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Title: The West Riding Territorials in the Great War
Author: Magnus, Laurie
Language: English
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IN THE GREAT WAR ***
THE WEST RIDING TERRITORIALS IN THE GREAT WAR
[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL T. S. BALDOCK, C.B.]
The West Riding Territorials
in the Great War
With a Foreword by Field-Marshal Earl Haig,
O.M., K.T., G.C.B., G.C.V.O.
BY
LAURIE MAGNUS
_Fully Illustrated_
LONDON
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., LTD.,
BROADWAY HOUSE, 68-74, CARTER LANE, E.C.
1920
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY
BEN JOHNSON AND CO., LTD., YORK, ENGLAND.
CONTENTS
Page
FOREWORD. BY F.M. EARL HAIG xi
PREFACE xiii
BOOK I—BEFORE WAR.
CHAPTER I
THE WEST RIDING ASSOCIATION 3
CHAPTER II
THE WEST RIDING TROOPS 15
CHAPTER III
MOBILIZATION 29
BOOK II—WAR.
CHAPTER IV
‘MALBROUCK S’EN VA-T’EN GUERRE’ 43
CHAPTER V
THE DAY’S WORK 57
CHAPTER VI
SERVING IN RESERVE 69
CHAPTER VII
I—PREPARATIONS ON THE SOMME 83
II—OPERATIONS ON THE SOMME 88
CHAPTER VIII
I—OPERATIONS ON THE SOMME (_contd._) 99
II—WINTER, 1916-17 111
CHAPTER IX
WITH THE 62ND IN FRANCE 126
CHAPTER X
I—THE NORTHERN RIDGES 138
II—BETWEEN THE BATTLES 143
III—BATTLE OF CAMBRAI (1ST PHASE) 146
IV—BATTLE OF CAMBRAI (2ND PHASE) 156
BOOK III—WAR’S END.
CHAPTER XI
FATEFUL DAYS IN 1918 163
CHAPTER XII
WITH THE 62ND AT BUCQUOY 172
CHAPTER XIII
WITH THE 49TH IN THE VALLEY OF THE LYS 180
CHAPTER XIV
THE YEOMANRY 195
CHAPTER XV
THE LAST HUNDRED DAYS
I—SECOND BATTLE OF THE MARNE 203
II—THE FINAL OFFENSIVE 211
APPENDIX I
WEST RIDING COUNTY ASSOCIATION MEMBERS AND
OFFICIALS: 1908-1920 222
APPENDIX II
A—HONOURS AND AWARDS, 49TH DIVISION 227
B—HONOURS AND AWARDS, 62ND DIVISION 274
APPENDIX III
HONOURS AND AWARDS OBTAINED BY WEST RIDING
TERRITORIAL TROOPS NOT SERVING WITH THE
49TH AND 62ND DIVISIONS 322
APPENDIX IV
CASUALTIES 323
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
MAJOR-GENERAL T. S. BALDOCK, C.B. _Frontispiece_
MERVILLE CHURCH _Face page 4_
CASUALTY CLEARING STATION _Face page 34_
MAP: COLOGNE TO CALAIS _Page 47_
MAP: ABOUT YPRES _Page 47_
MAP: LILLE-LENS-DOUAI _Page 49_
PLAN: RUINED BUILDINGS _Page 52_
‘MODERN WOODEN HORSE’ _Face page 54_
PLAN: AWKWARD ANGLE _Page 58_
LIEUT.-GENERAL SIR W. P. BRAITHWAITE, K.C.B.
MAJOR-GENERAL SIR R. D. WHIGHAM, K.C.B.
MAJOR-GENERAL SIR J. K. TROTTER, K.C.B.
MAJOR-GENERAL E. M. PERCEVAL, C.B.
MAJOR-GENERAL N. J. G. CAMERON, C.B. _Face page 64_
TOWER OF CLOTH HALL, YPRES _Face page 68_
PELICAN WITH FOOT RAISED _Page 76_
MAP: DOUAI-ARRAS-BAPAUME _Page 90_
MAP: SOMME FRONT _Page 92_
MAP: THIEPVAL DEFENCES _Face page 104_
MAP: AMIENS-CAMBRAI-DOUAI-DOULLENS _Page 116_
‘GOOD-NIGHT, TOMMY’ _Page 118_
MAP: LENS-DOUAI-ARRAS-BAPAUME _Page 124_
MAP: DROCOURT-QUÉANT SWITCH-LINE _Page 133_
HENDECOURT FROM THE AIR _Face page 134_
COLISEUM (GERMAN CRATER) _Face page 136_
HAVRINCOURT—
CANAL DU NORD BRIDGE
IN THE PARK _Face page 150_
CHRISTMAS CARD, 1917 _Page 159_
MAP: MARCH 21ST, 1918 _Page 168_
BUCQUOY CHURCH _Face page 174_
BUCQUOY
A STREET
MARKET PLACE _Face page 178_
YPRES: IN THE RAMPARTS _Face page 182_
MAP: APRIL 11TH, 1918 _Page 183_
METEREN AND BAILLEUL _Face page 188_
MAP: APRIL 25TH, 1918 _Page 190_
MAP: JULY 20TH, 1918 _Page 205_
MAP: HINDENBURG LINE _Page 214_
RHONELLE: RIVER CROSSING _Face page 218_
DOUAI: THE BELFRY _Face page 220_
MAP: WAR’S END _Page 220_
PELICAN WITH FOOT DOWN _Tailpiece_
FOREWORD
When all Divisions, Regular, Territorial and New Army, from whatever
part of Great Britain or quarter of the Empire they were drawn, have
rendered such splendid service, it is difficult to refer particularly to
individual units or formations.
The pages of this book, however, furnish in detail an account of the
exploits of two gallant Territorial Divisions, to one of which, the
62nd, it fell to carry out an operation of outstanding brilliance on the
occasion of the Cambrai attack on the 20th November, 1917.
Moreover, the history of both Divisions helps to emphasize the greatness
of the debt due to the Territorial Force as a whole. The value to the
State of the Territorial Force organisation at the outbreak of the war
was immense. By volunteering freely for overseas service, the pre-war
Territorials enabled the necessary reinforcements for the Army in
the field to be maintained while the New Army was in the making. The
gallantry of their subsequent performances should not be allowed to
obscure the service they then rendered.
HAIG,
_Field-Marshal_.
PREFACE
While this book has been at press, the Territorial Force has passed into
the Territorial Army, thus closing another chapter in the history of the
British citizen-soldier. That closed chapter has still to be written, as
a complete history of the Territorial Force, called into being by Mr.
(Lord) Haldane, when Secretary of State for War, in 1907, struggling
against adverse circumstances for existence and recognition from 1908 to
1914, and approving itself from 1914 to 1919, by the testimony of Mr.
Secretary Churchill and Field-Marshals Earl Haig and Viscount French, as
a saviour of the Empire in the Great War.
The present volume may supply material for one chapter of that history.
In Book I, I try to trace the early annals of the Force within the
confines of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and in Books II and III, I
follow the Troops which were raised in that Riding to their war-stations
overseas. As far as possible, I have observed the limits set by the scope
of my narrative. General history before the war has been subordinated to
the experience of the West Riding Territorial Force Association, and the
history of the war has been told in relation to the part of the 49th and
62nd (West Riding) Infantry Divisions, which went to France in 1915 and
1917.
Principally, then, this book is concerned with the work of the Infantry.
A brief account of the experience of the Yeomanry is given in Chapter
XIV, and one or two other units (notably, a Company of the R.E., which
served with the 29th in the Dardanelles, and a Casualty Clearing Station
in France) are included in the main narrative. Another volume might well
be filled with the doings of West Riding Territorials attached to other
units during the war, but these records seem to belong to the units
concerned more appropriately than to the present narrative. The story of
the 2nd and 3rd Northern General Hospitals is likely to be fully told
in the Medical History of the war, and will be found to reflect the
utmost credit on the responsible authorities. These Hospitals were freely
used by wounded men of all units from the front, and became the radiant
centres of a large number of War Hospitals in the county. From the
parent institutions in Leeds and Sheffield, Auxiliary Hospitals sprang
up throughout the West Riding of Yorkshire, as many as 6,500 beds being
affiliated to the 2nd Northern General Hospital alone. From August, 1914,
till late in 1919, this splendid work, of which the foundations were laid
in peace-time, was in full swing, and should form an important chapter in
a complete history of the Territorial Force.
Special mention is also due to the uniformly brilliant record of the
West Riding Divisional Artillery, which was employed throughout the war
in all parts of the field. It has not proved possible in this volume to
select its Brigades and Batteries for special treatment: the effect would
have been too much disjointed; but, wherever they covered the Infantry,
their work always won the highest praise, and their skill under arduous
conditions is one of the marvels of the war. Something, too, should be
said about Mechanical Transport, re-organized, like so much else, at
the hour of trial in March, 1918, and of other Arms of the Service,
subordinate to the Infantry Divisions. I must be content, however, with
this passing reference to their exploits, and with such tributes to them
as occur in the course of the main narrative.
My own connection with my subject is very slender. It happened that,
in 1917, I was lent to the War Office by the Royal Defence Corps in
order to do some special work in a branch then known as T.V.I. (in the
Territorial and Volunteer Forces Directorate). The Director-General,
Major-General the Earl of Scarbrough, had been Chairman from the start
of the Territorial Force Association of the West Riding; and it happened
again, in 1919, when the History Committee of his Association had
been disappointed of the services of Professor G. S. Gordon, of Leeds
University, a Captain in the 6th West Yorkshire Regiment, 62nd Division,
and now Official Military Historian of the war, that Lord Scarbrough
recommended me to write this local history in his stead. In the earlier
chapters of the book, I had the advantage of Professor Gordon’s
assistance, and I gladly take this opportunity of thanking him for his
valuable help. My work is also much indebted to the care of several of
the General Officers Commanding the two Divisions; particularly, of
Major-General Sir James Trotter in connection with Chapter VI, and of
Lieut.-General Sir Walter Braithwaite, in connection with the important
period of his Command of the 62nd in France. Lord Scarbrough’s personal
interest in all that concerns his Association has been extended, with
great benefit, to this book in all its stages, and I have also to thank
Brig.-General Mends, Secretary of the Association, and Captain Mildren,
his assistant, for their unremitting trouble. The list of Officers from
the Riding, who have placed at my disposal diaries, photographs, letters,
notes, and valuable advice, is too long to enumerate. I should like
specially to thank Major E. P. Chambers, Captains Tom Goodall, R. M.
Robinson and J. C. Scott; but I will ask all, comprehensively, to accept
the expression of my gratitude, and of my hope that I have not altogether
failed to do justice to the praises which they have united in bestowing
on the men whom they led.
For this, when all is said and done, is the beginning and the end of
any instalment of a history of the Territorial Force. ‘This wonderful
force,’ as Lord French has called it in his book, _1914_, was founded on
the ‘patriotic spirit which has always been the soul of the Volunteers.
It was reserved for Lord Haldane,’ adds the Field-Marshal, ‘to devise
the scheme which was to make the fullest use of the Volunteers and bring
them to the zenith of their reputation.’ How high in military ardour and
achievement that zenith proved during the Great War, may be judged, I
hope, from this record, however incomplete and at second-hand, of the
Territorial Troops from the West Riding, which it has been my privilege
to compile.
L.M.
LONDON, _March 23rd, 1920_.
BOOK I
BEFORE WAR
CHAPTER I
THE WEST RIDING ASSOCIATION
At half-past five in the afternoon, on Monday, April 12th, 1915, the
first detachment of troops in the West Riding (1st Line) Territorial
Division left England for France. Their going, like all English goings
and most English home-comings, was quiet and unobserved: the War Diary
of the Division merely states that thus ‘the move to France commenced’;
further, that Divisional Headquarters left Doncaster the next day,
embarked at Folkestone on the _Invicta_, and reached Boulogne 9-50 p.m.;
that the General Officer Commanding the Division, accompanied by five
Staff Officers, travelled by motor-car on April 14th through St. Omer and
Hazebroucke to Merville, where Divisional Headquarters were established
in the Mayor’s house, 40 rue des Capucines; and that a telegram was
received by the General from H.M. the King, and a loyal reply was
despatched. So, the time of preparation was over, the time of action had
begun.
The new adventure, which was to prove so searching, was founded securely
in the past, and this latent sense of tradition explains, or helps
to explain, why over 30,000 recruits were taken by the West Riding
Territorial Force Association between the date of the outbreak of war
and April 14th, 1915; why the strength of the County units had reached
three-quarters of the pre-war establishment[1] fully as early as that
date, and why the expedition to France proceeded in the ordinary course
of duty. For the spirit of adventure was not new, though overlaid by many
years of ease. Deep in the consciousness of Yorkshiremen, as of men ‘from
every shire’s end of England’, were echoes of long-ago wars in defence of
their country on foreign soil, under Wellington, under Marlborough, under
the Houses of York and Lancaster, and away back to the Plantagenet kings,
when the first ‘verray parfit gentil knight,’ with his squire, ‘as fresh
as in the month of May’, led his troops to fight for the right,
‘In Flaundres, in Artoyes and Picardye.’
Thus Lord Haldane wrote correctly, in December, 1908: ‘The organization
of the Territorial Force, ... novel as in material respects it is, ... is
the outcome of a process of development, the beginnings of which lie far
back in the past.’[2]
Some account of that ‘organization’ in the West Riding, remembering
its roots in the past, is necessary in advance of a history of what
the troops wrought in the field. They did not spring fully armed from
the head of Mars. On the contrary, their martial equipment was a
long and complicated affair, mixed up with questions of finance and
administration, which were left, in the worst years of military ardour,
to the public spirit of a few local men. The menace of foreign aggression
in the consulship of Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman and Mr. Asquith was
not a popular subject, and the Haldane Act, 1907, ‘to provide for the
reorganization of His Majesty’s military forces, and for that purpose to
authorize the establishment of County Associations, and the raising and
maintenance of a Territorial Force,’ was let loose on the counties of
the United Kingdom at a time when, twice in one year, a general election
was to be held on domestic issues unconnected with peace and war. There
was worse than public apathy to contend with. Public apathy might retard
enlistment under Section IX. of the Act, but a part of the opposition to
the new measure was founded on more positive grounds. Speakers who went
up and down the Riding to explain and recommend the scheme had to lay the
spectre of ‘compulsion’: in those days of tumbling privileges the one
unanswerable argument before which even duty was dumb. Thus, there is a
report of a speech at Malton by Mr. (the late Colonel Sir) Mark Sykes on
May 4th, 1908, in which,
‘Surveying the present conditions of England in case of an
attack, he said they had nothing to fall back upon but members
of Rifle Clubs and Cadets. Should this Army scheme fail, they
would have to look to conscription.’
There was a meeting at York on the same day, at which the elders of the
Council discussed a recommendation of the Finance Committee ‘to encourage
corporation employees to join the Territorial Army.’ On that occasion one
councillor was of opinion, that
‘there appeared to be a movement on foot throughout the country
to induce large companies to close down their works and simply
compel men to enlist in the Territorial Force, or be idle and
have no wages at all.’
Another councillor considered that ‘this was an attempt to establish
municipal conscription.’ Another gravely pointed out that ‘to encourage’
did not necessarily mean ‘to force,’ but might be stretched as much as to
mean ‘persuade.’
[Illustration: Merville Church
49TH DIVISION, APRIL, 1915.]
We shall not attach names to these dead controversies. They have buried
their dead to-day, and the graves of Flanders and Gallipoli bear mute
but eloquent witness to the sudden glory of patriotism which dissolved
‘encouragement,’ ‘force,’ ‘persuasion,’ ‘compulsion,’ and ‘conscription’
in the single light of national defence. But this perception was not yet,
and the passive and active resistance which sections of opinion in the
country, not excluding the West Riding, presented to Lord Haldane’s Act
was recognized by its author himself. Speaking at Leicester in the same
week as the elders of York met in council, the Secretary for War declared—
‘We are not militarists.... All we want is to feel secure in
our hearths and homes, and to have the feeling that labour
and commerce are alike adequately protected.... He was against
conscription and compulsion.... He wanted to make the Army a
people’s Army’;
and when a man at the back of the hall shouted that the scheme would lead
to compulsory service, ‘he was caught hold of by half a dozen police,
and flung out’—to join the suffragettes. We cannot neglect these facts,
old echoes though they be to-day. Nor shall we pause to ask if a bolder
policy might not have been more successful, and if the appeal should have
been directed to the real menace of German aggression. The whole tendency
of the times was against emphasizing that aspect, and the pacific
instinct of the nation was fostered rather than rebuked by the voices of
responsible authority. It was not a healthy atmosphere for the New Act,
and the Roman author of the maxim, _si vis pacem, para bellum_, never
explained how to do it if a Government cried peace, and the Government
was the people.
Still, the Act was launched, and the counties had to make the
preparations.
There were two difficulties inherent from the start, and it is probably
correct to associate them with the public apathy towards the scheme.
For one thing, the burden of preparation fell a little obviously on
a class, which, in the years before the war, lay under a cloud of
misrepresentation. That it was a simulated and a temporary cloud, at
least in its chief manifestations, the war itself was to prove; but it
was spread fast enough and thick enough at the time to darken initiative
and counsel. Not the best Government imaginable could contrive to have
things both ways. If they chose to load certain classes in the community
with the reproach of obstructing the ‘people’s will,’ it was unseemly to
rely on individuals from those classes to popularize a branch of their
legislation. Thus, the recommendation of a ‘people’s budget’ by abusive
ridicule of landowners, and the promotion of a reform of the Second
Chamber as the cause of ‘people _versus_ peers,’ however expedient as
a means of affixing a stigma for abuses, would prove impolitic, to say
the least of it, when members of those orders were invited to take a
leading part in recruiting for a ‘people’s army.’ The same ‘people’ might
not see the point of leading and following at the same time. Yet the
Territorial and Reserve Forces Act constituted ‘the Lieutenant of the
County.. . president of the Association,’ and the Lieutenant, thus placed
in power, was, almost without exception, either a peer or a landowner or
both. Next, it assigned to the Association the duty of ‘recruiting for
the Territorial Force both in peace and in war,’ and we have seen that
this duty was liable to be misconstrued as legalized conscription. The
risk of such misconstruction was certainly not diminished by the obloquy
which was poured, for other purposes of the legislature, on the order
to which the presidents and some other of the more leisured members
of the recruiting Associations belonged. Secondly, these political
conditions reacted on the Government to some extent. For good or ill,
the success of their plans for social betterment and domestic reform
was a little obscurely involved with the maintenance of the open door
to foreign imports, the rejection of commercial preference within the
Empire, and, as a necessary corollary, with the doctrine that ‘free
trade’ would keep the peace. This avoidance, on the highest principles,
of any action likely to seem provocative abroad, so firmly upheld at the
Foreign Office till the sixtieth minute of the eleventh hour, made us
rig Dreadnoughts with apologies and raise recruits with muffled drums.
It followed from all these causes-the preoccupation of Ministers, the
social status of county leaders, the talking peace to ensure peace—that,
once the Territorial Act was launched, no member of the Government except
Lord Haldane appeared openly anxious to make it go. The early annals of
Territorial Force Associations, as they came into being under the Act,
are plaintively and miserably punctuated by what Sir William Clegg, in
the West Riding, used to call the ‘pin-pricks of the Army Council,’
and a large part of their work of initiation, which is always the most
difficult part, was achieved by personal effort against alternate or
simultaneous doses of public indifference and official neglect.
Still, the Territorial Force grew. Its foundations were well and truly
laid on that old inexpugnable spirit which, as we saw above, was already
alive in Chaucer’s England, and which, when the new summons came, flared
up through disappointment to success. The six and a half years’ record
of the West Riding Territorial Force Association, from its inaugural
meeting on January 17th, 1908, till the outbreak of war in 1914 is
typical of the experience of other counties, alike in the obstacles which
were encountered and in the resolution which partially overcame them. It
derives special interest from the fact that the population of the West
Riding is much more than twice as large as that of any county outside
London, except only Lancashire; but the chief interest of the record lies
in the after-history of the Association. The achievement of its units
in the field is a final, triumphant vindication of the confidence of
those who helped to raise them, a complete reward for the courage they
displayed, and a proof, if proof were wanted, that the nation’s need is
the measure of the nation’s power. Hence, if we dwell more particularly
on some of the difficulties which confronted that Association during the
epoch of preparation, the true merits of the Territorial Army scheme,
when tried by the supreme test of action, will be more abundantly
manifest.
First, as to _personnel_, H.M. Lieutenant for the Riding since 1904 had
been Colonel the Earl of Harewood, A.D.C., of the Yorkshire Hussars,
and formerly of the Grenadier Guards, who, accordingly, became first
president of the Association. With him were united as chairman and
vice-chairman, respectively, Colonel the Earl of Scarbrough, A.D.C.,
commanding the Yorkshire Mounted Brigade, and formerly of the 7th
Hussars, and Sir William Clegg, J.P., sometime Lord Mayor of Sheffield.
These formed a powerful triumvirate, and ‘had done their best,’ as Lord
Harewood remarked on January 17th, 1908, ‘to set matters on a preliminary
footing.’ The president and chairman were still in office in 1920, but
in February, 1917, Lord Scarbrough had received the appointment of
Director-General of the Territorial and Volunteer Forces at the War
Office, with the temporary rank of Major-General, and was thereafter
compelled to interrupt his closer supervision at the Association. ‘Our
loss,’ the president said at the next quarterly meeting, ‘is a great
gain to the country,’ and the compliment paid to Lord Scarbrough by this
appointment was appreciated by the Association as a whole. Sir William
Clegg continued in office till the end of 1915, when, to his colleagues’
great regret, his election as chairman of the Appeal Committee under Lord
Derby’s scheme and the pressure of other duties caused his necessary
resignation. He was succeeded as vice-chairman of the Association by
Brig.-General (Sir) R. C. A. B. Bewicke-Copley, (K.B.E.), C.B., in April,
1916.
It will be no derogation from the importance of the military members
of the Association appointed by the Army Council, of the representative
members similarly appointed on the recommendation of the West Riding
County Council, the County boroughs of Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield,
Leeds, Rotherham, Sheffield and York, and the Universities of Leeds and
Sheffield, and of the members co-opted by the Association to complete
its statutory establishment,[3] if we turn next to the person of the
secretary. The right choice of a candidate for this post was properly
regarded as an essential condition of success, and at the inaugural
meeting of the Association (January 17th, 1908), no other name was
proposed but that of Brig.-General Horatio Mends, C.B., formerly of the
60th Rifles, at that time Brigadier General-in-charge of Administration,
Northern Command. To the immense benefit of the Association, General
Mends’ term of office as secretary, except for a short interruption due
to ill-health in 1909, continued right through the twelve years under
review, and, alike in peace and in war, he has amply and fully sustained
the confident belief expressed at the time of his appointment, that ‘he
combined every requisite which Mr. Haldane had laid down as essential for
the secretary of an Association.’ His assistants came and went according
to the claims of other duties. They have included Captain J. U. M.
Ingilby, Captain M. L. Porter, Major A. B. Boyd-Carpenter (later, Deputy
Assistant-Director under Lord Scarbrough at the War Office, and, since
December, 1918, M.P. for East Bradford), Major H. C. E. Smithett and
Captain W. Mildren, M.B.E., of the T.F. Reserve, formerly Staff Q.M.S. in
the Army Pay Corps, York, who was appointed superintending clerk at the
beginning, and who has rendered admirable service.
Second only in importance to a secretary was a place of meeting for the
Association. It would need the powers of an epic poet to invoke the muse
to sing the rival claims of Leeds and Sheffield as headquarters of the
West Riding, and the historian who is not a Yorkshireman must be content
to set the fact on record that York was finally selected for reasons
which seemed sufficient to the high contracting parties. Once in York,
there was no hesitation in approving premises at 9, St. Leonard’s as a
permanent local habitation.
We need not set out in detail the obvious necessary business of the
appointment of committees, the distribution of duties, the drafting of
regulations, and so forth. It was new work, and not very easy work, but
the Association commanded the services of men of experience and affairs,
and some spade work had been done in advance. One point particularly
occurs to a reader of the Association archives: the concentration on the
magical word, _Mobilization_. This event governed the deliberations of
all concerned: not as a shadowy abstraction, which superior authority set
them to work at in the dark, still less as a haunting terror, created by
a jingoistic press, but as a real, present and an urgent duty, and as the
test of validity for all their acts. This idea so constantly before them
lent actuality to their proceedings. They spent no time in discussing
if and when a state of war might arise. Their practical function was to
assume the war and to prepare for it.
Apart from the recruiting problem proper, the provision, that is
to say, of the full number of officers and other ranks required to
complete the establishment of the units to be raised in the West Riding,
there was an immense amount of work to be done, military as well as
administrative, before the Association could say to the War Office: press
the button, and the troops will march out. The Haldane Act had created
the machinery, and the Association had been formed to make it work; and,
since, at any moment from that date, the crisis of 1914 might have been
precipitated, the new local authorities were well advised in aiming
at instant readiness. But if we project ourselves back into the chaos
of 1908, out of which Lord Harewood and his colleagues were entrusted
with the task of evoking order, if we sympathize with their sense of
responsibility, and recognize how gravely it was increased by lack of
knowing when the crisis would occur; in other words, if we look at the
problem through the spectacles of the West Riding Association, we must
be equally just to other aspects. The Haldane Act set up ninety-four
Associations: ninety-four engines wanting fuel, ninety-four skeleton
organisms awaiting breath and articulation, ninety-four committees hard
at work as if each was solely responsible for building the Territorial
Force. Translate this conception into the terms familiar to official
routine in the placid years before the war. Imagine the accumulation of
papers, the multiplication of minutes, and the comparative unexpectedness
of the call to decide a series of questions which lengthened with the
life of the Associations. True, a Central Council of Associations was
formed at an early date,[4] which served as a kind of clearing-house
between the counties and Whitehall, and which, while it did not preclude
the independent access of Associations, submitted as many as thirty-two
recommendations from November, 1908, to July, 1909. A few of these
topics are worth recalling. On November 9th, 1908, the Central Council
recommended ‘that travelling grants be given to individuals coming to
Section, Company and Battalion drills over a distance of two miles.’ A
deputation waited on the Secretary of State on the following February
27th. In May, an intimation was sent that a circular Memorandum might be
issued on the subject. In July, the matter was raised again, and another
deputation was received on the 23rd of that month. On August 7th, the
War Office decided not to make any grant for the payment of men in towns
coming to drill. ‘In rural corps, in which the companies, etc., are
recruited over a scattered area, the War Office will consider an extra
grant based on the cost of bringing in men of outlying sections for
Company drill two or three times a year, and will shortly issue a letter
asking for the necessary information on which a grant should be based.’
That letter was issued on September 9th. On the 13th of the next month,
the Central Council expressed the opinion that, ‘if the Territorial Force
is to be made of real value, ... this can only be done ... by giving
financial assistance to men to enable them to come into drill.’ On March
16th, 1910, a War Office letter was issued, granting a small allowance
towards the cost of bringing in outlying sections to enable them to carry
out squadron, battery or company training, but refusing to authorize as a
charge on Association public funds, any expenses incurred by individual
officers or men in travelling from their homes to their local troop or
section headquarters to carry out their ordinary drills. A wise decision,
no doubt; certainly, a carefully considered one; but, perhaps, a little
disheartening in its extreme regard for the public purse and in the
consumption of sixteen months during which voluntary recruits were not
told what their patriotism would cost them. Sometimes the decisions came
more quickly, but then they were usually in the negative. A proposal in
February, 1909, ‘that boots other than lace-up be supplied for wear by
mounted men with overalls when walking out’ was refused in the following
May. A recommendation during that May ‘that a special grant of 6d. a head
be allowed to Associations for provision of refreshments to men who are
detained on parade, or on actual military duty, for not less than four
consecutive hours,’ was turned down on August 7th.
The general tendency should be clear from these examples. At the one
end, in Yorkshire and elsewhere, throughout the ninety-four headquarters,
were brand-new Associations, eager to sweep clean and to sweep swiftly.
At the other end, in Whitehall, were the War Office and the Treasury,
fast bound by the traditions of their code, and tied particularly by a
Government committed to retrenchment on Army estimates. We hardly know
which to pity more, the Minister responsible to the House of Commons or
the Territorial Force Associations which his Act had called into being.
Meanwhile, for historical purposes, it is essential to remember that,
during this period of preparation, the Territorial Force was the
Associations. It depended on them for recruits, premises, ranges,
arms, equipment, clothing (even to ‘boots other than lace-up for wear
by mounted men with overalls when walking out’), everything that
makes an Army; and they depended in turn, far more closely than they
had anticipated, on the decisions of a harassed Army Council and the
resources of a depleted Treasury. Happily, this period was protracted by
the repeated postponement of war. In 1908 and, again, in 1911, the threat
of war was averted, as we are now aware. Time was given, accordingly, if
not for the complete fulfilment, at least for the partial satisfaction of
the means devised for the fulfilment of the chief object of the Haldane
Act. This was, as we saw,
‘To provide for the reorganization of His Majesty’s military
forces, and for that purpose to authorize the establishment
of County Associations, and the raising and maintenance of a
Territorial Force.’
No time limit was laid down for the period of incubation in the
Associations, and it is difficult to estimate what would have been our
degree of unpreparedness if the accidents of European politics had
allowed less than the six and a half years from 1908 to 1914.
A rough estimate can be formed, and it is worth computing in the present
context, and in the security of peace after war, by reference to an open
letter, dated February 26th, 1913, which was addressed by the Committee
of the National Defence Association to Mr. Asquith, as President of the
Committee of Imperial Defence.[5] The signatories included the Duke of
Bedford, Lord Fortescue, Lord Glenconner, Lord Scarbrough and Sir Richard
Temple (who were all connected with County Associations), Lord Lovat,
Mr. Walter Long, Lord Methuen, Lord Peel, Sir Samuel Scott and other men
of weight. While drawing attention to their consistent support of the
Territorial Force scheme, they felt bound to point out ‘that neither
the Territorial Associations, nor the Territorial Force have yet taken
sufficiently deep root as national institutions.’ They stated ‘with the
utmost emphasis’ that ‘no remedy involving extra financial assistance to
the Territorial Force at the expense of the Navy or Regular Army would
receive their support,’ but they did not conceal their conviction that,
‘if such a situation as existed in the autumn of 1911 recurred’, ‘the
present training, equipment and numbers of the Territorial Force are
inadequate for the task that would only too probably be laid upon it.’
‘It has come to the knowledge of this Association,’ they remarked in
another paragraph of the letter, ‘that a large proportion of Officers
responsible for the training and administration of the Force now hold the
view that it is incapable under present conditions of carrying out the
duties allotted to it in any sudden emergency. We desire most strongly to
support and emphasize this opinion.’
The warning was too grave to be ignored. The Territorial Act had been on
trial for five years, and the war, which actually arrived in the summer
of the following year, might break out at any moment.
Urgent action was taken, accordingly, by the Council of Territorial
Associations, and it is particularly interesting to the present record
to note that the basis of their action was a scheme submitted by the
Earl of Scarbrough on behalf of the West Riding Association. After
passing a strong resolution in April, 1913, pointing out the ‘continued
inefficiency’ in the establishment of Territorial units, and even stating
that the success of the Force on a voluntary basis could be achieved
‘only by a considerable improvement in the terms and conditions of
service,’ they lost no time in circulating the West Riding scheme through
other Associations. So, at the October meeting of the Central Council,
when replies and comments had come in, they were ready to ask the Prime
Minister to receive a deputation, with a view to considering the whole
matter.
This important interview took place on November 26th, 1913. On the one
side were Mr. Asquith and General Seely, then Secretary of State for
War; on the other were Lord Dartmouth (Chairman), Lord Fortescue and
Sir Hugh Shaw-Stewart, Bt. (Vice-Chairmen), and the following Members
of the Council of the County Territorial Associations: Lord Scarbrough,
Sir Richard Temple, Bt., Sir Hugh Bell, Bt., Lord Cheylesmore, Sir
Edward Elles, Sir Arthur Anstice, Mr. Tonman Mosley, Lord Glenconner,
Mr. Dalgleish, Mr. Adeane, Colonel Colvin, Colonel Lambert White,
General Tyler, Lord Denbigh, General Mends, and the Secretary of the
Council, Major Godman. The deputation represented eighty-one out of the
ninety-four Associations, and was recognized by the Prime Minister as
‘authoritative.’
It is well to recall at this point the essential dates in the situation.
The Territorial and Reserve Forces Act ‘for the reorganization of His
Majesty’s military forces’ became law in 1907. Early in 1908 the West
Riding Territorial Force Association was brought into being under the
Act, and set to work in a practical way to raise, clothe, train and
otherwise prepare its troops for the day of mobilization. They had worked
hard for six years, with the shadow of coming war across their path. Yet
at the end of 1913, when the substance behind the shadow was apparent
to all who knew, the chairman of the West Riding Association, one of
the most populous County areas, administered by men of public spirit,
and possessing in General Mends an untiring and a highly efficient
secretary, came to the Prime Minister to say: Our proper establishment
of troops is little more than 18,000; we fall short by 52 officers and
2,724 other ranks; and ‘that is roughly typical of the general shortage,
which, with a few exceptions, exists throughout the Counties.’ The
failure was deplorable: ‘It is the fact that the strength to-day is less
than it was in the last year under the old Volunteer system.’ But even
more deplorable was the danger: ‘In spite of all the efforts which have
been made in these six years, it would appear that the high-water mark
of voluntary effort in normal years and under present conditions falls
greatly below the minimum laid down by the General Staff as necessary for
National Defence’.
November 26th, 1913: This was the date of the interview, and it was too
late then to remedy the scheme. The total shortage of 1,400 officers and
66,000 other ranks; the 40,000 members of the Force under nineteen years
of age and ‘only fit to be in a Cadet corps’; the absence from the annual
camp of 1,362 officers and 33,350 other ranks, including 37 officers and
6,019 men ‘absent without leave’: these facts and figures might be cured
by personal allowances to officers, efficiency bounties to other ranks,
income-tax relief to employers for each qualified Territorial officer
or soldier in their employ, grants to Associations for social purposes
and for the provision of boots, shirts and socks, and by the rest of the
moderate, wise and carefully devised recommendations which the Council
of County Associations felt bound to propose to the Government, as ‘the
minimum improvement in the terms and conditions of service that we think
would be effective in attracting the right class of men in sufficient
numbers.’ Public apathy, official discouragement, and the burden of
other calls on the Exchequer might be purged of their worst effects by
thorough changes of this kind. Even the evils pointed out by Sir H.
Shaw-Stewart, that, ‘owing to the exigencies of political combat, these
same classes that I speak of (_i.e._, landowners and employers) are just
now being held up to the public as parasites, oppressors and robbers of
the poor,’ and that, ‘except for Lord Haldane and his successor at the
War Office, not one Cabinet Minister has ever had a good word to say for
the work we are doing or, indeed, for the system we are endeavouring
to carry out,’ might at last prove capable of adjustment. But time was
essential for such experiments, and the sands of time were running out.
Mr. Asquith, indeed, in his reply to the deputation, affected to believe
it all remediable. There were the proper compliments to ‘the value of the
work that has been and is being done.’ There were other aspects of the
numbers and the training, and certain ‘encouraging features’ to be dwelt
upon. There was a general undertaking that the Council’s recommendations
‘will be not only considered, and not lightly dismissed, but considered
in a thoroughly sympathetic spirit.’ There was the final valediction, as
suave as it was impenetrable: ‘We shall endeavour to produce as great
an impression as we can on the Chancellor of the Exchequer consistently
with his other requirements to meet your legitimate demands.’[6] And the
Archduke Francis Ferdinand was assassinated, June 28th, 1914.
These, briefly, are the facts on which an estimate may be formed of
the degree of preparedness reached by the Territorial Force more than
six years after it came into being. Very happily, as we said above,
this period was thus protracted. The defects were serious enough, but,
had the crisis come earlier, Associations would have missed what the
evidence of results proved to be valuable, that varied experience of
organization, that knowledge of their own weak points, that sense of
contact with officers and men, as well in their civilian relations as
in their military capacity, and, generally, that power, essential to
the satisfactory working of ‘a highly complex structure o’ various an’
conflictin’ strains,’ which Mr. Kipling has illustrated in his story of
_The Ship that Found Herself_. The consolation administered by the Prime
Minister to the deputation of November, 1913, though a commonplace, or
because it was a commonplace, was justified in the succeeding years of
war:
‘While we do not say that the present organization is in all
respects satisfactory, we do believe that it is based on sound
lines, and, so long as the same spirit which has existed from
the beginning continues to animate officers and men, that the
Force will increase every year in efficiency and capacity for
the special functions which are assigned to it in our scheme of
defence.’
The vista of years was contracted to less than one, our ‘scheme of
defence’ was unrecognizably extended, but the animating spirit did not
fail.
How fortunate for the country it was that time was given to Associations
to find themselves may be judged from the growing tension between the
West Riding Association and the War Office. Sir William Clegg, speaking
from the Chair on February 7th, 1910, complained of ‘a kind of attempt on
the part of the Army Council to treat the Association as a mere adjunct
of the Army Council, and not as a free and independent body. If their
deliberations and resolutions were to be treated in such a high-handed
manner, he for one was not prepared to devote his time to the duties
of the Association.’ A few months later, on the motion of Alderman F.
M. Lupton, of Leeds, seconded by Mr. A. J. Hobson, of Sheffield, a
resolution was passed urging His Majesty’s Government ‘to give further
effect to their own policy of placing the Territorial army under the
control of the County Associations, and to permit these Associations,
without undue interference, to perform their duty of providing a properly
equipped Force on the grants allotted to them.’ Relations became a little
less strained after a personal interview between Lord Harewood and the
Secretary of State, when a conciliatory reply was sent to the Association
by the War Office. But in 1912 the situation had grown acute again, and
Lord Harewood did not hesitate to describe it as a ‘tension which had
existed for a long time between the Army Council and that Association,
especially the Finance Committee of the Association.’ Sir William Clegg
repeated his former protest, which was supported by Colonel Hughes
and other members, while Lord Scarbrough referred to the case of the
Association against the Army Council as, in fact, ‘unassailable.’ We
shall not further recall the features of this dispute, which turned on a
question of accountancy. It was not the details but the principle which
mattered, and the principle which governed the deliberations of members
of the West Riding Association was amply vindicated in their resolution,
carried on July 1st, 1912:
‘That the Association welcomes the reply of the Secretary of
State, as indicating complete satisfaction with the financial
position of the Association, and notes with pleasure that, as a
result of the protest made, there is now every reason to hope
that the relations between the Army Council and the Association
will be cordial and harmonious in future.’
So, the Association ‘found itself’ at last. But the reconciliation
came too late to make a prosperous new beginning. If war had still been
postponed, opportunity might have been given to build up the Territorial
Force on more generous and sympathetic lines, as suggested in the scheme
of the West Riding, and to repair the disappointment of Associations.
But, though Sir William Clegg spoke of ‘a clean slate,’ and Lord
Scarbrough wrote more hopefully to General Bethune,[7] there was no time
to take advantage of the change. The long threatened war was upon them,
and, meanwhile, they had to encounter what Mr. Asquith, in November,
1913, called ‘the abstraction, whatever Government is in power, who has
the public purse under his immediate control.’ This ‘abstraction’ proved
a very real obstruction.
CHAPTER II
THE WEST RIDING TROOPS
The civilian effort before the war to create a ‘people’s army’ under the
provisions of the Territorial Force Act, was a fine national exploit,
whether in the West Riding or elsewhere. Equally fine, if not finer,
though no basis of comparison can be fixed, was the response of the men,
including officers and other ranks, to whom the appeal was made.
It is essential to see this clearly. Parliament might pass the best
Act which ever adorned the legislature. The Secretary of State for War
and His Majesty’s other Ministers might use all the eloquence at their
command to popularize the Act in the country. The Territorial Force
Associations, which were called into being under the Act, might attract
the best brains in every county to crown the scheme with success.
Throughout the complex organization, avoidable mistakes might be avoided,
unavoidable obstacles might be overcome, and a kind of conspiracy of good
luck might have surrounded the enterprise from its initiation. And yet,
in the ultimate resort, one first condition must be satisfied: the men
must be willing to come forward. For the Act spoke, as we have seen, of a
‘reorganization of His Majesty’s military forces’; and no power on earth,
certainly no political power in England, could organize a voluntary force
which was unwilling. If the troops out of whom the Territorial army was
to be made were not willing to enrol in that army, and to bring to it
the loyalty and devotion which had characterized voluntary service in
the past, legislation would prove a dead letter. With or without the
conditions which we have enumerated above (and some were lacking, as we
are aware) the primary factor was the personal one; conversely, if the
heart of the nation was sound, no weakness in the Army Council or at the
Treasury could wreck the scheme beyond repair.
Accordingly, it is useful at this point to look at events before the
war from a different angle of vision. Men in high places, ‘dressed
in a little, brief authority,’ have always this consolation, when
they contemplate their shortcomings, whether within or without their
own control, that the near view is fuller than the distant. If every
Territorial soldier in the West Riding had been privy to Lord Harewood’s
difficulties, if every unit awaiting a headquarters had been admitted to
the heart-breaking negotiations which preceded each grant of an eighth
of an acre of ground, if every recruit grumbling at his boots had known
how many pairs of boots were included in General Mends’ requisitions, no
progress at all would have been made with the raising of the Force or its
equipment. But the men who were raised and equipped were spared these
disappointments and dubieties. They took their troubles in single spies,
not battalions; and the single troubles which they encountered—too much
rain, too few blankets, insufficient transport, and so forth—were counted
as part of a day’s work, not as items in a quarterly return. They did not
multiply their grievances by the calculus familiar to an Association;
and it is precisely this restricted point of view which is valuable as
a contrast and a corrective to Associational experience. For the final
triumph of the Territorial scheme, as proved in the searching test of
war, was a triumph achieved by individuals within the limits of their
personal capacity.
It is well to recapture the spirit in which this triumph was achieved;
and, fortunately for that purpose, we can refer to a West Riding unit,
whose records go back from its War Diary of 1914 to the date of its
original inception in 1859. A happy feature of this possession, unique
and valuable in itself, is that the unit in question became in the
fulness of time the same 4th Battalion of the West Riding Regiment,
whose transport left England for France first of the 49th Division[8];
and, with the added interest of that coincidence, its faded pages may be
searched for evidence to the men’s point of view. It was Lord Haldane who
wrote (December, 1908), in a passage referred to above[9]:
‘The abstract and dry language of Statutes and Army Orders may
command our rational assent, but what Cardinal Newman was fond
of speaking of as real assent it will never command unless it
is interpreted in the light which the historical method throws
on it.’
Such a light is thrown by this record on the history of the previous
half-century.
It began on May 25th, 1859, when Major-General Jonathan Peel, a brother
of the great Sir Robert, and a predecessor of Lord Haldane’s at the
War Office, issued a circular to authorize the formation of Volunteer
corps. Two days later, a requisition was addressed to the Worshipful
the Mayor of Halifax by a hundred and twenty-five inhabitants of the
borough and its neighbourhood, praying him to convene a public meeting
in order to consider ‘the propriety of forming a Volunteer Rifle Corps
for this district.’ The propriety was duly considered on the following
Friday, June 3rd, in the Town Hall at Halifax, when and where a hundred
and twenty good citizens, with Mr. Edward Akroyd[10] at their head,
professed themselves willing to enrol as members of a Volunteer Rifle
Corps for this Town and District, ‘provided the cost of uniform, arms
and accoutrements does not exceed £9 per annum.’ The crest selected was
the Borough Arms; the head-dress, familiar in caricature, was ‘shako
and plume’; the uniform a dark-green tunic; the arms, a short Enfield
muzzle-loader, and bayonet; and the title of the corps was the 4th West
Yorks Rifle Volunteers. Seldom have small beginnings been more amply
fulfilled by noble ends.
The Rifle Corps grew and prospered. Colours, with crest and title, were
worked by the ladies of Halifax and presented in September, 1860,[11] and
Captain Akroyd had the satisfaction in that month of parading 455 men at
a Review in York, and of publishing in Orders the next day, that ‘the
4th West Yorks Rifle Volunteers, by their soldier-like bearing, their
excellent discipline, and the steadiness of their movements, have earned
for the Corps a high reputation among the Riding and County Battalions.’
On March 10th, 1863, they paraded at the marriage of the Prince of Wales.
They furnished a Guard of Honour, and guards and sentinel for the night,
when His Royal Highness, on the following August 3rd, visited Halifax to
open the Town Hall. In the same year, a capitation grant of 20/- for each
efficient man was authorized for issue by the Government, thus relieving
all ranks of a part of their voluntary expenditure; and it is observed in
the same context, though its precise bearing escapes us to-day, that the
Government ‘also repeated the gracious permission accorded by George II.
of wearing hair-powder untaxed.’ A drill-hall, designed by an assistant
to Sir Gilbert Scott, and intended to serve both as the head quarters of
the corps and as a public hall and concert-room, was started in 1868 and
available in 1870. In 1874, the busby head-dress was adopted; the tunic
was altered to scarlet with dark-blue facings, and the long Enfield was
substituted for the short. At the same time, the maximum establishment
was fixed at 600 all ranks. The next year saw the first Camp, in tents
on Castle Hill, Scarborough. In 1880, the Battalion was armed with the
Snider breech-loader and bayonet, and the common helmet replaced the
busby. In July, 1881, the Battalion, 480 strong, represented the county
of Yorkshire at a Royal Review of Volunteers in Windsor Great Park.
In 1883, a step forward was taken in the direction completed by the
Territorial Act of 1907: the 4th, 6th and 9th West Riding of Yorkshire
Volunteer Corps were renamed the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Volunteer Battalions of
the West Riding Regiment (Duke of Wellington’s); the old Arms of Halifax
were replaced by the badges of the West Riding Regiments; and in 1887 the
Battalion was re-clothed in a manner similar to the Line Battalions with
which it had been affiliated, but with silver lace, buttons and badges.
Ten years later, in 1897, a detachment of the Battalion was bivouacked in
the ditch of the Tower of London, and did duty on London Bridge, on the
occasion of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. A more serious call was to
follow. On December 19th, 1899, after the so-called ‘black week’ in the
Transvaal, it was announced that ‘Her Majesty’s Government have decided
to accept offers of service in South Africa from the Volunteers.... The
terms of enlistment for officers and men will be for one year, or for not
less than the period of the War.’ Three days later, on December 22nd,
Major W. H. Land, commanding the 1st Volunteer Battalion, West Riding
Regiment (our old friend, the 4th Rifle Volunteers), was prepared to
place the Battalion at the disposal of the Government, and an Active
Service Company of Volunteers, with Lieut. H. S. Atkinson at their head,
was complete for embarkation early in 1900, when they were entertained at
a farewell banquet in Halifax. The occasion, historically so inspiring,
has several features of present interest. Colonel (later, Sir) E. Hildred
Carlile, remarked on the sense of ‘promotion,’ and the ‘feeling that
more would be required,’ in the call to Volunteers to take a place side
by side with Regulars in Line Battalions. Colonel Le Mottee discussed
the ‘spirit of militarism,’ drawing a clear distinction between its fair
and evil aspects; and other speakers who followed referred with gravity
and emphasis to the future needs of national defence. The draft sailed
on February 17th, reaching Table Bay on March 14th, and, exactly a year
later (March 16th, 1901), the Relief Company of the Battalion left
Halifax for the same destination. Needless to say, their fighting record
in South Africa was worthy of their regiment and Riding. They contributed
to the final victory of British arms; and, when the first members of
the first Service Company returned to Halifax in the following May,
they received the welcome which they deserved. A presentation of medals
took place later in 1901, and inspired a prophetic speech by Colonel Le
Mottee, which is well worth recalling to-day:
‘The Volunteer movement,’ he said, ‘never stood higher in the
estimation of the military authorities than it did now. The
behaviour of the Volunteers showed that the spirit of the
nation was as high as it ever was, and the question was how to
utilize this fine material to the best advantage. Conscription
was out of the question at present, and the only alternative
was the extension of the Volunteer movement for the securing of
efficiency for all who joined.’
This perception carries us a long way from 1859 and the Halifax Rifle
Corps. We reach in the new century and the new reign, and in the brief
peace after the South African War, the problem, or series of problems,
which were honestly attacked, if not, as we have seen, fully solved, by
the Territorial and Reserve Forces Act of 1907. But note the continuity
of the history, and the secure foundation of that Act on material already
existing. The Territorial scheme, like the British Constitution, grew up
and developed by its own strength; it was never imposed from without.
Herein lay the secret of such measure of success as it achieved. The war
in South Africa had revealed grave defects in military resources and in
the means of national defence. ‘Conscription was out of the question at
present,’ but the war of 1914 found the counties of Great Britain at
least organized for an emergency which surpassed in its demands and its
extent the most serious anticipations of the most foresightful. And the
organization (this is the important point) was based on a tradition which
could not fail. Everywhere in England, not in Halifax alone, had been
men of public spirit, like Edward Akroyd, to petition their worshipful
mayor on behalf of the Volunteer movement. Everywhere in England, for
fifty years, the Volunteers had drilled and camped, had exchanged their
shakoes for busbies, and their muzzle-loaders for breech-loaders,
and had converted public ridicule into tolerance, and tolerance into
appreciation, and appreciation at last into heartfelt gratitude to the
‘people’s army’ which sprang from English soil. We turn the old pages
of _Punch_, and smile at John Leech’s pictures of ‘The Brook-Green
Volunteers’ and others; but behind our laughter is the sense that these
long-ago, long-whiskered men were the true makers and only begetters of
the Territorial Army in the Great War, and that Edward Akroyd and the
hundred and nineteen who signed the resolution of enrolment at the public
meeting in Halifax Town Hall on June 3rd, 1859, showed the way to the
fighting men of the West Riding who helped Marshal Foch and Earl Haig to
turn the tide of German advance in the summer of 1918.
This historic sense deepens as we approach the period immediately before
the war. In May, 1902, the honorary rank of Lieutenant in the Army was
granted to Captain H. S. Atkinson, with an award of the Queen’s Medal
with three clasps, in recognition of his services in South Africa.
So, the Volunteer and the Regular had coalesced. In the following
December, Lord Savile accepted the honorary Colonelcy of the Battalion,
in succession, after a long interval, to its virtual founder, Colonel
Akroyd, and testimony was borne to the fact that the troops were ‘working
on lines which lead to real efficiency of mobilization for home defence.’
In 1905, the writing on the wall was conspicuous for all to read. Colonel
Land observed, at the annual prize-giving, that the choice for the future
now lay between ‘the more effective training of the Volunteer forces,
or compulsion. It rested entirely with the authorities and employers
of labour to decide which alternative to adopt. One or the other was
inevitable.’ In 1907, the inevitable occurred, and early in 1908, when
the Territorial Act was on the Statute-book, the Secretary of State for
War addressed a stirring appeal to the male youth of Great Britain:
‘The foundation of a Territorial Force or Army for home
defence,’ he wrote, ‘is no light matter. The appeal which I am
making to the nation is that its manhood should recognize the
duty of taking part, in an organized form, in providing for
the defence of the United Kingdom. The science of war is, like
other sciences, making rapid strides, and if we would not be
left behind and placed in jeopardy, we must advance. That is
why it was necessary that the old Volunteer and Yeomanry forces
should pass, by a process of evolution, into the organization
of the new Territorial or Home Defence Army.’
Our survey of the progress of a single unit from 1859 to 1908 should
enable us better to understand the precise bearing of Lord Haldane’s
language. What is true of a unit is true of the whole; and we shall see,
in the further annals of this corps of old Rifle Volunteers, who now bore
‘South Africa’ upon their Colours, and counted a Regular officer among
their Captains, how gallantly the Yeomanry and Volunteers responded to
the call of tradition, and how fully ‘a process of evolution’ describes
the action which they took.
For they ‘passed into’ the Territorial Army. As Colonel Land said to his
men on a day in 1908: ‘The word “conscription” appears to be repulsive
to the vast majority of Englishmen.’ He did not share that repulsion,
but for those who shared it ‘What was the alternative? Mr. Haldane
thought the alternative was to enlarge and make effective use of the
present auxiliary forces by reorganization.’ So be it. A ‘voluntary
Territorial force stood between the country and conscription.’ But in
certain districts of England the Volunteer law was current among men, as
the Scout law is, or should be, among boys: ‘The Army Council was only
asking all Volunteers to do what they in Halifax had done for years’;
and, when only two alternatives were presented for selection, either to
attest under the new Act, or to retire from the auxiliary forces and
unwrite a chapter of local history which had been opened in 1859, ‘they
in Halifax’ were never in doubt. The 4th West Yorks Rifle Volunteers had
changed their name in 1883, when they became the 1st Volunteer Battalion
of the West Riding (Duke of Wellington’s) Regiment. On April 1st, 1908,
they consented to change their name again. The 1st West Riding Volunteers
became now the 4th Battalion of the West Riding Regiment, with their
uniform similar to the Line Battalion’s, and scarlet facings for white
and gold lace, gilt ornaments for silver and white, and the letter ‘T’
to indicate Territorial. _Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose_; the
‘process of evolution’ was complete.
We come back from the part to the whole, from Halifax to the West Riding.
Our choice of Halifax has not been due to any exceptional conditions
in that borough. In some respects, indeed, it lagged behind. Its city
fathers contained at least their full proportion of anti-‘militarists’
and anti-‘conscriptionists,’ and its recruiting record was never the
best in the Riding. It has been clearer and more convenient, however, to
illustrate the movement from start to finish, or, at least, from 1859 to
1908, by means of a concrete example, than to deal vaguely with the mass.
When the mass-problem was approached by Lord Harewood, as Lieutenant
of the Riding, and his colleagues in the County Association, they found
that the old Volunteer and Yeomanry forces were required to ‘pass into’
the new Territorial Army to the number of about 18,300 of all ranks.
On March 31st, 1908, the actual strength of those old forces was 414
officers and 9,683 other ranks; so that, roughly, 8,000 in all had to
be found additionally in the West Riding: eight more for every ten on
the strength. The quota allotted to the Riding were a whole Division, a
Mounted Brigade, and Army Troops.
We have already viewed this problem through the eyes of the West Riding
Association, when we saw that the full numbers were never reached, and
that a big new scheme was devised, and brought to the notice of the
Prime Minister, in order to render the terms of service more attractive.
We propose to look at the problem here through the eyes of the men
themselves: not of those who did not enrol, but of the personnel which
actually joined up. It is important to emphasize this aspect. A sermon
preached at absent congregants always hits the regular church-goers; and
the repinings of Associations at a deficiency in establishment are apt to
distract attention from the merits of the men on the strength. Thus, the
keen inheritors of the tradition of the 4th West Yorks Rifle Volunteers
were not less but, rather, more praiseworthy because their strength as a
Territorial unit, after April, 1908, was always below establishment. Take
the three last returns before the war:—
4th BATTALION, WEST RIDING REGIMENT, HALIFAX.
-----------+--------------------+--------------------+-------------------
| Establishment. | Total Strength. | Deficiency.
Date. +-----------+--------+-----------+--------+-----------+-------
| Officers. | Other | Officers. | Other | Officers. | Other
| | Ranks. | | Ranks. | | Ranks.
-----------+-----------+--------+-----------+--------+-----------+-------
31-12-1912 | 29 | 985 | 20 | 747 | 9 | 238
31-12-1913 | 28 | 978 | 21 | 596 | 7 | 382
31-5-1914 | 28 | 978 | 20 | 613 | 8 | 365
-----------+-----------+--------+-----------+--------+-----------+-------
This was the kind of disheartenment which General Wright,[12] Commanding
the Division, had to face at the outset of his task; and, since it was
the function of the Association to rebuke the absent 37 per cent., let us
praise the present sixty-three. When three or four men in ten abstain,
the virtue of the assentients is more conspicuous.
Certainly, it was easier not to join. We are not referring now to what
we may call the permanent handicap: the passive resistance of some
employers, the active dislike of others: the wave of pacific sentiment,
fanned by hot blasts from Labour circles, and the acute suspicion of
the hidden hand of compulsion. Nor are we referring now to merely local
conditions, such as points of precedence and procedure, and minor
grievances and jealousies, almost inevitable at the start of a novel and
complex organization in an area as wide as the West Riding. These things
loom large in the beginning, but the incidents of the quarrels disappear
when the decisions shine in their results, and the wisest course is to
believe that every honest conflict of interests is inspired by generous
emulation. This, at least, is how we shall recall the discussion in 1908
whether the West Riding Horse Artillery, which was to form part of the
Yorkshire Mounted Brigade, should be raised by the borough of Sheffield
or by Earl Fitzwilliam, with its headquarters at Wentworth Woodhouse,
and the ultimate acceptance of the latter offer in the public spirit in
which it was made. No: the task set to General Wright and his colleagues,
the purely military task, that is to say, was formidable enough, without
attempting to weigh the imponderable. His record of service shows that
he was least of all likely to be satisfied with a hollow or an illusory
success. On July 7th, 1908, for instance, on the occasion of a visit to
Leeds by their Majesties King Edward and Queen Alexandra, Regular and
Territorial Troops were paraded to line the streets and to furnish Guards
of Honour; and the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Northern Command,
in publishing the King’s gracious message, expressed his personal
‘gratification, that, on this the first occasion on which
a portion of the recently-formed Territorial Troops of the
Northern Command has paraded before the Sovereign, they should
have merited the Royal approbation.’
The fact was gratifying, no doubt, but the responsible military
authorities were probably much more concerned with the further facts
that, at the same date, no equipment had been received for the Horse
Artillery, only part equipment for the Royal Field Artillery and the
Royal Engineers, and that the Infantry equipment had to be reported as
‘generally bad, of obsolete pattern, and useless for active service.’ It
was not to earn Royal compliments on parade, but to have the Troops ready
for mobilization, that these authorities were primarily concerned.
We are constrained to dwell upon this feature, because of its obvious
connection with future deficiencies in numbers. Take the first Annual
Training in Camp of the West Riding Division in the summer of 1908.
Over 97 per cent. of other Ranks attended, of whom 72 per cent. were in
attendance for the fifteen days: a very commendable record. The results
on the whole were good. The Redcar Urban District Council expressed ‘high
appreciation of the gentlemanly conduct’ of the Troops, and hoped to
welcome them again. There was not a single case tried for drunkenness,
and discipline and bearing were notably improved. But, when we turn to
the Report of the Divisional Commander, what do we gather as to his
views, and what can we read between the lines?
‘As regards the equipment necessary,’ he wrote, ‘this is very
far from being complete, and I hope, before many months pass,
steps will be taken to remedy this great and dangerous defect.
The Artillery were deficient of guns and wagons, and the
harness is unsuitable for issue to Territorial Troops.... The
Engineers were deficient in necessary equipment, consequently
all ranks suffered as regards instruction and training.’
Danger and suffering are strong words, which General Wright would not
have used without good cause. In the previous chapter we attempted to
translate these grievances into the language of War Office routine, and
after multiplying them by the ninety-four Associations, we were able to
find some excuse for official hesitation in removing them. Here it is
appropriate to translate them into the language of the rank and file,
and to imagine, by no great effort, how, when the Camp was broken up,
drivers of teams ‘unsuitably’ harnessed and victims of even worse defects
would deter, unconsciously, it might be, their brothers and friends from
joining up.
It may be urged that 1908 was the first summer in the life of the Force.
Let us turn to the following year. At the Divisional Camp in 1909, the
attendance of all ranks below officers reached 94 per cent., of whom 71
per cent. attended for fifteen days. But the Chairman’s October report
stated, with reference to an Army Council Order as to the purchase of
boots: ‘Under present conditions, should the Force be mobilized, it
would be found to be incapable of marching.’ Moreover, there were sundry
deficiencies of guns, limbers, wagons, etc., and it is significantly
observed:
‘The Officer Commanding 2nd West Riding Brigade, R.F.A., has
had a set of harness (six horses) converted from neck-collar
to breast, at a cost of £9 10s. 5d. The Army Council has been
asked to sanction and provide funds for the conversion of the
remainder.’
Here, perhaps, we may interpolate a note, that in January, 1910,
instructions were issued from the War Office,[13] authorizing County
Associations, ‘in view of the great influence and local knowledge’
at their disposal, to add to their existing heavy duties by making
arrangements for the provision of the vehicles and animals required on
mobilization for the Regular Army as well as for the Territorial Force.
The West Riding Association, acknowledging this letter, remarked drily,
that, while it was not aware that the provision of horses for the Regular
Army on mobilization formed any part of its statutory duties, ‘it is
quite willing to undertake the work, subject to a clear understanding
that adequate funds will be provided, sufficient, in its judgment, to
carry out the work effectively.’ And, if any reader is inclined to cavil
at the tautology in the last phrase, he may be recommended to study the
experience of the West Riding Association as to the Army Council’s view
of the meaning of ‘adequate funds.’
General Bullock[14] succeeded General Wright as Officer Commanding the
Division in January, 1910. His first Camp was held partly in the Isle
of Man, where, unfortunately, the weather was very bad. The attendance
was 93 per cent. of other ranks, of whom 69 per cent. trained for
fifteen days. ‘No change’ was reported in the condition of the supply
of guns, wagons, and saddlery; most of the units were still deficient
of binoculars; ‘the supply of horses was, on the whole, satisfactory,’
and the provision of machine-guns in all units was complete. His second
Camp (1911) showed a further fall in the percentages: 89 per cent. of
other Ranks attended, of whom 58 per cent. trained for fifteen days.
The Troops were encamped in various places, including Salisbury Plain,
Ripon, Scarborough, Marske, Skegness and Aldershot. A Review of the
Ripon Camp was witnessed by Major-General (Sir) John Cowans, afterwards
Quartermaster-General, and at that time Director-General of the
Territorial Force.
Sir George Bullock’s command of the Division coincided with the pressure
of three problems: the provision of horses on mobilization, to which
reference was made above; the formation of the Territorial and Veteran
Reserves, with which progress proved very slow; and the formation
of Voluntary Aid Detachments, which it was decided to raise in the
West Riding in accordance with the scheme of the St. John’s Ambulance
Association under the provisional name of County Companies (men’s and
women’s). The first work of getting these companies afoot devolved
upon General Mends, who, with customary zeal, doubled the duties of
Association Secretary with those of County Director. In the Autumn of
1912, the designation of County Company was changed to Voluntary Aid
Detachment, and shortly afterwards, when General Mends resigned the
direction to Major G. D. Symonds,[15] he was able to hand over to his
successor as many as fifty Voluntary Aid Detachments (16 men’s, 34
women’s), and at the same time to state his confident belief that the
initial stages were safely passed and the movement was firmly established.
But these, after all, were side-shows, and, whatever success they
achieved, or whatever labour they involved, they must not deflect
attention from the main military business, which was always present
to the minds of the Commanding Officers, and of non-Commissioned
officers as well. It was their business to train for mobilization the
Territorial troops of the Riding. The more keen and conscientious they
were, the more they were haunted in their dreams by the shadow which
took substantial shape on August 4th, 1914, and which grew so rapidly to
dimensions undreamed of even by Lord Roberts. Yet this urgent business
was performed, like the tasks of the Israelites in Egypt, without the
necessary materials. Mr. Churchill, Secretary of State for War, at a
meeting of representatives of Associations held in London on April 1st,
1919, in announcing his preliminary plans for the reconstitution of the
Territorial Force, was moved to speak as follows:—
‘I hope we shall always look forward rather than look back,
so far as difficulties are concerned. The grievances of the
Territorial Force in the years immediately preceding the war
... are well known to most of those who are gathered here
to-day; and we should bear them in mind for the purpose of
making sure that, so far as possible, a repetition of these
hardships is avoided in the future.’
And the Minister went on to point out that—
‘We have two great advantages which we have never enjoyed
before.... The days are past when the Territorial Force will
have to put up with second- and third-rate weapons, and when
every item of equipment and supply which it needed had to be
obtained on painfully limited Army Estimates.... But, still
more important than this, we have at the present time enormous
numbers of war-trained veteran soldiers fresh from victorious
fields,’
on whom to draw for the reconstituted Force. A happy state of things
indeed: ‘immense supplies, even immense surplus supplies of the very
finest equipment in the world,’ and numberless recruits ‘versed in
every aspect of war, who have the records of their achievements and
of their experience vividly in their minds.’ How many members of
Associations, remembering the days that were past, must have listened
to Mr. Churchill’s words with more sorrow than anger in their hearts.
The anger had faded and died in the fiercer emotions of the war, in
part-preparation for which an earlier Secretary of State, just eleven
years before, had reconstituted the old Yeomanry and Volunteers into
the new Territorial Force. Now the new Territorial Force (after all,
it was only eleven years of age) was to be reconstituted in another
peace-time out of its own ‘war-trained veteran soldiers’. It had sent,
as Mr. Churchill stated, 1,045,000 men to fight against the best troops
of Germany and Turkey. Six thousand five hundred of its officers and a
hundred and five thousand other ranks had laid down their lives in that
fight, out of a total casualty list of nearly 600,000 throughout the
Force. Twenty-nine of its officers and forty-two of its men in other
ranks had won the supreme honour of the Victoria Cross; and there might
well be sorrow in the hearts of many present at that meeting, not only
for the dead, the missing, and the maimed, but for the ‘painfully limited
Army Estimates’ from 1908 to 1914; for the ‘second- and third-rate
weapons,’ or no weapons at all, with which Territorial troops had been
armed; for the standing order to train for mobilization and the recurring
refusal to provide the means, for all the unrecognized sacrifices of
officers, N.C.O.’s and men, badly clothed, badly housed, badly equipped,
and for the contrast between the generous recognition of what the
Territorial Force had done and the ungenerous treatment meted out to it
in its years of preparation for the doing. If Mr. Churchill’s audience
that day agreed with him not to look back upon past grievances, at least
they might welcome his praise of
‘The vital part which the Territorial Force played at the
beginning of the war.... Had its organization been used to
build up the War Army,’ he remarked, ‘as was originally
intended and conceived by Lord Haldane, to whom we owe a great
debt, we should have avoided many of the difficulties that
confronted us at the outset, and we should have put a larger
efficient force in the field at an earlier stage.’
Our account of the West Riding Troops in the period before the war were
best concluded on this note. Up to the measure of their achievement,
they are entitled to their share of the praise, and no useful purpose
would be served by recounting in terms of drill-hall and barrack-room
accommodation the same tale of official procrastination and delay, some
features of which we have noted in relation to equipment and arms.
In September, 1911, General Baldock[16] succeeded Sir George Bullock
as General Officer Commanding the Division, and his term of service
extended into the war epoch. His summer camp in 1912 trained partly on
Salisbury Plain (where the Mounted Brigade encamped for the first time
outside Yorkshire), partly at Ad Fines, Buddon, Skegness, and other
places, with the 2nd and 3rd General Hospitals at Netley. The weather
was uniformly bad, so much so that a letter was addressed by the Army
Council to Northern Command, expressing ‘their appreciation, and that
of the Secretary of State for War, for the excellent spirit which was
shown by the Territorial Troops in Camp this year. The weather has been
most inclement, and the soldierly spirit in which the Troops bore their
discomfort was most praiseworthy.’ The attendance of ranks below officers
reached 85 per cent. of strength, of whom 60 per cent. trained for
fifteen days. The corresponding percentages for 1913, when the weather
was remarkably fine, rose to 88 and 66 respectively. Full arrangements
were made for an Annual Camp in 1914, at dates between May 21st and
August 16th, and many units, as we shall see, were in training when the
summons came to mobilize.
We may note, for historical completeness, some of the activities of
the Command which were interrupted by that sudden summons. The whole
machine was working steadily and regularly, but with slightly diminished
velocity, and a certain sense, which is developed in fine machinery, of
insufficient encouragement from above. Probably, from the point of view
of the rank and file, the call seemed likely never to arrive. Even the
keener officers and more intelligent N.C.O.’s might not unreasonably
have begun to believe that the leisurely methods of the War Office still
corresponded, as politicians certified, to a clear sky in Europe and a
firm friendship with all foreign Powers, so that they, too, might pick
their way slowly. Such pressure as was exerted, at any rate, came from
within, not from without. As late as April, 1914, the new Headquarters
at Halifax for the 2nd West Riding Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, and
at Ripon for the Detachment of the West Riding Regiment, still awaited
inspection by the Army Council. These were the last of a long series of
premises, the acquisition and building of which had given endless trouble
to the Association, not without serious detriment to the efficiency
of the Troops. At the end of May, 68 Voluntary Aid Detachments (19
men’s, 49 women’s) had been recognized by the War Office, covering the
following districts: Settle (1), Skipton (1), Ripon (1), Harrogate (12),
York (5), Otley (7), Leeds (4), Aberfordia (9), Halifax (1), Wakefield
(9), Osgoldcross (9), Huddersfield (3), Doncaster (2), Sheffield (2),
Rotherham (2). The number of National Reservists had reached a total of
10,853, including 2,404 not classified in respect to their service-value.
But of all the statistics available, the most interesting, finally,
are numbers. On May 31st, 1914, the Establishment of the West Riding
Territorial Force was 574 officers and 17,680 other ranks, 18,254 in all.
Its total strength on that date was 537 officers and 14,699 other ranks,
showing a shortage of 37 officers and 2,981 other ranks. In real numbers,
the shortage amounted to 58 and 3,082 respectively, the discrepancy in
figures being due to occasional surpluses in certain units.
Finally, we reproduce below a tabulated statement of the designations
and peace-stations of the Corps which formed the Territorial Force of the
West Riding shortly after the outbreak of war, and in the third column
of that table we add the names of their then Commanding Officers. This,
in fine, was the outcome of the six and a half years’ work of the Lord
Lieutenant and his colleagues in the Association. These Corps of gallant
officers and other ranks were the open and visible sign of the response
of the West Riding to the appeal of 1908. The Association might not have
succeeded in discharging fully the duties numbered from (_a_) to (_l_)
in Section II., Sub-section (2) of the Territorial and Reserve Forces
Act. They might not have provided all the necessary buildings, nor have
arranged with all employers of labour as to holidays for training, nor
have supplied all the requisites on mobilization, nor have done half a
dozen more things which they tried to do in the face of obstruction,
and would have liked to do if they had been allowed. Their shortcomings
were their misfortune, not their fault, and they have served since as a
warning to the Army Council to prevent their repetition in the future.
But in the spirit of the officers and men who were on the strength of the
units in 1914, the West Riding had given overrunning measure. ‘Any part
of the Territorial Force,’ it is written in Section XIII. (1) of the Act,
‘shall be liable to serve in any part of the United Kingdom, but no part
of the Territorial Force shall be carried or ordered to go out of the
United Kingdom.’ The Act of Parliament limited the liability; we shall
see how the action of West Yorkshiremen broke those limits, when the day
came.
WEST RIDING TERRITORIAL FORCE AT THE OUTBREAK OF THE GREAT WAR.
-----------------------------+----------------+--------------------------
Unit. | Peace Station. | Commanding Officer.
-----------------------------+----------------+--------------------------
YORKSHIRE MOUNTED BRIGADE. | |
Yorkshire Hussars (less |York |L.-Col. E. W. Stanyforth,
1 North Riding Squad.) | | D.L., T.D.
Yorkshire Dragoons |Doncaster |Lt.-Col. W. Mackenzie
| | Smith, T.D.
W.R. Roy. Horse Artillery |Wentworth |Capt. H. Walker.
| Woodhouse, |
| Rotherham |
MOUNTED BRIGADE. | |
T. and S. Column |York |Capt. J. Brown, I.S.O.
Field Ambulance |Wakefield |Lt.-Col. W. K. Clayton.
| |
DIVISIONAL AND ARMY TROOPS. | |
1st W.R. Brigade, R.F.A. |Leeds |Lt.-Col. E. A. Hirst.
2nd ” |Bradford |Lt.-Col. E. N. Whitley.
3rd ” |Sheffield |Lt.-Col. C. Clifford,
| | V.D.
4th ” |Otley (Howitzer)|Lt.-Col. W. S. Dawson,
| | T.D.
W.R. Div. R.G.A. |York (Heavy |Major W. Graham.
| Battery) |
W.R. Div. R.E. and |Sheffield |Lt.-Col. A. E. Bingham,
Telegraph Cos. | | V.D.
5th Bn. W. Yorks. Regt. |York |Lt.-Col. C. E. Wood, V.D.
6th ” ” |Bradford |Lt.-Col. H. O. Wade.
7th } | { |Lt.-Col. A. E. Kirk, V.D.
8th } (Leeds Rifles) |Leeds { |Lt.-Col. E. Kitson Clark,
} | { | T.D.
4th Bn. W.R. Regt. |Halifax |Lt.-Col. H. S. Atkinson,
| | T.D.
5th ” |Huddersfield |Lt.-Col. W. Cooper. V.D.
6th ” |Skipton |Lt.-Col. J. Birkbeck.
7th ” |Milnsbridge |Col. G. W. Treble, C.M.G.
4th Bn. K.O. Yorks. L.I. |Wakefield |Lt.-Col. H. J. Haslegrave,
| | T.D.
5th ” |Doncaster |Lt.-Col. C. C. Moxon, T.D.
4th Bn. York & Lancs. Regt.|Sheffield |Lt.-Col. B. Firth, V.D.
5th ” |Rotherham |Lt.-Col. C. Fox, T.D.
R.A.M.C., 1st F.A. |Leeds |Major A. D. Sharp.
” 2nd |Leeds |Lt.-Col. W. Macgregor
| | Young, M.D.
” 3rd |Sheffield |Lt.-Col. J. W. Stokes.
Div. T. and S. Column |Leeds |Lt.-Col. J. C. Chambers,
| | V.D.
Northern Signal Cos. |Leeds |Lt.-Col. J. W. H. Brown,
| | T.D.
2nd Northern Gen. Hospital |Leeds |Major J. F. Dobson, M.B.,
| | F.R.C.S.
3rd ” |Sheffield |Lt.-Col. A. M. Connell,
| | F.R.C.S.
W.R. Div. Clearing Hospital|Leeds |Lt.-Col. A. E. L. Wear.
-----------------------------+----------------+--------------------------
CHAPTER III
MOBILIZATION
No one in the present generation is likely to forget Tuesday, August 4th,
1914. A greater complexity of emotions was crowded into the twenty-four
hours which ended at 11 p.m. (midnight by mid-European time) that day
than was known before or has been known since. We moved from war to
peace in 1918-19 through a gradual series of experiences: relief from
fear, even from anxiety, growing hope, moral certainty, real conviction,
the armistice, the surrender of ships, the peace conference, civil
unrest, the return of troops, and so forth. We moved from peace to war
in the space of a single night’s experience. Who slept in the night of
August 4th awoke the next morning to war. The more sanguine might hug
the dream of a quick walk-over for the Allied Armies; of France, with
England’s assistance, fighting victoriously on the West, while Russia,
the ‘steam-roller’ as they called her, crushed the soil of the enemy on
his Eastern frontier. But not even the most credulous was immune from
that sense of something new and unexpected which all the circumstances
of the hour conspired to create. The extended holiday, the swollen
bank-rate, the moratorium, the sessions of the Cabinet, the balance of
responsibility which made Sir Edward Grey’s least utterance an oracle;
the contrast between the dead tissue of domestic politics—Ireland,
the House of Lords, the Welsh Church—and the living body of Belgium,
already shaking at the thunder of German guns; the quickened interest in
foreign history, foreign policy, foreign naval and military resources;
the strange names of Treitschke, Nietzsche, and the vision of Professor
Cramb; above all, the sudden, overwhelming rush on respectable,
commonplace minds of new, strange facts and ideas, and the haunting
fancies which they evoked, in the midst of that August procession of
harvest, foliage and heat, combined to produce an effect of change which
no effort of ‘reconstruction’ can unmake.
It fell least heavily on the Royal Navy and the Regular Army, which
proceeded to or were found at their appointed stations, in calm reliance
on the traditions behind them and without fear of the ordeal in front;
and next only to the service-men, who turned from peace to war as from
one day’s work to another, and changed their habits of life as quickly
as a man might change his clothes, were the citizen-soldiers of the
Territorial Force: landowners and tillers of the soil, doctors, lawyers
and business-men, clerks, warehousemen and factory-hands, all the
components of a great country’s complex mechanism, united by the Haldane
scheme to serve side by side in a ‘people’s army.’
The evidence may be sought from many quarters, but it is the source not
the stream which varies. Take, summarily, General Bethune’s tribute to
the Force which he directed from 1912 to 1917[17];
‘A few days after mobilization, the Territorial Force were
asked by telegraph the number that would volunteer for foreign
service. Ninety-two per cent. responded within a few weeks, and
the complete total, I think, rose to ninety-six per cent....
Before the end of September, we had doubled the Territorial
Force, and were proceeding to form 3rd Lines.... Recruits from
August 4th, 1914, to January 19th, 1916, amounted in round
numbers to 732,000.... The Territorial Force Associations,
composed, as they are, of representatives of every class in
a County, were eminently adapted for the work which they
undertook and carried out so well.... They relieved the War
Office of an enormous amount of work which would not have been
done in any other way.’
We shall have occasion to return to this official document.
Take, summarily, again, Lord French’s tribute to the Territorial Force,
based on his experience in Command at the front, in his book, _1914_
(pages 293-94):—
‘It is true that by the terms of their engagement, Territorial
Soldiers were only available for Home Defence;... The response
to the call which was subsequently made upon them shows quite
clearly that, had they been asked at first, they would have
come forward almost to a man.
‘However, as it turned out, they were ignored.... Officers
and men alike naturally made up their minds that they were
not wanted and would never be used for any other purpose than
that for which they had originally taken service, namely, the
defence of the United Kingdom.
‘But the time for the employment of troops other than the
Regulars of the Old Army arrived with drastic and unexpected
speed.... It was then that the Country in her need turned to
the despised Territorials.
‘The call came upon them like a bolt from the blue. No warning
had been given. Fathers and sons, husbands and brothers left
their families, homes, the work and business of their lives,
almost at an hour’s notice to go on Active Service abroad.
‘It seems to me we have never realized what it was these men
were asked to do. They were quite different to professional
soldiers, who are kept and paid through years of peace for this
particular purpose of war; who spend their lives practising
their profession and gaining promotion and distinction; and
who, on being confronted with the enemy, fulfil the great
ambition of their lives.
‘Equally distinct were the Territorials also from what has been
called the New Army, whose Officers and men had ample time
to prepare themselves for what they were required to do. I
wonder sometimes if the eyes of the country will ever be opened
to what these Territorial soldiers of ours have done. I say
without the slightest hesitation that, without the assistance
which the Territorials afforded between October, 1914, and
June, 1915, it would have been impossible to have held the line
in France and Belgium, or to have prevented the enemy from
reaching his goal, the Channel seaboard.’
Take, in detail, the War Diaries of Officers Commanding Territorial
Force units in the West Riding; and first, for the sake of completing
the record followed in the last chapter, that of the 4th Battalion, Duke
of Wellington’s (West Riding) Regiment. On July 26th, we read, they left
Halifax for their Annual Training at Marske-by-the-Sea:
‘The times were very unsettled, there were rumours of war, and
it was thought that at any moment the order for mobilization
would come. The training proceeded amidst intense excitement,
and finally word came that Germany and Austria had declared war
on England, France and Russia. The Special Service Section of
the Battalion, consisting of two officers, Captain R. E. Sugden
and Lieut. H. N. Waller, and 100 men were at once despatched to
Grimsby. On August 3rd, the Battalion was ordered to return to
Halifax, and at 7 p.m. on August 4th the order to mobilize was
received.... At about 1-30 p.m. on August 5th, the Battalion
marched down Horton Street to the station, and took train to
Hull, their allotted station, where the men were billeted.’
