the Nouveau Théâtre Lille with a performance by Leslie Henson’s Gaieties entertainment troupe.
Log Book
Date: 3.11.18
Time Out: 15.20
Rounds Fired – Lewis: -
Rounds Fired – Vickers: -
Bombs: -
Time on RE8s: 187 hrs 15 mins
RE8: 2517
Observer: Cpt. Gordon
War Flying: 0 hrs 10 mins
Height: 500
Course/Remarks: Weather test. C.B.P. Dud.
Weather Test
Aircraft serial no. 2517 was back in service for the test at 3:20pm, thereby demonstrating that it took no more than a day to repair or replace an RE8’s petrol tank.
The weather test flight was mentioned in Capt. Gordon’s letter home to his mother today. In the letter he says kind words about Greg, who he reports wasn’t well*. Is it possible that these emollient words belied some sort of anxiety, following yesterday‘s brave/reckless (delete according to taste) adventure, in which they both could easilyhave died? Perhaps that is to read in too much.
3 November, letter to darlingest Mother from 42 Squadron, RAF, BEF, France
All goes well, but the weather alas has taken a turn for the worse. I am getting on quite well & am less lonely than I was before Waso’s return. I am beginning to get to know some of the people here. Waso went up today for a 10 mins joy ride. She didn’t enjoy it much!
I have moved downstairs in my billet & have got a very nice room. The people are very nice. The old lady thought the stairs were too much for me! & so they moved out themselves, which was extraordinarily good of them.
Leslie Henson (K. will know who he is, he was in Theodore & Co) is giving a show somewhere near here tomorrow evening. I hope to go & see him.
The Day’s Activities
I expect I ought to tell you what I have done today! Not very interesting but still, here goes. This morning I woke about 7.10am & read in bed. ‘A Knight on Wheels’, ‘till about 8am when I lightly leapt up & dressed etc. Breakfast, bacon & fried bread, then down to the aerodrome, pausing en route for the odd word with one or two fellows, on arrival at the aerodrome I found the weather was dud., so I went & looked at the workshops & got the SM (that stands for Sergeant Major) to explain engines & bits of engines. I then went & played about with a Lewis gun. I can’t remember what I did then until lunch time.
After lunch I hung about as I was meant to be flying, but the machine wasn’t ready & the weather was dud. I & Waso & the pilot went up for a test of a few mins. Waso didn’t care much about it. My pilot was a fellow called Gregory, a very nice fellow, about 19 years old. He isn’t very well having a touch of flu. After that I went & tidied up my room & had tea & read a paper, & here I am now writing to the dearest old mater in the world. I fear all this is dull to you.
And to End..
I wonder if Karf could very kindly buy & borrow the things on the attached list & send them out to me soonish. I lost a good bit while I was on leave! I am sending a quid along for expenses. I hope you all are flourishing. I wish often that I was back with you again. I did have a deuc’d fine leave.
The old war will soon be over really. It’s good all these other countries having come out of it. Very best love darlingest. God bless you. This would have been Donald’s birthday. Your v v loving Cedric
[Letter reproduced by kind permission of Keith Gordon, Capt. Gordon’s nephew.]
* Note added on 11 November 2018 at10:30pm: I was rather taken with Rob’s initial suggestion that Greg’s ‘touch of flu’ was actually a hangover resulting from too many snifters (a very Greg word) the previous evening after his harrowing afternoon!
However, Rob subsequently revised his theory on learning that Greg didn’t fly for the next five days: maybe it actually was flu. The post for 21 June 1918 recounted the time when Greg had flu at Rely (‘Merville fever’, he called it then). And from the brief discourse on the epidemiology of Spanish Flu in that post, it can be seen that it had a second wave in early November 1918. So Spanish Flu is a good candidate to explain Capt. Gordon’s reference to Greg being unwell, and why he didn’t fly for the next few days.
Capt. Gordon says that “Leslie Henson…is giving a show somewhere near here tomorrow evening”. In fact, that was to be the second of two performances opening the Nouveau Théâtre Lille, which is now the Opéra de Lille, under Allied auspices. The first was this evening. We don’t know on which night Greg travelled the 5 miles (8 km) from Ascq into Lille to see the show, but he seems to have gone to one of them as the programme is among his papers:
Programme
Programme cover page for the reopening of the Nouveau Théâtre Lille. Click for larger image.Programme middle pages for the reopening of the Nouveau Théâtre Lille. Click for larger image.
