Jump to content
Free downloads from TNA ×
The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Weekly operations reports


robinsgt

Recommended Posts

Several years ago I bought a handwritten book which was WEEKLY OPERATIONS REPORTS  AIR TECHNICAL ORDER No. 62 1 March 1817 on the cover. Inside, arranged in alphabetical order are various details I presume about pilots etc.  As an example there are about 70 names with A    taking one line as an example from A`S      I quote  H P 3124  FLT J  W  ALCOCK  dsc pow/30/10/17 Turkey ( hp) 2nd crew 1/9/17 Gulf of Xeros  A/A fire.

 A further example   from  D`s which has  80 handwritten names and details   quote    Imbros "C" Flt  13/12/16  FSL Devlin with Sub Lt G   E  WRIGHT

HF 3001. There are thousands of entries similar to these and hundreds of loose pages with other details. Written on a lot of the papers are details of Canadians with rank and home addresses . The book/papers could have belonged to a Mr  Melton as there are also various letters addressed to him about flying in WW1.  There are handwritten entries about Zeppelins an example  H 12 No 8666 RNAS 34 May 24th 1917 Zeppelin 10 miles N E of TERSCHELLING Island 3000 feet x 300 yards  Zeppelin threw out a smoke screen 1/2 (half) tray  Among the hundreds of loose papers I quote   RNAS 40 Mudros July 28 -Aug 3 The Handley Page has been tuned up, tested and is ready for duty.Only the old tyres are however available as yet and should any of them burst no further operations can be undertaken until the new ones arrive. On the 4th Aug     quote  4th Aug 1917 The H Page whose tyres were already much worn and had been strengthened by fabric, burst three tyres in attempting to get off and the attack on PANDERMA had to be postponed.

I am more interested in army life but surely this must be of interest to one of you guys.

Robin

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 minutes ago, robinsgt said:

Several years ago I bought a handwritten book which was WEEKLY OPERATIONS REPORTS  AIR TECHNICAL ORDER No. 62 1 March 1817 on the cover. Inside, arranged in alphabetical order are various details I presume about pilots etc.  As an example there are about 70 names with A    taking one line as an example from A`S      I quote  H P 3124  FLT J  W  ALCOCK  dsc pow/30/10/17 Turkey ( hp) 2nd crew 1/9/17 Gulf of Xeros  A/A fire.

 A further example   from  D`s which has  80 handwritten names and details   quote    Imbros "C" Flt  13/12/16  FSL Devlin with Sub Lt G   E  WRIGHT

HF 3001. There are thousands of entries similar to these and hundreds of loose pages with other details. Written on a lot of the papers are details of Canadians with rank and home addresses . The book/papers could have belonged to a Mr  Melton as there are also various letters addressed to him about flying in WW1.  There are handwritten entries about Zeppelins an example  H 12 No 8666 RNAS 34 May 24th 1917 Zeppelin 10 miles N E of TERSCHELLING Island 3000 feet x 300 yards  Zeppelin threw out a smoke screen 1/2 (half) tray  Among the hundreds of loose papers I quote   RNAS 40 Mudros July 28 -Aug 3 The Handley Page has been tuned up, tested and is ready for duty.Only the old tyres are however available as yet and should any of them burst no further operations can be undertaken until the new ones arrive. On the 4th Aug     quote  4th Aug 1917 The H Page whose tyres were already much worn and had been strengthened by fabric, burst three tyres in attempting to get off and the attack on PANDERMA had to be postponed.

I am more interested in army life but surely this must be of interest to one of you guys.

Robin

 

Interesting indeed Robin.  These details would seem to refer to Weekly Operations Reports that are held in TNA Kew.  You state that these notes are handwritten - is there any chance of you uploading a page or two?  They could well be original notes compiled prior to being typed up later.

 

Peter.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 hours ago, robinsgt said:

Several years ago I bought a handwritten book which was WEEKLY OPERATIONS REPORTS  AIR TECHNICAL ORDER No. 62 1 March 1817 on the cover. Inside, arranged in alphabetical order are various details I presume about pilots etc.  As an example there are about 70 names with A    taking one line as an example from A`S      I quote  H P 3124  FLT J  W  ALCOCK  dsc pow/30/10/17 Turkey ( hp) 2nd crew 1/9/17 Gulf of Xeros  A/A fire.