Among the officers who left Halifax with the Battalion were Lieut.-Col.
H. Atkinson (the Lieutenant Atkinson of South Africa days[18]) and Major
E. P. Chambers.[19] A few days were spent in making ready, and
‘On August 13th, the Battalion marched to Great Coates, where
the men were billeted in the village. The training was now
commenced, and the days were spent in route-marching, Company
and Battalion training, special attention being paid to
musketry. The weather during the whole stay at Great Coates was
absolutely perfect, glorious sunshine day after day.’
So the news reached Headquarters at Halifax.
Take the evidence of the 6th Battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment.
On August 5th, at 6 p.m., there were present at Headquarters in Bradford
575 members out of a total strength of 589. Before the close of that day
215 men had re-engaged and re-enlisted. On August 8th the Commanding
Officer was in a position to telegraph to York that his Battalion was up
to War Establishment; 29 officers, 979 other ranks, 57 horses and the
necessary transport: not bad going in August, 1914, for a unit of the
Force, which, through its administrative council, had waited on the Prime
Minister as recently as November, 1913, to discuss grave deficiencies in
its numbers.
It is worth while to piece together this Unit’s record, which may fairly
be taken to typify that of the Territorial Force as a whole, within the
West Riding or beyond, in these early weeks of the Great War. There is
the detail of the horses, for example, insignificant, of course, in the
perspective of a history of the Great War, but significant as an item of
preparation in the sum of the country’s enormous effort. The 57 horses
were all purchased locally, 10 for officers, 16 pack, and 31 draught;
‘the latter being a good, heavy stamp from carters’ wagons.’ There is
evidence of foresight in that touch. On August 11th the Battalion went
by rail to its war-station at Selby, where Captain Anderton, billeting
officer, had been making arrangements since the 9th. Ten men were
discharged as undesirable, and it is observed that the enlisting was
done at such high speed during mobilization, ‘that it was impossible to
inquire into the characters of many of the men.’ About a hundred National
Reservists, Class II, had been enlisted into the Battalion on August
8th, who proved ‘a boon to the Battalion,’ and repaid the hard work of
General Mends and his assistants in this department. As old soldiers they
served, despite their age, to steady the recruits. Recruit-training had
to be started at once, in view of the many enlistments, and a special
staff was organized for this purpose in order that the main business
of training might be interrupted as little as possible. A welcome move
from billets to camp (near Selby) was made on August 19th, and on the
24th they moved by rail and road to the Knavesmire Common, York, where
Brigade Orders were received that the Battalion had been selected as the
Service Battalion of the 1st West Riding Infantry Brigade: on the whole,
a cheerful account of twenty days’ experience of war conditions.
The newly selected Service Battalion was formed into complete Companies,
which consisted entirely of personnel volunteering for service overseas,
and in which the men from each Company were kept as far as practicable
together. The remaining Companies were made up from Units, kept together
in the same way, provided by the 5th, 7th and 8th Battalions of the West
Yorkshire Regiment. After some practice in night-entraining and other
exercises, the Battalion moved on August 31st, and marched with 1st
Line Transport to take its place in the Brigade: ‘a great change for
the better,’ it is added. Next day, the Brigadier-General addressed the
Territorial troops of the Brigade on the subject of voluntary active
service abroad, and by September 15th the Battalion mustered 800 strong
for overseas. Some strenuous weeks of training followed. On November
3rd, when the men were back in York, sounds of heavy firing in the North
Sea raised a temporary alarm of German Dreadnoughts and Cruisers working
North. ‘In two hours,’ we are told, ‘the Battalion was ready to move off
with transport loaded’; so, down South, we might sleep o’ nights. At this
date, too, we read of an ‘enormous improvement in the general behaviour
of the N.C.O.’s and men. Conduct excellent in the town.’
We come to November 22nd, 1914. Half the Battalion moved to Redcar,
complete with transport, ammunition and tools, on trench-digging duty.
Their place was taken by five Home Service Companies, who arrived, it
is observed, without greatcoats or equipment. On December 2nd, the
Machine-Guns with their detachments were ordered to Redcar, and proceeded
under Captain R. G. Fell. On the 10th, an exchange was effected between
the four Reserve Companies and the half-battalion at Redcar, which
returned accordingly to York. A new programme of training was arranged,
which lasted through January, 1915, and on February 1st came a welcome
leave for twenty per cent. of officers and other ranks. At the end
of February, the Battalion moved to Gainsborough, in Lincolnshire,
to relieve the 4th Battalion K.O.Y.L.I., and were billeted on the
inhabitants, four men in each dwellinghouse, ‘a change for the better’,
remarks the diarist, ‘after being a platoon in a hired empty house at
York’. The Battalion remained at Gainsborough till April 15th, when they
proceeded in two trains to Folkestone, reaching Boulogne at 10-45 that
night. Their transport and machine-guns, which had left Gainsborough the
day before, and which travelled via Southampton and Havre, joined them
at Boulogne. There for the present we may leave them to spend the night
of the 15th in a Rest Camp, eight months and ten days after the order to
mobilize had been received at Bradford.
Take the evidence of a unit in a different arm. Colonel A. E. L.
Wear,[20] C.M.G., of the Army Medical Service, was in camp at Scarborough
on August 4th, 1914, with the cadre of the 1/1st West Riding Casualty
Clearing Station, later the 7th C.C. Station. The unit returned at once
to its Headquarters at Leeds, where mobilization to war strength was
completed, with the exception of the full complement of officers. Great
care was taken to select men for the sake of their skill in special
trades: joiners, tailors, boot-repairers, First-Aid experts, and so
forth; and the wisdom of this foresight was fully justified by events.
Intensive training was started forthwith, in the French language, the
duties of cooks and orderlies, field work by means of week-end bivouacs,
and other practical departments, with the result that Colonel Wear was
able to inform the War Office as early as October that his unit was
ready for overseas. Orders were received to proceed to France, and the
officers scheduled on a waiting-list were enrolled, clothed and equipped.
On November 1st, the passage was made to Boulogne, and on the 6th a
detachment was employed in dealing at Poperinghe with the wounded from
the first Battle of Ypres.
As this Medical unit from the West Riding preceded the Divisions to
France, it will be convenient in this place to follow its fortunes a
little further. Towards the end of November, 1914, it took over the
Monastery of St. Joseph, which is situated just North of Merville, and
which had been used in turn by German, French, English and Indian troops.
A Casualty Clearing Station needs quiet and cleanliness, among the major
virtues, and a perfect economy of minor details in order to ensure them.
Colonel Wear proved equal to these demands. He apportioned the building
into wards, stores, operating-theatre, dispensary, offices, etc.,
cleaned it all up and made it ready, and, after a little discussion with
the Church authorities, turned the roomy main chapel of the Monastery
into a serious case ward. Members of the unit (observe here the C.O.’s
foresight in his selection of personnel) installed the heating-stoves,
and concreted the paths, and built a large destructor to hold a
400-gallon iron tank, which supplied hot water to a bath-hut. They also
did the washing for some time, but, later, arrangements were made for
French female labour, and a regular laundry was fitted up. This feature
was novel and successful. The work, seldom light, came in rushes, when
day and night shifts (at times, even four-hour shifts) were organized,
so as to carry on with the minimum of fatigue by means of a limited
personnel. The unit numbered at full strength eight Medical Officers, a
Quartermaster, a Dentist, two Chaplains, seven Nurses, eighty-four rank
and file, nine A.S.C. and seventeen P.B. men. Perhaps its own simple
statement gives its record in the most effective language: ‘No man
ever left the station without having his wound examined and dressed,
and receiving a meal and a smoke.’ From frost-bite, La Bassée, Neuve
Chapelle, Aubers and Festubert, came the first streams of clients to this
station.
[Illustration: A CASUALTY CLEARING STATION.]
We return to the centre of war activity at the Territorial Headquarters
in York.
In a little book, written chiefly for America and published early in
1918, Major Basil Williams, later employed under Colonel Lord Gorell
on educational Staff Duties, described in adequate terms the _Raising
and Training the New Armies_[21]. We are not immediately concerned with
the decision which called those Armies into being. Lord Kitchener was
Secretary of State for War, and on August 8th, 1914, he called for that
‘first hundred thousand’ whose spirit was so brilliantly conveyed in
Mr. Ian Hay’s volume of that name. He got them over and over again, and
it is no part of our purpose to discuss the Parliamentary Recruiting
Committee’s output of speeches, posters and ‘literature,’ by which,
partly, under the grace of England’s effort, the result was obtained.
Nor shall we examine the evidence on which Mr. Churchill, as Secretary
of State for War, based his expression of opinion, already quoted above,
that, had the Territorial Force organization ‘been used to build up
the War Army, as originally intended and conceived by Lord Haldane, we
should have avoided many of the difficulties that confronted us at the
outset, and we should have put a larger efficient force in the field
at an earlier stage.’ What Lord Haldane intended in 1908 and what Lord
Kitchener demanded in 1914 might well be corrected in the light of
what Mr. Churchill knew in 1919. But even without the wisdom which is
garnered after the event, we are entitled to quote one sentence from
Major Williams’ account of the New Armies. Towards the close of his
review of ‘the great awakening of the nation by the recruiting campaign,’
1914-1915, he wrote:
‘All this time the Territorial Force, the original home defence
force, nearly the whole of which had originally volunteered
for service overseas, had been quietly raising recruits for
itself, supplementary to the recruits raised by these different
methods’.
‘All this time’ and ‘quietly’ are the _mots justes_. The ‘time’ as we
have observed, dated back through the Volunteer movement of 1859 to the
immemorial tradition of shire-loyalty; the ‘quiet’ was that of boroughs
and countryside, of mayors’ parlours and manorial halls, of town-marts
and village-greens in England—
‘Grave mother of majestic works,
From her isle-altar gazing down,
Who, God-like, grasps the triple forks,
And, King-like, wears the crown.’
Her possession of the trident was first definitely challenged[22] since
Trafalgar on August 4th, 1914, and in the West Riding of Yorkshire, as
elsewhere, the means of defence were swiftly organized.
Swift forethought in County areas, it should be noted, did not
invariably lead to sound action at the executive centre. A trivial
example will suffice. Three weeks after the outbreak of war, a letter was
written to the Army Council suggesting that the West Riding Association
should make provision for cardigan jackets, warm drawers, and other
articles of clothing, which the troops would require in the winter
months. The Army Council sent a dignified reply, thanking the Association
for their offer, but stating that these articles would be provided by the
Army Council itself. Later, on October 9th, the Army Council intimated
its inability to supply cardigan jackets, warm drawers, and other
articles of winter clothing for the Troops, and requested the Association
to make provision. So far the experience was merely funny, but the
sequel had a Gilbertian touch. When the Association made inquiry at the
contractors, they were informed that all manufacturers of the articles
in question had been forbidden by the Army Council to supply anyone else
than the War Office. ‘These facts are brought before the Association’,
remarked the Chairman in his quarterly report, ‘in order that members may
know that everything possible was done to anticipate the requirements of
the Troops, and that any failure in this respect is due to causes beyond
its control.’ It was well and temperately said.
The heavy increase of work in the secretariat was fairly met by the
voluntary help of the Hon. G. N. de Yarburgh-Bateson, Mr. Talbot Rice,
Mr. Peter Green, some eighteen or twenty volunteers from the close of
their day’s work till late at night, two clerks from the North Eastern
Railway Company, a clerk from the York Probate Office, twenty-six
additional full-time clerks, Boy Scouts and other useful helpers. The
County Director was assisted by Col. Sir Thomas Pilkington, Bt.,[23]
and Lieut.-Col. Husband, whom the G.O.C. had appointed as officers
superintending the Lines of Communication and the arrangements for the
care of the sick and wounded. Advisory Boards were formed for the 2nd
and 3rd Northern General Hospitals at Leeds (Training College, Beckett’s
Park) and Sheffield (Collegiate Hall) respectively, which as early as the
end of August had already many patients from France and Belgium. These
Boards, consisting, at Leeds, of the Lord Mayor, Alderman F. Kinder,
Lt.-Col. Shann and the Matron of the Infirmary; and, at Sheffield, of
the Lord Mayor, Lord Wharncliffe, Col. Hughes, Lt.-Col. Sinclair White
and the Matron of the Infirmary, were intended to relieve the Commanding
Officers of the Hospitals of some portion of their administrative
functions, leaving them freer for professional work and discipline.
We omit the long figures and many Army Forms with which General
Mends and his Staff had to wrestle. The 5,000 blankets and 2,000 sets
of saddlery, the 32,887 complete suits of service-dress, the 16,803
water-bottles and 4,242 bandoliers; these requisitions and the rest
of them are as tiresome and uninteresting in retrospect as they were
absorbing and urgent at the time. There is one feature of their work,
however, familiar by the mystic letters S/A, which cannot be passed over
without notice, for it imposed a very severe strain on the Association’s
capacity for expansion. S/A stands for separation allowance, and the
regular issue of this grant to the wives and dependents of serving
soldiers had been assigned by the Act of Parliament as part of an
Association’s duty. It was by no means an easy task. Allowance has to be
made for an inconvenient distribution of functions. A soldier, whether
Regular or Territorial, drew his pay from his Commanding Officer out of
the monies supplied on vouchers presented to the Regimental Paymaster. In
the Regular Army the same Paymaster kept the soldier’s domestic account
with his wife and children or other dependents; and, though errors
inevitably occurred even when the accounts were thus linked, they could
be checked and more readily adjusted, inasmuch as all the information
was available in the same office. For the domestic account, it should
be observed, was extremely sensitive to variations in the soldier’s
rate of pay, and was affected by the soldier’s ‘casualties,’ whether
major ones of death or desertion, or minor ones of leave, punishment
and so forth. In the Territorial Force, however, the soldier’s domestic
account was kept by his County Association, presumably owing to the
fact that they were more likely to be in touch with the personnel of
the units which they administered. In peace-time this worked very well.
When a Territorial soldier went into camp for a week or fortnight in the
summer, it was comparatively a simple matter for the local Territorial
Force Association to pay the corresponding days’ allowances to those
whom he left at home. But the immense expansion of the Force in 1914,
and the extraordinarily complicated system of accountancy, added to
the distribution of pay-duties between the Regimental Paymaster for
the man and the County Association for his dependent, overtook these
heavily burdened bodies at a time when they were least well qualified
to discharge the work effectively. They did not understand it. It was
difficult to engage clerks. The Army Pay Department of the War Office
could not spare sufficient trained instructors; and, generally, the
urgent problems of the mobilization, equipment and (as we shall see) the
duplication of the Force, tended to postpone attention to what seemed
less pressing domestic matters. The early war annals of the West Riding
Association are full of evidence to these conditions:
‘The duty devolving on the Association of paying Separation
Allowances and Allotments of Pay to the wives and families
of the Territorial Troops entails very heavy work and
responsibility.... The first payment was due to be made on the
9th August, and consisted of Separation Allowance only up to
the 31st of the month. The September payment was duly made on
the 31st August. The number of Money Orders sent out up to and
for that date was 13,328, and on 3rd September, orders were
received to also pay a compulsory Allotment of Pay for each
married soldier.’
Though they split an infinitive in doing so, this payment, too, was duly
made on September 11th; but it involved a further 5,430 Money Orders with
the corresponding, inevitable Army Forms.
It is no part of our present purpose to enquire into the possibilities
of simplifying Army Pay; least of all, to suggest the simplest method of
a flat rate like the wage of a civilian. But it is within our province
to point out the almost infinite possibilities of mistakes (even of the
fraud which is so elaborately excluded) in the family register for each
soldier of the number, sex and age of his children, in the paraphernalia
of coupons, Postal Draft-books and Money-Orders, in the calculation and
readjustment of rates owing to information advised from the soldier’s
unit or to domestic changes reported or detected, in the grading of
‘unofficial wives’ and other official relationships, and, summarily,
in the invention of a system which seems expressly designed to squeeze
out of the officers administering it the last drop of the milk of human
kindness without any compensating gain in the civil virtues of economy
and efficiency.
In January, 1915, nearly 15,000 books of Postal Drafts, representing
approximately £210,000, were issued to Postmasters by a directing
staff at York, which consisted entirely of voluntary workers. In the
following April, steps were taken to regularize the position of these
gentlemen, in anticipation of the approval of the Army Council, in which
connection notice was drawn to the ‘unjustifiable system of differential
treatment as between the clerical staff in Regular and Territorial Pay
Offices,’ clerks in the former being engaged at 35s. a week and in the
latter being offered only 23s. In June, the number of cases in pay and
in action for payment amounted to 36,538, while the Pay Department was
working with 41 per cent. below the equivalent establishment of the
Regimental Paymaster’s Office. At last, on August 18th, 1915, more than
a year after the outbreak of war, the War Office appointed an expert
Paymaster to take charge of this heroic band of amateurs, a Government
audit was instituted, and the Association was thankful to report that the
department ‘is now working in as satisfactory a manner as the complicated
and constantly changing regulations will permit.’ We shall leave the
present branch of our subject on this note of moderate transport. That
the Association had carried on so well is a proof of the continuity of
function which won through to quicker results in other branches of its
manifold activity.
We followed one or two units from the sudden hour of mobilization to
the sea-ports of France and beyond. We may now look at this achievement,
‘quietly’ performed, as we are aware, in the midst of the recruiting for
the New Army, through the spectacles of the County Association. Thus,
the Chairman’s Progress Report, dated August 14th, 1914, referred to
the confusion which was caused by the Division being in Camp when the
fateful hour struck, but added that the task of mobilization ‘may be
considered as satisfactorily carried out.’ A month later, he reported,
in view of ‘the present grave emergency,’ that every West Riding unit in
the Mounted Brigade, the Division and the Army Troops had qualified as
a ‘General Service’ unit, which meant service overseas. Consequently,
the Association became responsible—this gives us a glimpse through
its spectacles—for raising Reserve units in each case, which meant a
duplication of the Force, or, roughly, another 18,000 of all ranks.
Note here the ‘which meant’ in each context. The plain meaning of the
situation within a few weeks of the outbreak of hostilities, was that
the pre-war units would be sent to France at full Establishment, and
that the West Riding would have to supply equivalent units in their
home-stations. The rapid march of events soon caused names to be given
to these facts. In January, 1915, the Chairman stated in his Report that
‘the first Reserve units are about to be organized as a Division,’ and
that ‘as soon as the Imperial Service Division leaves for abroad, the
first Reserve Division will take its place and a second Reserve Division
will be raised. Orders have now been received to commence recruiting for
the latter up to 30 per cent. of its Establishment.’ Meanwhile, more than
7,000 National Reservists had rejoined the Colours in the West Riding, of
whom about 2,000 had been mobilized for duty on Lines of Communication
and in Prisoners of War Camps. This force was organized by Colonel G. E.
Wilkinson, D.S.O., and ‘the clothing and equipment,’ it is added, ‘have
been provided by the Association.’ In other directions, too, the energies
of the Association were fully engaged. The 2nd Northern General Hospital
at Leeds and the 3rd at Sheffield had treated over 4,000 and 3,000 cases
respectively; twenty-eight Auxiliary Hospitals had been approved, of
which seventeen had been mobilized up to date, the whole of the staffs,
except professional Trained Nurses, being provided free by the Voluntary
Aid Detachments, whose beginnings we read of in the last chapter.
Further, the West Riding Branch of Queen Mary’s Needlework Guild had sent
91,866 articles for the use of the Troops abroad and at home.
And still the war went on. We are to imagine this machine, invented
in an epoch of peace to raise 18,000 men for mobilized service at
home, stretched now to more than twice its capacity and creaking under
unexpected burdens, operated by a shifting personnel of recalled
officers, part-time clerks, and inexperienced, however enthusiastic,
voluntary workers, overwhelmed with Army Forms and Returns and the
necessary business of accountancy, storing trousers by tens of thousands
in a space provided for a quarter of the supply, yet vexed that ‘certain
articles, such as greatcoats, still come in very slowly, and boots,
puttees, and gloves are extremely difficult to get,’ and always overtaken
by the demands of the inexorable German advance, which did not wait upon
decisions by the Army Council. The essential letter was issued by the War
Office, from the Adjutant-General’s branch, on February 24th, 1915. It
was numbered 9/Gen. No./4747, and it directed that the Imperial Service,
first Reserve and second Reserve Units of the Territorial Force should
be designated respectively, 1st, 2nd and 3rd Line. The organization of
the West Riding Territorial Troops was altered, accordingly, to the West
Riding Division, 1st Line; the West Riding Division, 2nd Line; and a 3rd
Line on a Depot basis, with a strength temporarily limited to two-thirds
of War Establishment. The Yorkshire Mounted Brigade was similarly
re-organized. The 3rd Line was eventually to furnish drafts for the 1st
and 2nd Lines, and until it should be in a position to do so the 2nd Line
was to provide drafts for the 1st, which went overseas, April, 1915.
So, we reach along another route the same point to which we followed
certain units through their months of training at home. Many details
have necessarily been omitted: that the Association’s extra expenditure
‘due entirely to the war’ between August 4th, 1914, and April 17th,
1915, amounted to £349,902; that 551 men of the 2nd Line Units responded
to an appeal for volunteers to transfer to the Reserve of the Regular
Battalions of the West Yorkshire, West Riding, K.O. Yorkshire L.I., and
York and Lancaster Regiments; that a Sanitary Section was added as a new
unit to each 1st and 2nd Line; that Territorial Depots were henceforth
to be known as Administrative Centres, and to be manned by Home Service
members of the Territorial Force[24]; that up to March 31st, 1915, nearly
2,000 patients had been admitted to the Auxiliary Hospitals in the West
Riding; and so on, and so forth. For the local machine had many wheels,
and every wheel was kept moving all the time. It revolved as smoothly as
it might, but the motive force was not in York, nor in London, but, in
the German Headquarters on the Western Front, and in the hate, which,
reversing Dante’s cosmogony, seemed, through those fateful months, ‘to
move the sun and other stars.’
Only one more change need be recorded before we follow General Baldock
abroad. In May, 1915, his Division was re-entitled the 49th (West Riding)
Division. At the same time its Infantry Brigades (the 1/1st, 1/2nd
and 1/3rd) were re-named the 146th, 147th and 148th Infantry Brigades
respectively.[25] A few months later, the 2nd Line Division, which was
still in training at home, and to some features in whose early history
we shall come back, was re-entitled the 62nd (West Riding) Division.[26]
Under these names they won renown in the Great War.
BOOK II
WAR
CHAPTER IV
‘MALBROUCK S’EN VA-T’EN GUERRE’
Once more the point of view changes. We have seen the 49th Division
nursed by its ministering Association into the semblance of a military
force. We have noted its cheerful submission to the discipline of drill
and camp, and its fine-strung spirit of renouncement when the vague
thought of active service at a remote date broke on the urgent call
of the country’s immediate need. Either aspect has been encouraging.
Whether viewed individually or in the mass, this Territorial Division,
one of many, which took the Imperial Service obligation and joined the
Expeditionary Force in the spring of 1915, fills the spectator of so much
courage and the narrator of so much effort with high hope for the Force
as a whole.
Henceforth, we are to see the Division under a new aspect. Certain
units from the West Riding were already in the field. We have visited a
Casualty Clearing Station near Merville, and presently we shall come to
the fine record of the 1st Field Company, West Riding Royal Engineers,
which served in Gallipoli with the ‘incomparable’ 29th Division. But,
except for these isolated units, the war so far had passed it by. In
its organic, military capacity, it had merely guessed at the course of
the war from signs and tokens vouchsafed by the Army Council, from the
duplication and triplication of its units, from the extreme difficulties
of equipment, and from a general sense of haste without method. From this
time forward, for four years and more, it was to learn warfare at first
hand. It was to forget its separate existence as the sheltered nursling
of a County Association, and to become a part, however small a part, of
the British Expeditionary Force.
The B.E.F., France, at this date (April, 1915), needed all the
reinforcements it could muster, and Sir John French[27] had already borne
witness in his Fifth Despatch (February 2nd, 1915), to his hopes from the
Territorial Force:
‘The Lords Lieutenant of the Counties and the Associations
which worked under them bestowed a vast amount of labour and
energy on the organization of the Territorial Force; and I
trust it may be some recompense to them to know that I, and
the principal Commanders serving under me, consider that the
Territorial Force has far more than justified the most sanguine
hopes that any of us ventured to entertain of their value and
use in the field. Army Corps Commanders are loud in their
praise of the Territorial Battalions which form part of nearly
all the brigades at the front in the first line.’
And he had written again, as recently as April 5th:
‘Up till lately, the troops of the Territorial Forces in this
country were only employed by Battalions, but for some weeks
past I have seen formed Divisions working together, and I have
every hope that their employment in the larger units will prove
as successful as in the smaller.’
Territorial soldiers had made good, and Major-General Baldock, Commanding
the Division, as a complete unit from the West Riding, found his
confident welcome assured.
He arrived at a critical time. It was the spring of 1915. At home, public
opinion was to be convinced of the thoroughness of German methods by the
sinking of the ‘Lusitania’ on May 7th. A reconstruction of the Cabinet by
Coalition was announced on May 19th, and a Ministry of Munitions, with
Mr. Lloyd George at its head, took shape on June 16th. This innovation
was due to several causes, the ultimate origin of which is to be sought
at a date a long way back from the outbreak of war. Accordingly, we may
be absolved from any attempt to adjudicate between a Prime Minister, a
Field Marshal, and a Secretary of State for War, as to the responsibility
for the shortage of munitions which was revealed after war broke out.
They did fall short of requirements, and high explosive shells had been
postponed to shrapnel; and, as far as public opinion could judge, the
decision to repair these deficiencies (the political decision, that is to
say) was expedited to some extent by the immediate effect of one sentence
in a speech by Mr. Asquith, at Newcastle-on-Tyne, on April 20th. He was
speaking, as he has since stated, to British workmen, with the object
of speeding-up their output, but not without a proper regard to the
cocked ears of the German Military Command; and, partly in reliance on
the expert information which he had sought, he said in the course of his
speech:
‘I saw a statement the other day that the operations, not only
of our own Army, but of our Allies, were being crippled, or
at any rate hampered, by our failure to provide the necessary
ammunition. There is no truth in that statement.’
The assurance seemed to contradict the experience of gunners at the
front. In his Seventh Despatch of June 15th, 1915, Sir John French
affirmed quite clearly that,
‘Throughout the whole period since the first break of the line
on the night of April 22nd, all the troops in this area had
been constantly subjected to violent artillery bombardment from
a large mass of guns with an unlimited supply of ammunition.
It proved impossible, whilst under so vastly superior a fire
of artillery, to dig efficient trenches, or properly to
re-organize the line.’
Indeed, on the very night when Mr. Asquith was speaking at Newcastle,
a Territorial Force Officer (2/Lieutenant Geoffrey Woolley, of the 9th
London Regiment) was earning his Victoria Cross for defending a position
on Hill 60 against overwhelming enemy cannonade.
Hill 60, which was not a hill at all, but merely a hummock of railway
earthwork, was in any case not visible from the Tyne, but the general
disquietude at home at the time of the formation of the Coalition
Cabinet reflected accurately enough the conditions which marked the
place and time of General Baldock’s arrival in France, with which we are
immediately concerned. One word more will complete this impression:
‘I much regret,’ wrote Sir John French in the same Despatch,
‘that during the period under report the fighting has been
characterized on the enemy’s side by a cynical and barbarous
disregard of the well-known usages of civilized war and a
flagrant defiance of the Hague Convention. All the scientific
resources of Germany have, apparently, been brought into play
to produce a gas of so virulent and poisonous a nature that any
human being brought into contact with it is first paralysed and
then meets with a lingering and agonizing death.’
The first such gas attack was launched at Ypres, on Thursday, April 22nd.
On the previous Thursday night (the 15th), we left a West Yorkshire
Battalion spending its first night in France at a Rest Camp, near
Boulogne.
So the 49th went to the war on the eve of the Second Battle of Ypres, at
a time of an outrage of gas and a shortage of shells.
They went in eighty-four trains and on five days between April 12th and
16th, embarking at Southampton Docks, Avonmouth and Folkestone for Havre,
Rouen and Boulogne respectively, and they joined the 4th Corps of the 1st
Army, commanded by Lieut.-General Sir Henry Rawlinson. Corps Headquarters
were posted at Merville, and there the Divisional Commander reported with
five of his Staff Officers, and established, as we saw[28], Divisional
Headquarters in the mayor’s house, 40 rue des Capucines. On April 18th,
the following message was received from His Majesty the King:
‘I much regret not to have been able to inspect the Division
under your Command before its departure to the Front. Please
convey to all ranks my best wishes for success, and tell them
that I shall follow with pride the progress of the West Riding
Division.’
A loyal reply was dispatched by General Baldock, and on the same day
parties of Officers and N.C.O.’s, followed on the 19th by complete
platoons, from the Battalions of the 2nd and 3rd West Riding (147th and
148th) Infantry Brigades were attached to units of the 23rd and 25th
Brigades, 8th Division, for instructional duty in the trenches. On the
22nd, the 1st (146th) Brigade moved from Merville to Estaires, and was
attached to the 7th Division, and placed under their orders. Sir Douglas
Haig visited units of the Division on the following day. Divisional
Headquarters were moved on the 27th to two houses and a farm in Bac St.
Maur, and at 6 a.m. on the 28th, the Division took over a front of its
own at Fleurbaix, covering sections 3, 4, 5 and 6 of the IV Corps sector.
We may fill in a few details in this outline. After all, it was a
wonderful fortnight in the experience of the men from the West Riding.
A war on the Western front had been waged for more than eight months,
but it was all strange to new arrivals. Take, for instance, the 1/6th
Battalion of the West Riding (Duke of Wellington’s) Regiment, which slept
at S. Martin’s Rest Camp, about three miles out of Boulogne, on the night
of April 14th. The next day, which was fine and warm, they marched nine
miles to Hesdigneul, and waited two hours at the railway station before
entraining for Merville. The entraining of a thousand and fifteen men
presented no difficulty to troops which had long since become expert in
such drill. It was carried out in batches of eight-and-forty, with a
frontage of six men, eight deep. At a given signal three men entered the
truck; the centre man took the rifles of the rest, whom the two flank
men helped in. Merville was reached at 10-45 p.m. and the Battalion,
preceded by its Billeting party in a motor-car, marched four miles to
their billets at Neuf Berquin, turning in after 3 a.m.: a long and tiring
day’s work. The 16th and 17th were spent quietly. On the 18th there was
Church Parade, and in the afternoon motor-’buses were provided for a
party of fifty officers and N.C.O.’s to proceed to Fleurbaix, where they
were attached to the 13th Kensingtons for twenty-four hours’ instruction
in the trenches. Even instruction had its perils, and this trench-party
returned one casualty; Sgt. T. Richardson, ‘slightly wounded.’ On the
20th, the motor-’bus came again for a party of twenty-six in all,
and next day a platoon from each Company in the Battalion studied
trench-warfare as pupils of the 25th Brigade. This instruction, which
included bomb-throwing, was continued till April 26th, when the Battalion
paraded at 4-45 p.m. and marched to new billets at Fleurbaix, reaching
Rue de Quesne at 8 o’clock. The next night at 11 p.m. Pte. J. Walsh was
killed by rifle fire, and on Thursday, April 29th, Fleurbaix was shelled
by heavy guns, which found the billets occupied by this Battalion. A
single shell killed two privates and wounded a third: ‘the dead were
buried where the shell fell, owing to Pte. Pickles being so mutilated. No
service: Chaplain not available.’
This unhouselled grave may be taken as the initiation of the Division
into war, rumours of which, set flying in the Second Battle of Ypres,
reached units of the Division in their billets.[29] Their turn was to
come a little later, but the fighting throughout April and May was so
much of one piece and with one object that we may start, as the battle
started, on April 17th.
[Illustration]
A straight line, 260 miles long, drawn from a point on the Rhine midway
between Cologne and Bonn, and terminating at the French coast about six
miles north of Boulogne, will pass through Brussels and Ypres. That
heroic town, in other words, the ‘great nerve-ganglion,’ as it has been
called,[30] was not merely the symbol and shrine of Belgium’s resistance
to the invader; it was also a necessary stage in the German attempt at
the Channel ports. They battered the line up and down, in the hope of
breaking a way through, but their worst and heaviest blows were levelled
at Ypres itself, which they wrecked but they did not capture. The second
of these desperate assaults opened as we saw, at Hill 60, two and a
half miles to the south-east of Ypres, where it flared into the horror
of poison-gas on April 22nd. A week of heroism and endurance brought
this episode to a close by the withdrawal of the defence to a depth of
about two miles on a semi-circular front of nearly eight. An intensified
fierceness of attack marked the renewal of the battle in May. The hottest
days were the 13th and 24th, between which there was a kind of lull; and
thereafter the centre of fighting sagged away a few miles to the south,
where the 49th Division was in waiting. The assault on Ypres had failed.
Exhaustion-point had been reached on either side, but the defenders
had paid an awful price. Their casualties numbered tens of thousands,
and thousands had died in choking agony. The salient or semi-circle of
troops, Belgian, French, Indian, Canadian and English, which had never
stretched more than five miles out from its diameter on the Yser Canal,
was flattened in even at the furthest to as little as two or three.
Langemarck, the pivot of the first episode, which had lain on the rim of
the salient, now lay more than two miles outside it; Bellewaarde Lake,
the pivot of the second, which had lain two miles inside the rim, was now
on the edge of it or without. If the last stronghold of Belgium was to be
saved, and the gate to the Channel ports kept locked, at least an equal
power of resistance was required from the defenders in the next phase.
[Illustration]
Moreover, we must look at a bigger map. Behind the actual fighting line
lay Lille and Douai, railway-junctions of cardinal importance for the
communication and supplies of the German armies. To strike at these towns
through Lens, at the south-west corner of the triangle of which Lille
formed the apex and Douai the heel, was an object desirable on its own
account and full of promise for the succour of Ypres. If these plans,
concerted with high hopes between General Foch and Sir John French,
succeeded in threatening the railway-system behind, they were bound to
react unfavourably on the German occupation of Belgium. And even if these
larger plans failed, partly in consequence of the indentation of the
semi-circle of troops guarding Ypres, there might still be a sufficient
gain of ground and a sufficient slaughter of the enemy to affect his
distribution of forces between the Western and the Eastern fronts. For
the situation in Russia was already causing anxiety to her Allies.
Hostilities were opened on May 9th by an intense attack of French
artillery to the south-west of Lens on the road from Arras to Béthune,
between La Targette and Carency. ‘That bombardment,’ says a graphic
writer,[31] ‘was the most wonderful yet seen in Western Europe. It
simply ate up the countryside for miles.’ Unfortunately, the mileage
was not wide enough to open the way to Lens, and day by day the French
advance was held up, pressed forward and held again, in a series of
almost Homeric combats, which were measured by yards, even by feet, and
in which the conspicuous names were White Works, Notre Dame de Lorette,
Ablain, the Sugar Refinery, Souchez, the cemetery at Neuville St. Vaast,
and a terrible labyrinth of underground fortifications. The whole area,
working up from the River Scarpe, was on a frontage of about seven miles,
with Lens about six miles to the north-east. Each obstacle had to be
surmounted not once only, but in many instances several times, and when,
at the end of May, the German salient from the Lille-Douai road was
flattened back at its southern extremity to the outskirts of Lens, which
did not fall, the French success in the three weeks’ fighting seemed
hardly commensurate with the cost. We shall be in a position to estimate
it more precisely when we have taken into account the results which were
attained further north.
[Illustration]
The French advance towards Lens from the south-west was supported by
a British attack on a front facing east-south-east and aimed through
Festubert and Aubers towards La Bassée and Lille. We noted just now the
triangle which is formed with Lille at the apex, Douai at the eastern
and Lens at the western foot. On the Lille-Lens line of that triangle,
another and smaller triangle will be found, of which La Bassée forms
the westernmost angle. The French, we are aware, came up on a front
converging on Lens from Arras and the valley of the Scarpe. The British
advanced from the north-west with a view to investing La Bassée, and
if Lens and La Bassée had both fallen, as the issue of these heroic
endeavours, the double triangle, or kite, would have been rolled up to
its apex at Lille.
The British assault, like the French, opened on Sunday, May 9th. The
task of the IV Corps in the battle was assigned to the 7th and 8th
Divisions, while the 49th Division took over the greater part of the
trench-line held by the Corps. Their first object was to gain Fromelles,
but their main and ultimate objective was the Aubers Ridge. The general
scope of the attack was disclosed confidentially to the troops about
to be engaged. It was ‘not a local effort for the capture merely of
Fromelles and Aubers villages,’ but was ‘part of a much larger operation
designed to break the enemy’s line on a wide front.’ The importance of
the forces employed was also emphasized. ‘Not only is the offensive being
undertaken by the First Army’, we read, but a force of ‘the best French
troops, amounting to 300,000 or 400,000 men, is likewise advancing to the
attack north of Arras.’ The disposition of the British troops made their
objective quite clear. They faced the Lille-La Bassée road, curving round
La Bassée at the extreme right. Their line was extended on the left to
cover about half the road to Lille. The furthest point of that line from
Le Bridoux to Cordonnerie Farm was held by the 49th (West Riding[32])
Division, and two of its Infantry Brigades, the 147th and 148th, were
detailed to occupy the German trenches which the 8th Division, followed
by the 7th, and thus supported by the 49th, was to compel the enemy to
vacate[33]. Unfortunately, the whole plan miscarried. The first artillery
attack could not be sustained in sufficient strength to wipe out the
barbed-wire entanglements and free the way for the Infantry. It followed
that the 8th Division could not press its heroic advance home, and the
West Riding Infantry Brigades were never called upon to discharge their
allotted task. The first day’s programme was thrown out from the start.
Its features on the British front bore a tragic and curious resemblance
to those of the later days further south, when the advantage won by
the French bombardment had been neutralized by German local fire. The
advance was broken, that is to say, into little pockets and blood-spots
of fighting, which sank into the soil where they occurred. If the courage
displayed in these encounters had been combined for the united effort
which was intended, no troops born of woman could have withstood it. The
record of every fighting unit tells the same tale of desperate valour;
of a few exhausted and staggering survivors hardly able to remember
their own exploits, of endurance strained to the limit of capacity, and
of unwilling admiration extorted even from a grudging foe. But the net
result on May 9th was failure; it was necessary to retire and to repair,
and the part of the West Riding units, to their own deep disappointment,
was confined to occasional supporting fire, to relief-duty in the
trenches, marked by little more than its normal dangers, and, on the
whole, to a comparatively quiet day.
This battle of Fromelles, or of Aubers Ridge, which had the indirect
success of engaging sufficient German forces to assist the French advance
to Carency, was renewed a week later at Festubert, and was not broken off
till May 26th. ‘I had now reason,’ wrote Sir John French in his Seventh
Dispatch, ‘to consider that the battle, which was commenced by the First
Army on the 9th May and renewed on the 16th, having attained for the
moment the immediate object I had in view, should not be further actively
proceeded with; and I gave orders to Sir Douglas Haig to curtail his
artillery attack and to strengthen and consolidate the ground he had won
... on a front of four miles to an average depth of 600 yards.’ We may
add that, if Lille was not taken, Ypres, too, with its narrower front,
still stood with its back to the wall; and behind that wall lay the
Channel ports. Moreover, the southern approach had been partially blocked
by the reduction of the German salient from Lens, and the fighting
quality of our troops was such as to deter the enemy from attempting a
break-through on one line without adequate resources on the rest. In
other words, a see-saw movement was the chief obvious conclusion from the
six weeks’ spurts of battle-fury to the east and south-east of Ypres. A
new direct frontal attack would mean a new risk to Lens and on to Lille;
a new attempt to throw out the Lens salient would mean a protrusion of
the British salient from the Yser Canal. The third or middle course was
to accept stalemate; and to the limited but useful extent of forcing this
decision on the enemy, the heroes of the Second Battle of Ypres, of the
French pocket-battles in the Artois, and of the British struggles round
Aubers and Festubert are entitled to the full measure of their renown.
Moreover, taking a wider survey, the stalemate suited the combatants
on other accounts besides exhaustion. Germany was waging war on two
fronts. Having pushed her western pieces into positions, in which, save
for minor attacks, they might be left undisturbed for a time, she was
anxious to concentrate on the east. England, too, had another foe, whom
it might be too late to overtake unless she set about the work at once.
It became known as shortage of shells, and Mr. Lloyd George, as we saw,
was appointed in June to devise rapid measures for its defeat.
[Illustration]
Turning back to the 49th Division, we note that on May 16th it
occupied, again with the 8th Division, the extreme left of the British
line. On the 22nd, orders were received for the 148th Brigade (the 4th
and 5th King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry and the 4th and 5th York
and Lancasters) to throw forward the line to two ruined houses on the
Bois Grenier-Le Bridoux road. (A panorama sketch of the site is given
opposite). This meant the laying-out and preparation of a new front-line
trench astride the road, and the necessary tools, sandbags, stakes,
barbed-wire, and other paraphernalia were collected during the day of
the 22nd and the early part of that night. Work was started about 11
p.m., when two Companies of the K.O.Y.L.I. under Major P. T. Chadwick
and Captain Critchley, traced out and began digging the new trench. The
two ruined houses, situated about half way between the British and the
German lines, were found to be occupied by the enemy, who brought heavy
rifle fire into play and considerably worried the working parties. In
this encounter, Lieut. R. T. S. Gwynne was wounded, and died the next
day. On the 23rd the same Companies went out again in order to strengthen
the work commenced on the previous night. Heavy fire was drawn from the
ruined buildings, but the enemy was forced to retire. Work was continued
till daylight with satisfactory results, the cover being much improved
and the communication-trench up to the new line being practically
completed. By this means, certain operations which had been ordered by
the Corps Commander on May 20th were enabled to be carried out. On the
24th these were opened by a bombardment from the ninety-six guns in the
line at short intervals between 8 and 9 p.m. At 8-50 two Companies of
the same 4th K.O.Y.L.I., under Captain A. C. Chadwick and Captain L.
M. Taylor crossed the parapet of No. 6 trench and advanced up to the
new trench prepared on the preceding nights: a journey of about seventy
yards. The German machine-gun and rifle fire was exactly one second too
late to find this party. The Companies quickly took position, and dug
themselves in, and the ruined houses were put in a state of defence by
a section working under Captain Creswick. Next morning, two Companies
from the 5th K.O.Y.L.I. relieved their comrades of the 4th, and continued
operations. From the 26th of May onwards for some days the Germans left
them no peace, and a number of casualties ensued. But the operation had
been carried out, and Sir Henry Rawlinson, Commanding the IVth Army
Corps, desired that his high appreciation should be conveyed to the
officers and other ranks of the 4th King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
for the ‘gallantry and precision’ which had been displayed.
Further compliments followed. On June 12th, a message was received from
the Adjutant-General at General Headquarters:
‘The Commander-in-Chief notices with gratification the record
of the 49th (West Riding) Division for the month of May, which
shows that no single conviction by Court-Martial has occurred,
a condition which does not obtain in any other Division of the
Armies. He desires that his appreciation of this fact be duly
conveyed to the 49th Division.’
And Major-General Baldock, commanding the Division, was informed by the
General Officer Commanding the First Army, to which the Division had been
transferred at the end of May:
‘Sir Douglas Haig wishes to add an expression of his great
satisfaction at the state of discipline in the 49th (W.R.)
Division, and also desires to congratulate the Division on its
soldier-like bearing and efficiency.’
A month later, the Division was re-transferred from the First Army,
Indian Corps, to the Second Army, VIth Corps, commanded by Major-General
Sir John Keir, when it moved to Proven, north-west of Poperinghe, and the
surrounding villages in Belgium. The weather after May 23rd had become
very hot, and there was one case of sun-stroke in the trenches.
We shall return to the fortunes of the Division in the alternating
periods of trench-life and billets which succeeded the intenser fighting
of May. The whole Western front settled down to what seems like a phase
of inactivity, but what was really a broken succession of diverse
minor experiences, the monotony of which, like the sea’s, was always
movement, more apparent at close quarters than afar. Meanwhile, it will
be appropriate to pick up the record of that isolated unit of West Riding
Divisional Engineers, which, as we mentioned above, preceded the Division
overseas. They, too, reached the scene of war in April, 1915. They fought
in a different field, and were even more heavily engaged, but they earned
by conspicuous gallantry not less honour than their comrades in France.
This unit, the 1/1st Field Company of West Riding Royal Engineers, under
the command of Major Dodworth, formed one of three Companies which served
under Lt.-Col. G. B. Hingston, C.R.E., in the 29th Division. Their
original destination was France, but in February, 1915, it was decided to
ship the Division with all possible speed to the Dardanelles, and, had
this decision been carried out, the fate of British arms in the Peninsula
might have been brought to a different conclusion. As a fact, owing to
causes which have been made public, its departure was postponed till
March, and, after a troublesome delay at Alexandria, the Field Company,
with a strength of 6 officers, 201 other ranks, 62 horses and mules, and
12 vehicles, reached Tenedos on April 24th. At midnight on the same day
they were selected, much to their delight, to sail with the covering
force on the ‘River Clyde’ to the South Point of the Peninsula, and
there, below Sedd-el-Bahr, the modern model of the Trojan wooden horse
was beached at 7 a.m. on April 25th.
The events of that day of death and glory have been sung, and painted,
and told, and require but brief reference here. ‘No army in history,’
says the poet who wrote a prose-epic called _Gallipoli_[34], ‘has been
set such a task. No other troops in the world would have made good those
beaches,’ and it is heartening to recall that troops from the West Riding
of Yorkshire were included in this unique band.
[Illustration: “MODERN MODEL OF TROJAN WOODEN HORSE.”]
For five months, from April till September, our Field Company of
Royal Engineers remained on the Gallipoli Peninsula. The roads, the
water-supply, the trenches, the night-wiring, the bridges, the jetties:
every kind of engineering job came their way. They even manufactured
hand-grenades, and gave practical lessons in the use of them, and they
took their bellyful of fighting and of experience of Turkish shells.
In June, for example, two of their sappers, A. Jennett and G. Packard,
were awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for their gallant rescue
of Captain Todd, of the Argyll Mountain Battery, who was lying with
a leg blown off under heavy fire on the other side of a barbed-wire
entanglement; and the same decoration was bestowed on Lance-Corporal
W. B. Owen, who snatched another wounded Officer out of a trench in
actual enemy occupation, and carried him to a dressing-station two
miles off, for the most part under fire. On September 22nd came a
welcome fortnight’s rest. They were back again early in October, and
had a terrible spell of work after the great gale of November 26th,
which helped to confirm the decision for evacuation. For the end of the
adventure was approaching, and our Engineers remained till the end. After
helping to clear Suvla and Anzac, they moved in January, 1916, to Helles,
where they cut steps down the cliff to W. Beach. Thence they sailed at
last in two parties reaching Suez, January 16th.
The rest of their story belongs to the Division in which they became
absorbed. But the praise of their famous work in Gallipoli, to which
they went straight from home, redounds to the credit of the West Riding,
and may be added to the praises which we have quoted from Sir Henry
Rawlinson, Sir Douglas Haig and Sir John French:
‘The 1/1st West Riding Field Company Royal Engineers, which
forms part of the “incomparable” 29th Division,’ wrote
Lieut.-General Sir Aylmer Hunter-Weston, Commanding that
Division, ‘did grand service on the Gallipoli Peninsula....
Engineers have always the post of honour in war, having to
make entanglements, to mine, to sap and to carry out many
dangerous jobs in the very forefront of the fray. Of all this
work the 1/1st West Riding Field Company Royal Engineers had
its full and more than its full share, and right well did all
ranks rise to the occasion.... The casualties among them have
been heavy ... but the results achieved by them have more
than counterbalanced the loss incurred. They have covered
themselves, their Unit, and the rest of the West Riding
Divisional Royal Engineers with glory.’
This passage occurs in a letter written by Sir Aylmer Hunter-Weston on
September 9th, 1915, and published with the next Quarterly Report of the
West Riding County Association. In that Report, Lord Scarbrough included
an account of a visit paid to Flanders by himself, as Chairman of the
Association, and by Brig.-General Mends, the Secretary. Their ‘object
was to ascertain in what ways the Association might best provide for
the needs and comfort of the troops, and to study the conditions under
which they have to work’; and it will not be out of place to examine Lord
Scarbrough’s conclusions in those respects in anticipation of what we
shall find in the ensuing chapter.
He recalled to the memory of local patriots that the 49th Division was
composed of Field and Heavy Artillery raised from Leeds, Bradford,
Sheffield, Otley and York; of Engineers from Sheffield; of three Infantry
Brigades from the West Yorkshire, West Riding, Yorkshire Light Infantry,
and York and Lancaster Regimental Districts; of Army Service Corps from
Leeds and York; and Field Ambulances from Leeds and Sheffield. They had
left for France in April, and had been ‘continuously in the fighting line
ever since.’ It would stimulate local patriotism to know that a Staff
Officer wrote of the Division:
‘I am very proud to have been connected with it. They are a
real good lot, and I don’t think there is a better Division in
the country.’
To the ‘amenities of war,’ as likewise to the ‘other side of the
picture’, we shall presently come back: such facts may be recovered from
written evidence; but what Lord Scarbrough and General Mends saw in the
‘smiling faces’, the ‘spirit of cheerfulness’ and the ‘sense of mastery
over the enemy,’ is contained in no formal War Diary, and is the more
valuable and vivid on that account. It brought comfort and encouragement
to the West Riding in the dark days of the autumn of 1915; not merely to
members of the Association, struggling, as we know, against the flood,
but also to many wives and mothers, realizing that, ‘in a campaign like
this,’ as the Report stated, ‘casualties come fast,’ and, lastly, to
the various committees, Parliamentary Recruiting, Trades Union, and
so on, which based their appeal for fresh efforts, in the last stages
of voluntary enlistment, on the valorous record of the ‘boys’ who had
already gone to the front. Alike in Flanders and in Gallipoli, that
record was worthy of the West Riding.
CHAPTER V
THE DAY’S WORK
During January, 1916, the 49th Division was ‘in rest’: the first period
of complete rest which the Division as a whole had enjoyed since the
previous April, when it first entered the field.
Even before this complete rest the Division could look back on some
months of comparative military inactivity. It had not been called upon to
take part in the severe fighting at Loos in September, 1915; and no other
big operations, on the scale of the warfare in May and June, had occurred
since the Battle of Festubert. Yet there had been fighting every day.
Every day of the intervening weeks and months between the close of the
spring campaign and the order to rest in January had brought difficulties
and dangers here and there, up and down the line of trenches in the
neighbourhood of Ypres and the Canal, in which the 49th was engaged, and
which it was essential to maintain as a barrier between the invader and
the sea.
It is not easy to write the history of those days, when the Division
was neither ‘in rest’ nor in action. We might review them in numerical
sequence, long day after long day, when according to the Battalion
chroniclers, ‘nothing of importance happened,’ or one unit relieved
another, or there was an inspection by the Corps or Army Commander,
or there was a ‘bombardment of the whole line, varying in severity
throughout the day and night.’ These entries, and entries like these
recur again and again in the Diary of every unit in the Division. Or,
again, when autumn arrived, the weather compelled attention. ‘Rained.
Trenches very bad; practically no work could be done. Heavy bombardment
all day from 4 a.m.,’ is a typical entry in October; and we are left to
read between the lines the accumulated miseries of that day’s work, in
which the worst hardship of all was that ‘practically no work could be
done,’ in evil trenches sodden with rain and shaken by continuous fire.
Minor miseries, perhaps, and less epical in retrospect than the Homeric
combats of the spring, or the campaign on the Gallipoli peninsula; yet
real and serious enough in their hourly call on a man’s endurance to
warrant an attempt at narration.
We are told, for instance, that Sir Herbert Plumer was pleased if the
Second Army casualties did not exceed two hundred a day in ordinary
trench work, and a division of this figure into the Army total will
yield a quotient from which we may deduce the average chance of danger
in a quiet time. Or we may observe that the British first line trenches
were distant from the line of German trenches by about 80 to 150 yards,
but that where the line bent back on the north to the bank of the Yser
Canal the distance from the German line was only 30 yards, with a very
nasty corner at the bend. We may note, too, the lack of rest at night:
the constant flare of Very Lights across the trenches, and the incessant
contest of wit (and luck) between the men repairing trenches or bringing
up rations or ammunition and the snipers watching their opportunity.
[Illustration]
Certain days at any rate may be selected for somewhat more detailed
description, not because they differed essentially from the days that
went before and that came after, but because, in the cycle of days, as in
a cycle of numbers at a gaming-table, they are marked with adventitious
interest.
Take, for instance, July 29th (we are writing of 1915 throughout) in
the story of the 7th Battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment. They
were in dug-outs on the Canal, having completed a turn in the trenches
just before midnight on the 25th. On the 26th, 27th and 28th, nothing
of importance happened. On the 29th from half-past eight till noon,
there was a heavy shelling of the dam at the rate of two shells every
five minutes; this rate was reduced by a half from noon till an hour
after midnight, when the shelling ceased. The dam was untouched, but the
adjoining bridge was damaged in three places. One officer was killed and
ten men were wounded. Even so, the story is not exceptional, despite
the 230 odd shells falling in sixteen hours. But there is a sequel to
the story, which is told in the following words: The Military Cross was
awarded to 2nd Lieut. A. R. Glazebrook ‘for conspicuous and gallant
conduct, on the 29th July, in helping to dig out, at great personal risk,
an officer and ten men whose dug-outs had been blown in, thus saving nine
lives,’ and Riflemen J. Bentley and H. Garrity received the Distinguished
Conduct Medal ‘for working with Lieut. Glazebrook.’
Take July 16th. On the 15th the Germans had shelled the Canal bank, and
had fired three salvoes of shells into Divisional Headquarters at the
Château des Trois Tours. Advanced Headquarters remained there, including
the G.O.C. himself, the General Staff Officers, 1st and 2nd Grade, the
Brigade Major of the Royal Artillery, and the Signal Company. The rest
moved back to St. Sixte. On the 16th, at 4-30 p.m., the grounds of the
Château were shelled again, and the grave difference between this day
and that, otherwise so alike in experience, was the inclusion of the
General’s name in the casualty list. He was just crossing a bridge which
connected the Château with the mainland when he heard the shell coming,
and, though he doubled back to cover, he did not reach it in time, and
suffered a severe wound in the head. It was the only casualty at the
time, though the house was riddled with shrapnel, and as soon as the
shelling had ceased, the gallant Officer was taken to Poperinghe, where
Sir Thomas Bowlby attended him. Advanced Headquarters were withdrawn to
Hospital Farm. The retirement was completed on July 18th, on which day
the grounds of the Château were once more heavily shelled soon after the
General Staff had left.
The loss of Major-General Baldock’s services was deeply regretted by
the Division, which he had commanded since September, 1911. He had
accompanied it from peace to war and commanded with conspicuous success
during the heavy fighting of May and June, and ‘the whole Division loved
him’, it has been written. Happily, he recovered from his wound, though
he was not able to resume command, and on July 17th, 1915, Major-General
E. M. Perceval[35], C.B., was appointed in his place.
Take the events of July 15th, in the new line of trenches occupied by
the 146th Infantry Brigade. The 8th Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment,
had relieved the 7th at midnight on the 13th, and came in for some
desultory shelling the next day. On the 15th, the usual patrol went on
tour in front of the trenches. It was composed of Lieut. E. F. Wilkinson,
and two Riflemen, Mudd and Clough. By bad luck, Mudd was shot through
the chest, and his cries of pain attracted the German fire. It was a
very ordinary little scene, but it is appropriate to imagine the sudden
call on two lonely men’s courage and resourcefulness. They carried the
wounded man back from in front of the German parapet under the heavy
fire, and were pulled up by their own barbed-wire mesh. Clough went in
to find cutters, and Lieut. Wilkinson stayed out with Mudd. The tool was
brought, the wire was cut, and the patrol came back with two candidates
for decoration. Lieutenant Wilkinson was awarded the Military Cross
and Rifleman Clough the Distinguished Conduct Medal for their cool and
gallant action in this exploit. Next day, as war’s tricky fortune had it,
Lieut. C. Hartnell, of the same Battalion was killed by a shell in the
front-line trench: the first officer casualty in that unit.
Take a few incidents in the trench life of the 4th and 5th Battalions
of the York and Lancaster Regiment. On July 11th, the 4th relieved the
5th in an advanced trench on the East side of the Yser Canal, where the
German and English lines met at an angle, with the French on the other
side of the Canal, and were separated, as we saw, by a distance of only
30 yards. It was a recent capture from the enemy, and the trenches, we
read, were ‘in an awful state with both English and German dead. No work
could be done on them because of shell fire.’ Again, quite an ordinary
experience, as trench life went in those days, but full of horror to its
participants, and exacting to endure. On July 13th, the day was ‘much
quieter’—plainly a comparative term—till in the evening about half-past
seven a heavy bombardment was opened all along the line, punctuated by
explosions of gas shells, and followed by rapid rifle-fire. There was
just a breath of wind blowing, but not enough to disperse the poisonous
fumes, and for some hours the corner was unhealthy. The total casualties
for the two days were 13 officers wounded, 17 other ranks killed and 55
wounded, and at 10 o’clock next night the 5th Battalion again relieved
the 4th. Meanwhile, Sergt. W. Hutchinson and Ptes. J. W. Biggin and J.
Cowlishaw were awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal,
‘for holding the flank of an advanced trench, which was
partially demolished for 24 hours on the 13th July, in an
isolated position, extricating themselves and the gun after
they had been buried, and keeping the gun in action.’
Eighty-five casualties and three D.C.M.’s for two days’ turn in the
trenches: the period of standstill had its chances.
Take the worse experience of the 5th Battalion on July 10th, when they
first took over these newly captured trenches. All day long the incessant
German batteries poured their hail and thunder on the line, and not a
single quiet hour was given for cleaning, clearing or repairing. The
casualties mounted fast. Twenty-seven men were killed, and the list of
wounded and missing included one Officer and 129 other ranks. Next day
the following telegram was received: ‘Army Commander desires to commend
prompt action of troops 49th Division when attacked last night’; and the
severity of the ordeal may be judged from the records of Lance-Corporals
J. Yates and A. Calvert and of Pte. A. Gwynette, who were all awarded the
D.C.M.: Yates,
‘for attending with great gallantry, on the 10th July, under
heavy fire and in full view of the German lines, to two wounded
men who were cut off from the rest of the Platoon’;
Calvert,
‘for assisting the Platoon Commander in steadying the men and
keeping up their spirits, on the 10th July, when many other
N.C.O.’s had been killed or wounded’;
and Gwynette,
‘for attending to about twenty wounded men on the 10th July,
during the heaviest part of the bombardment, and for keeping up
the spirits of the men by his general bearing and conduct under
heavy fire.’
These, surely, are the tests that tell. In these typical examples,
selected almost at random from the day’s work, we see in the making,
as it were, that ‘sense of mastery over the enemy,’ which the Chairman
and Secretary of the Association had observed on their visit to the
front, and which was ultimately to dictate the terms of the Peace of
Paris. On the East bank of the Yser Canal in the Summer of 1915, in
stinking trenches filled with human wreckage, and exposed to a pitiless
bombardment, the prospect of ‘ease after war’ might well seem too
remote for realization. It might seem, too, an idle thing, and below
the fever-point of warfare, to respond in such dismal surroundings and
with so dull a hope of martial glory to the constant, recurrent calls
on a courage screwed to the sticking-place or a sense of duty as its
own reward. Yet, somehow, in justice to the heroic dead, and to those
who earned as well as to those who received decorations, the perception
must be aroused that the war was won in the last resort by the private
soldier, whether Regular, Territorial or New Army. In our Military
Headquarters calculus he is not _Kanonenfutter_, food for guns: he
is always, potentially, the wearer of a medal for the distinguished
conduct, which he always seizes an opportunity to display; and a period
of comparative inactivity may provide more memorable opportunities of
this kind than the stress and press of a big battle, precisely because
the velocity of effort is measured by the daily round of marching from
billets to trenches or of carrying out a normal patrol.
The word ‘always,’ though a big word, is appropriate, because this
display of distinguished conduct is found to become a man’s second nature
and not to depend on a sudden impulse. Take the records, for example, of
Drummer F. Thickett, of the 4th York and Lancasters, and Lance-Cpl. T.
Best, of the 4th King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. On that night of
the 13th-14th July, when the new trench was so heavily attacked, Thickett
succeeded in wading through the Canal in order to carry a message from
the firing-line to Headquarters, although the bridges had been broken and
the telephone wires had been cut[36]. _He did it again_ on the night of
8th-9th August. Under heavy shell and rifle fire, and when all mechanical
communication had broken down, he crossed the Canal on a single plank,
and took the necessary message to its destination. Best’s record is in
the same kind. On July 20th and _again_ on August 5th, a part of the
trench where he was posted was blown in by enemy fire. On each occasion
he kept his men in hand, and started digging-out and rebuilding at once,
with the utmost pluck and coolness, and without regard to German rifles
and trench-mortars. Best and Thickett were both awarded the D.C.M., which
it will be agreed that they thoroughly deserved; and we see in this habit
of duty, acquired in daily experience and when no big forward movement
set the pace, the ultimate secret of the success of British arms.
One more sample from these records may be selected.
On November 15th, the 6th Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment, relieved
the 8th Battalion in a line of trenches about two miles north-north-east
of Ypres. The weather was frosty, and the evil condition of the trenches
was not improved by the fall of about a hundred ‘whiz-bangs’[37] and
thirty ‘heavies’ between 9-0 a.m. and 3-30 p.m. on the 16th. On the
17th, the shelling continued, with a regular reply by our Howitzers, and
there was the ‘usual sniping’. On the 18th, as on the 17th. On the 19th,
the chronicler says: ‘One of our Companies heavily shelled by enemy,
six being killed and seven wounded.... Battalion relieved by 1/5th West
Yorks. Regt., and went into Divisional Reserve near Poperinghe.’ So far,
the day’s work was not exceptional, but there was to be a notable sequel
to the day’s story. ‘For most conspicuous bravery near the Yser Canal,
on November 19th, 1915,’ the supreme decoration of the Victoria Cross
was awarded to Corporal Samuel Meekosha, of the 6th Battalion, in the
following circumstances:
‘He was with a Platoon of about twenty Non-commissioned
Officers and men who were holding an isolated trench. During
a very heavy bombardment by the enemy six of the Platoon were
killed and seven wounded, while all the remainder were more or
less buried. When the senior N.C.O.’s had been either killed
or wounded, Cpl. Meekosha at once took command, sent a runner
for assistance, and, in spite of no less than ten more big
shells falling within twenty yards of him, continued to dig
out the wounded and buried men in full view of the enemy and
at close range from the German trenches. By his promptness and
magnificent courage and determination he saved at least four
lives’.
It was the first V.C. in the 49th Division, and Captain Meekosha, who
rose to Commissioned rank, reflected credit on the Riding which had
raised it.
Three hundred and seventy-six Honours in all, including 178 Mentions in
Despatches, fell to the share of the Division during its first year’s
service in the field. Of these, the Victoria Cross, 16 Military Crosses
and 71 Distinguished Conduct Medals were Immediate Awards for specific
acts of gallantry. A few of those gallant acts have been brought back
to memory here, not because they differed in kind from others for which
awards were made (or, indeed, from many others for which, from lack of
evidence or other causes, no recommendation was forthcoming), but rather
to illustrate a catalogue which might prove wearisome _in extenso_. Thus
on one day, December 19th, as many as ten M.C.’s and twenty-nine D.C.M.’s
were won by Officers and Other Ranks, as the reward of valorous deeds
on the occasion of a sudden gas-attack, which opened at 5-15 a.m. and
continued for forty or fifty minutes. The fumes, reaching the support
trenches, found many men still asleep, and these were gassed before they
could be roused. The gas-attack preceded intense shelling, which went
on, with a slacker daylight interval, until three o’clock the following
morning. ‘It was the most awful yet magnificent sight that I have ever
seen,’ writes a R.F.A. Officer: ‘The whole country shaking with the
explosion of shells, mostly big; and a church near my Headquarters
was hit with a 17-in. shell and blown to bits. The sky was one great
glow like a vast electric light, and the atmosphere was laden with a
choking and sickly heaviness. Our men are splendid,’ he added. The total
casualties of the day mounted up to:
OFFICERS. OTHER RANKS.
Killed 4[38] 46
Wounded 2 106
Gassed 8 191
-- ---
14 343
-- ---
The decorations were presented by General Sir Herbert Plumer, Commanding
the Second Army, on the following January 23rd; and a week later the same
Army Commander once more paraded the Division, in order to present awards
for good service brought to notice in Dispatches. On the latter occasion
he told the Division:
‘This is a very pleasant ceremony to me, and I hope to you,
with which to finish, for the time being, my connection, and
that of the Second Army, with this Division. I have had the
pleasure on two occasions lately; one some weeks ago when
you came out of the Line, and one the other day, when I gave
ribbons representing decorations to Officers, N.C.O.’s and men
of the Division after the recent gas-attack; and on those two
occasions I expressed briefly, but I hope quite distinctly, my
appreciation of the way in which the 49th Division has carried
out the duties entrusted to it during the last few months.
But now that it is settled for the time being that the 49th
Division is to leave the Second Army, and go into another area,
while I have nothing to add as regards appreciation of the
work you have done, I should like to say to you how sorry I am
that you are leaving the Second Army.... I cannot expect you
to share my regret. No one so far as I know, has felt any deep
regret at quitting the Ypres salient; but, while you will not
regret your change of scene, when you look back at the time
you have spent up here, notwithstanding the arduous time you
have gone through, notwithstanding the losses of your comrades,
whom we all deplore, you will, ... I know, have some pleasant
memories to carry away with you of your comrades of the Second
Army. We, I can assure you, will follow your doings with the
deepest interest, ... and shall always feel a kind of reflected
glory when we hear of the gallant deeds which I am quite sure
you are going to accomplish both individually and as a Unit.’—
Stirring words, and a fine farewell, after what Major-General Perceval
has described as ‘nearly six months’ continuous duty in the worst
trenches of the Allied lines. During the whole of this period, runs
the statement of the Divisional Commander, the men ‘had unflinchingly
sustained an unrelaxing bombardment,’ and had borne ‘with unfailing
cheerfulness the most trying conditions of weather in permanently flooded
trenches.’
So much for this aspect of siege warfare.
Before following the 49th Division from its well-earned period in Rest
Billets to its next area of activity, we shall pick up some threads in
the history of the 62nd Division (the West Riding 2nd Line, it will be
remembered) from February, 1915, when Major-General Sir James Trotter
assumed Command. But, first, in order to complete the present picture,
brief reference is due to what Lord Scarbrough, after his visit to the
front, described as ‘the amenities of warfare.’ For these, too, were a
part of the day’s work, just as the hours of recreation are a part of a
schoolboy’s day.
The following are the relevant dates and facts:
July 28th. Divisional Baths opened at Steenje.
Aug. 5th. Divisional Armourer’s Shop opened at Steenje.
Aug. 22nd. ‘The Tykes’ Entertainment Troupe gave their opening
performance at Peselhœk, near Poperinghe.
Aug. 23rd. Divisional Technical School of Instruction opened
near Hospital Farm.
Sept. 10th. Divisional Farrier’s Shop opened.
Sept. 15th. Divisional Band’s first performance.
Oct. 11th. Divisional Horse Show held.
Oct. 15th. Divisional Grocery, Canteen and Coffee Bar opened.
Nov. 9th. Divisional Shop for repair of Gum Boots opened.
Dec. 6th. Divisional Tailor’s Shop opened.
There was also the Divisional Dump, where 6,000 rifles, for example, were
salvaged in four months; and, more definitely among amenities, there was
the _Buzzer_, published as the organ of the Divisional Signal Company,
which enjoyed a wide circulation and scattered enjoyment as it circulated.
The gracious visit of His Majesty the King on October 27th, when
all Arms of the 49th Division were represented at an inspection of
contingents from the Second Army, belongs to a different category, but it
is gratifying to recall His Majesty’s comment to General Perceval on the
appearance and bearing of his men.
[Illustration: LT.-GEN. SIR W. P. BRAITHWAITE, K.C.B.
MAJ.-GEN. E. M. PERCEVAL, C.B.
MAJ.-GEN. SIR R. D. WHIGHAM, K.C.B.
MAJ.-GEN. N. J. G. CAMERON, C.B., C.M.G.
MAJ.-GEN. SIR J. K. TROTTER, K.C.B., C.M.G.]
Plainly, the items in the above list owe their invention and inclusion to
a common aim at recreation. This aim might be simple and direct, as in
the construction of a Dump for restoring derelict war material; it might
be a little less direct, as in the foundation of the Baths[39], which
served partly for refreshment, and partly, taken in connection with their
laundry, drying-sheds, etc., for the prevention of ‘trench feet’ and
kindred ills; it might be purely recreative, again, as in the programmes
of the _Buzzer_ and ‘The Tykes’; or it might be recreative-utilitarian,
in the Gladstonian sense of a change of occupation, as in the
establishment of workshops and schools; and, in referring to any of these
aspects, we should always keep clearly in mind the sharp contrast which
they presented to the constant experience in the trenches, to and from
which the men went and came.
Consider, first, this question of ‘trench-feet.’ It was the fate of the
49th Division to occupy during this winter the most water-logged trenches
of the line. They were ‘permanently flooded,’ as General Perceval said.
Yet he had the satisfaction of reporting that the number of cases of
‘trench-feet’ was among the lowest in any Division. The total number
was 760; the average number was six a day. We have to add this feature
to the day’s work, but, with it, we add the measures that were taken
to counteract the evil. Not merely the three or four pairs of socks
which each man took with him into the trenches, the arrangements for
washing and drying them, and the provision of anti-frostbite grease and
oil; but also the care of the inner man; soup-kitchens, hot cocoa and
chocolate, supplies of Oxo and pea-soup, and the stress laid by the
Divisional Commander on the importance of keeping the men’s vitality
high. Nor should the gifts of the Association at home be forgotten in
this context; they sent the portable bath-house with oil-pumping engine
and piping complete; they sent 5,000 tins of ‘Tinned Heat’ (which sounds
like an import straight from Hades); 10,000 small tins for anti-frostbite
grease, 15,000 small cans for whale-oil, 4,885 short gum-boots, 722 thigh
gum-boots, 7,000 mittens, 9,300 socks, oilskin-jackets, oilskins and
sou’-westers, besides other contributions in kind. There were still six
cases every day, but the day’s work was mollified by these means.
Another gift which reached the Division from the West Riding Association
was the furniture and accessories for the theatre of ‘The Tykes.’
This capable troupe of entertainers had begun in a very modest way
on improvised platforms in the open air. Perhaps they did not know,
or were indifferent to the fact, that European drama, consummated in
Shakespeare, had precisely similar beginnings. Though ‘The Tykes’ did
not produce a Shakespeare, they hardly fell short of his success in the
pleasure which they afforded to their own audiences. Historically, they
were fourth on the list of Divisional Concert Parties, and it was on
Christmas Day, 1915, that they definitely started on their career as
a theatrical company. In January, 1916, and again in the December of
that year, they went home to the West Riding, where they played at the
Empire Palace, Leeds, the Opera House, Harrogate, and the Empire Palace,
Sheffield, exhibiting to enthusiastic houses the simple joys of the men
at the front. They performed in all in about fifty places, in improvised
barns or converted stables, or very rarely in genuine halls, and they had
the honour to be the first company to appear on the boards at Arras and
Cambrai after their capture in 1918. Even more impressive and gratifying
is the fact that over 80,000 francs was handed by ‘The Tykes’ to the
Institutes’ of the Division between 1916 and 1919, for the provision of
additional comforts, sports, etc., to its units. The original ‘Tyke’
was Lieut. J. P. Barker, A.S.C., who was evacuated sick to England in
September, 1918. He really started and made them, and, if other names may
be mentioned, we would refer to Lance-Cpl. A. Coates, of the Army Service
Corps, and Pte. H. Marsden, formerly R.E., of the 243rd Employment
Company, who were members of the troupe right through from August 22nd,
1915, to February 2nd, 1919. A Divisional cinema, we may add, was
established in March, 1917, and, after narrowly escaping destruction in
the German advance at Berthen, April 9th, 1918, it survived to hand over
a profit of 27,900 francs for the worthy objects of the Institutes’ Fund.
Turning next to the facilities for education which were gradually
developed in this period, we note the technical character of the
instruction provided. Thus, a Drainage Section was organized in the
Ypres Salient, which laid down nearly 9,000 yards of main and subsidiary
drains, with valuable results in the trenches. Mining Sections were
also formed to help Tunnelling Companies, and did excellent work while
they lasted. A Divisional Gas School gave lessons in the use and
care of anti-gas appliances, and doubtless contributed to keep down
the list of casualties on December 19th. There were always Ambulance
courses, and local opportunities for instruction in Sniping, Scouting,
Signalling, Bombing and other special branches. The Divisional Technical
School taught the use of Trench Warfare appliances, keeping parties of
newly-arrived troops for twenty-four hours in mimic trenches, with the
enemy trenches opposite also faithfully reproduced; and a Divisional
Training School was established to give both practical and theoretical
instruction to junior Officers and N.C.O.’s of Infantry.
The workshops of the Royal Engineers turned out a quantity of stuff which
was really remarkable in the circumstances. All the made-up material for
use in the trenches was prepared there, as well as the work in connection
with the accommodation of men in the Rest Area. When we read of one and
three-quarter million sandbags, or of fifteen miles of road maintained
and drained by civilian labour under the supervision of the R.E., or of
seventeen bridges kept up and seven constructed by this Arm, or of four
thousand tons of bricks drawn from ruined houses for horse-standings, or
of thirty miles of trench-gridding[40] laid and fifteen miles of trenches
maintained, we are able to form some idea of the unremitting toil and
admirable skill displayed by the Divisional Engineers.
Reference, too, should be made to the fact that the grave defects in
Field Artillery, which that Arm of the Division was so well aware of,
and which it so particularly and gallantly endured, were to some extent
corrected by the issue on October 29th of 18-pounder Quick-Firer Field
Guns, instead of the existing 15-pounders, and on January 30th in the
next year of 4.5-inch Howitzers instead of the 5-inch Howitzers in
possession.
One more item of statistics may be mentioned. In a year’s constant
journeys on bad roads for long distances, amounting in all to a total
mileage of 900,000 miles, no lorry had to be replaced: an extremely
creditable record for the Divisional Supply Column.
But these details are carrying us too far. Our purpose in the present
chapter has been to preserve an impression of the daily experience of the
49th Division from the end of June to the end of December, 1915. The same
things happened every day, though they might happen with a difference.
The day was fine, or the day was wet; the patrol got back, or the patrol
was wounded; a shell exploded, or a shell fell ‘dud’; distinguished
conduct found a grave, or distinguished conduct won a medal: but always
it was relieving or being relieved, throughout this long tour of duty
under the exhausting conditions of the Ypres Salient. We have sought to
illustrate the life by selecting certain days for description, and we
have sought, too, to set off that description by an account, however
inadequate, of the other side of the picture: of the means provided from
home or improvised on the spot, and alike approved by the Divisional
Commander, to bring touches of warmth and colour into the chilling
monotony of trench-warfare. How far such aim has been accomplished,
even how far it is capable of accomplishment at this distance from 1915
and the bank of the Yser Canal, where the general gloom of the outlook
was almost as difficult to banish as the mud on the physical horizon,
cannot be predicated with any certainty. What is clear to the present
writer, however, and what he should have made clear to his readers, is
that no opportunity was let go of doing a full day’s work every day.
They all pulled together all the time. The result was that, though the
long strain told on the physique of the Division, it did not tell on
their spirits or their resolution, and, inasmuch as their appointed day’s
work was essential to the conduct of the war, and to the maintenance
of equilibrium on the Western front, the 49th (West Riding) Division
deserved well of their King and country in the last six months of the
year 1915.
[Illustration: Tower of the Cloth Hall Ypres]
CHAPTER VI
SERVING IN RESERVE
The intensive training of a 2nd Line Division, which was to take a
conspicuous part in the battles of 1917 and 1918, is the subject of the
present chapter.
The military confusion at home during the period prior to the passing
of the first National Service Act, and prolonged to some extent through
1916, though it never affected the keenness and enthusiasm of the
2nd Line troops themselves, has yet to be taken into account in any
impression which may be given of the conditions under which training was
carried out. Reference to this factor will be found in the Memorandum
on the Territorial Force written by General Bethune at the War Office,
of which mention has been made before.[41] The then Director-General
remarked: ‘Great difficulty was experienced in training, as, with so
many new Armies to be formed, the majority of capable instructors went
to them, and our 2nd Line Territorial Force had to train themselves as
best they could. The result,’ he added, ‘was extraordinarily good and
surprised anyone who had anything to do with it.’ We shall reach the
element of surprise in due course. Here, for the moment, we are concerned
with the ‘great difficulty’ which was encountered, and more particularly
with those aspects of the difficulty which lay outside the cognizance of
the Territorial Force personnel, or, at any rate, outside their control.
Let us go back to first principles. The idea of a voluntary Army,
despite the wastage of war and the unequal distribution of patriotic
sentiment, or of the capacity to respond to it, was still, late in
1914, a sacred article of British faith. Another accepted article, if
not of faith, at least of British practice, was the enlistment of that
voluntary Army on a County basis. This procedure, which was laid down in
Section IX. (I.) (a) of the Territorial and Reserve Forces Act, followed
a similar provision in the Militia Act of 1882, and, tracing it back
to that source, we discover that its primary cause was ‘to estimate
the extent of the County’s liability in the event of the ballot being
enforced.’[42] The tradition survived the ballot, and the rule of County
enlistment was incorporated, as we have seen, in the organization of the
Territorial Force. This rule worked well enough in peace-time, and might
conceivably have continued to work well if it had been the only rule to
be applied when war broke out on a scale not dreamed of by the authors of
the Act of 1907.[43] But, historically speaking, and without attempting
to judge the issue, it was decided very early in the war to vary that
rule, and to raise recruits for the new Armies on a system which crossed
the method handed down to the Territorial Force by the old Militia and
Volunteers. The Counties were reaped of their best men by a Secretary of
State who knew not Lord Haldane. The first hundred thousand disappeared
into the vast abyss of war from every town and village in the country.
Members of Parliament came down to recruit for Kitchener’s Army, and
forgot, or were not reminded by the Mayor, of the claims of Haldane’s
Force. Bonds of brotherhood in arms, by trades, professions, even by
height or religion (_e.g._, ‘Bantams,’ ‘Jewish’ Regiment, etc.) drove
their wedges through the County bond; and under these new and distracting
conditions, the old rule of enlistment by Counties became to a large
extent a pious memory of peace, and enlistment by hook and crook, by
picture-posters, white feathers, and worse devices, became the feverish
rule of war.
