After two days of fine weather, the clouds clamped down again today. Still, Greg and Lt Scarterfield managed a two hour counter-battery patrol, during which they loosed off 700 rounds of small arms fire between them – despite it being a dud and cloudy day.
Log Book
Date: 31.8.18
Time: 7.55
Rounds Lewis: 400
Rounds Vickers: 300
Bombs: -
Time on RE8s: 148 hrs 35 mins
RE8: E27
Observer: Lt Scarterfield
War Flying Time: 2 hrs 0 mins
Height: 2000
Course/Remarks: C.B.P. Dud. Cloudy.
On what looked like a hopeless day for flying, Greg and his observer Lt Hodgson went up for a weather test to see what it was like. And it was indeed hopeless. Or dud, as Greg said.
Log Book
Date: 28.8.18
Time: 14.30
Rounds Lewis: -
Rounds Vickers: -
Bombs: -
Time on RE8s: 142 hrs 55 mins
RE8: E27
Observer: Lt Hodgson
War Flying Time: 15 mins
Height: 1000
Course/Remarks: Weather test. Dud. Clouds 900 ft.
Weather Test
There really was no substitute for going up in an aeroplane to see if conditions were fit for flying. And from the 15 minute duration of the weather test, it can be seen that it didn’t take long to assess the situation. The resulting radio signal would have been:
UL UR UD C09
i.e. unfit for either counter-battery work, artillery registration or photography; clouds at 900 ft. In other words, a dud day.
The weather in north west Europe in the summer of 1918 was clearly a lot worse than 100 years later.
So far there have been 33 occasions in Greg’s Log Book and Diary when the weather was a significant factor. Today was the 34th, when it was very windy with low clouds, which precluded flying.
Diary
Saturday Aug 17th. Down for shoot. Dud day. Very windy & low clouds – did not fly.
Fresh from his unscheduled awayday at Paris-Plage yesterday, Greg is down for a morning counter-battery patrol. But heavy mist precludes a successful outing. He sees one Hun.
Log Book
Date: 16.8.18
Time: 9.30
Rounds Lewis: 100
Rounds Vickers: 150
Bombs: 4
Time on RE8s: 130 hrs 35 mins
RE8: E27
Observer: Lt Hodgson
Time: 2 hrs 10 mins
Height: 5000
Course/Remarks: C.B.P. Dud. Mist. One hun.
Diary
Friday Aug 16th. C.B.P. Heavy mist. Dud – one hun seen.
Heavy Mist
The poor weather doesn’t stop them firing off 250 rounds, between the Lewis and Vickers guns, and dropping four bombs. But we don’t know to what effect.
Greg was down for a shoot today, but it was a ‘dud day’ – so Greg went and had a good time in Paris-Plage:
Diary
Thursday Aug 15th. Down for a shoot. Dud day. Went to Paris-Plage – good time.
Paris-Plage
In contrast to today’s unexpected bonus outing, Greg’s previous trip to Paris-Plage was on a scheduled day off, and rather chaotic because of a driver not knowing where he was going:
The two principal activities of Greg’s time with 42 Squadron came together today, with a counter battery patrol in the morning and a shoot on a target near Neuf Berquin in the afternoon.
Log Book
Date: 12.8.18
Time: 9.15
Rounds Lewis: 300
Rounds Vickers: 200
Bombs: 2
Time on RE8s: 123 hrs 00 mins
RE8: E27
Observer: Lt. Hodgson
Time: 2 hrs 30 mins
Height: 4000
Course/Remarks: C.B.P. Very misty. U.L. U.R. U.D. [Weather report: unfit for counter-battery work, artillery registration or photography]
Date: 12.8.18
Time: 18.20
Rounds Lewis: -
Rounds Vickers: -
Bombs: -
Time on RE8s: 124 hrs 25 mins
RE8: E27
Observer: Lt. Hodgson
Time: 1 hr 25 mins
Height: 6000
Course/Remarks: Shoot with 213 SB South. L21. Unsuccessful.
Diary
Monday Aug 12th. Two jobs. CBP in morning & shoot in evening.
Shoot on L21, near Neuf Berquin
L21 was a map square ENE of Merville, near Neuf Berquin, on the road to Estaires:
Map square L21, near Neuf Berquin, form a 1:40,000 map dated December 1917. Click for larger image. Map credit: IWM/TNA/GreatWarDigital
Another miserable day, cloudy and raining, in which Greg achieved 40 minutes of Counter-Battery Patrol work in the afternoon – while firing off 400 rounds from the two guns.
Log Book
Date: 5.8.18
Time: 3.50
Rounds Lewis: 200
Rounds Vickers: 200
Bombs: -
Time on RE8s: 106 hrs 55 mins
RE8: E27
Observer: Lt Hodgson
Time: 40 mins
Height: 1500
Course/Remarks: C.B.P. Cloudy. Dud.
Diary
Monday August 5th. CBP 3.50pm. Dud, raining and cloudy.
Back to the core activities of a counter-battery patrol and a shoot. The patrol was over and around Merville, as today’s Squadron Record Book entry shows, but the shoot was aborted because of low clouds.
Log Book
Date: 4.8.18
Time: 1.20pm
Rounds Lewis: 400
Rounds Vickers: -
Bombs: 2
Time on RE8s: 106 hrs 15 mins
RE8: E27
Observer: Lt Hodgson
Time: 2 hrs 35 mins
Height: 2000
Course/Remarks: C.B.P. Cloudy. Machine guns active.
Diary
Sunday Aug 4th. CBP & Shoot (1 pm).
Unable to do shoot because of (very) low clouds. Called up battery & afterwards sent UL [Weather unfit for Counter Battery work]. Hun ground machine guns active.
Despite not being able to do the shoot, Greg’s patrol was fairly active over and around Merville:
Squadron Record Book
Click for larger image
Type and Number: R.E.8.2500 [sic, should be 27]
Pilot and Observer: P. Lt Gregory. O. Lt Hodgson
Duty: Artillery Patrol
Start: 13.20
Return: 15.55
Results and Remarks:
13.25. 2-25lb bombs dropped at K.34.a.6.5. Bursts observed.
13.25. fire in building at K.29.c.2.2.
13.30. sent U.L. U.R. U.D. C.20. [Weather unfit for counter-battery work, registration or photography.]
13.35. C.W.S. sent X.
13.45. called up 323 S.B. and got triangle out. [wait] Clouds came at 1500’ so sent U.L. Clouds, before starting shoot.
14.30. C.W.S. sent Q.6. No flashes seen in Q.6.
14.34. 1. E.K.B. [enemy kite balloon] N. of ESTAIRES.
14.35. 200 rounds L.G. into Q.8.d. from 1800’.
15.10. C.W.S. sent L.14. No flashes seen there.
15.15. to 15.30. 100 rounds L.G. into Q.8.d. from 1700’
Concentrations. [Concentrations of artilley fore, as opposed to barrages]
14.00. Square K.35.b. M.P.I. [mean point of impact] good.
14.50. Houses in area Q.4.b.15.37. M.P.I. good.
" " " K.34.c.65.15. " "
" " " K.34.c.99.20. " "
15.35. Southern half of MERVILLE, K.29.c & d.
A.A. normal. M.G.s active
Vis. good. Obs. By P. & O.
The following map contains the points and squares mentioned above .
Merville and surroundings from a 1:40,000 map. Click for larger image. Credit: IWM/TNA/GreatWarDigital.
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 3rd 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’ 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…
