At the end of May 1918, 2nd Lt C.E. Gregory RAF (‘Greg’) received orders from the Air Ministry to travel to the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front in France. He was posted to 42 Squadron RAF, one of the ‘corps’ squadrons of the RAF and the RFC before it, which was then operating around the River Lys to the west of Lille.
The German Spring Offensives
By this stage in the war, the German “Spring Offensives” – Die Kaiserschlacht – had pushed the lines on the Western Front westwards both on the Lys and the Somme. This was as a result of Operation Michael and Operation Georgette, respectively. On the Somme, the line had moved about 34 miles/55 km west from St Quentin to between the villages of Bray-sur-Somme and Villers-Bretonneux (which is just 10 miles/16 km east of Amiens), and Cantigny, 3½ miles/4 km west of Montdidier. A little later, on the Lys the line was driven from between Lille and Armentières to within 4 miles/6.5 km of Hazebrouck, just west of the small town of Merville, some 20 miles/30 km west of Lille:
The area around Merville was the scene of much action by 42 Squadron, as the blog explains. Aerial photographs from around Villers-Bretonneux and Bray, as well as nearby Mametz and Cantigny, also form part of the Greg’s War collection.
For a fuller treatment of the Spring Offensives and their background, see Setting the Scene – The Spring Offensives.
The Allies’ Final Offensive
Later in the year, on 8 August, the Allies’ Final (‘100 days’) Offensive began. As the German armies were driven eastwards, so 42 Squadron’s base moved eastwards too, beyond Lille and arriving just over the Belgian border on Armistice Day.
Header image: “No man’s land”, Greg’s War Collection