This was the 2nd Line problem viewed through the spectacles of
Territorial Force County Associations. The men themselves did not see it
from the same angle. Their great desire, with insignificant exceptions,
was to prepare themselves for service overseas with the utmost possible
expedition. In their camps or billets or drill-halls, they were probably
as unconscious of as they were indifferent to the serious administrative
difficulties created for their County chiefs by the constant changes of
policy on the part of the Army Council. Nor is the Army Council unduly
to be blamed. The pace of the war itself was quicker than anyone had
anticipated, and social and industrial conditions at home did not readily
adapt themselves to its imperious needs. If we refer to these forgotten
problems, out of which the successive National Service Acts were forged,
as a partial solution, we shall be understood to refer to them solely in
explanation of the ‘great difficulty’ which was experienced, and not in
the least in derogation of the great zeal with which that difficulty was
surmounted to the ‘surprise’ of everyone concerned.
We have further authority as to the difficulties. In a Memorandum kindly
prepared by Major-General Sir James K. Trotter, K.C.B., who was appointed
to command the West Riding 2nd Line Division[44] in February, 1915, he
writes as follows of the early days of his Command:
‘The difficulties affecting training were at this stage very
serious. The troops were not all provided with uniform. They
were without equipment; the Infantry had no arms, except a
few d.p. rifles; the Artillery no guns; the Mounted Troops,
Artillery and Engineers no horses, and the Transport nothing
but a few hired carts. But the want most sorely felt was
that of the young, active, trained N.C.O. to instruct and to
give life to the movements of the young soldiers. Competent
instructors were not to be had. Every available N.C.O. was
taken up by the 1st Line Territorials and the New Service
Army units, and this Division was at this time left to its
own very limited resources. The Regimental Officers were in
the main new and untrained, and though the Command Schools of
Instruction gave short courses to as many as possible, it was
very remarkable to observe the time necessary to convert the
raw recruit into a trained soldier under these conditions....
What was lacking was the atmosphere. Nevertheless, some real
progress in elementary training was made in the early Spring
(1915), and some young officers displayed considerable energy
and initiative.’
Lack of atmosphere is the burden of this complaint, and a brief map of
the conflicting winds which were blown across the path of Territorial
Force organization may account, in part, at least, for these disturbed
atmospheric conditions. Summarily, the war policy of the Army Council
in regard to the Territorial Force may be marked by the following five
steps: (1) They decided to raise Reserve or 2nd Line units behind the
Imperial Service Units of the original or 1st Line. The practical
distinction between the two was based on their state of preparedness
to fulfil the overseas obligation. Thus, the distinction was always
fluid. It varied, that is to say, according to the degree of training
reached by the individual personnel, and there were always frequent
exchanges between the 2nd and 1st Lines. The only constant element in
the Reserve units were the men, who, owing to age or health or other
conditions, would never be fit for Imperial Service. Divisional and
other military organization was the same in both Lines, but the 1st was
composed of Officers and other Ranks ready for service abroad, the 2nd
was composed partly of surplus Imperial Service personnel, partly of
troops prepared, so far, only up to Home Service, which still formed
the statutory function of the Territorial Force. (2) The next stage
occurred when the 1st Line units went overseas. Then a 3rd Line, or
2nd Reserve, was authorized for formation, behind the Home Service
units composed partly, as we have seen, of men ready, in a military
sense, to go overseas, and this 3rd Line was presently constituted into
a series of (3) Draft-producing Depots, with establishments varying
from time to time according as their corresponding 1st Line units were
stationed at home, or on garrison duty abroad, or with an Expeditionary
Force. A little later (4) steps were taken to weed out the Home Service
personnel still remaining with the 2nd Line units and to distribute
them into newly-constituted Home Service units, and finally (5) the
National Reservists were formed into Supernumerary Territorial Force
Companies, with a fixed establishment of about 120 all Ranks, for the
protection of Lines of Communication and Vulnerable Points at home.
To complete a brief account of a long process which was not worked
out with a very clever perception of its intention from the start, we
may add that these Supernumerary Companies were transformed by Royal
Warrant, in 1916, into the Royal Defence Corps, when they passed out
of the County administration. But all through 1915 the position was
extraordinarily complex from an administrative point of view. Territorial
Force Associations were responsible for maintaining their 1st Line units
overseas, their 2nd Line units at home, their 3rd Line Draft-producing
Depots, their Provisional Home Service units and their Supernumerary
Territorial Force Companies.
In justice to the West Riding Association, which was hard put to it
to keep an even keel in this welter of conflicting currents, we may
examine the policy which they pursued, in somewhat more detail. From
the first they declined to be hustled. As early as October, 1914, the
Chairman, Lord Scarbrough, remarked in his Quarterly Report to members
of the Association, that ‘In consequence of the great difficulty of
obtaining supplies of clothing, boots, necessaries, etc., and the lack of
Officers and qualified Instructors, it was considered best not to push
recruiting for the Reserve units, but to endeavour to raise them very
gradually as Instructors and clothing and equipment could be provided.
By so doing,’ he pointed out, ‘the efficiency of these units is not
likely to be retarded, and the waste of time and discouragement entailed
by collecting large numbers of men without Officers, Instructors, arms,
uniform, boots, or any provision for their well-being, has been to a
large extent avoided.’ But his policy, however sound at the outset,
could not be indefinitely maintained. The time came, and it came more
quickly than some even of the shrewdest of observers had foreseen, when
the Reserve, or 2nd Line, units had to be allowed to recruit up to
full establishment, despite those deficiencies in equipment which so
seriously embarrassed their Commanding Officers, in the urgent work of
training them for service overseas. So the ‘large numbers’ continued
to come forward, and might not be refused. As early as November, 1914,
for example, the 2/6th Battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment had a
strength of over 1,400, and this splendid record was not unique in the
2nd Line Division. The real problem faced by General Trotter in the
Spring of 1915 was not shortness of numbers, though this, too, became a
source of some anxiety at County Headquarters, when the new Armies were
competing with the Territorial Force; it was still less lack of keenness
for foreign service, but it was always the old problem of Israel in
Egypt—how to make bricks without straw. We quoted just now the General’s
own account of the problems which he had to face in this regard. We may
quote here his further account, by no means too rosy in certain aspects,
of the progress in elementary training which was made in the early Spring
of 1915. It will be remembered that the 1/1st West Riding (49th) Division
went abroad in the middle of April. The 62nd Division was then appointed
to take over its duties. The Infantry, it is reassuring to find, were
now in possession of rifles, which had been obtained from Japan, and the
Artillery, about the same time, received an armament of French guns,
made in 1878, and ‘evidently discarded,’ writes General Trotter, ‘for
many years. The tangent scales were graduated in metres, and the shells
were provided with a graduated time-fuze. But no one could be found to
connect the graduation with the range scales, and no book of instructions
existed.... No ammunition was available for practice, and the whole time
this weapon was in the hands of the Artillery, _i.e._, till December,
1915, it was only used for training purposes, and then only to a limited
extent, the breech action and sights being of obsolete pattern. If,’ adds
the General, ‘the Artillery had, according to the plans in force, been
called upon to take part in the defence of the coast, the casualties it
would have caused would have been at the breech-end of the guns’. There
were other interruptions to training, as seen from a Commanding Officer’s
point of view. The competition in recruiting, to which so frequent
reference is necessarily made at this period, produced, in places,
almost humorous results. Thus, a Divisional Commander of the Territorial
Force units would be pressed in some places by the local authorities to
supply bands for recruiting-meetings held for the purpose of enlisting
men in units of the New Armies. Again, industrial conditions created
unforeseen anomalies. It often happened that the first men to enlist
were the key-men in their respective factories, and these men, after
having been put through a course of military training, and having become
efficient soldiers in the comparatively shorter time corresponding to
their superior capacity, had eventually to be returned to the works from
which they came, or to other works engaged in producing war-materials.
Another increasing source of embarrassment to the Divisional Commander
and his subordinate Officers lay in the calls which were made on the
62nd Division, during 1915, to supply drafts for service overseas. Even
the extraction from 2nd Line units of the men fit only for Home Service
upset the composition of those units, and interrupted the continuity
of training and the growth of an _esprit de corps_. Take, merely as an
example, the experience of the 2/8th Battalion of the West Yorkshire
Regiment. On March 8th, 1915, ten of their men were drafted to the 1/8th.
Sundry other exchanges of personnel between the 2/8th and 1/8th, before
the latter went to France, in April, resulted in a numerical loss to the
unit remaining at home. On May 17th, 4 Officers and 188 other Ranks were
transferred to the 26th Provisional Battalion for coast defence, and were
followed at subsequent dates by a further 17 men. On August 15th, 54 men
went out to the 1/8th Battalion. On the 27th came the gratifying news
that Lieut. E. F. Wilkinson, formerly of the 2/8th Battalion, had been
awarded the Military Cross in France: _sic vos, non vobis_. In October,
orders arrived that the Battalion was to be reduced to 600 all ranks,
that unfit men were to be posted to the 26th Provisional Battalion, and
the remaining surplus over the new establishment, to the 3/8th Battalion
West Yorkshires. It is obvious that changes of this kind, which may
be paralleled in any other unit, were no light drawback. The success
of the training of the Division during the period, May to October,
1915, when it was in camp in Sherwood Forest, might have been even
more seriously affected except for the loyal co-operation of Officers,
N.C.O.s and men in carrying out the programmes arranged for them. They
were moved by an increasing resolve to prepare themselves for the call
for embarkation, the hope of which, though renewed from time to time,
seemed always so slow to materialize.[45] Meanwhile, work was carried
on with this object always in view. Particular attention was devoted to
the duties of the Platoon Officers and Company Commanders, and General
Trotter bears witness that ‘during the summer and autumn months, the
Division made remarkable progress in training, administrative work and
discipline.’ In October, they left their encampments, and were stationed,
at the end of November, in the Northern Command, with Headquarters at
Newcastle-on-Tyne, where the Brigades were allotted to the Tyne defences,
and the units were occupied in making and improving the trenches. About
this time the Artillery at last had received a serviceable weapon;
18-pounder, breech-loader guns were issued to three Brigades, and 5″
Howitzers to the fourth. In December, news arrived that the Division had
been selected as the first of the 2nd Line Territorials Divisions for
service in France, and orders were issued to move to Salisbury Plain. Sir
James Trotter, whose organizing ability had so well and truly laid the
foundations of the military efficiency of the Division, was succeeded
in its Command, on December 24th, by Major-General Walter Braithwaite,
C.B.,[46] who took over the Division at Newcastle.
It is interesting to dovetail the accounts of the retiring and
succeeding Divisional Commanders. General Braithwaite notes that
‘the Battalions were commanded mostly by Territorial Force Officers
of a certain age and standing, with personal knowledge of the men in
their units, and with experience, in many cases, of Territorial Force
conditions as they existed before the war, but, naturally, with no
experience of war as it was being waged. The material was excellent,
and all that was lacking was to adapt it to the conditions obtaining at
the Front.’ Accordingly, at Lark Hill Camp on Salisbury Plain, where
the Division arrived in January, 1916, application was at once made
to the War Office for men with fighting experience to fill posts on
the Divisional Staff, and for the appointment of Brigade Majors of the
Infantry Brigades in order to set to work to make the Division completely
war-worthy. The response was prompt and satisfactory, and perhaps the
most satisfactory feature from the Divisional Commander’s point of view
was the loyal readiness of individual Officers who felt themselves and
were too old for the strain of active service to make way for younger
men, who had either been wounded or invalided from France. An ideal
General Staff Officer, 1st Grade, was found in Lieut.-Colonel the Hon A.
G. A. Hore-Ruthven, V.C. Lieut.-Colonel R. M. Foot, to the great benefit
of the Division, was appointed Q.M.G.; Brig.-General A. T. Anderson
arrived from France to take command of the Divisional Artillery, with
Capt. W. J. Lindsell as his Brigade Major, and these Officers, with
Lieut.-Colonel Gillam in command of the Royal Engineers, made, we are
assured, ‘an excellent beginning.’ Mention is also due to the arrival
at this date of the Rev. C. M. Chavasse as S.C.F., and we may add here
that he served with the 62nd Division for the whole period of its active
service, with the exception of a very short time when he was promoted
to be Senior Chaplain of the Corps. The Brigadiers of the 185th, 186th
and 187th Infantry Brigades, respectively, who were also appointed about
this time, were Generals V. W. de Falbe, who had commanded a Battalion in
France; F. F. Hill, who had been invalided from Gallipoli, and R. O’B.
Taylor, who happened to be home from leave in Egypt, and who had also
been in Gallipoli. These arrivals, as might be expected, added immensely
to the strength of the Division. Its efficiency, from February onwards,
increased by leaps and bounds, and the Division was fortunate, too, in
receiving from time to time the latest ‘tips’ from Officers serving in or
invalided home from France, and anxious to place their experience at the
disposal of those about to proceed there.
Still, it was not all smooth sailing. In May, 1916, after service
rifles had been issued, and when training was in full swing, orders
were suddenly received for the Division to find a draft of over 4,000
men for France, and it looked as if the Division was to be turned into
a mere draft-producing unit, and its fighting efficiency to be impaired
accordingly. Happily, this order, like so many others, was cancelled. A
further and more actual disappointment ensued a month or so later, when
the Division was sent to the East Coast to be employed in reserve for the
defences, with the intimation that it was likely to stay there. We are
left to imagine the consternation of the troops, already straining at the
leash, and the difficulty of the Divisional Commander and his subordinate
Officers in accommodating their programmes and policy to these shifting
counsels from above. Certainly, the East Coast was not as convenient
for training, and did not provide the same facilities as were available
on Salisbury Plain. The Brigades were separated by some distance: the
Headquarters of one Brigade and the bulk of the Artillery being round
about Bungay, another group being at Henham Hall (Lord Stradbroke), and
a third at Somerleyton (Lord Somerleyton, formerly Sir Savile Crossley),
near Lowestoft. But once more the prospects changed. Fresh orders
presently arrived, stating that the Division was selected for service in
France. On July 26th, the King came down to inspect the Division prior to
embarkation, and His Majesty expressed himself extremely satisfied with
all that he saw.
[Illustration]
Time went on, however, and no embarkation orders came. Drafts for
Service units abroad and for Service units definitely allotted to home
duties continued to be called for throughout this Summer and Autumn, and
still the Division was in doubt as to its ultimate use and destination.
Still the Divisional Pelican waited to put his foot down on German
soil. The men now enjoyed opportunities, of which they gladly availed
themselves, of working on training instructions which had been received
direct from the front. Trench-digging, air-raid duty, rifle-practice
with Charger-Loading Lee Enfields, gas-drill, concentration-marches,
musketry and Lewis-gun courses, assaults-at-arms, aquatic sports, and
other martial exercises and recreations, were all included in the
preparation for battle. The whole life of the soldier in France was,
so far as was possible, copied as faithfully as it could be during
this strenuous period. Officers on light duty in England, who had been
wounded, were sent down in batches and distributed among the Battalions,
which were eager, as we saw above, to take advantage of the benefit of
their experience. Young Officers, with a war record behind them, were
appointed to command Battalions, Batteries and Companies. Sketches of the
latest types of trenches were received and re-produced in practice; and,
briefly, except for the actual atmosphere of active service, the Division
became during these months a living organism capable of assimilating
all the lessons which experience could teach it, and likely, with its
splendid material, to give a good account of itself at the Front.
And, at last, the summons arrived. In October, 1916, orders were received
to proceed to Bedford and Wellingborough in order to complete the
Division with all necessary stores, and to hold itself in readiness to go
overseas. The actual order for the move was still postponed till the last
days of December, and the final scenes may be quoted from the War Diary
of one of the West Riding Battalions:—
‘January 4th, 1917.—Order of the Day issued by Major-General
Braithwaite, containing farewell message from His Majesty the
King to 62nd Division, on the eve of their departure overseas.
‘January 4th, 1917, 9 a.m.—Farewell service of Holy Communion
at St. Paul’s Church, Bedford, before proceeding on Active
Service.
‘January 11th, 1917.—Left Bedford for France. Right half
Battalion left the Ballast Pit Sidings, Bedford, at 3-25 a.m.
Left half Battalion left at 5 a.m.’
‘I do not think,’ writes General Sir Walter Braithwaite, at the
conclusion of the Notes with which he has been kind enough to supply
the present writer, ‘a more happy and contented Division, or one better
found and equipped, ever left the shores of England, and I think it was
as well trained as a Division could be, thanks to all the help I received
from the Staff and Commanding Officers, and to all the kind friends in
France, who kept us supplied with the latest training instructions.[47]
I cannot close this short sketch of our training period without alluding
to the great help we received throughout the period from Lord Scarbrough
and Brig.-General Mends. They were “father and mother” to the Division;
made several visits to us; took endless trouble to help us, and, in fact,
made all the rough places smooth. Also, I cannot but acknowledge the
patriotism of those Commanding Officers who, feeling themselves too old
for active service, made way for young up-to-date Commanders.’
It will be interesting to conclude this account with a conspectus of the
Order of Battle of the 62nd Division from February, 1917, when it first
entered the field, during the 22 months of its brilliant fighting record,
till February, 1919, when demobilization was in active course. The
purpose of this information, which is arranged for convenience in tabular
form, is to show, in the first column, the units which composed the
Division when it first landed in France; in the second column, the units
which joined the Division between that date and February, 1919; in the
third column, remarks explanatory of the information in columns one and
two; and in column four the names of the respective Commanding Officers
at the time of the embarkation of the Division. It will be observed that
certain Battalions of the 1st and 2nd Lines were amalgamated during 1918,
and these tables should be referred to, accordingly, in cases where
any consequent changes in nomenclature may puzzle the reader of later
chapters.
ORDER OF BATTLE OF 62nd (WEST RIDING) DIVISION between February,
1917, and February, 1919.
---------------------+---------------+--------------------+-------------
Landed with Division,|Joined Division| | Commanding
Jan.-Feb., 1917. |between Feb., | Remarks. | Officer
| Feb., 1917 | | (Jan.,
|and Feb., 1919.| | 1917).
---------------------+---------------+--------------------+-------------
DIVISIONAL F.A. | | |
310th Brigade, | |Remained throughout.|Lt.-Col. G.
R.F.A. | | | R. V.
| | | Kinsman,
| | | D.S.O., R.A.
311th Brigade, | |Became Army Brigade |Lt.-Col. A.
R.F.A. | | early 1917. | Gadie
312th Brigade, | |Remained throughout.|Lt.-Col. E.
R.F.A. | | | P. Bedwell,
| | | R.A.
62nd Div. Ammunition| |Remained throughout.|Lt.-Col. F.
Col. | | | Mitchell
62nd T.M. Batteries | |Remained throughout.|
|14th Bde. |Joined November, |
| R.H.A. & | 1918. |
| B.A.C. | |
| | |
DIVISIONAL ENGINEERS.| | |
457th Field Company,| |Remained throughout.|Major W. A.
R.E. | | | Seaman
460th Field Company,| |Remained throughout.|Major L. St.
R.E. | | | J. Colley
461st Field Company,| |Remained throughout.|Major E. J.
R.E. | | | Walthew
Signal Company. | |Remained throughout.|Capt. R. V.
| | | Montgomery
| | | (Som. L.I.)
| | |
185TH INFANTRY | | |
BRIGADE. | | |
2/5th West Yorks. | |Amalgamated with 8th|Lt.-Col. J.
Regt. | | W. Yorks., August,| Josselyn
| | 1918. |
2/6th West Yorks. | |Amalgamated with 6th|Lt.-Col. J.
Regt. | | W. Yorks, to 49th | H. Hastings
| | Div., Feb., 1918. |
2/7th West Yorks. | |Disbanded June, |Lt.-Col.
Regt. | | 1918. | Hon. F. S.
| | | Jackson
2/8th West Yorks. | |Amalgamated with |Lt.-Col. W.
Regt. | | 1/8th W. Yorks, | Hepworth,
| | Feb., 1918. | V.D.
185th T.M. Battery. | |Remained throughout.|
| | |
|1/8th Bn. W. |Amalgamated with |
| Yorks, from | 2/8th W. Yorks., |
| 49th Div. | Feb., 1918. |
|1/5th Bn. |Joined June, 1918, |
| Devon Regt. | from Egypt. |
|2/20th Bn. |Joined August, 1918,|
| London Regt. | from Egypt. |
| | |
186TH INFANTRY | | |
BRIGADE. | | |
2/4th Bn. West | |Remained throughout.|Lt.-Col. H.
Riding Regt. | | | E. P. Nash
| | | (R. Scots)
2/5th Bn. West | |Amalgamated with |Lt.-Col. T.
Riding Regt. | | 1/5th Bn., Feb., | A. D. Best,
| | 1918. | D.S.O., (R.
| | | Innis. Fus.)
2/6th Bn. West | |To 49th Div. for |Lt.-Col. J.
Riding Regt. | | amalgamation with | Mackillop
| | 1/6th, Feb., 1918. |
2/7th Bn. West | |Disbanded June, |Lt.-Col.
Riding Regt. | | 1918. | Clifford,
| | | D.S.O.
| | | (North.
| | | Fus.)
186th T.M. Battery | |Remained throughout.|
|1/5th Bn. West |From 49th Div. |
| Riding Regt. | Amalgamated with |
| | 2/5th, Feb., 1918.|
|2/4th Hants. |From Egypt, June, |
| Regt. | 1918. |
| | |
187TH INFANTRY | | |
BRIGADE. | | |
2/4th Bn. K.O.Y.L.I.| |Remained throughout.|Lt.-Col. E.
| | | Hind, V.D.
2/5th Bn. K.O.Y.L.I.| |Amalgamated with |Lt.-Col. W.
| | 1/5th Bn., Feb., | Watson (Som.
| | 1918. | L.I.)
2/4th Bn. Yorks. & | | |
Lancs. Regt. | |Remained throughout.|Lt.-Col. F.
2/5th Bn. Yorks. & | | | St. J.
Lancs. Regt. | | | Blacker
| |Disbanded Feb., |Lt.-Col. P.
| | 1918. | Prince
| | | (Shrops.
| | | L.I.)
187th T.M. Battery | |Remained throughout.|
|1/5th Bn. |From 49th Div. |
| K.O.Y.L.I. | Amalgamated with |
| | 2/5th, Feb., 1918.|
| | |
PIONEER BATTALION |9th Bn. Durham |From 50th Division, |
| Light Inf. | Feb., 1918. |
| | |
DIVISIONAL TRAIN. | | |
62nd Divisional | |Remained throughout.|Lt.-Col.
Train | | | H. H.
| | | Wilberforce
525 Company, | |Remained throughout.|Major A. P.
R.A.S.C. | | | Wright
526 Company, | |Remained throughout.|Lt. S. G.
R.A.S.C. | | | Shaw
527 Company, | |Remained throughout.|Lt. W. N.
R.A.S.C. | | | Roberts
528 Company, | |Remained throughout.|Capt. H. P.
R.A.S.C. | | | Peacock
| | |
DIVISIONAL R.A.M.C. | | |
2/1st (W.R.) Field | |Remained throughout.|Lt.-Col. W.
Ambulance | | | Lister
2/2nd (W.R.) Field | |Remained throughout.|Lt.-Col. C.
Ambulance | | | W. Eames
2/3rd (W.R.) Field | |Remained throughout.|Lt.-Col. W.
Ambulance | | | S. Keer
62nd Divl. Sanitary | |Remained throughout.|Capt. Moss-
Section | | | Blundell,
| | | C.B.
2/1st Northn. Cas. | |Remained throughout.|Lt.-Col. W.
Clearing Stn. | | | A. Wetwan
|33rd Sanitary |Joined after |
| Section | Armistice. |
| | |
DIVISIONAL MACHINE | | |
GUN BN. | | |
|201st M.G. |Joined 1917}
| Company | }
|208th M.G. |Joined 1917} Formed into 62nd
| Company | } Bn. Machine-Gun
|212th M.G. |Joined 1917} Corps, Feb.,
| Company | } 1918
|213th M.G. |Joined 1917}
| Company | |
| | |
DIVISIONAL M.T. | | |
COMPANY. | | |
62nd Div. M.T. | |Remained throughout.|Major H. J.
Company | | | C. Hawkins
| | |
MOBILE VETERINARY | | |
SECTION. | | |
2/1st (W.R.) Mob. | | |
Vet. Sect. | |Remained throughout.|Capt. P.
| | | Abson,
| | | A.V.C.
| | |
DIVISIONAL EMPLOYMENT| | |
CO. | | |
|252nd |Joined June, 1917, |
| Employment | and remained |
| Co. | throughout. |
---------------------+---------------+--------------------+-------------
The Staff Officers in January, 1917, were as follows:—
G.O.C. Major-(Lieut.-) General (Sir) W. P. Braithwaite,
(K.) C.B.
A.D.C. Lieut. G. H. Roberts.
A.D.C. Sec.-Lieut. J. C. Newman.
G.S.O. (I.) Lieut.-Col. Hon. A. G. A. Hore-Ruthven, V.C.,
D.S.O., Welsh Guards.
G.S.O. (II.) Major W. G. Charles, Essex.
G.S.O. (III.) Capt. J. A. Batten Pooll, 5th Lancers.
A.A. and Q.M.G. Lieut.-Col. T. M. Foot, C.M.G., R.L., late R.
Innis. Fus.
D.A.A. and Q.M.G. Major H. F. Lea, R.L., late Yorks. Regt.
D.A.Q.M.G. Capt. F. J. Langdon, R.L., late The King’s.
A.D.M.S. Col. de B. Birch, C.B., R.A.M.C. (T).
D.A.D.M.S. Major T. C. Lucas, R.A.M.C.
D.A.D.O.S. Lieut. R. M. Holland.
A.D.V.S. Major F. J. Taylor.
A.P.M. Major G. D’Urban Rodwell.
C.R.A. Brig.-Gen. A. T. Anderson, R.A.
A.D.C. Lieut. Anderson, R.A.
Bde. Major Capt. W. G. Lindsell, R.A.
S./Capt. Capt. A. J. Elston.
C.R.E. Lieut.-Col. F. Gillam, R.E.
Adjt. Capt. G. D. Aspland.
185TH INF. BDE.
G.O.C. Brig.-Gen. V. W. de Falbe, C.M.G., D.S.O.
Bde. Major Major R. E. Power, The Buffs.
S./Capt. Capt. W. A. C. Lloyd.
186TH INF. BDE.
G.O.C. Brig.-Gen. F. F. Hill, C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O.
Bde. Major Major C. A. H. Palairet, The Fusileers.
S./Capt. Capt. W. O. Wright.
187TH INF. BDE.
G.O.C. Brig.-Gen. R. O’B. Taylor, C.I.E.
Bde. Major Major R. B. Bergne, Leinster Regt.
S./Capt. Capt. F. M. Lassetter.
CHAPTER VII
I.—PREPARATIONS ON THE SOMME
We return from the 62nd Division in England to the 49th in France, in the
same year, 1916. The battles of the Somme were fought mid the pleasant,
folded hills of Picardy, where the Sussex Weald almost seems to have
crossed the Channel into France, and Spring renews every year the glad
tokens of that poets’ May, when the sons of Champagne and Picardy,
between the valleys of the Marne and the Somme, made France splendid
in history as the mother of fable and romance: classic soil, a French
writer tells us, ‘entre Orléans, Rouen, Arras et Troyes, en pleine terre
française, champenoise et picarde, dans toutes ces bonnes villes et
villages.’[48]
Classic, too, in another aspect, as the scene of repeated assaults, in
the Hundred Years’ War, and before and after, by invaders envious of
Paris. The last and heaviest of those assaults, since Paris fell in 1871,
now occurred in 1916, between February and June, at the eastern gate
guarded by Verdun. In 1914 and again in 1918 the invader pushed nearer
to Paris; but neither in the first year nor in the last year of the War
were his hammer-blows quite so destructive or his heart of hate quite so
hot as in the middle year, 1916, when the Crown Prince Wilhelm of Prussia
staked his army and his dynasty on the attempt. We are not directly
concerned with all that Verdun means to France. Vaguely we read from
the map that it is distant about a hundred and fifty miles from Paris,
and dimly we perceive that its fall, like the surrender of Strasbourg
and Metz, might well, if swiftly accomplished, have brought disaster on
the capital. But what even an Englishman cannot realize, despite the
_entente cordiale_ and the fellowship binding the _entente_, is the
intense passion of the cry of General Petain’s troops on the Meuse:
_Passeront-pas_, they shall not pass. The Crown Prince threw his brave
soldiery (for their valour is the measure of French endurance), first,
against the series of forts of which Verdun was the citadel, next against
Verdun itself, which was no longer an objective but a symbol, and lastly,
and vainly at the last, against a resolve not to yield the pass, even
when the force of the resistance had robbed the passage of all profit.
This, briefly, is the story of Verdun in the early months of 1916.
It is French history from start to finish. The wider vision of fuller
knowledge is aware that there was unity of purpose even before there
was unity of command. Sir Douglas Haig’s great Second Despatch contains
several references to this feature: ‘The various possible alternatives
on the Western front had been studied and discussed by General Joffre
and myself, and we were in complete agreement as to the front to be
attacked.’ ‘It was eventually agreed between General Joffre and myself
that the combined French and British offensive should not be postponed
beyond the end of June.’ ‘To cope with such a situation unity of command
is usually essential, but in this case the cordial good feeling between
the Allied Armies, and the earnest desire of each to assist the other,
proved equally effective.’ The French time-table at Verdun was partly
regulated in conformity with these counsels. Partly, too, the situation
at Verdun was affected by movements outside France: by Russia’s successes
against Austria, and by the Battle of Jutland on May 31st, from which the
Germans brought back so little except damaged ships and a broken moral
to support their loud claims to victory. But the German tidal wave at
Verdun, whatever considerations intervene, was repelled finally by French
bayonets and by the spirit of France behind her steel:
‘They lie like circle-strewn soaked Autumn-leaves
Which stain the forest scarlet, her fair sons!
And of their death her life is.’
The place and the time, as we see—The Somme valley and the end of
June—had been agreed between General Joffre and Sir Douglas Haig; and, in
accordance with their decisions, the three-fold object of which was:
‘(i.) To relieve the pressure on Verdun,
(ii.) To assist our Allies in the other theatres of war by
stopping any further transfer of German troops from the Western
front,
(iii.) To wear down the strength of the forces opposed to
us’[49],
steps were taken betimes to make the necessary, elaborate preparations.
It will be appropriate to follow those preparations in connection with
one or more units of the 49th (West Riding) Division, which we left, it
will be remembered, enjoying a welcome term of rest after their tour of
duty on the east bank of the Yser Canal.
Take, for instance, the 7th Battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment. We
select it partly for the chance that Lt.-Col. Tetley, D.S.O., then Major,
2nd in Command,[50] kept a separate diary of the Battalion, which we have
had the advantage of perusing, partly because, as will appear, the second
Victoria Cross in the Division was awarded to a non-commissioned officer
of this unit for conspicuous gallantry on the first day of the Somme
campaign.
The first fortnight of 1916 was spent by the Brigade[51] at Wormhoudt,
where, after Company training every forenoon, ‘the men had plenty of
time to themselves.... The Tykes gave their entertainment every night.’
On January 15th, this easeful life ended, and a march of eight miles to
Merckeghem was followed on the 16th by a sixteen-mile march to Zutkerque,
which the men ‘stood very well.’ On the 17th, another sixteen miles
brought the Brigade as far as Calais, where they went into camp on a
‘sandy common, which was very like Strensall Common’ in Yorkshire: there
is a family likeness in gorse-bushes. The New Year Honours of that date
brought Major H. D. Bousfield’s D.S.O. and Captain J. D. Redmayne’s
Military Cross. From 8-30 p.m. on February 1st till 3 a.m. on the 2nd the
Brigade travelled by rail from Calais to Longeau, just east of Amiens,
with all transport and baggage on board: the relief of Verdun had begun.
About a week was spent near Amiens, where the Yorkshiremen found the
landscape a pleasant ‘contrast to that round Poperinghe,’ and ‘not unlike
the Yorkshire wolds.’ From February 10th to 12th the march was resumed
to Authuille, where the 5th and 7th Battalions were in support and the
6th and 8th in the trenches. The 7th remained in support for eight days.
On February 20th they went into the trenches on the north-east edge of
Thiepval Wood. On the whole, the trenches were good and dry, but they ran
down on the left to a marsh made by the River Ancre, and on the right
they had been damaged by trench-mortar fire; still, it was a change for
the better from the Yser. Snow was falling heavily at this time, and
the trench-tours were kept down to four or five days. After three weeks
of this experience, the Battalion was relieved on March 5th by the 9th
Inniskilling Fusiliers, of the 36th (Ulster) Division, and went into
billets at Harponville. It is observed that ‘during the three weeks
the Brigade had been in the trenches, a great deal of work was done by
the newly appointed Intelligence Officers, and practically everything
possible was known about No Man’s Land.’ The Intelligence Officer in the
7th West Yorkshires was 2/Lieut. Beale, but for old acquaintance’ sake,
we select an example of such service, which provided valuable knowledge
for future use, from the record of Lieut. E. F. Wilkinson, M.C., of
the 8th Battalion of the same Regiment. At mid-day on February 28th he
went out to certain cross-roads. Again, on the afternoon of March 2nd,
he waded up the stream which flowed under a stone bridge just west of
these cross-roads, and found a plank bridge twenty-five yards up-stream,
which, judging by the marks on it, was regularly used by the Germans. The
information which this officer obtained in his daylight prowlings helped
to compose the map of No Man’s Land; and it is worth observing that a
German War Diary (2nd Guard Reserve Division), to which we refer later
on, acknowledges that British Officers ‘were provided with excellent
maps, which showed every German trench systematically named, and gave
every detail of our positions.’
We are writing of the preparations for the Somme battles. ‘These
preparations’, said Sir Douglas Haig,[52] ‘were necessarily very
elaborate and took considerable time. Vast stocks of ammunition and
stores of all kinds had to be accumulated beforehand within a convenient
distance of our front. To deal with these, many miles of new railways,
both standard and narrow gauge, and trench tramways were laid.’ In the
Harponville period, we now read, all the Companies of the 7th West
Yorkshires ‘were employed in working on a new railway, which was in
course of construction from Daours to Contay.’ This work, assisted by
good weather, ‘nearly every day being warm and sunny,’ was finished on
March 26th. On the 30th, there was an inspection by Lord Kitchener, who
expressed his approval of the appearance and turn-out of the men. The
5th Battalion of the West Yorkshires, which was billeted in Harponville
at the same time, shared in the work and the inspection. Day by day
they were called upon for working-parties to construct new roads, new
railways, or both; and ‘all this labour,’ Sir Douglas Haig reminds us,
writing of the Army as a whole, ‘had to be carried out in addition to
fighting, and to the everyday work of maintaining existing defences. It
threw a very heavy strain on the troops, which was borne by them with
a cheerfulness beyond all praise[53].’ Certainly no sign of lack of
cheerfulness is revealed in the diary of any unit. ‘The men liked the
change of work,’ we are told.
Throughout April and May Battalions were busily engaged in various
forms of training and fatigues. On May 29th, while in the billets
at Vignacourt, orders were received by the 7th West Yorkshires to
march to Aveluy Wood, just east of Martincourt, in order to provide
working-parties to dig a buried-cable trench for the 36th (Ulster)
Division. The move was accomplished in two days’ marches, and the 8th
Battalion of the same Regiment joined them in Aveluy Wood on June 1st.
The weather here was bad, the accommodation poor, and German shells were
rained on the camp from an early hour in the morning on June 2nd. But the
work of preparation went on apace, and the Battalion remained in Aveluy
Wood till June 19th. Meanwhile, the King’s Birthday on June 3rd had
brought further honours to the 49th Division. The Distinguished Conduct
Medal awarded to a Company Sgt.-Major ‘for general good work and devotion
to duty since the Battalion came to France in April, 1915,’ and the
Military Medals awarded to a Sergeant, a Lance-Corporal and a Rifleman
for devotion to duty on December 8th, 1915, when their Battalion, in
front-line trenches on the Yser, was exposed to heavy shell fire, are
typical of the record of the whole Division.
The time of preparation was nearly over. The appointed hour of action
was close at hand. ‘It was agreed’, we remember, between General Joffre
and Sir Douglas Haig, ‘that the combined French and British offensive
should not be postponed beyond the end of June.’ Before the curtain rises
on that drama, opened punctually on July 1st, and on the part taken at
the opening by the gallant Battalion which we have accompanied from
Wormhoudt, we may glance more rapidly at the experience of other units in
the Division which Major-General Perceval led to the Somme.
Take the 5th Battalion, York and Lancasters. On February 3rd, they
entrained for Longeau, marched four hours to Ailly, and reached Oissy
by motor-’bus on the 4th. ‘Hilly country,’ they note again with
satisfaction. Their machine-gunners were struck off strength to form a
Machine-Gun Company under Captain Rideal. March was spent in railway
work and training: ‘Regular hours and a fortnight’s rest have worked
wonders with the Battalion,’ we read after a month’s manual labour. ‘The
slackness due to nearly a year’s trench-life is no longer apparent, and
an entirely new stock of N.C.O.’s are beginning to give promise for the
future.’ And the future began to show more clearly. A whole week’s work
at the end of April was ‘devoted to training,’ especially to an ‘attack
on trenches south of Naours, which undoubtedly represent the German lines
opposite the Authuille Section. The 49th Division in reserve attacks
the German 3rd Line, the 1st and 2nd Lines already having been taken by
other Divisions, probably of the Corps’ (we are quoting from an account
of training-practice); and the Officer Commanding the Battalion, Lt.-Col.
Shuttleworth Rendall, D.S.O., added with keen anticipation: ‘All training
and the similarity of the ground seem to point to the fact that, at a
date not far distant, the 49th Division will attack the actual 3rd Line
of the German trenches in front of Authuille.’ It happened very much
as Colonel Rendall foresaw; and, when we come presently to the actual
fighting, we shall see that this gallant Officer was, unfortunately,
severely wounded shortly after the ‘date not far distant’ from the
rehearsal which he here reports. Meanwhile, on June 26th, Brigade
Operation Orders were received at Battalion Headquarters: ‘the utmost
secrecy still preserved. Day of attack, alluded to as Z day, not yet
notified. On Z day at Zero hour, artillery bombardment will lift from
German front line and attack will commence.’
There were four X and Y days still to run. Bad weather accounted for a
postponement from the 28th to the 30th June; and, while awaiting the
summons to the Assembly-trenches in Aveluy Wood, we may follow the story
of preparation in the log-book of yet another unit, the 4th West Riding
(Duke of Wellington’s) Regiment, with which we first made acquaintance in
Chapter II.
On January 15th they marched from Houtkerke, where they had lived for
a fortnight in farm-billets, to similar accommodation at Wormhoudt.
The Battalion remained in rest: ‘Company-drill, bayonet-fighting,
route-marching, bomb-throwing, etc., have been carried out, and the men
appear to have greatly benefited by the change’. On February 2nd came the
move to Longeau, and the march through Amiens to Ailly, which preceded,
as with other units of the Division, the tours in the trenches north
of Authuille and the working-parties of March to May. Lt.-Col. (later,
Brig.-General) E. G. St. Aubyn, D.S.O., at that time in Command of the
Battalion, was allotted special duties at Corps Headquarters at the end
of June, when Major J. Walker took Command. (Major E. P. Chambers had
been attached since early in April as Claims Officer to the Division).
The Birthday Honours included a D.S.O. for Major R. E. Sugden, two
Distinguished Conduct Medals and a Military Medal. At 2 p.m. on the last
day of June, the Battalion moved to Senlis, ‘to take part in operations.’
Every unit repeated the same experience: rest and recuperation in
January from the severe strain of the trenches on the Yser; a move
south-south-west early in February to the hilly country about Amiens;
trench-work and trench-warfare in the valleys of the Somme and the
Ancre; intensive training in offensive; elaborate, tireless fatigue-duty
in all kinds of labour behind the line: railways, tramways, causeways,
dressing stations, magazines, water-mains, communication-, assembly- and
assault-trenches, mining operations, and so forth; often under enemy
fire, with the weather ‘bad, on the whole,’ and ‘the local accommodation
totally insufficient,[54]’ and, at last, at the end of June, on the
agreed date, ‘to relieve the pressure on Verdun.’
II.—OPERATIONS ON THE SOMME
We are to remember in the first instance that the French and British
objective was limited. In order to relieve the German pressure on Verdun,
it was not necessary, however desirable it might be, to drive the enemy
out of France and Belgium. Strictly speaking, he was never driven out;
he begged an armistice for retirement; and, though his retreat became a
rout, it falls into its place in the war-history, as Sir Douglas Haig
indicated in his last Despatch, as the final stage of a gradual process,
in which, compared with older battles, months and miles were consumed
like hours and yards. A fairly clear perception of what was happening,
albeit two years before the end, was present to the mind of the British
Commander when he wrote his Second Despatch in December, 1916. There he
represented the Battles of the Somme as a phase, or stage, in a longer
battle, and the objects of the fighting on the Somme as subsidiary to the
objects of the war. Accordingly, we are not to expect, as at home, and
racked with acute anxiety, we were eager to expect at the time, that the
German defeat on the Somme would be equivalent to an Allied victory in
the war. Still less are we to repeat the practice, too common in 1916,
of dividing the yards of Allied gains into the miles of territory in
German occupation, in order to calculate a time-ratio from the quotient.
Space and time were never measurable by one calculus. Even a surrender
of space, as General Petain proved on the Meuse, and as Marshal Foch
was to prove in 1918, might diminish instead of increasing the force
of the enemy’s offensive. Always the war was greater than its battles,
and always a chief object at every stage was to wear down the enemy’s
resistance. Sir Douglas Haig, as we saw in the last chapter, was well
aware that the Battles of the Somme had not broken the enemy’s strength,
‘nor is it yet possible to form an estimate of the time the war may last
before the objects for which the Allies are fighting have been attained.
But the Somme battle,’ he declared with conviction, ‘has placed beyond
doubt the ability of the Allies to gain those objects.’ This, after all,
was all that mattered, and we do well to see the view from Olympus before
descending into the valley of the Somme.
It is the evening of June 30th, 1916. The diaries of units agree in their
accounts of these crowded, fateful hours. The 1/7th West Yorkshires’
record says:
‘June 30th. Battalion marched to Aveluy Wood, _via_ Hedauville,
Englebelmer and Martinsart, after dark. All transport moved to
position south-east of Hedauville, between that village and
Bouzincourt.
‘Not more than 25 Officers per Battalion were allowed to
go into action; the remainder, with a certain number of
Signallers, Lewis Gunners and Bombers went to Bouzincourt,
ready to be called upon when wanted.
‘July 1st. Battalion received orders about 8 a.m. to move
to assembly-trenches in Thiepval Wood, and all had arrived
there by noon. There was a good deal of shelling of the
assembly-trenches while we were getting into them, and a good
many casualties were caused, especially among the Lewis gun
teams.’
The 1/5th York and Lancasters state:
‘June 30th. 11 p.m. Battalion clear of Warloy on road to
assembly-trenches.
‘July 1st. 3-45 a.m. Whole Battalion in assembly-trenches,
Aveluy Wood.
—— 6-20 a.m. Intense bombardment commenced, and lasted for one
hour.’
The 1/6th West Yorkshires write:
‘June 30th. Battalion marched to assembly-trenches in Aveluy
Wood.
‘July 1st. 6-30 a.m. Heavy bombardment by our artillery of
enemy trenches. Battalion moved across the River Ancre and took
up a position in Thiepval Wood.’
The 1/4th West Ridings’ record runs:
‘Battalion moved from Senlis at 11-7 p.m. (30-6-16), marching
to assembly-trenches in Aveluy Wood, arriving about 2 a.m.
(1-7-16) under heavy shell-fire.’
We need not multiply this evidence. We should already be able to imagine
the quick, dark scheme of concentration, so far as the 49th Division was
concerned, in the first stage of the Allied programme for the relief of
the pressure on Verdun.
At this point we may look at the map (page 92).
We spoke on a previous page[55] of the line drawn from Douai to Lens,
working from east to west, on which a break-through by the French would
have shaken the defences of Lille at the apex of a triangle formed with
Lens and Douai at its bases. We are now to strike south of this line, and
taking Douai as our apex to draw a second triangle with Arras and Bapaume
at the lower angles (the further extension of this sketch is explained at
page 124 below):
[Illustration]
For the great battle for Paris or the coast, the great German invasion
of France, which was also an attack on British sea-power, has shifted its
centre from Ypres; and, while the Crown Prince of Prussia is hammering
at Verdun, as the eastern gate to Paris, the French and British Army
Commanders in the north-west of France have resolved to try to advance
(to push the Germans further back, that is to say), on, roughly, a
north-easterly front, looking from Amiens through Albert to Bapaume.
This, broadly, is the key to a situation, which we have been following in
diminishing degrees from the big, strategic plans in high places to the
disposition of units and individuals. We have watched the preparations
for that advance: the movements of troops by rail and road; the eyes of
the army in the air; the ears of the army underground; the elaborate
collection of war-material; the construction of permanent ways, and
so forth. We see now the relation in space of the campaign of 1916 to
the campaign of 1915. The tidal wave has ebbed away from Ypres, and
has surged more furiously against Verdun; we are to change our focus,
accordingly, from the Yser Canal to the River Somme, and from the Channel
ports to Paris; and in this sector, narrowing our survey, as the vast
movement unfolds into details, we are most particularly concerned with
the straight line, laid on a Roman road, which runs south-west from
Bapaume to Albert. It is rather more westerly in direction, and about
half the length of the road down to Bapaume from Douai. Travelling along
its well-laid surface from north-east to south-west, we pass through Le
Sars, Pozières and La Boisselle, the last a little to the left of the
line. The nodal point, or meeting-place, or starting-place, is the town
of Albert on the Ancre, ‘a small, straggling town built of red brick
along a knot of cross-roads at a point where the swift chalk-river Ancre,
hardly more than a brook, is bridged and so channelled that it can be
used for power.’[56] Westward from Albert is Amiens; eastward we saw,
Bapaume. Next, follow the chalk-stream of the Ancre, northward under
Albert’s bridges, through its native banks and braes. For our range of
vision is being contracted, and we are coming through Army Commanders’
plans to the men appointed to carry them out in their destined stations
along the line. About two miles north of Albert on the west bank of the
Ancre are the first trees of Aveluy Wood, where our assembly-trenches
lay. Martinsart lies behind this Wood, Mesnil and Hamel are beyond it,
Bouzincourt just below it to the rear. Opposite, on the east bank of
the Ancre, about three miles to the north of Albert, lies the village
of Authuille, north of which again is Thiepval Wood, looking backwards
at Hamel and Mesnil on the safe, west side of the little river, and
facing ‘the German line opposite the Authuille section,’ just as Colonel
Rendall (and, doubtless, many others) had imagined the situation in that
dress-rehearsal by Naours which we attended at the end of April. Thiepval
village is on the German side of our front line.
[Illustration: THE SOMME FRONT. BRITISH.]
So we reach by gradual delimitation, by a _diminuendo_ process, as it
were, the task allotted to Major-General Perceval, Commanding the 49th
Division, on July 1st, 1916.[57] ‘Z’ day has arrived at last. The vast
plans for the relief of Verdun are now about to be set in motion. Home
Governments have expressed their approval, and have sent the munitions
and the men. Due weight has been given to outside considerations in this
war on many fronts: to the needs of Italy and Russia, the disappointment
of Germany at sea, the inclination of the United States of America. From
the dunes of Calais to the Picardy hills, north-west France has become
an armed camp, with the ceaseless movement of the immense accumulation
of animate and inanimate material which nearly two years’ experience has
proved to be essential for modern warfare. All the while, as Sir Douglas
Haig reminds us in his great Second Despatch, ‘the rôle of the other
armies holding our defensive line ... was neither light nor unimportant.
While required to give precedence in all respects to the Somme battle,
they were responsible for the security of the line held by them and for
keeping the enemy on their front constantly on the alert.’ Verily, a huge
organization to be stated in terms of unit action and of the prowess of
individual men. It was a long way from Sir Douglas Haig to Aveluy Wood:
the 49th was only one of five Divisions (the 12th, 25th, 32nd, 36th and
49th), which composed the Xth Corps of the Fifth Army.
Our business lies between Authuille and Thiepval. We have fined down the
vaster issues to the operations east of Authuille, where the British line
bulged towards the Ancre in an ugly angle known as the Leipsic Salient.
The fighting to which we now come is all round and about that Salient,
between the point where the British front line crossed the River Ancre at
Hamel to the point where it met the Albert-Bapaume road. If we realize
that the object of this fighting was to straighten and push back that
bulge, and so to contribute to the advance of the long Allied line on the
Somme battlefield, we may return to the men who fought there in the early
days of July, 1916. It is one thing to show on a map, on however large a
scale, the increasing depth of the British front line at various dates
after July 1st; it is another thing to visualize that line in the actual
mud, trees, slopes, which composed it, and to recount the conditions day
by day, under which it swayed forward and back, in front and beyond and
across the magnificently fortified German trenches.
Take the 7th West Yorkshires, for example.
We left them at noon on July 1st in their assembly-trenches in Thiepval
Wood. While the sun was still high in the heaven, about half-past five in
the afternoon, Brigade orders (146th Infantry) arrived for the attack.
The 5th and 6th Battalions of the Regiment were to go over the top in an
attempt to capture Thiepval village, the 8th was detailed for support,
and the 7th for reserve. Some hot hours of confused fighting ensued. The
7th Battalion was told off to man the original British front line trench,
from the point where it touched the east bank of the Ancre to a point
known as Hammerhead Gap, at the top of Thiepval Wood. This move was being
completed with great difficulty, owing, mainly, to the congestion of the
trenches by the wounded and stragglers of the 36th (Ulster) Division,
when an Officer of that Division, Commanding the 9th Royal Irish Rifles,
made an earnest request for help to reinforce his men in the German
lines. Two Companies (C and D) of the 7th West Yorkshires made their way
to these captured trenches, leaving A and B Companies to hold the British
front and support lines. The fall of night brought no rest to this unit.
The 36th Division became able to hold its own, and the half-Battalion
from the 49th was ordered to withdraw. This order was not easy to carry
out in the darkness, weariness and general _mêlée_, and about forty men
of C Company found themselves stranded for the night (July 1st-2nd) in
the disagreeable hospitality of the German line. They were well led by
a non-commissioned Officer, Corporal (later, Sergeant) George Sanders,
who was recommended for his valuable work and great personal bravery
by the Officers of the Royal Irish Rifles. Later, Sanders received the
supreme decoration of the Victoria Cross[58] for his gallant conduct in
this action, and six of the brave men with him were awarded Military
Medals. The whole Battalion was withdrawn to Aveluy Wood, and reached the
assembly-trenches about 11 o’clock on the night of July 2nd; thirty-six
hours, or a little less, after they had assembled on the 1st. They had
lost 16 killed, 144 wounded and about 20 missing; they had gained a
Victoria Cross, some experience, and—four days’ rest.
Take another unit of the 49th Division: the 5th Battalion of the York
and Lancaster Regiment, in the 148th Infantry Brigade. We left them
proceeding to Aveluy Wood just before midnight on June 30th. The first
instalment of their story in the present action is to last almost exactly
a week: from 1-30 p.m. on July 1st, when the Battalion moved out of the
assembly-trenches, till 8-30 p.m. on July 8th, when they were relieved by
the 7th West Ridings, and went into huts in Martinsart Wood. The story
makes sad but gallant reading. They sustained in those seven days and
nights a total of 307 casualties. Their Commanding Officer was wounded
and missing, their Officer 2nd in Command was killed, another Officer
had died of wounds, thirteen more were wounded or missing. In other
Ranks, 56 were killed and three had died of wounds; 204 were wounded and
44 missing: a heavy toll to be extracted from one Battalion towards the
relief of the pressure on Verdun.
The price was paid without reckoning the cost, and we shall not follow
in detail the experiences of this unit during that week. They moved first
to where the British front line touched the left bank of the Ancre. Major
Shaw took A and B Companies to the north side of that line; Lt.-Col.
Rendall, with C and D Companies was posted on the south side. Captain G.
A. G. Hewitt at this juncture retired to hospital suffering from shock.
The fighting went on from hour to hour with very varying fortune: at one
time, there seemed a possibility of a successful assault on St. Pierre
Divion, the next village north of the line; at other times, the utmost
efforts were required to extricate the wounded. On July 5th, Aveluy Wood
was shelled practically for the first time. High explosive, shrapnel and
lachrymatory shells were employed, and found all the assembly-trenches;
captured maps and prisoners’ information were no doubt responsible for
this disaster. Early in the morning of the 6th, seven officers and eighty
other ranks went out in two bombing parties to capture a front-line
trench; no Officer and twenty-two other Ranks returned. It was in this
action that Lt.-Col. Rendall, D.S.O., Commanding the Battalion, had
to be left wounded in a German dug-out, and that Major Shaw, 2nd in
Command, was killed. The failure was due to the good German sniping,
too heavy bombs for effective throwing, and a communication-trench not
deep enough to pass them through. It was stubborn fighting, we see,
and very difficult progress was made. But one Division in one Corps of
one Army was not the whole fighting force which the Allies brought to
the Somme, and some relief may be found by looking through German eyes
at the results on July 1st in another sector. We have already referred
to the War Diary for this period of the 55th Reserve Infantry Regiment
(the 2nd Guard Reserve Division), which was holding the German line in
front of Gommecourt six or seven miles north of Hamel. Their experience
is no doubt typical of the enemy’s sufferings all along the line. Thus
we read of an intense bombardment, ‘overwhelming all the trenches,
and sweeping away the wire’; of the ‘thick charging waves of English
infantry’; of every round from the English guns pitching into the trench,
‘thus rendering its occupation even by detached posts impossible’;
of telephonic communication destroyed by the bombardment, so that
‘Regimental Headquarters were without news of the progress of events’; of
the English ‘excellent maps,’ and the ‘most disturbing effect’ of English
aeroplanes: and, so reading, we begin to perceive another side to the
picture. Such records of failure and disappointment, of forlorn hopes and
forfeited successes, as occur in the journals of our own units are seen
in a truer perspective when the long line of battle is displayed. Even
the rain in which some wet Yorkshiremen spent a miserable night (July
7th) by the roadside fell impartially on the other side of the road, and
was duly chronicled by dripping Germans; and, when we are told that C and
D Companies of the 6th Battalion of the West Yorkshires, who ‘went over
the parapet to the attack’ at 4 p.m. on July 1st, had to retire to their
own trenches with their Signalling Officer (Lieut. Dodd) killed, their
Commanding Officer (Lt.-Col. Wade) and two other Officers wounded, we
take consolation from the entry which follows next in the same journal:
‘Enemy reported to be massing opposite our front for a counter-attack,
which, however, did not develop.’ ‘Enemy’ did not have it his own way all
the time.
Let us follow this unit a little further. During the first fortnight
of July, step by step, and with many a step backward before two steps
forward could be taken, German trenches in the Leipsic Salient had been
occupied, and improved footholds had been won. Every effort was being
made to consolidate and extend the new positions, and it happened on July
14th, at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, that this Battalion (the 6th West
Yorkshires) took over that portion from the 7th. The 7th had had a rough
experience. In the early morning of July 13th they had been attacked by
German bombers, who, according to Colonel Tetley’s testimony, evinced
‘great bravery and disregard of danger.’ At one time they rushed a
British trench, ‘but were bombed out by 2/Lieut. F. J. Baldwin and men of
A Company.... Practically all our bombers were casualties.’ The Battalion
lost 15 killed and 92 wounded in this exploit, but Major-General Perceval
assured them that their ‘stubborn fighting had materially assisted in the
success of the larger operation on the British front,’ and Lieut. Baldwin
was awarded the Military Cross and two N.C.O.’s the Distinguished Conduct
Medal.
The night of the 14th-15th was fairly quiet. Both sides were attending
to their wounded. But early in the morning of July 15th, when the 6th
Battalion had relieved the 7th, the Germans returned to the attack, and
this attempt, very pluckily repulsed, is memorable for the use of a
weapon, new in the experience of the defenders, and hardly less horrible
in its first effect than the surprise of poison-gas at Ypres. We have the
advantage of a graphic description of the three hours’ fighting on that
morning from the pen of Lieut. Meekosha, V.C., who took part in it as a
non-commissioned Officer.[59] He writes:
‘About 3-30 a.m. the Germans launched their dastardly attack
with liquid fire, the only warning we received being the
terrifying shrieks of those unfortunate sentries who came into
contact with the flame. Then came a hail of hand grenades, a
few of the Boches coming as far as our own parapet, hoping
to find our men demoralized. For their pains they were each
presented with at least one well-aimed bullet. Our men then
lined the parapet with as much speed and ammunition as
possible, and let the Hun have it for all they were worth.
Another party of Boches, well stacked with bombs, had already
stormed one of our saps, which had been blocked about half way.
Our Battalion bombers were at once called out to deal with this
party, and, fighting their way foot by foot, cleared every
living Boche from the sap, a fact which reflected no little
credit on our men, being, as they were, at a disadvantage from
the very beginning. Our Stokes Mortar Battery was then set to
work on the German front line, and to see old Fritz jump on
to his own parapet, run a few yards as hard as he could go,
and then into his own trench again (provided that he did not
get a bullet in the attempt, our machine-guns and rifles being
on the look out for opportunities) was the best amusement I
had had for weeks. This went on for about three hours, during
which time the work of our Officers and N.C.O.’s was cut out in
stopping our men from rushing headlong into the Hun trenches in
their eagerness to kill as many Boches as possible in as little
time as possible. Unfortunately, a few of the good men lost
their lives during this fighting, but we had the satisfaction
of knowing that, for every one lost, the Hun lost at least four.
‘Thus ended our first experience under liquid fire.
‘After this, our boys set to and cooked for themselves the
breakfast they so richly deserved.’
It was after this fashion that the pressure on Verdun was relieved.
Sir Douglas Haig is quite clear on this point. He admitted that, ‘north
of the valley of the Ancre, on the left flank of our attack, our initial
successes were not sustained’; that ‘the enemy’s continued resistance
at Thiepval and Beaumont Hamel (29th Division) made it impossible to
forward reinforcements and ammunition, and, in spite of their gallant
efforts, our troops were forced to withdraw’; and that ‘the subsidiary
attack at Gommecourt also forced its way into the enemy’s positions;
but there met with such vigorous opposition that ... our troops were
withdrawn’[60]. These were the first day’s experiences. The succeeding
days, as we have seen, brought certain adjustments for the better, even
in the difficult region where General Perceval’s gallant troops had to
fight their troublesome way up slopes of mud from the valley of the
Ancre to the deeply fortified positions which the Germans held with
machine-guns, rifles and liquid flame. But they did not bring conspicuous
success. They were not expected to bring it, as a fact. As we have looked
at the fighting at close quarters, so we are to look at the results
through Command spectacles. The Battle of the Somme was not won, nor was
it intended to be won, between Thiepval village and Authuille, where the
Leipsic Salient bulged inwards. ‘The British main front of attack,’ we
are told in the same Despatch, ‘extended from Maricourt on our right,
round the Salient at Fricourt, to the Ancre in front of St. Pierre
Divion’; that is, from the bank of the River Somme to the Albert-Bapaume
road and north of it. But ‘to assist this main attack by holding the
enemy’s reserves and occupying his Artillery’ (not, note, by capturing
his defences), ‘the enemy’s trenches north of the Ancre, as far as Serre
inclusive, were to be assaulted simultaneously’; and, further north,
‘a subsidiary attack’ was to be made at Gommecourt. So clear did this
distinction become in the early stages of the battle, and so plain was
the dividing line between the holding and the pushing forces, that Sir
Douglas Haig decided to separate the Commands: ‘In order that General
Sir Henry Rawlinson might be left free to concentrate his attention
on the portion of the front where the attack was to be pushed home, I
also decided to place the operations against the front, La Boisselle to
Serre, under the command of General Sir Hubert de la P. Gough.... My
instructions to Sir Hubert Gough were that his Army was to maintain a
steady pressure on the front from La Boisselle to the Serre Road, and
to act as a pivot, on which our line could swing as our attacks on his
right made progress towards the north.’ Moreover, ‘our attacks on his
right’ (Sir Henry Rawlinson’s on Sir Hubert Gough’s) must be associated,
in a larger survey, with the simultaneous French attacks under their
own Command. Accordingly, it is wholly just to say that the containing
action of the 49th Division, when the first impetus of the units had
been checked, developed exactly according to plan, in a military phrase
rendered famous by another Army. Up to July 7th, the enemy’s forces
north of La Boisselle ‘were kept constantly engaged, and our holding in
the Leipsic Salient was gradually increased’; and, after July 7th, as
the Commander-in-Chief wrote, ‘the enemy in and about Ovillers had been
pressed relentlessly, and gradually driven back by incessant bombing
attacks and local assaults,[61]’ among which, one among many, may be
mentioned a very gallant night attack by the 8th West Yorks. Thus, Sir
Douglas Haig’s view from Olympus informs the Battalion records, and
we shall see in the further course of the Somme battle how fully his
instructions were observed till the time came to swing round on Sir
Hubert Gough’s pivot.
CHAPTER VIII
I.—OPERATIONS ON THE SOMME—(_Continued_).
It is not seemly to be too modest about the Somme, nor to insist
over-much upon the limitation of the Allied objective. We know that it
was not intended to drive the Germans out of France; at least, not in
1916. As a fact, in the Spring of 1917 there was a big German retirement,
which was only voluntary in the sense that the enemy bowed to necessity
before necessity broke him, and again, in the Autumn of 1918, there was
another big German retreat, which brought the war to an end. They take a
short view who fail to see the direct and intimate connection between the
campaign of 1916 and the decisive results in the following two years. The
British Commander, while the future was still veiled, had no illusions on
this point. Wielding, like the Castilian knight of old, ‘now the pen and
now the sword,’ Sir Douglas Haig, when he indited his great Despatch on
December 29th, 1916, stated without reserve, that:
‘Verdun had been relieved; the main German forces had been held
on the Western front; and the enemy’s strength had been very
considerably worn down. Any one of these results is in itself
sufficient,’ he avowed, ‘to justify the Somme battle. The
attainment of all three of them affords ample compensation for
the splendid efforts of our troops and for the sacrifices made
by ourselves and our Allies. They have brought us a long step
forward towards the final victory of the Allied cause.[62]’
‘A long step forward,’ not necessarily in the eyes of the old men and
children who stuck pins in their wall-maps at home; and yet not a short
step either, even when measured by this exacting standard. Let us look at
the map once more and stick in some imaginary pins on our own account.
First, take the straight, white road from Albert to Bapaume, and divide
it into eleven equal parts, representing its length of, approximately,
eleven miles. Just before the second milestone (or mile-pin) from Albert,
mark the point where the Allied line crossed the road on July 1st, 1916,
and just beyond the eight milestone mark the point where the Allied line
crossed the road on December 31st. They had devoured (or ‘nibbled’ was
the word) six miles in six months, including the villages of Pozières
and Le Sars, and were less than three miles distant from Bapaume. Next,
observe the effect of this protrusion on the reach, or embrace, of
the Allied arms. Take the Ancre and the Somme as frontiers, and prick
out from the point by the second milestone a line running northwards
to the left of Thiepval and across the Ancre to Beaumont-Hamel, and
southwards to the left of Fricourt and Mametz, then to the right of
Maricourt, then left of Curlu to the Somme. This was the Allied line
on July 1st. Take the same boundaries again, and prick out from the
point by the eighth milestone a line running northwards to the left of
Warlencourt and Grandcourt, then to the right of Thiepval, Beaucourt
and Beaumont-Hamel, and southwards to the right of Flers, Lesbœufs,
Sailly, Rancourt, Bouchavesnes and Clèry to the Somme. This, roughly,
was the Allied line on December 31st. The pricked-in area, rhombic in
shape, which means neither round nor square, encloses a large number
of square miles re-captured from reluctant Germans. It did not include
Bapaume itself, nor Péronne, nor St. Quentin, nor Brussels; the time for
these had not arrived. But it took in many towns and hamlets which had
known the foot of the invader, it broke huge masses of fortified works
which had been designed to shoe the invader’s foot, and, consequently,
it seriously shook the moral power of German resistance. We shall not
measure the acres of French territory released, for we have no standard
by which to calculate the effect of Verdun relieved on the German armies
driven homewards between the Ancre and the Somme. Nor is a yard by yard
advance properly expressed in terms of mileage. Take any one of the
positions re-captured: Mametz, Trônes, Combles, Thiepval itself, and
review it for a moment in the series of defences, artificial and natural
and natural-artificial, which the tenacious attackers had to overcome.
Thus, between Fricourt and Mametz Wood were Lonely Copse, the Crucifix,
Shelter Wood, Railway Copse, Bottom Wood, the Quadrangle, etc.: every
name a miniature Waterloo to the gallant men who fought and fell there.
Nowhere in all that area could a sixteenth of a mile be gained without
an elaborate battle-plan and a battle, or several battles, taxing to
the utmost the endurance of troops dedicated to victory and resolute to
death. So, ‘they brought us a long step forward towards the final victory
of the Allied cause.’
We are to contract our range once more to the scope of the 49th Division,
and to consider that ‘step’ more particularly in the region north of
Albert by the Ancre, where Sir Hubert Gough commanded the Fifth Army. It
was not a sensational record. If we follow the Diary of that Army, say,
from July 21st to the end of September, we receive, mainly, an impression
of containing work excellently done, while the shock of battle broke
afar. A few of these entries may be cited:
‘July 21st. 49th Division in Leipsic Salient....
‘July 23rd. Attack by 48th Division and 1st Australian
Division. Good progress. 49th Division front South of River
Ancre....
‘July 29th. 49th Division left of 12th Division to River
Ancre....
‘Aug. 27th. 49th Division relieved 25th Division....
‘Sept. 3rd. South of Ancre 49th Division attacked....
‘Sept. 24th. 18th Division relieved 49th Division....
‘Sept. 27th. 11th Division captured Stuff Redoubt.
‘Sept. 28th. 18th Division attacked Schwaben Redoubt.’
Except on September 3rd, to which we shall come back, the work of the
49th Division, seen from this angle of vision, appears more passive than
active.
Let us enlarge the angle considerably. Instead of Sir Hubert Gough’s,
consult Major-General Perceval’s Diary, the Divisional instead of the
Army Commander’s. We come nearer to action in that aspect.
Between July 21st and the 27th there were ‘three encounters with the
enemy in the Leipsic Salient.’ On the 21st, he made a bombing attack; on
the 22nd, the 4th York and Lancasters ‘attempted to extend our position
in the Salient to the east by surprise,’ but were foiled; on the 23rd,
the 4th King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry made a similar attempt, ‘but
consolidation was prevented by a heavy counter-attack from all sides, and
our troops retired to their original line.’ From the Army Commander’s
point of view, a single entry sufficed for these exploits; the Divisional
Commander had to account for nearly five hundred casualties in the period.
Take the 28th of July to the 4th of August. There were 279 casualties in
the Division, due, partly, to ‘a considerable amount of trench-mortar
fire on the Leipsic Salient and Authuille Wood’; and who shall say
but that every wounded man made a definite contribution to the Somme
advance? Yet Sir Hubert Gough was content to observe: ‘49th Division
left of 12th.’ Or, August 26th to September 1st. General Perceval’s
entry on the 27th merely repeats (or we should say, anticipates) Sir
Hubert Gough’s at greater length: ‘Divisional Headquarters returned
from Acheux to Hedauville, and at mid-day the Command of the line from
Thiepval Avenue (exclusive) to River Ancre passed from 25th to 49th
Division.’ There is a further entry in this Diary, which, being a record
of work done in the ordinary course of duty, the Army Commander did not
reproduce: ‘With a view to an attack on German trenches north of Thiepval
Wood, the new saps and parallels to the north of the Wood have been
completed, ammunition-trenches improved, and dumps formed and filled with
ammunition, bombs, R.E. stores, etc.’
So far the Divisional Commander, in expansion of Sir Hubert Gough. There
are next the Battalion Commanders to be consulted; and, still omitting at
present the Divisional record of the week including September 3rd, when
‘49th Division attacked,’ we may once more enlarge the angle, and examine
this preparation for attack from a Battalion Commander’s point of view.
Thus, we read that:
‘On August 26th, the Battalion[63] was sent up to the trenches
on the right of Thiepval Wood.... Captain R. Salter was killed
instantaneously by a shell as soon as he got to Battalion
Headquarters. We were in this line for only two days, but had
52 casualties as there was a good deal of shelling.... The
Battalion was relieved on August 28th by the 5th K.O.Y.L.I.,
and went into huts in Martinsart Wood; from here we had to find
large working parties in the front line for two or three days,
and then had a rest until the attack on September 3rd.’
We are brought back, like Master Pathelin, _à nos moutons_. The ‘long
step forward’ was achieved, the Battle of the Somme was won, by the
Allied Armies working to the plans of Sir Douglas Haig and Marshal
Joffre. Those plans included the provision of a separate Army on the
Ancre, to hold the German forces in that area, and to make what progress
they could. The Commander of that Fifth Army was Sir Hubert Gough, and
Major-General Perceval’s West Riding (49th) Division was included as a
unit of its Xth Corps. What happened, then, on September 3rd, when the
new saps and parallels had been constructed, the communication-trenches
improved, and the dumps filled with bombs and ammunition? How did the
49th attack, and what have the Officers Commanding its Battalions to add
to the bare record of Sir Hubert Gough or the more expansive Diary of the
Divisional Commander?
The units immediately concerned were the 4th and 5th Battalions, West
Riding Regiment, and the 6th and 8th Battalions, West Yorks. The
7th Battalion of each Regiment was stationed in reserve. The week’s
casualties in the Division were high:
OFFICERS. OTHER RANKS.
Killed 14 196
Wounded 47 994
Missing 17 611
-- ----
78 1801
-- ----
Total 1879
and the bulk of them occurred on September 3rd. The large percentage of
missing in all ranks (more than a third of the whole) seems to indicate a
hasty retreat from untenable positions.
The presumption is borne out by Battalion records. These agree that
co-operation was interrupted by a bad block in communication, and that
Battalions were not able to render one another all the support that was
expected. Each unit tended to believe that its own advance was held up,
or, rather, that its withdrawal was necessitated, by what had happened on
its right or left; and, consequently, the exploits of individuals were
more conspicuous than the conduct of the attack. Zero hour was 5-10 a.m.,
and the Companies left the trenches punctually and went over in good
order. But the half-light caused some confusion, and communication proved
very difficult. In the instance of several Battalions no definite news
was received for three hours or more. Runners failed to get through, and
rumours were not satisfactory. At last, about 9 o’clock, tidings began
to arrive of heavy losses incurred in trying to consolidate captured
positions under a cross enfilade of machine-gun and rifle fire. Remnants
of Companies, driven back after a long morning’s heavy fighting told of
the exhaustion of their bombs, and of their messages lost in No Man’s
Land. Stray parties cut off in the attack, found cover in shell-holes
until nightfall. One Commanding Officer frankly wrote, ‘the whole attack
failed.’ ‘The objectives were gained,’ he summed up, ‘but the first
casualties in Officers and N.C.O.’s were heavy, and therefore the men
with power of “leadership” were lost when most needed to hold on. The
presence of the enemy in the Pope’s Nose (a machine-gun nest at an early
point) upset all chances of reinforcements and supply except across
the open’—an almost impossible condition. The runners, as we saw, did
not get across, and the light was too bad for the observation posts to
give effective help. On the other hand, the daylight was too strong
to consolidate under fire the battered German trenches which had been
captured. There was, unfortunately, a ‘but’ or an ‘if’ which qualified
every record of success; and we may quote the following statement from a
Battalion Diary, which gives a very fair impression of the whole episode:
‘From the reports of the two Officers who returned to Battalion
Headquarters from the battle, it was ascertained that for
the most part a really good fight was put up. If Battalion
Headquarters had been able to get any information back, it is
practically certain that the position would not have been lost.
The men fought splendidly, and in many cases without N.C.O.’s
or Officers, and the losing of the captured position was a
piece of bad luck.’
‘What remained of our assaulting troops,’ says General Perceval, ‘were
back in our trenches,’ about 10 a.m., having ‘sustained heavy casualties
and lost most of their Officers.’ A re-attack was planned for 6 p.m., but
was countermanded during the afternoon, and the 146th Infantry Brigade
was withdrawn to Forceville and the 147th to Hedauville. So, the 49th
Division had attacked, and the whole attack had failed; but between these
two bald statements lie detailed records of a courageous attempt, which
we shall not pursue further, but which contributed in this hard-held
sector to the ‘long step forward’ which was being taken on the Allied
front at large. German records, so far as we have seen them, confirm
the seriousness of the attack. We read there how ‘matters had meanwhile
become still worse,’ and how Company was added to Company in order to
meet the impending danger. ‘Lieut. Engel’s Company signalled “Please
send support,”’ and his experience was repeated in other sectors; ‘our
_Minenwerfer_ intervened at the most opportune moment’. On the whole, the
enemy’s accounts increase admiration for the 49th Division.
It is particularly interesting to record that, in the course of this
summer and autumn, a Regiment of Yorkshire Yeomanry met their friends
of the 49th Division in and about the defences of Thiepval. We shall
come, in Chapter XIV below, to the experiences of the Mounted Troops
who left the West Riding for France during 1915. There we shall see how
they served as Divisional Cavalry for several months, and how, in May,
1916, they were re-organized as Corps Cavalry, and were set to do various
duties, not always appropriate to their Arm, which they discharged with
a thoroughness and an efficiency worthy of the best traditions of the
Service. The Yorkshire Dragoons were posted to the IInd Corps, which,
on July 25th, 1916, took over that sector of the Fifth Army front which
lay between Ovillers-la-Boisselle and Thiepval. The hopes of a Cavalry
situation, unfortunately, never materialized, but the Dragoons did
excellent work during the Battle of the Somme by maintaining Observation
Posts in forward areas, thus short-circuiting the means of communication
between Corps Headquarters and Battalion Commanders. ‘During operations,’
we are told, ‘information received in this way and from other sources
was embodied each day in maps and reports, which were sent up by
despatch rider during the night, and reached front line units in time
for the usual attack at dawn.... The observers were sometimes asked to
undertake special work of great importance. Before several attacks they
were required to reconnoitre and map the enemy’s wire. The slightest
mistake might have lost hundreds of lives, but it was never made.’
Among the names which we may mention _honoris causa_ in connection with
this service are those of Captain, later Major, R. Brooke; Major, later
Lieut.-Col., R. Thompson; Sergts. Storer and Tinker (Military Medals),
and Corpl., later Sergt., Cranswick (Bar to M.M.).
Let us consult the map once more.
[Illustration: THIEPVAL DEFENCES.]
In the extreme right-hand corner will be seen the village of Pozières
on the straight road (Albert-Bapaume), which ran diagonally across the
battlefield. In the extreme left-hand bottom corner are Martinsart
and Martinsart Wood, on the safe side of the River Ancre, where spent
Battalions of the 49th Division used to withdraw to lick their wounds.
The course of the Ancre is clearly shown from just above Albert to
Miraumont, winding its stream under Authuille and Hamel Bridges; and
between Authuille and St. Pierre Divion lie Thiepval and Thiepval Wood,
the possession of which was so hotly contested since the battle was first
joined on July 1st. The more we look at this timbered countryside, with
its chalk-pits, its farms and mills, the more unsuitable it seems to
the red carnage of 1916. Yet the troops behaved magnificently, and Sir
Douglas Haig sent several messages during these trying weeks to express
his thanks and appreciation. To one Battalion he sent on August 30th by
the hands of the Divisional Commander a sprig of white heather as an
emblem of good luck. Hard though the going was, and bad though the luck
seemed to be, making acclimatization tedious and difficult, it rarely
happened, even among raw troops, that the conditions proved too exacting.
Very typical of the spirit of the Division, in the midst of its harassing
experiences, where the room designed by nature for smiles was too narrow
almost to contain its special circles of man’s inferno, was the part
borne in the third week of September by the 7th Battalion of the West
Riding Regiment. They had been at Hedauville since September 4th, at
two hours’ march from Martinsart Wood, whither, in order to go into the
line, they moved on Friday, September 15th. There they had tea, and took
rations for the next day, and were loaded with two bombs per man, and
so proceeded from 7 p.m. to new trenches, south of Thiepval, which had
been captured only the night before. The relief was delayed in execution
partly by artillery barrage, partly by an attack of German bombers,
partly by heavy rain, and partly by too few guides; there was only one
guide to each Company, ‘and these were strange to the trenches and had
difficulty in finding the way.’ It was completed by 4-20 in the morning
(September 16th), and during ‘intermittent shelling’ all that Saturday
arrangements were concerted for an attack on the German trenches in the
evening of the 17th. This operation was most successful; on the left an
objective was gained, and held, 350 feet in advance of schedule. The
details are not uninteresting, and will repay closer study, not because
the area of the attack was large in proportion to the whole battlefield,
but because it was difficult _terrain_ and the obstacles were well
overcome.
Just north of the famous Leipsic Salient on the map, lay, first,
the Hohenzollern Trench and, secondly, the Wonder Work: two strongly
fortified positions. Eastward out of Thiepval, from the point where the
road from the Cemetery meets the main road in a right angle, ran the
Zollern Trench, terminating (for present purposes) at the Zollern Redoubt
north of Mouquet Farm. Further along the road from the Cemetery, at a
point about as far north of the Crucifix as the Cemetery is south of
it, the Stuff Trench started to run eastwards, parallel to the Zollern
Trench below. It was very elaborately fortified, and terminated in the
Stuff Redoubt still further above Mouquet Farm. The Regina Trench ran
further eastward, from about the point where the Stuff Trench terminated.
Parallel with the road from the Cemetery and Crucifix, the Lucky Way ran
up towards Grandcourt, and the Grandcourt Trench branched off eastward a
little below the village, again in a parallel line with the Regina and
Zollern Trenches. West of that Cemetery road and crossing the Divion
Road about half-way between the Cemetery and St. Pierre Divion was the
horrible Schwaben Redoubt; and, though these names do not exhaust the
German defences of Thiepval, they recall sufficiently the opposition to
the 7th West Ridings and their support on this third Sunday in September.
The assault was made in four waves at intervals of fifteen, twenty and
fifteen feet, the unit being a Platoon. A Bomb Squad, consisting of one
N.C.O. and eleven other Ranks, accompanied each half-Company, and every
man of the last two waves carried either a pick or a shovel. Report
Centres, main and subsidiary, Battalion Scouts, and other special parties
were detailed for duty, and all Troops were reported in position at 6
p.m. Nearly everything went right, except that a portion of D Company,
including both Lewis Guns and their detachments, were believed to have
advanced towards the Row of Apple Trees, and were either taken prisoners
or wiped out by machine-gun fire. About 7 o’clock reports were received
that the objective had been captured, though it was doubtful how the left
flank had fared. The total casualties in this little action were five
Officers and 215 other Ranks. Certain valuable lessons were learned:
the action proved that the jumping-off trench should be parallel to the
objective (this precaution enabled direction to be kept accurately); that
every man, and not merely the last comers, should carry a pick or shovel,
fastened to his body by rope or tape; and that the consolidating parties
should either be kept back till the barrage stops or require dug-outs:
trivial details, perhaps, but they saved life and added to efficiency. We
may add that the Army Commander, Sir Hubert Gough, visited the Battalion
on September 19th, and expressed his satisfaction with the operation,
which gained an important part of the enemy defences after five previous
attempts had failed, and served to straighten the line held by the 147th
Infantry Brigade north of the Leipsic Salient.