This must have been a hot-ticket occasion. In a fascinating article entitled ‘Lille under German Rule‘ on the Remembrance Trails – Northern France website, Claudine Wallart, the Head Curator of Heritage at the Archives Départementales du Nord, tells the story of the theatre during the First World War:
Destroyed in the fire of 1903, Lille theatre (now the Opera) was in the process of being rebuilt when war broke out. The occupiers completed the job and named it the “German Theatre”, opening with much pomp and ceremony at Christmas 1915 in the presence of Crown Prince Rupert of Bavaria and Lille’s governor General Heinrich. Artists from Berlin performed Iphigenia in Tauris by Goethe, a symphonic prelude and Liszt’s Festklange. On subsequent occasions the Ring of the Nibelungen and various light operas were also performed there but, although invited, the civilian population of Lille kept away. The German artists remained at the Opera until the end of September 1918 when they destroyed the sets and stage machinery and left.
In the intervening weeks since the Germans left, repairs had evidently made the theatre ready enough for tonight’s performance. No doubt General Heinrich and the German high command would have been aghast at the cultural plummet from Goethe, Liszt and Wagner to a singalong with Louis J. Seymour and crowd. And equally, no doubt tonight’s audience wouldn’t have given a toss. But how they would have relished William Ewart Noble’s ‘Advice to Another William’!
Leslie Henson’s ‘Gaieties’
The Nouveau Théâtre Lille was not the first venue at which Greg had seen Leslie Henson’s ‘Gaieties’ Army Entertainers. Exactly three months earlier, a few days before the beginning of what would be the Allies’ final offensive, The Gaieties had put on a show for 42 Squadron in the hangar at Rely:
The names mentioned in August are still there. Bert Errol, the ‘noted female impersonator’ had pieces in both halves of the Lille show. (You have to wonder what the ‘camouflage’ was in ‘Camouflage & Cacophony’!) Teddie Holton was there, as of course was Leslie Henson. A little over a month later, The Gaieties were still performing at Lille, as this Imperial War Museum photograph shows:
Two attempts at photography today. The first, in cloudy conditions in the morning, was unsuccessful. The second was a success, with at least 20 plates exposed of the River Scheldt, north of Tournai. But success was accompanied by a narrow escape, as shrapnel from anti-aircraft fire split the propeller of RE8 2517. Fortunately, Greg and his observer Lt John Macmillan were able to return safely to the aerodrome at Ascq.
Log Book
Date: 26.10.18
Time Out: 9.45
Rounds Fired – Lewis: -
Rounds Fired – Vickers: -
Bombs: -
Time on RE8s: 178 hrs 05 mins
RE8: 2517
Observer: McMillan [sic, should be Macmillan]
War Flying: 0 hrs 50 mins
Height: 3000
Course/Remarks: Photos – too cloudy.
Date: 26.10.18
Time Out: 12.20
Rounds Fired – Lewis: -
Rounds Fired – Vickers: -
Bombs: -
Time on RE8s: 178 hrs 45 mins
RE8: 2517
Observer: McMillan [sic, should be Macmillan]
War Flying: 0 hrs 40 mins
Height: 3500
Course/Remarks: Photos – 20 plates.
Although the log book gives little in the way of detail, there is more in the Squadron Record Book:
Squadron Record Book
Click for larger image.
Type and Number: R.E.8.2517
Pilot and Observer: P. Lt Gregory. O. Lt McMillan [sic, should be Macmillan]
Duty: Photography
Hour of Start: 0945, 1220
Hour of Return: 1035, 1300
Remarks: 1240. 12 24 plates exposed over I.A. & I.C. zones from 3500’.
A.A. [Anti-aircraft fire] Accurate, apparently at long range. (Propellor split by shrapnel.)
E.A. [Enemy aircraft] Nil.
Vis.Good.Clouds 3700’. Height 3500’. Obs.by P.&.O.
IA and IC Zones
Zones IA and IC together form the left hand (west) side of square I on map sheet 37. They cover the River Scheldt a few miles north of Tournai. Pont-à-Chin, the scene of yesterday’s patrol, is at the bottom of zone IC, and Pecq is at the top of zone IA:
Map showing zones photographed on 26 October 1918, north of Tournai. Adapted from a 1:40,000 scale map. Each numbered square is 1,000 yards. Click for larger image. Map credit IWM/TNA/Great War Digital.
Propeller Split
Shrapnel from anti-aircraft fire (‘archie’) hit the propeller of the aircraft and split it. The RE8’s propeller was of laminated hardwood construction, which probably limited the damage to a split. The laminations can be seen in this photograph of the RAF Museum’s replica RE8 built by The Vintage Aviator Limited of New Zealand:
Propeller and engine detail of the replica RE8 A3930 at the RAF Museum, Hendon. Click or tap to see full size image.
