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Outhred-J-C-Pte-582

Page history last edited by Lenore Frost 8 months ago

Volunteers of Essendon and Flemington, 1914-1918

Outhred J C Pte 582 James Charles 2 AFS 19 Clerk Single Meth

Address: Elsternwick, Head St 139

Next of Kin: Outhred, J, father, 139 Head St, Elsternwick

Enlisted: 6 Sep 1916

Embarked: A38 Ulysses 25 Oct 1916

b Ascot Vale

Janette Pryor - you wrote me an email on 18 Aug 2023, but my replies keep bouncing. Can you contact me again, perhaps with a different email addy if you have one?

Second Air Mechanic James Charles Outhred

Rod Martin

Courtesy of Amanda Wilding via Ancestry.com

He was born in Ascot Vale in 1897 but, by the time he enlisted on 6 September 1916, railway clerk James Outhred was living with his parents in Head Street, Elsternwick. Despite his quite tender age of eighteen years and ten months, James had considerable military experience, having spent four years in cadets and then one year in the militia. Just why he opted to join the Australian Flying Corps (AFC) is unknown. It may be, however, that he had experience in servicing and maintaining combustion engines, or he just liked the idea of being involved in and around the recently developed flying machines.

James was assigned to 2 Squadron AFC and travelled to Laverton to train at the recently created AFC aerodrome on the edge of Melbourne. The aircraft he worked with and on clearly revealed the fact that powered flight was only thirteen years old in 1916!

Bristol Box Kite at Laverton Aerodrome, March 1916. (AWM C03695)

James’s training must have been very basic, as he sailed for England on A38 HMAT Ulysses on 25 October, only forty-nine days after enlisting. The ship sailed via the Cape of Good Hope to avoid German submarines in the Mediterranean and arrived at Plymouth, on the south coast of England, on 28 December 1916. We can hope that James and his compatriots enjoyed Christmas festivities while at sea!

Members of the newly-formed 2 Squadron AFC waiting to board HMAT Ulysses at Port

Melbourne on 25 October 1916. Having arrived in France, the unit was redesignated as

3 Squadron AFC (69 (Australian) Squadron RFC). (AWM P00394.019)

Once in England, the unit was absorbed into the British Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and redesignated as 69 Australian Squadron RFC. As the wing grew in size during the later years of the conflict, it was eventually redesignated once more and reverted to its original title: 3 Squadron AFC. Its men flew Royal Aircraft Factory RE 8 two-seat reconnaissance/bombers.

(www.nzcivair.blogspot.co.nz: reproduced with permission from Brett McCusker)

James was only in England for just over two weeks when he was stricken with a disease called cellulitis. It is a serious bacterial infection of the inner layers of the skin, requiring medical treatment and sometimes lasting for several days or weeks. James was fortunate that he recovered very quickly from the infection. He was transported to a hospital in Lincoln, but returned to his unit only five days later. Then, the very next day, he moved to the famous air base at Farnborough to undertake a course in wireless (radio) operations. He was at Farnborough until 18 February 1917, when he graduated as a trained wireless operator. It was not long, however, before he was back at Farnborough, working as a wireless operator. Either there was a distinct shortage of such operators, or James had impressed someone at the base with his skills.

A wireless set, probably made by Marconi. 1917 (AWM P05140.014)

Two wireless operators in Palestine, 1918. The white cross on the

Ground enabled easy recognition from the air. (AWM B02063)

Wireless operators at Farnborough July 1917. James is stretched out on the left of the

front row. Future governor-general (Baron) Richard Casey is third from the left in row two.

(AWM H12729/01)

James was not destined to stay at Farnborough very long, however. On 29 July, he sailed for France from Southampton, destined to join the 4 Australian Division wireless section at Rouelles, north of Dijon. Only a few days after arriving on 31 July, however, James was moved north to the town of Arques, there to join 21 Squadron RFC, supporting 13 Field Artillery Brigade (FAB) which, at that time, was involved in the Third Battle of Ypres in Belgium. It was while doing duty with this group at Ypres that James was caught in a gas attack on 5 September. He was taken to a casualty clearing station and then transported to 18 General Hospital at Camiers, south of Boulogne. After being treated, he was discharged from hospital on the twenty-second of the month and went back to 69 Squadron on 6 October.