A still more important lesson had been learned, and the means were now
at hand to apply it. If these formidable blockhouses were to be crushed,
a new military weapon was essential, and early on September 15th the
first Tank waddled into warfare. From this date to the end of September,
by a brilliant series of advances from the south, across and along the
Albert-Bapaume Road, a victorious crown was put to the tenacious vigil
and hard fighting of the Fifth Army, and the attack swung round at last
on the pivot held by Sir Hubert Gough. This attack (September 26th) was
described by Sir Douglas Haig as not less than
‘a brilliant success. On the right,’ he narrated, ‘our troops
(2nd and 1st Canadians Divisions of the Canadian Corps,
Lieut.-General Sir J. H. G. Byng) reached the system of
enemy trenches which formed their objectives without great
difficulty. In Thiepval and the strong works to the north of
it the enemy’s resistance was more desperate. Three waves of
our attacking troops (11th and 18th Divisions, II. Corps,
Lieut.-General C. W. Jacob) carried the outer defences of
Mouquet Farm, and, pushing on, entered Zollern Redoubt, which
they stormed and consolidated.... On the left of the attack
fierce fighting, in which Tanks again gave valuable assistance
to our troops (18th Division), continued in Thiepval during
that day and the following night, but by 8-30 a.m. on the 27th
September the whole of the village of Thiepval was in our
hands.... On the same date the south and west sides of Stuff
Redoubt were carried by our troops (11th Division), together
with the length of trench connecting that strong point with
Schwaben Redoubt to the west, and also the greater part of the
enemy’s defensive line eastwards along the northern slopes of
the ridge. Schwaben Redoubt was assaulted during the afternoon
of the 28th September (18th Division), and ... we captured
the whole of the southern face of the Redoubt and pushed out
patrols to the northern face and towards St. Pierre Divion’[64]:
grand exploits these, and infinitely welcome to the gallant Territorials
of the West Riding, who had shared since July 1st in the long and
formidable task of holding that north-west corner till the appointed hour
struck for its fall, and their work could be resumed and fitted in with
the larger plans of the Allied Commands.
We might close the present chapter here. The full story of September
15th and the days which followed at Thiepval is involved with other
volumes of war history than that of the 49th Division. The romance of
the coming of the Tanks belongs to the Machine-Gun Corps, Heavy Section;
the death of Raymond Asquith in the attack belongs to the Grenadier
Guards, and to the eminent family of which he was a member. What belongs
to us, as the inalienable heritage of the Troops commanded by General
Perceval, is the fact that for three months, less three days, from their
first assembly in Aveluy Wood, they held on firmly and grimly to that
narrow foothold in the Ancre Valley which was dominated always by German
guns. They went and came to the muddy, bloody trenches, from Authuille
Wood, Aveluy Wood, Martinsart Wood, day by day, under a pitiless harvest
sun or a yet more pitiless autumnal rain; and by their steadfastness
and tenacity, even more than by their toll of German life or their
fragmentary captures of German trenches, they enabled Sir Douglas Haig to
perfect, without haste and without undue anxiety, the long, slow sweep
of his advance which swung back on Thiepval at the last. And, though the
details at this stage must be kept subordinate to the main features, lest
we should seem to claim more than a just share, yet it is satisfactory
to observe that certain Battalions of our Division participated in these
final operations. Thus the 5th West Yorkshires were detailed as support
to the 7th Bedfordshire Regiment for the attack on Schwaben Redoubt on
September 27th. They were formed up on that afternoon, and again before
daybreak the next morning. Zero hour was fixed finally at 1 p.m. On that
day the three supporting Companies became a part of the main advance,
and the final Brigade objective was reached by a mixture of both units,
the men from Yorkshire and Beds. It was a fine conclusion to the waiting
orders imposed after July 1st, and it elicited the following fine
testimony from Major-General T. H. Shoubridge, C.B., C.M.G., Commanding
the 54th Infantry Brigade, in a letter dated October 1st, 1916, and
addressed to Major-General Perceval:
‘I feel I must write and tell you how splendidly the 5th West
Yorkshire supported the attack of the 7th Bedfordshire Regiment
on the Schwaben Redoubt.... The Battalion had, I fear, a trying
time, as the attack was postponed, and I had to bring them up
in support at night, though they had practically been told they
would not be wanted that night. In spite of all difficulties,
when the final attack took place, they formed up in perfect
order and advanced during the attack with marked determination.
I was very struck with the soldierly qualities of the men and
the keenness they displayed, and I am very proud to have had
them under my Command.... All my Battalions are full of praise
for the Artillery support afforded them both during the attack
on Thiepval and the subsequent attack on Schwaben Redoubt....
We all feel very grateful to the troops of your Division
associated with us.... Forgive type,’ added the gallant
General, ‘Have just come out of the battle, and have no ink!’
Recognition, too, eminently merited, reached the 49th Divisional
Commander from Lieut.-General C. W. Jacob, Commanding, as we saw, the II.
Corps. He wrote, on October 3rd:
‘As the Division under your Command has now been transferred
to another Corps, I take this opportunity of thanking you,
your Staff, the Commanders of Brigades, and all Ranks of the
Division, for all the good work you put in while you were in
the II. Corps.
‘The conditions were trying, and your casualties heavy. The
calls made on units necessitated great exertions, which were
always cheerfully carried out. The gallantry of the Officers
and men is shown by the large number of decorations won by
them, and the spirit of all Ranks is good. The clearing of
the Leipsic Salient, the prompt way all calls for raids on
the enemy’s trenches were met, and the heavy work done by
the Division in the preparations for the final attack on
Thiepval are gratifying records.... It was unfortunate that
the Division as a whole could not take part in the final
capture of Thiepval, but you will all be glad to know that your
representatives in that battle, the 49th Divisional Artillery
and the 146th Infantry Brigade, did excellent work, and added
still further to the good reputation of the Division.’
Schwaben Redoubt, we may add, was not retained without a struggle. There
was still one corner to be seized where the Regina Trench branched out
in the direction of Courcelette, and, running north of that village,
came down towards the Albert-Bapaume Road, almost immediately above
Le Sars; and these gains, too, were made and held despite desperate
counter-attacks before the middle of November. So, when winter came down
on the Somme battlefield, and the warring armies went to earth, the
Allied line which had bulged in towards Albert now bulged out towards
Bapaume. ‘That these troops should have accomplished so much under such
conditions ... constitutes a feat of which the history of our nation
records no equal.’[65] We have tried to describe this feat, in so far
as concerns the part, modest in area, indeed, but very exacting in
performance, which was played by the 49th Division and we have tried to
exhibit that part in its true relation to the drama as a whole.
We may now touch upon one or two details.
Before the close of 1916 a third Victoria Cross fell to the share of the
49th Division. The recipient was Major (then Captain) W. B. Allen, of the
1/3rd West Riding Field Ambulance, attached to the 246th Brigade, Royal
Field Artillery. The gallant Officer had already received the decoration
of the Military Cross, and we cite here the official record of the
circumstances in which the supreme reward was won:
‘For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty. When gun
detachments were unloading H.B. Ammunition from wagons which
had just come up, the enemy suddenly began to shell the battery
and the ammunition, and caused several casualties. Captain
Allen saw the occurrences and at once, with utter disregard
of danger, ran straight across the open, under heavy shell
fire, commenced dressing the wounded, and undoubtedly by his
promptness saved many of them from bleeding to death. He was
himself hit four times during the first hour by pieces of
shell, one of which fractured two of his ribs, but he never
mentioned this at the time, and coolly went on with his work
till the last man was dressed and safely removed. He then went
over to another battery and tended a wounded Officer. It was
only when this was done that he returned to his dug-out and
reported his own injury’.
Every Arm of the Service had its heroes. Major Allen in the R.A.M.C.
earned the Victoria Cross; Major Alan F. Hobson, D.S.O., in the West
Riding Divisional Royal Engineers, who was killed on August 26th, earned
the following tribute from a brother-officer of his unit:
‘Poor Hobson, our Major, was killed about three days ago by
a shell in the neighbourhood of our work. One has read of
lovable, brave leaders in personal histories of previous wars.
Hobson was one of those men whom writers love to describe as
the best and truest type of an Englishman. He never asked one
of us to go where he would not go himself. He was always happy,
even-tempered and just.’
A hero’s grave or the Victoria Cross: it was a common choice, settled
by fate during the war, and at no time commoner or more inevitable than
during these Battles of the Somme. A few extracts from the letters of a
fallen Officer may be given in conclusion to this period, not because
they differ essentially (for a happy style is an accident of fortune)
from other letters sent home from the Western front, but because they
express in word-pictures, compiled on the spot and at first hand, the
spirit of the very gallant men whose cheerful devotion in 1916 made
possible the victory of 1918.
First, an account of an ordinary sight by the roadside:
‘While we were waiting for orders there was a constant
procession of troops going up and troops going back from the
front line. It was an intensely interesting procession to me,
but there were some terribly sad sights of mangled men being
brought back on stretchers. The “walking cases” were very
pathetic; one in particular I remember. A young Officer leaning
heavily upon the arm of one of his men, the right side of
his face bandaged up. His left eye closed in agony, along he
stumbled, while on each side of him our guns went off with a
roar that must have been trying to a man evidently so shattered
in nerve, and all the time he was exposed to Boche shelling.’
Another extract from the same letter:
‘It is a pitiable sight to see horses badly wounded, poor dumb
things, so brave and patient under shell fire. When one is
riding near one of one’s own batteries, and guns suddenly belch
forth flame and smoke over one’s head, these dear creatures
hardly wince. From the time the first shell fell among the
horses until we left the town—about two hours later, we were
dodging shells. When we were outside, the warning hiss of a
Fritz caused a funny sight. Those near buildings jumped to a
sheltering wall, some of us who were near trees embraced their
trunks and dodged round them when we thought the burst would
be on one side. We screamed with laughter at each other, but
when one burst rather too close, our heads ached and our hearts
thumped (anyway, mine did, and it is no use disguising the
fact).’
And from the last of this series of dead letters:
‘Presently our trench crossed No Man’s Land—at least, it once
was No Man’s Land; now it belongs to us until we can turn it
over to its proper owners. We examined Fritz’s handiwork where
he had spent months of watching and fighting. We could see what
British fighting was like by the evidence there.... At one
place we were within forty yards of him, but we heard no sound.
The only sound that broke the stillness of that beautiful
day was the bang of our own guns and the swish of our crumps
overhead. At one point, close to the tangled wire of Fritz’s
front line, we saw a sad sight, perhaps the saddest sight of
war, groups of our own lads, sleeping, sleeping, sleeping.
Heroes, they had done their bit and there they lie. They have
died so that others can live to be free from the yoke of a
monster in human form, whose greed for power must be stifled.’
‘Sleeping, sleeping, sleeping’: this iterated note conveys, now that
the war is over and the maps are folded and put away, a tender thought
properly keyed, at which to close our account of the Somme battlefield.
It is a field of great achievement and of pious memories, hallowed for
all time in English history, and the ‘more’ that remained to be done,
as foreseen in the vision of this writer, could not be more worthily
accomplished than in the spirit of the heroes of the Somme.
II. WINTER, 1916-17.
It was the peculiarity of the war in France and Flanders that there was
no clear ending to any battle. At Ypres, at Verdun, and on the Somme,
the tide of war flowed with full flood, and ebbed away without definite
decision. There was a little more erosion of the trenches on one side or
the other, a few more miles of territory submerged, or disengaged from
the invader, revealing, when the tide rolled back, the waste and ravage
and destruction, and then a temporary lull, till
‘The tide comes again,
And brims the little sea-shore lakes, and sets
Seaweed afloat, and fills
The silent pools, rivers, and rivulets,
Among the inland hills.’
We reach such a coign of observation, such a lull, less real than
apparent, for brave men were being killed every day, in the period from
November to January, 1916-17. It lay between the exhaustion of the Somme
offensive and the refluent wave of battle-fury up and down the line in
early spring; and this brief interval may be utilized to pick up a few
stray threads.
Let us look at home in the first instance.
The West Riding Territorial Force Association had by now settled down
to its stride. We left its members in 1915[66] struggling, perhaps a
little breathlessly, with difficulties of accountancy in their Separation
Allowance Department, with the organization of Auxiliary Hospitals, the
equipment of 2nd and 3rd Line units, the formation of a National Reserve,
and the constant perplexities of the recruiting problem. We find them
at the close of the next year with one Division crowned with honour in
the field, with another Division straining at the leash, and with a
certain reduction in their commitments, owing partly to National Service
legislation, partly to firmer methods at Whitehall, and partly to other
causes. Necessity had nationalized the war; and, though more than 52,000
accounts of soldiers’ wives and dependants were now on the Paymaster’s
books, though more than 3,000 beds in 53 Auxiliary Hospitals were now
available in the Riding, and more than 21,000 pairs of socks and 45,000
other comforts had been despatched to the troops during the winter, the
Association had thoroughly mastered the technique of war administration
when the original triumvirate of Lord Harewood, Lord Scarbrough and
General Mends, as President, Chairman and Secretary respectively, was
broken up in February, 1917, by Lord Scarbrough’s transfer to the War
Office as Director-General of the Territorial and Volunteer Forces.[67]
The appearance of the words ‘and Volunteer’ requires a brief note of
explanation. The Chairman informed his Association in January, 1917,
that the local administration of the Volunteer Force had, at the request
of the Army Council, been undertaken by County Associations. ‘Generally
speaking,’ ran the writ,[68] ‘the division of functions between the local
military authorities and T.F. Associations in regard to the Volunteer
Force will correspond to that obtaining in the case of the Territorial
Force in times of peace.’ It was not, perhaps, the best precedent to
select, but it was the best available in the circumstances, and an
historian will surely arise to tell the story of the part-time soldier
in the Great War, what he did and what he might have been used to do.
Such historian will be endowed with imagination to sympathise with the
buffeted patriot in the early days of the war, and he will possess
sufficient knowledge of the facts to follow his tangled skein of fortune
through the maze of legislative enactments and contracting-out tribunals,
which cast him up on the lap of his tired country, in November, 1918,
half a volunteer and half a conscript and the most melancholy mongrel
of the Army Council. This, happily, is not our present business. We are
simply concerned to show how the Volunteer Act of 1916, which had become
law late in December, brought the Volunteer Force into the orbit of the
County Associations on the one part and of the Director-General of the
Territorial Force on the other. That Act made provision for Volunteers to
enter into an agreement with His Majesty for the performance of certain
duties of home defence ‘for a period not exceeding the duration of the
present war.’ The time-clause was the essence of the contract. Till then,
under the Act of 1863, a Volunteer, prior to mobilization, which could
only ensue in case of imminent invasion, and which never ensued during
the late war, had the right to quit his Corps at his own option on giving
a fortnight’s notice to his Commanding Officer. Under these conditions
he was plainly no soldier, however elastic the terms of his employment.
He could neither be clothed nor trained at the public expense, for the
public would have no value for their money if the Force, or any part
of it, walked out at fourteen days’ notice. Permanence of service was
then first obtained when the Volunteer Force was reconstituted out of
personnel bound by agreements entered into under the new Act of 1916;
and thus it happened at the beginning of the next year that the work of
Associations was increased by responsibility for the local administration
of the Volunteer units raised in their respective counties, and that
these duties were tacked on to the machinery of the Territorial Force
organization. How heavy the duties became may be measured by a single
item of statistics: as many as 217 Army Council Instructions referring
_exclusively_ to the Volunteer Force were promulgated before the date of
the Armistice.
Lastly, reference is due to German action during this lull, or to
what we know or may infer about it. Plainly, their moral had been
badly shaken. Sir Douglas Haig was resolute on this point, and the
extraordinary ‘all but’ luck which dogged their campaign on the Western
front from the beginning to the end of the war, and of which the full
military explanation must await the evidence from their side, was as
characteristic at Verdun as anywhere. They all but got home to their
objective: so nearly that the German Emperor’s telegrams, which he used
to compose after the model of his grandfather’s in the 1870-71 campaign,
just missed being accurate by a few yards; and this ‘little less, and
what worlds apart,’ which separated the Crown Prince from victory,
however cleverly wrapped up in the language of public despatches, must
have caused more than common chagrin. For actually it was Verdun which
was wanted, the right breast of the mother of men, and not the outposts
of its defences, nor even the serried rows of French dead. These might
serve in less vital regions to dazzle the eyes of the world; at Verdun,
they drew attention to the defeat. Nor was consolation to be derived from
the results of that attempt to relieve Verdun which we have followed in
the battles of the Somme. The higher ground, or ridges, still remained in
German possession, but it was a precarious hold, as we shall see, and,
while the mere configuration of the ground was soon to tell in favour
of the Allies, other factors, which cannot be mapped except in an atlas
of psychology, were beginning already to count. The repeated losses of
fortified positions, culminating in the Wonder Work and Redoubts which
had resisted the assaults of July 1st, were disastrous not only on their
own account but also as indicating a weakness which might conceivably
spread to the Rhine. If the theory of defence proved unsound, no degree
of valour in practice would ever avail to put it right. We must not
prejudge this question. We are not writing the German history of the
war. But it is legitimate to say that, apart from the general retirement
which the Germans ordered in March, 1917, and which reached a rate of
ten miles a day, our troops gradually discovered a change in the enemy’s
system of defences. He began, first on the British and afterwards on the
French front, to abandon the formal lines of trenches, and to employ the
natural features of the soil, when and where these might occur, as the
basis of his defences. The crater, or shell-hole cavity, was brought
into use in this way, and no outward mark was allowed to distinguish a
fortified group of craters, subterraneously connected with one another
and otherwise rendered formidable, from harmless groups in its immediate
neighbourhood. Thus, the cession by the Germans of ‘only our foremost
crater-positions,’ or of a ‘craterfield’ _tout court_, began to figure
in their reports for the edification or delusion of German readers.
An integral part of the crater-system, as worked out more elaborately
at a later date, was the ‘pill-box,’ or sunk blockhouse, which was
strengthened towards the foe and left more thinly built on the home side,
so as to render it useless as a weapon should its fire be directed by
its captors. We may conclude that the blows which had been dealt at the
continuous lines of trenches in the battles of the Ancre and the Somme
had alarmed the German High Command; and that a part of the motive for
the retirement (and a very effective part it proved) was to prepare
those fortified groups and concrete nests of deadly machine-gun fire at
all kinds of irregular distances. The intention was partly to deceive
the airman’s eye, and to stop that preparation of exact trench-maps to
which the Germans had borne testimony on the Somme. But partly, too,
the modification of the defence-system implied that our offensive had
not been vain. Its immediate effect, accordingly, however serious and
impeding it was to prove, was not without good hope. The vaunted theory
of ‘impregnability’ had been shaken, and, though the end of the war was
still out of sight, yet Thiepval, like Jutland, bore a message which the
rest of the war was to expound.
Full information on these problems is still lacking from the German
side, and without it, as indicated above, our conclusions must be
indicated hypothetically. But all the evidence now available makes
it clear that they are reasonably correct. Thus, Ludendorff, writing
after a tour of the Western Front in December, 1916, laid stress on the
urgent need of re-organizing the fighting power of the German Infantry.
The machine-gun had become the chief fire-arm, and ‘our existing
machine-guns’, he declared, ‘were too heavy for the purpose.... In order
to strengthen our fire, at least in the most important parts of the
chief theatre of war, it was necessary to create special Machine-gun
Companies—so to speak, Machine-gun Sharp-shooters.’ Attention is also
called in the German Commander’s authoritative _Memoirs_ to the need of
hand-mines, grenades, and all quick-loading weapons, and to the formation
of storm troops. ‘The course of the Somme Battle,’ continues the General,
‘had also supplied important lessons with respect to the construction and
plan of our lines. The very deep underground forts in the front trenches
had to be replaced by shallower constructions. Concrete “pill-boxes,”
which, however, unfortunately took long to build, had acquired an
increasing value. The conspicuous lines of trenches, which appeared as
sharp lines on every aerial photograph, supplied far too good a target
for the enemy Artillery. The system of defence had to be made broader and
looser and better adapted to the ground. The large, thick barriers of
wire, pleasant as they were when there was little doing, were no longer a
protection. They withered under the enemy barrage’; and an angry tribute
is paid in his chapter to the equipment of the _Entente_ Armies with war
material, which ‘had been developed to an extent hitherto undreamed of,’
and to ‘the resolution of the _Entente_, their strangling starvation
blockade, and their propaganda of lies and hate which was so dangerous to
us.’
It is good to see ourselves as our enemy saw us after the Battle of the
Somme. And, perhaps, though we are anticipating a month or two, we may
conclude this chapter by a quotation from a German Army Order, hitherto
unpublished, of April 4th, 1917. It illustrates from another angle the
effects of those ‘_Entente_ Armies’ and ‘their propaganda’ to which
Ludendorff alludes in such embittered terms. The Order ran:
‘A National Day has been decreed at home for April 12th, in the
sense that members of the large Trade Unions and Associations
give up that day’s income, salary or wage for the benefit of
the Fatherland.
‘The wish has been expressed that this programme may be
supported as follows: _viz._, that Officers and other Ranks may
volunteer to give up their pay for one day.
‘All Officers and other Ranks who are willing to abandon for
one day the amount of pay due to them will apply to,’ etc.
The captured papers do not disclose the extent of the response to this
appeal, but, plainly, at the beginning of 1917, all was not well with the
Fatherland.
CHAPTER IX
WITH THE 62ND IN FRANCE
The eleven miles from Albert to Bapaume, eight of which we travelled in
the last chapter, should be familiar by now. In order to gain a clear
view of the activities of the 62nd Division after its arrival in France,
we may now draw a rectilineal figure enclosed by four main roads, with
the Albert-Bapaume road as a portion of the base. Call the Albert-Bapaume
road A, B. Extend it to C, Cambrai, on the east; draw a line C, AA, from
Cambrai to Arras, north, north-west; draw a line, AA, D, from Arras
to Doullens, west, south-west, and join D, A, Doullens to Albert, to
complete the figure. On C, AA, Cambrai-Arras, a triangle may be erected
with Douai at its apex, thus connecting this new rectangle with the
country, Douai, Lens, La Bassée, Lille, which we visited in Chapter IV.
On D, A, Doullens-Albert, another triangle may be erected, with Amiens
at the south-western base. We have thus a fairly accurate outline of the
lie of the land to which General Braithwaite took his troops in January,
1917, and we know, approximately, at least, how much of that land had
been set free by the Battles of the Somme and the Ancre.
[Illustration]
The gains in those battles are to be exploited. We shall be occupied for
some time to come within the four sides of that shell-ridden quadrangle.
The upper road from Doullens to Arras was free, though it was not wise
to try to enter Arras except under cover of darkness, as the approach to
it from the west was exposed to observation and shell fire, and the town
itself had been badly damaged by bombardment. The lower road was free, as
we know, till within three miles of Bapaume, whence our front wound round
to below Arras. The object now is, to drive the Germans back on the whole
long line from Ypres to Reims, and, especially, within this area, to
drive them back between Arras and Bapaume, nearer to Douai and Cambrai.
That object was achieved, we shall see, in three great battles during
1917:—
Arras in April and May,
Ypres (3rd) in June till September, and
Cambrai at the end of November.
Keeping this large view in mind, and recalling, generally, its relations,
as remarked briefly in the last chapter, to the configuration of the soil
and the effect of this and of other conditions on the plans of the German
High Command,[69] we may follow for a few days the story of one unit’s
experiences, in order to set these in relation to the Division, the
Corps, and the Army. For from the night of January 11th-12th, when the
62nd Division first slept, or tried to sleep—for it was so cold—on French
soil, till the Battle of Arras in April, every Battalion in that Division
was engaged in the same driving work: in the same work of driving the
Germans back, of anticipating their retreat to prepared positions, of
consolidating small but important gains, of proving their own worth as
a fighting unit, of breaking out, between Thiepval and Hébuterne, to
Serre, Puisieux, Miraumont, Achiet, Irles, Pys, always nearer to the
Bapaume-Arras road. We may select for this purpose the 2/5th Battalion of
the Duke of Wellington’s West Riding Regiment. It was another Battalion
of the same Regiment whose fortunes we followed in Chapter II. from its
earliest volunteer beginnings, and now, as then, we possess the advantage
of consulting a personal diary kept by an Officer of the selected
unit.[70]
The first thing, where everything seemed strange, was to get to
know the way about. A ride to Auxi le Château gave opportunity for a
‘very interesting talk’ with an Officer in the 1/5th Battalion of the
same Regiment (49th Division). A day or two later came a tour of the
trenches in an old London General omnibus. The party visited Acheux and
Warlencourt, and then drove along the Doullens-Arras road, which was
closed to traffic at one point owing to shelling. They went through
Arras, noticing its damage by fire and incendiary shells, and reached
the line held by the 7th East Surreys. Here they had an opportunity
of watching the system of relief: the East Surreys by the 6th West
Kents. ‘It was a daylight relief and worked out very well indeed.’ The
reserve and front-line trenches were examined: the latter were highly
complicated; all the Platoon dug-outs were in cellars, owing to the
ruined state of the houses and factories; at one point, only twenty-five
yards from the German front-line. Patrols went out clothed in white to
match the snow. A Company cook-house was blown in by trench-mortar fire,
wounding two servants and ruining the breakfast. And so back to Doullens
and Bus-les-Artois, rejoining their Battalions. This was in January. On
February 3rd, ‘the weather was so cold that the ink in my fountain-pen
was frozen.’ On the 7th, ‘the cold was so intense that the oil on the
Lewis guns froze.’ On the 13th, a tour in the trenches before Serre, in
relief of the 1st Dorsets: ‘the sights one saw in and about the trenches
rather opened one’s eyes. The dead, both our own and the enemy, were
lying about partially buried; rifles, grenades, unexploded shells, bombs
and equipment. The trenches themselves did not exist as such, as in most
cases they had been blown in.’ On the 15th, the thaw commenced, and in
some respects was more intolerable than the frost. The mud in places was
two feet deep, and reliefs and so on were considerably hampered.
[Illustration]
The shadow, or, rather, the light, of the coming German retreat lay
over all. Every trench which was captured brought a wider view and a
larger prospect into sight, and there is no doubt that the 62nd Division,
to that extent more fortunate than the 49th, arrived at a time and in
a locality which afforded, in business parlance, small turn-overs and
quick returns. The long waiting experience which ate the heart out of
constantly harassed troops was now, temporarily, if not definitely,
passed; they were pushing outwards hopefully to open country and signs
of the retreat occurred every day. Thus, on February 25th, at 2 o’clock
in the morning, the enemy was reported to have vacated Serre, which, if
a straight line be drawn from Albert to Arras, may be pricked in just
to the left of that line at a point about two-fifths along it. Puisieux
lies on the line just above Serre. Achiet-le-Petit, Achiet-le-Grand and
Sapignies lie behind Puisieux eastwards, at distances roughly, of two
miles. Miraumont is south of Puisieux, Irles south of Achiet-le-Petit,
and Pys south of Irles. They are all in the Albert-Arras-Bapaume triangle
within the shell-ridden quadrangle above.
Let us start at Serre on that dark February morning. A push was made out
and up towards Puisieux. There were strong positions to be negotiated:
Gudgeon Trench, Sunken Road, Orchard Alley and Railway. Two patrols were
sent out early on the 26th under subaltern Officers of the 2/4th King’s
Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, and reported Gudgeon and Orchard trenches
clear. Later, it was discovered that the patrol’s Gudgeon was a trench
not shown on the map, and that the patrol’s Orchard was the true Gudgeon;
mist and mud and an unmapped trench are ugly extras in patrol-work. Three
Companies (A, B, D) of the Battalion were pushed up to the real Gudgeon
trench with orders to put out posts on the Sunken Road in front and an
observation-line on the Railway in front of that. They succeeded in
placing two outposts, but machine-gun fire stopped the observation-line.
There remained the heavily fortified Wundt Werk, which we have not yet
mentioned, and which was held by C Company under the Officer Commanding
the Battalion. Many fine deeds were performed on this day of continuous
exposure to shell and rifle fire. A non-commissioned officer, for
example, was sent forward to take charge of a small party, who had been
badly knocked about. He kept them under cover in a shell-hole all the
rest of the day, and by his coolness and trustworthiness undoubtedly
saved their lives.
The 2/4th K.O.Y.L.I. were relieved during the night by the 2/5th West
Ridings, to whom we accordingly return. Their new orders were to take
Orchard Alley and push outposts in the Sunken Road running from Puisieux
to Achiet-le-Petit. At 8 p.m. on February 27th, the Commanding Officer
advised the Brigadier that Orchard Alley had been captured; at an early
hour the next morning, the outposts in Sunken Road had been established,
and later in the day these positions had been consolidated, and touch had
been obtained with the 2nd Royal Warwicks on the left and the 2/6th West
Ridings on the right. The Brigadier wired his appreciation, and, later,
the Military Cross was awarded to Lieut. P. R. Ridley in the following
circumstances:—
‘On the evening of 27th-28th February, 1917, the Officer was
in charge of a party of three Officers’ patrols, each of one
Officer and fifteen other Ranks, detailed to rush Orchard
Alley from Gudgeon Trench. Lieut. Ridley was responsible for
maintaining the direction, marching on a compass-bearing
for 500 yards across unknown and difficult country. This
Officer led his party with great dash, shooting one German
and capturing another on entering the trench. He showed
considerable coolness and ability in the attack, and in
organizing the defence of the trench.’
The Military Medal was awarded on the same occasion to Lance-Cpl. Herbert
Priestley, who had been in command of a Bombing Section in that party,
and who, despite a wound in the head, led his men in a most gallant
manner. These were the first honours (first of a long list) in the 62nd
Division.
There was to be an attack on Achiet-le-Petit. The course of the offensive
indicated it, and it was indicated too, by attack-practices early in
March, when 500 men of the 2/5th West Ridings were employed at Forceville
in digging trenches similar to the German system at Achiet-le-Petit. On
March 15th, after completing sundry exercises, the Battalion proceeded
to Miraumont, where they took over a line from the 2/5th King’s Own
Yorkshire Light Infantry, half a mile south-east of Achiet-le-Petit.
They found the 2/4th of the same Regiment on their right and the 2/7th
on their left during this tour. On the 17th, the 2/4th reported that
they had occupied an enemy trench 300 yards in advance of their line
without meeting opposition; at the same time patrols of the 2/5th
found 300 yards in front of them free from the enemy. Hopes rose, as
the country began to open out. B Company was promptly ordered to push
on through Achiet-le-Petit, and to occupy Sunken Road, north of that
village. The remaining Companies also moved forward, and occupied the
support-trenches. Later on the same day, a further push was made to
Achiet-le-Grand; gaps were to be cut in the wire to let the Cavalry
through, and D Company was to push on to Gomiecourt. The wire proved a
formidable obstacle; but just before midnight on the 17th the Brigadier
was informed that the orders had been carried out. By 4-30 a.m. on March
18th, D Company was in occupation of Gomiecourt. They had encountered
only slight machine-gun fire, and five hours later the Cavalry went
through. Thenceforward to the end of March, the Battalion stood fast on
the ground occupied. There was plenty to do in consolidating it, and
plenty of German material left behind which served that purpose. But all
existing accommodation had been destroyed, the majority of trees had
been killed, several dug-out entrances had been mined, and important
road-junctions had been blown up.
We may read a part of this story in more detail. Little exploits fully
related illuminate the history which they helped to make. What part was
borne by B Company (above) in this adventure? They were commanded by
Captain Joseph Walker, whose orders were to hold Resurrection Trench
south of Achiet-le-Petit and to capture that village. For three days and
nights they came in for a very heavy bombardment, in which the trench was
obliterated in parts and severe casualties were suffered. On March 17th,
an hour before dawn, two battle-patrols were sent out to the flanks of
the village. The rest of the Company followed under Captain Walker, and,
despite some machine-gun fire, they took the village and passed through
it. They dug-in on the north side and threw out a defensive flank, which
drove off the enemy rearguard. Achiet-le-Petit was promptly blown to bits
by ‘a terrific barrage of heavy stuff,’ but B Company had not waited for
it. At mid-day the Corps Pigeoner arrived with a basket of birds, and
reports were sent back to Headquarters. In the evening, instructions came
for the whole of the line to move forward and attack Achiet-le-Grand and
Gomiecourt. Before this could be done, the German wire had to be cut to
allow the Cavalry to pass through. ‘The wire was nearly a hundred yards
in depth in three broad belts, and so thick that it had to be dug up in
parts.’ The task was completed before daylight by B and C Companies. B
Company then advanced to their objective and occupied the western side of
Achiet-le-Grand, and A Company cleared Logeast Wood: a good day’s work,
it will be admitted.
This narrative may still be expanded: the day’s work is typical of
what was happening throughout the district. From Achiet-le-Grand to
Gomiecourt, two villages otherwise insignificant, the distance is under
two miles. At 1 a.m., March 18th, 1917, there was a heavy mist, and it
was difficult to find the road; so ‘we struck across open country on
compass-bearing,’ say the records, ‘and arrived in the trenches west of
Gomiecourt at 3-30 a.m., occupied these, and then sent out two patrols
through the village, but they did not find a soul’: a deserted village,
but from other causes than Oliver Goldsmith’s. ‘The junction of every
road in the village had been mined and blown up, and everything of value
had been destroyed. All fruit-trees had either been cut down, or an
incision made round the bark so that the sap would not rise.[71] All
wells had been blown in, and one had been poisoned with arsenic,’ so
the R.E. Officer reported to our diarist. The R.E.’s took 700 lbs. of
unexploded charge out of the cellar of the only village _château_, where
the front stairway had fallen in and there was a big hole in the floor
of the entrance hall. We read an interesting note, too, on March 26th:
‘Walked with Lieut. Ridley’ (we watched him win his M.C.) ‘across country
to Bapaume’ (the eleven miles had been cleared at last). ‘Noticed the
Hôtel de Ville still standing; most other buildings had been blown up.
Then went south of the town towards the trenches, but, as these reminded
one too much of Beaumont Hamel, had lunch and then came back. Walked
along the Bapaume-Arras’ (B, AA) ‘main road as far as Ervillers’ (a third
of the way from Bapaume) ‘and then struck across country to Gomiecourt.
Bapaume Town Hall and Sapignies Church had both been mined and left by
the enemy and blew up during the night.’ So, the deserted villages bore
traces of their late inhabitants.
If a straight line be drawn from Bapaume to Douai, bisecting the
Cambrai-Arras road (C, AA, of our quadrangle), and if that straight line
be divided into three equal parts, the village of Bullecourt will be
found at one-third of the way from Bapaume and two-thirds from Douai. It
is thus well within our quadrangle, yet well on the further side of the
road from Bapaume to Arras, along which we just now walked to Ervillers.
We shall be occupied with Bullecourt for some time: on April 11th in a
snowstorm, when ‘an attack was made against the Hindenburg Line, in the
neighbourhood of Bullecourt,’ and again on May 3rd and following days,
when ‘it was advisable that Bullecourt should be captured without loss of
time.’[72] For the German retreat was at an end.
Bapaume had fallen on March 17th, Péronne on the following day. South
and east of Péronne, on the 21st, the Fourth Army had captured forty
villages. French troops reached the outskirts of St. Quentin, and counted
their villages by the score. The Cavalry, mounted and dismounted, had
come in for a bit of their own, and a fine exhilaration of open fighting
had been blown like a freshening breeze along the east wall of the
shell-torn quadrangle. But after the third week of March the pace of
the retreat began to slacken; and, as soon as the first days of April
dispelled the cover of the mist, and the wind and the sun dried up the
mud from which the Germans had been retiring, their slower pace stiffened
into resistance, and their resistance hardened into battle. All along
the Hindenburg Line, so much advertised, yet in places so elastic, which
was to guard the ridges of observation, the Battle of Arras was engaged
in April, May and a part of June, and during the course of that Battle,
Bullecourt was won and lost and won again.
No more need be said about the retreat. The precise ratio between
initiative and compulsion, precisely how far, that is to say, it was
carried through according to plan and directed by forces under German
control, will not be settled till the official war-histories of both
belligerents have been published, and may even be disputed thereafter.
Certainly, it was admirably executed; less certainly, it was voluntary
in all its parts; most certainly, it was accompanied by incidents
which indelibly stained the reputation of the German Military Command.
That ‘the systematic destruction of roads, railways and bridges in the
evacuated area made unprecedented demands upon the Royal Engineers,’ or
that in four and a half days, for example, from the morning of March 18th
the Somme at Brie was rebridged for our troops,[73] were facts of warfare
as legitimate for the enemy as they were creditable to his pursuers. What
was illegitimate and irreparable was the not less systematic destruction,
forbidden in the Pentateuch, as Mr. Buchan[74] notes, of ‘trees for meat’
and water for drinking. We have remarked these features _in petto_: the
single trees felled or slashed, the single wells poisoned or blown in,
the single monuments gutted or mined; and France knows the full tale of
her own wrongs.
So we come to the Battle of Arras, which opened definitely on April 9th
and rolled in thunder along the northern ridges to its renewed flood in
the Third Battle of Ypres.
We may look at the map again. The Battle of Arras was fought on a front
of sixteen or seventeen miles, stretching, roughly, nine miles to the
north and seven or eight to the south of Arras. Arras, as we know, was
within the British line; its cellars and sewers, as a fact, had been
prepared for the accommodation of our troops, though they were not long
in request. The British line to the south of Arras (we are writing of
the opening of the battle) crossed the Arras-Cambrai main road almost
immediately below the town, facing Tilloy-les-Mofflaines on the right,
and running down to Croisilles and Ecoust, which looked across the line
to Bullecourt. Below Bullecourt, two miles or so to the right, and
about three miles above the Bapaume-Cambrai road, the village of Quéant
should be observed for the sake of its trench-connection with Drocourt
in the north (east-south-east of Lens), which formed a switch to the
Hindenburg Line, in case of German accidents behind Arras. It was the
Quéant-Drocourt trench-system which made Bullecourt so important to its
defenders. The British line to the north of Arras (still at the opening
of the battle, but outside of our original quadrangle) crossed the River
Scarpe in the eastern suburbs of the town, and ran up with a bearing
to the left between Souchez and Givenchy, turning to the right again
between Loos and Lens. Vimy, with all its fortifications, both natural
and artificial, was the key to an advance in this area. The situation
should be studied on a larger map, but it is useful to see it, too, in
miniature; and for this purpose we repeat once more our sketch on page 90
above. On the rough square, Arras-Bapaume-Cambrai-Douai, we erect now on
the northern side the road-junctions from Arras to Douai through Souchez
and Lens. The British line ran up, as we have said, between Souchez and
Givenchy, with Vimy and its ridges on the right, and ran down to the west
of Bullecourt, which helped to guard the Quéant-Drocourt switch. It only
remains to observe that from Lens to Ypres was a journey of less than
thirty miles, and that an attack at Messines and Wytschaete formed an
obvious corollary to successes at Bullecourt and Vimy.
[Illustration]
We are not directly concerned with the bigger strategy of this Spring
campaign. Sir Douglas Haig made it clear that he regarded the capture of
the Vimy Ridge as necessary in itself and important for the view which it
would afford over the plains to Douai and beyond. When this object should
be achieved he proposed to transfer his main offensive into Flanders.
‘The positions held by us in the Ypres salient since May, 1915, were
far from satisfactory,’ he wrote. ‘They were completely overlooked by
the enemy. Their defence involved a considerable strain on the troops
occupying them, and ... our positions would be much improved by the
capture of the Messines-Wytschaete Ridge, and of the high ground which
extends thence north-eastwards for some seven miles.’ These plans were
re-adjusted to some extent by arrangement with the French Command: ‘The
British attack, under the revised scheme, was, in the first instance, to
be preparatory to a more decisive operation to be undertaken a little
later by the French Armies,’ and though, as the British Commander wrote,
‘my original plan for the preliminary operations on the Arras front
fortunately fitted in well with what was required of me under the revised
scheme,’ yet, in order to give full effect ‘to the new rôle allotted to
me in this revised scheme, preparations for the attack in Flanders had
to be restricted for the time being to what could be done by such troops
and other labour as could not in any case be made available on the Arras
front.[75]’
So much in this place for the plans. What were the troops entrusted
with their execution? Looking at a larger map again, and assuming for
a moment that a week’s fighting (April 9th to 16th) has already taken
place, and that the British front has been advanced, as indicated, from
the outskirts of Lens in the north to Croisilles in the south, we may now
enumerate Sir Douglas Haig’s forces as they were distributed from north
to south in order of battle on April 17th. Note that the First Army was
commanded by General Sir H. S. Horne, the Third by General Sir E. H.
H. Allenby, the Fourth by General Sir Henry Rawlinson and the Fifth by
General Sir Hubert Gough: great Generals all, and tried Commanders. We
give, first, the positions, so far as they can be located for certainty
in the third line which resulted from a week’s fighting, and, next, in
descending scale of military organization, the Army, the Corps, the
Division, and the Regiments:—
ORDER OF BATTLE, 17th April, 1917.
------------+-----+----------+----------------+-------------------------
Position. |Army.| Corps. | Division. | Regiments.
------------+-----+----------+----------------+-------------------------
| | | |
VIMY | I. | Canadian |1st, 2nd, 3rd, |
| | | 4th Canadian, |
| | | 5th British. |
| | | |
North of | III.| XVII. |51st (Highland) |Gordon Highlanders
RIVER SCARPE| | | |A. & S. Highlanders.
| | | |Seaforth Highlanders.
| | | |Roy. Scots.
| | | |Black Watch.
| | | |
| | |34th |Roy. Scots (2 Bns.).
| | | |Lincolnshire, Suffolk,
| | | |Northd. Fus. (9 Bns.).
| | | |
FAMPOUX | | |9th (Scottish) |Black Watch.
| | | |Seaforth Highlanders
| | | | (2 Bns.).
| | | |Scottish Rifles.
| | | |Roy. Scots (2 Bns.).
| | | |A. & S. Highlanders.
| | | |Cameron Highlanders.
| | | |S. African Bde. (4 Bns.).
| | | |K.O.S.B.
| | | |
| | |4th |Household Bn.
| | | |Roy. Warwickshire.
| | | |Seaforth Highlanders.
| | | |R. Irish Fus.
| | | |Somersetshire L.I.
| | | |E. Lancs.
| | | |Hampshire.
| | | |Rifle Brigade.
| | | |K.O. (R. Lancs.)
| | | |Lancs. Fus.
| | | |Duke of Wellington’s
| | | | (W.R.).
| | | |Essex.
| | | |
South of | | XVIII. |12th (Eastern) |Norfolk.
RIVER SCARPE| | | |Suffolk.
near MONCHY | | | |Essex.
| | | |R. Berkshire.
| | | |R. Fusiliers (2 Bns.).
| | | |R. Sussex.
| | | |Middlesex.
| | | |Queen’s (R.W. Surrey)
| | | |Buffs (E. Kent.)
| | | |E. Surrey.
| | | |R.W. Kent.
| | | |Northants.
| | | |
| | |14th (Light) |K.R.R.C. (3 Bns.).
| | | |Rifle Bde. (3 Bns.).
| | | |Oxford & Bucks L.I.
| | | |K.S.L.I.
| | | |Somerset L.I.
| | | |D.L.I.
| | | |K.O.Y.L.I.
| | | |Durham L.I.
| | | |King’s (Liverpool).
| | | |
| | |30th |Liverpool (4 Bns.).
| | | |Manchester (4 Bns).
| | | |Beds.
| | | |Yorks. R.
| | | |Scots. Fus.
| | | |Wilts.
| | | |S. Lancs.
| | |37th |
| | | |R. Fus. (2 Bns.).
| | | |K.R.R.C.
| | | |Rifle Bde.
| | | |R. Warwickshire.
| | | |E. Lancs.
| | | |
| | |37th |N. Lancs.
| | | |Beds.
| | | |N. Staffs.
| | | |Lincolnshire.
| | | |Somerset.
| | | |Middlesex.
| | | |York. & Lancs.
| | | |
| | VI. |29th |R. Fus.
| | | |R. Dublin Fus.
| | | |Lancs. Fus.
| | | |Middlesex.
| | | |K.O.S.B.
| | | |Inniskilling Fus.
| | | |S. Wales B.
| | | |Border.
| | | |Essex.
| | | |Hampshire.
| | | |Worcestershire.
| | | |Newfoundland.
| | | |
Advanced, | | |15th (Scottish) |Black Watch.
via ARRAS | | | |Seaforth Highlanders.
| | | |Gordon Highlanders
| | | | (2 Bns.).
| | | |Cameron Highlanders
| | | | (2 Bns.).
| | | |R. Scots.
| | | |R. Scots. Fus.
| | | |A. & S. Highlanders
| | | |K.O.S.B.
| | | |Scottish Rifles.
| | | |Highland L.I. (2 Bns.).
| | | |
? | | |3rd |K.R.R.C.
| | | |10th R. Welsh Fus.
| | | |West Yorks.
| | | |R. Scots.
| | | |Gordon Highlanders.
| | | |R. Scots. Fus.
| | | |R. Fusiliers.
| | | |Northd. Fus.
| | | |Suffolk.
| | | |K.O. (Roy. Lancs.)
| | | |E. Yorkshire.
| | | |7th K.S.L.I.
| | | |12th King’s (Liverpool)
| | | |
? | | |17th (Northern) |W. Yorkshire.
| | | |E. Yorkshire.
| | | |Yorkshire.
| | | |Dorsetshire.
| | | |Lincolnshire.
| | | |Border.
| | | |S. Staffs.
| | | |Sherwood Foresters.
| | | |Northd. Fus.
| | | |Lancs. Fus.
| | | |Duke of Wellington’s
| | | | (W.R.).
| | | |Manchester.
| | | |Yorks. & Lancs.
| | | |
South of | | VII. |21st |Northd. Fus. (3 Bns.).
VIth. Corps | | | |E. Yorkshire.
| | | |Yorkshire.
| | | |Durham L.I.
| | | |K.O.Y.L.I. (2 Bns.).
| | | |Leicestershire (4 Bns.).
| | | |Lincolnshire.
| | | |
Between R. | | |33rd |R. Fusiliers.
Cojeul and | | | |K.R.R.C.
R. Sensée | | | |King’s.
| | | |Queen’s.
| | | |Suffolk.
| | | |Worcestershire.
| | | |Scottish Rifles (2 Bns.).
| | | |Middlesex.
| | | |A. & S. Highlanders.
| | | |R. Welsh Fus.
| | | |Highland L.I.
| | | |
? | | |50th |Northd. Fus.
| | | (Northumbrian) |Durham L.I.
| | | |Yorkshire.
| | | |
? | | |56th (London) |London.
| | | |Middlesex.
| | | |
BULLECOURT | V. | V. |7th |Border.
| | | |Devonshire (2 Bns.).
| | | |Queen’s.
| | | |Gordon Highlanders.
| | | |H.A.C.
| | | |R. Welsh Fus.
| | | |S. Staffs.
| | | |Manchester (4 Bns.).
| | | |Warwickshire.
| | | |
? | | |11th (Northern) |D. of Wellington’s.
| | | |W. Yorkshire.
| | | |Yorkshire.
| | | |York. and Lancs.
| | | |Lincolnshire.
| | | |Border.
| | | |S. Staffs.
| | | |Sherwood Foresters.
| | | |Dorsetshire.
| | | |Northd. Fus.
| | | |Lancs. Fus.
| | | |Manchester.
| | | |E. Yorkshire.
| | | |
BULLECOURT | | |58th (London) |London, 2nd Line, T.F.
| | | |
| | |62nd (W. Riding)|W. Yorks. (4 Bns.)
| | | |D. of Wellington’s
| | | | (4 Bns.).
| | | |K.O.Y.L.I. (2 Bns.).
| | | |York. & Lancs. (2 Bns.).
| | | |
LAGNICOURT | |Australian| |
------------+-----+----------+----------------+-------------------------
It was a strong force, as is apparent, and except in the extreme southern
sector, from Ecoust (opposite Bullecourt) to Lagnicourt, no 2nd Line
Territorial troops were engaged. There, with Londoners on their left and
Australians on their right, twelve battalions from the West Riding took
their part.
The operation was not successful. ‘The attacking troops of the Fifth
Army,’ wrote Sir Douglas Haig, ‘were obliged to withdraw to their
original line.[76]’ Thus they missed the more sensational advances which
were secured at Vimy and Monchy-le-Preux. But they contributed by their
action to those results, and their gallantry earned a high encomium from
the British Commander-in-Chief, and established for the 62nd Division,
in its first engagement on a big scale, a record worthy of more veteran
troops.
Let us start in this sector on April 9th, the day of the opening of the
Battle of Arras.
It was explained to the Front-line Battalions that, in the event of the
attack of the Third Army on Neuville Vitasse being successful, and of the
advance being pushed forward to Fontaine-les-Croisilles and Cherisy, the
enemy might evacuate his positions. Patrols were sent out, accordingly,
in order to ascertain the facts; and the 2/6th West Yorkshires, for
example, if we may select one Battalion out of the twelve, were ordered
to hold themselves in readiness to advance after 12 o’clock noon at one
hour’s notice. A provisional scheme of operations was laid down, in
anticipation of the sequence of events, should the Hindenburg Line be
evacuated on that part. These plans missed fire, however, and on the
next day (10th) the unit which we have selected was still stationed at
St. Leger. In the early morning information arrived of an impending
German counter attack, and, after orders had been issued for a move at
ten minutes’ notice, Brigade Orders arrived during the afternoon for
a night march to Ecoust. This move was duly accomplished. The object
was to capture Bullecourt and Hendecourt, and then to move forward in
the general direction of Cagnicourt, on the further side of the Quéant
switch. Shortly after midnight on April 11th, the troops were informed to
this effect; Zero hour was 4-30 a.m.
We have to record that the operation, as planned, could not be fully
carried out. Briefly, it had been devised as follows: unless, as seemed
improbable, the Hindenburg Line should be found to have been evacuated,
the Australian Division, supported by Tanks, was to push forward to
Riencourt and Bullecourt. As soon as their work rendered it possible,
the 185th Infantry Brigade (Brigadier-General V. W. de Falbe, C.M.G.,
D.S.O.) was to push one Battalion into Bullecourt from the south-west,
with another Battalion in support. The Tanks (two, followed by four),
after clearing Bullecourt, were to move out of the village, and clear
the Hindenburg Line up to a stated position, where they would come
under the orders of General de Falbe, in command of an Advanced Guard,
detailed to capture Hendecourt and to move forward as indicated above.
This formed the operation, as planned. The operation, as executed,
starts with Battalion reports to the Brigade, at 5-15 a.m., 6 a.m. and
7-10 a.m., to the effect that not a Tank was in sight. We may imagine
the anxiety at Headquarters. Reconstruct the surroundings on that April
morning: the immense line of British Troops stretching right away beyond
Vimy, the noise of guns, the open country on the other side; remember
the significance of Bullecourt, not merely as the objective of the 62nd
Division, but as the last stronghold of the enemy in that sector before
he retired to the Quéant switch behind the real Hindenburg Line; multiply
every missed appointment and its consequent inconveniences in civil
life to the _n_th power of calculation; add a responsible sense of the
great issues depending on prompt action; and then conceive what it meant
to Lt.-Col. John H. Hastings, D.S.O., the Officer Commanding the 2/6th
West Yorkshires (to return for a moment to this unit), to have to report
three times in two hours that, so far as he was aware, the conditions
precedent to his pushing on to Bullecourt still remained unfulfilled.
Item one: the Tanks had not arrived. Item two: there was still no news
of the Australians having entered Bullecourt. Colonel Hastings went
forward to make enquiries, and to discuss matters with the Australian
Division. On his return, he advised the Brigadier that the situation
was ‘very obscure.’ His patrols, he said, had not reported, but there
was no sign of the Australians clearing Bullecourt, and several enemy
machine-guns had been located on the south-east fringe of the village.
This report crossed a message from the Brigade (through the 2/8th
Battalion, West Yorks.), stating that Tanks had been seen at a factory
between Bullecourt and Hendecourt, and adding: ‘Please take immediate
action, without waiting for Tanks to arrive, to clear up situation in
Bullecourt and seize Hindenburg Line to the west of the village.’ (This
message in original was received an hour later.) A reply was sent through
the 2/8th Battalion to the effect that the instructions seemed to be
‘based on faulty and erroneous information’: the main point was that the
Australians had not entered Bullecourt, and that reports from the patrols
were still awaited. While this reply was on its way, the Brigadier
visited the Battalion Headquarters, and ‘was evidently dissatisfied
with the want of progress.’ He admitted to Colonel Hastings that the
conditions laid down as preliminary to the advance still appeared
incomplete (which means that the Tanks had not operated), but he was
anxious that the push should be attempted, and Colonel Hastings went up
again to investigate.
Meanwhile, what about the Tanks? Major W. H. L. Watson, D.S.O., of the
Machine-Gun Corps, Heavy Section, writing in _Blackwood’s Magazine_,
June, 1919, stated that, ‘of my eleven Tanks, nine had received direct
hits and two were missing.’ He pointed out that the sudden change of
plans between April 10th and 11th had proved somewhat upsetting, that
the crews were composed of tired men, that a blizzard was blowing, and
that the snow proved bad cover. He added that the Australian troops
were turned distrustful of Tanks for some months, and that a British
Brigadier, to whom he was paying a farewell visit, told him, ‘with
natural emphasis, that Tanks were “no dammed use.”’ Further than this,
we need not pursue the question. A day was to come very soon when the
new weapon would outpace the Infantry, and help effectively to win its
battles. At Bullecourt, on April 11th, the co-operation was not adequate.
At 11 o’clock that morning, Colonel Hastings, ruling out the Tanks,
expressed his deliberate conviction that the village could not be
captured by daylight, except by very great sacrifices. The wire was
uncut, the snipers were active, and there was very little cover. Three
hours later, Brigade orders arrived to withdraw the patrols, and at dusk
the Battalion relieved the 2/7th Battalion of their own Regiment in the
right sector of the front facing Bullecourt. The relief was completed
at 1 a.m. on April 12th, and another long and trying day was spent in
tapping the Bullecourt defences, which were found to be still formidable.
By 5 a.m. on the morning of the 13th, the relief of the Battalion in
its turn by the 2/7th West Ridings was completed, and they returned to
Ervillers on the Bapaume-Arras road.
They had suffered badly during this experience. On the 11th, Lieut. C.
F. R. Pells, 2/Lieut. A. G. Harris and 31 other Ranks were killed, and
the wounded amounted to 30. Fine work was done by the 174th Tunnelling
Company, R.E. (Major Hutchinson, M.C., Commanding), in digging out the
victims of a collapsed house in which two Officers were killed: they
worked thirty hours continuously and rescued nine men alive.
Meanwhile, Bullecourt had not been captured. If a detailed map be
consulted again, it will be seen that the British lines of April 16th and
24th both met at their southern extremity on the wrong (north) side of
the River Sensée, and formed a dangerous salient, or inward bulge, with
the British line running south from Croisilles. The Hindenburg Line at
Bullecourt still guarded the switch-line at Quéant; and this failure was
the more disappointing in view of the easterly advances along the River
Scarpe behind Arras, and, further north, behind Vimy and its woods and
hills. Tanks had shown fine capacity during that fortnight. The gallant
Infantry had accomplished by their aid what it took them nearly as many
months to accomplish with much worse casualties on the Somme in 1916. For
the missing weapon had been found, though its full use was still to be
discovered, and obstacles even more formidable than had held up the 49th
Division at Thiepval were levelled or reduced.
We pass at once to the renewed assault on Bullecourt between May 3rd and
17th.
The 62nd Division was once more engaged. The new weapon was brought again
to the attack, and, though further experience was still wanted before
its masterly employment at Cambrai in November, the last phase of the
Battle of Arras clearly demonstrated to all those who chose to see the
immense value of co-operation between Infantry and Tanks. That the brunt
of the Infantry fighting in these experimental days fell on the troops
from the West Riding, will find a place in military history as well as in
Yorkshire records.
[Illustration]
Brigade Orders with reference to the fresh assault were received
immediately after the old. Already on April 15th, the plan of operations
was to hand, and the intervening seventeen days was spent mainly in
rehearsals. The order of advance from the right was the 185th Infantry
Brigade (de Falbe), the 186th (Hill) in the centre, and the 187th
(Taylor) on the left. Each Brigade had its definite objective, and they
advanced to the attack side by side. The Third Army operated eastwards
in the direction of Fontaine-les-Croisilles, with the 2nd Australian
Division on the right. Tanks were to crawl up in sufficient numbers.
The day was fixed for May 3rd. Zero hour was 3-45 a.m. Once more we may
quote Major Watson[77] as to the part borne by the Tanks in this attack.
‘A costly failure,’ is his description of the day’s work. Major R. O.
C. Ward, D.S.O., who was killed in the following November, was out with
his Tanks in front, ‘but the Infantry could not follow,’ he complained.
‘Attack unsuccessful. Casualties heavy,’ is the bare statement in one of
the Battalion diaries. Before consulting a more expansive authority, it
will be interesting to examine the accompanying photograph of Hendecourt
from the air. Above the village, we see the main road from Arras to
Cambrai, which runs from north-east to south-west. Crossing that road, we
see the switch trench-line from Drocourt to Quéant, which ran roughly,
from north to south. The trenches guarding the village, Orix, Opal, Hop,
Morden, are indicated on the face of the photograph, and are still more
clearly displayed in the ground-plan sketch which we also reproduce (p.
133). Turning back now to May 3rd, we have the advantage of some notes
by an Officer of the 62nd, who watched the opening barrage from the top
of the railway embankment. It was an unforgettable sight. ‘Shells of
all sizes screamed through the air, and bullets from our machine-guns
sped towards the enemy lines. The noise was deafening and appalling.
Then the Tanks went forward to do their part in the attack. Hundreds of
Very lights and coloured signals were sent up by the enemy all along
his line’; and to the careful watcher and time-keeper, these lights and
signals brought evil tidings. For after two Companies of one Battalion of
the 62nd should have been in the enemy second-line trench, ‘enemy lights
were still sent up from that direction.’
We turn to a Company record. Take, for instance, B Company of the
2/5th West Ridings. They advanced steadily to the attack, and fought
their way up the slope to the ridge on the left of Bullecourt. But they
met very formidable opposition. Some think that the sound of the Tanks
deploying in their assembly positions may have reached acute enemy ears;
but, whether or not this was the case, and, on the whole, the evidence
is against it, a devastating machine-gun fire and a terrific barrage
of high explosive and shrapnel were suddenly opened on the advancing
Company, while hidden concrete emplacements protected the enemy guns.
The survivors gallantly rallied, and pressed on into the Hindenburg
Line through a ‘tornado of bullets.’ Lieut. O. Walker was killed at
this point, as he was charging at the head of his platoon, rifle in
hand, through the German wire. Two enemy machine-guns were captured, and
their crews killed by our bombers. Captain J. Walker, M.B.E., Commanding
the Company, with a mere handful of men, still pushed on and forced a
broken way to the next strong point of hidden emplacements. Here the
little party held out for three awful days and nights. They had no water
and only their iron rations, and they were bombed and shelled all the
time. On the second day, the enemy tried to take them prisoners, but
the attempt was repulsed. On the third day, when the position was blown
in through our own Batteries having shortened range, this very brave
Officer and his few surviving wounded men contrived to fight their way
back through the German outpost line, in broad daylight and fired at from
every side. A nine hours’ struggle brought them home ‘by a miracle.’[78]
Bullecourt was still uncaptured, but its blood-soaked ridges and trenches
had taught the Prussians the meaning of Yorkshire grit.
[Illustration: HENDECOURT FROM THE AIR.]
The story may be repeated, if it is not clear enough, from the diaries of
other Battalions. Take the 2/4th York and Lancasters, for example. It is
a vivid narrative, which may be quoted almost verbatim:
By Zero hour on May 3rd, the men had marched on to the tape line,
extended, and formed waves, as ordered, each man fixing his bayonet and
lying down directly he got into his place. Just as the head of the 6th
line came into its alignment, a shell burst close by, wounding Lt.-Col.
Blacker, Commanding, and about six other Ranks. ‘Don’t mind me, get the
lines out,’ was the gallant Officer’s order, which was instantly obeyed:
though the shelling was heavy all the time, the operation was completed
as if in a practice-attack. The Adjutant found the lines absolutely
correct, and men lying close to shell-holes had in many instances
refrained from taking cover for fear of spoiling their interval. It was
this kind of spirit which beat the Germans, though they kept us out
of Bullecourt on May 3rd. Colonel Blacker, with the assistance of his
servant, returned to Battalion Headquarters, and Major Richardson arrived
from Brigade to take over the Command of the Battalion. A rum-ration was
served out at 3 a.m., and the first line advanced at Zero (3-45 a.m.)
less eight minutes. In order to understand what followed, it must be
borne in mind that there were 900 yards to be traversed before the first
German trench was reached: 900 yards through the heavy smoke and dust of
the barrage depicted above. To keep intervals, distance and direction was
not an easy task even for the best-trained troops. Still, all was going
well, till some confusion was caused by another unit crossing their front
between the 4th and 5th lines. These troops were ordered to withdraw
and re-form, but the order was mistaken by about 70 men of the right
rear Company of the invaded Battalion. They thought it was addressed to
them, and withdrew, accordingly, to the railway embankment. The rest,
steadily led, despite the mixture of units, pushed on to the first German
trench, but the waves had lost their formation before the second line
was reached. Major Richardson was killed in a courageous attempt to
find out exactly what was happening, and, later, Brigade orders arrived
to parade all available personnel for a second attack in two lines. It
ended miserably in shell-holes, which afforded insufficient protection
from casualties out of proportion to the result, and about 4 o’clock in
the afternoon of the long day the order came to retire to the railway
cutting. The 7th Division relieved the 62nd.
We need not multiply the records. ‘The attacking troops eventually
withdrew to the railway cutting’; ‘finally forced to retire about 11-30
a.m. on the railway embankment’; these entries and entries like these
recur with maddening iteration in the narratives of the units on this
date, and the loss of life was terribly high. But Bullecourt fell in the
end. Ten men had been left in the coveted village by troops which had
reached it on May 3rd, but had fallen back from all but its fringes, and
these ten men were rescued on May 8th. Day by day, the stubborn fight was
waged, with attack and counter-attack of intense ferocity and varying
fortune, till at last, on May 17th and following days, Territorial Troops
of the County of London and the West Riding drove out the last remnants
of the German garrison from their last stronghold in front of Quéant. Let
Sir Douglas Haig tell the tale of these successes, which brought to a
victorious close the series of fighting known as the Battle of Arras:
‘At 3-45 a.m. on the 3rd May, another attack was undertaken
by us.... While the Third and First Armies attacked from
Fontaine-les-Croisilles to Fresnoy, the Fifth Army launched a
second attack upon the Hindenburg Line in the neighbourhood
of Bullecourt. This gave a total front of over sixteen miles.
Along practically the whole of this front our troops broke
into the enemy’s positions.... To secure the footing gained
by the Australians in the Hindenburg Line on the 3rd May, it
was advisable that Bullecourt should be captured without loss
of time. During the fortnight following our attack, fighting
for the possession of this village went on unceasingly....
On the morning of the 7th May, English troops (7th Division,
Major-General T. H. Shoubridge) gained a footing in the
south-east corner of Bullecourt. Thereafter gradual progress
was made, in the face of the most obstinate resistance, and on
the 17th May, London and West Riding Territorials[79] completed
the capture of the village.... On the 20th May fighting was
commenced by the 33rd Division (Major-General R. J. Pinney) for
the sector of the Hindenburg Line lying between Bullecourt and
our front-line west of Fontaine-les-Croisilles. Steady progress
was made until by the 16th June touch had been established by
us between these two points.’[80]
[Illustration: COLISEUM MADE OUT OF A GERMAN CRATER.]
We had intended to close here the present chapter. But our impression
of life at the front with the 62nd Division is incomplete without
reference to the mimic warfare and the relaxation from war which likewise
formed part of its experience. On that very day, June 16th, when the
Bullecourt sector was finally consolidated, Divisional Sports were being
held at Achiet-le-Petit. In a Coliseum made out of a German crater,
which we illustrate from a pencil-sketch on the spot, the Divisional
Band was playing on June 14th, and boxing contests were being fought.
Two days later, a Gymkhana was held, in which some of the chief events
were dribbling a football on horseback,[81] driving a pair of mules
tandem,[82] and collecting stones to drop into a bucket.[83] On June
20th, three Officers of the 2/5th West Ridings rode from Achiet-le-Petit
to Thiepval, and went over the ground which had been fought by the 1st
Line Battalion of their Regiment nearly a year before. ‘Forsan et haec
olim meminisse juvabit,’ they may have thought, as they contrasted their
leisurely ride with the heat of battle which the site recalled; and the
same thought, applied to their own experience, may have revealed the hope
of a future day when Bullecourt, like Thiepval, would be remembered as a
past stage in a victorious advance.
CHAPTER X
I.—THE NORTHERN RIDGES
Between the Battle of Arras in the Spring and the Battle of Cambrai in
the Autumn came the Third Battle of Ypres in the Summer. This middle
battle in time (with which, in the history of the West Riding, we shall
not be much concerned) was the northernmost battle in space, and its
success, if it had been fully successful, would have been amphibious in
kind. It would have rendered untenable by Germany the sea-bases of her
submarine campaign, thus relieving the food-problem for the Allies, and
it would have removed the military peril, fought out to a standstill in
1915, which threatened Paris and the Channel ports. On this account, as
we saw in the last Chapter, the northernmost battle of the three was
originally the chief in significance according to Sir Douglas Haig’s
plans. If we may regard the long Allied line, say, from Reims to the
sea, throughout, and even beyond, the fighting season of 1917, as the
scene of a single battle, we must add that the course of that battle
did not follow Sir Douglas Haig’s wishes. We read above of a ‘revised’
scheme, of ‘restricted’ preparations for the attack in Flanders, and we
infer (indeed, we are informed) that, if Haig had been in sole Command
of the Allied Forces on the Western front, he would have disposed the
programme a little differently. Happily, it is not our business to judge
the strategy of the war. Our task is to narrate the part which was played
by a few thousand Yorkshiremen in bringing the war to a victorious close.
Strategy was not in their contract: the Colonel obeyed his Brigadier, the
General his Corps Commander; and even in a larger sphere, Sir Douglas
Haig was less than supreme. In the triple battle of 1917 many factors
entered into account. To burn out the submarine nests, to countervail
Italy’s fate of arms, to anticipate Russia’s defection, to release French
industry and railways: these were a few of the considerations which
affected the movements of the Allied Armies between Verdun and Ypres, the
two flagstaffs of French and British ardour. That they were, primarily,
political considerations does not mean that they were wrongly brought
into account. Always the strategical initiative, as distinct from the
tactical, lies partly outside the control of the fighting men. But there
was worse than this in the series of conditions which determined the
fighting of 1917. The sequence of battle-areas (Arras, Ypres, Cambrai)
might be dictated by causes which prevailed over the best-laid plans;
the course of the battles themselves, especially of the Summer-battle
about Ypres, was dictated by less calculable chances. Among these were
the ‘pill-boxes’ and the mud, the solid and the fluid conditions. When to
break off that last battle was almost more difficult a problem than when
to engage it; and if its commencement was postponed by causes outside
Haig’s control, we can read between the lines of his Fourth Dispatch the
hesitation with which he carried it on:
‘After weighing these considerations, as well as the general
situation and various other factors affecting the problem,
among them the desirability of assisting our Allies in the
operations to be carried out by them on the 23rd October in the
neighbourhood of Malmaison, I decided to continue the offensive
further....
‘Though the condition of the ground continued to deteriorate,
the weather after this was unsettled rather than persistently
wet, and progress had not become impossible. I accordingly
decided to press on while circumstances still permitted....
‘By this time the persistent continuation of wet weather had
left no further room for hope....[84]’
it would be unnecessary to complete this final sentence, except that it
closes with the definite statement, that, ‘in view of other projects
which I had in view, it was desirable to maintain pressure on the
Flanders front for a few weeks longer.’ Once more, we are not required to
judge, but, at least, we may note the implication that, even when there
was ‘no further room for hope’ (surely, a grave obstacle to progress) it
was still necessary to ‘maintain pressure for a few weeks longer.’
The West Yorkshire troops did not come in till close to the end of this
middle battle, and we shall presently be more fully concerned with the
‘other projects’ elsewhere. But we can imagine what it meant to those
spent and battle-weary soldiers to ‘maintain pressure’ beyond the hope of
progress. ‘Physical exhaustion,’ we read, ‘placed narrow limits on the
depth to which each advance could be pushed’; and how far those limits
should be forced was a matter of very difficult discretion. ‘Time after
time,’ runs the Despatch, ‘the practically beaten enemy was enabled to
re-organize and relieve his men, and to bring up reinforcements behind
the sea of mud which constituted his main protection’; and at what point
a ‘practically beaten’ enemy should be left behind his barrier of mud
was, again, very hard to decide. Hard and difficult decisions for the
High Command; but the hardship and the difficulty of the fighting fell
heavily on the fighting men, and the Summer-battle of 1917, which was
prolonged far beyond the Summer, entailed, as Sir Douglas Haig tells us,
‘almost superhuman exertions on the part of the troops of all arms and
services.[85]’ The great Commander chose his word well. If the triple
battle of 1917 were to be fought out again, with all the conditions
constant except those which strategists could vary, there would be,
conceivably, a new time-table and a new distribution of effort at Arras,
Passchendaele and Cambrai: there would still be the ‘superhuman’ effort
to overcome the German advantage of irregular, murderous blockhouses,
like Martello-towers sunk in a sea of mud, and of not less irregular rain.
We come to closer quarters with this middle battle. It opened on June 7th
with an explosion of nineteen mines, which caused enormous rents in the
enemy front-line trenches, and which effectively assisted the Artillery
and the Air Force in their preparations for the Infantry advance.
Impressive from a spectacular point of view, it was no sudden thing, this
explosion. It represented many months of patient labour by highly-skilled
miners and engineers, the memory of whose devotion to duty, under
conditions of constant horror, should help, in industrial times, to
soften acerbities at home. It was, further, the great surprise of the
attack. British enterprise had to burrow underground in order to escape
the observation of an enemy, who, since 1915, when the Ypres salient was
inevitably contracted,[86] had occupied all the commanding ground in a
stretch of country where 60 feet was the measure of a mountain. Messines,
Wytschaete and Oostaverne were all captured on that first day (June 7th),
together with more than 7,000 prisoners and 450 pieces of Artillery.
General Sir Herbert Plumer and the Second Army, who had acted as wardens
of these marches through so many weary and exacting months, reaped a
swift reward in the second week of June.
Unfortunately, it did not end as it began. The obliteration of two
Battalions on the Yser between Nieuport and the sea on July 10th belongs
to the history of the Northamptons and the King’s Royal Rifles, whose
heroic defence of a position cut off from succour or support is Homeric
in its quality.[87] Canadian historians will tell the tale of the
capture of Hill 70 from the Prussian Guard, and of the long struggles
in the outskirts of Lens. The season was still young, however; the
initial operations had been successful, and the results achieved in June
encouraged Sir Douglas Haig to extend the area of his attack right along
the ridges and their spurs from Messines to Houlthulst Forest. These
movements started on the last day of July, with the Fifth Army under
General Sir Hubert Gough and the Second under General Sir Herbert Plumer.
Slowly, resolutely, painfully, a way was forced up the difficult slopes.
After twenty days a big advance could be recorded, but the going had
been hard and expensive, and already the pace began to tell. The halt
called in mid-August by exhaustion was employed for further preparation,
and a month later, when the full attack was re-commenced, the highest
points were still in enemy hands. It was now the middle of September:
battle had been joined in the first week of June, but Glencorse Wood and
Inverness Copse and a series of minor positions had still to be won, in
order to render Passchendaele untenable and so to complete the capture
of the ridges. The programme, we see, was out of gear; the price paid
was out of proportion to the gains. The battle-fury surged up and down
in gusts and lulls, and ebb and flow, shaped less to a regular advance
than to a series of shocks and withdrawals, with the battle-mark always a
little higher, but, behind it, in an ascending scale, loss of life, and
devastated country, rain and ruin, and desperate endeavour. Was it worth
while? was one urgent question. How long could it be kept up? was another.
Every Battalion of the 49th Division was engaged: the West Ridings, the
King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, the York and Lancasters, and the
West Yorkshires, and at last they reached the top of the main ridge. The
date was October 9th-10th, and the 49th was moved to the attack with the
66th Division on their right and the 48th on their left. The St. Julien
road lay behind them, Passchendaele was a mile or two ahead. Three stout
Infantry Brigades, eager to crown the Summer’s struggle, took part in the
front of the operation: the 146th in the centre, the 148th on the right,
and the 144th (48th Division) on the left. The 147th was the Reserve
Brigade. The centre Battalion of the centre Brigade was the 1/7th West
Yorkshires; they found the 1/5th of the same Regiment on their right, and
the 1/8th on their left: the 1/6th was their Reserve Battalion. The heavy
casualties in these two days’ fighting made exact information hard to
collect: in three Companies of the middle Battalion all the Officers and
senior N.C.O.s had been permanently or temporarily disabled, and as early
as 7-30 on the first morning (October 9th) the Reserve (147th) Brigade
was ordered to be ready at an hour’s notice. In these circumstances, an
hour to hour narrative could not be accurately compiled. The details
were too much confused. Touch was lost between Companies and between
Battalions, and one Officer’s summary of a part must stand for the record
of the whole: ‘The Brigade (the 146th) reached its first objective, but
was unable to proceed further.’ Still, an advance was made on these two
days, which count among the worst experiences on the Western front,
and the Troops very thoroughly merited the congratulations of the
Corps Commander, Sir Alexander Godley, on their achievement ‘under the
extremely adverse conditions.’
The congratulations were renewed a few days later (October 18th) when
Major-General Perceval, C.B., took leave of the 49th Division, which,
despite the ‘adverse conditions’ and the ‘almost superhuman exertions,’
which we have read of, he had commanded so gallantly and with so much
hope. We are told that, at the Brigade Parade, he appeared to feel the
parting very keenly, and we know how warmly his regret was reciprocated
by the whole Division. He had succeeded to the Command in 1915, when
General Baldock was injured by a shell,[88] and he had led the 49th
Division in the Battles of the Ancre and the Somme, culminating in
the capture of Thiepval, during 1916.[89] He was succeeded now by
Major-General Neville J. G. Cameron, C.B., C.M.G. (1916), of the Cameron
Highlanders, who had served on the Nile and in South Africa, and whose
proud privilege it became, as an Infantryman, to command a Territorial
Infantry Division till the end of the war.
We return from this personal note, arising out of the change of Command,
to the intense struggle outside Houlthulst Forest. It was renewed three
times in October, a bloody October for the 49th Division, as for the
British Army as a whole, and, at last, on the last day of that month,
the British line had been carried, foot by foot, till within about 300
yards of the contested village of Passchendaele. One more week of effort
was demanded of the Troops exhausted by four months’ bloodshed, and the
final assault was delivered on November 6th, when the village fell to
the Canadians. In the course of four days’ further fighting the last
crests of the ridges were secured, and the long Third Battle of Ypres was
definitely terminated.
Who had won it? Counting July 31st as the first day of that phase of
the Third Battle, it had cost the Germans over 24,000 prisoners. They
had lost positions from Messines to Passchendaele, roughly, on a front
of twelve miles, the value of which, small in area, had been recognized
as cardinal in three great battles in three years. Because they had lost
the positions, we may conclude that they had lost the Third Battle, as
they had lost the First (1914) and had been stalemated in the Second
(1915). But this conclusion does not contradict another, that Sir
Douglas Haig had not won. He had not won the victory which he sought.
If we compare the close with the opening of this long and brilliant
Despatch (‘the Campaigns of 1917’), we see clearly by how much he had
contracted his original bold design, and how grievously his large hopes
had been disappointed by extraneous events. ‘The general conditions
of the struggle this year,’ he recorded, ‘have been very different
from those contemplated at the conference of Allied Commanders held in
November, 1916. The great general and simultaneous offensive then agreed
on did not materialize.’ We turn back to the plans at that Conference,
so far as the British Commander reveals them.[90] They ‘comprised a
series of offensives on all fronts, so timed as to assist each other
by depriving the enemy of power of weakening any one of his fronts in
order to reinforce another.’ The Arras battle was not to be pursued
beyond its first objective: ‘it was my intention to transfer my main
offensive to another part of my front.... I hoped, after completing my
spring offensive further south, to be able to develop this Flanders
attack without great delay, and to strike hard in the north before
the enemy realized that the attack in the south would not be pressed
further.’ But it ‘did not materialize,’ as has been said. The task of
the British and French Armies had proved far heavier than was originally
anticipated, and, on the other hand, the enemy’s means of resistance had
proved ‘far greater than either he or we could have expected.’ We shall
see in a later chapter how these disappointments imposed a change from
the offensive to the defensive in the renewed campaign of 1918. Here
we observe that, to this extent, the Summer battle of 1917, protracted
almost too long for the endurance even of British soldiery, could not be
counted victorious. Nor was the final outlook better, when the results
on a wider front were added to those of the Third Battle of Ypres. On
no front had we suffered defeat; on none, as German reports prove, was
the enemy free from anxiety or confident of military success. But our
great efforts were frustrated by outside causes: military opinion is
hardening to the conviction that the Western battles of 1917 worked out,
on a balance, to our disadvantage, and the dark shadow of the Russian
Empire in solution fell across the concluding pages of the British Field
Marshal’s Fourth Despatch.
II.—BETWEEN THE BATTLES.
While the 49th Division was struggling up the northern ridges, the 62nd
was spending a brief and busy interval between the Battle of Arras in the
Spring and the Battle of Cambrai in the Autumn.
Not an hour of that interval was wasted. The noise of the guns was never
ceasing; and it is especially interesting to observe how admirably the
Divisional Training, set on foot at once between the battles, fitted the
daily calls which were to be made on all units of the Division.
But first, for the sake of its pleasant reading, and as a proof that
merit found reward, take Lord Harewood’s statement to the West Riding
Association in October, 1917, of the Honours awarded to their Troops.
The 62nd had figured in an Honours List as early as the previous April,
and there had been a good sprinkling from its units in June. Now, every
unit had been fighting, and every unit had won distinction. Thus, we
met Lieut.-Colonel Hastings at Bullecourt, and we read here of his
well-merited D.S.O., and of as many as sixteen Military Medals awarded
to gallant men in his Battalion. In point of fact, the Honours which
were awarded were far fewer than the Honours which were deserved;
and, confining ourselves to figures only, since it is not seemly to
select names[91], we observe that, out of fourteen Military Crosses
which fell to the 62nd Division, four went to subaltern Officers in a
single Battalion of the West Ridings. In the 49th Division, there were
twenty-four awards of the Military Cross; four men received Bars to their
Military Medals; and there were over a hundred fresh Military Medals and
other decorations. Many mothers and maids in the West Riding had cause to
be proud of their sons and lovers.