In the event, the damage wasn’t so severe as to prevent the aircraft being flown back to Ascq. Nonetheless, it was certainly a case of: Archibald, certainly hot – as the song almost had it!
Greg’s observer today was Lt John Gibb Brown Macmillan. Both Greg’s log book and the Squadron Record book spell his name as McMillan. But when Lt Macmillan signed his name on the front of the menu of the Farewell Dinner to mark the squadron’s departure from Rely on 10 October 1918, he unmistakably wrote ‘Macmillan’. See the post containing the menu here (Macmillan’s signature is above the girl’s cap):
John Macmillan was born on 19 October 1898, and so had celebrated his 20th birthday exactly one week ago. Greg’s diary says nothing about him. But the list of RFC/RAF people at airhistory.org.uk notes that on 29 June 1918 he suffered a forced landing with Lt Bill Ledlie at Créquy in RE8 C2478:
Ok [C2478 RE8] f/l Crequy due thick fog on artly patrol. Lt W Ledlie Ok/2Lt JGB Macmillan Ok
42 Squadron were operating out of Rely at the time, and Créquy is some 15 miles (24 km) southwest from Rely, towards the coast. The nearest point of the front line was 11 miles (18 km) in precisely the opposite direction. So presumably they had (seriously) overshot Rely in the fog on the way home.
The two flights today were to be the only ones in which Greg and Lt Macmillan flew together.
Next up…
The next entry in Greg’s log book is for Tuesday 29 October 1918.
Despite poor visibility, Greg and Lt Bett went on their first counter-battery patrol from Ascq. The patrol was short (45 mins) and low (700 ft). They reconnoitred the situation near Pont-à-Chin on the River Scheldt, north of Tournai.
Log Book
Date: 25.10.18
Time Out: 15.35
Rounds Fired – Lewis: -
Rounds Fired – Vickers: -
Bombs: -
Time on RE8s: 177 hrs 15 mins
RE8: 2517
Observer: Bett
War Flying: 0 hrs 45 mins
Height: 700
Course/Remarks: C.B.P. – Dud.
Squadron Record Book
Click for larger image.
Type and Number: R.E.8.2517
Pilot and Observer: P. Lt Gregory. O. Lt Bett
Duty: Reconnaissance
Hour of Start: 1535
Hour of Return: 1620
Remarks: 1535. Enemy shelling PONT A CHIN village & “Y” roads at I.32.a.1.1.
Flashes seen in wood at I.30.a. & I.24.b.&.d. – impossible to pin point owing to visibility. Flashes red.
Floods in I.33.& 27. subsided. Large floods still in I.21.
A.A.M.G. [anti-aircraft machine gun] & single rifle shots from O.4.
No new footbridges seen.
Bridges at I.32.a.7.2. destroyed.
No E.A. [enemy aircraft] or E.K.B. [enemy kite balloons] seen.
Vis. poor. Height 700’. Obs.by P.&.O.
The following map shows the locations referred to:
Map showing observations on reconnaissance patrol on 25 October 1918, north of Tournai. Adapted from a 1:40,000 scale map. Each numbered square is 1,000 yards. Click for larger image. Map credit IWM/TNA/Great War Digital.
Just one week ago, Greg reported on a reconnaissance flight from Chocques that the bridges over the River Escaut (Scheldt) north of Tournai were intact:
That was no longer the case. Today he reported: “Bridges at I.32.a.7.2. destroyed.” This seems to have been the crossing over the Scheldt from Pont-à-Chin to Paradis. Earlier in and probably before the war, there was a evidently a ferry over the river. Leading east from the ferry, next to the Au Ponton du Paradis inn, was a bridged track or causeway over the marshes on the eastern bank to the settlement of Paradis. The Germans had evidently built a bridge to replace the ferry, as shown overprinted in blue on the 1:20,000 scale map extract below, which was updated to October 1918. But unsurprisingly they had destroyed it as they withdrew east across the river.
River crossing at Pont-à-Chin. Adapted from a 1:20,000 scale map marked ‘Trenches corrected from information received up to 15 .10.18’. Each numbered square is 1,000 yards. Click for larger image. Map credit IWM/TNA/Great War Digital.
Pont-à-Chin
Pont-à-Chin was one of the first crossing points on the River Scheldt north of the bridges in Tournai. It still is today: apart from the A8-E42 autoroute crossing high above the river, the Pont Bolus at Pont-à-Chin in the first place going north of Tournai where a’surface road’ crosses the Scheldt.
