Major LW Learmount DFC MC CdeG RFC/RAF

[David Learmount]

I seek more information about my grandfather (name in subject line), but particularly what he did after getting his blighty in a Bristol Fighter over the Western Front in March 1918. I know quite a lot, as you can see here: https://davidlearmount.com/2021/03/05/leonards-war/

He left no records - or none that the family kept hold of. All the stuff I found came from the National Records Office, the RAF Museum, or books like Hell In the Heavens (Whitehouse).

I have seen unsubstantiated information that he ended up instructing at 33 FTD between his return to UK in 1918 and discharge in 1919. It looks as if 33 FTD was at Witney, Surrey, but I have found no further detail about it.

I have his flying training log book, but no record of his active service flying. And there is no record of a single kill attributed to him, despite his flying with No 7 Squadron in France from June 1915, posted to 15 Squadron over the Somme in 1916 (latterly as a flight commander), and taking command of 22 Squadron in January 1917 until he was wounded in air combat in March1918. He could not possibly have survived that amount of flying without taking out some of the opposition that would have been attacking him. Any ideas?

[hmsk212]

Hi 

From the National Archives -  No 7 Squadron Combat Reports ( AIR1/1218/204/5/2634 ) :-

 

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 05:33 by hmsk212

[hmsk212]

From the National Archives 7 Squadron Combat Reports Continued :- Enjoy  Steve

 

[hmsk212]

Hi,

Sorry should have added this with the first report :-   Steve

Edited Wednesday at 05:24 by hmsk212

[David Learmount]

Thanks for that, Steve. I have two others like it, provided a few years ago by the NRO. Half way through 1915, like this encounter, air-to-air combat had not really got started yet. This aircraft at least had a Lewis gun, but the two other reports I have, also in 1915, recorded the armament in Learmount's Voisin as a rifle and a pistol.

[pierssc]

Well, it's not 1918, but I think this fills a gap in your history.

On 22nd July 1916 Capt L.W. Learmount signed off my grandfather's log book in his capacity as OC 15 Reserve Squadron at Doncaster.  They had BE2cs and FK3s and my grandfather was posted from there to France, having completed 20.5 hours solo... 5.5 of which he had gained in the previous 3 days.

 

Edited Wednesday at 19:39 by pierssc

[pierssc]

Same signature as the Combat reports, I think

Page 14 Logbook 1.pdf

[David Learmount]

Thanks pierssc!

Fascinating. It's my grandfather's signature alright - I have other examples of it.

What was your grandfather's full name, rank and specialisation at that time, and at the end of the was (if he survived it )?

It just goes to show that although I know a lot about the principal waypoints in LW Learmount's time during the Great War - mainly from his service record - there is far more that I don't know or have missed, and that is in the detail of day-to-day operations.

Why, for example, in this case, did I miss the detail - in his service record - of a short detachment of my grandfather from 15 Squadron in France to a Doncaster-based training unit in summer 1916? Because I now find that the unit designation (but not its location) is there in the record, but I could only de-code it when you sent me this information! The answer is that much of the record is almost illegible, and a knowledge of abbreviations and acronyms is essential to be able to understand what they are trying to tell us.

Was this short detachment a combination of a break from front line duty for an active airman, and a good use of front line experience being fed back to trainees? Did they do that sort of thing regularly, or is this an unusual example? Of course, at this point in your grandfather's log book - July 1916 - my grandfather had been operational for only a bit more than a year, but that level of experience in those days when military aviation was in its infancy would have been gold dust!

But the gathering evidence is that LWL was being prepared for command, and this was part of the preparation. Because he was promoted from 2nd Lieut to Lieut at the end of 1915, obviously given an Acting Captain rank for the purpose of commanding 15 Reserve Sqn, and that rank was made substantive in December 1916. On 30 December 1916 he was appointed a flight commander on 15 Sqn, but meanwhile - strangely - he was promoted Acting Major before this (in September 1916) in preparation for taking command of 22 Sqn on 25 January 1917.

Thanks for this input. It may seem small, but it has enabled me to understand a lot that I couldn't see before!

[pierssc]

Very glad to help - it was clear to me that the 15 RS bit was missing from your history.  I think his Casualty Form may possibly have eluded you - it's at https://www.casualtyforms.org/form/29375  From this it looks as if LWL was sent home on 24th April 1916, returning to France on being appointed to command 22 Sq on 26 January 1917.  There is no mention of 15 Squadron on the form and I wonder whether you may have conflated 15 Reserve Squadron with its active service namesake?  As with such records the Cas Forms may not be 100% reliable but I've found they are usually pretty good, especially if someone had an unusual name.  In this case, the form triggering the entry on the CF for his April 1916 return home was received from 7 Sq, suggesting that LWL's first tour was spent entirely with that unit.