So much in this place for the past fighting. Meanwhile, let us follow one
unit of the 62nd to its interval of rest between the fights. Here, too,
we need not particularize. We noted at the end of the last chapter how
quickly sport succeeded war, and in all units alike, at Achiet-le-Petit
and elsewhere, the typical Battalion Sports Officer would ‘get a move on’
very quickly. We may imagine the kind of man he was; say, a subaltern
Officer with a wound-stripe, perhaps recently rejoined, and wearing,
no doubt, the ribbons of a Military Cross and a Croix-de-Guerre. We
may imagine, too, the shell-pocked field, which, in order to exercise
his men, he would set himself to convert into a football ground, with
its holes neatly patched and darned, and its goal posts and other
appurtenances requisitioned as urgently as ammunition. Or take the signal
example of the great crater-coliseum,[92] on which a whole Battalion had
been set at work, and which was ingeniously constructed to accommodate
about two thousand spectators. It was chiefly used for boxing contests,
and the R.E. took a hand in erecting its 18-foot ring. The next step
was to find and train the teams, and special mention is due to the
middleweight champion of the 62nd Division, Company Sgt.-Major Schofield,
D.C.M., of the 2/5th West Ridings, whose fight with Pte. Hayhurst, of
the 2/6th Duke of Wellington’s, filled the Coliseum one fine day. They
were not too particular about the seasons. When the weather was hot,
they played cricket; when it was not, they played football, and an
inter-Brigade Summer football match resulted in the victory of a team
composed of the R.E. and R.A.M.C.; the 2/4th West Ridings being second,
and the 2/5th West Ridings third. Later, a Divisional Cup was competed
for at Beaulencourt, and was won by the 2/5th West Ridings, who beat the
R.E. and R.A.M.C. by the handsome score of six goals to one.
The old saying about the playing-fields at Eton and the Battle of
Waterloo recurs to memory as we write. The preparation for war in sport
was illustrated again and again. Three times in the course of this
Summer, a certain Company out of a Battalion of the 62nd was stationed
in a position known as the Apex, which had formed part of the Hindenburg
Line, south-south-west of Riencourt. The first occasion was towards the
end of June, and the Company Officers found cause to bless the foresight
of the authorities who had organized so many forms of sport. Take their
excellent shooting, for example. A party of the enemy, about six in
number, had been observed on the sky-line walking in single file on
the top of a communication-trench. The range was, approximately, 1,200
yards. Six men were sent out in a good lying position, and the sights
were harmonized between 1,000 and 1,400 yards. After the third round,
we are told, the enemy rapidly dispersed, and contracted their sphere
of activity. Or, take the raid on the Apex on September 13th, which was
shown by prisoners’ testimony to have been carefully rehearsed by a
considerable enemy force of Storm-Troops, Infantry, and others, under
orders to destroy all dug-outs near the Apex and to inflict as much
damage as possible on our garrison. The attack fell on the 2/6th West
Yorkshires, and was very gallantly repulsed; chiefly by the courage
and determination of Captain G. C. Turner, who was killed, and of
L.-Sergt. W. Pearson (No. 241038), who lived just long enough for General
Braithwaite to recommend him for the award of the D.C.M. It was a typical
‘No surrender’ exploit, and merits special recognition. Or, another
incident at the Apex back in August. On this occasion a private soldier
distinguished himself, and was awarded the M.M., in a voluntary patrol to
clear up an obscure position. In full daylight he went, unaccompanied, up
a gulley some 35 to 40 yards, and located an enemy party. He reported the
position to his Officer, who dealt with it successfully the same night by
the aid of some rifle-grenadiers. It was the same private, by the way,
the crack shot in his own crack company, who brought down some partridges
in September, within a few yards of the enemy posts. Either for the game
or for other causes, the men of this Company became so keen on patrol
work at the Apex, that they petitioned for a double tour duty and stayed
out eight consecutive nights. Insignificant details, perhaps, but good
shooting and keen soldiership won the war; and the Division thoroughly
earned the compliments of the Commander-in-Chief and Army Commander on
their exploits during this period, which showed ‘skill and enterprise.’
They were as good at salving as at sniping. The tale is told of a
Platoon near Bullecourt, which had become liable to a complaint that
Salvage orders were being neglected. The complaint was quickly set
to rights, and within a very short time a remarkable collection was
accumulated outside Company Headquarters. A derelict Tank had been found
hidden fast in high undergrowth, and as many as seven Lewis guns and some
forty magazines in more or less bad condition were brought to join the
Battalion dump. By the side of another Tank the bodies were identified
of four men of the Royal Warwicks, and, as the Yorkshiremen themselves
had once been engaged in the same sector, they began an organized search,
which resulted in at least forty casualties being transferred from
‘missing’ to ‘killed.’
So, the pause between the battles were filled up. With raids and
counter-raids, and martial exercises, and military sports, and play
imitating work, the exhaustion after Bullecourt was repaired, and the
spirit of Bullecourt was renewed. Field-work on the open fighting
system completed the training at Beaulencourt where a move was made
into hutments in October, and it is noted that the shooting was so
much improved that one Platoon, at the end of its intensive practice,
scored a total of 405 out of 450 points in a ‘mad minute’ competition.
Early in November, a new Brigadier was appointed to the 186th Brigade
in succession to Brig.-General Hill, whose gallantry and leadership had
won him the affection of all ranks, when the limits of age compelled his
retirement. The veteran’s place was taken by a very junior Officer, R.
B. Bradford, V.C., who fell in action at the end of the same month, and
whose name may stand, on the eve of the Autumn fighting, to typify the
_personnel_ of the Division, certain units of which we have visited here
and there in the training period between Arras and Cambrai. Roland Boys
Bradford was born in 1892; he joined the Durham Light Infantry in 1912,
and went out to the war two years afterwards. Thus, his chance came early
in life, and he made the fullest use of every phase of it. His promotion
was as rapid as his valour was remarkable. He won the M.C. and the V.C.
(1916), and was several times mentioned in Despatches, and accounts agree
that this youthful Brigadier, when he reached that military rank at
the early age of twenty-five, was a soldier of very brilliant promise.
He died young, according to civil standards, but he achieved a fine
professional record under exacting conditions of active service; and
General Braithwaite’s 62nd Division was fortunate, in November, 1917, in
possessing, on the Cambrai front, Brigadiers so thoroughly conversant
with their duties and so fully qualified to lead their men as General
Viscount Hampden, commanding the 185th, General Taylor, commanding the
187th, and General Bradford, commanding the 186th, whose swift death is
the just pretext for this brief excursus.
III.—THE BATTLE OF CAMBRAI (FIRST PHASE)
We reach now the final stage of the campaign, which had been planned with
such hopeful anticipations at the November conference just a year before.
There are several ways of regarding the Battle of Cambrai. We may look
at it through big, strategic spectacles, as a means, opportune, but
timely, of engaging and distracting German Forces which might otherwise
have been sent to Italy. This view is not without authority, and it is
stated with his usual lucidity by Mr. Buchan in his popular narrative:
‘Italy, fighting desperately on the Piave, deserved by all the
laws of war some relief in the shape of an Allied diversion.
Weary as his troops might be, Sir Douglas Haig was not able to
grant them the rest which they had earned and most urgently
required.’[93]
It is not within our province to strike a balance between this assumption
of ‘all the laws of war’ and the degree of weariness of Sir Douglas
Haig’s troops.
Again, we may look at this battle through the narrower spectacles of a
tactician. It was designed in the nature of a surprise. It was unexpected
in time and place, and it brought into operation a new weapon in the
form of a mass attack of Tanks in lieu of Artillery preparation. In this
aspect the Battle was victorious: it evoked von der Marwitz’s Order to
the German Second Army (November 29th):
‘The English, by throwing into the fight countless Tanks on
November 20th, _gained a victory_ near Cambrai. Their intention
was to break through; but they did not succeed, thanks to
the brilliant resistance of our troops. We are now going to
turn their embryonic victory into a defeat by an encircling
counter-attack. The Fatherland is watching you, and expects
every man to do his duty.’
Once more, we shall not attempt to strike a balance. We gained a victory,
according to this Order, but it was embryonic and not a success. At the
same time, we know that things were serious when the Fatherland was said
to be watching.
A third way of looking at this battle, and the way best suited to our
present purpose, is to regard it as a very gallant enterprise, worthy of
the finest traditions of the British Army, and not less worthy because a
large part of its hardest demands fell on Territorial Troops. They might
muffle the joy-bells in England when the full story of the battle was
revealed, but at least they had rung them spontaneously in recognition of
a brilliant feat of arms, and the bells still peal in celebration of the
dash and heroism of British soldiers.
We turn back for a moment to the sketch on page 116, especially to A B
C, the road from Albert through Bapaume to Cambrai. The British line has
swallowed up the eleven miles (A B), where the fighting was so intense
in 1916, and it struck now (November 20th) across that road at a point
just east of Boursies, about half-way between Bapaume and Cambrai. Thence
it forged right into the triangle, of which Arras is the apex, leaving
Quéant in German occupation on the east, and Bullecourt in British on the
west, to the northerly country where we have been adjourning. Turning
next to the position before us, we see what advantage would accrue from
a deeper bite on the same road. Not primarily to capture Cambrai, though
this, too, might enter calculation, but to roll up the British forces
from below the road in such a way as to threaten Cambrai and to disturb
the German Winter dispositions, was a hazard worth the stake in late
November. Roughly, the scheme of the attack was to push out between
Boursies and Gonnelieu in a north north-easterly direction, lapping
up the strong positions like a flame, and to spread in a converging
semi-circle up to the main road (Bapaume-Cambrai) and beyond.
The troops at Sir Julian Byng’s disposal[94] were, first, a fleet of
four hundred Tanks, commanded by General Hugh Elles; next, the following
six Infantry Divisions: the 36th (Ulster), 62nd (West Riding), 51st
(Highland), the 6th, 20th and 12th; next, four Cavalry Divisions; and,
finally, three more Infantry Divisions (3rd, 16th and 29th), of which
the 29th, of Gallipoli fame, was actively engaged. It will be seen that
the 62nd had a place of honour in the attack, and it was allotted the
task of capturing Havrincourt, the strong point of the enemy’s line.
This task required all the powers the Troops could bring: unfaltering
leadership, indomitable mettle, and untiring endurance. The methods and
needs of the attack had been the subject of constant discussion since the
original scheme of operations had been laid before Divisional Commanders
at a conference on October 31st. The 51st and 62nd Divisions had been
trained close to one another in order to facilitate co-operation, and the
preparation of Artillery positions, begun on November 4th, was carried
out night and day till the 19th. No detail was too small to engage the
personal attention of the Officers in charge of the operation, various
features of which were modified from day to day in accordance with
practical experience.
On the night of November 17th-18th, the two leading Brigades of the
62nd Division took up their battle front; the 185th on the right, and
the 187th on the left. Detachments of the 36th Division were kept in the
outpost line, so as to avoid any chance of the enemy spotting the relief;
and, though he rushed one of these posts, and captured two men of the
36th, he was not made aware of the date or time of the attack, or of the
fact that Tanks were to be used. These lumbered off from the advanced
Tankodrome at the south-west corner of Havrincourt Wood, and reached
their lying-up places by midnight on Y Z night, November 19th-20th.
The pace of the Tanks was calculated, after practical experience, at a
hundred yards in five minutes, and the Artillery barrage and Infantry
advance were regulated accordingly. The two leading Infantry Brigades
were to attack on a two-Battalion front, preceded by twenty-two Tanks.
The remaining two Battalions of each Brigade, preceded by eight Tanks,
were to leap-frog through the leading Battalions, picking up all
surviving Tanks on their way.
Second only, if second, to the Tanks in novelty and effectiveness was
the new, great weapon of surprise, perfected by the lessons of a hundred
mistakes. We may quote the evidence of a contemporary Battalion diarist,
who ascribed the initial success, first, to the Tanks (‘these dealt
extremely effectively with the enemy wire, which was very formidable
in places’), and, secondly, to secrecy (‘even in the marches up to the
line the destination of the Battalion for that night was not made known
to anybody below the rank of an Officer. That this policy paid well may
be judged from the fact that the enemy was obviously taken completely
by surprise’). This record, taken from the account of the 2/4th York
and Lancasters, is repeated in almost every diary. In order to keep the
secret, very elaborate precautions had been taken. Aerial photographers
were deceived by marches on the off-side of roads. Lorries going
northward carried lights, lorries going southward carried none. No fires
were allowed. There was no preliminary bombardment, and, as indicated
above, no one in the Division knew the destination of the Division. Zero
hour on November 20th was 6-20 a.m., and at 6-20, on that foggy morning,
the first intimation to the Germans of the 62nd Division’s attack was
the sight of a sheet of flame from every gun, and of heavy Tanks looming
through the mist. No wonder, that the first bound of the eager Infantry
started with conspicuous success, and was attended by comparatively few
casualties.
That first bound of the Infantry was to carry them to Havrincourt and
Flesquières, and Havrincourt, as we saw, was to be the prize of General
Braithwaite’s Troops. We shall come to the fighting in a moment. Here let
us straightway say that the Division acquitted itself brilliantly. Sir
Douglas Haig, in his Despatch, expressly used this rare epithet. ‘The
62nd (West Riding) Division (T.), (Major-General W. P. Braithwaite),’
he wrote, ‘stormed Havrincourt, where ... parties of the enemy held out
for a time,’ and ‘operating northwards from Havrincourt, made important
progress. Having carried the Hindenburg Reserve Line north of that
village, it rapidly continued its attack, and captured Graincourt, where
two anti-Tank guns were destroyed by the Tanks accompanying our Infantry.
Before nightfall, Infantry and Cavalry had entered Anneux, though the
enemy’s resistance in this village does not appear to have been entirely
overcome till the following morning’ (November 21st). ‘This attack of the
62nd Division,’ added the great Field Marshal, ‘constitutes a _brilliant
achievement_ in which the troops concerned completed an advance of four
and a half miles from their original front, over-running two German
systems of defence, and gaining possession of three villages.[95]’ As a
fact, their advance on that day, the third Tuesday in November, covered
a distance further in actual mileage than any other of Sir Julian Byng’s
Divisions; further, indeed, than any Division of the British Army had
advanced in one day under like conditions since war was engaged in the
Western Front. Starting from a point just below the big bend of the Canal
du Nord, they took Havrincourt by assault (which meant, among other
factors, (1) secrecy, (2) Tanks and, as we show below, (3) Infantry-rush)
pushed straight forward to Graincourt, and reached and occupied Anneux,
at the edge of our B C road, and opposite the south side of Bourlon Wood:
over 7,000 yards, as a crow flies, and a wholly exceptional day’s march
for soldiers fighting every foothold.
We have drawn attention to the secrecy and the Tanks. ‘The measure of
further success,’ so ran an order of the day, ‘is entirely dependent on
the speed with which the operation is carried out. Every minute is of
importance.... Once the enemy is on the run, every man must put forth his
utmost efforts to press on and to prevent his rallying.’ Here, again, the
7,000 yards of the 62nd Division bear witness to exemplary team-work in
training for this Infantry-rush both in the period of Divisional rest and
of intensive preparation. One more detail may be set down in this place.
At the Dinner of the 62nd Division, held at Leeds on September 9th,
1919, when Major-General Sir James K. Trotter took the Chair, General
Braithwaite, on leave from his Command in Cologne, announced that a site
for a Divisional Battle Memorial had been sought and courteously granted
in Havrincourt Park—an announcement which, as we shall see, derived
additional force and appropriateness from the further record of the
Division at Havrincourt in the victorious advance of 1918.
Meanwhile, still on that first day, when the Tanks went crashing
through the fog, the Highlanders (51st Division) were repeating against
Flesquières on the right, the ‘bound’ of the 62nd against Havrincourt.
Its capture was reported about 11 a.m., but two hours later authentic
news arrived, that, though the troops were holding the front trench of
the Hindenburg Support Line in front of the village, machine-gun and
rifle fire had broken the assault; a large number of Tanks had been put
out of action; the Support Line and Flesquières itself were still in
enemy hands. This retardation of the programme affected immediately the
advance of the 186th Infantry Brigade (Graincourt). Its right wing was
dangerously exposed; and the two Field Artillery Brigades to the east of
Havrincourt, deprived of the hope of Cavalry assistance, were also left
hanging. Still, the Infantry pressed on. The results achieved were too
good and too promising to be sacrificed to a risk which might eventuate
either way, and it would at least be practicable to call a halt on the
Graincourt-Cambrai road till the position at Flesquières was clearer.
This plan was exactly carried out, and shortly after 5-30 that afternoon
the 186th Brigade had captured Graincourt, and was resting (or at any
rate not advancing from) a line north of the Cambrai road.
[Illustration: HAVRINCOURT: CANAL DU NORD BRIDGE.
HAVRINCOURT: IN THE PARK.]
We shall come back to the epic battle of November 20th. Passing now to
November 21st, the objective of the Division on the second day was the
high ground west of Bourlon and Bourlon Wood. The gallant 186th Brigade
was entrusted with this attack, and all available surviving Tanks were
put at their disposal. One Regiment of Cavalry was attached to the
Division, and Zero hour was fixed at 10-0 a.m. It had been hoped to push
forward the Artillery during the night of 20th-21st, but the rain which
had been falling since the afternoon interfered with this programme.
However, despite the opposing mud, all four Artillery Brigades were in
action between Havrincourt and Graincourt early in the afternoon of the
21st. The night of the 20th had passed quietly. About 8 o’clock the
next morning, the 51st (Highland) Division had completed their capture
of Flesquières, and were advancing on to the Marcoing-Graincourt Road.
Prisoners’ tales reported that Bourlon Wood (the 62nd’s objective) was
held by the 32nd and 224th Brandenburghers, indicating that a Reserve
Division had been brought up by the enemy. It was time to get on, and
punctually at Zero-hour the 186th Infantry Brigade, with the 185th in
close support and the 187th in reserve, were started on their way,
while the Artillery bombarded Bourlon village and put a smoke barrage
on Tadpole Copse. Eighteen Tanks in all was the number of available
survivors, but, owing to trouble with petrol-supply, etc., not all of
these were ready to time, and some delay ensued in the execution of the
operation.
Before estimating the results of the severe fighting in which the Brigade
was involved, one or two facts may be stated as to the participation of
some of its units.
The 2/4th West Ridings were detailed to capture Anneux and Anneux Chapel.
The village, though strongly held by Infantry and Machine-Guns, duly fell
to their splendid efforts, but further advance was stopped at the edge of
Bourlon Wood. The Company detailed to take the Chapel performed skilful
work with heavy casualties, and, after making good their advance to the
edge of the wood, and capturing at least 300 prisoners, were withdrawn
shortly before dark to the sunken road.
The 2/5th and the 2/7th West Ridings were badly handicapped for lack
of Tanks. Instead of the frontal attack which had been intended, the
uncut wire compelled them to have recourse to an attack by bombs,
with consequent loss of impetus. A single Tank, which arrived in the
afternoon, was utilized to the utmost of its capacity. The 2/6th
Battalion, which was to have been kept in Brigade reserve, and to have
been used for the capture of Bourlon Village as soon as the leading
Battalions had reached their objectives, had to be employed to reinforce
the assault and to fill up gaps in the line. Similarly, the Cavalry were
dismounted in the later hours of the afternoon, and helped to complete
the line held in front of Anneux by the 2/4th West Ridings.
Though Moeuvres and Anneux (inclusive) had been captured, and were held,
it was evident that Bourlon Village would not be taken that day. Orders
were issued, accordingly, to relieve the 186th Infantry Brigade in their
present positions, and their relief by the 185th was duly carried out
that evening.
The general situation on the night of November 21st was somewhat vague,
and next day, though the Division was to have been relieved during the
night of the 21st/22nd by the 40th Division, it was decided to make one
more effort to capture the ridge west of Bourlon Wood, which overlooked
all the ground west and south of Graincourt. They tried, and struggled,
and tried again, but, despite much desperate fighting, no capture
ensued, and, owing to the enemy’s counter-attack and the consequent
disorganization, the attempt had to be abandoned. On the same day, the
51st Division took and lost Fontaine. In the night, the relief of the
62nd was duly effected by the 40th.
We break off here for a moment to set down one or two of the gallant
deeds which were done in the three days’ battle. And, first, we should
quote in full the special Order of the Day, which General Braithwaite,
Commanding the Division, published on November 24th, the first full day
of the relief. The Divisional Commander, it stands written,
‘has the honour to announce that the Commander-in-Chief and the
Army Commander have expressed their high appreciation of the
achievement of the 62nd Division in the battle.
‘The Divisional Commander had the most implicit confidence that
the Division would acquit itself with honour.
‘To have advanced 7,000 yards on the first day, taken all
objectives, held them against counter-attacks and handed over
all gains intact to the relieving Division is a feat of arms of
which any Division may be justly proud.
‘The number of prisoners taken is not far short of 2,000.
Thirty-seven guns have been captured, which include two 8-inch
Howitzers, one complete Battery of 4·2, one complete Battery of
5·9, and the remainder, guns of various calibres, many of which
were brought into action against the enemy.
‘The number of Machine-Guns, Granatenwerfer, etc., etc., which
have fallen into our possession is so considerable that it has
not been possible yet to make an accurate tally of them.
‘The advance of the Artillery to Graincourt, and the accuracy
of the barrage, is worthy of the best traditions of the Royal
Regiment. To C Battalion, the Tanks, all ranks of the Division
express their admiration of the skill, bravery and the splendid
self-sacrifice which made success possible.
‘The discipline, valour and steadiness of all ranks has been
beyond praise.
‘It is with great and legitimate pride that I have the honour
to sign my name as Commander of the 62nd (West Riding)
Division.’
November 24th, 1917—the years that have elapsed and that will elapse
since General Braithwaite signed this Order cannot diminish its praise.
The glowing words breathe and live; they survive the _neiges d’antan_
which cover his gallant men’s graves between the Bapaume road and the
Canal de l’Escaut.
Here, too, is the place to mention the visit on November 22nd of Sir
Douglas Haig himself to the Headquarters of the 62nd Division (a
visit preceded the day before by the dispatch of an A.D.C. by the
Commander-in-Chief), in order personally to congratulate General
Braithwaite, and to tell him to let the Division know how splendidly, in
his opinion, they had acquitted themselves.
Or take the record here and there (it can be but a casual selection)
of the acts which won these praises in the three days’ battle which we
are reviewing. It was at the very beginning of the battle, early in the
morning of November 20th, that the 2/5th Battalion of the West Riding
Regiment, going forward in column of route to try to get through the gaps
in the wire in front of Havrincourt, lost Lt.-Col. T. A. D. Best, D.S.O.,
their Commanding Officer, described by the General at his graveside as
‘one of the finest soldiers and the most perfect gentlemen he had had
under his command.’
The same Battalion, if we may follow it a little further, continued
its advance on the first day to a point on the further (north) side
of the Bapaume-Cambrai road, where it succeeded in establishing touch
with the 36th Division on the Canal bank. This attack was a ‘record
at the time for depth in one day’s advance, the Battalion going about
7,000 yards from the old British Front Line to the final objective for
the day.’ Its captures for the day included more than 350 prisoners,
fifteen Machine-Guns and a Trench Mortar, and the total casualties in the
Battalion were three Officers and ten other Ranks killed, one Officer
and fifty-five other Ranks wounded, and four men missing. Its honours
included two appointments to the Distinguished Service Order, in the
persons of Captains Goodall and C. S. Moxon; and next day, November 21st,
when Major F. Brook was appointed by the G.O.C. to the Command of the
Battalion, in consideration of his gallant conduct and brilliant leading
after the death of Colonel Best, Captain (Temporary Major) Goodall,
Senior Company Commander, became second in command.
Records similar to the above might be lifted out of the Diary of each
and every Battalion engaged on those days. Our selection of a single
example will have sufficed to typify the spirit which animated all units
in all ranks; and when we turn from the exploits of a Battalion to the
exploits of individuals, the same tale of courage is repeated.
Take, for instance, the following record of an exploit by two young
Officers: it is regarded by the Divisional Commander as one of the
most remarkable during the battle. In the 187th Brigade, the G.O.C.,
Brigadier-General Taylor, in his determination to be prepared for all
eventualities, had impressed upon his Officers the necessity of pushing
forward at Zero hour, whether or not the Tanks had arrived. This meant
that the Infantry must know their way, and, consequently, during Y Z
night, two Officers of the 2/5th King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
crept out between midnight and dawn to reconnoitre the route. They
actually succeeded in creeping up to the enemy’s wire, and marked out
the route which they would have to follow, if the Tanks were late the
next morning, by placing tapes to guide them. It was well that they
did so, for the unexpected happened. The Tanks, which were to lead the
Battalion, were delayed; and it was due to the initiative and enterprise
of these two gallant Officers,[96] that the Battalion was able to start
without the advance-guard of Tanks, and to march straight to their first
objective, which they captured at the point of the bayonet.
Take, again, seven exploits in the ranks, each of which won a Military
Medal. We select them as typical acts, in the various arms of the
Service; and, though the extracts from the records are accurate, we shall
not identify them by names, since many pages of this narrative could be
filled with similar accounts. In each instance, the date of the exploit
is November 20th or 21st, and they all redound to the credit of the 62nd
Division.
(1) A Private displayed great courage and devotion to duty
during the attack on the Hindenburg Support system near
Graincourt. He acted as runner, and was on duty two days
and one night with his Company, often taking messages under
machine-gun fire to Platoons on the Front Line, thereby keeping
his Company Commander in constant touch with what was happening.
(2) A Private displayed great bravery and resolution whilst
acting as Company runner during the operations near the
Hindenburg Support Line. Throughout the day, under heavy fire,
he continued to carry messages to and from Battalion Head
Quarters and Companies on the flanks. He set a fine example of
devotion to duty and showed a complete disregard for his own
safety.
(3) A Private displayed his bravery and coolness during the
attack on the Hindenburg Support Line, north of the Cambrai
road. When his Company was temporarily held up by machine-gun
fire from the Front, and its flank was threatened by a strong
enemy bombing party, this man took up a position in the open,
in front of the German wire, and continued, under heavy fire,
firing off rifle-grenades until incapacitated by wounds. His
gallant action frustrated the attempt to turn the flank of his
Company.
(4) A total disregard to danger and devotion to duty was shown
by a Private, while acting as Stretcher-Bearer during the
attack on the Hindenburg Support system near Graincourt. He
dressed wounds and got back casualties during the whole day
under machine-gun fire, and went out alone next day and brought
in a badly wounded man from the front of the forward line,
thereby undoubtedly saving a life.
(5) A Non-Commissioned Officer showed great bravery and
initiative during the attack on the Hindenburg Support Line.
When the Company was temporarily held up by enemy machine-gun
fire both flanks, he took out a Lewis-gun to the left flank
of the Company, and, though under continuous and heavy fire,
engaged the enemy machine-gun with direct fire, and thus
enabled the Company to advance.
(6) A Non-Commissioned Officer displayed courage and initiative
during the attacks between Anneux and Bourlon Wood. He was in
charge of a Lewis-gun team on the right flank of his Company.
Heavy casualties were being caused by a party of the enemy
firing from the direction of Anneux. Without waiting for
orders, the N.C.O. crept forward under rifle and machine-gun
fire to a commanding position, and opened fire with his
Lewis-gun on the enemy, killing several and dispersing the rest
of the party.
(7) A Non-Commissioned Officer displayed conspicuous bravery
during the attack on the Hindenburg Support Line and Hughes
Switch. A hostile Trench Mortar was in action from a point
slightly in advance of Hughes Switch. This N.C.O. rushed
forward and bayoneted the men in charge of the Trench Mortar,
and took prisoners an officer and eight men who emerged from a
dug-out close at hand.
These seven examples, casually selected from the records of fighting
in the opening phase of the Battle of Cambrai, illustrate what General
Braithwaite meant when he wrote (November 24th) of his ‘implicit
confidence’ in the Division. They illustrate, too, what Sir Douglas Haig
meant when he wrote that it was ‘reasonable to hope’ that his operations
at Cambrai would be successful. For success and confidence in war depend
in the ultimate resort on how the soldier obeys orders. The runner who
takes messages under fire is an essential link between his Company
Commander and Divisional and Army Headquarters. The man who frustrates a
turning movement, or who enables his Company to advance, helps directly
to bring the issue into accordance with the plan of operation, and, in
this regard, these few typical examples are worth more than a chapter of
battle stories, as the spirit is worth more than the letter.
IV.—BATTLE OF CAMBRAI (SECOND PHASE).
We turn back at this point to the main narrative.
The 62nd Division, as we saw, was withdrawn during the night of 22nd/23rd
November, and was relieved by the 40th. This relief proved of short
duration. November 24th, the day of the Special Order, was spent in
necessary re-organization, but shortly before midnight on that day, after
barely thirty-six hours’ pause, Corps orders were received, that the 62nd
were to relieve the 40th during the following evening.
We have the advantage of an impression of that day (November 24th,
1917)—an impression from without, as it were—from the private diary
of Major-General the Earl of Scarbrough, at that time, it will be
remembered, Director-General of the Territorial and Volunteer Forces, and
still Chairman of the West Riding Territorial Force Association. In the
company of General Mends and Captain Atkinson-Clark, the Director-General
was paying a visit to his County Divisions at the Front. He had lunched
on the 23rd at Ypres, with Major-General Cameron, Commanding the 49th
Division, in a dug-out just inside the walls. The Division were then in
the line, with one Brigade (the West Yorkshires) in reserve, and Lord
Scarbrough had visited their camp, and seen their Commanding Officers,
who were ‘living in a sea of mud.’ At 8 a.m. on Saturday, the 24th, the
visitors left the Second Army, travelled by motor-car through Bapaume,
and, passing over a part of the Somme battlefield, where ‘every village
had been shelled out of existence,’ reached the operation area of the
Third Army. Thus, the Chairman and other Officers of the Association
enjoyed the unique experience of taking lunch with Major-General
Braithwaite, Commanding the 62nd Division, on the day following their
visit to the Headquarters of the 49th. Lord Scarbrough notes that the
G.O.C. was ‘immensely pleased’ with the work of his Division, and that
Sir Douglas Haig had visited the General and thanked him for their
‘remarkable success.’ Though the Division only came out the day before,
after three heavy days’ fighting, and were naturally ‘dog-tired,’ they
had just been called upon to be ready to send a Brigade back into the
line at half-an-hour’s notice. The enemy had begun a heavy counter-attack
on Bourlon Wood, ‘which was the key of his position, and which dominated
the Bapaume-Cambrai Road, the main road of supply for his troops in the
line further north.’ The 40th Division, the visitors heard, were reported
to be having a bad time, as the German Artillery had been reinforced, and
a Division brought from the Russian front had been thrown into the line.
These notes, written at the time, are exactly confirmed by the records
prepared more carefully later on when all the available facts had been
ascertained.
If we look at a map once more, we observe that the wider swing-round
on the eastern portion of the Bapaume-Cambrai Road had been held
up at Crèvecoeur and Rumilly. The consequence was (the causes were
uncontrollable, and concern the historian of other Divisions) to increase
the German pressure on Bourlon Wood and on the village beyond. The 40th
Division had attacked and captured the greater part of these positions
during November 23rd, but by reinforcements and counter-attacks the
enemy had succeeded in reversing these successes. Orders were issued,
accordingly, for the 62nd Division, less the Artillery and R.E., to
relieve the 40th Division, less the Artillery, R.E., and Pioneer
Battalion, in the Bourlon Section of the line, with the 186th Infantry
Brigade on the right, the 187th on the left and the 185th in Divisional
Reserve; the Headquarters of the two leading Brigades being located at
Graincourt. The relief was carried out without incident, except for a
considerable amount of shelling, which caused some casualties in the
186th Brigade. Next day (November 26th) there was a Corps Conference at
Divisional Headquarters, where, after long discussion, it was decided
that the Guards and the 62nd should attack the following morning with
the assistance of Tanks, in order to capture Fontaine and the remainder
of Bourlon Wood and Village. The night of the 26th was very cold, with a
blizzard blowing of snow and sleet. Zero-hour next morning was fixed for
6-20 a.m. The Tanks, of which 20 were available (16 being allotted to
the 187th Infantry Brigade for the capture of Bourlon Village), reached
their rendezvous punctually at 2 a.m., and the Infantry were all in
position fifty minutes before Zero-hour. A projected bombardment of the
village during the day of the 26th was not proceeded with, since three
Companies of the Highland Light Infantry (40th Division) were missing,
and it was thought that they might still be holding out in Bourlon.
Coming now to Zero-hour on the 27th, and observing that, about 10 a.m.,
Brigadier-General Taylor, Commanding the 187th Brigade, reported that
his attack had been unsuccessful and that his troops, which had entered
Bourlon, had been compelled under heavy fire to retire, we may enumerate
at least four causes which contributed to this comparative failure. The
first was darkness and mud: the men, and their rifles and Lewis guns,
were covered with mud from the start, and every man in the Brigade was
chilled by his long exposure to the driving snow. Secondly, there were
strong points south of Bourlon, which, owing to heavy machine-gun fire,
had not been dealt with by the Tanks. Thirdly, the village barricades
likewise opposed the Tank advance; and, fourthly, in and beyond Bourlon,
the enemy were able to bring to bear very effective machine-gun fire.
Or we may quote, in illustration of these obstacles, the experience of
a Company Officer, from Zero-hour 6-20 a.m., to the time, a few hours
later, when he, like so many others, became a casualty:
‘Immediately on leaving the forming-up line,’ he wrote, ‘we came under
very heavy machine-gun and rifle fire. We pressed on. The machine-gun
fire became more intense, and the enemy shelling more severe. The
casualties here amongst the Company were very heavy indeed. Despite this,
the Company, with dauntless courage, still pressed on, but my casualties
were appalling, and further progress became impossible.’
It was about this time (say 10 a.m.) that the 185th Infantry Brigade
were ordered to place another Battalion at the disposal of the 187th.
Meanwhile, frequent reports of hard fighting on the front of the 186th
Infantry Brigade had been received, and now they sent a message to
say, that, though their troops had all reached Bourlon Wood, the left
Battalion of the Guards had been driven back to its original line. At
noon it became evident that the advance of this Brigade had left both
flanks dangerously exposed. Partly in order to meet this danger, the
185th Brigade (less one Battalion already sent forward), reinforced
by a Battalion of the 2nd Cavalry Dismounted Brigade, were ordered to
relieve the 187th, and to extend their line round the south edge of
Bourlon Village, so as to keep in touch with the 186th; and the 2nd
Cavalry Dismounted Brigade (less its one Battalion) was ordered to keep
itself in readiness to relieve the front Battalions of the 186th. The
advance of this last-named Brigade was continued during the day, and they
reached practically all their objectives and were consolidating in depth.
By this time, however, they were very tired and were subject to heavy
counter-attacks, and the full effect of the new dispositions were not
felt in time to achieve their aim.
We need not follow this fighting further. During the night of November
28th/29th, the 62nd Division was relieved by the 47th. It moved back to
Havrincourt for the night, and marched next day into the reserve area
at Bertincourt and Lebucquière. Thenceforward, until the battle was
broken off, except for intermittent shelling, the 62nd Division took no
further active part in the operations. They had done extraordinarily
well, and the fine fighting of the 187th Infantry Brigade in Bourlon
Wood on November 27th stands out in the record of brilliance achieved
by the 62nd Division during this week at Cambrai. We know what happened
immediately afterwards: how the fighting odds proved too tremendous,
and the great offensive ended with a retirement on December 4th to the
7th, back from Bourlon, back from Fontaine, back from Mesnières and the
Bonavis Ridge, to points corresponding approximately to the line held
on November 20th, with certain gains in the regions of Flesquières and
Havrincourt, though a little closer to Gouzeaucourt in the South. It
would be idle to minimize the disappointment at this result, especially
when it was realized at home. In the larger issues of the war, the Battle
of Cambrai takes a smaller place than it occupies in the records of the
troops which took part in the fighting. A victory had been gained by
those troops which could not be turned to defeat, though the advance was
turned to a retirement. As a battle, it had been lost; as an experiment,
it had succeeded, though the measure of the success was laid up in the
future. But the troops were competent to measure it. Their military
sense, developed by a year’s continuous campaigning, seized the broad
issues of the experiment, and all ranks of the 62nd Division were filled
with a just sense of elation. Their allotted task had been performed with
what Field-Marshal Lord Haig, in his foreword to this volume, describes
as ‘outstanding brilliance,’ and a consciousness of this performance,
however modestly concealed, was present to the minds of all who survived
the battle.
[Illustration]
The casualties had been severe. In the first phase (November 20th
to 23rd), they amounted to 75 Officers and 1,613 other Ranks; in the
second phase (November 25th to 28th), to 79 Officers and 1,565 other
Ranks.[97] The honours had been not few[98]; but, apart from the measure
of achievement which casualty and honours lists supply, we take count of
the enhanced spirit of the Division, which, though it had ‘found itself’
before, may be said to have vindicated at Cambrai its title to a place in
the front rank. The Divisional Pelican, as we see, was still waiting to
put down his foot, but by fine team-work and fine individual work, the
Division had proved its merit as a fighting force, and had won the rare
praise of the Field-Marshal and the grateful thanks of the Divisional
Commander. Viewed, too, in relation to earlier actions, the Cambrai
battle, whatever its issue, is to be claimed as a conspicuous success. It
first proved the efficacy of Tanks, and their power of timed co-operation
with the Artillery and Infantry arms; it first proved the value of
secrecy as an essential factor of victory; and the lessons learned at
Cambrai incomparably modified the memory of past work at Bullecourt and
Thiepval.
BOOK III
WAR’S END
CHAPTER XI
FATEFUL DAYS IN 1918
All accounts agree that the close of 1917 found the Allies very
unfavourably situated. The balance seemed to be shifted against them; and
the contrast, in retrospect, is striking between the natural elation of
the troops who had taken part in the push at Cambrai, and had put to a
practical test the three-in-one new factors of success—Tanks, secrecy and
speed—and the equally natural depression of public opinion at home, and
even at the front, wherever the chances of the campaign were accurately
weighed. The mere strategic satisfaction at having relieved the pressure
on Italy, or, at least, at having kept it short of full strength, by
tactical operations in France, afforded inadequate compensation for the
knowledge, growing to certainty, that the issue of 1917 would be a German
offensive in 1918. All the credits on the side of the Allies were likely
to mature in the remote future. All the debits, the heaviest of which was
Russia, could be calculated at once.
Take, for instance, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s fifth volume.[99] It opens
on a very _piano_ note. ‘The late winter and the early spring of 1918 saw
the balance tilted against the British and their comrades in the West,
through causes over which they had no control.... From November [1917]
to March [1918] an endless succession of troop trains were bearing the
divisions which had extended from the Baltic to the southern frontiers
of Russia, in order to thicken the formidable array already marshalled
across France.’ Or take the expert evidence of Major-General Sir
Frederick Maurice[100]: ‘In Europe 1917 was a year of disappointment for
the arms of the Allies.... From the beginning of November onward they
[the Germans] were moving troops from the Russian to the French front as
fast as their trains could carry them. It was calculated that the Germans
would be able to increase their strength on the Western front between the
beginning of November and the end of April by not less than a million and
a half of men’: a very nasty calculation for the Allied Command, and for
the two Governments behind it at home.
Moreover, there was not much time. This was the key to the situation.
Troops moving as fast as they could travel would reach their destination
earlier than troops which were moving through a longer distance at a
slower rate. ‘While it would be possible,’ wrote Sir Douglas Haig,[101]
‘for Germany to complete her new dispositions early in the new year, the
forces which America could send to France before the season would permit
active operations to be recommenced would not be large’: again, a very
simple calculation, but it entailed serious consequences. The first was,
that ‘it became necessary to change the policy governing the operations
of the British Armies in France’[102]; or, rather, this was less the
first consequence than the sum-total of the consequences, which involved
in their train all kinds of major and minor changes. The policy governing
the operations of the British Armies in France had to be changed. 1918
had to be adjusted to 1917; and, while the process of adjustment unmade,
or, at least, disturbed, the whole basis of British dispositions, and
robbed the seed-time of the harvest, it was by no means clear that the
new course would be either satisfactory or complete. For the change from
an offensive to a defensive policy, under the urgent threat of a German
advance, was accompanied by (1) a reduction in the British fighting
strength, (2) a deficiency in defensive training, and (3) an extension
of the British front by over twenty-eight miles. Such, briefly, was the
problem at the opening of December, 1917, while General Braithwaite’s
gallant troops were still winning laurels in front of Cambrai, and public
opinion in England was still uncertain whether the ‘break-through’ had
come or not. As a fact, it was coming from the other side. It was coming
with a weight of men and guns unequalled in the history of warfare. It
was coming before the United States could pour their forces into Europe.
It was coming against spent soldiers, unprepared with rear-line systems
or with the latest developments in defensive fighting. It was coming,
when our man-power was at its lowest, measured by the demand that it had
met, and by the demands which it had to meet. It was coming, accordingly,
when Army Commanders, from the Field Marshal downwards, were upset, if
we may use an expressive term, by the necessity of defending an extended
front with numerically reduced forces. The re-organization of Divisions
from a 13-battalion to a 10-battalion basis affected, of course, even
the smallest unit, and every Commanding Officer had to adapt himself to
the new methods. That the fighting efficiency of units was impaired is a
conclusion contradicted by events. That it could not be otherwise than
impaired, under these novel and cumulative conditions, is an inference in
accordance with expectation.
We may select a very simple entry from the Diary of the 1/6th Duke of
Wellington’s West Riding Regiment (49th Division). On January 29th, 1918,
when the battalion was at Hondegem, a draft of eight Officers and one
hundred and ninety-five other ranks from the 1/5th West Riding Regiment
was posted to it, ‘the 1/5th W.R.R. having been transferred to the 62nd
Division.’ Next morning, this draft was posted to companies, ‘after which
all companies reorganized on a 4-platoon basis.’ Take the 2/4th Battalion
of the same Regiment, and its entry on January 31st, 1918: ‘The Brigade
was reduced to three Battalions, the 2/6th being broken up, ten Officers
and two hundred and twenty other ranks being transferred to the 2/4th
Duke of Wellington’s Regiment.’ On the same day, seven Officers and one
hundred and fifty other ranks were posted to the 2/5th West Yorkshires
from the 2/6th West Yorkshires, ‘who were disbanded’; and, briefly, if
reference be made to the Order of Battle of the 62nd Division, given at
the end of Chapter VI above, the range and complexity of the changes in
_personnel_, consequent on the supreme need of defending a longer line
with fewer men, and defending it against imminent assault, may be judged
by these random examples. There was not a Company Commander in all the
Divisions of the British Armies who did not _feel_ the effects of the new
policy in the early days of 1918.
Purposely, we have dwelt on the soldier’s view. To him it mattered
not at all that the Versailles (Supreme War) Council had been formed
at Rapallo in the previous November, or that Mr. Lloyd George, on his
way home through Paris, had delivered a rousing speech on the topic
of the barrier in the West. Neither Council nor speeches would break
that barrier, the dams of which were about to burst on _him_. To him,
again, it mattered little more that, before the dams burst in fury on
his long, thin, tired khaki line, the same doubts, or nearly the same
doubts, weighed heavily on the minds of his Commanders as had oppressed
them in 1915, when the 49th Division first came out to France. Now,
as then, behind the narrow wall of Troops, which still guarded Ypres
from the invader, lay Dunkirk, Calais, Boulogne. We may call this the
horizontal line, leading from Brussels to the sea, and across the sea to
hated England. That way lay the end of the war, and Prussia’s satisfied
ambition. Now, as then, too, a vertical line pointed southwards from
Ostend to Paris, through Arras, Albert and Amiens, and the battlefields
of 1916. That way lay a bisection of the Allied Forces, a spectacular
occupation of the French capital, and, at best, a prolongation of the
war into 1919 and even 1920. Either way lay disaster to British arms;
and the stars pointed both ways at once. To the soldier, as we say, it
mattered little that a kind of choice had to be made, and a kind of
balance had to be struck, between two alternative enemy aims, which
were yet not mutually exclusive. His business was to fight, not to
think, and, in the fighting days to which we are now coming, he fought
tenaciously till he fell, leaving to those whom they concerned the
fate of London and Paris. Yet, because their fate was involved in the
disposition of the Allied Armies at the beginning of 1918, we are bound
to consider the problem by which Sir Douglas Haig was confronted. ‘In
the northern portion of the British area,’ he wrote, in the Despatch
which we have already quoted in this chapter, ‘lie the northern channel
ports, the security of which necessitated the maintenance of sufficient
troops in the neighbourhood. Little or no ground could be given up on
this front.... In the central portion,’ he continued, ‘lie the northern
collieries of France and certain important tactical features which cover
our lateral communications. Here, also, little or no ground could be
given up.’ What could be given up? A hateful consideration for the High
Command, but it had to be faced and answered, in order to save what
could not, or to concert, at least, the best measures for its safety.
‘In the southern portion of the British area, south-east of Arras,’ it
was held, ‘ground could be given up under great pressure without serious
consequences.’ The ‘great pressure’ was certain to be applied, and it
afforded some consolation to reflect that, in contrast to the central
and northern portions, the forward area of this sector consisted chiefly
‘of a wide expanse of territory devastated by the enemy last spring in
his withdrawal.’ He had held it in 1916. Early in 1917, as we saw, he
had partly retired from it and had partly been driven back, destroying
and ravaging as he went, to his prepared lines in the rear. Let him come
again in 1918. We knew the ground as well as he. The ground ‘to be given
up under great pressure’ was sacred to the heroes of the Somme, and would
not be given up for ever.
The time passed quickly to the appointed day.
We return to the 62nd Division, in rest on January 1st in the Reserve
area of the XIIIth Corps in the Maroeuil district, above Arras. ‘It was
evident,’ runs the great Despatch, dated July 20th, but going back to the
previous November, ‘that the enemy was about to make a great effort south
of Arras. An attack on this front would undoubtedly have as its object
the separation of the French and British Armies and the capture of the
important centre of communications at Amiens. To meet this eventuality
more than half our available troops were allocated to the defence of this
sector, together with the whole of the cavalry.’ On January 5th, the
front from Gavrelle to Oppy, at right angles to the Arras-Douai road, was
taken over from the 56th by the 62nd, with the 185th Brigade holding the
left section all the time, and the 186th and 187th alternating on the
right. On January 9th, Major-General Braithwaite, the 62nd Divisional
Commander, assumed command of the sector. On the 18th, a German runner
was captured, and valuable information was elicited from him as to the
enemy dispositions. The 240th German Division was opposite the 62nd;
many troops, mostly from Russia, had been collected in the back areas;
the appointed day was plainly drawing nearer. There had been heavy snow
and a sudden thaw: ‘Conditions in the line very bad,’ writes a Battalion
diarist (January 19th), ‘but men very cheerful and happy’ (the italics
are his).
When they were not in the line, they were providing working parties; when
they were not at work, they were undergoing training. ‘The construction
of new communications and the extension of old, more especially in the
area south-east of Arras, involved the building of a number of additional
roads and the laying out of railways, both narrow and normal gauge. All
available men of the fighting units, with the exception of a very small
proportion undergoing training, and all labour units were employed on
these tasks.’ So far, the Field Marshal in his Despatch, and we may quote
Sir A. Conan Doyle’s comment: ‘There were no enslaved populations who
could be turned on to such work. For months before the attack the troops
... were digging incessantly. Indeed, the remark has been made that their
military efficiency was impaired by the constant navvy work upon which
they were employed.’[103] It may be. But Sir Douglas Haig bore testimony,
that ‘the time and labour available were in no way adequate, if, as was
suspected, the enemy intended to commence his offensive operations in the
early spring....’
On January 31st, as we saw, the re-organization of the Division took
place. Under the new scheme of nine battalions _plus_ a Pioneer Battalion
to a Division, the nucleus of Battalions to be amalgamated arrived
from the 49th Division further north. In the 185th Brigade, the 2/6th
West Yorkshires were disbanded, and the 2/8th were amalgamated with
the 1/8th to form the 8th West Yorks. In the 186th Brigade, the 2/6th
West Ridings were disbanded, and the 5th West Ridings were formed out
of an amalgamation of the 1st and 2nd Line Battalions. In the 187th
Brigade, when it left the line, the disbanded unit was the 2/5th York
and Lancasters; the 2/5th King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry were
amalgamated with the 1/5th as the 5th K.O.Y.L.I.
February sped, like January, in preparation varied by raids, and by
rumours more or less authentic. ‘Training and range-firing till noon.
Route march from 2-5 p.m.’ is a characteristic extract from a Battalion
diary, dated February 19th. On February 28th, the 62nd Division relieved
the 31st in the left sector of the XIIIth Corps. On March 10th, an
increase of activity was observed in the enemy aircraft and artillery. On
the 12th, information was to hand that an attack in the neighbourhood of
Arras might be expected at an early date, and the Division was held in a
state of readiness. On the 17th, under cover of darkness, two officers
and eighty other ranks of the 2/7th West Ridings made a successful raid
on the enemy trenches north of Fresnoy. On the 21st, news arrived that
the enemy offensive had started opposite the Third Army, on a front of
about twenty-seven miles from the north of Gouzeaucourt to the south
of Gavrelle. The Army Commander was General the Hon. Sir Julian Byng,
with the Vth, VIth, IVth and XVIIth Corps under the respective commands
of Lieut.-Generals Sir E. A. Fanshawe, Sir G. M. Harper, Sir J. A. L.
Haldane and Sir C. Fergusson, Bt.
[Illustration]
March 21st, 1918: the story has been told a hundred times, and will
be re-told in every book of the British Army until the ‘pussyfeet’ of
warfare prohibit the writing of military history. A few words must be
said about it here, though it happened that on the day itself no troops
from the West Riding were engaged. The Fifth Army, commanded at that
date by General Sir Hubert de la P. Gough, extended immediately south of
the Third, and consisted of the VIIth, XIXth, XVIIIth and IIIrd Corps,
under Lieut.-Generals Sir W. N. Congreve, Sir H. E. Watts, Sir F. I.
Maxse and Sir R. H. K. Butler respectively. At its southern extremity, it
touched the junction of the British and French lines; its total front was
about two-and-forty miles, with an average of about 6,750 yards to each
Division in the line compared with an average of about 4,700 yards per
Division in the line in the Third Army. We should remember, too, that the
southernmost portion of the front had only recently been taken over from
the French, and the ‘navvy’ work spoken of above was even more incomplete
than in other parts. By so much more difficult, accordingly, was Sir
Hubert Gough’s task than Sir Julian Byng’s. The German General opposing
the Fifth Army was von Hutier, the conqueror of Riga, and the Crown
Prince of Prussia was afforded this unique opportunity of winning his
coveted laurels in the final battle to be known as the _Kaiser-schlacht_.
Further, at least sixty-four Divisions of super-trained enemy troops
took part in the operations on the first day, against eight in the line
of the Third Army (with seven in reserve) and eleven in the line of the
Fifth Army (with three Infantry and three Cavalry in reserve). Two-thirds
of the German Divisions were allotted to the assault on General Gough;
and ‘never in the history of the world,’ it has well and soberly been
said, ‘had a more formidable force been concentrated on a fixed and
limited objective.’[104] We are not directly concerned with the story of
the Fifth Army on that day, but since its ‘apparent collapse’ has been
(or was) contrasted with the ‘glorious defence’ by General Byng, we may
be permitted to cite here the opinion of Major-General Sir F. Maurice,
that ‘the burden which Gough’s troops had to bear was incomparably the
greater.’ He summarizes with admirable brevity the facts which we have
recounted above:
‘In the first stage of the battle very nearly twice as many
German Divisions attacked Gough as fell upon Byng. Each of
Gough’s Divisions had on the average to hold nearly fifty per
cent. more front than had Byng, while the Third Army reserves
were nearly twice as strong as those of the Fifth, yet at the
end of the first day’s battle Gough’s left, where the gallant
9th Division beat off all attacks, had given less ground than
some of Byng’s Divisions further north had been compelled to
yield.’[105]
Pending the appearance of an official history of the war, no narrative
of March 21st can be otherwise than inadequate, which holds the scales
less evenly between the two Armies primarily engaged than this temperate
statement by Sir Frederick Maurice.
Even so, we have omitted the fog, which, after five hours’ incessant
bombardment (from 5 to 10 o’clock in the morning), had been drawn up from
the soil in a white, impenetrable blanket, and which, in Sir Douglas
Haig’s words, ‘hid from our artillery and machine gunners the S.O.S.
signals sent up by our outpost line,’ and ‘made it impossible to see more
than fifty yards in any direction.’ This efficient aid to the attackers,
which had often been simulated in battle by artificial means with smaller
success, affected the defence all along the line; and the only answer to
the fog, we are told, was to strengthen the Infantry in the trenches,
involving, if it were to be done, a fresh weakening of our too weak
reserves.
But we are not writing the history of the Second Battle of the Somme.
On March 21st, as we have said, General Braithwaite’s troops were not
engaged in that long line from Oppy to La Fère, on which, as we read
above, ‘ground could be given up under great pressure without serious
consequences.’ The pressure proved greater than had been anticipated,
and the measure of the ground given up increased the seriousness of the
consequences.
On the 21st, those fifty-four miles were held from north to south by
the following Divisions in order of line: 56th, 4th, 15th, 3rd, 34th,
59th, 6th, 51st, 17th, 63rd, 47th, 9th, 21st, 16th, 66th, 24th, 61st,
30th, 36th, 14th, 18th, 58th. The Guards Division was at Arras, and from
various points in the Reserve-area, again working southwards from above
the Scarpe, the 31st, 40th, 41st (west of Albert), 25th (at Bapaume),
19th, 2nd, 39th, 50th, 20th, and the 1st, 3rd and 2nd Cavalry Divisions
(at Péronne, Athies and Guiscard respectively) were brought up and thrown
into the line. The first battle-honours belong to these, and no sketch,
however imperfect, of the conditions under which they were won, can miss
the splendour of their winning, or the valour of the living and the dead.
We pass over the next few days. Their story is written on the map in
four days’ battle positions (March 23rd to 26th), all of which were
swiftly obliterated in the further retreat and the last advance. What
can never be obliterated, however, so long as gallant deeds are traced
on the map of human character, is the memory of those British Divisions,
outnumbered, befogged, giving ground, but retaining, with their backs to
the wall, the heroic quality of victors. We merely note that, on March
26th, at a conference held at Doullens between the French and British
Army Commanders, Lord Milner (representing the British Government),
M. Poincaré (President of the French Republic), M. Clemenceau (Prime
Minister) and the French Minister of Munitions, it was decided, in view
of the imminent danger of the capture of Amiens, ‘to place the supreme
control of the operations of the French and British forces in France
and Belgium in the hands of General Foch, who accordingly assumed
control.’[106]
On March 23rd, the wave of withdrawal reached the 62nd Division. The
187th Brigade was moved to Arras, where it was placed at the disposal of
the 15th Division, but this order was cancelled almost at once, under the
stress of immediate circumstances, and the whole Division was allotted
to the XVIIth Corps. On the night of March 24th/25th new orders were
received to join the IVth Corps, and early in the morning of the 25th the
three Infantry Brigades of the Division were moved to Ayette.
It proved a long day’s work, and the beginning of an exacting time. We
are back again now in the old, shell-ridden quadrilateral: Doullens-Arras
(north), Doullens-Albert (west), Albert-Bapaume (south), Arras-Bapaume
(east). Bucquoy, to which the Division was to move at once, lies just to
the east of the centre of the diagonal Arras-Albert, and the south-west
road from Bucquoy to Albert passes through Thiepval and Auchy, where
the 49th Division from the West Riding suffered so severely in 1916.
We remember how, a little more than a year ago, in January, 1917, when
the 62nd had just arrived in France, some Officers of the 2/5th Duke
of Wellington’s made ‘a tour of the trenches in an old London General
omnibus. The party visited Acheux and Warlencourt, and then drove along
the Doullens-Arras road, which was closed to traffic at one point owing
to shelling.’[107] The problem then was to push the Germans back, back
between Arras and Bapaume, always nearer to Douai and Cambrai. A year’s
hard battles had been fought, and now, in March, 1918, Bapaume had
fallen, Albert was to fall (March 26th-27th), and the problem was to
prevent the enemy’s ‘double hope of separating the French and British
Armies and interfering with the detraining arrangements of our Allies by
the capture of Montdidier.’[108] In this effort the now veteran 62nd was
to bear a conspicuous part.
CHAPTER XII
WITH THE 62ND AT BUCQUOY
General Braithwaite, then Commanding the 62nd, has said to the present
writer that he regards the action at Bucquoy as, perhaps, the finest
achievement of his Division. They were hurried to Ayette as early as
March 25th, and there, as stated, the Staff Officer who had been sent on
to IVth Corps Headquarters brought Orders for the Division to proceed at
once to Bucquoy. Divisional Headquarters reached it at about 8-30 in the
morning, and the General went forward to the Headquarters of the 40th
and 42nd Divisions, just West of Bucquoy, in order to learn the tactical
situation. (The 40th had been in reserve on March 21st till it was pushed
into the line near Bullecourt; the 42nd had arrived since that date).
The leading Troops of the 185th Brigade began to reach Bucquoy about 10
o’clock, but the roads were so much blocked with transport of all kinds
that concentration was not completed till 11-30. Meanwhile, Corps Orders
had been received for the men to have a meal and to get rested, and
for the Division, which had been up all night and had already marched
twelve miles, to hold itself in readiness for a move at short notice.
The General also paid a visit to the Headquarters of the 41st Division
(in reserve at Albert on March 21st, and also pushed into the line), now
likewise stationed at Bucquoy, and shortly afterwards Lieut.-General Sir
G. M. Harper, Commanding the IVth Corps, arrived.
The situation, as it revealed itself, was simple and serious. Briefly,
with or without Albert, which fell on the night of March 26th, the
urgent, essential task was to stabilize a line. The Germans had thrust,
and thrust again, here, there, wherever they found an opening. They had
driven us back in five days (March 21st to 25th), on the front of the
Third Army, right up to the line of the old trenches at Achiet-le-Grand,
Miraumont, Pozières. More ground might still be yielded ‘under great
pressure,’ but the vital danger lay further south, where, still to the
north of the River Somme, at the junction of the Third and Fifth Armies,
withdrawals on the night of the 26th were to reach a line from Albert
to Sailly-le-Sec. What this meant to the French forces nearer Paris,
to the important centre at Montdidier, and to the railway from Amiens
to the capital, was coming very insistently into view; and the severe
strain on the 62nd Division, among other gallant Divisions, on March 25th
and following days, was due above all to the necessity of arresting the
advance about the Ancre, and of preventing the German hope of breaking
through the receding British line. Once broken, it could never have
been mended, and our real triumph in defeat was our disappointment of
Ludendorff’s design of cutting off one force from another. The line went
back, irregularly, unsteadily. Perilous salients were bulged out, to be
straightened by retirements on the wings. Troops were pushed from place
to place, or assembled by spontaneous conglomeration, to stop a dangerous
gap. Different units became hopelessly mixed, and sorted themselves out
into novel formations. Platoons, Companies, even Battalions improvised
barriers of their own dead. But still Ludendorff was disappointed. Still
his weary men, flung in desperation, however magnificently led, spent
their last ounce of strength in vain. Still, in retreat after retreat,
touch was maintained between Brigades, between Divisions. Still fighting
the enemy to a standstill, dog-tired, attenuated, unconquerable—still a
line held.
It was to a patch of that line, covering, roughly, the centre region in
the Doullens-Albert-Bapaume-Arras quadrangle, to which we have frequently
referred, that the attention of Major-General Braithwaite was directed
by the IVth Corps Commander at their anxious conference in Bucquoy about
noon on March 25th.
The 186th Brigade was now arriving at Bucquoy, and the two
Brigadier-Generals (185th and 186th) were ordered, as soon as they would
be ready, to move to Achiet-le-Petit, and to cover that village, the
186th on the right and the 185th on the left. The object of this move
was to prolong the front of the 62nd Division (at Logeast Wood, due East
of Bucquoy, and midway between Ablainzevelle and Achiet-le-Grand), so as
to enable other Divisions which had been heavily engaged, to withdraw
and re-organize. The Brigades reached their positions between 4 and 5
o’clock in the afternoon, with two Battalions each in line and one in
reserve, and with one Company of the Machine-Gun Battalion attached to
each Brigade. It is to be observed that these were the first operations,
since the Machine-Gun re-organization, in which that Battalion had taken
part, and, in ideal country for that weapon, and with the improved moral
of the Companies under new conditions, the results fully justified the
change. During the early evening of March 25th, the various Divisions
affected (19th, 25th, 41st, 51st) gradually withdrew behind the line held
now by the 62nd with the 42nd, and at 7 o’clock Major-General Walter
Braithwaite, Commanding the 62nd Division, took over Command of the
front, with Headquarters at Bucquoy, and the Headquarters of the gallant
41st were removed to Souastre in the rear. At 9-30, General Braithwaite’s
Headquarters withdrew to Gommecourt, to which a line had been run during
the afternoon, but, owing to the heavy traffic on the roads, the move
was not completed till 11 p.m. About that hour, the Corps Commander sent
a telephone message to say that it would be necessary to withdraw not
later than next morning to the line Puisieux-Bucquoy-Ablainzevelle, and
to ask the Divisional Commander if he preferred to make the move sooner,
while still under cover of darkness. We should note that a trench East
of Bucquoy had been dug during the afternoon by the Pioneer Battalion of
the 62nd (9th Durham Light Infantry), in order to cover that place in
the event of our Troops being driven in, and that about 8 p.m. the 187th
Brigade was ordered to concentrate on Bucquoy in Divisional Reserve,
and to move forward a Battalion into the new trench. Meanwhile, the
Divisional Artillery had arrived, and went into action, covering the
withdrawal, during the night of the 25th.
General Braithwaite decided to take advantage of the darkness, but,
though a Staff Officer was sent back at once to communicate his decision
to the Brigadiers, the Order did not reach them till after 2 o’clock next
morning (March 26th), so heavy was the congestion in the roads; and the
actual start was made in early daylight. In the night, the 186th Brigade
was subjected to enemy fire, and some changes in the dispositions had
to be made, but the successful withdrawal of the Division was completed
about 8 a.m., when the 185th Brigade took up a position on the high
ground East of Bucquoy. The 186th were in touch with them, and extended
to a point about five hundred yards North-east of Puisieux, with two
Battalions in the front line, and the third and Pioneer Battalions in
support. The 187th were in Divisional Reserve in the neighbourhood of
Biez Wood, with two Battalions East of the Wood, and the third in the
trenches South and South-west.
This was on March 26th, and another heavy and difficult day ensued.
The Germans were advancing all the time in a westerly direction, which
developed during the day into a determined north-westerly attack from
the neighbourhood of Puisieux and Serre against the right flank of the
186th Brigade. Two Battalions of that Brigade (5th Duke of Wellington’s
and Pioneers) were accordingly withdrawn a short distance, so as to face
more directly to the South, with their right resting on Rossignol Wood
(between Bucquoy and Hébuterne), so as to cover the exits from Puisieux.
Three Companies of the 2/4th Duke of Wellington’s (in Reserve) were
moved forward to prolong this line, and a Battalion of the 187th Brigade
(Reserve) was further used to extend their flank on the high ground
West of Rossignol Wood. This occurred in the late afternoon, when five
heavy attacks by the Prussian Guard on Bucquoy, and between Bucquoy and
Puisieux, had been repulsed; and the causes why the German advance in
this area had shifted slightly to the North (roughly, in the direction
Serre to Hébuterne) were, briefly, two: (1) To the South of Puisieux and
Hébuterne, early on March 26th, there was a gap in the line of three
or four miles between the 62nd and 12th Divisions. About a thousand
men from various units of the 19th Division were holding the defences
round Hébuterne, and it was known that the New Zealand Division was
well on its way to fill the gap. Their leading Brigade, however, could
not arrive till the late afternoon, and it was actually about 10 p.m.
before it filled the southern half of the gap, with its left resting on
Colincamps. Meanwhile, about 7 p.m., the 4th Brigade of the Australian
Division, which had been put at General Braithwaite’s disposal, relieved
the elements of the 19th in the defence of Hébuterne, and got in touch
during the night of the 26th and early morning of the 27th with the
second Brigade of the New Zealanders, to the South of the village. This
gap, then, and the delay in filling it, were one main cause of the
concentration on the West of Bucquoy. The second (2) was subsidiary, and
arose from the fact that, during the morning of March 26th, constant
reports were received of mounted enemy troops seen in Hébuterne and even
to the West of it. Possibly, isolated patrols had reached the edge of
the village, but, as the result of these rumours, ‘unauthorized orders
were issued by persons totally unknown, in a more or less excited state,’
to clear all transport westwards, and some valuable hours were lost in
collecting and bringing back those units.
[Illustration: THE CHURCH, BUCQUOY.]
This bare account of one day’s fighting leaves much to the imagination.
But an hour by hour recital of the deeds of unit by unit in the Division
would make too much of a day’s work, which was only the beginning of
a hard battle. We must not lose the perspective in a contemplation of
detail, and this perspective is admirably rendered in the few lines
devoted by Sir A. Conan Doyle to the 62nd Division on March 6th. ‘South
of Puisieux,’ he writes, ‘there was a gap of four or five miles [the
Divisional Commander says ‘three or four’] before one came to British
troops. Into this gap in the very nick of time came first the 4th Brigade
of the Second Australian Division, and later the New Zealand Division in
driblets, which gradually spanned the vacant space. It was a very close
call for a break through without opposition. Being disappointed in this,
the Germans on March 26th spent the whole afternoon in fierce attacks
on the 62nd Division, but got little but hard knocks from Braithwaite’s
Yorkshiremen,’ who, we remember, had been on the move since early morning
the day before. ‘The 186th Brigade on the right,’ it is added, ‘threw
back a flank to Rossignol Wood to cover the weak side.’[109] We shall not
further expand it.
Next day, March 27th, after a comparatively quiet night, the attacks
on Bucquoy were resumed on the front held by the 185th and the left
of the 186th Brigade. Our Lewis guns took ample toll of the advancing
enemy lines, and the assault failed with heavy loss. Shortly after noon
another attack was begun to the East of Rossignol Wood, where the 5th
Duke of Wellington’s, who had suffered so severely the day before, were
primarily engaged on their right. Their Lewis guns and rifles proved
effective in the open, but the bombers swarming the old trenches which
existed in that part of the line were less easy to repulse: the German
was a skilful thrower, and it happened at that time and in that locality
that rifle bombs and Stokes Mortars were very difficult to procure.
Despite extraordinary courage and untiring effort and resourcefulness,
bombing parties continued to work their way up the intricate systems
of old trenches; and, though two determined attacks between Rossignol
Wood and Hébuterne (between 1 o’clock and 2-30) and two others on
Bucquoy (at 4 o’clock and again at 5-30) were severally defeated, the
2/4th Battalion of the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry were driven
to the high ground East of Hébuterne and a Company of the 2/4th York
and Lancasters were driven out of the Wood. The North-westerly move
of the enemy, which we noted as his direction the day before, seemed,
accordingly, more critical, since a gap had been made between the right
of the 186th Brigade and the Australians in Hébuterne. To meet this
crisis, the trenches East of Gommecourt, lying further to the North-west,
were manned by two Companies of Australians, and the 187th Brigade was
ordered immediately to counter-attack. There was some delay in getting
this order through to the two left Battalions of the Brigade (the 2/4th
York and Lancasters and the 5th King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry), but
about 7 in the evening, after the 4th Australian Brigade had been ordered
urgently to co-operate, using, if necessary, the whole of their Reserve
Battalion, the Brigadier-General Commanding the 186th got into personal
touch with Lieut.-Colonel O. C. S. Watson, D.S.O., Commanding the 5th
K.O.Y.L.I. (187th Brigade), and ordered him to counter-attack Rossignol
Wood, with the help of four Tanks, which the Brigadier was able to put at
his disposal. This counter-attack succeeded, and at 11 p.m. the Officer
Commanding the Battalion reported that he had regained part of the Wood
and the high ground to the South-west of it. He had gained great glory
at the same time, as is shown by the following extract from the _London
Gazette_, May 8th, 1918:
‘VICTORIA CROSS
‘Major (A/Lt.-Col.) Oliver Cyril Spencer Watson, D.S.O. (R. of
O.), late King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry.
‘For most conspicuous bravery, self-sacrificing devotion to
duty, and exceptionally gallant leading during a critical
period of operations. His command was at a point where
continual attacks were made by the enemy in order to pierce the
line, and an intricate system of old trenches in front, coupled
with the fact that his position was under constant rifle and
machine-gun fire rendered the situation still more dangerous. A
counter-attack had been made against the enemy position, which
at first achieved its object, but as they were holding out in
two improvised strong points, Lieut.-Colonel Watson saw that
immediate action was necessary, and he led his remaining small
reserve to the attack, organizing bombing parties and leading
attacks under intense rifle and machine-gun fire. Outnumbered
he finally ordered his men to retire, remaining himself in a
communication trench to cover the retirement, though he faced
almost certain death by so doing. The assault he led was at a
critical moment, and without doubt saved the line. Both in the
assault and in covering his men’s retirement he held his life
as nothing, and his splendid bravery inspired all troops in the
vicinity to rise to the occasion and save a breach being made
in a hardly tried and attenuated line.
‘Lt.-Colonel Watson was killed while covering the withdrawal.’
We have only to add to this record of the 27th, that the 185th Brigade
should have been relieved on that day, but the operations round Rossignol
Wood and the loss of Ayette (by the 31st Division on the left of the
42nd) postponed the relief for twenty-four hours.
The night passed quickly and fairly quietly. On March 28th, there was
an early bombardment of the whole Divisional front and of the back area
over the Woods (Biez and Rossignol), and an intercepted advance on
Bucquoy, which was subjected to heavy shelling all that day. Splendid
work was done in that morning battle (10 a.m. till noon) by the 186th
Brigade under Brig.-General J. L. G. Burnett, a very worthy successor to
Bradford, whose services we commemorated above. One Platoon of the 5th
Duke of Wellington’s, which occupied an advanced post, became isolated
from the rest. When last heard of at about 1 o’clock, it was known to be
still holding out, but no particulars of its experiences are available.
The heroic record remains, to the imperishable honour of Yorkshiremen,
that, when the position was finally reached, this Platoon had been
overwhelmed, and not a man was left alive.
More serious than attacks in the open, which were sometimes stopped,
and which, if they developed, were repulsed, were those bombing-parties
working their way up the trenches, who had done so much damage the day
before. They were very active again on the 28th, and sometime between
noon and 2 o’clock they contrived to drive back from the ridge East of
Hébuterne and from Rossignol Wood the 5th Battalion of the King’s Own
Yorkshire Light Infantry, who had made so gallant a sacrifice to hold
that position overnight. Rossignol Wood was not recovered on that day.
Two Tanks were derelict in the Wood, and formed effective cover for the
enemy, and there was a partial failure, too, in an attempt by the 124th
Brigade (41st Division). At 7 o’clock, fresh orders for the re-capture
were given to the 8th West Yorkshires (in reserve to the 185th Brigade),
who were placed at the disposal of the 187th, and at the same time
the 4th Australian Brigade was to drive the enemy out of the trenches
South-east of Gommecourt. This bombing encounter proved successful in
releasing five hundred yards of trenches, and by early morning of March
29th the West Yorkshires had reached the Northern end of the contested
Wood. There they were held up by heavy machine-gun fire, but the twofold
counter-measures had eased the situation, and the gap between the 186th
and the Australian Brigades was satisfactorily filled. The postponed
relief of the 185th by the 42nd Division was duly completed during that
night.
Next morning (March 29th), progress was made with the urgent work of
re-organizing the 187th Brigade. It had performed magnificent service
in exceptionally difficult circumstances, which included the absence
through illness of its Brigadier-General. Lt.-Col. Barton, D.S.O., who
had been temporarily in Command, had also fallen ill, and was replaced
on March 28th by Lt.-Col. C. K. James, D.S.O., the Officer Commanding
the 2/7th West Yorkshires. The Brigade had been almost continuously in
action since its hurried departure from Ayette in the early hours of
March 25th, and the V.C. awarded posthumously to the Commanding Officer
of the 5th K.O.Y.L.I. is an indication of the splendid resistance which
it offered time after time to the enemy assaults on its front. The
Brigade was now located in the trenches North and West of Rossignol Wood,
in touch with the 186th on its right and with the 41st Division on its
left. One Battalion of the 185th was moved up in close support during the
afternoon. Bombing fights between the Australians and their assailants
about Gommecourt and Hébuterne were the chief incidents of the day which
proved the growing exhaustion of the enemy. March 30th and 31st were
spent, too, in comparative quiet: an important document captured by the
Australians showed how heavily the Germans had suffered. But the 62nd had
suffered too. We referred above to Colonel Watson. Two other Commanding
Officers, who fell at the head of their respective Regiments, may also
be mentioned here, as splendid types of fighting Officers, first beloved
and then mourned by their men. These were Lieut.-Colonels A. H. and C.
K. James, of the 7th and 8th West Yorkshires, known, of course, as James
the Seventh and James the Eighth, who, though not related to each other,
were firm comrades in life and death. On the night of March 31st-April
1st, a Brigade of the 37th Division relieved the 186th, which withdrew
to Souastre and Henu, and next night the remainder of the 62nd Division
(less Artillery) was relieved by the 37th, and moved back into the
Reserve area.
It will be admitted that they had earned their relief. The Field
Marshal’s summary runs, under date March 27th: ‘A series of strong
attacks commenced all along our front from about Bucquoy to the
neighbourhood of Hamelincourt, in the course of which the enemy
gained possession of Ablainzevelle and Ayette’ (which was re-taken
by the 32nd Division on April 3rd). ‘Elsewhere,’ it continues, ‘all
his assaults were heavily repulsed by troops of the 62nd Division,
under Command of Major-General W. P. Braithwaite, and of the 42nd and
Guards Divisions.’[110] And, under date March 28th: ‘The 42nd Division
drove off two attacks from the direction of Ablainzevelle and the 62nd
Division with an attached Brigade of the 4th Australian Division also
beat off a succession of heavy attacks about Bucquoy with great loss to
the enemy.’[111] We have filled in some details in this outline, which
is sufficiently effective in its statement of duty done and of local
successes achieved. If we go behind it at all, it is rather to point to
some lessons that were learned than to gild the laurels of renown which
the Division earned during those fiery days.
[Illustration: BUCQUOY: STREET.
BUCQUOY: MARKET PLACE.]
We have already mentioned the work of the newly-organized Machine-Gun
Battalion, and the comparative lack of Rifle bombs and Stokes Mortars.
Another fact worth noting is the renewed confidence reposed in the Rifle
and the Lewis Gun. In the face of effective fire from these weapons
the enemy never succeeded in pushing home an attack across the open.
Communication between the Division and Brigades was maintained with very
little interruption, and the two Brigade Headquarters being kept together
enabled the admirable Signal Service to devote all their attention to
one main route. Under these novel conditions of open warfare, it was
found that special training was required for the Power Buzzer operations
of Brigade Sections, and in other technical details the experience at
Bucquoy was to prove valuable.
Most valuable of all was the knowledge that, with nearly all the chances
against them, they had fought the enemy to a standstill. Despite a
perilous gap in the thinned line of British troops, and despite the
delays in filling it, the enemy had not broken through. The line was
threatened on March 25th. It was constantly, almost continuously,
assailed from the East, and, where disclosed, from the South. It still
held on March 31st. Mistakes unavoidable in the medley were heroically
repaired. Odd pockets of men, as we have seen—a thousand from the
19th Division behind Hébuterne, another thousand from the 41st about
Gommecourt—showed incomparable resourcefulness. Sudden orders were given
in emergency, and were carried out unerringly under darkness. Troops
confidently expected in the afternoon arrived short of their destination
after nightfall, and the intervals of time and place were filled up. The
whole story of these days is a lesson in how not to yield, and the whole
moral of it is contained in the fact that the end of the first phase
of the Second Battle of the Somme was, at best, an incomplete German
victory. They had not achieved what they had hoped, and, losing hope,
they would lose all.
So, Bucquoy is a name that shines in the war record of the 62nd
Division. We leave them now, at the beginning of April, in Divisional
Reserve, with their Headquarters at Pas, enjoying a well-earned respite
from active operations, though under two hours’ notice to move: and we
turn next to another part of the wide field, where the 49th Division, the
First Line of the West Riding Territorials, bore its separate part in the
grand defensive.
CHAPTER XIII
WITH THE 49TH IN THE VALLEY OF THE LYS
I.—FIRST PHASE
We reach a confused tract of warfare, punctuated, as ever, by noble
deeds, through which we must strike a careful trail.
In an Order, issued by Major-General Cameron, Commanding the 49th
Division, and reviewing the period from April 10th to May 5th, 1918, upon
which we are now to enter, the General drew attention to the fact that
his Division had not been fighting as a whole. ‘In some ways it is sad,’
he wrote; ‘but the fact that we have been separated for a great part of
the time has in no way diminished the credit of your achievements. Every
part of the Division in its own sphere of action has done exceptionally
well, and every part has earned high praise from Commanders outside the
Division.’
Partly, then, the confusion arises from the distribution of the Troops
to outside Commands. But the mere fact of this distribution is itself
evidence to the difficulty of responsible leadership in those days; and,
before we attempt to draw a table of the activities of the Division in
place and time during the period covered by that Order, a brief survey
may be made from a more general point of view. ‘Every part earned high
praise from Commanders outside the Division’: we are concerned, then,
with outside Commands and with a wider outlook than the 49th Division’s.
We are concerned with Ludendorff’s point of view, so far as we are at
liberty to re-construct it. On a previous page we tried to show how the
German mind in March was divided between two strategic plans, one of
which pointed to Paris and the other to the Channel ports. Both were
pursued in turn, and even to some extent simultaneously, and either,
if successful, would have inflicted an almost irreparable blow on the
Allied forces of France and Britain. The point is, that neither quite
succeeded: the union of those Forces under Foch and the response of the
British Armies to Haig’s summons on April 13th, ‘WITH OUR BACKS TO THE
WALL, AND BELIEVING IN THE JUSTICE OF OUR CAUSE, EACH OF US MUST FIGHT
TO THE END,’ were to prove incalculably more effective than all the odds
combined against them. But the initiative in April was with the Germans.
So soon as one plan miscarried, or was left standing, or was conveniently
broken off, they were able to call the other plan, and to make a new push
with fresh Troops. The initiative was theirs, and the superiority was
theirs, in numbers and (by the offensive) in surprise. ‘The possibility
of a German attack North of the La Bassée Canal had been brought to my
notice,’ wrote Sir Douglas Haig, ‘prior to the 21st March. Indications
that preparations for a hostile attack in this sector were nearing
completion had been observed in the first days of April.’[112] But no
observations, however accurate, and no prevision, however acute, could
organize fifty-eight Divisions to fight battles in two sectors at one
time. Forty of the fifty-eight Divisions had been engaged in the Second
Battle of the Somme, and ‘the steps which I could take,’ he continued,
‘to meet a danger which I could foresee were limited by the fact that,
though the enemy’s progress on the Somme had for the time being been
stayed, ... [he] was in a position to take immediate advantage of any
weakening of my forces in that area.’[113] And to initiative, numbers and
surprise was added the fortune of the weather. The early spring had been
‘unseasonably fine,’ and the low-lying ground in the Lys Valley dried up
in time for the Germans to anticipate a relief of the Portuguese, who
were holding the front to the South of Armentières, and who had been in
the line for several months. A shattering German assault fell suddenly
(April 9th) on this thin-spread Portuguese Division, already overdue
for relief; and ‘no blame,’ we instinctively know, ‘can be attached to
inexperienced troops who gave way to so terrific a blow, which would have
been formidable to any soldiers in the world.’[114]
Such, then, in the broadest outline, was the strategic situation, when
Ludendorff, leading the _Kaiser-schlacht_, which had opened on March
21st, left the fate of Amiens hanging in the precarious balance to which
it had been fought in ten days, and sought to add terror to exhaustion by
renewing his thrust at the Channel ports.