This was not the first occasion on which war raged around the village. In the Flanders campaign of the French Revolutionary Wars, the Battle of Tournai was fought on 22 May 1794. Pont-à-Chin changed hands four times during the battle, which resulted in a victory for the allies of the coalition (Austrian, British and Hanoverian) forces of the ancien régime against the revolutionary French. Times and allegiances change, even if the fields of battle don’t.
On their first day at their base at Chocques, 42 Squadron’s aircraft are back at work. Greg is assigned with Lt Bett to an afternoon counter-battery patrol in the same aircraft that he ferried over from Rely yesterday. They were working around Englos and Sequedin, west of Lille. But they had to cut the patrol short. This was because the weather was poor, and the engine was missing badly.
Log Book
Date: 14.10.18
Time Out: 14.15
Rounds Fired – Lewis: -
Rounds Fired – Vickers: 100
Bombs: 4
Time on RE8s: 171 hrs 20 mins
RE8: 6740
Observer: Bett
War Flying: 1 hr 50 mins
Height: 3000
Course/Remarks: C.B.P.
Squadron Record Book
Squadron Record Book. Click for larger image.
Type and Number: R.E.8.6740
Pilot and Observer: P. Lt Gregory. O. Lt Bett
Duty: Artillery Patrol
Hour of Start: 1415.
Hour of Return: 1605.
Remarks: No flashes seen, possibly owing to poor visibility.
1500. Fire (buildings) burning for a few minutes at P.13.c.5.9. [Hallenes-lez-Haubourdin]
Broad belts of wire protecting trenches in P.4.b. & 5.a. [Le Marais]
Unable to observe any train activity owing to mist.
Early return due to engine missing badly.
A.A. active. A.A.M.G. [anti-aircraft machine guns] active from O.5. & O.6. [Ennetières-en-Weppe]
E.A. Nil
E.K.B. Nil.
BOMBS. 1445. 4- 25lb dropped in O.12.d. [Moulin Joyeux] Four bursts observed.
100.V.G. fired from 2000’ into FORT d’ENGLOS.
Vis. Poor. Height 2000’. Obs. by P.&.O.
Englos and Sequedin
All this activity was around Englos and Sequedin, just to the west of Lille:
Map showing observations on counter battery patrol. Adapted from a 1:40,000 scale map. Each numbered square is 1,000 yards. Click for larger image. Map credit IWM/TNA/GreatWarDigital.
Today, between Englos and Sequedin there is a major autoroute junction on the A25, which runs from Dunkirk to Lille
Yet again, Fort d’Englos was on the receiving end of the RE8’s weapons, as on 8 October 1918 and 5 October 1918. Evidently it was still being used as a garrison site and ammunition depot.
In the end, engine trouble caused Greg and Lt Bett to go home early. At least the journey back to Chocques was 10 miles (16 km) shorter than it would have been to Rely.
Small Gain at Wavrin on the Front Line
The British Front Line, which ran more or less north-south just to the east of Armentières, had not moved much since 7 October 1918. An exception was a small salient encompassing a railway junction near the small settlement of Wavrin:
The British Front east of Armentières showing the small salient gained at Wavrin by 14 October 1918. Adapted from a map accompanying General Haig’s despatches on the final British offensive. Click for larger image. Map credit: IWM/TNA/GreatWarDigital
A small gain, but possibly a significant one. Gaining the junction meant that British troops now controlled the railway running just behind the front from La Basée to Armentières. No doubt very useful logistically.
Next up…
Greg’s next log book entry is for 17 October 1918.
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
Squadron Record Book. Click for larger image.
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:
Map showing observations 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.
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.
A midday counter-battery patrol for an hour and a half with Lt Stuart Francis Bett. Not a great time by the sound of it, with the weather and E27’s engine both being ‘rotten’. Still, makes a change from ‘dud‘!
Log Book
Date: 14.9.18
Time Out: 12.00
Rounds Lewis: -
Rounds Vickers: -
Bombs: -
Time on RE8s: 156 hrs 30 mins
RE8: E27
Observer: Lt Bett
War Flying Time: 1 hrs 30 mins
Height: 3000
Course/Remarks: C.B.P. Weather & engine rotten.
2/Lt Stuart Francis Bett
This was Greg’s first patrol with 2/Lt Stuart Francis Bett, with whom he would fly several times in the next couple of months.
Stuart Bett was born on 11 November 1899 to Mary Bett, and so was some nine months younger than Greg. He survived the war, and was no doubt delighted that Armistice Day was on his 19th birthday. He was injured a few weeks later, on 17 December 1918 – playing rugby! – and wasn’t present at the B Flight Officers’ Christmas Dinner. Injury may have been the cause of his absence. Maybe he went home.