 A further example   from  D`s which has  80 handwritten names and details   quote    Imbros "C" Flt  13/12/16  FSL Devlin with Sub Lt G   E  WRIGHT

HF 3001. There are thousands of entries similar to these and hundreds of loose pages with other details. Written on a lot of the papers are details of Canadians with rank and home addresses . The book/papers could have belonged to a Mr  Melton as there are also various letters addressed to him about flying in WW1.  There are handwritten entries about Zeppelins an example  H 12 No 8666 RNAS 34 May 24th 1917 Zeppelin 10 miles N E of TERSCHELLING Island 3000 feet x 300 yards  Zeppelin threw out a smoke screen 1/2 (half) tray  Among the hundreds of loose papers I quote   RNAS 40 Mudros July 28 -Aug 3 The Handley Page has been tuned up, tested and is ready for duty.Only the old tyres are however available as yet and should any of them burst no further operations can be undertaken until the new ones arrive. On the 4th Aug     quote  4th Aug 1917 The H Page whose tyres were already much worn and had been strengthened by fabric, burst three tyres in attempting to get off and the attack on PANDERMA had to be postponed.

I am more interested in army life but surely this must be of interest to one of you guys.

Robin

 

Just found a reference to H 12 No. 8666 RNAS, as mentioned above.   Aircraft No. 8666 started life as a Curtiss H.8. 'Large America'.   It was re-engined with RR Eagles to become an H.12.  On 24.5.1917 it fired at Zeppelin L40 10m NE of Terschelling, but the range was apparently too great.   The 1/2 (half) tray could well refer to the amount of ammunition used.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the images Robin.   These would seem to be research notes, possibly transcribed from documents at TNA Kew by the Mr. Melton you mention.   I've checked some of the details against my own records and they match up - yet some of the other details I haven't seen before.

 

Obviously a work that took a considerable time to compile, but the exact reason for the compilation will, however, probably remain unknown.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As well as the above replies  I also received one in my ordinary e mail inbox. Not being very good with my laptop i deleted it thinking I would be able to read it here. It does not appear here and all I can remember is the guy said he was in some research group and would be interested in having the book. Can he please contact me again. Sorry about this  but computers are still a mystery to an old man like me. 

 

ROBIN 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, robinsgt said:

As well as the above replies  I also received one in my ordinary e mail inbox.

The email may have been a notification that someone sent you a Personal Message through the GWF. Ensure you are logged in to the Great War Forum, then click on the envelope/message icon at the top right hand corner of the GWF webpage to see if you have a personal message.

 

Cheers

Maureen

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, robinsgt said:

As well as the above replies  I also received one in my ordinary e mail inbox. Not being very good with my laptop i deleted it thinking I would be able to read it here. It does not appear here and all I can remember is the guy said he was in some research group and would be interested in having the book. Can he please contact me again. Sorry about this  but computers are still a mystery to an old man like me. 

 

ROBIN 

 

Sorry for the confusion Robin.  It was me that sent you the PM yesterday - I've just sent another, together with my original message.  I hope you pick it up OK.

 

And thank you Maureen for your help. 

 

Peter.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I also sent a PM :D

 

Happy to help with digitising and making it available to other researchers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I know that pilots kept daily reports, but was there an overall daily "diary" kept by individual units. I am particularly interested in the RNAS in the Aegean.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

there is the wonderful chap (Andrew Pentland) who has made available his spreadsheet of all the RFC records he has found- his webpage is http://www.airhistory.org.uk/rfc/contact.html and he is keen to obtain records. He probably has many of these as this looks like someone's research notes rather than originals but I'm sure he would be interested?

A quick check of his spreadsheet shows no mention of greek pilot Argyoplpous so you do have extra inforamtion in those pages.

 

Just out of interest- I was looking at another thread and someone is looking for an RNAS man surname MURRAY wonder if he is in there somewhere ?

Edited by Madmeg
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 12/12/2018 at 21:22, Alan Bentley said:

 I am particularly interested in the RNAS in the Aegean.

There was a recent topic about  a new book  In The Skies of Forgotten Courage: The RNAS and the RAF in the Adriatic and Albania 1917–1918 which includes a/s activity carried out by the Royal Naval Air Service in the Otranto Straits area, if this  geographic area is  of interest to you.

 

Cheers

Maureen

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...