When this underlying principle is seized, and Sir Douglas Haig’s problem
is imagined, what ensued may briefly be recounted to the date of the
engagement of units of the 49th. We are not now to consider the biggest
aspect: the point of view of the War Council at Versailles. The facts
that Americans were coming, and that British reinforcements would be
poured in, did not illumine the darkness in Flanders in the middle of the
second week of April. Nor is it immediately to the point, that, when Sir
Frederick Maurice saw Marshal Foch on April 16th, and the Germans seemed
‘well on the road to Calais and Boulogne, ... Foch had himself measured
accurately both the German strength and the endurance of the British
Army.... “The battle in Flanders is practically over,” he said; “Haig
will not need any more troops from me.” Not even the loss of Kemmel a few
days later ruffled him. He was right, and the battle in Flanders ended in
a complete repulse of the second German effort to break through.’[115]
No. We should thank heaven, fasting, for the Marshal’s masterly
imperturbability. It won the war, among many claimants for that boon. But
the great leader himself would admit, that his estimate of ‘the endurance
of the British Army’ had been calculated to the last ounce of its worn
strength, and that ‘the loss of Kemmel a few days later’ (on April 25th,
to be precise) imposed a well-nigh intolerable strain.
We are to contract our horizon on those days: to forget, what were then
invisible, the dots and spots on the Atlantic, which marked the precious
troopships bringing help from the New World to the Old; to forget the set
will of Paris, raided from the air by night and day, and nearly within
gunshot as well; to forget the last effort of England, and how, in a
room at the War Office, all was ready to call out the Volunteers, the
final arm of Home Defence; and we are to try to piece together events in
Flanders from early morning on April 9th, when the brave Portuguese were
overrun, till the confidence of the French Marshal was justified at the
end of the battle on May 8th. Throughout that month, we are to remember
the superb generalship of Sir Douglas Haig, splendidly backed as he was
by Generals Sir H. Horne, Commanding the First, and Sir Herbert Plumer,
Commanding the Second Army. Through all ranks of the heroic forces which
they commanded, whether tired veterans from the hills and valleys of the
Somme, or new drafts of young soldiery from home, and in all arms of the
Service, one spirit prevailed: to obey, at whatever personal cost, the
supreme call of their Commander-in-Chief, which was issued on the fourth
day of the Flanders battle, and the pith of which we quoted above. The
enemy’s objects, they were told, ‘are to separate us from the French, to
take the Channel ports, and destroy the British Army.’ He had, as yet,
‘made little progress towards his goals.’ Time, they were reminded, was
on their side, not necessarily as individuals but as Englishmen: ‘Victory
will belong to the side which holds out the longest.’ And then followed
the stern command: ‘There is no other course open to us but to fight
it out. Every position must be held to the last man: there must be no
retirement. With our backs to the wall, and believing in the justice of
our cause, each one of us must fight to the end. The safety of our homes
and the freedom of mankind depend alike upon the conduct of each one of
us at this critical moment.’
So we come to the 49th Division, which has been in the Ypres area all
that year, performing necessary and at times exacting duties on a front
which was never immune from Artillery attacks and sudden raids, and to
its response, through its various units, to the call to stand fast and
die.
[Illustration: Ypres 49th. Divisional Headqrs. in the Ramparts:—Winter,
1917-18.]
The German advance on April 9th between Armentières and the La Bassée
Canal had bulged in the line by that evening to a distance of three
to five miles. Next day, the attack was extended North of Armentières
to Wytschaete and Hollebeke, and the enemy gains were extended. The
34th Division in Armentières, though not yet attacked on their own
front, had their two flanks dangerously exposed, and were withdrawn
in a North-westerly direction, reaching a stopping-place at Nieppe.
If we follow this action a little further, we shall be able to fit in
more intelligibly the narrative of the 49th Division. On April 11th
the advance was pressed in the direction of Nieppe and Neuve Église,
and in the afternoon there was fierce fighting about Messines, now in
enemy occupation. These losses pinched the 34th out of their temporary
foothold at Nieppe. The withdrawal on this day did not cease in that
particular area till about a thousand yards East of Neuve Église and
Wulverghem, involving the abandonment of Hill 63. Next day, an assault
in great strength was launched due westwards between Merville and
Steenwerk, and affected our line below Bailleul, which looks down
through Nieppe to Armentières. On the same day and the following (the
13th) Neuve Église was hotly involved, and fell before midnight on the
14th. Another twenty-four hours and Bailleul had suffered the same
fate. There was now a very perilous salient in this stricken northerly
region, and on the night of April 15th/16th the decision was taken to
withdraw from the Passchendaele Ridge, the scene of so much bloodshed
in the previous summer; and, consequently, to close in nearer to Ypres.
These retirements, as may be seen on a map, brought the Kemmel sector
into prominence, and the German capture on April 16th of Meteren and
Wytschaete, at the two extremes of that front, was developed next morning
(17th) into a determined attack on Kemmel Hill.
[Illustration]
Recalling now from page 46 above, and from an earlier April 17th, the
geographical significance of Ypres, noting that this significance was
not diminished by the improvement in German heavy Artillery, as shown
by the guns trained on Paris, and observing that a sentimental value
had accrued to Ypres in those middle years almost bigger than its
geographical significance, we are now better qualified to measure the
anxiety of the British Command during the crucial week, April 9th to
16th, 1918. Would Ypres fall? Would the Channel ports follow, with all
their accumulated stores, and G.H.Q. be driven to the sea? Could the
hard-pressed Troops of the Second Army hold out to perform their allotted
task, since ‘the constant and severe fighting in the Lys battle front,
following so closely on the tremendous struggle South of Arras, had
placed a very serious strain upon the British forces’? ‘Many British
divisions,’ continued their Commander, ‘had taken part in the northern
and southern battles, while others had been engaged almost continuously
from the outset of the German offensive.’[116] We know the answer to
these questions. It is time now to see in one area how those answers were
dictated.
Take, first, in the 49th Division, the 147th Infantry Brigade, which
moved on the night of April 9th/10th to join the 34th near Armentières
with the following Group Details: ‘A’ Company of the Machine Gun Corps,
a Light Trench Mortar Battery, a Field Company (57) Royal Engineers, a
Field Ambulance (1/2nd West Riding), and No. 3 Company, 49th Divisional
Train. On April 10th, the 1/4th Duke of Wellington’s were engaged at
Erquinghem, covering a crossing of the Lys. That night, the Brigade was
defending Nieppe, in support of the 34th Division in its withdrawal from
Armentières. On the night of the 11th/12th, they carried out a skilful
rearguard action, covering a further withdrawal. From the 12th to 14th,
they maintained their position, despite repeated attacks, in the southern
outskirts of Bailleul. A few hours’ rest, and on the evening of the 15th
the Brigade was again in the front line, in consequence of Bailleul’s
fall. On April 16th and 17th, they were successfully holding their own
on the slopes to the North-west of Bailleul, and taking heavy toll of
the enemy. ‘In this action,’ we read, ‘all units of the Brigade Group
greatly distinguished themselves.’ On the 19th, they moved into the 34th
Divisional Reserve, and two days later they rejoined their own Division
in and around Poperinghe. Thus, this Group is inserted into the fighting
which we summarized just now; and, before taking the other Groups in
order, or expanding the narrative of this, we may fitly interpolate the
praises which it won from Major-General C. L. Nicholson, Commanding the
34th Division:
‘The G.O.C. 34th Division wishes to place on record his great
appreciation of the services rendered by the 147th Infantry
Brigade during the period it has been attached to the Division
under his Command. The action of the 4th Battalion Duke of
Wellington’s, South of the Lys on 10th April, the skilful
rearguard fighting under cover of which the Division withdrew
from the Nieppe position, the stubborn defence of the right
of the Division at Steam Hill (South of Bailleul), and the
complete defeat of a whole German Regiment on the 16th April,
are exploits of which the Brigade may well be proud.
‘Throughout the period, the steadiness, gallantry and endurance
of all ranks has been worthy of the highest traditions of
British Infantry, and the G.O.C. 34th Division is proud to have
had such Troops under his Command.’
Or these praises bestowed on a gallant Regiment may be tested by
the record of one man: No. 24066, Pte. Arthur Poulter, of the 1/4th
Battalion, Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding), who was awarded the
Victoria Cross for his action on April 10th, commemorated in the
following terms in the _London Gazette_ of June 28th:
‘For most conspicuous bravery when acting as a
stretcher-bearer. On ten occasions Pte. Poulter carried
badly wounded men on his back to a safer locality, through a
particularly heavy artillery and machine-gun barrage. Two of
these were hit a second time whilst on his back. Again, after
a withdrawal over the river had been ordered, Pte. Poulter
returned in full view of the enemy who were advancing, and
carried back another man who had been left behind wounded.
He bandaged up over forty men under fire, and his conduct
throughout the whole day was a magnificent example to all
ranks. This very gallant soldier was subsequently seriously
wounded when attempting another rescue in the face of the
enemy.’
A Group, similarly constituted, of the 148th Infantry Brigade was sent
on April 10th to Neuve Église, which was plainly threatened on that
day, under orders to move at half an hour’s notice. The same night, its
1/5th York and Lancasters became attached to the 74th Brigade (25th
Division) where it was drawn into the fighting near Steenwerk, to the
South of Nieppe, and rendered valuable service, remaining in attachment
until April 16th. Next day (11th), in the morning, the 1/4th Battalion
of the same Regiment was detailed to counter-attack on a line West of
Ploegsteert Wood, where the rest of the 25th Division was engaged. Hill
63 is situated immediately North of the North-west corner of that Wood,
and Neuve Église lies about two miles to its North-west. We shall have to
come back to the gallant record of this unit, and of the 1/4th King’s Own
Yorkshire Light Infantry, and of others in the Group, during the struggle
for Neuve Église, which lasted till the night of April 14th/15th. It is
a record of desperate valour against overwhelming odds; and, when, weary
but undaunted, the Brigade was withdrawn to Poperinghe on April 19th,
it had thoroughly earned the encomium of Major-General Sir E. G. T.
Bainbridge, Commanding the 25th Division:
‘Will you thank the 148th Infantry Brigade for all they did in
holding on to Neuve Église? It is, of course, greatly due to
them that the place was held as long as it was.’
Similar praises were bestowed by the Brigadier-General Commanding the
74th Brigade (25th Division) on the Battalion of the 148th Brigade, which
had been under his orders. He placed on record,
‘his great appreciation of the services rendered by the 5th
Battalion York and Lancaster Regiment during the time it was
attached to the Brigade under his Command. The gallantry and
endurance of all ranks throughout the operations are worthy
of the highest traditions of the British Army, and it was a
pleasure to the B.G.C. to have such Troops under his Command.
He was much impressed by the dashing manner in which the
Battalion carried out the attack on Cabaret du Saule on 11th
April, and by its stubborn resistance on 14th April on Mont de
Lille.’
We come, last in this summary, to the 146th Infantry Brigade (49th
Division).
On April 10th, it was in line in the Ypres salient, under the orders of
the 21st Division.
Next day, very early in the morning, its 1/7th Battalion, West Yorkshire
Regiment, became attached to the 62nd Infantry Brigade, which had been
detached from the 21st Division and placed under the orders of the
9th (Scottish) Division, commanded by Major-General G. H. Tudor. That
Division (the 9th), we may note, in anticipatory compensation for its
terrible losses in this area in April, was to have the honour on July
19th of capturing Meteren with great _éclat_. This reversal of misfortune
lay in the future. To-day the situation was very grave, and the part
played by the 1/7th West Yorkshires, in attachment to the attached
Brigade, may best be told, in advance of the more detailed narrative, in
the Report of the Brigadier-General Commanding the 62nd Brigade, which
was transmitted by General Tudor to General Cameron (49th Division). It
was dated April 20th and ran as follows:—
‘I should like also to draw attention to the very gallant
behaviour of the 1/7th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment, of
the 146th Infantry Brigade.
‘On the critical afternoon of the 11th April, when the Brigade
holding the Messines Sector was driven back, leaving my right
flank perilously exposed, the 1/7th West Yorkshire Regiment
was moved up at very short notice from Parret Camp to form a
defensive flank on the Bogaert Farm-Pick Wood Spor, and to fill
the gap on our right.
‘Under very heavy shelling the Battalion moved forward
splendidly, and their steadiness undoubtedly saved the
situation. From that evening until the morning of the 16th
the Battalion held the right sub-sector of the Brigade
front from Bogaert Farm to Pick Wood; on the night of the
15/16th they handed over from Bogaert Farm to Scott Farm to
the 1st Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment, and took over to
Spanrock-Molen inclusive. On an extended front they encountered
the full force of the enemy attack on the morning of the
16th, and fought most gallantly until overwhelmed by superior
numbers. As in the case of other Battalions the mist placed
them at an enormous disadvantage, and deprived them of the full
use of their fire power.’
Major-General Cameron, in communicating this message to the Brigadier of
the 146th, added the expression of his ‘great hope, that you will find
that you have sufficient old hands remaining to carry on the spirit which
has animated the 146th Brigade, and infuse it into the new drafts which I
hope to see joining you soon, in order that the name of the 146th Brigade
may live for ever. Please let your Battalions know that I feel deeply
proud of them.’
The Battalion had rejoined its own unit on April 18th. Its casualties
between the 11th and 16th had been eleven Officers and four hundred and
forty-two other ranks.
Noting that Parret Camp, referred to in the above message, lay a mile
and a quarter to the North-west of Kemmel, and that the 1/7th West
Yorkshires were supposed to be already tired out when they marched there
in high fettle in the early hours of April 11th, we return on that date
to the rest of the 146th Brigade. The Group units were established in the
defences of Kemmel Hill, which, though not immediately in the front line,
formed a position, as we are aware, of supreme prospective importance.
The Command was entrusted to Lt.-Col. H. D. Bousfield, of the West
Yorkshire Regiment, a supernumerary Lieutenant-Colonel at the time, who
came under the orders of the 49th Division up to April 13th, of the 19th
Division on that date, and, on April 19th, of the 28th French Infantry
Division. To the final assault on the Hill under its French Commander we
shall presently come back.
This outline-sketch of the activities of units of the 49th Division in
their places in the Valley of the Lys may be supplemented with one or two
details, before we pass to the second and worse phase of the battle in
that area of fire.
Take, for instance, the struggle about Neuve Église, in which the 148th
Brigade bore itself so gallantly, in the grim days, April 12th to 14th.
A glance at the map will show that Neuve Église lies almost midway
between Messines and Steenwerk, but (in a narrow area, of course) some
way to the West of either. Thus, its capture, besides re-acting on the
hard-pressed 34th Division below, would enable the Germans to round back
on the 19th above, where Major-General G. D. Jeffreys would be caught in
the rear. Accordingly, here, as much as anywhere (we should say ‘worse
than elsewhere,’ but no comparison could be sustained), the command to
hold out to the last man was imperative and binding. And right well this
Brigade of the 49th supported the valorous efforts of various bodies of
brave troops, including a mixed lot of a thousand, whom Brigadier-General
Wyatt, formerly Commanding the 1/4th York and Lancs., had collected
from anywhere to do everything. General Wyatt’s old Battalion and a
sister-Battalion in the Brigade, the 1/4th King’s Own Yorkshire Light
Infantry, had already done stiff service in the defence of Neuve Église,
where, on April 13th, the assault broke out again with added fierceness.
At 7 a.m. on that day, the enemy entered the village. At 8-30,
counter-attacks were launched of their own initiative by all available
units of the Brigade, and were pushed with courage and determination.
In this action, Major Jackson, M.C. (of the 458th Field Company, Royal
Engineers), Captain J. F. Wortley, M.C., and Lieut. Gifford, M.C.,
(both of the 1/4th York and Lancs.), were specially mentioned in the
Brigadier’s message to the Battalion. A big bag of prisoners was made,
and the village was cleared of Germans. We are told that, about this time
(the afternoon of April 13th), the Troops were still cheerful and in good
heart, but that the continuous strain and want of sleep were beginning to
tell. Unfortunately, they told in vain. On the night of 13th/14th, the
enemy came on again, and forced a way into the village. Captain Wortley
was killed in an attempt to establish a line about the Church, though
that line was subsequently held by small parties of the 4th York and
Lancs. and of the 9th Highland Light Infantry (Glasgow Highlanders). We
read that ‘these plucky men refused to obey the order to withdraw, and
were eventually cut off completely by the enemy, and there is little
doubt that they died fighting to the last.’ To lose Neuve Église under
such conditions was to win imperishable renown.
Or take a difficult little operation by two Companies of the 1/5th West
Yorkshires (146th Brigade), which was not less difficult because it
proved successful. On the night of April 15th/16th, a partial withdrawal,
as we saw above, was made perforce in the Ypres salient. These two
Companies, under the Command of Major Foxton, were left to hold posts in
the Corps line across the Menin Road about three miles East of Ypres.
They did their job very thoroughly. By moving dummy carrying parties
about the tracks, and keeping six men in the front line, right away till
broad noon on that day, and by other manœuvres, they deceived the enemy
so completely that no approach to our old front line was attempted till
3-30 p.m.
[Illustration: Meteren: Ap: 1918:
Bailleul (Meteren Road) Ap. 1918.]
We need not expand the account of the exploits of the 1/7th West
Yorkshires during their hard days of service with the 62nd Brigade. We
know by now that a situation could be ‘saved,’ in the expressive word
endorsed by General Tudor, only by endurance of a kind corresponding to
the call of the British Commander-in-Chief on the 13th. We prefer to
conclude on a quieter note. These few, casual illustrations of a week’s
fighting, as desperate as it was heroic, for the ultimate safety of the
Channel ports, would convey a false impression if they painted no scene
but ‘death or glory.’ It was hard going all the time, and the conditions
told, as we have seen. But the grit of the Yorkshiremen was not unequal
to the incessant demands. We read nearly always of a cheerful spirit,
of a line which seemed ‘good’ by comparison with other lines which
they had known worse, of refreshing snatches of rest, of the welcome
arrival of the limbered wagons with rations, and similar incidents of
the kind, which helped to ease what had to be endured. We read, too, in
an Officer’s diary, such a characteristic entry as the following: ‘Next
morning, there was light shelling, but about 1-30 p.m. the Boche started
a heavy bombardment, and attacked at 3 o’clock from the South-west. _This
was his usual time-table all through these operations._’ (The italics
are ours). And, again, a page or two later on: ‘The Boche programme
continued: a heavy bombardment 1 p.m.—3 p.m.’ They had taken the measure
of their Boche. It was all very frightful and terrible, and good men were
falling every hour; but frightfulness ‘according to plan,’ as Macbeth
discovered in his day, contains an antiseptic element, which is related
to the sense of humour in the British soldier. If it is too much to say
that this sense would always enhearten him, at least it stood him in good
stead, and even inspired him with good hope, when Hollbeke, Messines,
Ploegsteert, Neuve Église and Bailleul had been left behind the German
front, and the salient round Ypres had been retracted, and the storm was
about to burst on Kemmel Hill.
II.—SECOND PHASE
There were four or five more or less calm days in the sector North of
the Lys. The battle-fury surged a little South on a front from Merville
to Givenchy, extending along the La Bassée Canal, and it broke out afresh
in the Somme Valley, on the slopes just East of Amiens, where the village
of Villers Bretonneux changed hands twice in two days (April 24th,
25th), remaining the second time in British possession. The interval in
the Northern area, though used for rest and re-organization, so far as
circumstances allowed, was less an interval than a breathing-space, in
which both sides were awaiting the call of ‘Time!’ A renewed attack was
obviously impending. The enemy would want to exploit his gains, and to
make that push for Ypres and Dunkirk, which had haunted his day-dreams
for four years. The blow fell on April 25th, at about 5 o’clock in the
morning, when a very violent bombardment along the whole line from
Hollbeke to Bailleul announced the commencement of the second phase of
the sanguinary Battle of the Lys.
If we look once more at the familiar map, we shall see the Allied line
stretching from North-east to South-west. British troops were holding
the line from a point on the Ypres-Commines Canal just above St. Eloi
to a point about a mile below Wytschaete. The 21st Division was on the
Canal, with a composite Brigade of the 39th; the 9th Division held the
Wytschaete Ridge, with three units of the 21st and 49th (chiefly the
146th Infantry Brigade). The rest of the line was French. Immediately
below our 9th Division was the 28th French Division, in Command of the
Kemmel Defences; next below, at Dranoutre, came the 154th, in face of an
enemy assault from Neuve Église. Then came the French 34th, and their
138th at St.-Jans-Cappel. Behind the line, two Brigades of our 49th (the
147th and 148th) were in Corps Reserve in and around Poperinghe, and one
Brigade each of the 30th and 31st were located between Poperinghe and the
front line. Our 25th Division was in Reserve, a little behind the two
Brigades of the 49th.
[Illustration]
Against these worn and weary Troops, so lately withdrawn from the
positions from which they were now to be assailed, and so hardly
re-organized or recruited, the enemy launched nine Divisions, ‘of
which five were fresh Divisions and one other had been but lightly
engaged.’[117] Their direct objective was Kemmel Hill, an important
point of observation in that country of low-lying flats, and important,
too, as a jumping-off place for Ypres; their subsidiary purpose was
to separate the British from the French forces by a flanking movement
below Wytschaete. Accordingly, the weight of the attack fell first on
the French 28th and the British 9th Divisions, with the two Brigades
attached to the latter. Dealing first, with the British sector, we are
not surprised to learn, in Sir A. Conan Doyle’s temperate narrative, that
‘the 9th Division in the north was forced to fall back upon the line
of La Clytte [behind Kemmel], after enduring heavy losses in a combat
lasting nine hours, during which they fought with their usual tenacity,
as did the 64th and 146th Brigades, who fought beside them.’[118] It is
rather the details which surprise us, and help to make this ‘tenacity’
real. At 2-30 a.m. on April 25th, this Brigade of our 49th Division had
to endure a two hours’ bombardment with heavy gas-shells and smoke.
It was followed by half an hour of the greatest intensity with High
Explosives. At 5 o’clock, in the inevitable mist, which enhanced the
difficulty of the defence, the Infantry attack was launched, but was held
on the Brigade front. At 6-45, a Company of the 1/6th West Yorkshires
was reported to be fighting a rearguard action under Captain Sanders,
V.C. This gallant Officer was seen rallying his men from the top of a
pill-box, and, though wounded, he continued firing with his revolver
at point blank range until he fell. No news came from the front line
Companies, but all the evidence goes to show that they fought and died at
their posts. We need not follow the retirement of what was left of these
Battalions, first, to Vierstraat Cross Roads and then to Ouderdom. The
evidence of casualties is more pertinent. In the West Yorkshire Regiment,
on these two days (April 25th, 26th),[119] the 1/5th’s casualties
amounted to eighteen Officers and five hundred and fifty-seven other
ranks; the 1/6th’s to twenty-two and four hundred and sixty-one, and
the 1/7th’s to five and one hundred and thirty-nine respectively. The
Trench Mortar Battery of the Brigade was engaged on Kemmel Hill during
this battle, and none of those in action returned. We may add here, that,
at Ouderdom on April 27th, some Brigade remnants were formed into a
composite Battalion, under Major R. Clough, of the 1/6th West Yorkshires,
and were placed in Divisional Reserve at the call of the 147th Brigade,
the rest being withdrawn into a back area.
Turning now to the action on the French front, and to the German assault
on Kemmel Hill,[120] and observing that St. Eloi and Dranoutre, to the
East and West of the position, fell at an early hour into the enemy’s
hands, we have to record that by 10 a.m. on April 25th Kemmel Village
and Hill had both been lost. It will be recalled from our summary of
this fighting that Lt.-Col. Bousfield, Commanding some units of the 49th
Division (146th Brigade) had been left in Command on Kemmel Hill on
April 11th, and handed over to the French Divisional Commander on the
19th. He and his fellow Yorkshiremen continued the defence till the last
moment with conspicuous courage and devotion. On April 26th, at 3 a.m.,
counter-attacks were made by the French and British in combination, in
which Troops from the 49th Division, attached to the 25th, again bore
themselves gallantly. But the position then was irretrievable, at least
in its main aspects, and the line in the salient was further re-adjusted
during the night of April 26th/27th.
This brief account of a big event (the darkest hour of the Flemish
battle, it has been called) might be extended into the local fighting
which marked the course of the next few days. But an extract from one
Officer’s diary may suffice as a sample of what was happening: we have
trusted his judgment before, and his first and last sentences are
decisive. He writes on April 28th:
‘The Germans were not ready to profit by their success at
Kemmel. During the next three days there was a good deal of
shelling by long-range guns, but no attacks, and the Battalion
[it was in the 148th Brigade] was able to improve the line
greatly, with Lewis gun posts pushed well forward to command
the valley in front. A French cart stranded in No Man’s Land
was found to be full of excellent signalling equipment, which
improved our communications.
‘_29th April._—On April 29th the Germans made what proved to be
their last attempt on the Ypres front. Their plan was to attack
on the whole front from Dranoutre to Voormezeele, and so pierce
the line to the South of the city. A heavy bombardment with
shells of the heaviest calibre opened and continued unceasingly
from 3 a.m. to 4 p.m. It was probably the heaviest bombardment
the Battalion has had to face, and casualties were many,
including some of the finest fighters of the Battalion. At 4,
the Germans attacked. On the 7th Battalion front, where there
was dead ground, the Germans got into the line, and were only
driven out by successive bayonet charges. On the 6th Battalion
front, the forward posts could see the Germans descending
Kemmel, and with Lewis gun and Rifle fire stopped them dead
with great loss. Before dark, the attack had definitely failed
along the line: the Germans had played their last card.’
This conclusion agrees with Sir F. Maurice’s: ‘The gain of Kemmel proved
to be the enemy’s undoing’; and with that of all competent authorities,
reviewing the battles of March and April, 1918, with the knowledge
acquired since the war was ended. Ludendorff could not exploit his
successes, for in no sector was any of them complete. The failure to
break through in the north ‘was hardly less important in its effect on
the campaign than that which the Germans had suffered on March 28th, and
these two triumphs of our defence over the enemy’s attack went far in
preparation for the victories which came later in the year.’[121]
So, the darkest hour gave place to the dawn.
Congratulatory messages, couched in the highest terms, reached the 49th
Division in its time of merited relief.
General Sir Herbert Plumer, Commanding the Second Army, conveyed, on
April 29th, the following message from Field-Marshal Sir Douglas Haig,
Commander-in-Chief of the British Armies:
‘I desire to express my appreciation of the very valuable and
gallant service performed by Troops of the 49th (West Riding)
Division since the entry of the 146th Infantry Brigade into the
Battle of Armentières. The courage and determination shown by
this Division have played no small part in checking the enemy’s
advance, and I wish to convey to General Cameron and to all
Officers and Men under his Command my thanks for all that they
have done.’
On May 2nd, the IXth Corps Commander, Lieut.-General Sir A. Hamilton
Gordon, sent the following message:
‘Heartiest congratulations on the splendid fight you put up on
29th April.’
Throughout this period (April 10th to May 2nd), the 49th Divisional
Artillery had been serving with the 21st Division, and they received from
Major-General Campbell the following letter of thanks:
‘Before handing over Command of the 49th Divisional Artillery,
I wish to express to all ranks my thanks and appreciation of
the excellent work done since it has been under my Command. No
Commander could have been better served in every possible way.
The splendid fighting spirit shown by all ranks has been beyond
all praise.’
We may add here that the 49th Division were no whit less appreciative of
the gallant and efficient help which they had received from C.R.A., 9th
Division, in Command of the following Artillery Brigades: 50th, 51st,
148th, 156th and 162nd R.F.A. Brigades and 30th Heavy Artillery Brigade.
D.D.M.S., XXIInd Corps, wrote to A.D.M.S., 49th Division, to
congratulate him on ‘the extraordinarily efficient manner in which
casualties have been evacuated from your area under the recent trying
conditions. I have never seen the work more speedily and successfully
carried out’; and truly Major-General Cameron might say to his ‘Comrades
of the 49th Division’:
‘The reputation which you have won for courage, determination
and efficiency, during recent operations, has its very joyous
aspect, and it is deeply precious to us all.’
The name of Ypres is inscribed in English history: like Khartoum,
Kandahar, Trafalgar, and other names in older times, it has been adopted
in the title of a British Commander. It belongs, by the same token, to
the 49th Division, whom, twice in the course of the War, in the Spring
of 1915 and of 1918, we have seen defending its trenches or fighting
in the open for its safety, and to whom a Memorial is dedicated on its
site. They had well earned the praises bestowed upon them. To them, with
very gallant comrades, including our Belgian Allies, fell the part of
guarding the approaches to the vital line of the Channel ports. On April
9th, 1918, when the course of the _Kaiser-schlacht_ was diverted from the
Southern to the Northern front, Sir Herbert Plumer’s Second Army formed
our last line of defence in Flanders. That line held at the end of April,
after three weeks’ shattering blows, unsurpassed in impetus and severity;
and, throughout those weeks, the 49th were in the line.
CHAPTER XIV
THE YEOMANRY
The pace was too fast to be kept up. The Germans could not be doing it
all the time, and pauses, lengthening in duration as the fury of the
attacks increased, were bound to be interposed between one onslaught and
the next. Here, again, as on previous occasions, the official German
historians of the war will be able to correct the impression which their
daily bulletins sought to create, and will tell an attentive world how
the desperate courage of the invader broke on the final factor which no
resources of science can permanently disguise—fighting men’s physical
exhaustion.
Such a pause, partly filled, as we shall see, by a transfusion of
bloodshed to another area, occurred at the height of that darkest hour,
which we followed in the last chapter; and, before pursuing our account
of the West Riding Infantry Divisions through the last hundred days of
the war, we may fitly utilize this interval to narrate, necessarily a
little summarily, the fortunes and the disappointments of some of the
West Riding Mounted Troops. For they, too, as Earl Haig has testified,
‘came forward at the beginning of the war to serve their country in the
hour of need,’ and ‘performed their duty under all circumstances with
thoroughness and efficiency.’
These words occur in an Order, dated September 9th, 1917, and addressed
by the Field-Marshal to the 1/1st Yorkshire Hussars Yeomanry. ‘The Army
Council,’ the Order starts, ‘has found it necessary to dismount certain
Special Reserve and Yeomanry Regiments, and to utilize the services
of Officers and other Ranks in other branches of the Service.’ Here
we see the meaning of ‘under all circumstances,’ and the cause of the
disappointments to which we have referred.
That the war was not a Cavalry war, and that its ‘circumstances’ did
not often call for the special faculties furnished by Mounted Troops,
are facts that enhance, rather than diminish, the praise of the
‘thoroughness’ and ‘efficiency’ with which the duties falling on the
Yeomanry were discharged. Officers, N.C.O.’s and men adapted themselves
with conspicuous cheerfulness to the shifting needs of the day’s work,
and became fitted to the uses which were made of them. But no keenness,
military or moral, could turn the war into _their_ war. The war in South
Africa was their war, the next war may be their war again; ‘but the
circumstances of the late war gave them few chances of doing the work
for which they were intended, and their chief claim to credit lies in
the fact, that, whatever work they were given to do, they carried out
to the best of their ability, and to the complete satisfaction of the
authorities under whom they worked.’[122]
How complete that satisfaction was, may be judged by one or two letters,
which we are privileged to quote, and which it is appropriate to produce
in advance of such narrative as may prove available of the miscellaneous
duties which the Yeomanry actually performed. Thus, when ‘B’ Squadron
of the Yorkshire Hussars left the 46th Division in May, 1916 (the
particulars of this move will be found below), Major-General E. J.
Montague Stuart-Wortley wrote to their Commanding Officer, Lieut.-Col. W.
G. Eley:
‘Many thanks for your letter. It was a great blow to me to
find on my return from leave, that your Squadron had left the
Division, and that our very pleasant connection had come to an
end.
‘I can assure you that it has been the greatest pleasure to
me to have had your Squadron under my command; and I should
be very much obliged if you would tell all your Officers,
N.C.O.’s and men how deeply I appreciate all the good work
they have done whilst with this Division. They have frequently
been called upon to do work which was quite outside of what
Cavalry are trained to perform; and on every occasion, they
have carried it out with zeal and efficiency which has been
deserving of all praise.
‘You will be glad to have the whole Regiment together again; I
shall watch all you do with the greatest interest; I know that
all you are called upon to do, will be done well.’
Again, in 1917, when the same Yeomanry Regiment left the XVIIth Corps,
in consequence of the decision of the Army Council, notified in the
Field-Marshal’s Order as above, to dismount them and utilize them ‘in
other branches of the Service,’ Lieut.-General Sir Charles Fergusson,
Bt., Commanding the Corps, wrote to Lieut.-Col. Eley:
‘On the departure of the Regiment from the XVIIth Corps I
wish to express to you and to the Officers and men under your
command my thanks for the loyalty and assistance which has
invariably been given by the Regiment during the period of its
connection with the Corps.
‘Its smartness, discipline, and soldierly spirit have been
conspicuous; and no matter what the work has been, it has
always been carried out in accordance with the best traditions
of the Regiment and of the Service.
‘I know that Officers and men will continue to live up to
these traditions, and that no matter where duty and the service
of the country call them, they will never forget that the
reputation and good name of the Regiment remain in their hands.
Whether as a unit or as individuals the spirit of the Regiment
will remain; and when the time comes for it to be re-united,
the knowledge that they have done their duty under all
circumstances will add to the pride and satisfaction with which
Officers and men will look back to their record in the war.
‘I wish goodbye and good luck to all ranks.’
Again, in 1919, when the Yorkshire Dragoons left the Rhine (these
particulars, too, will be found below), Lieut.-General Sir C. W. Jacob,
K.C.B., Commanding the IInd Corps of the Second Army, addresses the
following letter to Major-General the Earl of Scarbrough, in his capacity
as Hon. Colonel of the Regiment:
‘The Yorkshire Dragoons are leaving very shortly for England
on reduction to cadre, and as you are the Hon. Colonel of
the Regiment, I thought you would like to hear how well the
Regiment has done all the time that it has been with the IInd
Corps.
‘You know that at first the Regiment was split up and its
squadrons distributed among various Divisions. In the early
part of 1916 it was decided to take away from Divisions their
Cavalry Squadrons, and to have a Cavalry Regiment at the
headquarters of every Army Corps. The three squadrons of the
Yorkshire Dragoons were thus brought together and formed into a
Regiment again, and in May, 1916, became the Cavalry Regiment
of the IInd Corps. It was in that month, too, that I took over
command of the IInd Corps.
‘From the time the Yorkshire Dragoons came to the IInd Corps
till hostilities ceased on the 11th November, 1918, their work
has been excellent all through. They have had strenuous times,
but have always shown themselves equal to the occasion.
‘Yorkshire has given many thousands of splendid soldiers to the
British Army, and I place the Yeoman of the Yorkshire Dragoons
high up in the list. They have responded to every call made on
them, and have fought magnificently.
‘In October, 1917, the regiment was taken away from the IInd
Corps for work with the Cavalry Corps. Later on, owing to the
shortage of horses in the army, it was decided to dismount the
Yeomanry Regiments and to turn them into machine-gun or cyclist
units. The Yorkshire Dragoons were formed into a Cyclist
Regiment, and came back to the IInd Corps as such. It was
naturally a disappointment to them to be dismounted, but they
accepted the situation in the right spirit and very soon became
the best cyclist unit in the British Army.
‘I cannot speak too highly of their work in the final phase
of the war, when they took part in the attack from Ypres in
September, 1918, and when the Germans were driven clean out of
Belgium.
‘The Regiment has been fortunate in its Officers. They were
first of all commanded by Lieut.-Col. Mackenzie Smith, D.S.O.,
up to the time they were dismounted. Since then they have
been commanded by Lieut.-Colonel R. Thompson, D.S.O. Both
these officers have been first-class, and I cannot speak too
highly of the latter. Lieut.-Colonel Thompson is a first-rate
leader, and he has been backed up by an excellent lot of junior
officers.
‘I regret very much to have to part with the Regiment, but
their turn for demobilisation has come round. They have earned
the gratitude of their country and county in the way they have
worked and fought all through the war, and have made a name for
themselves which will never be forgotten.’
General Jacob’s letter (May 27th, 1919) epitomizes clearly, six months
after the Armistice, the successive stages of organization through
which the Mounted Troops had passed. Between the lines of the various
decisions therein recorded (‘to take away from the Divisions their
Cavalry Squadrons,’ to take away the Cavalry Regiments from the Corps,
‘to dismount the Yeomanry Regiments and to turn them into machine-gun
or cyclist units’), we may read the meaning of some remarks occurring
in earlier letters: ‘They have frequently been called upon to do work
which was quite outside of what Cavalry are trained to perform’ (General
Stuart-Wortley); ‘No matter what the work has been, it has always been
carried out in accordance with the best traditions of the Regiment and
the Service’ (General Fergusson), and ‘their chief claim to credit lies
in the fact, that, whatever work they were given to do, they carried out
to the best of their ability’ (Col. Mackenzie Smith). The time never
quite came to employ the Cavalry. They never really came into their own.
But it was not till a late period in the war, when the shortage of horses
in the Army and the shrinkage of man-power and shipping at home compelled
the authorities to drastic action, that the repeatedly disappointed hope
of employing them at last in their right capacity was finally abandoned.
Accordingly, their history in the Great War is a history of partially
fulfilled renown, in relation to their pre-war training and to their
anticipations on mobilization. ‘It must be admitted,’ we read, ‘that
the Yorkshire Dragoons never felt either pride or affection for their
bicycles. The one thing to be said for them was that they were more
easily cleaned than horses, and never had to be exercised or fed.’ In
this sense, ‘their chief claim to credit,’ in the words of Lieut.-Col.
Mackenzie Smith,[123] may be stated in the highest terms as a claim
to the credit of subordinating their own desires, and the ambition
appropriate to their Arm of Service, to the needs of the Army and the
Empire as a whole.
We may follow these changes more precisely.
Originally, both Yeomanry Regiments, after coast defence and other work
at home, went out to France as Divisional Cavalry. The Hussars arrived at
Havre in April, 1915, and were posted as follows:
‘A’ Squadron to the 50th (Northumbrian) Division,
‘B’ Squadron to the 46th Division, and
‘C’ Squadron to the 49th (West Riding) Division.
The Dragoons arrived in August, and were posted:
‘A’ Squadron to the 17th Division,
‘B’ Squadron to the 37th Division, and
‘C’ Squadron to the 19th Division,
all in General Plumer’s Second Army, to which, under General Jacob’s
Command, they were to return later on as a Cyclist Corps.
Their time as Divisional Cavalry lasted till May, 1916, but was not
as full as they had hoped. ‘Our work,’ writes an Hussar Officer in a
personal letter, ‘was very miscellaneous. We fetched up remounts, dug
trenches, buried wires, supplied M.M.P. and orderlies to the Divisional
Staff, and observation posts to the Infantry in the front line;’ and
Col. Smith, of the Dragoons, writes in much the same vein: ‘They did
many dull, but arduous and necessary fatigues. But they took an especial
interest in the Divisional observation posts, the management of which
was entrusted to them by the Division,’ and which proved, as he says in
another place, ‘a definite speciality of the Regiment, and earned them
considerable credit.’
The first organic change is explained in a letter from G.H.Q., dated May
2nd, 1916, and addressed to the Third Army Commander. We cite here the
salient extracts:
‘In consequence of the growth of the Army and the development
of the Corps Organisation, much of the independence of action
and movement formerly belonging to the Division has passed
to the Corps. It has been found necessary, therefore, to
reconsider the organization and distribution of the Mounted
Troops hitherto allotted to Divisions.
‘The allotment of these troops was originally made with a view
to providing the Divisional Commander with a small mobile force
under his immediate control for reconnaissance, protective and
escort duties; and on the assumption (originally correct) that
the Division would be moving either independently, or with one
or more roads allotted to its exclusive use.
‘These conditions are unlikely to recur; any future movement
will be by Corps, marching and fighting in depth on a
comparatively narrow front. The mounted troops belonging to the
Corps must, therefore, be assembled under the direct control of
the Corps Commander, and organized as Corps units.
‘The Commander-in-Chief has accordingly decided—
‘(_a_) to convert the Squadrons of Divisional Cavalry into
Corps Cavalry Regiments, composed of a Headquarters and Three
Squadrons each; one Regiment being allotted to each Corps.
‘(_b_) to withdraw the Cyclist Companies from Divisions, to
reconstitute them into Battalions of Three Companies each, and
to allot one Battalion to each Corps.
‘(_c_) to allot one Motor Machine-Gun Battery to each Corps.
This battery will normally be attached to the Cyclist
Battalion.’
The following Table shows how the foregoing provisions were applied to
the Squadrons of Yorkshire Dragoons and Yorkshire Hussars:
-------------------------------------+-----------------+------------
Transferred | From | To
-------------------------------------+----+-----+------+-----+------
Squadron |Div.|Corps| Army |Corps| Army
-------------------------------------+----+-----+------+-----+------
‘A’ Squadron 1/1st Yorkshire Dragoons| 17 | II |Second|⎫ |
H.Q. & ‘B’ Squadron 1/1st Yorkshire | | | |⎪ |
Dragoons | 37 | VII |Third |⎬ II|Second
‘C’ Squadron 1/1st Yorkshire Dragoons| 19 | XI |First |⎭ |
‘A’ Squadron 1/1st Yorkshire Hussars | 50 | V |Second|⎫ |
‘B’ Squadron 1/1st Yorkshire Hussars | 46 | XVII|Third |⎬XVII|Third
‘C’ Squadron 1/1st Yorkshire Hussars | 49 | X |Fourth|⎭ |
-------------------------------------+----+-----+------+-----+------
Thus, the Divisional Cavalry were transferred, and each Corps now
received a Squadron of Cavalry, a Battalion of Cyclists, and a Battery of
Motor Machine-Guns. At this time the training of the Cavalry in France
was inspired mainly by General Gough, who subsequently commanded the
Fifth Army; and the rôle devised for Corps Cavalry Regiments was summed
up, as he said, in the one word ‘“Security”: that is, the protection of
the Infantry with which it is working.’ These were the days, it will
be remembered from earlier chapters of the present volume, in which a
break-through was still hoped for, when the Corps Mounted Troops would
have followed the five Divisions of Regular Cavalry through the ‘gap’
to be made in the German line, and would become immediately responsible
for the protection of the Infantry Reserve and for general Advance Guard
duties.
But events did not fall out as had been expected. ‘During the summer
and autumn of 1916 there were several occasions,’ we are told, ‘on which
the Higher Command had hopes of a Cavalry situation, ... but these hopes
never materialized.’ The main work of the Regiment in these months—and
very important work it proved—was to maintain observation posts in
forward areas, and it was true that opportunities occurred, and were
seized with gallant alacrity, to win the Military Cross and the Military
Medal for special acts of reconnaissance and daring. In less forward
areas the duties were more laborious, but were not less cheerfully
performed. Traffic control, unloading ammunition trains, helping at
hospitals and burying the dead; the maintenance of communications in
winter mud, when the Infantry were roped together in order to go into
the front line, and casualties by drowning were almost as numerous as
those caused by the enemy: these, with training, and the care of horses,
and the usual Regimental sports, were among the functions substituted in
reality for the purpose cherished by the Corps Cavalry. In March, 1917,
at the time of the German retreat, the IInd Corps Cavalry had the chance,
of which they fully availed themselves, of proving their mettle in
mounted action, and the D.S.O. awarded to Lieut.-Col. Mackenzie Smith was
a recognition of his wise insistence on a constant high level of training
efficiency. The disappointment of his Mounted Troops at Cambrai in
November, 1917, was their final grief before the Order for dismounting.’
We shall not follow in detail the dismounted history either of the
Dragoons or the Hussars in the miscellaneous duties to which they were
called. We may note, however, that, in the battles of 1918, good fighting
work was done by both Regiments, and that, early as October 20th in that
year, Lieut.-Col. Thompson received his D.S.O. as an immediate award, in
recognition of his gallantry at the crossing of the River Lys. General
Jacob’s letter to Lord Scarbrough, quoted on an earlier page, refers
particularly to this Officer, and to the part taken by his cyclists ‘when
the Germans were driven clean out of Belgium.’
So the Yeomanry, too, before war’s end, had their fill of fighting in
the front line, and, alike in honours and casualties, through all the
phases of their experience, as Divisional Cavalry, as Corps Cavalry,
and as Dismounted Troops, they bore themselves with conspicuous bravery
and with not less conspicuous self-sacrifice. They were content to do
the task set before them, when, owing to causes beyond control, they
could not do the task for which they had been trained, and neither in
the West Riding nor beyond it will their splendid record be allowed to
fade. Not inappropriately it happened that the IInd Corps of the Second
Army[124] was chosen to form part of the Army of the Rhine. The Yorkshire
Dragoons were detailed to act as Advance Guard to the Infantry of the
9th, 29th and 41st Divisions; and ‘consequently,’ we read, ‘in most of
the towns and villages through which they passed, they were the first
British troops which the inhabitants saw. The march through Belgium was a
triumphal progress.’
But we must not anticipate the day of triumph, amply as the Yeomen had
contributed to it. The battles of 1918 have still to be won, and we
return at this point to the interval called by exhaustion after the First
Battle of the Lys.
CHAPTER XV
THE LAST HUNDRED DAYS
I.—THE SECOND BATTLE OF THE MARNE
The force of the German onslaughts of March 21st and April 9th, 1918, had
been spent beyond hope of renewal on the fronts in which they occurred.
On the Lys, as, a month earlier, on the Somme, and more necessarily
because of the further month’s exhaustion, time had to be taken to
reorganize, to recuperate, and to recommence; and the time taken by the
enemy was time given to the Allies.
How admirably they employed it in May, June and the first part of July
does not fall within the province of the present chronicler. It happened
that it was not till July 20th that the Territorial Infantry from the
West Riding entered into action since May on any considerable scale.
Accordingly, we may pass over the interval. We may pass over the dispatch
of the IXth Corps, commanded by Sir A. Hamilton Gordon, and consisting
of the 8th, 21st, 25th and 50th Divisions, all of which had had their
full share of fighting, to join the Sixth French Army on the Aisne. The
intention was, to give them a chance of rest in a section unlikely to
be busy; the effect was to give them a worse experience in the sudden
battles about Reims than they had endured on the Somme or on the Lys.
How they acquitted themselves is best told in the noble language of the
French Army Commander, General Maistre, in his farewell letter (July 3rd)
to General Hamilton Gordon:
‘Avec une ténacité, permettez-moi de dire, toute anglaise,
avec les débris de vos divisions décimées, submergées par le
flot ennemi, vous avez reformé, sans vous lasser, des unités
nouvelles que vous avez engagées dans la lutte, et qui nous ont
en fin permis de former la digue où ce flot est venu se briser.
Cela aucun des témoins français ne l’oubliera.’
Immediately after this disaster, which had brought the Germans within
forty miles of Paris, and Paris within range of their ‘freak’ gun,
Marshal Foch withdrew from Flanders his force of about eight Divisions,
and transferred them southwards to the French front. Next, he asked that
four British Divisions might be moved down to the Somme, so as to ensure
the connection between the French and British forces about Amiens; and,
‘after carefully weighing the situation,’ wrote Sir Douglas Haig, ‘I
agreed to this proposal.’ But the Generalissimo’s resources still fell
short of the plans he was maturing. ‘On the 13th July a further request
was received from Marshal Foch that these four British Divisions might
be placed unreservedly at his disposal, and that four other British
Divisions might be dispatched to take their places behind the junction of
the Allied Armies. This request,’ wrote the British Commander-in-Chief,
‘was also agreed to, and the 15th, 34th, 51st and 62nd British Divisions,
constituting the XXIInd Corps, under Command of Lieut.-General Sir H.
Godley, were accordingly sent down to the French front.’[125]
We resume our chronicle, therefore, with the record of the 62nd Division
in the counter-offensive by Marshal Foch, which he launched on July
18th, and which, by repeated hammer-strokes, increasing in strength and
velocity, was to bring the war to its appointed end. Exactly a hundred
days elapsed between July 18th and October 26th, when Ludendorff’s
resignation was accepted, and he left German Army Great Headquarters.
Before resuming it, however, for the space of those hundred days, a
word, though not strictly within our province, may be said about Haig’s
decision on July 15th. We are to recall that the Allies had been defeated
three times in less than four months, and had given up far more ground
than was ever contemplated in the previous winter Councils. A German gun
had found the range of Paris, and might find the range of the Channel
ports. The secrets of the autumn of victory were locked up in the
harvester’s brain; yet he asked for four _plus_ four Divisions to be
moved from the British to the French front. We should leave the matter
there: all the papers have not yet been published; but perhaps we may
quote at this point the reasoned opinion of Major-General Sir F. Maurice:
‘Haig, being responsible to his Government for the safety
of his army and the ports, felt that he must obtain their
concurrence in this last step, though he was quite ready to
take the responsibility upon himself of advising them to
concur. It does honour to Foch, to Mr. Lloyd George and to
Sir Douglas Haig that in this critical time they all agreed.
Both the British Government and the British Commander-in-Chief
supported Foch, decided to back his judgment, and to accept
the danger of weakening the British forces in the north, and
he was thus enabled to mature his plans for the defeat of
Ludendorff.... It required great courage and determination
to make that attack as it was made. The Germans had still a
superiority of more than 250,000 Infantry on the Western front,
and Foch, as well as Mr. Lloyd George and Sir Douglas Haig, had
to take risks.’[126]
So, we march with General Braithwaite’s Yorkshire lads to the Valley of
the Ardre, where for the next ten days (July 20th to 30th) they played a
glorious part in the Second Battle of the Marne, after which there was no
turning back.
The River Ardre rises due south of Reims, in the forest called after
that city. It flows in a north-westerly direction through richly-timbered
and hilly country, which afforded every facility for the cunning nests
of machine-guns in which the enemy excelled. We have two or three
descriptions of the lie of the land from a military point of view. The
valley, we read, ‘is bounded on each side by high ridges and spurs,
the crests of which are heavily wooded: those on the north by the Bois
de Reims, on the south by the Bois de Coutron and the Bois d’Eclisse.
The villages of Marfaux and Chaumuzy in the bottom of the valley, also
the dominating height of the Montagne de Bligny (some seven thousand
yards from the line of departure) afforded the enemy three successive
_points d’appui_ of great strength. These centres of defence were further
strengthened by natural buttresses formed by the hamlets of Cuitron
(North), Espilly, Les Haies and Nappes (South), all perched high up on
the abrupt slopes and spurs running down into the valley below. So steep
are some of these slopes that the light French Tanks (_Chars d’Assaut_)
were unable to operate upon them in places, and the Tanks’ activities
were further restricted by stretches of soft and marshy ground on either
bank of the Ardre. Standing crops in the undulating valley, the vineyards
on the slopes, and the dense woods on the ridges, concealed the hostile
positions from view, whilst sunken roads and banks running at right
angles to the direction of attack provided ready-made positions for a
stubborn defence.’
[Illustration]
In this large, dense wood of summer foliage, on slopes running down to
marshy ground, we are to remember that the ‘stubborn defence’ was now
the business of the Germans. The conditions of the war in the West had
changed in several important aspects. Not merely was the enemy on the
defensive, to the huge enheartenment of the Allied Forces, but this
account of the natural features is necessary because the fighting was now
in the open, and no longer in a too familiar entrenched area. To these
changes in tactics and terrain, at once so novel and so inspiriting, was
added the fresh experience of fighting side by side with new friends.
General Godley’s Corps, we remember, was sent at Marshal Foch’s request
right away from the British northern sector into the area of the French
Command. There it found the 1st Italian Division, the 14th and the
120th French Divisions, and the 1st Colonial French Corps; and we are
told that, in this War of Positions, ‘the transference to a sector with
its natural obstacles, the novel situation of passing through Italian
Troops to attack side by side with our French Allies in the attempt to
oust enemy forces (enjoying all the advantages that the possession of
the initiative and positions of great natural strength would give them)
presented problems to all Arms which had hitherto been met with only
in theory.’ The practical problem of language was the least. Education
authorities will learn with pleasure, though some of their critics may be
surprised, that ‘there were far fewer French Officers with any working
knowledge of English than British Officers with a working knowledge of
French, and French was the language generally used.’ Whether it was the
French of Stratford-atte-Bow, or the French of the British private,
‘Tout-de-suite, and the tooter the sweeter,’ our information does not
reveal; but it is satisfactory to know that the ‘working knowledge’
aimed at in our schools answered a test which experts might not have
satisfied. Of other details, such as entraining and ‘embussing,’ this
is not the place to speak: certain differences in practice were found,
and were solved with good will on both sides. We may add here, in this
list of new conditions, that the 62nd Division now included the 2/4th
Hampshire Regiment, recently arrived in France, and the 1/5th Devons,
lately from Egypt. On August 2nd, Major-General Braithwaite wrote to the
County Territorial Associations at Southampton and Exeter respectively,
to express his high sense of their several distinguished services; and he
wrote at the same time to the Durham Association, in connection with the
9th Durham Light Infantry, the Pioneer Battalion of the Division, to say
that it has been necessary to employ them in this Second Battle of the
Marne as a fighting Battalion, and that ‘they fought magnificently, as
Durham men always do.’
The assembly of the Troops for the battle was not an easy matter.
Long marches were entailed; the roads were strange and crowded; exact
positions on the night of 19th/20th were difficult to ascertain, and
it was not till after daybreak on July 20th that the Brigades were in
position upon the base of departure. Briefly, the River Ardre formed the
dividing-line between Divisions, with the 62nd (West Riding) on the right
and the 51st (Highland) on the left.[127] The two Divisional Headquarters
remained together throughout the operations, an arrangement which
they found of incalculable value. On July 31st, we may note, Generals
Braithwaite and Carter-Campbell exchanged letters, expressing in the most
cordial terms the pleasure each Division had derived from serving side by
side with the other.
A start was made on the right at 8 a.m. on July 20th, under an artillery
barrage, the leading Brigades being the 187th (right) and 185th (left),
with the 186th in Divisional Reserve, to leap-frog and capture the second
objective. As may be judged from the nature of the country and the
advantages offered to its defenders, progress was slow and casualties
were heavy, and the deadly nests of German machine-gunners proved very
stubborn to rout out. Now in one part and now in another, the combined
advance was temporarily held up; small groups went too far forward;
detachments tried to work a way round; till, through the standing grain
or wooded undergrowth, little streams of prisoners trickled out, vocal
witnesses to the prowess of the attackers. It was obvious at the end
of the first day that a part of the Bois de Reims between Courmas and
Cuitron, especially a strong point located on a timbered spur south-west
of the Bois du Petit Champ, would have to be thoroughly cleared before
the operations could be successful, and at 10-30 on July 21st, the 187th
Brigade was detailed for this work. As one result of this day’s heavy
fighting, in which the 9th Durham Light Infantry and the 2/4th York
and Lancs. may particularly be mentioned, the 103rd and 123rd German
Divisions had to be completely withdrawn, and replaced by Regiments of
the 50th German Division. Thus, the 62nd had fought two enemy Divisions
out of the field.
On July 22nd, the capture and clearance of the obstructive Bois du Petit
Champ was entrusted to the 186th Brigade (Brig.-General Burnett), and
was successfully carried out with great dash and initiative by the 5th
Duke of Wellington’s. Initiative, indeed, was the key to a very trying
and tricky situation. The undergrowth in places was found to be as thick
as in a tropical jungle, and machine-gun crews hidden in the thickets
had evidently been trained to fire in the direction of sound. It was
necessary to attack at close range, with casualties increasing as the
range shortened. Two companies of the 5th Devons arrived to reinforce
their Yorkshire comrades, and to assist in capturing a strong point of
eight machine-guns and their garrison. It was a very gallant little
enterprise, in which the front company of the Left Column was surrounded
after hard hand-to-hand fighting, and its position rendered untenable
by the superior numbers of the enemy. Captain Cockhill, M.C., cleverly
withdrew his few remaining men, and two Officers and six other ranks
fought their way out to the posts of the rear company. By nightfall, the
whole of the area was cleared, with the exception of a strong pocket
of the enemy situated in the centre of the wood, and very difficult to
locate, who were captured next day; and this example of a single, small
action in a tight corner of a wood, down south of the long front line,
serves to show with what gallantry and courage the invader was driven out
of France.
The prisoners’ bag of July 22nd was two Officers and two hundred and six
other ranks of the 53rd Infantry Regiment, 50th German Division, together
with forty-one machine-guns. On the 23rd, the clearance of the Bois
enabled progress to be made all along the northern front of the Ardre,
and eight French 75 m.m. guns, recaptured from the enemy, were included
in an excellent day’s haul.
Passing over the intervening period, with its daily tale of prisoners and
gains, though accompanied by very heavy losses, we come to July 28th,
when the 8th West Yorkshire Regiment, supported by the 5th Devons, made a
particularly brilliant assault on the Montagne de Bligny, north-west of
the Bois de Reims. They started at 4 o’clock in the morning, and, aided
by the half-light of a late July dawn, succeeded in reaching the foot of
the steep slopes of the mountain before they attracted hostile fire. This
surprise, combined with the dash displayed by the assaulting Troops, who,
in spite of serious casualties, succeeded in rushing the hill, resulted
in the capture of a position of great tactical importance.
How important, in the opinion of the best judges, may be gathered from
the following extract from the Minutes of the West Riding Territorial
Force Association, held at York on October 28th, 1918:
‘MAJOR CHADWICK asked if any information could be given as to
whether the French Government had awarded the _Croix de Guerre_
to the 8th Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment (Leeds Rifles).
‘LORD HAREWOOD replied: The _Croix de Guerre_ has been offered
to the Battalion of the Leeds Rifles referred to, but whether
or not the War Office will allow the Battalion to accept it I
do not know.’
The Fifth French Army Commander’s Order on the subject, dated October
16th, was worded as follows:
‘Le 8th Bataillon du West Yorkshire Rgt.
‘Bataillon d’élite; sous le commandement énergique du
Lieutenant-Colonel Norman Ayrton, England, a participé
brillamment aux durs combats du 20 au 30 Juillet, qui ont valu
la conquête de la Vallée de l’Ardre. Le 23 Juillet, 1918, après
s’être frayé un chemin dans les fourres épais du Bois du Petit
Champ, s’est emparé d’une position importante malgré un feu
nourri des mitrailleuses ennemies. Le 28 Juillet, 1918, dans
un brio magnifique, a enlevé la Montagne de Bligny, fortement
défendue des forces ennemies supérieures en nombre, s’y est
maintenu malgré les pertes subies, et les efforts désespérés de
l’adversaire pour reprendre la position.’
It was a great and almost a unique compliment; and, as we shall presently
see, the 8th West Yorkshires enjoyed at a later date another striking
opportunity of proving their gallantry in action.
July 29th, to return to our recital, was a comparatively quiet day.
On the 30th, the 2/5th West Yorks. successfully carried out a small
attack to complete the capture of the Mount Bligny, and, meanwhile, the
remaining Troops of both Divisions had reached their final objectives.
We subjoin the official account of these ten days’ ‘continuous fighting
of a most difficult and trying nature. Throughout this period,’ runs
the statement, ‘steady progress was made, in the face of vigorous and
determined resistance. Marfaux was taken on the 23rd July, and on the
28th July British Troops retook the Montagne de Bligny, which other
British Troops had defended with so much gallantry and success two months
previously. In these operations, throughout which French Artillery and
Tanks rendered invaluable assistance, the 51st and 62nd Divisions took
one thousand two hundred prisoners from seven different German Divisions,
and successfully completed an advance of over four miles.’[128] The total
casualties for the period in the 62nd Division alone amounted to 4,126:
Killed. Wounded. Missing.
Officers 28 108 10
Other Ranks 521 3,063 406
Apart from the victory which was gained, the whole operation, as shown
above, afforded very useful lessons in the new conditions of warfare,
and it was utilized to the full in this sense. Particular attention
may, perhaps, be drawn to the experiment of Machine-Gun Battalions,
which was found to have more than justified the change of system. The
M.G. Battalion of the 62nd Division had now fought in two battles: in a
defensive battle in the previous March, and now in an offensive battle on
the Marne, and the improvement in the Machine-Gun service was estimated
at sixty per cent. at least. Partly, its success might be ascribed to the
fact that the Commanding Officer of the Battalion was not selected for
expert gunnery, but was a good Infantry Officer, with an eye for country,
a knowledge of tactics, and a power of command.
But where all units and Commanders did so well, it is invidious to
select one Arm. We may more fitly close this section of the Second Battle
of the Marne with some extracts from the congratulatory messages earned
by General Braithwaite’s Division. There was, of course, the new fact of
a close _liaison_ between British and French Troops, which caused more
than common punctiliousness in the preparation and dispatch of these
epistles; but the tone is exceptionally cordial, the sentiments are
extraordinarily sincere, and the praises were very thoroughly deserved.
General Bertholot, Commanding the Fifth French Army, published an Order
of the Day, dated July 30th, of which the following is a translation:
‘Now that the XXIInd British Corps has received orders to
leave the Fifth Army, the Army Commander expresses to all the
thanks and admiration which its great deeds, just accomplished,
deserve.
‘On the very day of its arrival, the XXIInd Corps, feeling in
honour bound to take part in the victorious counter-attack,
which had just stopped the enemy’s furious onslaught on the
Marne, and which had begun to hurl him back in disorder towards
the north, by forced marches and with minimum opportunity for
reconnaissance, threw itself with ardour into the battle.
‘By constant efforts, by harrying and driving back the enemy
for ten successive days, it has made itself master of the
Valley of the Ardre, which it has so freely watered with its
blood.
‘Thanks to the heroic courage and proverbial tenacity of the
British, the continued efforts of this brave Army Corps have
not been in vain.
‘Twenty-one Officers and more than one thousand three hundred
other ranks taken prisoners, one hundred and forty machine-guns
and forty guns captured from an enemy, four of whose Divisions
were successively broken and repulsed; the upper Valley of the
Ardre, with its surrounding heights to the north and south
reconquered; such is the record of the British share in the
operations of the Fifth Army.
‘Highlanders, under the Command of General Carter-Campbell,
Commanding the 51st Division; Yorkshire lads, under the
Command of General Braithwaite, Commanding the 62nd Division;
Australian and New Zealand Mounted Troops; all Officers and men
of the XXIInd Army Corps, so brilliantly commanded by General
Sir A. Godley—you have added a glorious page to your history.
‘Marfaux, Chaumuzy, Montagne de Bligny—these famous names may
be inscribed in letters of gold in the annals of your Regiments.
‘Your French comrades will always remember with emotion your
splendid valour and perfect fellowship as fighters.’
It was well and generously said.
The XXIInd Corps Commander specially conveyed through Major-General
Braithwaite his high appreciation of the Divisional Artillery: ‘The
way in which Batteries worked with Battalions, and Brigades with
Brigades of Infantry, in open warfare, must have been a source of
enormous satisfaction to all Officers, Non-Commissioned Officers and
men, and the way in which it was done is worthy of the best traditions
of the Royal Regiment.’ Other letters and orders were published, and the
memory of the Marne was added to that of Bucquoy, Cambrai and Havrincourt
in the tradition of the 62nd Division.
II.—THE FINAL OFFENSIVE.
Events moved quickly from this date, more quickly, indeed, than they
were divined except in the swift mind of the great Marshal, and more
quickly than they can be conveniently followed in a day-to-day narrative
of two Divisions. The greatest battle in all history was planned, and
fought, and won, between August 8th and September 9th, 1918, the period
described by Sir Douglas Haig as ‘the opening of the final British
offensive.’ It is the word ‘final’ which signifies. So definite, in
fact, was the issue, that Ludendorff described August 8th as ‘the black
day of the German Army in the history of this war,’ and proffered his
resignation a few days later. This was not accepted at the time, but at a
Council held on August 14th he expounded the situation to the Kaiser and
to the ruling German statesmen, with the result that Prince Max of Baden
was subsequently appointed Imperial Chancellor with a view to paving
the road to peace. These developments, not quite obscurely hinted at in
a Note issued by Sir Douglas Haig on the eve of the Battle of Bapaume
(August 21st to September 1st), must inevitably dominate our review
of the ‘great series of battles, in which, throughout three months of
continuous fighting, the British Armies advanced without a check from
one victory to another.’[129] The autumn fighting of 1918 differed from
that of previous years, in that there was no fifth winter to the war.
We have not to follow our Divisions over the top of their trenches, and
back again, when the weather failed, into the monotony of trench life.
They did not fully know that they were fighting the last battles: it
would be difficult to fix the exact date when this was revealed even to
Marshal Foch and Sir Douglas Haig. They did not welcome the Armistice
with the joy with which it was acclaimed in London: ‘the news of the
cessation of hostilities was received by the fighting Troops,’ writes
an Officer of the 62nd Division who was ‘in at the kill,’ ‘without any
of the manifestations of excitement that marked the occasion at home’;
it was just an incident of the day’s work, and a sign that the work had
been done well. But an effect of increasing speed, of the accelerated
progress of Titanic forces, directed irresistibly to one end, cannot
but be felt during this period. Amiens was disengaged after August 8th,
partly by a brilliant feint in Flanders, which deceived even the King
of the Belgians. Thiepval Ridge, with its graves of 1916, Pozières,
Martinpuich, Mory (by the 62nd Division) were re-taken in the fourth
week of August, and on August 29th Bapaume fell. On September 1st, the
Australians took Péronne, and Bullecourt and Hendecourt fell the same
day. Meanwhile, the Channel ports were safe at last, for the enemy had no
Troops with which to threaten them, and he partly withdrew and was partly
driven from the Lys salient. Merville, Bailleul, Neuve Église, Kemmel
Hill, Hill 63: all the tragic places of the previous spring were once
more in rightful hands in September. There followed the Battle of the
Scarpe, and the storming of the Drocourt-Quéant Line, by the results of
which, on the British front, in the centre, we were brought right in face
of the main German defences known as the Hindenburg Line. The question
was, whether to attack it now or later. On September 9th, Sir Douglas
Haig had been in London, and had indicated that the end might be near. He
wrote, after weighing all the chances: ‘I was convinced that the British
attack was the essential part of the general scheme, and that the moment
was favourable. Accordingly, I decided to proceed with the attack, and
all preparatory measures were carried out as rapidly and as thoroughly as
possible.’[130] A great month, and a grand decision.
So, we return at this point to the services of the Troops from the West
Riding, and shall fit them in to the concluding battles, where they
occurred.
At the end of August (25th to 27th), the 62nd Division drove the Germans
out of Mory, situated in country which they knew, about four miles north
of Bapaume. Excellent work there was achieved, among other units, by the
2/4th and 5th King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry and by the 2/4th York
and Lancs. ‘D’ Company Commander in that Battalion led a charge against
a nasty position in an awkward little hold-up, and personally accounted
for the machine-gun team with his revolver. Many prisoners, including a
Battalion Commander, were captured by the Division in these three days.
There was still hard fighting for the Division before it was withdrawn
for a few days’ rest, and the height of efficiency it had reached
may fitly be judged by a single instance, extracted from the _London
Gazette_, December 26th, 1918. Therein is recorded the award of the
coveted Victoria Cross to Sec.-Lieut. James Palmer Huffam, of the
5th (attached, 2nd) West Riding Regiment (T.F.), in the following
circumstances:
‘For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty on August
31st, 1918.
‘With three men he rushed an enemy machine-gun post, and put
it out of action. His post was then heavily attacked, and he
withdrew fighting, carrying back a wounded comrade. Again,
on the night of August 31st, 1918, at St. Servin’s Farm,
accompanied by two men only, he rushed an enemy machine-gun,
capturing eight prisoners and enabling the advance to continue.
Throughout the whole of the fighting from August 29th to
September 1st, 1918, he showed the utmost gallantry.’
Meanwhile, on August 27th, Major-General Walter Braithwaite was appointed
to the Command of the IXth Corps, with the rank of Lieutenant-General,
when a Knight Commandership of the Bath was conferred upon him in
recognition of his services with the 62nd. It will be recalled that
he succeeded Sir James Trotter in Command of the 62nd Division in
December, 1915.[131] He took the Division over to France, and led it with
conspicuous gallantry till the very eve of its final bout of victory.
His affection for his brave ‘Yorkshire lads’ was fully reciprocated by
his subordinate Officers, Non-Commissioned Officers and men, who were
all sensible of the constant care and fine, soldierly qualities of
their Commander. Sir Walter Braithwaite has taken every opportunity, in
subsequent meetings with, or references to, the Division, to testify
to his pride and pleasure in that office: ‘I look back,’ he wrote to
the Secretary of the West Riding Association (November 3rd, 1918),
‘on the time spent in Command of that heroic Division as one of the
proudest terms of years in my life.... I don’t think I can be accused
of partiality in saying that there is no Division in the B.E.F. with a
prouder record of continued success than the 62nd.’ He was succeeded now
by Major-General Sir R. D. Whigham, K.C.B., D.S.O., who took over at a
most responsible time and who saw the war out and the peace in.
The grand decision referred to above, and concerted early in September
between Marshal Foch and Sir Douglas Haig, found the Division in the
Gomiecourt area, where they had been withdrawn on September 3rd, in order
to rest and train. On the 8th, Lieut.-General Sir J. A. L. Haldane,
Commanding the VIth Corps in the Third Army (General Sir Julian Byng),
called on Major-General Whigham to explain the part to be taken by the
62nd in the impending operations. It was to attack and capture the
village of Havrincourt, and ‘Z’ day was subsequently appointed for
September 12th. We may recall from page 150 above, the first capture of
Havrincourt by this Division on November, 1917. We may recall, too, how
on September 9th, 1919, almost on the anniversary of its second capture,
it was announced at a Divisional Dinner that a Memorial to the Division
was to be erected in Havrincourt Park. We are now to see how it was won
on the second occasion.
There was this difference between the second and the first. In the
battle of 1917, the break-through on the Cambrai front did not close with
a permanent advance. Owing partly, as we now know, to the diversion of
some Divisions to Italy, the brilliant design, so courageously supported,
could not be completely carried out. This time, there was no going back.
It was the Hindenburg Line which was to be captured, on the road from the
River Marne to the River Meuse.
[Illustration]
The Hindenburg Line, so called by our Troops, was neither Hindenburg nor
a Line. As described and pictured by great generals,[132] it consisted
of a series of defences, including many defended villages, and forming
a belt, or fortified area, varying in depth from seven to ten thousand
yards. It stretched from Lille to Metz, and among its extensions, or
switches, was the famous ‘Drocourt-Quéant Switch,’ which had held up our
advance more than once. Within this system of barriers, running through
a stratum of deep cuttings, the enemy had prepared elaborate dug-outs,
shelters, and gun-emplacements, all heavily fortified and wired. The
luxurious appointments of some of them, which so much astonished
beholders, need not detain us here. The importance of these extraordinary
entrenchments to their assailants in the autumn of 1918 lay, first, in
their genuine strength, to which German engineers had devoted all the
ingenuity of their craft, and, next, in the almost legendary awe with
which time and sentiment had invested them. This effect was carried out
in their native names. Working from north-west to south-east, they were
known in the German Army and behind it as Wotan, Siegfried (supported by
Herrmann), Hundung (Hagen), Brunehilde (Freya), Kriemhilde and Michel;
and we may well believe that, at the back of the front, until such time
as the front broke, German opinion was obstinately convinced that their
tutelary heroes must protect the Fatherland from invasion.
It was the task of the 62nd Division to break into this line through
Havrincourt, and, by breaking it, to shatter the illusion. For, at last,
on the Western front, we were fighting not only positions but ideas.
The operation (September 12th to 15th) proved a complete success. It
was carried out on the left by the 187th, and on the right by the
186th Infantry Brigade, with the 9th Durham Light Infantry (Pioneers)
attached to the latter as an assault Battalion. One company of the 62nd
Machine-Gun Battalion was allotted to each attacking Brigade, and eight
Brigades of Field Artillery and three Groups Heavy Artillery were in
position to support. The plan of attack entailed a change of direction
from north to east, in order to obviate the difficulties of the terrain,
and the consequent complication of the Artillery barrage had to be
very carefully worked out. In contrast to the attacks in November, no
Tanks were employed in this action, but it bore in another respect a
superficial resemblance to the First Battle of Havrincourt, insomuch as
the first day’s work ‘could not have been bettered, but again there was
to be a second chapter, a chapter of hard fighting, in very difficult
circumstances, fought to the end, and crowned with success.’ We shall not
follow it in detail, save to note that, an hour after Zero (5-30 a.m.) on
September 12th, ‘large batches of prisoners were coming back,’ and that
four Officers and eighty men of these had been captured at a strong point
which ‘offered little resistance, owing to the great gallantry of Sergt.
Laurence Calvert,[133] of the 5th King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry.’
His great gallantry won the Victoria Cross, in circumstances officially
described as follows:
‘For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty in attack,
when the success of the operation was rendered doubtful owing
to severe enfilade machine-gun fire. Alone and single-handed,
Sergt. Calvert, rushing forward against the machine-gun team,
bayoneted three and shot four. His valour and determination in
capturing single-handed two machine-guns and killing the crews
therefore enabled the ultimate object to be won. His personal
gallantry inspired all ranks.’
All ranks were inspired to good purpose; or, more precisely, the
inspiration of all ranks found its typical expression in the brave act
of this gallant N.C.O. The Division’s team-work, now as always, was
exemplary; and, whether judged by casualties or captures,[134] the result
of the Second Battle of Havrincourt was a great triumph for General
Whigham in his new Command.
For Havrincourt looked to the east. It looked through the intricate
defences, in which the German people still believed, to Cambrai and St.
Quentin, and beyond. Thus it formed one of those ‘formidable positions,’
which, as Sir Douglas Haig wrote, ‘had to be taken before a final attack
on the Hindenburg Line could be undertaken.’ By its capture, and that of
others, ‘our line advanced to within assaulting distance of the enemy’s
main line of resistance.’[135] And General Whigham, in a letter of
October 9th, addressed to the Secretary of the Association at York, said,
in almost identic terms: ‘On September 12th, the Division was called upon
to repeat its former feat of capturing the village of Havrincourt. This
village stands on very commanding ground, and formed a most formidable
position in the Hindenburg front line. Its capture was essential to the
development of the great offensive south of Cambrai, in which we have
latterly been engaged.... Without the possession of Havrincourt, the
grand attack of September 27th could not have been successfully launched.’
So, we come to that ‘grand attack,’ in which, as the General went on to
say, ‘the Division has once more added fresh lustre to its fame.’ On this
occasion they were engaged to the south of the scenes of their exploit in
November. Graincourt now fell to the 63rd Division, Anneux to the 57th,
Bourlon and Bourlon Wood to the 4th and 3rd Canadian Divisions. The 3rd
Division moved forward with the Guards, forcing the crossings of the
Canal, by capturing Ribécourt and Flesquières (the objective of the 51st
in the previous November). To the 62nd was allotted the task of following
up the attack, and of securing the crossings of the Canal at Marcoing.
Once more, we have the high privilege of illustrating the nature of the
operations by a single typical example of the spirit which animated all
ranks. The _London Gazette_ of December 14th, 1918, announced the award
of the Victoria Cross to Private Henry Tandey, D.C.M., M.M., of the 5th
Duke of Wellington’s, in the following circumstances:
‘For most conspicuous bravery and initiative during the
capture of the village and the crossings at Marcoing, and the
subsequent counter-attack on September 28th, 1918.
‘When, during the advance on Marcoing, his platoon was held up
by machine-gun fire, he at once crawled forward, located the
machine-gun, and, with a Lewis gun team, knocked it out.
‘On arrival at the crossings he restored the plank bridge under
a hail of bullets, thus enabling the first crossing to be made
at this vital spot.
‘Later in the evening, during an attack, he, with eight
comrades, was surrounded by an overwhelming number of Germans,
and, though the position was apparently hopeless, he led
a bayonet charge through them, fighting so fiercely that
thirty-seven of the enemy were driven into the hands of the
remainder of his company.
‘Although twice wounded, he refused to leave till the fight was
won.’
No defences made by man, certainly none made by German, could withstand
courage of this kind.
In a Special Order of the Day, issued on October 1st, by Major-General
Sir R. Whigham, Commanding the 62nd Division, he addressed his gallant
Troops as follows:
‘The capture of Havrincourt on 12th September was essential to
the success of the operations south of Cambrai, in which the
62nd Division has been engaged during the last four days.
‘As a sequel to that brilliant achievement, the Division has
now captured Marcoing, Masnières, and the high ground north
of Crèvecoeur, thus establishing a bridgehead over the Canal
de St. Quentin, which is vital to the further successful
prosecution of the campaign.
‘The Field Marshal Commanding-in-Chief visited Divisional
Headquarters to-day, and desired me to convey to all ranks of
the Division his congratulations and high appreciation of their
splendid courage and endurance.
‘For myself, I give you all my warmest thanks for the unfailing
cheerfulness with which you have carried out the most arduous
tasks, often in conditions of great hardship and discomfort.
‘It will ever be to me a pride to have commanded so magnificent
a Division.’
Yet one more word about Marcoing. On an earlier page we remarked that
we should have occasion to come back to the 8th Battalion of the West
Yorkshire Regiment, the _Bataillon d’élite_ of a French Army Order. This
occasion occurred on September 27th, when two companies of that Battalion
earned from the VIth Corps Commander (Lieut.-General Sir A. Haldane)
the following striking encomium, dispatched through the 62nd Divisional
Commander:
‘Please convey to the survivors of the two companies 8th
West Yorkshire Regiment my high appreciation and admiration
of their initiative, dash and gallantry in pushing up to the
outskirts of Marcoing yesterday [September 27th], in spite
of all obstacles. It is by resolution and bravery such as
they displayed that great victories have been won in the past
history of the British Army.
‘I heartily congratulate the whole Battalion, yourself, and
your splendid Division on the inspiring incident in front of
Marcoing.’
Major-General Whigham, in publishing this letter, for the information
of all ranks of the Division, showed how well the action of the two
Companies illustrated the principle of pressing an advantage, whenever
gained.
‘The great and critical assaults, in which, during these nine
days of battle [September 27th to October 5th], the First,
Third and Fourth Armies stormed the line of the Canal du Nord
and broke through the Hindenburg Line, mark the close of the
first phase of the British offensive. The enemy’s defence in
the last and strongest of his prepared positions had been
shattered. The whole of the main Hindenburg defences has passed
into our possession, and a wide gap had been driven through
such rear trench systems as had existed behind them. The effect
of the victory upon the subsequent course of the campaign was
decisive.’[136]
So far, Sir Douglas Haig, with his usual modesty and brevity. In
Flanders now, King Albert of the Belgians, leading his nation at last
in victory, as he had led it so gallantly in defeat, entered Ostend
on October 16th. The Second Battle of Le Cateau in the previous week
had driven the last German out of Cambrai; and about this date, as Sir
Frederick Maurice writes, ‘The revulsion of feeling and the collapse of
confidence were such that no enthusiasm could be aroused for a war of
endurance in defence of the Fatherland. Even in an autocratic country it
is not possible to deceive all the people all the time, and the German
people knew in October, 1918, that the victory which had been promised to
them could never be obtained.’[137]
[Illustration: RHONELLE RIVER CROSSING (Nov. 1st. 1918).]