After the war, he graduated with a B.Sc. degree and on 1 October 1923 joined the Indian Service of Engineers an an assistant executive engineer in the United Provinces (of Agra and Oudh) – roughly present day Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Promotion to executive engineer followed in October 1932. Later, he transferred to the central public works department in August 1933 as a divisional officer. Stuart Bett died aged only 37, on 6 June 1937, in Dehra Dun. His widow was Ethel Margaret Fisher Bett.
Thanks to Margaret Sheard for sourcing information on Stuart Francis Bett.
After an absence from the field of operations of eight days, Greg is back in the air today, with (for the first time) 2/Lt Arthur Mulholland as observer. But the poor weather hasn’t improved. Greg rated today’s counter-battery patrol – yet again – as a dud as a result of it being very windy.
Log Book
Date: 12.9.18
Time Out: 16.05
Rounds Lewis: -
Rounds Vickers: -
Bombs: -
Time on RE8s: 155 hrs 0 mins
RE8: E27
Observer: Lt Mulholland
War Flying Time: 1 hrs 05 mins
Height: 2000
Course/Remarks: C.B.P. Dud. V windy.
Very Windy
Not a round fired, and not a bomb dropped. Pilot and Observer were probably glad to get back home after a little over an hour of being bounced around in the very windy conditions.
Lt Arthur Mulholland
This was Greg’s first outing with 2nd Lt Arthur Mulholland as his observer. In fact it was one of only two, the other being at the end of October.
Arthur Mulholland was born on 4 November 1894 in Sheffield. He had been with the army in France since 1914. But he had only been commissioned within the last few weeks, on 24 August 1918.
Although he was to have a narrow escape a few days after this patrol with Greg, he survived to the end of the war, and after demobilisation became “an Auxiliary” – a member of The Auxiliary Division of the Royal Irish Constabulary (ADRIC). He survived that experience, too, despite being on a tram in Dublin held up by the IRA in May 1921.
After the disbandment of the ADRIC, Mulholland became a policemen in Palestine, as did many of his colleagues. But he then emigrated to Canada in 1926. He spent the rest of his life there and died in Vancouver in 1976, aged 82.
Grateful acknowledgement to David Grant of theauxiliaries.com website, which is the source of this information about Arthur Mulholland and much more about the ADRIC. Arthur Mulholland’s page is here.
Next Up…
Greg’s next log book entry is on 14 September 1918.
The generally unfavourable weather continues, with a bumpy and windy counter-battery patrol with Lt Scarterfield as Observer. On the ground, the British front line is at Estaires.
Log Book
Date: 2.9.18
Time Out: 12.15
Rounds Lewis: 400
Rounds Vickers: 300
Bombs: -
Time on RE8s: 151 hrs 20 mins
RE8: E27
Observer: Lt Scarterfield
War Flying Time: 2 hrs 45 mins
Height: 3000
Course/Remarks: C.B.P. Very bumpy & windy
Bumpy & Windy
The poor weather conditions did not stop flying so much as they did in the earlier years of the war. But they did make it both more difficult and less useful. As an American climatologist noted in a contemporary article:
In aviation, it is increasingly evident that weather conditions which earlier in the war were regarded as prohibitive for flying, are now interfering less and less, at least so far as bombing is concerned. High winds, low clouds and fog, and heavy rain, decidedly lessen aerial activity, and spells of fine weather always greatly increase it, yet month by month, as the reports come in, it is evident that in the intensity of this modern warfare, flying must be done in practically all weather. Nevertheless, aerial reconnaissance and photography, and direction of artillery firing from airplanes, can not be effectively carried out unless there is a reasonably clear view of the ground. The advantage which the prevailing westerly winds give to the enemy aviators on the Western Front is readily recognized. [Robert DeC. Ward, “Weather Controls over the Fighting during the Summer of 1918” The Scientific Monthly, Vol. 7, No. 4 (Oct., 1918), pp. 289-298]
Professor Robert DeCourcy Ward was at Harvard University and was the first professor of climatology in the United States.
The British Front Line
On the ground, British troops of General Birdwood‘s Fifth Army continued to make progress eastwards. By this morning, they were knocking on the doors of Estaires, as the map shows:
The British Front on the morning of 2 September 1918. Adapted from a 1:40,000 scale map dated December 1917 with information from a map accompanying General Haig’s despatches on the final British offensive. Each numbered square is 1,000 yards. Click for larger image. Map credit: IWM/TNA/GreatWarDigital.