Members of 69 Squadron RFC fitting incendiary bombs to an RE 8 north- west of Arras,

France, on 22 October 1917. The squadron was operating from Savy at the time, having

arrived there from England on 9 September. (AWM E01176)

Savy is a town in the Picardy region of northern France. In conjunction with two other RFC squadrons, James’s unit was conducting patrols over the front line. As a wireless operator, James was probably involved in coordinating the actions of all three squadrons through the sending and receiving of messages. His wireless was also able to receive morse code one-way radio signals from observer aircraft, and ground gun batteries working with the spotter planes could also receive signals from the observers, instructing them where and when to fire. Those signals were then monitored by James and other wireless operators.

On 12 November 1917, 69 Squadron moved to a more permanent base at Bailleul and became the corps squadron for 1 Anzac Corps. As the squadron’s commanding officer noted, this was the first occasion in the history of the war that 1 Anzac Corps had had an Australian squadron to co-operate with it. James was one of seventy wireless operators employed by the Royal Flying Corps at this time, each one attached to the squadron in whose corps area it was working.

The beginning of December 1917 found 1 Anzac Corps still involved in fighting on the Passchendaele front, near Ypres. 69 Squadron was flying in support of the corps, attempting to observe the locations of enemy guns firing on Passchendaele ridge. Twenty-pound bombs were dropped on two sites, and the area was also machine-gunned by the observers in the RE 8s. The observer/gunners in the aircraft were also involved in taking photographs of enemy placements and fortifications. The Germans were not just going to put up with this action, however. On 4 December, a night raid by enemy aircraft saw bombs dropped on 3 Squadron’s aerodrome. Fortunately, there were no casualties and no damage was done to the runways or buildings. It did indicate, however, that James and the other men there were in a battle zone and could easily have been killed or injured. The same applied when the Germans staged another raid, using Gotha bombers, on 12 December.

While not being fighters, and fast becoming obsolescent, the RE 8s were nevertheless able to put up quite a good show in aerial shoot-outs. On 6 December, the squadron shot down its first German aircraft. It was a D.F.W. Aviatik two-seater, and it crashed in the enemy’s lines. This was not an isolated incident. In June the following year, for example, a Halberstadt CL II aircraft was captured by an RE 8 from 3 Squadron near Flesselles in France.

The captured Halberstadt. (AWM P01426.002)

Of course, allied aircraft were shot down or captured as well. The writer would like to detail here what happened to an RE 8 of the squadron in May 1918, as he has investigated the story after viewing an unusual memorial in the Moe Cemetery, Victoria. On 6 May, Captain Henry Ralfe (pilot) and Lieutenant William Buckland (observer/ gunner) were intercepted by five German fighters near Morlancourt and their aircraft was shot down in flames. Lieutenant J. Treacy from 3 Squadron observed the event from a distance. He reported that Ralfe stayed with the aircraft, but Buckland jumped clear of the fire during the final dive. As airmen in World War One did not wear parachutes, neither had a chance of surviving.

The graves of Ralfe and Buckland (AWM P09378.012)

Empty grave memorial to William Buckland,

Moe Cemetery, Victoria. (Rod Martin, 2019)

RSL Virtual War Memorial

3 Squadron was also inadvertently involved in the death of German fighter ace Baron Manfred von Richthofen (known commonly as ‘the Red Baron’ but interestingly described in the war diary by the 3 Squadron commander as ‘the Red FALCON’) in April 1918. It is clear from the medical evidence provided at the time that he was killed by a bullet fired from the ground as he flew over the allied lines near Morlancourt ridge, on the Somme. His plane crashed near 3 Squadron’s base.

Fulwood, Henry: Death of the Red Baron. (AWM ART 2495)

Von Richthofen was buried with full military honours in the cemetery at Bertangles, near Amiens. 3 Squadron conducted the service and the burial.