In these circumstances, the battles still ahead, in which the Divisions
from the West Riding were to take part, need not detain us long. The
49th were engaged in October (11th to 17th) at Villers-en-Cauchie and
Saulzoir, on the road running eastward out of Cambrai between Douai and
Le Cateau. They fought with all their accustomed gallantry, especially
in the capture of Saulzoir, which was defended by Machine-Guns and
Tanks. When the obstinate resistance had been overcome, an Officer of
the 1/6th Duke of Wellington’s found the houses full of civilians, who
had taken refuge in their cellars, and who welcomed the arrival of the
British Troops with offerings of cognac and coffee. The Division fought
again below Valenciennes on November 1st and 2nd, and, with the 5th and
61st Divisions, crossed the Rhonelle River and captured the villages
of Préseau and Maresches. Lieut.-General Sir A. Godley, Commanding the
XXIInd Corps, conveyed to Major-General Cameron the expression of his
appreciation of these exploits in the following complimentary terms:
‘I wish to heartily congratulate you and your Division on the
successful capture of all your objectives and the heavy losses
inflicted on the enemy as the result of your two days’ hard and
gallant fighting.
‘All three Infantry Brigades, your Artillery, and Engineers,
have added another page to the distinguished record of the
Division.’
The 62nd Division, on October 19th and 20th, had the task of capturing
Solesmes, and of driving the enemy from the line east of the River
Selle, to which he had retired a few days before, partly as a result
of the operations in which the 49th had borne themselves so gallantly.
This further assault on the German positions, directed ultimately at Le
Quesnoy, was to be a surprise, without preliminary bombardment. It was
carried out ‘according to plan,’ with very conspicuous success. Twelve
Officers and six hundred and eighty-seven other ranks, seventy-one
machine-guns, thirteen trench mortars and five guns were captured at the
cost of a casualty list of fifty-seven other ranks killed, ten Officers
and three hundred and seventy other ranks wounded. The River Selle was
crossed by wading, the water being in many places waist-high. The ground
to be traversed proved difficult, with dense hedges and barbed-wire
fencing, and in Solesmes itself the street-fighting was serious and
severe. But the fine leadership of Platoon Commanders and the excellent
spirit of the men carried all obstacles before them; and, once more,
and now for the last time, we have the advantage of illustrating these
qualities by an extract from the _London Gazette_ (January 6th, 1919),
announcing the award of the supreme decoration of the Victoria Cross to
Corpl. (A/Sergt.) John Brunton Daykins, of the 2/4th York and Lancaster
Regiment, 187th Infantry Brigade, 62nd Division, in the following
circumstances:
‘For conspicuous bravery and initiative at Solesmes on October
20th, 1918, when, with twelve remaining men of his Platoon, he
worked his way most skilfully, in face of heavy opposition,
towards the Church. By prompt action, he enabled his party to
rush a machine-gun, and during subsequent severe hand-to-hand
fighting he himself disposed of many of the enemy,[138]
and secured his objective; his party, in addition to heavy
casualties inflicted, taking thirty prisoners.
‘He then located another machine-gun, which was holding up
a portion of his Company. Under heavy fire he worked his
way alone to the post, and shortly afterwards returned with
twenty-five prisoners, and an enemy machine-gun, which he
mounted at his post.
‘His magnificent fighting spirit and example inspired his men,
saved many casualties, and contributed very largely to the
success of the attack.’
[Illustration: Douai. The Belfry]
The war’s end on November 11th at 11 o’clock in the morning found the
bulk of the 49th Division resting on its well-earned laurels in the
neighbourhood of Douai. The Gunners, the Royal Engineers and the Pioneer
Battalion went forward in the final stages of the advance, and the
Artillery had the distinction of finishing at a point further east than
any other Divisional Artillery engaged. The 62nd Division ended in the
Valley of the Sambre. If we draw an irregular quadrilateral, dipping a
bit on the southern side, with its north-west angle at Valenciennes, its
south-west at Le Quesnoy, and its north-east and south-east angles at
Mons and Maubeuge respectively, we shall be able to prick in the places
of the Division’s stout advance between November 4th and 11th (Orsinval,
Frasnoy, Obies, Hautmont, Louvroil: it is at this end that the line dips
towards Avesnes), by the help of which, as Sir Douglas Haig wrote: ‘On
the 9th November the enemy was in general retreat on the whole front of
the British Armies. The fortress of Maubeuge was entered by the Guards
Division, and the 62nd Division (Major-General Sir R. D. Whigham), while
the Canadians were approaching Mons.’[139]
[Illustration]
And Mons, as we know, is the last word of the war on the Western front.
On November 18th, 1918, the 62nd Division started to march to Germany,
where it formed part of the British Army of Occupation in the Rhine
Province of the Kingdom of Prussia. As a Division of the IXth Corps of
the Second Army, it had the luck to come under the command of its former
Divisional Commander, Lieut.-General Sir W. P. Braithwaite, K.C.B., then
commanding that Corps, who, accordingly, saw the Pelican at last put down
his foot on German soil.
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTES
[1] This includes the 2nd and 3rd Lines. The last had recently
been authorized for formation at, approximately, two-thirds of War
Establishment. The Peace Establishment of the West Riding T.F. had been
fixed for one Line only.
[2] Introduction to _The Territorial Force_, by Harold Baker, M.A.:
London, Murray, 1909.
[3] See Appendix I.
[4] The first Meeting of its Executive Committee was held on October
12th, 1908.
[5] This letter was published in the Press on February 28th, 1913.
[6] It is worth noting that the cost of the recommendations (including
extra allowances to officers, efficiency bounties to other ranks,
separation allowances during annual camp, insurance concessions,
employers’ income-tax abatement, grant for boots, shirts and socks, but
excluding the proposed grant for amenities) was estimated at £2,300,000
per annum.
[7] Lieut.-Gen. Sir E. C. Bethune, K.C.B., of ‘Bethune’s Horse’; General
Cowan’s successor as Director-General of the Territorial Force at the War
Office, 1912-17, when he was succeeded by Lord Scarbrough.
[8] See page 3.
[9] _Ibid._
[10] Later, Colonel, and first Hon. Colonel of the Battalion.
[11] These Colours were deposited in All Souls’ Church, Halifax, on April
3rd, 1910.
[12] Brig.-General Archibald John Arnold Wright, C.B., appointed April,
1908. This officer had served in Bengal, 1883-88, as D.A.A.G. (Musketry),
and in the Chitral Relief Force, 1895. He was awarded the C.B. after the
South African Campaign (Queen’s Medal, 3 clasps; King’s Medal, 2 clasps),
and subsequent to his retirement in 1910, was recalled to service,
November, 1914, as Brig.-General Commanding the 90th Infantry Brigade.
[13] Circular Memorandum, No. 131 of 14-1-1910; 9/Gen. No. 1700 (C. 3).
[14] Lieut.-General Sir George Mackworth Bullock, K.C.B., of the
Devonshire Regiment. After distinguished service in India, he commanded
the 2nd Devons in the South African Campaign, and was Major-General
Commanding in Egypt, 1905-8. He was created C.B. in 1900, and K.C.B. in
1911, in the September of which year he relinquished the West Riding
Command.
[15] Major Symonds was only able to hold the appointment for a few
months. Thereafter, General Mends resumed it again, and carried on with
conspicuous success till August, 1914.
[16] Major-General Thomas Stanford Baldock, C.B. The General had served
in South Africa, where he was awarded the King’s Medal with two clasps,
and when he was created C.B. His honourable record in France, 1914-15,
will appear in a later chapter of this book.
[17] See page 14, note 1. The official Memorandum quoted in the text is
dated October 31st, 1916.
[18] See page 18.
[19] To whom I am immensely indebted for the continuous archives of the
Unit from 1859 to 1914. They were kept till 1910 by the late Major J. B.
Howard, from whom Major Chambers took over the labour of love.
[20] Invalided home in November, 1916. About 47,000 patients passed
through the C.C. Station during Col. Wear’s two years’ command. The
C.M.G. was awarded to this Officer in June, 1915, when the Military Cross
was conferred on his Quartermaster.
[21] Constable and Co., 1918.
[22] ‘We must grasp the trident in our fist’ said Kaiser Wilhelm II. at
Cologne in 1897. The British Army occupied Cologne in 1918.
[23] Col. Sir T. Pilkington was given Command of a Regular Battalion at
the end of 1914, since when Col. Husband took sole charge of this branch.
[24] The Administrative Centres were independent of the Establishments of
the three Lines. They were commanded by an Officer not below Captain’s
rank, and were charged with the duty of recruiting and of clothing all
recruits prior to passing them to their units, and had charge of the
Headquarters and Stores.
[25] By authority of a War Office Letter from the Adjutant-General’s
branch (No. 40/W.O./2481) of May 7th, 1915, published in IV. Army
Corps Routine Order, No. 609, on May 16th. No change was made in the
designation of the Artillery, Engineers and Medical units, but the number
of the Division instead of the Territorial designation was attached
to the Divisional Cyclist Company, Ammunition Column and Park, Signal
Company, Supply Column, Train, and Sanitary Section.
[26] The General Officer Commanding the 62nd Division from February,
1915, to May, 1916, was Major-General Sir James Trotter, K.C.B. He had
served in Bechuanaland and South Africa (Queen’s Medal with two clasps,
and C.B.), and was appointed C.M.G. in 1897, and K.C.B. in 1912.
[27] Field-Marshal Viscount French of Ypres (created 1915), O.M., K.P.,
etc., Commander-in-Chief of the Expeditionary Forces in France, 1914-15.
[28] See page 3.
[29] On one occasion a scouring of latrines with a solution of chloride
of lime caused a rumour of the arrival of poison-gas.
[30] By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
[31] John Buchan, _Nelson’s History of the War_, Vol. vii., p. 93.
[32] Its numerical designation was not published in Corps Orders till the
following week (see page 40), but it is more convenient for use.
[33] The 146th Brigade was between the 7th and 8th Divisions, on the
right of the rest of the 49th. ‘We were holding the line pretty thin. My
own Company,’ writes an Officer of the Brigade, ‘had 650 yards of front
line trench.... Thus, you will see we did take part in the battle of May
9th, although we did not go over the top.’
[34] By John Masefield. Heinemann, 1916.
[35] General Edward Maxwell Perceval, of the R.F.A., served in India,
Burmah, and South Africa, where he was awarded the Queen’s and King’s
Medals (with 5 clasps) and won his D.S.O. He went to France, 1914,
Commanding R.A., 2nd Division, and was promoted Major-General and
appointed C.B. in the following year. He was acting as Sub-Chief of the
Staff at General Headquarters when the accident to Maj.-Gen. Baldock
gave him his appointment to the 49th Division, which he commanded till
October, 1917.
[36] One word about the field telephone will be in place. The whole
countryside behind the British line was a network of telephone wires at
this time; ‘one keeps tripping over them everywhere,’ it was said, and
there were probably 30 to 50 miles of wire to a single Artillery Brigade.
[37] So called, because they were on you and exploded before you heard
the report. As to ‘heavies,’ a visitor to the lines in September, 1915,
wrote: ‘Guns, particularly big Guns and Howitzers, are going to win this
war, not rifles.... I was shown a most interesting map giving all the
German gun positions discovered by our aeroplanes.... Ours were shown,
too, and they outnumber us by about three to one.’
[38] Including Colonel E. O. Wright, A.D.M.S., killed while organizing
Ambulance traffic under heavy fire with his habitual gallantry.
[39] Sixteen men at a time were stripped, and given three minutes each
under a hot shower-bath, their underclothing changed, and their uniform
cleaned and fumigated.
[40] Wooden grids laid down like duck-boards to obviate the wet and
slipperiness of the trenches.
[41] See page 14, above.
[42] _The Territorial Force_, by Harold Baker (John Murray), page 246.
[43] Professor Spenser Wilkinson wrote in _The Sunday Times_, June 1st,
1919: ‘Lord Kitchener does not seem to have been aware of the existence
of an organization—the County Associations—for the purpose of raising new
troops upon a Territorial basis.’
[44] The numerical designation, 62nd Division, was affixed, as we have
seen, in August, 1915; for convenience we shall henceforward employ it by
anticipation.
[45] The official figures of the draft sent out from the 62nd to the 49th
Division from March to August, 1915, are: Officers, 116; Other Ranks,
2,778.
[46] Walter Pipon Braithwaite, served in Burmah (1886-87) and South
Africa (1899-1902; Brevet-Major, Queen’s Medal, 6 clasps; King’s Medal,
2 clasps); C.B., 1911; Major-General, 1915; K.C.B. and Lt.-General
(Commanding IXth Army Corps), 1918.
[47] It may be worth while to note that the 62nd was the first Division
to proceed to France with an equipment of steel helmets complete.
[48] Gustave Lanson.
[49] _Despatches_, page 20.
[50] He succeeded Lt.-Col. A. E. Kirk, V.D., in Command of the Battalion,
August, 1916.
[51] Brig.-General M. D. Goring-Jones, C.M.G., D.S.O., of the Durham
L.I., had succeeded Brig.-General F. A. Macfarlane, C.B., in Command of
the 146th Infantry Brigade, after a brief interregnum by Lt.-Col. Legge
(December 20th, 1915, to January 12th 1916).
[52] _Despatches_, page 21.
[53] _Ibid._
[54] _Ibid._
[55] See page 49.
[56] John Masefield. _The Old Front Line_, Heineman, 1917.
[57] It will be remembered that the Division, being in reserve, was
directly under the orders of the Corps Commander.
[58] The award to Sgt. Sanders, V.C., was notified in the _London
Gazette_ of September 9th, 1916, in the following well-merited terms:—
‘For most conspicuous bravery. After an advance into the enemy’s
trenches, he found himself isolated with a party of thirty men. He
organized his defences, detailed a bombing party, and impressed on his
men that his and their duty was to hold the position at all costs.
‘Next morning he drove off an attack by the enemy and rescued some
prisoners who had fallen into their hands. Later two strong bombing
attacks were beaten off. On the following day he was relieved after
showing the greatest courage, determination and good leadership during 36
hours under very trying conditions.
‘All this time his party was almost without food and water, having
given all their water to the wounded during the first night. After the
relieving force was firmly established he brought his party, 19 strong,
back to our trenches.’
[59] See page 62.
[60] _Despatches_, page 26. In a footnote to this passage, Sir Douglas
Haig writes: ‘In the course of this fighting, a Brigade of the 49th
Division, Major-General E. M. Perceval, made a gallant attempt to force
Thiepval from the north.’
[61] _Despatches_, pages 25, 27, 30.
[62] _Despatches_, page 51.
[63] The 1/7th West Yorkshires.
[64] _Despatches_, page 44.
[65] _Despatches_, page 53.
[66] See page 40, above.
[67] See page 7, above.
[68] Army Council Instruction, No. 1830, of September 21st, 1916;
9/V.F./128 (T.F. 2).
[69] “The configuration of the ground in the neighbourhood of the Ancre
Valley was such that every fresh advance would enfilade the enemy’s
positions, and automatically open up to the observation of our troops
some new part of his defences. Arrangements could therefore be made
for systematic and deliberate attacks to be delivered on selected
positions.”—_Despatches_, page 63.
[70] Captain Tom Goodall, D.S.O., M.C., to whom I am much indebted for
the loan of this diary, and of some documents, etc., which he was at
pains to collect and has kindly put at my disposal.
[71] Later in the year, the surgical skill of French gardeners succeeded
in some instances in joining the severed arteries of these trees.
[72] _Despatches_, page 102.
[73] _Despatches_, page 76.
[74] Nelson’s _History of the War_, Vol. XIX., page 23.
[75] _Despatches_, pages 82-83.
[76] _Despatches_, page 93.
[77] _Blackwood’s Magazine_, July, 1919. See page 131, above. The
articles have been collected in book-form since this chapter was in type.
[78] The present writer is indebted to Captain Joseph Walker for the
particulars of this gallant and desperate exploit.
[79] 58th and 62nd Divisions, Major-General H. D. Fanshawe, Commanding
the 58th Division.
[80] _Despatches_, pages 99 and 102.
[81] Competitors mounted and armed with a pick-handle dribbled the ball
100 yards, then round a post and back to shoot through a goal.
[82] Ride a mule and drive another (tandem) round a course through
various obstacles, finish with 100 yards down the straight.
[83] Run in heats of 16 or less. In front of each competitor, standing
dismounted in line, is a row of stones at 10 yards distance from each
other. At the word ‘go,’ mount, and bring each stone severally and drop
it into bucket.
[84] _Despatches_, pages 127, 129, 130. In a footnote to the first
passage (page 127) F.M. Earl Haig has amplified the causes which led to
the continuing of the Ypres offensive by a summary of a speech delivered
in the House of Commons (August 6th, 1919) by Major-General Sir John
Davidson, M.P.
[85] _Ibid._, page 133.
[86] See page 48, above.
[87] ‘Any port except Nieuport’ became a catchword.
[88] See page 59, above.
[89] A Special Order of October 19th contained the following message from
the retiring General Officer Commanding:
‘On giving up the Command of the Division which I have
held since July, 1915, I wish to thank all ranks for their
invariable loyal support, and to express my great admiration
for their gallant conduct and for the cheerful manner in which
they have borne the many hardships which they have had to
endure.
‘It will always be a special source of pleasure and pride to
me that I was in Command of the Division in the recent action.
Nothing could be finer that what the Division accomplished on
that occasion. The performance of the Division will remain
my chief interest in life, and I feel sure that, whenever
opportunity offers, more fine records will be added to those
already possessed.’
[90] Some revelations have been made from French documents, but in a
limited history of Territorial troops it has not appeared necessary to
discuss matters not bearing immediately on these operations.
[91] Complete lists will be found In Appendix II.
[92] See p. 136, above.
[93] _History of the War_, Nelson, Vol. XXI., page 94.
[94] Lt.-General the Hon. Sir Julian Byng, G.C.B. (1919), K.C.M.G.,
Commanding the Third Army since June, 1917, when he succeeded General
(Lord) Allenby, transferred to Palestine; created Baron Byng of Vimy,
1919.
[95] _Despatches_, pages 155, 156.
[96] Captain Lynn and 2nd Lieut. James. We mention their names _honoris
causa_. They were the first men in the enemy’s trenches that morning.
[97] We may note here that the ascertained casualties in the Territorial
Troops of the West Riding up to December 31st, 1917, amounted to 44,049
all Ranks, included 406 Officers and 5,242 other Ranks killed.
[98] Details as complete as is practicable will be found in Appendix II.
Here we select for mention a few particulars from the Divisional lists,
completed to January, 1918. In the West Yorkshires, 62nd Division, for
example, there were 19 awards to the 2/5th, 33 to the 2/6th, 30 to the
2/7th, and 28 to the 2/8th, headed in each instance by a D.S.O. (or a
Bar to his D.S.O.) for the O.C. the Battalion. The four Battalions of
the West Ridings in the 62nd carried off over 110 awards, including Col.
Best’s (killed) Bar to his D.S.O., three D.S.O.’s, and six M.C.’s. These
items are typical of the Division.
[99] _The British Campaign in France and Flanders: January to July,
1918._ Hodder and Stoughton, 1919.
[100] _The Last Four Months: The End of the War in the West._ Cassell,
1919.
[101] _Despatches_, page 177 (July 20th, 1918).
[102] _Ibid._
[103] _Op. cit._, page 82.
[104] Sir A. Conan Doyle, _op. cit._, page 10.
[105] _The Last Four Months_, page 38.
[106] _Despatches_, page 208. The appointment of the future Marshal of
France as Generalissimo (C. in C. of the Allied Armies) was confirmed on
April 14th.
[107] See page 117, above.
[108] _Despatches_, page 206.
[109] _Op. cit._, pages 63-64.
[110] _Despatches_, page 208.
[111] _Ibid._, page 212.
[112] _Despatches_, page 218.
[113] _Ibid_, page 220.
[114] Sir A. Conan Doyle, _op. cit._, page 227.
[115] _The Last Four Months_, page 59.
[116] _Despatches_, page 229.
[117] _Despatches_, page 232.
[118] _Op. cit._, page 301.
[119] The 9th Division, after its tremendous fighting, for which it
was thanked by both Army Commanders, was withdrawn on April 26th, when
Major-General Cameron, of the 49th, took Command of the sector.
[120] The assailants brought up an Alpine Division (among three others),
trained especially for hill fighting.
[121] _The Last Four Months_, page 52.
[122] From a Memorandum on the Yorkshire Dragoons, prepared for the
purposes of this history by Lieut.-Col. W. Mackenzie Smith, D.S.O., in
Command, 1914, of which full use has been made in the present chapter.
[123] Col. Smith relinquished his Command of the Dragoons at this
date, since in its new form it was only a Major’s Command, to Major,
afterwards, Lieut.-Col. R. Thompson, D.S.O.
[124] See Table, above.
[125] _Despatches_, pp. 254-55.
[126] _The Last Four Months_, pages 71, 97.
[127] These Divisions, it will be recalled, had fought together at
Cambrai in November, 1917. See page 148, above.
[128] _Despatches_, page 255.
[129] _Despatches_, page 257.
[130] _Ibid._, page 278.
[131] See page 74, above.
[132] See, particularly, _Despatches_, pp. 278 _ff_, and Sir F. Maurice,
_The Last Four Months_, pp. 133 _ff_.
[133] It should be observed that Sergt. L. Calvert, V.C., was enlisted in
the 1/5th K.O.Y.L.I., 49th Division. This Battalion was amalgamated in
February, 1918, with the 2nd Line unit, and became the 5th K.O.Y.L.I.,
187th Brigade, 62nd Division.
[134] The figures were: _Killed_, 8 Officers, 199 other ranks; _Wounded_,
34 Officers, 1,068 other ranks; _Missing_, 228 other ranks; _Total_, 42
Officers, 1,495 other ranks.
Captured: _Prisoners_, 18 Officers, 866 other ranks; _Field Guns_, 4;
_Trench Mortars_, 12; _Machine Guns_, 46.
[135] _Despatches_, page 276.
[136] _Despatches_, page 285.
[137] _The Last Four Months_, page 203.
[138] A Battalion record gives the number as seven.
[139] _Despatches_, page 297.
APPENDIX I.
TERRITORIAL FORCE. WEST RIDING OF YORK COUNTY ASSOCIATION.
_List of Members and Permanent Officials_: 1908 _to_ 1920.
---------------------------------------+-----------------+---------------
Name, etc. | Representation. | Period.
---------------------------------------+-----------------+---------------
Adair, Lt.-Col. T. S., M.B., | Military Member | 1912/13
T. D., 3rd W. Riding F.A. (T.F.) | |
Allen, Col. Sir C., Kt., V.D., 3rd | ” | 1908/10
W. Riding R.F.A. | |
_d_ Anderson, Lt.-Col. F. H., V.D., | ” | 1908/10
5th W. Yorks. Regt. | |
_d_ Armytage, Sir G., Bt., D.L. | Co-opted Member | 1908/13
Atkinson, Lt.-Col. H. S., 4th W. | Military Member | 1912/15
Riding Regt. | |
Bateman, Lt.-Col. C. M., D.S.O., | ” | 1919 to
6th W. Riding Regt. | | present date
Beadon, Lt.-Col. F. W., V.D., | ” | 1908/10
late 7th V.B. W. Riding Regt. | |
Bewicke-Copley, Brig.-Gen. Sir R. | Co-opted Member | 1914 to
C. A. B., K.B.E., C.B. | | present date
| Vice-Chairman | 1914 to
| | present date
_d_ Bingham, Col. Sir J. E., Bt., V.D. | Military Member | 1908/15
Bingham, Lt.-Col. Sir A. E., V.D., | ” | 1908/15
W. Riding Div. R.E. | |
Birch, Col. de B., C.B., M.D., | ” | 1908/12
V.D., Admin. Med. Off. W.R. Div. | |
Birkbeck, Lt.-Col. J. T. F. Res. | ” | 1913/15
| ” | 1918/19
Blakey, J., Esq. | County Borough | 1918 to
| | present date
_d_ Bodington, Sir N., Kt., LL.D. | University | 1908/11
(Leeds) | |
Bottomley, Lt.-Col. R. A. A., | Military Member | 1908/10
6th W. Yorks. Regt. | |
Bousfield, Lt.-Col. H. D., C.M.G., | ” | 1919 to
D.S.O., T.D., 7th W. Yorks. Regt.| | present date
Bower, Capt. H. M., 5th W. Yorks. | ” | 1916/19
Regt. | |
_d_ Braithwaite, Major W., V.D., late | ” | 1916/17
3rd V.B. W. Yorks. Regt. | |
Boyd-Carpenter, Capt. A.B. | Asst. Secretary | 1914/15
Branson, Col. G. E., V.D., 4th | Military Member | 1908 to
York and Lancs. Regt. | | present date
Broadley, A., Esq. (Halifax) | County Borough | 1918 to
| | present date
Brook, Lt. C., Yorks. Dns. Yeomanry| Military Member | 1908/13
Brooksbank, Sir Edward, Bart., | County Council | 1918 to
J.P. | | present date
Brown, Col., J. W. H., T.D. | Military Member | 1913/15
Northern Command Tel. Cos. R.E. | Military Member | 1919 to
| | present date
Brown, Capt. and Ald. A. W., | County Borough | 1919 to
M.B.E., J.P. (Bradford) | | present date
Buckle, J., Esq. | Co-opted Member | 1908/13
Campbell, Rev. W. O. F. (Chaplain | Military Member | 1916 to
2nd Class—attd. W. R., R.G.A.) | | present date
Carr, J. R., Esq. (Dewsbury) | County Borough | 1918/19
Cass, Major C. P., T.D., 6th W. | County Council | 1915/19
Riding Regt. | |
Chadburn, Col. A. W., V.D., late | Military Member | 1908/13
W. Riding Div. R.E. | Co-opted Member | 1914 to
| | present date
Chadwick, Major G. W., T.D., late | Military Member | 1916/19
7th W. Yorks. Regt. | |
Chambers, Lt.-Col. J. C., C.B., | Military Member | 1908/15
V.D. T.F. Res. | ” | 1918/19
| Co-opted Member | 1919 to
| | present date
Chappell, A., Esq., J.P. | County Council | 1908/13
| Co-opted Member | 1914 to
| | present date
Clark, Lt.-Col., E. K., T.D., | ” | 1908/13
T.F. Reserves | Military Member | 1914/15
| ” | 1919 to
| | present date
Clayton, Lt.-Col. W. K., C.M.G., | Co-opted Member | 1911
Yorks. Mtd. Field Amb., R.A.M.C.,| Military Member | 1912/15
T.F. | |
Clegg, Sir W. E., Knt. | Vice-Chairman | 1908/15
| Co-opted Member | 1908/15
Clifford, Lt.-Col. C., C.M.G., | Military Member | 1908/15
V.D., 3rd W. Riding Bde., R.F.A. | ” | 1919 to
| | present date
Clough, Major T. C., V.D., T.F. | Co-opted Member | 1908 to
Res. | | present date
Clough, Lt.-Col. R., M.C., T.D., | Military Member | 1919 to
6th Bn. W. Yorks. Regt. | | present date
Coghlan, Col. C., C.B., V.D., D.L. | ” | 1908/10
| Co-opted Member | 1911/19
Collins, Major E. A.D., T.D., | Military Member | 1918/19
Yorks. Hrs. Yeo. | |
Connell, Bt.-Col. A. M., F.R.C.S. | ” | 1916/19
(Edin.), (late A. Medical | |
Services T.F.) | |
Copley, see under Bewicke | |
_d_ Cooke-Yarborough, C.B., Esq., | Co-opted Member | 1908-09
D.L., J.P. | |
Dalton, Major-Gen., J. C., J.P., | ” | 1913 to
Retired Pay p.s.c. (R.). | | present date
Dawson, Lt.-Col. W. S., T.D., | Military Member | 1910/19
late 4th W. Riding Bde. R.F.A. | |
Dawson, Major J. M. | County Council | 1919 to
| | present date
Deramore, Lt.-Col. R. W., Lord, | Military Member | 1919 to
Yorks. Hrs. Yeo. | | present date
Dobson, Major J. F., M.B., | ” | 1913-15
F.R.C.S., 2nd N. General Hosp. | |
Duncan, Lt.-Col. K., D.S.O., 4th | ” | 1919 to
W. Riding Bde. R.F.A. | | present date
Duncombe, Col. C. W.E., C.B.E., | ” | 1909/13
T.D., Yorks. Hrs. Yeo. | ” | 1915
| County Director | 1916/19
Durnford, W. A., Esq. | County Council | 1918 to
| | present date
_d_ Fawcett, J. E., Esq., (Bradford) | County Borough | 1908/18
Firth, Lt.-Col. B. A., V.D., T.F. | Military Member | 1914/19
Res. | |
Fitzwilliam, Lt.-Col. W. C. de M., | Co-opted Member | 1908/10
Earl, K.C.V.O., C.B.E., D.S.O., | Military Member | 1911/15
W.R., R.H.A. | ” | 1919 to
| | present date
Foster, Lt.-Col. E. H., T.D., 2nd | ” | 1908/15
W. Riding Bde. R.F.A. | |
_d_ Foster, E. H., Esq. | County Council | 1908/16
_d_ Foster, H. A., Esq., J.P. | Co-opted Member | 1908/09
Foster, Lt.-Col. L. P., V.D., late | County Borough | 1915/17
1st V.B. W. Rid. Regt. (Halifax) | |
Fox, Lt.-Col. C., T.D., T.F. Res. | Military Member | 1915
| ” | 1918 to
| | present date
_d_ Franklin, G., Esq. (Sheffield) | University | 1908
_d_ Freeman, Col. C. E., V.D., late | Military Member | 1916/19
2nd V.B. W. Riding Regt. | |
Garnett, R., Esq. | County Council | 1919 to
| | present date
Garstang, W., Esq., M.A., D.Sc. | University | 1915/19
(Leeds) | |
Gascoigne, Col. R. F. T., D.S.O., | Military Member | 1908
late Yorks. Hrs. Yeo. | ” | 1916/19
Gaskell, Major E. M., D.L., Yorks. | County Council | 1908/17
Dns. Yeo. | |
Goodyear, Major H. S., V.D., late | Military Member | 1916/19
1st V.B. K.O. Yorks. L.I. | |
Gordon, Professor G. S. (Leeds) | University | 1919 to
| | present date
Graham, Major W., W. Rid., R.G.A. | Military Member | 1914/15
Green, Lt.-Col. F. W., late Yks. | ” | 1915/19
Dns. Yeo. | |
_d_ Greenwood, A., Esq. | Co-opted Member | 1908/09
Hardaker, D., Esq., J.P. | County Council | 1908/19
Hartley, Lt.-Col. J. E., 4th W. | Military Member | 1909/10
Rid. R. | |
Harewood, Col. H. U., Earl of, | President | 1908 to
K.C.V.O., T.D., A.D.C. | | present date
Haslegrave, Lt.-Col. H. J., C.M.G.,| Military Member | 1914-15
T.D., 4th Bn. K.O. Yorks. L.I. | ” | 1918 to
| | present date
Hastings, Lt.-Col. J. H., D.S.O., | ” | 1911/12
6th Bn. W. Yorks. Regt. | |
Haywood, Lt.-Col. R. B., W.R. | ” | 1919 to
Dnl. R.E. | | present date
Hepworth, Lt.-Col. W., V.D., 8th | ” | 1911/17
Bn. W. Yorks. Regt. | |
Hickson, Lt.-Col. J. L., W. Rid. | Co-opted Member | 1918/19
Vol. Regt. | |
Hind, Col. E., V.D., 4th K.O. Yks. | Military Member | 1908/13
L.I. | Co-opted Member | 1914/17
| ” | 1919 to
| | present date
Hirst, Lt.-Col. E. A., C.M.G., | County Borough | 1908/17
T.D., 1st W.R. Bde., R.F.A. | Co-opted Member | 1919 to
(Leeds) | | present date
Hirst, T. J., Esq., J.P. | ” | 1908 to
| | present date
Hobson, A. J., Esq | ” | 1908/19
Hobson, C., Esq. | ” | 1908/13
Hoskin, J., Esq. | ” | 1908/09
_d_ Howard, Major J. B., 4th W. Rid. | Military Member | 1911
Regt. | |
_d_ Hoyle, Lt.-Col. C. F., Northern | ” | 1908/12
Com. Tele. Cos., R.E. | |
Hoyle, Lt.-Col. E., O.B.E., W.R. | Co-opted Member | 1919 to
Motor Volunteers | | present date
_d_ Hughes, Col. H., C.B., C.M.G., | Military Member | 1908/16
V.D., Ret. T.F. | |
Husband, Lt.-Col. J. C. R., V.D., | ” | 1908/12
late 5th Bn. W. Yorks. Regt. | ” | 1918/19
Ingham, Major H. O., T.D., late | ” | 1916/19
W. Rid. R.G.A., Vols. | |
Ingilby, Major J. U. M., O.B.E. | Asst. Secretary | 1908
| County Council | 1914/19
Jackson, Lt.-Col. Hon. F. S., late | Co-opted Member | 1911/17
3rd Bn. R. Lancs. Regt. | |
Jones, F. L., Esq. | ” | 1908/13
Jonas, J., Esq. (Sheffield) | County Borough | 1908
Knight, Major J. E., T.D. | ” | 1908 to
(Rotherham) | | present date
Land, Col. W. H., C.B.E., T.F. Res.| Military Member | 1908
Lane-Fox, Major G. R., M.P., T.F. | Co-opted Member | 1910/19
Res. | |
Lee, Col. E., V.D., T.F. Res. | Military Member | 1913/19
Liddell, Lt.-Col. J., V.D., J.P., | County Borough | 1914 to
late 2nd V.B. W. Rid. Regt. | | present date
(Huddersfield) | |
Lister, Capt. A. E., 5th Bn. W. | Military Member | 1916/17
Rid. Regt. | |
Littlewood, Col. H., C.M.G., | ” | 1916/19
F.R.C.S., 2nd N. General Hospital| |
Lockwood, H., Esq. | County Council | 1919 to
| | present date
Lucey, Lt.-Col. W. F., C.M.G., | Military Member | 1919 to
D.S.O., 1st W. Rid. Bde., R.F.A. | | present date
Lumsden, Major G., V.D., late 5th | ” | 1916-19
Bn. W. Yorks. Regt. | |
Lupton, F. M., Esq., J.P. | Co-opted Member | 1908/19
Lyons, Lt.-Col. F. W., 4th Bn. | Military Member | 1918/19
K.O.Y.L.I. | |
Mackinnon, Lt.-Col. J., D.S.O., | ” | 1919 to
3rd W.R. Field Ambce. R.A.M.C., | | present date
T.F. | |
Marsh, H. P., Esq., J.P. | County Borough | 1909 to
(Sheffield) | | present date
Marsden, Lt.-Col. J., V.D., 5th | Military Member | 1909/11
W.R. Regt. | |
Mason, Major A. W., V.D., F.R.C.S. | ” | 1908/11
Metcalfe, Capt. A. W., M.D., W.R. | ” | 1915-16
R.G.A. | |
Mends, Brig.-Gen. H. R., C.B., | Secretary | 1908 to
ret. pay | | present date
Mildren, Capt. W., M.B.E., T.F. | Asst. Secretary | 1915 to
Res. | | present date
Mitchell, Col. T. W. H., V.D., | Military Member | 1909/14
5th Bn. York & Lancs. Regt. | ” | 1918 to
| | present date
_d_ Morrell, Lt.-Col. A. R., V.D., | Military Member | 1913
5th W. Yks. Regt. | |
Moxon, Lt.-Col. C. C., C.M.G., | ” | 1914-15
D.S.O., T.D., 5th Bn. K.O. | |
Yorks. L.I. | |
Norton, Lt.-Col. G. P., D.S.O., | ” | 1919 to
5th Bn. W. Riding Regt. | | present date
Oddie, Lt.-Col. W., D.S.O., T.D., | ” | 1919 to
5th Bn. W. Yorks. Regt. | | present date
Parkin, Lt.-Col. F. L., D.S.O., | ” | 1919 to
5th Bn. K.O.Y.L.I. | | present date
Paul, Lt.-Col. J. A., T.D., 1st | ” | 1908/11
W.R. Bde. R.F.A. | ” | 1916/19
Pawlett, Vet. Major F. W., Yorks. | ” | 1908
Hrs. Yeo. | |
Pearson, Capt. W. A., V.D., J.P. | County Borough | 1908 to
(York) | | present date
Pickering, Lt.-Col. E. W., D.S.O., | Co-opted Member | 1919 to
M.P., 2nd W. Riding Bde., R.F.A. | | present date
Pilkington, Col. Sir T. E., M.S. | ” | 1918/19
Porter, Major M. L., O.B.E. | Asst. Secretary | 1909/13
_d_ Priestley, Major F. N., R.F.A. | Military Member | 1915/18
(T.F.) | |
Raley, J.P., Esq. (Barnsley) | County Borough | 1918 to
| | present date
Ratcliffe, G., Esq., J.P. (Leeds) | ” | 1918 to
| | present date
_d_ Rowe, Lt.-Col. G. H., V.D., 8th | Military Member | 1908/10
W. Yorks. Regt. | |
Ruck-Keene, Lt.-Col. H. L., D.S.O. | Co-opted Member | 1919 to
| | present date
Rudgard, Major W. D., T.D., T.F. | Military Member | 1911/13
Res. | ” | 1916/19
Sadler, Sir M. E., K.C.S.I., C.B., | University | 1913/14
M.A., LL.D. (Leeds) | |
Scarborough, Major-General A. F. | Chairman and | 1908 to
G. B., Earl of, K.C.B., T.D., | Military Member | present date
A.D.C. | |
Senior, Col. A., V.D., 2nd Y. & L. | ” | 1908
Regt. | |
Shann, Lt.-Col. F., V.D., 5th W. | ” | 1908-15
Yks. Regt. | |
Sharp, Col. A. D., C.B., C.M.G., | ” | 1919 to
F.R.C.S., Admin. Med. Off., W.R. | | present date
Divn. | |
_d_ Shaw, Col. J. R., 5th Bn. K.O. | County Council | 1908/16
Yorks. L.I. | |
Smith, Lt.-Col. W. McK., D.S.O., | Military Member | 1914/15
T.D., Yorks. Dns. Yeo. | |
Smithett, Major H. C. E. | Asst. Secretary | 1914
Somerville, Col. S. E., V.D., | Military Member | 1908/13
late Y.L.I. | ” | 1916/19
Sowerby, Major R. J., late 1st | ” | 1916/19
V.B. West Riding Regt. | |
Speight, Major C. H., V.D., late | ” | 1916/17
2nd V.B. West Yorks. Regt. | |
Stamer, A. C., Esq. | Co-opted Member | 1911/13
Stanyforth, Lt.-Col. E. W., D.L., | Military Member | 1908 to
T.D., T.F. Res. | | present date
Stead, Lt.-Col. J. W., V.D., 7th | ” | 1908/15
W. Yks. R. | |
Stephenson, Lt.-Col. H. K., D.S.O.,| University | 1909 to
V.D., M.P., J.P., T.F. Res. | | present date
(Sheffield) | |
Sutcliffe, Major H. (Halifax) | County Borough | 1908/14
Sugden, Lt.-Col. R. E., D.S.O., | Military Member | 1919 to
T.D., 4th Bn. W. Riding Regt. | | present date
_d_ Sykes, J., Esq. (Huddersfield) | County Borough | 1908/13
Talbot, E., Esq. | County Council | 1918 to
| | present date
Tanner, Major G., D.S.O., 7th W.R. | Military Member | 1916/17
Regt. | ” | 1919 to
| | present date
_d_ Tannett-Walker, Col. F. W., late | ” | 1908/10
7th W. Yorks. Regt. | |
Tetley, Lt.-Col. C. H., D.S.O., | ” | 1919 to
T.D., 7th Bn. West Yorks. Regt. | | present date
Thomson, W. F. H., Esq., J.P. | Co-opted Member | 1908 to
| | present date
Tighe, Lt.-Col. F. A., 1st W.R. | Military Member | 1912-13
Bde., R.F.A. | |
Treble, Col. G. W., C.M.G., 7th | ” | 1911/15
W.R. Regt. | |
_d_ Trevelyan, Lt.-Col. E. F., M.D., | ” | 1911
2nd N. Gen. Hosp. | |
_d_ Vickers, Col. T. E., C.B., V.D., | Military Member | 1908/09
4th Bn. York & Lancs. Regt. | |
Wade, Lt.-Col. H. O., C.M.G., | ” | 1913/15
T.D., 6th Bn. W. Yorks. Regt. | |
Walker, Lt.-Col. J., D.S.O., 4th | ” | 1919 to
Bn. W. Riding Regt. | | present date
Walker, Major P. B., V.D., J.P., | Co-opted Member | 1910/13
4th Bn. K.O. Yorks. L.I. | County Borough | 1914 to
(Dewsbury) | | present date
_d_ Walker-Tannett (see Tannett). | |
Wear, Col. A. E. L., C.M.G., M.D., | Military Member | 1919 to
T.D., W.R. Cas. Clearing Station | | present date
Williamson, Col. E. R., V.D., 6th | ” | 1908/12
W. Riding Regt. | ” | 1914/17
Welch, Major W., T.D. | ” | 1916/19
Wharncliffe, Commander F., Earl | Co-opted Member | 1908/10
of, D.L., J.P., Ret. R.N. | ” | 1914 to
| | present date
White, Col. W. A., V.D., J.P., | Military Member | 1908 to
late 1st V.B. W. Yorks. Regt. | | present date
White, Lt.-Col. J. S., M.D., | ” | 1911/13
F.R.C.S., 3rd N. Gen. Hosp. | |
R.A.M.C. (T.F.) | |
Whitley, Col. E. N., C.B., C.M.G., | ” | 1919 to
D.S.O., T.D. 2nd W.R. Bde., | | present date
R.F.A. | |
Wilberforce, Lt.-Col. H. H., | ” | 1919 to
D.S.O., W.R. Divnl. R.A.S.C. | | present date
(T.F.) | |
Wilkinson, Major E. W., T.D., | ” | 1919 to
4th Bn. York & Lancs. Regt. | | present date
_d_ Wilson, Sir M. A., Bt., J.P. | County Council | 1908/13
Wilson, Lt.-Col. H., 5th W. Riding | Military Member | 1914/15
Regt. | |
Wood, Lt.-Col. C. E., V.D., | ” | 1915
C.M.G., T.F. Res. | ” | 1918/19
_d_ Yarborough (see Cook-) | |
Young, Lt.-Col. W. McG., M.D., | ” | 1914/15
2nd W. Riding F. Ambce., R.A.M.C.| |
(T.F.). | |
---------------------------------------+-----------------+---------------
APPENDIX II.
(A). SUMMARY OF HONOURS AND AWARDS OBTAINED BY 49TH (W.R.) DIVISION.
V.C. 5
C.B. 8
C.M.G. 17
O.B.E. 4
D.S.O. 79
D.S.O. and 1 Bar 6
D.S.O. and 2 Bars 1
M.C. 393
M.C. and Bar 34
D.C.M. 336
D.C.M. and Bar 2
M.M. 1,501
M.M. and Bar 62
M.M. and 2 Bars 2
M.S.M. 94
Foreign Orders, etc. 96
-----
TOTAL 2,640
-----
LIST OF HONOURS AND AWARDS OBTAINED BY 49TH (W.R.) DIVISION
------------+---------------+-------------------------+------------------
Regtl. No. | Rank. | Name. | Award.
------------+---------------+-------------------------+------------------
| | |
HEADQUARTER STAFF
| Maj.-Gen. | Perceval, E. M. | C.B.
| | | D.S.O.
| | | Belgian Order of
| | | St. Leopold, with
| | | Swords
| | | Russian Order of
| | | St. Vladimir, 4th
| | | Class, with
| | | Swords
| Maj.-Gen. | Cameron, N. J. G. | C.B.
| | | C.M.G.
| Lt.-Col. | Scobell, S. J. P. | D.S.O.
| Lt.-Col. | Legge, W. K. | D.S.O.
| Lt.-Col. | Henley, A. M. | D.S.O.
| Lt.-Col. | Preston, Sir E. H., | D.S.O.
| | Bart. | M.C.
| Lt.-Col. | Scaife, W. E. | D.S.O.
| Major | Bingham, C. H. M. | D.S.O.
| Major | Duckworth, R. | D.S.O.
| Major | Beddows, W. J. | M.C.
| Captain | Nicholl, N. J. | D.S.O.
| Captain | Forty, H. J. | M.C.
PS/19008 | S.S.M. | Hopkins, M. E. | M.S.M.
S/249817 | S.Q.M.S. | Green, G. | M.S.M.
305294 | C.Q.M.S. | McBretney, A. C. | M.S.M.
S/24644 | S. Sgt. | Pagett, S. | M.S.M.
200646 | Sgt. | Lawrence, G. L. | M.S.M.
4593 | Cpl. | Calvert, H. | M.S.M.
DIVISIONAL ARTILLERY HEADQUARTERS
| Br.-Gen. | Caulfield, C. T. | C.M.G.
| Br.-Gen. | Kaye, W. H. | D.S.O.
| Br.-Gen. | Forman, A. B. | C.M.G.
| | | D.S.O.
| Major | Lewer, L. W. | D.S.O.
| Major | Allen, C. | D.S.O.
| Captain | Peters, J. C. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Morgan, D. | French Croix
| | | de Guerre
312072 | R.S.M. | Uttley, G. | M.S.M.
900732 | Cpl. | Walder, F. H. | M.S.M.
HEADQUARTERS 146TH (1ST W.R.) INFANTRY BRIGADE
| Br.-Gen. | Macfarlan, F. A. | C.B.
| Br.-Gen. | Goring-Jones, M. D. | C.M.G.
| | | D.S.O.
| Br.-Gen. | Rennie, G. A. P. | C.M.G.
| | | D.S.O.
| | | Command Crown
| | | of Roumania
| Major | Hunt, T. E. C. | M.C.
| Captain | Muller, J. | M.C.
| Captain | Watson, F. L. | M.C.
| Captain | Green, D. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Tempest, S. V. | D.S.O.
| Rev. | Whincup, R. | M.C.
T4/249840 | Q.M.S. | Longfield, H. P. | M.S.M.
S4/253925 | Sgt. | Watson, A. | M.S.M.
255041 | 2/Cpl. | Young, N. A. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
241553 | L.-Cpl. | Wilson, J. | M.M.
266170 | L.-Cpl. | Hunter, J. | M.M.
59080 | Pte. | Wilson, A. | M.M.
200206 | Pte. | Marshall, G. H. | M.M.
241391 | Pte. | Mason, H. | M.M.
242958 | Pte. | Wagstaffe, S. | M.M.
305173 | Pte. | Wilkinson, T. | M.M.
265637 | Rfm. | Kirk, H. | M.M.
HEADQUARTERS 147TH (1ST W.R.) INFANTRY BRIGADE
| Br.-Gen. | Brereton, E. F. | C.B.
| | | D.S.O.
| Br.-Gen. | Lewis, C. G. | C.M.G.
| | | D.S.O.
| Major | Stanton, H. A. S. | D.S.O.
| Captain | Whitaker, F. | M.C.
| Captain | Prior, G. E. R. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Captain | Tetlow, J. L. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Stalman, A. C. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Spencer, T. S. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Addenbrooke, H. S. W. | M.C.
| Rev. | Jones, J. C. | M.C.
305128 | Q.M.S. | Smeath, H. | M.S.M.
2462 | Sgt. | Lumb, F. E. | D.C.M.
200201 | Sgt. | Thornton, A. L. | D.C.M.
265045 | Sgt. | Woods, W. | M.M.
200599 | Cpl. | Tyson, W. H. | M.S.M.
242133 | Cpl. | Bottomley, E. | M.M.
482235 | Cpl. | Pitcher, W. H. | M.M.
482103 | L.-Cpl. | Cooks, J. E. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
66576 | Sapr. | Bird, G. F. | M.M.
72205 | Sapr. | Shaw, J. | M.M.
482117 | Sapr. | Tyas, A. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
26255 | Pioneer | Hart, V. | M.M.
316322 | Pioneer | Morris, C. J. | M.M.
200536 | Pte. | Heeliwell, B. | M.M.
201473 | Pte. | Pearson, B. | M.M.
201595 | Pte. | Briggs, W. | M.M.
201943 | Pte. | Bailey, W. | M.M.
240241 | Pte. | Tetley, T. | M.M.
240827 | Pte. | Timmins, E. B. | M.M.
307182 | Pte. | Haddon, F. J. | M.M.
307870 | Pte. | Copley, G. | M.M.
307871 | Pte. | Fawcett, J. S. | M.M.
365613 | Pte. | Sanderson, O. | M.M.
HEADQUARTERS 148TH (1ST W.R.) INFANTRY BRIGADE
| Br.-Gen. | Dawson, R. | C.B.
| Br.-Gen. | Adlercrow, R. L. | C.M.G.
| | | D.S.O.
| Br.-Gen. | Green Wilkinson, L. F. | C.M.G.
| Major | Pickering, C. J. | D.S.O.
| Major | Kaye, H. S. | M.C.
| | | D.S.O.
| Captain | Heson, F. P. | M.C.
| Captain | Moxsy, A. R. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Peal, A. F. H. | M.C.
| Rev. | Edgood, H. F. | M.C.
200226 | R.Q.M.S. | Deakin, M. H. | M.S.M.
240018 | C.S.M. | Lumb, G. | D.C.M.
482006 | Sgt. | Ardern, A. W. | M.M.
1894 | Cpl. | Meadows, H. | M.M.
23021 | Cpl. | Hobson, H. | M.M.
47743 | Sapr. | Eusch, A. R. | M.M.
478505 | Sapr. | Iliffe, G. K. | M.M.
482088 | Sapr. | Lumley, H. | M.M.
1708 | Pte. | Jeanes, H. | M.M.
200496 | Pte. | Hough, H. | M.M.
200846 | Pte. | Wilcox, J. S. | M.M.
201774 | Pte. | Wilson, P. | M.M.
203504 | Pte. | Stephenson, J. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
240372 | Pte. | Duncan, J. | M.M.
242310 | Pte. | Heppinstall, C. | M.M.
242360 | Pte. | Abbott, R. E. | M.M.
242708 | Pte. | Escott, W. C. | M.M.
260604 | Pte. | Whallery, G. | M.M.
| Pte. | Ganton, W. H. | M.M.
245TH (1ST W.R.) BRIGADE R.F.A.
| Lt.-Col. | Hirst, E. A. | C.M.G.
| Major | Lucey, W. F. | C.M.G.
| | | D.S.O.
| | | Croix de Guerre
| Major | Butler, B. H. | M.C.
| Major | Horsfield, R. M. | D.S.O.
| Major | Petrie, P. C. | D.S.O.
| | | M.C.
| Major | Dean, W. H. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Major | Bullock, R. L. | D.S.O.
| Captain | Gordon, C. F. | M.C.
| Captain | Wood, W. L. R. | M.C.
| | (R.A.M.C.) |
| Captain | Lupton, A. M. | M.C.
| Captain | Fowler, G. N. | M.C.
| Captain | Day, R. | M.C.
| Captain | Middleton, J. H. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Hudson, E. C. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Gordon, A. McD. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Barran, H. B. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Lawson, E. A. C. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Stewart, H. D. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Collins, C. V. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Lord, R. H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Butler, S. R. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Hattersley, T. G. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Rowland, J. G. | M.C.
860 | S.M. | Abbott, H. C. | D.C.M.
| | | Medaille
| | | Militaire
14 | B.S.M. | Brown, M. | Bronze Medal for
| | | Military Valour
| | | M.M.
1420 | B.S.M. | Band, J. | D.C.M.
15009 | B.S.M. | Laws, A. H. | M.M.
776113 | B.S.M. | Dwyer, E. | Belgian Croix
| | | de Guerre
775101 | B.Q.M.S. | Wales, A. J. | M.S.M.
776835 | B.Q.M.S. | Duffy, J. | Belgian Croix
| | | de Guerre
776899 | Far.-Sgt. | Sellars, A. | M.S.M.
776139 | Far.-Sgt. | Wilkinson, F. | M.S.M.
515 | Sgt. | Plumer, F. H. | D.C.M.
664 | Sgt. | Hartley, C. | D.C.M.
180 | Sgt. | Nolan, M. M. | M.M.
942 | Sgt. | Hemsley, J. A. | M.M.
931 | Sgt. | Norfolk, N. A. N. | M.M.
561 | Sgt. | Robinson, W. | M.M.
870 | Sgt. | Holgate, H. | M.M.
776116 | Sgt. | Gaines, S. | M.M.
776883 | Sgt. | Price, A. | M.M.
775224 | Sgt. | Smith, H. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
776896 | Sgt. | Stubbs, G. H. | M.M.
253860 | Sgt. | Smith, A. | M.M.
775262 | Sgt. | Kilburn, G. | M.M.
10601 | Sgt. | Holdsworth, W. | M.M.
776900 | Sgt. | Smith, H. | D.C.M.
795739 | Sgt. | Redgrave, J. | Croix de Guerre
1842 | Cpl. | Nelson, G. O. | D.C.M.
| | | M.S.M.
570 | Cpl. | Askin, T. S. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
1013 | Cpl. | Smith, J. | M.M.
676 | Cpl. | Kirby, G. H. | M.M.
735755 | Cpl. | Bonnell, W. F. | M.M.
776122 | Cpl. | Newton, D. P. | M.M.
776042 | Cpl. | Haith, J. | M.M.
775078 | Cpl. | Wood, H. | Belgian Croix
| | | de Guerre
775095 | Cpl. | Shires, C. W. | D.C.M.
| | | Croix de Guerre
1221 | Bdr. | Elliott, T. | D.C.M.
775307 | Bdr. | Home, W. | M.M.
776382 | Bdr. | Dalton, P. | D.C.M.
776097 | Bdr. | Booth, J. | M.M.
735655 | Bdr. | Dombavand, H. | M.M.
775136 | Bdr. | Musgrove, F. | M.M.
775194 | Bdr. | Thornton, W. | M.M.
775321 | Bdr. | Wright, J. W. | M.M.
775408 | Bdr. | Oldfield, H. | M.M.
L/26405 | Bdr. | Brightmore, W. | M.M.
1059 | Gnr. | Mortimer, J. | D.C.M.
783 | Gnr. | Booth, F. V. | D.C.M.
1382 | Gnr. | Clarke, A. | M.M.
939 | Gnr. | Malone, F. A. | M.M.
371 | Gnr. | Fitzpatrick, E. | M.M.
879 | Gnr. | Driver, A. | M.M.
1168 | Gnr. | Ackroyd, H. | M.M.
1699 | Gnr. | Long, H. | M.M.
2505 | Gnr. | Stockdale, H. | M.M.
4148 | Gnr. | Reaney, J. | M.M.
4364 | Gnr. | Walker, E. H. | M.M.
667 | Gnr. | Sunderland, A. | M.M.
775315 | Gnr. | Thompson, R. | M.M.
835893 | Gnr. | Francis, F. T. | M.M.
77684 | Gnr. | Freeman, E. | M.M.
775327 | Gnr. | Clarke, T. | M.M.
776210 | Gnr. | Asquith, E. | M.M.
26561 | Gnr. | Liversedge, T. | M.M.
775984 | Gnr. | Gee, A. | M.M.
1528 | Dr. | Murgatroyd, A. | M.M.
1402 | Dr. | Hinslay, C. | M.M.
1177 | Dr. | Collins, W. | M.M.
1440 | Dr. | Halton, E. | M.M.
1441 | Dr. | Teare, A. M. | M.M.
76029 | Dr. | Sargeant, H. | D.C.M.
775129 | Dr. | Matthews, E. | M.M.
276937 | Dr. | Garratt, B. | M.M.
275146 | Dr. | Marston, S. | Medaille Barbatie
| | | si Credinta, 3rd
| | | Class
479945 | Sapr. | Sugden, H. | M.M.
247370 | Sapr. | Paterson, W. | M.M.
246TH (2ND W.R.) BRIGADE R.F.A.
| Lt.-Col. | Whitley, C. N. | C.B.
| | | C.M.G.
| | | D.S.O.
| Lt.-Col. | Hon. Stanley, O. H. | D.S.O.
| | | Croix de Guerre
| Major | Bullock, R. L. | D.S.O.
| Major | Pickering, E. W. | D.S.O.
| Major | Fowler, G. N. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Major | Shaw, R. M. | D.S.O.
| Surg.-Major | Peck, E. G. | D.S.O.
| Captain | Shaw, R. M. | M.C.
| Captain | Allen, W. B. (R.A.M.C.) | V.C.
| | | D.S.O.
| | | M.C.
| Captain | Duncan, H. S. | M.C.
| Captain | Stowell, T. | M.C.
| Captain | Lord, A. | M.C.
| Captain | Walker, P. H. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Lieut. | de St. Paer, L. E. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Howarth, G. B. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Whitworth, R. B. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Colson, A. F. D. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Maufe, F. W. B. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Kerr, A. A. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Wilson, H. McD. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Longbottom, H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Ryland-Whitaker, J. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Daniels, V. C. T. | M.C.
| Rev. | Jenkyn, C. W. O. | M.C.
146 | B.S.M. | Long, W. | D.C.M.
781677 | B.S.M. | Hudson, W. | D.C.M.
780037 | B.Q.M.S. | Healas, H. | M.S.M.
781787 | B.Q.M.S. | Raynor, G. | D.C.M.
| | | Bar to D.C.M.
780203 | B.Q.M.S. | Rinder, J. | M.S.M.
780375 | Sgt.-Fitter | Noble, H. | M.M.
1155 | Sgt. | Marshall, A. C. | D.C.M.
781080 | Sgt. | Byard, S. G. | D.C.M.
780042 | Sgt. | Bailey, H. | M.M.
781038 | Sgt. | Wise, A. | M.M.
780336 | Sgt. | Mitchell, C. W. | M.M.
| | | Belgian Croix
| | | de Guerre
780024 | Sgt. | Sharp, H. | M.M.
781759 | Sgt. | Long, H. | M.S.M.
780967 | Sgt. | Shaw, C. | D.C.M.
780472 | Sgt. | Sherwin, F. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
| | | 2nd Bar to M.M.
780045 | Sgt. | Quinn, W. | Croix de Guerre
971 | Cpl. | Armitage, G. | D.C.M.
1039 | Cpl. | Lee, H. | D.C.M.
857 | Cpl. | Lee, C. | M.M.
780248 | Cpl. | Knowles, C. | M.M.
780958 | Cpl. | Matthews, B. | M.M.
849 | Bdr. | Dennison, E. | D.C.M.
1258 | Bdr. | Eastwood, T. | M.M.
3144 | Bdr. | Briggs, C. | M.M.
1325 | Bdr. | Leatham, H. | D.C.M.
1079 | Bdr. | Mellor, L. | M.M.
951 | Bdr. | Oldroyd, W. | M.M.
795842 | Bdr. | Bennett, G. | M.M.
52873 | Bdr. | Betts, H. | M.M.
780112 | Bdr. | Briggs, W. | M.M.
797075 | Bdr. | Campbell, G. G. | M.M.
1426 | Gnr. | White, S. S. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
1100 | Gnr. | Schofield, W. | M.M.
1053 | Gnr. | Mitchell, C. A. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
1117 | Gnr. | Firth, F. P. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
1736 | Gnr. | Blakesley, E. | M.M.
619 | Gnr. | Clarke, C. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
1106 | Gnr. | Cockcroft, H. | M.M.
2011 | Gnr. | Pennington, W. | M.M.
6057 | Gnr. | Todd, A. S. | M.M.
1629 | Gnr. | Muscroft, A. | M.M.
1114 | Gnr. | Thornton, C. | M.M.
3455 | Gnr. | Petty, W. F. | M.M.
2291 | Gnr. | Gregson, H. | M.M.
1779 | Gnr. | Henstler, H. | M.M.
1206 | Gnr. | Hesslewood, H. | M.M.
741 | Gnr. | Tankard, J. W. | M.M.
846 | Gnr. | Rushworth, A. B. | M.M.
781797 | Gnr. | Smith, F. | M.M.
781795 | Gnr. | Stewart, W. H. | D.C.M.
125580 | Gnr. | Davidson, J. | M.M.
781487 | Gnr. | Harrison, F. | M.M.
1227 | Dr. | Triffitt, E. W. | M.M.
780385 | Dr. | Gully, J. A. | M.M.
781327 | Dr. | Allen, J. H. | M.M.
780292 | Dr. | Page, E. C. | M.M.
26296 | Dr. | Howard, J. | M.M.
780226 | Dr. | Bland, N. | M.M.
780643 | Dr. | Spencer, W. B. | M.M.
162878 | Dr. | Green, S. | M.M.
780913 | Dr. | Heald, H. | M.M.
229280 | Dr. | Blenston, T. | M.M.
702142 | Dr. | Kindlaw, H. | M.M.
881 | Tmptr. | Eddington, H. | M.M.
247TH (3RD W.R.) BRIGADE R.F.A.
| Lt.-Col. | Clifforrd, C. | C.M.G.
| Major | Howson, W. | M.C.
| Major | Clifford, E. C. | M.C.
| Major (A.V.C.)| Abson, J. (F.R.C.V.S.) | D.S.O.
| Captain | Lovegrove, J. | M.C.
| Captain | Earnshaw, S. E. | M.C.
| Captain | Dust, F. W. | M.C.
| Captain | Tenison, W. P. C. | D.S.O.
| Lieut. | Benson, R. C. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Armitage, G. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Ibbetson, T. R. | M.C.
1177 | B.Q.M.S. | Brooker, H. | M.S.M.
L/19824 | Sgt. | Ullyott, D. | M.M.
779 | Cpl. | Cooper, H. | D.C.M.
773 | Cpl. | Askew, L. | M.M.
1426 | Cpl. | Driver, H. | M.S.M.
889 | Cpl. | Webster, W. | M.M.
1873 | Cpl. | Burnett, A. G. | M.M.
1517 | Bdr. | Holland, A. H. | D.C.M.
1511 | Bdr. | Tinton, J. W. | M.M.
946 | Bdr. | Houlden, W. | M.M.
1213 | Gnr. | Smith, C. | D.C.M.
1073 | Gnr. | Kisley, A. P. | M.M.
1051 | Gnr. | White, T. A. | M.M.
1467 | Gnr. | Hall, J. W. | M.M.
1202 | Gnr. | Battersby, R. L. | M.M.
1272 | Gnr. | Roberts, H. | M.M.
2510 | Dr. | Spirrett, H. | M.M.
148TH (4TH W.R.) BRIGADE R.F.A.
| Lt.-Col. | Duncan, K. | D.S.O.
| | | Bar to D.S.O.
| Major | Petrie, P. C. | M.C.
| Captain | Greene, J. (R.A.M.C.) | M.C.
| Captain | Shaw, R. M. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Eddison, J. W. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Whittaker, V. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Dean, W. H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Pashley, J. | M.C.
84152 | R.S.M. | Seymour, T. | M.C.
1191 | B.S.M. | Cotton, A. | D.C.M.
544 | B.Q.M.S. | Dwyer, E. | M.M.
228 | Arm. S.M. | Alexander, E. F. | D.C.M.
| | (A.O.D.) |
549 | Bdr. | Whitfield, E. | D.C.M.
778 | Bdr. | Rhodes, J. R. | D.C.M.
619 | Bdr. | Clarke, G. C. | M.M.
777 | Bdr. | King, P. J. | M.M.
535 | Bdr. | Goode, A. | M.M.
825 | Bdr. | McDormell, J. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
439 | Bdr. | Brayshaw, C. E. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
879 | Gnr. | Driver, A. | D.C.M.
616 | Gnr. | Tennant, N. | D.C.M.
1246 | Gnr. | Snoxell, F. N. | M.M.
1596 | Gnr. | Green, C. | M.M.
2886 | Gnr. | Smithwaite, S. E. | M.M.
511 | Gnr. | Towll, C. E. | M.M.
1942 | Dr. | Russell, W. L. | M.M.
528 | Dr. | Moorhouse, A. | D.C.M.
8150 | Dr. | Smith, D. | M.M.
49TH (W.R.) DIVISIONAL AMMUNITION COLUMN
| Lt.-Col. | Stephenson, H. K. | D.S.O.
| Lt.-Col. | Middleton, F. | D.S.O.
| 2/Lieut. | Pashley, J. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
92678 | R.S.M. | Byrne, C. | M.S.M.
795292 | B.S.M. | Stott, C. | M.S.M.
795443 | Sgt. | Nicholson, J. W. | M.M.
740063 | Sgt. | Waite, J. | M.S.M.
795438 | Sgt. | Atack, O. | M.S.M.
262 | Cpl. | Hunter, J. A. | D.C.M.
795029 | Cpl. | Woffendale, A. | M.M.
200 | Bdr. | Timmins, G. | M.M.
795717 | Bdr. | Hepworth, H. | M.M.
777117 | Gnr. | Ratcliffe, F. G. | M.M.
797167 | Gnr. | Allen, E. | M.M.
796302 | Dr. | Lockwood, W. | M.M.
796394 | Dr. | Topliss, J. W. | M.M.
796242 | Dr. | Turner, W. | M.M.
796013 | Dr. | Womersley, F. | M.M.
796227 | Dr. | Fletcher, R. | M.M.
49TH (W.R.) DIVISIONAL TRENCH MORTAR BATTERIES
| Captain | Walker, R. F. | M.C.
| Captain | Pike, W. L. | M.C.
| Captain | Hein, M. H. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Trippett, R. H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Shiel, G. L. | M.C.
49063 | Sgt. | Surtees, J. | Belgian Croix
| | | de Guerre
2953 | Sgt. | Reed, H. | M.M.
265043 | Sgt. | Woods, W. | M.S.M.
365105 | Sgt. | Hartley, R. | Croix de Guerre
35202 | Cpl. | Drew. T. | M.M.
47010 | Cpl. | Williams, W. | M.M.
795703 | Cpl. | Bate, A. | M.M.
1455 | Cpl. | Thornton, L. | M.M.
203278 | Cpl. | Wallis, J. H. | M.S.M.
40 | L.-Cpl. | Storrell, E. | D.C.M.
2160 | L.-Cpl. | Springs, F. | M.M.
201437 | L.-Cpl. | Ellis, J. A. | M.M.
407 | Bdr. | Butler, J. | M.M.
48444 | Bdr. | Coursh, W. | M.M.
57168 | Bdr. | Guy, M. | D.C.M.
48779 | Gnr. | Brunton, W. | M.M.
416 | Gnr. | Mason, N. | M.M.
48110 | Gnr. | Pelan, W. | D.C.M.
1947 | Gnr. | Leighton, T. | D.C.M.
436 | Gnr. | Gelder, S. M. | D.C.M.
2556 | Gnr. | Fry, E. | M.M.
795825 | Gnr. | Bishop, G. | M.M.
7107 | Gnr. | Clark, W. | M.M.
201434 | Pte. | Grayson, J. | M.M.
2039 | Pte. | Cartwright, T. | M.M.
1734 | Pte. | Bowker, W. | M.M.
305646 | Pte. | Haigh, H. | D.C.M.
242594 | Pte. | Brown, F. | M.M.
240743 | Pte. | Thornhill, H. | Belgian Croix
| | | de Guerre
203345 | Pte. | Lilley, G. | M.M.
203544 | Pte. | Johnson, G. D. | M.M.
49TH (W.R.) DIVISIONAL R.E.
| Lt.-Col. | Ogilvy, D. | D.S.O.
| Major | Digby-Jones, O. G. | M.C.
| Major | Neill, F. A. | D.S.O.
| | | French Croix
| | | de Guerre
| Major | Hobson, A. F. | D.S.O.
| Major | Lund, F. N. | M.C.
| Major | Jackson, E. | D.S.O.
| Captain | Humphreys, E. W. | M.C.
| Captain | Turner, R. A. | M.C.
| Captain | Yule, G. N. | D.S.O.
| Captain | Whitten, F. R. | M.C.
| Captain | Williams, C. V. Moiner | M.C.
| Captain | Wever, R. O. | M.C.
| Captain | Ward, E. A. N. | M.C.
| Captain | Fincham, E. | M.C.
| Captain | Best, E. | M.C.
| Captain | Walls, F. R. | M.C.
| Lieut. | McLean, L. J. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Rhodes, H. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Butterworth, H. L. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Paul, R. B. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Scott, T. I. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | MacDonald, D. H. | Silver Medal for
| | | Military Valour
| 2/Lieut. | Glover, E. P. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Mills, D. L. C. L. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | McGregor, D. H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Bell, L. C. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Wise-Barnes, T. | M.C.
| C.S.M. | Ellis, H. C. | Croix de Guerre
| | | (French)
19206 | C.S.M. | Giles, J. | M.M.
20575 | C.S.M. | Ritchie, J. | D.C.M.
10957 | C.Q.M.S. | Sharp, R. | M.S.M.
| | | Belgian Croix
| | | de Guerre
399 | C.Q.M.S. | Black, R. H. | D.C.M.
476332 | Sgt. | Baynes, J. F. | M.S.M.
23950 | Sgt. | Peck, G. | M.M.
20921 | Sgt. | Fear, E. | M.M.
24208 | Sgt. | Wright, J. | M.M.
666 | Sgt. | Boom, H. | M.M.
478127 | Sgt. | Mason, J. H. | M.M.
478011 | Sgt. | Littlewood, F. A. | M.S.M.
1422 | Sgt. | Morrill, C. | D.C.M.
1465 | Sgt. | McKenney, J. W. | D.C.M.
1481 | Sgt. | Lowe, C. E. | M.M.
1711 | Sgt. | Sunners, H. | M.M.
476294 | Sgt. | Dolby, H. | M.M.
476221 | Sgt. | Totty, C. | Belgian
| | | Decoration
| | | Militaire
545 | Sgt. | Horner, E. M. | M.M.
482229 | Sgt. | Andrews, F. | M.M.
479950 | Sgt. | Bownass, F. | D.C.M.
479958 | Sgt. | Peers, R. | M.S.M.
20898 | Sgt. | Atkinson, W. A. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
17971 | Sgt. | Stanford, D. | M.S.M.
444086 | Sgt. | Toothill, R. | M.M.
478128 | Sgt. | Croydon, L. | M.M.
200460 | Sgt. | Hatton, F. | M.M.
37856 | Sgt. | Young, S. H. | M.S.M.
1336 | Sgt. | Webster, F. | M.M.
482201 | Sgt. | Scorah, L. | M.S.M.
16985 | Sgt. | Dobson, E. | Medaille
| | | d’Honneur
| | | Avec Glavies,
| | | en Argent
12058 | Cpl. | Oke, F. | D.C.M.
15394 | Cpl. | Leach, W. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
| | | 2nd Bar to M.M.
24094 | Cpl. | Neary, C. F. W. | M.M.
24214 | Cpl. | Jacobs, S. T. | M.M.
1359 | Cpl. | Chambers, W. B. | D.C.M.
1375 | Cpl. | Trudore, W. | M.M.
| | | Medaille
| | | Militaire
1022 | Cpl. | North, E. J. | M.M.
478057 | Cpl. | Beaumont, H. | M.M.
478112 | Cpl. | Ellis, B. | M.M.
478150 | Cpl. | Thompson, C. J. | M.M.
478536 | Cpl. | Wildgoose, W. J. | M.M.
1433 | Cpl. | Overall, P. | D.C.M.
1578 | Cpl. | Lees, J. T. | D.C.M.
1609 | Cpl. | Ainsley, F. | M.M.
1518 | Cpl. | Creek, C. P. | M.M.
476735 | Cpl. | Riley, F. | M.M.
476264 | Cpl. | Hillman, F. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
478159 | Cpl. | Fawcett, H. | M.M.
476248 | Cpl. | Marshall, A. E. | M.M.
476237 | Cpl. | Stones, J. | M.M.
476311 | Cpl. | Westwood, A. | M.M.
476076 | Cpl. | Litchfield, W. | French Croix
| | | de Guerre
1854 | Cpl. | Osborne, H. | D.C.M.
676 | Cpl. | Booth, J. M. | M.M.
1818 | Cpl. | Whitehurst, G. | M.M.
1873 | Cpl. | Burnett, A. G. | M.M.
1323 | Cpl. | Beeston, A. | M.M.
482228 | Cpl. | Wilburn, F. | D.C.M.
478059 | Cpl. | Beverley, L. | M.M.
552751 | Cpl. | Hayes, L. | M.M.
476735 | Cpl. | Riley, F. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
482537 | Cpl. | Pholl, S. | M.M.
482204 | Cpl. | Smith, N. | M.M.
482055 | Cpl. | Beevers, F. W. | M.M.
482511 | Cpl. | Hawkesworth, H. C. | M.M.
54380 | Cpl. | Holmes, F. G. | M.S.M.
1392 | 2/Cpl. | Ellis, A. | M.M.
482202 | 2/Cpl. | Pinder, P. | M.M.
255041 | 2/Cpl. | Young, N. A. | M.M.
482072 | 2/Cpl. | Clarke, F. | Italian Bronze
| | | Medal for
| | | Military Valour
94238 | 2/Cpl. | Kenton, H. | M.M.
16175 | 2/Cpl. | Hancock, A. | M.M.
476263 | L.-Cpl. | Moore, W. | Belgian Croix
| | | de Guerre
1852 | L.-Cpl. | Morris, G. R. | M.M.
482222 | L.-Cpl. | Wordsworth, A. C. | M.M.
476318 | L.-Cpl. | Tinker, J. | M.M.
479952 | L.-Cpl. | White, S. S. | D.C.M.
| | | Bar to D.C.M.
1115 | L.-Cpl. | Owen, W. B. | D.C.M.
16050 | Sapr. | Donald, J. C. | M.M.
3373 | Sapr. | Hoyland, J. | M.M.
854 | Sapr. | Ashmore, W. | M.M.
3512 | Sapr. | Hydes, W. | M.M.
831 | Sapr. | Gordon, C. | M.M.
478032 | Sapr. | Hutton, H. | M.M.
478552 | Sapr. | Hawley, F. | M.M.
478250 | Sapr. | Rowley, C. W. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
478067 | Sapr. | Orwin, A. | M.M.
478651 | Sapr. | Mounsley, C. E. | M.M.
1336 | Sapr. | Webster, F. | M.M.
482538 | Sapr. | Wilkinson, J. | M.M.
93649 | Sapr. | Meanwell, F. | M.M.
482220 | Sapr. | Westmoreland, A. | M.M.
247370 | Sapr. | Paterson, W. | M.M.
479956 | Sapr. | Beaston, A. | M.M.
482212 | Sapr. | Brown, W. H. | M.M.
25257 | Sapr. | Ashton, W. | M.S.M.
134015 | Sapr. | Smith, T. C. | M.M.
542457 | Sapr. | Male, G. | M.M.
482445 | Sapr. | Grant, H. E. | M.M.
267748 | Sapr. | Richardson, J. | M.M.
151784 | Sapr. | Portch, A. B. | M.M.
482085 | Sapr. | Demming, S. A. | M.M.
482255 | Sapr. | Stockley, J. R. | M.M.
504257 | Sapr. | Thomas, S. G. F. | M.M.
1105 | Sapr. | Jennett, A. | D.C.M.
247382 | Sapr. | Holland, R. W. | M.M.
441908 | Sapr. | Connolly, J. E. | M.M.
217540 | Sapr. | Barker, T. E. | M.M.
1036 | Sapr. | Packard, G. | D.C.M.
1857 | Pioneer | Norris | M.M.
34808 | Pioneer | Sillence, E. | M.M.
1714 | Dr. | Wright, W. | M.M.
478050 | Dr. | France, C. | M.M.
23689 | Dr. | Akers, W. | Medaille Barbatie
| | | si Credinta,
| | | 3rd Class
1/5TH WEST YORKS. REGIMENT
| Lt.-Col. | Wood, C. E. | C.M.G.
| Lt.-Col. | Oddie, W. | D.S.O.
| | | Bar to D.S.O.
| Captain | Williamson, P. G. | M.C.
| Captain | Sowerby, G. | M.C.
| Captain | Pinder, J. (R.A.M.C.) | M.C.
| Captain | Freeman, W. H. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Captain | Ablett, B. E. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Captain | Wycherley, R. B. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Captain | Green, D. | M.C.
| Captain | Heaton, H. F. | M.C.
| Captain | Peters, J. C. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Jameson, J. L. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Mackay, K. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Birbeck, L. S. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Rushforth, J. W. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Shillaker, E. C. H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Gilesnan, T. D. C. | M.C.
| | | Croix de Guerre
| 2/Lieut. | Saxby, F. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Wallace, D. W. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Parker, J. W. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Irish, H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Hardwick, T. W. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | King, B. A. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Wilson, M. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Jones, S. L. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Berghoff, H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Todd, G. L. | M.C.
4713 | R.S.M. | Raynor, F. | D.C.M.
2210 | C.S.M. | Nicholson, J. C. | D.C.M.
1931 | C.S.M. | Lund, G. | D.C.M.
200593 | C.S.M. | Pattison, H. | D.C.M.
| | | Medal Militaire
2816 | C.Q.M.S. | Ronder, R. | M.M.
200025 | C.Q.M.S. | Calder, G. | M.S.M.
1470 | Sgt. | Morton, M. C. | D.C.M.
1161 | Sgt. | Tolley, G. | D.C.M.
1643 | Sgt. | Broughton, W. | M.M.
900 | Sgt. | Kitchen, G. | D.C.M.
203143 | Sgt. | Thornhill, R. | M.M.
200049 | Sgt. | Thompson, J. W. | M.M.
200620 | Sgt. | Hewson, A. | M.M.
6494 | Sgt. | Emerson, J. | D.C.M.
200610 | Sgt. | Willis, A. | M.M.
200875 | Sgt. | Ledgond, E. | D.C.M.
202272 | Sgt. | Waind, W. F. | Belgian Croix
| | | de Guerre
200510 | Sgt. | Henderson, J. | D.C.M.
200065 | Sgt. | Whinn, J. D. P. | M.S.M.
201063 | Sgt. | Long, A. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
200221 | Sgt. | Light, R. | M.M.
201114 | Sgt. | Ingleby, A. | M.M.
265375 | Sgt. | Kavanagh, P. | D.C.M.
202817 | Sgt. | Wilson, T. | M.M.
200788 | Sgt. | McQuade, J. C. | D.C.M.
200350 | Sgt. | Akers, J. | M.S.M.
2623 | Sgt. | Dracup, J. | M.M.
1441 | Cpl. | Richardson, J. W. | M.M.
1780 | Cpl. | Metcalf, A. | M.M.
201125 | Cpl. | Radbank, E. | M.M.
200789 | Cpl. | Raftery, J. | M.M.
200794 | Cpl. | Baldison, C. H. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
2629 | Cpl. | Tomlinson, H. A. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
4616 | Cpl. | White | M.M.
200575 | Cpl. | Lee, R. J. | M.M.
1799 | Cpl. | Foster, R. J. | M.M.
26285 | Cpl. | Buckroyd, J. | M.M.
2372 | Cpl. | Emmott, G. | M.M.
203042 | Cpl. | Cairns, E. | M.M.
1540 | Cpl. | Grice, E. W. | D.C.M.
1488 | L.-Cpl. | Atkinson, J. | D.C.M.
5968 | L.-Cpl. | Pascol, N. | D.C.M.
2755 | L.-Cpl. | Smith, F. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
2379 | L.-Cpl. | Haynes, H. | M.M.
7733 | L.-Cpl. | Benson, W. | M.M.
202721 | L.-Cpl. | Carney, T. | M.M.
201172 | L.-Cpl. | Wilson, H. | M.M.
21/394 | L.-Cpl. | Rastrick, W. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
66507 | L.-Cpl. | Wellington, H. H. | M.M.
62512 | L.-Cpl. | Avery, S. G. | M.M.