The form shows that LWL's date of appointment as a Squadron Commander was backdated to 15th April which makes me wonder if he was temporarily in command of No.7 for a week or so at the very end of his time?  And, that when he came home, he went straight into a Squadron commander job even though he may only have been officially only a Lieutenant (acting Captain) at the time.  He doesn't seem to have been promoted to substantive Captain until September 1917, despite having acted as a Major for months.

The form also reveals that LWL had a couple of stints in temporary command of 14th Wing on his return to the Front - which confirms your feeling that he may have been marked out for greater things as this was a Lt-Colonel's job.

LWL's return home was part of an apparent pattern of rotating experienced air crew home for a rest - which may have involved them training new pilots (sometimes disparagingly referred to a "huns".  Though these huns didn't shoot, they could still kill their instructor).  I have researched most of my grandfather's instructors (though not in any great biographical depth - but enough that the name Learmount stood out to me) and most though not all of them had seen active service and were to do so again, often as Flight or Squadron Commanders.

Now, you asked "What was your grandfather's full name, rank and specialisation at that time, and at the end of the war (if he survived it )?"  I suppose I could answer the bare facts in a few lines, but since you like a story, let me give you a longer version as I think it helps to demonstrate how LWL in 15 RS fitted into the training picture in mid 1916.  Don't let's let it hijack your thread though.

2/Lt James Kerr, from Edinburgh, where he had attended George Watson's College, non-indentured apprentice civil engineer, joined the Royal Artillery TA in August 1914 as an 18 year old Gunner, spent the next 18 months watching for the Germans to attack the Firth of Forth, applied for flying training in 1915.  He was accepted as a candidate for a Commission, but in the infantry rather than the RFC.  Commissioned into the 11th Gordon Highlanders he very quickly applied to the RFC again and this time was accepted.  Perhaps his mention of having ridden and maintained motorcycles for some years helped.  He attended the School of Aeronautics at Reading in April 1916, thence to 5 RS at Castle Bromwich where he took his first flight on 26th May and solo'd on 14th June after 5 hours 10 minutes dual instruction.  After 8 hours in the air on Farmans he was posted on 20th June to 47 Squadron at Beverley for training on Avros (this was not a reserve squadron - it was in the process of forming and was to go to Salonika some time later.  Meanwhile, it had a training role).  On 17th July he was posted to 15 RS at Doncaster - I believe the aerodrome was next to the Racecourse.  As it was flying FK3s and BE2cs the squadron's job was evidently to give future reconnaissance pilots experience on current service types before sending them to the Front.  If I recall correctly the FK3 didn't see much frontline service  - the BE2c though was still very much in use at the Front.  At this point JK had 10 hours solo under his belt.  

At 6.25am on July 18th JK flew a BE2 solo for the first time.  The flight lasted an hour.  By teatime the same day he was ferrying BE2d 6255 from Lincoln to Farnborough.  The 260 minute cross-country  flight was his longest spell in the air to date.  

After 4 more days of flying JK had accumulated 20.5 hours solo.  On the 22nd, having looped a BE once and an FK3 twice, he went on embarkation leave, and passes out of LWL's story - they had overlapped for only 6 days and may have barely if ever spoken. Arriving in Edinburgh on the train at 7am on the 23rd, he got a telegram that afternoon ordering him to London and at 10.30 having said his goodbyes he was on a train heading south again.  Twenty four hours later he was in France, on another train, this time on the way to St Omer.  After a few days in the pilots pool he was posted to No.5 Squadron at Droglandt, flying BE2cs and ds.  The Ypres front was relatively quiet at that time, which no doubt helped him to survive the crucial first weeks.   Over the next 10 months he participated in most of the things BE Squadrons did at that time, artillery shoots, photographic work bombing etc, culminating in a move to the Somme front in time for Bloody April.  On 10th May 1917, having been out for 10 months, accumulated just over 271 hours in France, and having had a few days flying  the new RE8, and having handed over his temporary command of A flight to a Captain Slessor (who went on to great things in the RAF) JK left for Home Establishment.  Promoted to Captain, he instructed for some months and by the end of 1918 was testing newly built aircraft at an Aircraft Acceptance Park and ferrying them to the next point in the supply chain. This gave him experience on a lot of aircraft types.  He was awarded the AFC in a 1919 Gazette.  Demobbed in 1919, he returned to civilian life.  He died in 1971. I can just about remember him. Shown riding a bicycle - backwards - at Sterling or Montrose, his photo is my current GWF avatar.

 

PS I have some photos featuring FK3s which will be at either Beverley or Doncaster.  I will take a look over the weekend.  I suspect they're Beverley, as JK was only at Doncaster such a short time.

PPS By the way do look out for threads on Arch Whitehouse on this forum.