Von Richthofen funeral, Bertangles, 22 April 1918. The pallbearers

were six officers from 3 Squadron, and other members of the

squadron formed the guard of honour. Perhaps James was among them.

(Sergeant John Alexander. Official 3 Squadron photo)

After the war, von Richthofen’s body was disinterred and returned to Germany.

Let us now return to the chronological story and find 3 Squadron back in late 1917. It being December in Europe, the weather was often quite inclement, and operations were curtailed on several occasions that month. The first snow fell on the fifteenth and, apart from one or two clear days, for the rest of the month, and particularly the days around Christmas, the weather was too inclement for any real activity to occur. Despite that, the squadron had been very active during December. At the end of the year, the commander reported the following details:

Trench reconnaissance - 30

Hostile batteries engaged for destruction - 66, of which 36 were successful

Photographs taken - 472

Bombs dropped - 221

Rounds fired into trenches - 12, 893

Total hours flown - 329 hours, 20 minutes

Officer casualties during December - 3 killed, 2 hospitalised

Other ranks’ casualties - 5

Similar conditions and results eventuated in January and February 1918. The latter month was even worse than the former as far as observations of enemy placements were concerned: thirteen days as opposed to twenty-three for the previous month. One bright note occurred on 18 January. The squadron was renamed 3 Squadron AFC, under Australian rather than British command.

On 12 and 15 March, the Germans shelled Bailleul. They also were using observer aircraft in conjunction with ground batteries. On the fifteenth, James or another 3 Squadron wireless operator caught some of the German signals on his machine. The German signal to the ground was ‘SSS’. The officers were then able to calculate that it was taking fifty seconds for the shells to reach the town. Such a warning, however short, was better than nothing. The effect was probably similar to the engines of the early V-1 rocket bombs in World War Two cutting out once the craft began nose-diving towards the ground. Time to duck for cover!

Members of B Flight, 3 Squadron in front of an RE 8. Belgium, 1918. (AWM A01897)

On 16 March, James was granted some leave and headed to Paris to enjoy it. By the time he returned to the squadron, on 23 March, the Germans had launched their final, do or die attack on the Western Front, hoping to split the British and French armies, defeat the French one and then drive the British into the sea. All this had to be completed before American troops reached France in numbers large enough to tilt the tide of war in the Allies’ favour. The Germans had the strength to carry out the assault thanks to the transfer of their troops from the Eastern Front after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk ended the war against the Russians. On his return, James found that the squadron had moved west because the Germans were bombarding the airfield at Bailleul. The new airfield was at Abeele, on the Belgian or northern side of the main road between Poperinge and Cassell. The shift had occurred just in time. On 23 March, one member of a rear party left at Bailleul to clear up the aerodrome was killed and two injured when a fourteen-inch shell scored a direct hit on the quarters formerly occupied by the squadron’s officers.

The commanding officer reported in the war diary that the weather was poor for most of the time the squadron was at Abeele. April began with a fine day, but the weather deteriorated after that. Only two days later, the squadron was ordered to move to the Somme valley, following the newly designated Australian Corps, which had been transferred there to counteract the German advances. 3 Squadron occupied an open field at Poulainville, west of the Amiens-Vignacourt railway. As the commanding officer noted, this locality was the scene of the greatest flying activity, with no less than eight squadrons located within a radius of half a mile (approximately 850 metres). The RE 8s were in action almost immediately upon arrival, carrying out both artillery and counter-attack patrols. As the commander wrote:

The offensive spirit was encouraged and considerably more bomb dropping and machine gunning of enemy positions from low altitudes was done than was the case on the BELGIUM front.

As had happened on the Belgian front, bad weather for most of the month curtailed air operations on most days, including the thirtieth. While this prevented much of the ‘offensive spirit’ from being pursued, it would also have restricted the German advance across the Somme valley and towards the important rail junction of Amiens. It may have played a part in the important Battle of Villers-Bretonneux on the night of 24-25 April, in which two Australian brigades, one of them 15 Brigade commanded by Harold ‘Pompey’ Elliott, stopped the German advance in its tracks, never to be resumed.

