JB Coward / CG Pugsley (35 Squadron)

[petet]

Armstrong-Whitworth FK8 ????? was being utilised for Bombing duties (Amiens) on 26th March 1918

 

Its crew comprised:

 

• JB Coward
• CG Pugsley

 

The Personnel Casualty Ledger shows that CG Pugsley was wounded and JB Coward was killed.

 

CG Pugsley was admitted to hospital and struck off strength of the squadron. JB Coward was killed and was buried by No. 42 Stationary Hospital

 

The relevant pages are missing from the squadron’s Record Book / Routine Orders and, as such, there are no details regarding the aircraft involved

 

Can anyone help with serial number / circumstances?

 

Regards

 

Pete

[fetubi]

Pete, I'm increasingly convinced that, as I point out in expanded The Sky Their Battlefield II, that another, and more likely interpretation of available data about these two men that day is that they were wounded in/near Amiens - 35 Sqn was effectively at Amiens at the time - Poulainville - and I suspect they were the victims of bombs dropped by Germans attacking the city.  Why would 35Sqn be raiding Amiens!?   I would suggest that's your answer...

Hope this helps.

Trevor

[pierssc]

The Casualty Form for Pugsley says he suffered a GSW Arm L  https://www.casualtyforms.org/form/19461  One notes that the form wasn't written up until 10th April which maybe indicates a bit of disruption to the paperwork thanks to the Spring offensive?

 

John Bayman Coward's form says Killed in Action https://www.casualtyforms.org/form/4282 and buried at Amiens having previously been posted missing.  The report was made by OC 41 Stat hosp.

 

If they were on the ground, it was sufficiently close to the action for Pugsley to catch a bullet.  More likely maybe that they were flying.  Might the reference to Amiens in the other documents simply refer to where they came down?

 

Cheers

Piers

 

 

[fetubi]

AIR1/969 notes against both their names "Wounded in bomb raid on Amiens on night of 26.3.18".  Yes, open to interpretation, but I'm not aware of the RFC/RAF ever bombing Amiens!   And on a night bombing raid, there would be a huge lot of gun fire being exchanged - ground to aircraft, and aircraft to ground - eg trying to hit searchlights etc.  It works for me.  The details of the terrible raids inflicted on Air Depots a hundred years ago last week show that even in those circumstances men "went missing" - some never were found, or accounted for - several NKGs from those raids.  It was chaos and carnage in different parts of the target area.  I'll see if I can find anything about a German raid on Amiens that night.

 

Trevor

 

[fetubi]

Here you go - German Bombing Units of the German 18th Army attacking rail targets, including Amiens, that week.  Other reports mention a huge amount of machine gun fire being delivered onto these targets as well, to "cause chaos."  This comes from an AIR1 file covering information obtained from the Reichsarchiv in 1928, concerning details of German air bombing attacks through March 1918 (used to write the Official History).

[pierssc]

OK, I think you’ve convinced me that they weren’t the ones doing the bombing, Trevor!

 

Wonder what they were doing in Amiens?  A night out?  Actually it’s only a few km from Poulainville so I suppose that’s quite possible.  Don’t suppose we’ll know unless there are some good diaries!