218 Sqn Rnas 5 Group

[andallen]

I am researching my great great uncle Harold Clitherow Margrett who was a pilot on the DH9 in france from Sept to November 1918. does anyone have any specific details of activities during those two months of either the squadron or the pilot?

Sincerely

Andrew Allen

[MikeW]

Andrew,

there is little "reliable" information available about 218 squadron. I suggest you contact the 218 Association - their members are more interested in Lancaster and Stirling operations, but, and it's a big but, their historian is making significant efforts to document the squadron's early days.

Steve Smith is the man's name, he is a member here and I think his "handle" is Shortstirling, or he might have changed it to Smudger. I will find you a link to him this evening.



By the way - not RNAS, the squadron was formed too late to be RNAS and became RAF immediately.


Mike

[MilesC]

The information I have on 218 RAF in WWI is:

Britain RAF 218 Dover 24 4 1918
Britain RAF 218 Petite Synthe 23 5 1918
Britain RAF 218 Frethun 7 7 1918
Britain RAF 218 Reumont 25 10 1918

This is from:
Wing Commander C.G. Jefford, MBE RAF. "RAF Squadrons. A Comprehensive Record of the Movement and Equipment of all RAF Squadrons and their Antecedents since 1912". Airlife, England. 1988.

During the Battle of Amiens (August 18, 1918) 218 RAF flew out of Coudekerque with 5 Operations Group, 82 Wing with DH9s.

At the Armistice they were flying DH9s in V Brigade, 22nd Army, location unknown.

This comes from:
Raleigh, Walter Alexander, Sir. "The war in the air; being the story of the part played in the great war by the Royal Air Force." London, H. Hamilton. 1969. Volume 1.

Jones, H. A. "The war in the air; being the story of the part played in the great war by the Royal Air Force." London, H. Hamilton. 1969. Vols. 2-6 and appendices.

Hope this little bit helps.

[Graeme]

From Royal Navy Aircraft Serials And Units, Air-Britain, 1992:

Formed at Dover (Guston Road) 24 April 1918 (7 Brigade)
Petite Synthe 23 May 1918 (61 Wing 5 Group)
Fréthun 7 July 1918 (82 Wing 5 Group)
Reumont 23 October 1918 (9 Wing 5 Brigade)
Vert Galant 16 November 1918 (90 Wing 3 Brigade)
Hucknall 7 February 1919 (27 Wing)
Disbanded 24 June 1919.

Graeme

[MikeW]

Yes, as I said, there has been very little reliable information published!

We have the "War in the Air" (usually a reliable reference) stating the squadron flew from Coudekerke in August, Ray Sturdivant (Royal Navy Aircraft Serials And Units) another reliable author not mentioning Coudekerke at all, and finally Jeff Jefford (one of the most reliable authors out there) not mentioning Coudekerke.

I could have quoted the "official" history of 218 from the PRO but it is complete crap, being written some time after the war by some disinteresed RAF clerk.

Steve Smith at the 218 Association is making progress with the Squadron's early days in 1918 and I am confident that we will have a definitive early history pop out of his researches. I know Andrew has been in contact with Steve and their communication has been mutually benificial.


Mike

[Graeme]

For what it's worth:

just checked my copy of The Squadrons of the Royal Air Force by James J Halley, Air-Britain, 1980; the data is identical to that quoted in RN Aircraft & Serials... except that Frethun is given as Fretnum.

Graeme

[MikeW]

Graeme,

I suppose the point I'm trying to make is that because 218 was late on the scene, and because the squadron records are mostly missing from where they should be in the National Archives it is very difficult to be precise about the the squadron's beginnings, it's movements, its personnel and its operations.

We do have the combat reports and some accident reports and the abominable "Squadron History" and that's about it. I'm sure the information is there at the National Archive, buried deeply within other reports and documents. It just needs a lot of work to dig it out.

The "catch all" books by Halley, Jeff Jefford and Ray Sturdivant cannot spare the time to dig deeply if the required information is not near the surface, and 218 is most certainly buried.

The fact that Halley's "Squadrons of the RAF" and Ray Sturdivant's "RN Aircraft and Serials" are identical in the area of Squadron movements should tell us something, and I'm not thinking "wow, they both researched it and came to the same conclusion"

[Graeme]

Mike, you old sceptic, you!