For the infantry, the months of May and June saw a period of recovery and consolidation before the first major counter-attack at Hamel on 4 July - a major victory orchestrated by Australian Corps commander, Lieutenant-General Sir John Monash. For the men in the sky, the same kinds of support operations were carried out, and the squadron moved to a new base at Flesselles on 3-4 May. The weather slowly improving, the pilots and observers were able to increase their operations. Straight away, on the fourth, one RE 8 knocked out four German tanks. The euphoria created by this considerable achievement was probably tempered to a great extent two days later by the loss of Captain Ralfe and Lieutenant Buckland while on an early morning counterattack patrol.

In early May, the indifferent weather conditions as well as smoke over possible targets continued to hamper the taking of photos and the observation of artillery sites. As a result, communication with the wireless operators would have been limited. On the evening of the twelfth, however, the weather cleared and evening patrols went up. Because the German artillery was very active, many wireless messages were sent down to the operators, pinpointing the locations of the enemy guns. Such efforts as these continued throughout the month, occasionally hampered by poor weather or ground conditions. Seventy-nine successfully observed destructive bombardments were listed for May, along with 1187 photographs taken and 240 bombs dropped. Unfortunately, the inevitable losses of pilots and observers also occurred. Three airmen were killed and two wounded. It should also be noted that six airmen became ill and were sent to hospital. It may well be that the stresses of flying and combat exacted a toll from some of the men. Others may have well succumbed to illnesses such a pneumonia after flying in open cockpits during cold and inclement weather.

The first week of June saw the squadron based at Villers-Bocage and carrying out a large number of operations in generally fine weather. Conditions deteriorated on the eighth, however, and only two shoots against German gun positions were successfully carried out. Despite poor conditions on the ninth, an RE 8 on patrol observed an enemy aircraft heading east, towards the front line. The pilot and observer cut it off and forced it to land at the Australian airfield. The enemy airmen were taken prisoner. It was discovered that the two-seater Halberstadt contained papers and maps that provided sizeable amounts of vital information about enemy placements and plans. See the photo above of the captured Halberstadt.

An RE 8 of 3 Squadron patrolling over the German Hindenburg Line

on 4 October 1918: the day before the Battle of Montbrehain, the last

Australian infantry engagement of the war. (AWM E03518)

On 17 August 1918, James was transferred to England and initially attached to the headquarters of the Australian Corps heavy artillery. Just why he was moved from France is not known. Perhaps it was to train budding wireless operators. The transfer did come after the massive allied counter-attack that began near Amiens on 8 August. The advance was so quick that 3 Squadron may not have needed so many wireless operators and designated some for home duties. Whatever the case, James stayed with the heavy artillery section until just before the war ended on 11 November 1918. On the fifth of that month, he moved to 8 Training Squadron, based at Leighterton in Gloucestershire. It would appear that he was also connected to 2 Squadron, based at nearby Minchinhampton.

Leighterton Aerodrome, April 1918 (AWM D00471)

Just what James’s duties were at either spot is unknown. We must remember that his formal rank was second air mechanic, so he could have been involved in mechanical activities, such as servicing or repairing aircraft engines.

Three members of 8 Training Squadron checking the engine of a Sopwith Snipe

at Leighterton Aerodrome, March 1919. (AWM A04112)

However, we can assume that he had some time to see the countryside and the people in it because, on 18 March 1919, he married local girl Dorothy Hancox at the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in Rycroft, Gloucestershire.

(www.visit-gloucestershire.co.uk)

On 8 August 1919, James and his new wife boarded SS Katoomba at Tilbury and sailed for Australia, reaching Melbourne on 22 September. He was finally discharged from the flying corps on 23 December 1919. His record on being discharged noted that his health had been affected as a result of being gassed. It is likely that he suffered the effects of this in later life as he applied to the repatriation department for benefits (probably medical) in May 1966. That department then sought his service and medical records. Unfortunately, his war service record does not contain an indication of whether he was granted these benefits or not.

James died in February 1985, aged eighty-seven.

James and Dorothy on their wedding day, March 1919