16/1553 | L.-Cpl. | Butterfield, F. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
241408 | L.-Cpl. | Marriott, C. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
54171 | L.-Cpl. | Payne, A. H. | M.M.
3727 | L.-Cpl. | Simpson, W. | M.M.
202714 | L.-Cpl. | Uttley, A. | M.M.
3501 | L.-Cpl. | Sutcliffe, W. | M.M.
306670 | L.-Cpl. | India, J. | M.M.
3091 | L.-Cpl. | Airey, M. S. | M.M.
62503 | L.-Cpl. | Green, E. | M.M.
1247 | L.-Cpl. | Corke, A. | M.M.
1790 | Pte. | Cook, A. W. | D.C.M.
2168 | Pte. | Usher, H. | D.C.M.
2158 | Pte. | Beech, N. W. | D.C.M.
1817 | Pte. | Allen, A. J. | M.M.
1666 | Pte. | Brown, F. | M.M.
2552 | Pte. | Dixon, F. W. | M.M.
3928 | Pte. | Brooks, A. | M.M.
1709 | Pte. | Trousdale, L. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
6517 | Pte. | Chadwick, G. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
201221 | Pte. | Twineham, G. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
3402 | Pte. | Farnhill, A. | D.C.M.
2688 | Pte. | Shillits, J. W. | M.M.
2518 | Pte. | Butler, B. | M.M.
2583 | Pte. | Maw, T. V. | M.M.
2220 | Pte. | McAndrew, B. | M.M.
1289 | Pte. | Clark, J. W. | M.M.
36959 | Pte. | Carr, H. | D.C.M.
202759 | Pte. | Lockwood, L. | M.M.
202967 | Pte. | Padgett, H. | M.M.
41282 | Pte. | Pickard, S. | M.M.
202162 | Pte. | Mitchell, C. | M.M.
200946 | Pte. | Bland, R. | M.M.
202152 | Pte. | Shepherd, W. | M.M.
200670 | Pte. | Blanshard, J. | M.M.
200726 | Pte. | Rogers, N. | M.M.
200703 | Pte. | Kitson, I. R. | M.M.
203134 | Pte. | Wilson, J. W. | M.M.
18/411 | Pte. | Howarth, H. | M.M.
18/1288 | Pte. | Pickles, H. | M.M.
203003 | Pte. | O’Connor, G. | M.C.
235031 | Pte. | Fawcett, H. | M.M.
983 | Pte. | Jowett, W. H. | M.M.
54131 | Pte. | Holeford, J. T. | M.M.
62513 | Pte. | Chandler, A. J. | M.M.
58951 | Pte. | Drake, W. H. | M.M.
240888 | Pte. | Watson, W. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
54901 | Pte. | Miller, J. | M.M.
22185 | Pte. | Dickens, F. | M.M.
9457 | Pte. | Birbeck, J. | M.M.
63020 | Pte. | Harrison, W. | M.M.
307593 | Pte. | Mackay, A. | Belgian Croix
| | | de Guerre
2485 | Pte. | Gatenby, W. A. | M.M.
310 | Pte. | Marshall, A. T. | M.M.
2292 | Pte. | Moss, C. E. | M.M.
4231 | Pte. | Greenwood, W. | M.M.
3506 | Pte. | Smith, C. | M.M.
201434 | Pte. | Grayson, J. | M.M.
1/6TH WEST YORKS. REGIMENT
| Lt.-Col. | Wade, H. O. | D.S.O.
| Lt.-Col. | Wistance, W. | M.C.
| | | D.S.O.
| Major | Clough, R. | M.C.
| Major | Hornshaw, F. G. | M.C.
| Captain | Sanderman, G. R. | M.C.
| Captain | Fawcett, R. A. | M.C.
| Captain | Armistead, T. E. | M.C.
| Captain | Fawcett, W. L. | M.C.
| Captain | Gordon, J. S. | M.C.
| Captain | Weighill, W. C. S. | M.C.
| Captain | Mossop, W. N. | M.C.
| Captain | Sanders, G., V.C. | M.C.
| Captain | Rees, G. F. G. | M.C.
| Captain | Stansfield, E. D. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Captain | Hill, W. H. | M.C.
| Captain | Muller, J. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Mitchell, H. | M.C.
| Lieut. | MacLusky, W. B. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Scales, W. A. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Speight, G. H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Tempest, E. V. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Hick, B. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Greenwood, L. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Illingworth, J. | M.C.
9 | R.S.M. | Barker, H. | M.C.
| | | D.C.M.
11572 | R.S.M. | Sugden, A. | D.C.M.
| | | M.S.M.
229 | C.S.M. | Walmsley, W. | Croix de Guerre
240037 | C.S.M. | Moorhouse, W. | Belgian Croix
| | | de Guerre
260007 | C.S.M. | Padgett, C. | M.M.
240144 | C.S.M. | Wallace, A. | M.M.
298 | Q.M.S. | Paisey, J. L. | D.C.M.
1809 | C.Q.M.S. | Woodhead, C. | M.S.M.
1147 | Sgt. | Meckosha, S. | V.C.
1140 | Sgt. | Kelly, J. W. | D.C.M.
1773 | Sgt. | Simpson, C. G. | D.C.M.
2626 | Sgt. | Sayers, J. | D.C.M.
79 | Sgt. | Banks, H. | D.C.M.
1259 | Sgt. | Stanton, W. | M.M.
2623 | Sgt. | Dracup, J. | M.M.
3539 | Sgt. | Bradley, E. | D.C.M.
| | | Cross of St.
| | | George 4th
| | | Class
324 | Sgt. | King, H. R. | M.M.
2450 | Sgt. | Sunter, T. | M.S.M.
1706 | Sgt. | McIvor, R. G. | M.M.
2044 | Sgt. | Fairbank, F. E. | M.M.
241048 | Sgt. | Browne, W. | D.C.M.
240980 | Sgt. | Powell, F. | M.M.
240398 | Sgt. | Ward, J. | M.S.M.
240197 | Sgt. | Chapman, S. | M.S.M.
241856 | Sgt. | Cheer, R. | M.M.
9230 | Sgt. | Bagnall, T. | M.M.
242634 | Sgt. | Sharp, B. | M.S.M.
1165 | Cpl. | Smith, A. | D.C.M.
2474 | Cpl. | Ellison, W. | D.C.M.
1799 | Cpl. | Foster, R. J. | M.M.
4616 | Cpl. | White, W. | M.M.
2372 | Cpl. | Emmott, G. | M.M.
1908 | Cpl. | Mee, H. | M.M.
1500 | Cpl. | Hutchinson, W. | M.M.
241215 | Cpl. | Davies, J. | M.M.
241764 | Cpl. | Bradley, G. | M.M.
242637 | Cpl. | Brown, A. P. | D.C.M.
240143 | Cpl. | Turton, H. | M.M.
72577 | Cpl. | Clacey, E. | M.M.
240883 | Cpl. | Stott, W. | M.M.
1140 | Cpl. | Kelly, J. W. | D.C.M.
1266 | L.-Cpl. | Wilkinson, E. J. | D.C.M.
3225 | L.-Cpl. | Johnson, E. | D.C.M.
3727 | L.-Cpl. | Simpson, W. | M.M.
1249 | L.-Cpl. | Corke, A. | M.M.
2091 | L.-Cpl. | Airey, N. G. | M.M.
3301 | L.-Cpl. | Sutcliffe, W. | M.M.
372 | L.-Cpl. | Simpson, W. G. | D.C.M.
1360 | L.-Cpl. | Wilcock, H. | D.C.M.
4539 | L.-Cpl. | Silverwood, A. | M.M.
241126 | L.-Cpl. | O’Donnell, G. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
241394 | L.-Cpl. | Hird, W. | M.M.
242770 | L.-Cpl. | Thomas, D. | M.M.
242490 | L.-Cpl. | Middleton, W. | M.M.
240737 | L.-Cpl. | Woolham, H. | M.M.
242864 | L.-Cpl. | Poole, E. P. | M.M.
20/37 | L.-Cpl. | Smithies, D. | M.M.
42398 | L.-Cpl. | Shepherd, G. F. | M.M.
62922 | L.-Cpl. | Smythe, C. G. | M.M.
54179 | L.-Cpl. | Rough, C. E. | M.M.
372 | L.-Cpl. | Simpson, W. G. | D.C.M.
2424 | Pte. | Preston, E. | D.C.M.
2315 | Pte. | Francis, W. | D.C.M.
2190 | Pte. | Kenmore, E. M. | D.C.M.
1418 | Pte. | Hodgson, G. H. | M.M.
2292 | Pte. | Moss, E. | M.M.
3107 | Pte. | Marshall, A. T. | M.M.
4274 | Pte. | Greenwood, W. | M.M.
3506 | Pte. | Smith, C. | M.M.
4539 | Pte. | Silverwood, A. | D.C.M.
31822 | Pte. | Nicholson, W. | D.C.M.
1263 | Pte. | Cooke, B. | M.M.
3808 | Pte. | Cawthra, M. | M.M.
1756 | Pte. | Bradley, T. | M.M.
1608 | Pte. | Coupland, A. | M.M.
2503 | Pte. | Dawson, J. H. | M.M.
242747 | Pte. | Howe, A. G. | M.M.
241548 | Pte. | Marton, E. | M.M.
242878 | Pte. | Horner, A. J. | M.M.
242826 | Pte. | Charlton, W. | M.M.
242614 | Pte. | Sweet, J. | M.M.
240344 | Pte. | Cassarley, V. | M.M.
240910 | Pte. | Walker, J. | M.M.
211568 | Pte. | Thistlethwaite, L. | M.M.
240787 | Pte. | Woddiwiss, C. B. | M.M.
240174 | Pte. | Hainsworth, A. | M.M.
242520 | Pte. | Hirst, W. | M.M.
242897 | Pte. | Dodds, C. | M.M.
62974 | Pte. | Swinton, A. R. | M.M.
54181 | Pte. | Rawding, H. T. | M.M.
62911 | Pte. | Porte, A. D. | M.M.
18104 | Pte. | King, H. | D.C.M.
240180 | Pte. | Evans, H. | D.C.M.
202059 | Pte. | Hanson, R. | M.M.
16/1532 | Pte. | Dalby, H. | M.M.
15/1622 | Pte. | Pawson, R. | M.M.
62621 | Pte. | Hitman, A. J. | M.M.
238233 | Pte. | Hawkins, E. T. | M.M.
50749 | Pte. | Johnson, T. J. | M.M.
63690 | Pte. | Hardy, D. | M.M.
62611 | Pte. | Reed, G. W. | M.M.
21717 | Pte. | Butler, D. | M.M.
15887 | Pte. | Pickles, B. | M.M.
1/7TH WEST YORKS. REGIMENT
| Lt.-Col. | Bousfield, H. D. | C.M.G.
| | | D.S.O.
| | | Belgian Croix
| | | de Guerre
| Lt.-Col. | Tetley, C. H. | D.S.O.
| Major | Braithwaite, W. H. | M.C.
| Captain | Redmayne, J. B. | M.C.
| Captain | Walling, E. | M.C.
| | | French Croix
| | | de Guerre
| Captain | Foulds, C. L. | M.C.
| Captain | Booth, G. L. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Noone, W. J. S. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Haydon, P. M. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Desprez, L. W. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Swift, A. E. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Smith, C. J. B. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Glazebrook, A. R. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Baldwin, F. J. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Feather, N. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Dickinson, T. E. | M.C.
265012 | R.S.M. | Stembridge, F. | D.C.M.
265001 | R.Q.M.S. | Rhodes, H. | M.S.M.
25 | C.S.M. | Lodge, H. | D.C.M.
1610 | C.S.M. | Fenton, H. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
267579 | C.S.M. | Allerton, A. | D.C.M.
265703 | C.S.M. | Cushworth, G. | D.C.M.
| | | Belgian Croix
| | | de Guerre
265079 | C.S.M. | Peacock, H. E. | M.S.M.
305665 | C.S.M. | Turner, W. | D.C.M.
433 | C.Q.M.S. | Wilkinson, F. | D.C.M.
566 | Sgt. | Coates, J. | D.C.M.
| | | Croix de Guerre
1931 | Sgt. | Elliott, J. H. | M.M.
3203 | Sgt. | Sanders, G. | V.C.
773 | Sgt. | Denbigh, P. | M.M.
2032 | Sgt. | Chaplin, A. | M.M.
1370 | Sgt. | Chickley. H. | M.M.
266906 | Sgt. | Sanderson, S. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
265069 | Sgt. | Bourne, H. | M.M.
266959 | Sgt. | Lightfoot, H. | M.M.
265437 | Sgt. | Yeadon, E. | Belgian Croix
| | | de Guerre
266654 | Sgt. | McNichol, M. | D.C.M.
268855 | Sgt. | Train, J. | M.M.
266627 | Sgt. | Ibbitson, G. | M.M.
265005 | Sgt. | Wortley, R. | M.S.M.
265556 | Sgt. | Guchrie, G. H. | Croix de Guerre
2953 | Sgt. | Read, N. | M.M.
1601 | L.-Sgt. | Cawgill, J. | D.C.M.
265534 | L.-Sgt. | Beevers, C. | M.M.
307880 | L.-Sgt. | Cross, S. | M.M.
3017 | Cpl. | Bentley, J. | D.C.M.
2625 | Cpl. | Makin, W. | D.C.M.
4137 | Cpl. | Cook, L. | Bronze Medal for
| | | Military Valour
265816 | Cpl. | Dennison, E. | M.M.
266121 | Cpl. | Moss, J. | D.C.M.
268080 | Cpl. | Fryer, E. | M.M.
265590 | Cpl. | Stothard, W. | M.M.
2991 | L.-Cpl. | Ingleby, H. | M.M.
2050 | L.-Cpl. | Anderson, J. | M.M.
3176 | L.-Cpl. | Pickles, P. | M.M.
2103 | L.-Cpl. | Fawcett, A. | M.M.
3000 | L.-Cpl. | Kirk, L. | M.M.
1847 | L.-Cpl. | Moss, J. C. | D.C.M.
265470 | L.-Cpl. | Vince, F. | M.M.
2330 | L.-Cpl. | Beanland, C. | Croix de Guerre
267752 | L.-Cpl. | Pullan, F. H. | M.M.
265658 | L.-Cpl. | Craker, C. W. | M.M.
268059 | L.-Cpl. | Turner, E. | M.M.
367846 | L.-Cpl. | Newson, A. | M.M.
265321 | L.-Cpl. | Metcalf, J. | M.M.
265311 | L.-Cpl. | Strickland, G. H. | M.M.
265864 | L.-Cpl. | Smith, G. | M.M.
265948 | L.-Cpl. | Sheard, A. | M.M.
267772 | L.-Cpl. | Hart, G. A. | M.M.
267581 | L.-Cpl. | Hawkins, A. | M.M.
59616 | L.-Cpl. | Kinsman, J. W. | M.M.
266235 | L.-Cpl. | Schofield, W. | M.M.
265233 | L.-Cpl. | Agar, T. W. | M.M.
1971 | Rfm. | Garrity, M. | D.C.M.
1215 | Rfm. | Waters, L. | D.C.M.
2154 | Rfm. | Worth, J. | D.C.M.
1966 | Rfm. | Emmett, H. | M.M.
4487 | Rfm. | Hawland, W. | M.M.
2775 | Rfm. | Blackburn, G. W. | Medal St. George
| | | 4th Class
2036 | Rfm. | Evans, G. H. | M.M.
266684 | Rfm. | Dickinson, A. | M.M.
265924 | Rfm. | Musgrove, J. W. | M.M.
268037 | Rfm. | Smith, H. | M.M.
265771 | Rfm. | Millson, H. | M.M.
267859 | Rfm. | Lincoln, H. | M.M.
267950 | Rfm. | Hall, N. A. | M.M.
241714 | Rfm. | Duckworth, W. | M.M.
267787 | Rfm. | Goggin, J. | M.M.
307675 | Rfm. | Dinsdale, G. | M.M.
266897 | Rfm. | Woodcock, E. | M.M.
201234 | Rfm. | Exilby, T. | M.M.
242583 | Rfm. | Haylock, G. | M.M.
62762 | Rfm. | Lyons, J. | M.M.
236366 | Rfm. | Watkin, J. W. | M.M.
242336 | Rfm. | Bottomley, J. | M.M.
268041 | Rfm. | Lindsell, J. W. | M.M.
266763 | Rfm. | Smith, H. | M.M.
62708 | Rfm. | Craddock, J. W. | M.M.
54405 | Rfm. | Hart, L. | M.M.
39620 | Rfm. | Smith, S. L. | M.M.
265771 | Rfm. | Wilson, H. | M.M.
266958 | Rfm. | Conlon, H. | M.M.
3017 | Rfm. | Bentley, J. | D.C.M.
1512 | Pte. | Cooper, J. W. | M.M.
268534 | Pte. | Hudson, D. | D.C.M.
265616 | Pte. | Capp, A. H. | D.C.M.
307876 | Pte. | Chapman, H. W. | M.M.
307898 | Pte. | Rudder, J. | M.M.
1/8TH WEST YORKS. REGIMENT
| Lt.-Col. | Alexander, J. W. | D.S.O.
| Major | Hudson, R. A. | D.S.O.
| Major | Sykes, S. S. | M.C.
| Major | Longbottom, T. | D.S.O.
| Captain | Brooke, W. H. | M.C.
| Captain | Burke, H. J. (R.A.M.C.) | M.C.
| Lieut. | Lupton, H. R. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Allexander, J. C. K. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Wilkinson, E. F. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Smith, F. W. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Worsley, W. E. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Kemp, W. G. | M.C.
268228 | R.S.M. | Hemmingway, H. | D.C.M.
305509 | R.Q.M.S. | Pickersgill, F. | M.S.M.
305126 | C.S.M. | Spence, C. C. | D.C.M.
22501 | C.Q.M.S. | Smith, F. T. | M.M.
721 | Sgt. | Fretwell, C. N. | D.C.M.
559 | Sgt. | Pearson, A. | D.C.M.
2505 | Sgt. | Coulson, C. | D.C.M.
2063 | Sgt. | Archer, H. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
305601 | Sgt. | Flockton, J. | D.C.M.
307153 | Sgt. | Inglis, A. | M.M.
1983 | Cpl. | Green, E. | D.C.M.
306198 | Cpl. | Pearson, E. | Belgian Croix
| | | de Guerre
132 | L.-Cpl. | Thackray, H. | D.C.M.
2970 | L.-Cpl. | Wright, H. | D.C.M.
3377 | L.-Cpl. | Cunliffe, E. | M.M.
1757 | L.-Cpl. | Blaizmire, G. A. | M.M.
2503 | Rfm. | Dodd, A. | D.C.M.
1266 | Rfm. | Clough, J. | D.C.M.
2634 | Rfm. | Benson, A. | D.C.M.
2229 | Rfm. | Stead, W. | D.C.M.
4320 | Rfm. | Smith, J. | D.C.M.
2750 | Rfm. | Webster, F. | M.M.
268178 | Rfm. | Talbot, H. | M.M.
305096 | Rfm. | Nicholson, E. O. | M.M.
13569 | Rfm. | Bateman, W. | M.M.
307706 | Rfm. | Webb, E. | M.M.
305888 | Rfm. | Grant, J. | M.M.
307180 | Rfm. | Culley, A. | M.M.
1/4TH WEST RIDING REGIMENT
| Lt.-Col. | Sugden, R. E. | D.S.O.
| | | Bar to D.S.O.
| Lt.-Col. | Mowat, A. L. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| | | D.S.O.
| Major | Stanton, H. A. S. | D.S.O.
| Captain | Sykes, E. E. | M.C.
| Captain | Greaves, S. S. | M.C.
| | (R.A.M.C.) |
| Captain | Mowat, J. G. | M.C.
| Captain | Fenton, W. C. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Captain | Marshall, E. N. | M.C.
| Captain | Geldard, N. | M.C.
| Captain | Farrar, N. T. | M.C.
| Captain | Luty, A. M. | M.C.
| Captain | Kirk, A. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Everitt, W. N. | M.C.
| Lieut. | King, M. H. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Blakey, E. V. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Mackie, W. G. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Bales, P. G. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Irish, F. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Innes, F. A. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Blackwell, F. V. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Ackroyd, H. H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Gumby, L. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Huggard, B. H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Newman, N. R. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Jessop, T. E. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Lumb, J. W. | M.C.
83 | R.Q.M.S. | Lee, W. | M.C.
2353 | C.S.M. | Stirzaker, A. | D.C.M.
2350 | C.S.M. | Stirzaker, F. P. | M.C.
200441 | C.S.M. | Medley, W. | M.C.
| | | Medal Militaire
235227 | C.S.M. | Brooke, N. | D.C.M.
200598 | C.S.M. | Parkinson, J. | D.C.M.
200135 | C.S.M. | Haigh, H. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
235524 | C.S.M. | Yates, J. C. | M.M.
2040 | Sgt. | Clarke, T. H. | D.C.M.
5793 | Sgt. | Johnson, F. | M.M.
2413 | Sgt. | Sheard, J. S. | M.M.
6750 | Sgt. | Moscrop, C. | D.C.M.
1485 | Sgt. | Hodgson, A. M. | M.M.
73 | Sgt. | Moran, P. | M.M.
2364 | Sgt. | Wilson, J. | M.M.
1002 | Sgt. | Flather, J. N. | M.M.
601 | Sgt. | McNulty, A. | M.M.
30 | Sgt. | Crossley, J. W. | M.M.
200192 | Sgt. | Smith, H. | M.M.
235519 | Sgt. | Binns, W. | D.C.M.
200064 | Sgt. | Naylor, C. | Belgian Croix
| | | de Guerre
200688 | Sgt. | Jones, E. | M.S.M.
200483 | Sgt. | Firth, F. | M.S.M.
200298 | Sgt. | Brown, F. J. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
200453 | Sgt. | Bancroft, J. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
203229 | Sgt. | Mann, J. | D.C.M.
200653 | Sgt. | Brunt, R. G. | M.M.
200055 | Sgt. | Flitcroft, S. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
242567 | Sgt. | Smith, A. | M.M.
200763 | Sgt. | Whittaker, A. | M.M.
203305 | Sgt. | Wilson, R. | D.C.M.
15805 | Sgt. | Loosemoor, A. | V.C.
| | | D.C.M.
203336 | Sgt. | Bolt, A. A. | M.M.
13014 | Sgt. | Thompson, W. | M.M.
200101 | Sgt. | Turner, E. | M.M.
201125 | Sgt. | Chilton, T. | M.M.
201178 | Sgt. | Knowles, J. | M.M.
201191 | Sgt. | Wood, F. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
203252 | Sgt. | Foster, W. D. | D.C.M.
242274 | Sgt. | Redpath, J. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
10737 | Sgt. | Kay, S. | M.M.
16075 | Sgt. | Widdop, J. | M.M.
306365 | Sgt. | Barnes, W. | M.M.
200143 | Sgt. | Downes, N. | D.C.M.
201219 | L.-Sgt. | Jessop, S. | M.M.
200396 | L.-Sgt. | Maskimmon, A. | M.M.
203349 | L.-Sgt. | Field, F. J. | D.C.M.
201012 | L.-Sgt. | McHugh, P. | M.M.
1495 | Cpl. | Landale, C. | D.C.M.
855 | Cpl. | Ashworth, E. | D.C.M.
3060 | Cpl. | Bancroft, W. | D.C.M.
1605 | Cpl. | Bailey, G. A. | M.M.
1747 | Cpl. | Jackison, E. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
1535 | Cpl. | Walker, J. | Bronze Medal for
| | | Military Valour
201186 | Cpl. | Taylor, V. | M.M.
201295 | Cpl. | Wilson, B. | M.M.
200204 | Cpl. | Wainwright, H. | M.M.
242371 | Cpl. | Brown, W. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
200127 | Cpl. | Gledhill, R. | M.M.
203217 | Cpl. | Brice, A. | M.M.
240168 | Cpl. | Spring, F. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
238031 | Cpl. | Varley, J. W. | M.M.
200681 | Cpl. | Mitchell, W. H. | M.M.
200153 | L.-Cpl. | Mortimer, C. | M.M.
200096 | L.-Cpl. | Barker, S. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
201013 | L.-Cpl. | Mitchell, A. R. | M.M.
203285 | L.-Cpl. | Kam, R. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
202664 | L.-Cpl. | Jennings, B. | M.M.
202042 | L.-Cpl. | Brook, E. | M.M.
200053 | L.-Cpl. | Beverley, A. | M.M.
200146 | L.-Cpl. | Ennis, J. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
200130 | L.-Cpl. | Lancaster, J. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
203351 | L.-Cpl. | Moon, A. | D.C.M.
202936 | L.-Cpl. | Hudson, R. A. | D.C.M.
220539 | L.-Cpl. | Whiteley, H. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
201886 | L.-Cpl. | Birkinshaw, G. | M.M.
26498 | L.-Cpl. | Barber, G. W. | M.M.
203371 | L.-Cpl. | North, G. | M.M.
201893 | L.-Cpl. | Bolton, C. | M.M.
| | | Croix de Guerre
200134 | L.-Cpl. | Ryder, J. W. | M.M.
267198 | L.-Cpl. | Driver, H. | M.M.
203285 | L.-Cpl. | Fane, N. | M.M.
202746 | L.-Cpl. | Rhodes, F. | M.M.
202042 | L.-Cpl. | Booth, E. | M.M.
202787 | L.-Cpl. | Broadbent, G. | M.M.
3406 | Pte. | Sykes, H. | M.M.
1063 | Pte. | Murray, W. | M.M.
1889 | Pte. | Royals, S. | M.M.
6606 | Pte. | Swinburne, R. | M.M.
6520 | Pte. | Metcalf, W. | M.M.
6598 | Pte. | Bowers, J. | M.M.
1645 | Pte. | Knox, R. | M.M.
1715 | Pte. | Bibby, H. | M.M.
203177 | Pte. | Brabben, S. R. | M.M.
202120 | Pte. | Conroy, T. | M.M.
203649 | Pte. | Dewar, J. | M.M.
201923 | Pte. | Meneghan, T. | M.M.
203480 | Pte. | Hookham, F. | M.M.
201879 | Pte. | Gallow, J. | M.M.
200172 | Pte. | Dennis, N. | M.M.
203188 | Pte. | Lowth, H. | M.M.
235253 | Pte. | Green, G. | M.M.
201689 | Pte. | Naylor, J. H. | M.M.
203551 | Pte. | Howker, W. | M.M.
201687 | Pte. | Howarth, F. | M.M.
200320 | Pte. | Walsh, C. | M.M.
203178 | Pte. | Berridge, J. T. | M.M.
203595 | Pte. | Beckley, W. | M.M.
203193 | Pte. | Pearson, G. | M.M.
200488 | Pte. | Lee, O. | M.M.
203728 | Pte. | Haggas, E. | M.M.
16465 | Pte. | Binns, H. | M.M.
202433 | Pte. | Burfoot, T. | M.M.
202149 | Pte. | Taylor, J. W. | M.M.
203390 | Pte. | Scales, F. | M.M.
203513 | Pte. | Foster, G. A. | M.M.
203650 | Pte. | Denham, H. | M.M.
203072 | Pte. | Inman, W. | M.M.
202888 | Pte. | Scruton, W. A. | M.M.
203441 | Pte. | Atkinson, J. H. | M.M.
242371 | Pte. | Tibb, J. | M.M.
201336 | Pte. | Pettit, F. | M.M.
203352 | Pte. | Nichols, T. | M.M.
24066 | Pte. | Poulter, A. | V.C.
203517 | Pte. | Hurtley, T. | M.M.
203501 | Pte. | Atkinson, J. T. N. | M.M.
26515 | Pte. | Cresswell, A. | M.M.
235120 | Pte. | Witts, F. | M.M.
201883 | Pte. | Sutcliffe, A. | M.M.
26010 | Pte. | Bishop, A. | M.M.
200504 | Pte. | Limb, J. | M.M.
242821 | Pte. | Firth, P. | M.M.
242874 | Pte. | Emmett, R. | M.M.
202410 | Pte. | Brookes, J. W. | M.M.
203315 | Pte. | Hinchecliffe, B. | M.M.
34005 | Pte. | Wall, A. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
34007 | Pte. | Webster, H. | M.M.
202669 | Pte. | North, T. | M.M.
202647 | Pte. | Dawson, H. | M.M.
242202 | Pte. | Ryder, G. | M.M.
12682 | Pte. | Henderson, H. | M.M.
202579 | Pte. | Brooksbank, N. | M.M.
306873 | Pte. | Proctor, T. | M.M.
33014 | Pte. | Johnson, J. E. | M.M.
26524 | Pte. | Davies, H. S. | M.M.
203451 | Pte. | Dobson, V. T. | M.M.
32897 | Pte. | Sambrooks, E. | M.M.
238181 | Pte. | Lowe, W. | M.M.
26271 | Pte. | Young, J. | M.M.
200471 | Pte. | Andrews, C. | M.M.
201353 | Pte. | Firth, C. | M.M.
1/5TH WEST RIDING REGIMENT
| Lt.-Col. | Norton, G. P. | D.S.O.
| Lt.-Col. | Walker, J. | D.S.O.
| | | Belgian Croix
| | | de Guerre
| Major | Crosland, G. W. K. | D.S.O.
| Major | Rendall, F. H. S. | D.S.O.
| Captain | Sykes, K. | M.C.
| Captain | Cockhill, J. B. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Lieut. | Golding, H. C. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Mollett, B. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Broadbent, A. V. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Browning, H. O. | M.C.
2418 | R.S.M. | Columbine, T. W. O. | M.C.
| R.S.M. | Baster, R. | D.C.M.
183 | C.S.M. | Sykes, H. J. | D.C.M.
4 | C.S.M. | Tiffany, C. E. | M.C.
240358 | C.S.M. | Fisher, W. | Belgian Croix
| | | de Guerre
| | | D.C.M.
| | | Bar to D.C.M.
1644 | Sgt. | Fuller, G. A. | D.C.M.
2672 | Sgt. | Cox, C. | M.M.
2923 | Sgt. | Lee, C. | M.M.
2664 | Sgt. | Gardner, C. H. | M.M.
2873 | Sgt. | Goldsborough, A. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
2249 | Sgt. | Ellis, W. | M.M.
6813 | Sgt. | Bull, A. H. J. | M.M.
1117 | Sgt. | Rogers, J. | M.M.
1434 | Sgt. | Whiteley, L. L. | M.M.
2743 | Sgt. | Lamb, J. | M.M.
242879 | Sgt. | Hazle, R. | M.M.
242548 | Sgt. | Kenyon, A. | M.M.
240525 | Sgt. | Callins, E. | M.S.M.
2670 | L.-Sgt. | Convoy | D.C.M.
1553 | L.-Sgt. | Holdsworth, F. E. | M.M.
2806 | L.-Sgt. | Blackburn, H. | M.M.
2331 | Cpl. | Black, D. | D.C.M.
| | | Croix de Guerre
2107 | Cpl. | Ferguson, A. | M.M.
2201 | Cpl. | Schofield, G. A. | M.M.
2123 | Cpl. | Allen, W. B. | M.M.
2533 | Cpl. | Broughton, J. T. | M.M.
3513 | Cpl. | Warner, S. | Medaille
| | | Militaire
2578 | Cpl. | Faulkes, H. | M.M.
241337 | Cpl. | Siswick, B. | D.C.M.
240112 | Cpl. | Wilkinson, G. E. | M.M.
240088 | Cpl. | Meeriman, H. S. | M.M.
240076 | Cpl. | Lee, S. H. | D.C.M.
1776 | L.-Cpl. | Sheard, H. L. | D.C.M.
3610 | L.-Cpl. | Smith, N. | M.M.
2380 | L.-Cpl. | Caine, F. | M.M.
6579 | L.-Cpl. | Kerwyn, J. | M.M.
240368 | L.-Cpl. | Halstead, T. | M.M.
4150 | Pte. | Thomas, H. | M.M.
5958 | Pte. | Rowlandson, A. | M.M.
7122 | Pte. | Short, J. | M.M.
53972 | Pte. | Pearson, W. | M.M.
3136 | Pte. | Mitchell, G. H. | M.M.
2298 | Pte. | Lancaster, H. | M.M.
3291 | Pte. | Kaye, E. | M.M.
3594 | Pte. | Garside, J. | M.M.
4246 | Pte. | Smith, R. S. | M.M.
3451 | Pte. | North, A. | M.M.
6769 | Pte. | Thomas, W. | M.M.
6829 | Pte. | Saunders, W. | M.M.
6826 | Pte. | Chilvers, E. B. | M.M.
6775 | Pte. | Flowers, F. | M.M.
6834 | Pte. | Turner, H. L. | M.M.
6822 | Pte. | Wasey, E. | M.M.
6818 | Pte. | Legget, V. S. | M.M.
3251 | Pte. | Armitage, A. | M.M.
2159 | Pte. | Swain, W. H. | M.M.
241325 | Pte. | Hinchliffe, F. | M.M.
242871 | Pte. | Hey, W. | M.M.
242896 | Pte. | Balmforth, M. | M.M.
242488 | Pte. | Taxley, R. T. | M.M.
242136 | Pte. | Blakeborough, P. | M.M.
241432 | Pte. | Schofield, H. | M.M.
240274 | Pte. | Archer, W. | M.M.
242408 | Pte. | Sykes, F. | M.M.
240521 | Pte. | Woodcock, R. | M.M.
242391 | Pte. | Bradbury, A. | M.M.
240433 | Pte. | Crossland, W. D. | M.M.
242070 | Pte. | Lilley, H. S. | D.C.M.
204126 | Pte. | Whittaker, W. C. | D.C.M.
242454 | Pte. | Arnold, V. A. | M.M.
24960 | Pte. | Brummett, S. | M.M.
242628 | Pte. | Matthews, S. | M.M.
242455 | Pte. | Frost, F. | M.M.
242034 | Pte. | Castle, F. | M.M.
240514 | Pte. | Taylor, J. W. | M.M.
240176 | Pte. | Hynes, H. | M.M.
240310 | Pte. | Graham, H. | M.M.
242439 | Pte. | Raistrick, T. | M.M.
268495 | Pte. | Bell, E. E. | M.M.
242063 | Pte. | McMinney, T. H. | M.M.
240510 | Pte. | Taylor, G. H. | M.M.
240743 | Pte. | Thornhill, H. | Croix de Guerre
1/6TH WEST RIDING REGIMENT
| Lt.-Col. | Bateman, C. M. | D.S.O.
| | | Bar to D.S.O.
| Major | Clarkson, A. B. | D.S.O.
| | | M.C.
| Captain | Chaffers, W. B. | M.C.
| Captain | Smith, F. L. | M.C.
| Captain | Clough, S. H. | M.C.
| Captain | Buxton, B. G. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Captain | Smith, A. P. | M.C.
| Captain | Stoker, S. P. | M.C.
| Captain | Marriner, S. F. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Proctor, J. N. W. A. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Hart, J. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Lowther, C. H. E. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Hopwood, H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Denison, J. W. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Whitehead, A. M. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Farrar, H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Spratt, W. | M.C.
2879 | R.S.M. | Buckley, O. | M.C.
265015 | R.S.M. | Richardson, T. | D.C.M.
838 | C.S.M. | Robinson, W. J. | D.C.M.
265080 | C.S.M. | Wiseman, E. | D.C.M.
265413 | C.S.M. | Limmer, T. W. | M.C.
| | | M.M.
265661 | C.S.M. | McDermott, O. | D.C.M.
| | | Belgian Croix
| | | de Guerre
265991 | C.Q.M.S. | Thompson, B. | M.S.M.
265037 | C.Q.M.S. | Norton, J. | M.S.M.
2663 | Sgt. | Garrett, P. H. | D.C.M.
2308 | Sgt. | Bury, J. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
2337 | Sgt. | Hartley, H. | M.M.
3370 | Sgt. | Whiteley, J. | M.M.
32 | Sgt. | Webster, J. | M.M.
2165 | Sgt. | Limmer, G. W. | M.M.
1560 | Sgt. | Watson, J. | M.M.
2002 | Sgt. | Bateson, J. | M.M.
33 | Sgt. | Field, P. | M.M.
266611 | Sgt. | Partridge, H. | M.M.
268394 | Sgt. | Pass, W. | M.M.
265626 | Sgt. | Cryer, F. | M.M.
265642 | Sgt. | Rachy, C. | M.M.
265395 | Sgt. | Harding, C. | M.M.
265113 | Sgt. | Driver, H. | D.C.M.
265676 | Sgt. | Broom, J. J. | D.C.M.
265270 | Sgt. | Crawshaw, C. | M.M.
300029 | Sgt. | Laycock, H. | M.M.
300131 | Sgt. | Godwin, G. E. | M.M.
267914 | Sgt. | Sykes, A. | D.C.M.
268650 | Sgt. | Rosenthal, E. | D.C.M.
265433 | Sgt. | Calvert, G. E. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
265988 | Sgt. | Turner, F. | M.M.
266791 | Sgt. | Reeder, D. | M.M.
24601 | Sgt. | Cuerer, W. | M.M.
265595 | Sgt. | Burns, J. | M.M.
2631 | L.-Sgt. | Hepworth, J. S. | M.M.
265851 | L.-Sgt. | Bailey, J. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
265527 | L.-Sgt. | Calvert, J. | D.C.M.
265484 | L.-Sgt. | Green, T. | D.C.M.
265883 | Cpl. | Emmett, W. | M.M.
265239 | Cpl. | Crook, C. | M.M.
265115 | Cpl. | Driver, G. | D.C.M.
265253 | Cpl. | Fredrickson, E. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
268056 | Cpl. | Joynes, E. | M.M.
265067 | Cpl. | Bryden, H. | M.M.
265264 | Cpl. | Page, G. | M.M.
265178 | Cpl. | Gibson, W. | D.C.M.
265694 | Cpl. | Barton, P. | M.M.
266534 | Cpl. | Midgley, A. | M.M.
| | | Croix de Guerre
267498 | Cpl. | Barrett, H. | M.M.
265195 | Cpl. | Swindon, H. | D.C.M.
265663 | Cpl. | Chapman, J. | M.M.
265447 | Cpl. | Kennedy, H. | D.C.M.
16519 | Cpl. | Hansford, G. H. | M.M.
26597 | Cpl. | Swift, W. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
200191 | Cpl. | Woodhead, J. A. | M.M.
267465 | Cpl. | Fisher, S. | M.M.
49680 | Cpl. | Culclough, E. | M.M.
315323 | Cpl. | Roebuck, A. | M.M.
265962 | Cpl. | Best, W. H. | M.M.
265556 | Cpl. | Jones, L. | Medaille
| | | Militaire
2930 | L.-Cpl. | Bailey, E. | M.M.
2618 | L.-Cpl. | Brassington, T. W. | M.M.
2066 | L.-Cpl. | Hicks, W. | M.M.
265588 | L.-Cpl. | Grainger, C. | M.M.
265086 | L.-Cpl. | Dixon, V. | M.M.
265086 | L.-Cpl. | Wimblett, H. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
269276 | L.-Cpl. | Hartley, C. | M.M.
267892 | L.-Cpl. | Scarff, J. W. | M.M.
23464 | L.-Cpl. | Varley, J. | M.M.
266453 | L.-Cpl. | Smale, R. | M.M.
265095 | L.-Cpl. | Williams, L. | M.M.
267433 | L.-Cpl. | Ames, W. G. | M.M.
265695 | L.-Cpl. | Edwards, F. | M.M.
265595 | L.-Cpl. | Kaye, H. | M.M.
2367 | Pte. | Bracewell, F. | D.C.M.
2524 | Pte. | Crook, R. | M.M.
3360 | Pte. | Pickup, J. E. | D.C.M.
2026 | Pte. | Scott, A. B. | M.M.
2304 | Pte. | Scott, J. | M.M.
3050 | Pte. | Falshaw, J. | M.M.
4122 | Pte. | Pilkington, L. | M.M.
2106 | Pte. | Rhodes, C. | M.M.
3128 | Pte. | Snowdon, R. | M.M.
3376 | Pte. | Brook, T. | M.M.
3358 | Pte. | Harrison, G. | M.M.
2249 | Pte. | Bradley, J. E. | M.M.
266478 | Pte. | Dickinson, F. | M.M.
204463 | Pte. | Bloom, J. | M.M.
265940 | Pte. | Smith, J. W. | M.M.
266505 | Pte. | Bibby, J. | D.C.M.
266789 | Pte. | Smith, J. | M.M.
265237 | Pte. | Hook, G. | M.M.
267840 | Pte. | Field, E. | M.M.
266375 | Pte. | Metcalf, J. | M.M.
265171 | Pte. | Caulfield, J. | M.M.
267516 | Pte. | Hirst, W. R. | M.M.
266877 | Pte. | Nelson, J. | M.M.
267410 | Pte. | Cole, W. C. | M.M.
266498 | Pte. | Oversby, E. | M.M.
267615 | Pte. | Boocock, H. A. | M.M.
268237 | Pte. | Fawcett, E. | M.M.
266994 | Pte. | Lord, J. C. | M.M.
267901 | Pte. | Batley, J. F. | M.M.
267536 | Pte. | Flatt, G. | M.M.
204646 | Pte. | Trollope, G. R. | M.M.
266763 | Pte. | Nichol, B. | M.M.
26129 | Pte. | Law, T. | M.M.
268523 | Pte. | Lawson, J. | D.C.M.
12515 | Pte. | Jefferson, J. | M.M.
267596 | Pte. | Richardson, J. H. | M.M.
265611 | Pte. | Maude, G. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
267936 | Pte. | Walker, F. M. | M.M.
267498 | Pte. | French, H. | M.M.
267501 | Pte. | Emmett, N. | M.M.
268027 | Pte. | Stephenson, J. W. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
233889 | Pte. | Garside, J. | M.M.
6098 | Pte. | Holden, L. | M.M.
266104 | Pte. | Burnley, H. | M.M.
23726 | Pte. | Ballam, P. | M.M.
31731 | Pte. | Buckley, P. | M.M.
33948 | Pte. | Vine, A. | M.M.
34147 | Pte. | Hickman, W. | M.M.
265475 | Pte. | White, E. | M.M.
41203 | Pte. | Shippey, R. | M.M.
263019 | Pte. | Copeman, F. W. | M.M.
265209 | Pte. | Riley, E. | M.M.
242623 | Pte. | Lund, J. W. | M.M.
34052 | Pte. | Adams, C. | M.M.
47321 | Pte. | Sinkinson, S. | M.M.
267359 | Pte. | Bills, A. | M.M.
266993 | Pte. | Wright, H. | M.M.
267828 | Pte. | Graham, J. | M.M.
267498 | Pte. | Dennison, H. | M.M.
241781 | Pte. | Crabtree, C. | M.M.
33946 | Pte. | Vickers, A. A. | M.M.
266885 | Pte. | Puttergill, G. | M.M.
1708 | Pte. | Panes, H. | M.M.
265780 | Pte. | Lang, A. | M.M.
242594 | Pte. | Brown, F. | M.M.
1/7TH WEST RIDING REGIMENT
| Lt.-Col. | Parkin, F. L. | D.S.O.
| Major | Bennett, V. L. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Major | Tanner, G. | D.S.O.
| Captain | Harris, L. G. R. | M.C.
| Captain | Rapp, T. C. | M.C.
| Captain | Pedlow, W. L. | M.C.
| (R.A.M.C.) | |
| Captain | Lupton, B. C. | M.C.
| Captain | Conyers, H. F. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Captain | Lawton, C. | M.C.
| Captain | Reilly, M. F. | M.C.
| Captain | Crabtree, N. | M.C.
| Captain | Burbery, B. T. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Brierley, J. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Netherwood, H. S. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Rothery, L. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Bamforth, B. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Howcroft, G. B. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Dacre, A. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Whalley, A. H. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Wood, H. E. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Haslam, F. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Aspinall, K. I. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Davy, W. H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Wilson, E. H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | de Maine, H. C. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Waddington, H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Hutchon, N. R. | M.C.
308015 | R.S.M. | Lynn, J. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
| | | Belgian Croix
| | | de Guerre
308012 | C.S.M. | Lindsell, J. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
307350 | C.S.M. | Clarke, F. | D.C.M.
307007 | C.S.M. | Elliott, J. T. | M.M.
| | | Decoration
| | | Militaire
| | | (Belgium)
421 | Sgt. | Warwick, W. | D.C.M.
2176 | Sgt. | Irvine, W. | D.C.M.
2076 | Sgt. | Muff, F. | M.M.
220 | Sgt. | Brook, A. | M.M.
934 | Sgt. | Kinnan, A. | D.C.M.
1038 | Sgt. | Hitchman, F. | M.M.
1502 | Sgt. | Gaynor, W. | M.M.
25 | Sgt. | Gledhill, F. | M.M.
446 | Sgt. | Senior, A. | M.M.
305070 | Sgt. | Leach, E. | M.M.
306340 | Sgt. | Horton, R. | M.M.
305649 | Sgt. | Rhodes, R. | M.M.
305479 | Sgt. | Foster, W. | M.M.
305631 | Sgt. | Pollard, W. | M.S.M.
307341 | Sgt. | Wilson, L. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
307747 | Sgt. | Hirst, H. | M.S.M.
| | | M.M.
305241 | Sgt. | Haigh, F. | D.C.M.
305569 | Sgt. | Parker, L. | M.M.
235318 | Sgt. | Sherwood, T. | D.C.M.
235768 | Sgt. | Sutton, R. | M.M.
307923 | Sgt. | Alderson, A. | M.M.
309923 | Sgt. | Fryer, F. | M.M.
305260 | Sgt. | Jackson, F. | Croix de Virtute
| | | Militaire, 2nd
| | | Class
1795 | Cpl. | Barrow, H. | M.M.
1618 | Cpl. | Hodgkinson, H. | M.M.
1211 | Cpl. | Godley, J. | M.M.
268646 | Cpl. | Hall, L. | D.C.M.
10883 | Cpl. | Chadwick, A. | M.M.
111856 | Cpl. | Suggett, L. | M.M.
305744 | Cpl. | Taylor, B. | M.M.
307861 | Cpl. | Wilkinson, H. | M.M.
307307 | Cpl. | Oldroyd, S. | M.M.
10888 | Cpl. | Chadwick, A. | D.C.M.
41373 | Cpl. | Turner, P. | D.C.M.
305341 | Cpl. | Robinson, T. | M.M.
305749 | Cpl. | Harris, C. | M.M.
306156 | Cpl. | Kenyon, S. | M.M.
307507 | Cpl. | Stilling, J. | M.M.
328001 | Cpl. | Clarke, W. J. | M.M.
2094 | L.-Cpl. | Shaw, J. S. | D.C.M.
5649 | L.-Cpl. | France, L. | M.M.
3031 | L.-Cpl. | Garlick, J. | M.M.
307287 | L.-Cpl. | Lister, H. | M.M.
305423 | L.-Cpl. | Heppenstall, S. | M.M.
305228 | L.-Cpl. | Hobson, E. | M.M.
307668 | L.-Cpl. | Moseley, H. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
305589 | L.-Cpl. | Waddington, F. | M.M.
307454 | L.-Cpl. | Mellor, T. | M.M.
307932 | L.-Cpl. | Booth, H. | M.M.
302100 | L.-Cpl. | Jones, H. | M.M.
307795 | L.-Cpl. | Adamson, A. | M.M.
23767 | L.-Cpl. | Moscrop, J. | M.M.
305464 | L.-Cpl. | Emms, W. | M.M.
1457 | Pte. | Rowlands, J. E. | D.C.M.
1067 | Pte. | Blakey, W. | D.C.M.
305291 | Pte. | Robinson, J. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
1216 | Pte. | Wright, H. | M.M.
5405 | Pte. | Williams, W. H. | M.M.
1970 | Pte. | Kirkpatrick, G. | M.M.
2756 | Pte. | Mellor, F. | M.M.
5461 | Pte. | Kelling, J. | M.M.
5589 | Pte. | Nutt, W. | M.M.
7125 | Pte. | Gibb, T. | M.M.
1320 | Pte. | Haigh, H. | M.M.
1616 | Pte. | Wood, L. | M.M.
3904 | Pte. | Chamberlain, E. | M.M.
7062 | Pte. | Ainsley, E. | M.M.
1482 | Pte. | Waterhouse, F. | M.M.
2195 | Pte. | Shaw, J. | M.M.
2497 | Pte. | Walsh, J. | D.C.M.
2185 | Pte. | Marlow, G. | M.M.
305937 | Pte. | Cartwright, F. | M.M.
307945 | Pte. | Baker, W. | M.M.
305579 | Pte. | Nelson, S. | M.M.
307873 | Pte. | Rounding, J. | M.M.
307367 | Pte. | Metcalf, G. | M.M.
305481 | Pte. | Settle, H. | M.M.
308107 | Pte. | Lisle, H. | M.M.
307365 | Pte. | Mason, G. | M.M.
306102 | Pte. | Crampton, H. | M.M.
268609 | Pte. | Bell, J. | D.C.M.
22960 | Pte. | Alves, J. | M.M.
23997 | Pte. | Mennell, W. | M.M.
307570 | Pte. | Wilson, J. | M.M.
340283 | Pte. | Berry, J. | M.M.
33857 | Pte. | Cable, G. | M.M.
307691 | Pte. | Atkins, J. | M.M.
306205 | Pte. | Mellor, J. W. | M.M.
305166 | Pte. | Robinson, W. | M.M.
12890 | Pte. | Russell, C. | M.M.
305537 | Pte. | Parkin | M.M.
306146 | Pte. | Eryland, J. | M.M.
307537 | Pte. | Kaye, J. A. | M.M.
305961 | Pte. | Hett, H. | D.C.M.
307240 | Pte. | Barker, S. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
307127 | Pte. | Plume, G. | M.M.
16524 | Pte. | Walker, F. | M.M.
205104 | Pte. | Appleby, A. L. | M.M.
267320 | Pte. | Hardcastle, C. | M.M.
240214 | Pte. | Hellewell, C. | M.M.
305829 | Pte. | Smith, F. | M.M.
269079 | Pte. | Shaw, S. | M.M.
308009 | Pte. | Odrell, J. J. | M.M.
307119 | Pte. | Efford, J. | M.M.
307943 | Pte. | Land, W. | M.M.
33114 | Pte. | Bowles, J. J. | M.M.
306167 | Pte. | Manton, J. | M.M.
33770 | Pte. | Toomer, C. | M.M.
269204 | Pte. | Limbach, L. | M.M.
33838 | Pte. | Allsop, A. | M.M.
305435 | Pte. | Bottomley, J. | M.M.
267320 | Pte. | Hardcastle, C. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
266835 | Pte. | Williams, J. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
34823 | Pte. | Farnell, W. | M.M.
269131 | Pte. | Armitage, A. | M.M.
305769 | Pte. | Dyson, J. | M.M.
307466 | Pte. | Sunderland, H. | M.M.
307071 | Pte. | Grange, H. | M.M.
24865 | Pte. | Boothroyd, G. | M.M.
25454 | Pte. | Stones, F. | M.M.
33102 | Pte. | Bradford, A. | M.M.
305236 | Pte. | Shepherd, W. | M.M.
1/4TH K.O. YORKSHIRE LIGHT INFANTRY
| Lt.-Col. | Haslegrave, H. | C.M.G.
| Lt.-Col. | Fraser, H. G. | D.S.O.
| | | M.C.
| Lt.-Col. | Brierley, S. C. | D.S.O.
| Major | Moorhouse, H. | Legion of Honour
| | | D.S.O.
| Captain | Taylor, L. M. | M.C.
| Captain | Creswick, W. B. | M.C.
| Captain | Edwards, A. C. | M.C.
| | (R.A.M.C.) |
| Captain | Thomson, G. | M.C.
| Captain | Moorhouse, R. W. | M.C.
| Captain | Chadwick, T. | M.C.
| Captain | Stiebel, C. A. | M.C.
| Captain | Brice-Smith, H. F. | M.C.
| Captain | Hindle, W. J. | M.C.
| Captain | Fearn, C. A. | M.C.
| Captain | Mackay, F. W. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Muirhead, J. J. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Brook, G. H. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Massie, F. E. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Lamb, J. W. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Greenhough, E. E. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Ricketts, G. A. Mac G. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Burkinshaw, W. L. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Hodgkinson, J. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Boot, W. E. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Appleton, J. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Battiland, J. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Shorton, H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Pierce, S. E. | M.C.
4504 | R.S.M. | Trott, H. G. | D.C.M.
52 | R.S.M. | Grice, J. | M.C.
200084 | R.S.M. | Alderson, W. | Medaille Barbatie
| | | si Credinta, 1st
| | | Class
| | | Chevalier de
| | | l’Ordre Leopold
| | | II. Belgian
200325 | R.Q.M.S. | Milner, H. | M.S.M.
885 | C.S.M. | Hemingway, C. F. | D.C.M.
200489 | C.S.M. | Barraclough, J. | D.C.M.
200301 | C.S.M. | Gledhill, H. G. | D.C.M.
200474 | C.S.M. | Jones, F. | Belgian Croix
| | | de Guerre
| | | D.C.M.
2627 | Sgt. | Best, T. | D.C.M.
2342 | Sgt. | Hunt, G. M. | D.C.M.
2371 | Sgt. | Henson, H. | M.M.
1174 | Sgt. | Cropper, J. | M.M.
2486 | Sgt. | Paterson, M. W. | M.M.
2688 | Sgt. | Stainthorpe, G. | M.M.
2507 | Sgt. | Wallace, W. | D.C.M.
2510 | Sgt. | Moon, F. | M.M.
203430 | Sgt. | Ogle, H. C. | M.M.
203293 | Sgt. | Redmore, W. | M.M.
200084 | Sgt. | Alderson, W. | M.M.
203006 | Sgt. | Clark, H. | M.M.
202045 | Sgt. | Rylah, E. | M.M.
240719 | Sgt. | Maskill, H. | M.M.
200054 | Sgt. | Litchfield, H. | M.M.
200205 | Sgt. | Smith, J. | M.M.
200269 | Sgt. | Ray, I. | M.M.
200037 | Sgt. | Preece, C. J. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
35351 | Sgt. | Johnstone, J. | M.M.
201944 | Sgt. | Simpson, W. H. | M.M.
11270 | Sgt. | Clark, F. | M.M.
220768 | Sgt. | Daley, W. | M.M.
203417 | Sgt. | Stobie, J. W. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
200468 | L.-Sgt. | Hatton, F. | M.M.
240067 | L.-Sgt. | Kirby, F. | M.M.
2481 | Cpl. | Gudgin, H. W. | M.M.
36044 | Cpl. | Mackenzie, T. | D.C.M.
33088 | Cpl. | Lees, J. P. | M.M.
200231 | Cpl. | Farrar, H. | M.M.
36406 | Cpl. | Hudson, D. C. | M.M.
200115 | Cpl. | Stringer, J. | M.M.
36889 | Cpl. | Hustwaite, J. | M.M.
25437 | Cpl. | Guy, G. | D.C.M.
13050 | Cpl. | Downing, H. | M.M.
16794 | Cpl. | Mitchell, G. | M.M.
2611 | L.-Cpl. | Berry, A. | M.M.
2403 | L.-Cpl. | Musgrave, T. | M.M.
2639 | L.-Cpl. | Field, J. W. | M.M.
| | | Medal St. George
| | | 3rd Class
1833 | L.-Cpl. | Hatton, J. | M.M.
2717 | L.-Cpl. | Archer, J. | D.C.M.
200119 | L.-Cpl. | Beaumont, H. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
203228 | L.-Cpl. | Greasby, S. | M.M.
202031 | L.-Cpl. | Thompson, M. | M.M.
201353 | L.-Cpl. | Moorhouse, E. | M.M.
200420 | L.-Cpl. | Pilbrow, J. | M.M.
36043 | L.-Cpl. | Martin, R. | M.M.
4/125 | L.-Cpl. | Oldroyd, W. | M.M.
36035 | L.-Cpl. | Dixon, W. E. | M.M.
201056 | L.-Cpl. | Gowland, I. | M.M.
47468 | L.-Cpl. | Kitching, H. | M.M.
203346 | L.-Cpl. | Sadler, T. | M.M.
200125 | L.-Cpl. | Jagger. G. | M.M.
34383 | L.-Cpl. | Wilkinson, H. | M.M.
203337 | L.-Cpl. | Chockham, W. | M.M.
203718 | L.-Cpl. | Norfolk, F. | D.C.M.
995 | Pte. | Atha, E. R. | D.C.M.
2056 | Pte. | Gill, J. | D.C.M.
2648 | Pte. | Hooper, W. F. | D.C.M.
1625 | Pte. | Gibbs J. A. | D.C.M.
1403 | Pte. | Heptonstall, A. | D.C.M.
2662 | Pte. | Naylor, W. | M.M.
1361 | Pte. | Brook, S. | M.M.
1869 | Pte. | Leonards, G. | M.M.
7049 | Pte. | Pennie, A. | M.M.
7064 | Pte. | Milburn, W. | M.M.
4429 | Pte. | Rose, E. | M.M.
7193 | Pte. | Dowie, J. | M.M.
6600 | Pte. | Edwards, J. | M.M.
20946 | Pte. | Fearnley, E. | D.C.M.
30844 | Pte. | Mills, W. | M.M.
201375 | Pte. | Green, W. E. | M.M.
203360 | Pte. | Woodall, C. V. | M.M.
203447 | Pte. | Scott, R. | M.M.
22168 | Pte. | Rennison, W. H. | M.M.
200858 | Pte. | Hill, F. | M.M.
203398 | Pte. | Lavender, R. H. | M.M.
24192 | Pte. | Crelly, —. | M.M.
20085 | Pte. | Arundel, T. | M.M.
47502 | Pte. | Langford, G. | M.M.
45238 | Pte. | Chadwick, F. | D.C.M.
36026 | Pte. | Snaith, H. | M.M.
36090 | Pte. | Curtis, A. | M.M.
36411 | Pte. | Haycock, T. H. | M.M.
36015 | Pte. | Kew, J. H. | M.M.
203204 | Pte. | Baristow, H. | M.M.
201339 | Pte. | Todd, A. | M.M.
235105 | Pte. | Campbell, A. | M.M.
14506 | Pte. | Fox, F. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
6227 | Pte. | Timms, R. W. | M.M.
38356 | Pte. | Sykes, W. | M.M.
27861 | Pte. | Johnstone, F. | M.M.
36512 | Pte. | Collins, W. | M.M.
203291 | Pte. | Graves, L. | M.M.
42219 | Pte. | Gibson, S. | M.M.
62271 | Pte. | Thornton, W. E. | M.M.
201974 | Pte. | Heald, J. | M.M.
240764 | Pte. | Griffen, J. | M.M.
203026 | Pte. | Platts, F. | M.M.
6035 | Pte. | Coulson, B. S. | M.M.
1/5TH K.O. YORKSHIRE LIGHT INFANTRY
| Lt.-Col. | Moxon, C. C. | C.M.G.
| | | D.S.O.
| Major | Bradley, C. G. | D.S.O.
| Captain | Sullivan, G. K. | M.C.
| Captain | Mackenzie, T. G. | M.C.
| Captain | Bentley, P. | M.C.
| Captain | Campbell, Q. H. | M.C.
| Captain | Simpson, M. N. | M.C.
| Captain | Linley, J. S. | M.C.
| Captain | Shirley, J. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Clayton-Smith, H. E. H. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Sandford, C. R. F. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Short, A. G. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Hobbs, F. G. | M.C.
3232 | R.S.M. | Mathews, H. | M.C.
240015 | R.S.M. | Hellewell, J. | D.C.M.
240028 | R.Q.M.S. | Roughton, J. W. | M.S.M.
240158 | C.S.M. | Sutherland, W. | D.C.M.
240321 | C.S.M. | Wright, W. | D.C.M.
175 | Sgt. | Livesey, T. | D.C.M.
2534/240349 | Sgt. | Fletcher, J. T. | M.M.
3357 | Sgt. | Raikes, J. D. | D.C.M.
240182 | Sgt. | Blakey, W. | M.M.
240351 | Sgt. | Elliott, J. | D.C.M.
242161 | Sgt. | Quirk, W. E. | M.M.
241014 | Sgt. | Wootten, H. | M.M.
| | | Belgian Croix
| | | de Guerre
240119 | Sgt. | Walker, J. W. | M.M.
241337 | L.-Sgt. | Andrews, R. | M.M.
4045 | Cpl. | Lappin, W. | D.C.M.
1710 | Cpl. | Caton, G. | M.M.
240574 | Cpl. | Brain, A. | D.C.M.
240620 | Cpl. | Taylor, T. W. | D.C.M.
242582 | Cpl. | Langton, A. | D.C.M.
130 | L.-Cpl. | Pacey, W. | D.C.M.
2414 | L.-Cpl. | Steel, W. | D.C.M.
3270 | L.-Cpl. | Leadbeater, T. | D.C.M.
242344 | L.-Cpl. | Kynman, H. | M.M.
2639 | L.-Cpl. | Field, J. W. | M.M.
1781 | Pte. | Raynell, C. | D.C.M.
2222 | Pte. | Williams, P. | D.C.M.
2559 | Pte. | Loving, F. H. | M.M.
3699 | Pte. | Davy, A. | M.M.
3064 | Pte. | Addy, W. H. | M.M.
3175 | Pte. | Rosewarne, B. J. | D.C.M.
2880 | Pte. | Short, S. | D.C.M.
2914 | Pte. | Wilson, G. E. | D.C.M.
25320 | Pte. | Smith, J. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
4699 | Pte. | Brook, H. | Bronze Medal for
| | | Military Valour
242448 | Pte. | Bear, E. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
240498 | Pte. | O’Neill, M. | M.M.
242661 | Pte. | Dawson, W. | M.M.
240599 | Pte. | Jackson, J. | M.M.
241914 | Pte. | Goodwin, H. | M.M.
242561 | Pte. | Gittings, A. | M.M.
242584 | Pte. | Mercer, W. | M.M.
242880 | Pte. | Padgett, J. | M.M.
242631 | Pte. | Leighton, N. | M.M.
242694 | Pte. | Tempest, W. | M.M.
240415 | Pte. | Taylor, J. | M.M.
240286 | Pte. | Fenwick, E. | M.M.
242111 | Pte. | Constantine, H. | M.M.
1/4TH YORK AND LANCS. REGIMENT
| Lt.-Col. | Wyatt, L. J. | D.S.O.
| Lt.-Col. | Branson, D. S. | D.S.O.
| | | Bar to D.S.O.
| | | 2nd Bar to D.S.O.
| | | M.C.
| Major | Unsworth, G. | M.C.
| Captain | Williams, R. N. | M.C.
| Captain | Barber, H. G. | M.C.
| Captain | Bernard, C. A. | M.C.
| Captain | Johnson, P. N. | M.C.
| Captain | Wilson, R. E. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Captain | Holmes, E. M. | M.C.
| Captain | Brooke, S. | M.C.
| Captain | Wortley, J. F. | M.C.
| Captain | Grant, D. P. | M.C.
| Captain | Wilkinson, R. M. | M.C.
| Captain | Ryan, W. | M.C.
| Captain | Elvington, M. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Johnson, L. W. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Christmas, E. S. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Warburton, S. E. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Gifford, W. D. G. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Payne, H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Wilson, R. E. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Hope, C. R. | M.C.
200433 | R.S.M. | Immison, G. | M.C.
| | | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
| | | Belgian Croix
| | | de Guerre
200588 | R.Q.M.S. | Thickett, H. | M.S.M.
173 | C.S.M. | Hutchinson, W. | D.C.M.
692 | C.S.M. | Pemberton, W. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
200077 | C.S.M. | Wagg, W. | D.C.M.
00485 | C.S.M. | Wood, W. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
| | | Belgian Croix
| | | de Guerre
200121 | C.S.M. | Cadman, W. | D.C.M.
200208 | C.S.M. | Pearson, G. | D.C.M.
| C.S.M. | Mount, F. | D.C.M.
7583 | C.S.M. | Nash, E. | M.M.
390 | Sgt. | Clarke, A. W. | D.C.M.
2102 | Sgt. | Dodd, W. R. | M.M.
2187 | Sgt. | Warburton, S. | M.M.
2278 | Sgt. | Shute, G. A. | D.C.M.
1986 | Sgt. | Breaves, E. | M.M.
1629 | Sgt. | Kay, J. | M.M.
250 | Sgt. | Brown, G. A. | M.M.
1435 | Sgt. | Cartwright, T. W. | M.M.
201421 | Sgt. | Beedham, G. H. | D.C.M.
203129 | Sgt. | Jones, W. | D.C.M.
200144 | Sgt. | Megson, L. | D.C.M.
200570 | Sgt. | Lawless, L. | D.C.M.
201986 | Sgt. | Warren, J. E. | M.M.
14/992 | Sgt. | Firth, C. | D.C.M.
200054 | Sgt. | White, E. | M.S.M.
200642 | Sgt. | Baker, F. | M.M.
33591 | Sgt. | Davison, J. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
201010 | Sgt. | Bingham, A. | M.M.
200311 | L.-Sgt. | Galley, W. D. | M.M.
33591 | L.-Sgt. | Davidson, J. | D.C.M.
200405 | L.-Sgt. | Crossland, F. | M.M.
1797 | Cpl. | Eaton, A. | M.M.
2057 | Cpl. | Wilkinson, H. | D.C.M.
3271 | Cpl. | Hayes, T. F. | M.M.
203777 | Cpl. | Green, H. | M.M.
203006 | Cpl. | Luton, F. | M.M.
200766 | Cpl. | Fell, S. | M.M.
201744 | Cpl. | Hudson, G. | M.M.
8/16306 | Cpl. | Waters, A. | M.M.
202951 | Cpl. | Oldfield, H. | M.M.
1569 | L.-Cpl. | Biggins, J. W. | D.C.M.
670 | L.-Cpl. | Crapper, C. | D.C.M.
1099 | L.-Cpl. | Leggatt, F. | D.C.M.
672 | L.-Cpl. | Porter, H. | M.M.
2420 | L.-Cpl. | Levesley, H. | M.M.
2807 | L.-Cpl. | Bathe, H. | M.M.
2386 | L.-Cpl. | Brady, J. | M.M.
1832 | L.-Cpl. | Freeman, G. | M.M.
4253 | L.-Cpl. | Coote, W. T. | D.C.M.
2533 | L.-Cpl. | Tarlton, A. P. | M.M.
6173 | L.-Cpl. | Scarbrooke, A. G. | M.M.
2206 | L.-Cpl. | Brown, C. | M.M.
200 | L.-Cpl. | Fell, W. | M.M.
1580 | L.-Cpl. | Lindley, G. | M.S.M.
300888 | L.-Cpl. | Bower, E. C. | M.M.
200527 | L.-Cpl. | Hall, T. | M.M.
201478 | L.-Cpl. | Jackson, M. | D.C.M.
200279 | L.-Cpl. | Ogden, C. | M.M.
203206 | L.-Cpl. | Lawrence, C. | M.M.
8/13315 | L.-Cpl. | York, F. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
33344 | L.-Cpl. | Foster, A. | M.M.
201897 | L.-Cpl. | Leaver, H. | M.M.
11527 | L.-Cpl. | Eyre, J. W. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
200268 | L.-Cpl. | Ramsden, H. | M.M.
40404 | L.-Cpl. | Davies, W. E. | M.M.
1892 | L.-Cpl. | Marton, H. | D.C.M.
273 | Pte. | Cowlishaw, J. | D.C.M.
2343 | Pte. | Thickett, T. | D.C.M.
2500 | Pte. | Morton, A. | M.M.
6551 | Pte. | Jelly, J. | M.M.
6576 | Pte. | Gray, E. | M.M.
3636 | Pte. | Ibbotson, S. | M.M.
6035 | Pte. | Cordson. B. S. | M.M.
4157 | Pte. | Lymer, F. | M.M.
6249 | Pte. | Vernon, A. | M.M.
202033 | Pte. | McAvoy, T. E. | M.M.
201720 | Pte. | Smith, J. T. | M.M.
202544 | Pte. | Tyler, W. | M.M.
200567 | Pte. | Longdon, J. | M.M.
202518 | Pte. | Marshall, W. E. | M.M.
203547 | Pte. | Mackie, R. | M.M.
203426 | Pte. | Wilson, J. K. | M.M.
300742 | Pte. | Jenkinson, P. | M.M.
203426 | Pte. | Downes, G. | M.M.
203349 | Pte. | Lockwood, F. | M.M.
203245 | Pte. | Rodgers, V. | M.M.
201702 | Pte. | Dungworth, C. | M.M.
9/15317 | Pte. | Barron, L. | M.M.
13/29301 | Pte. | Dale, F. | M.M.
14264 | Pte. | Adly, A. | M.M.
203419 | Pte. | Peart, H. | M.M.
203380 | Pte. | Hopkinson, H. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
17511 | Pte. | Turtle, C. | M.M.
201839 | Pte. | Jeffrey, H. | M.M.
17690 | Pte. | Clark, J. | M.M.
1277 | Pte. | Cahill, A. E. | M.M.
203221 | Pte. | Neve, A. H. | M.M.
241229 | Pte. | Wharton, F. W. | M.M.
201996 | Pte. | Sissons, F. W. | M.M.
10/40481 | Pte. | May, P. | M.M.
15/28153 | Pte. | Thickett, G. | M.M.
202304 | Pte. | Andrews, J. | M.M.
13/3 | Pte. | Atkinson, H. | M.M.
202838 | Pte. | Bennett, A. | M.M.
200800 | Pte. | Peat, A. | M.M.
3/877 | Pte. | Winter, R. | M.M.
47093 | Pte. | Gunn, A. | M.M.
46678 | Pte. | Jennings, J. H. | D.C.M.
46711 | Pte. | Hurd, J. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
1746 | Pte. | Jow, G. F. | M.M.
202057 | Pte. | Baker, S. | M.M.
47267 | Pte. | Nichols, A. | M.M.
46682 | Pte. | Davies, E. | M.M.
203486 | Pte. | Holder, W. R. | M.M.
235152 | Pte. | Wolmersley, G. H. | M.M.
46639 | Pte. | Bennett, T. E. | M.M.
44926 | Pte. | Tate, T. | M.M.
1/5TH YORK AND LANCS. REGIMENT
| Lt.-Col. | Parkinson, T. W. | D.S.O.
| Lt.-Col. | Rhodes, S. | D.S.O.
| Captain | Johnson, E. D. C. | M.C.
| Captain | Fisher, J. M. | M.C.
| Captain | Roberts, G. G. | M.C.
| Captain | Morrell, H. H. | M.C.
| Captain | Baker, A. | M.C.
| Captain | Briffault, R. (R.A.M.C.)| M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Captain | Glenn, C. E. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Captain | Melly, E. E. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Captain | Price, E. V. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Captain | Jennison, R. | M.C.
| Captain | Pitt, H. P. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Southern, V. G. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Cattle, E. S. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Marshall, J. F. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Wilson, J. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Lieut. | Dunkerton, E. L. H. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Lieut. | Hill, J. J. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Lieut. | Bennett, G. W. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Lieut. | Clyne, C. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Lieut. | Clayton, B. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Grogan, V. L. de L. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Haigh, J. J. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Elliott, G. R. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Beaumont, J. W. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Storm, W. G. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Shires, J. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Bagnall, A. E. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Fairbairn, W. F. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Redshaw, F. W. | M.C.
| | | M.M.
| 2/Lieut. | Revill, H. H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Wood, W. A. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Naylor, J. A. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Goodier, V. R. | M.C.
| Rev. | Partington, E. F. E. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
240429 | R.Q.M.S. | Holmes, J. H. T. | M.S.M.
1432 | C.S.M. | Parkes, W. | D.C.M.
5106 | C.S.M. | Nowlan, S. C. | D.C.M.
240467 | C.S.M. | Calvert, A. | M.C.
240241 | C.S.M. | Murtagh, B. | D.C.M.
2349 | Sgt. | Calvert, A. | D.C.M.
2067 | Sgt. | Yate, J. | D.C.M.
68 | Sgt. | Jessop, F. | D.C.M.
210 | Sgt. | Inman, P. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
217 | Sgt. | Medlock, J. | D.C.M.
2423 | Sgt. | Crummock, E. E. | D.C.M.
| | | Medal St. George
| | | and Cross
2153 | Sgt. | Teece, G. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
2126 | Sgt. | Poxon, H. | M.M.
2093 | Sgt. | Inman, E. E. | M.M.
1402 | Sgt. | Roadhouse, G. H. | M.M.
242444 | Sgt. | Gedney, G. | D.C.M.
241759 | Sgt. | Hipkin, A. P. | M.M.
240717 | Sgt. | Gledhill, E. | M.M.
200288 | Sgt. | Steeples, J. | M.M.
242141 | Sgt. | O’Kelly, G. C. | M.M.
240059 | Sgt. | Parkin, G. H. | D.C.M.
240407 | Sgt. | Hall, R. W. | M.M.
| | | D.C.M.
240073 | Sgt. | Weatherill, F. | D.C.M.
203878 | Sgt. | Lees, E. V. | M.M.
242471 | Sgt. | Johnson, J. | D.C.M.
| | | Medaille
| | | Militaire
| | | (French)
2174 | L.-Sgt. | Urquhart, G. | M.M.
2186 | Cpl. | Grinnette, A. | D.C.M.
1792 | Cpl. | Murtagh, B. | M.M.
2334 | Cpl. | Semley, A. | M.M.
2918 | Cpl. | Hague, A. L. | M.M.
1872 | Cpl. | Wright, S. | D.C.M.
240673 | Cpl. | Lord, B. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
242487 | Cpl. | Smelt, J. | M.M.
2619 | Cpl. | Wilson, D. | D.C.M.
241489 | Cpl. | Hines, H. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
240919 | Cpl. | Berry, I. | M.M.
241438 | Cpl. | Johnson, F. | M.M.
240160 | Cpl. | Royston, F. R. | M.M.
240100 | Cpl. | Yeal, A. | M.M.
240211 | Cpl. | Frost, C. | M.M.
20443 | Cpl. | Wilson, J. | M.M.
58244 | Cpl. | Reach, C. | D.C.M.
42150 | Cpl. | Stephenson, F. | M.M.
240385 | Cpl. | Gamble, J. T. | M.S.M.
5076 | L.-Cpl. | Stockley, P. H. | M.M.
2357 | L.-Cpl. | Galloway, F. | M.M.
2604 | L.-Cpl. | Cooper, T. | M.M.
241453 | L.-Cpl. | Goodwin, J. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
242445 | L.-Cpl. | Duckett, F. | D.C.M.
204754 | L.-Cpl. | Henry, A. | M.M.
240298 | L.-Cpl. | Harris, G. S. | D.C.M.
240175 | L.-Cpl. | Childs, J. R. | D.C.M.
241226 | L.-Cpl. | Scott, J. | M.M.
235806 | L.-Cpl. | Collier, A. | M.M.
11974 | L.-Cpl. | Porter, W. H. | M.M.
242850 | L.-Cpl. | Anisworth, W. | M.M.
201726 | L.-Cpl. | Greaves, H. | M.M.
240392 | L.-Cpl. | Hepstinstall, B. | M.M.
2446 | Pte. | Clements, C. | D.C.M.
1119 | Pte. | Gray, A. | M.M.
2317 | Pte. | Wilde, J. | M.M.
2173 | Pte. | Whitworth, T. | M.M.
| | | D.C.M.
3923 | Pte. | Barker, H. | M.M.
2432 | Pte. | Hatton, H. | M.M.
2361 | Pte. | Heppinstall, G. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
1539 | Pte. | Robinson, J. W. | M.M.
5142 | Pte. | Puan, J. | M.M.
2509 | Pte. | Cooper, O. | M.M.
6181 | Pte. | Milburn, P. S. | D.C.M.
240465 | Pte. | Jackson, G. | M.M.
242272 | Pte. | Freeman, C. P. | M.M.
240698 | Pte. | Spurr, C. | M.M.
240022 | Pte. | Billington, J. | M.M.
240014 | Pte. | Slock, J. G. | M.M.
242335 | Pte. | Clements, F. W. | M.M.
240617 | Pte. | Pilkington, J. | M.M.
242346 | Pte. | Small, J. | M.M.
240231 | Pte. | Wing, A. | M.M.
240522 | Pte. | Hunt, J. W. | Belgian Croix
| | | de Guerre
3771 | Pte. | Golicher, J. | M.M.
31906 | Pte. | Coleman, T. | M.M.
240697 | Pte. | Nadin, J. | M.M.
40446 | Pte. | Owen, J. V. | M.M.
242237 | Pte. | Potter, I. | M.M.
1466 | Pte. | Mansfield, B. | M.M.
242080 | Pte. | Pheasants, E. W. | M.M.
38867 | Pte. | Pilbrow, H. | M.M.
240089 | Pte. | Moon, F. | M.M.
42276 | Pte. | Padley, M. | M.M.
242215 | Pte. | Exon, W. | M.M.
31907 | Pte. | Grainger, S. | M.M.
240624 | Pte. | Quinn, L. | M.M.
241509 | Pte. | Cox, H. | M.M.
31924 | Pte. | Dennis, A. | M.M.
377 | Pte. | Godfrey, F. | M.M.
247375 | Pte. | Swift, H. | M.M.
240206 | Pte. | Watson, A. | M.M.
47288 | Pte. | Smith, C. R. | M.M.
57790 | Pte. | Bolton, H. | M.M.
27859 | Pte. | Haigh, W. | M.M.
12/111 | Pte. | Geldert, S. | M.M.
742 | Pte. | Whitfield, F. | M.M.
205605 | Pte. | Sivett, J. | M.M.
17502 | Pte. | Lakin, P. | M.M.
11015 | Pte. | Jackson, G. F. | M.M.
47146 | Pte. | Hedgeman, W. W. | M.M.
38321 | Pte. | Williamson, T. | M.M.
44772 | Pte. | Clamp, T. | M.M.
240005 | Pte. | Parkin, C. | Medaille
| | | d’Honneur Avec
| | | Glavies en
| | | Bronze
19TH LANCASHIRE FUSILIERS
| Lt.-Col. | Graham, J. M. A., D.S.O.| Bar to D.S.O.
| Lt.-Col. | Smith, J. H. | Croix de Guerre
| Major | Wade-Gery, H. T. | M.C.
| Captain | Hibbert, G. | M.C.
| Captain | Palk, S. A. | M.C.
| Captain | Whittles, N. | M.C.
| Captain | Musker, H. | M.C.
| Captain | Edden, R. P. S. | O.B.E., 5th
| Lieut. | Moxsy, A. R. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Macfarlane, D. M. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Norman, R. B. | M.C.
27239 | R.S.M. | Garner, W. | D.C.M.
| | | Croix de Guerre
17781 | R.Q.M.S. | Timperley, W. | M.S.M.
18570 | C.S.M. | Taylor, W. | D.C.M.
17392 | C.S.M. | Cheney, A. | M.S.M.
17779 | C.Q.M.S. | Moulson, J. | M.M.
17989 | Sgt. | Baguley, J. | M.M.
18600 | Sgt. | Banham, A. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
17497 | Sgt. | Magee, T. | M.M.
15125 | Sgt. | Lewis, J. W. | M.M.
1420 | Sgt. | Johnson, C. | M.M.
17362 | Sgt. | Hickinbotham, G. | M.M.
18914 | Sgt. | Haynes, F. J. | D.C.M.
17431 | Sgt. | Pierce, T. | D.C.M.
1586 | Sgt. | Rossey, A. | M.S.M.
17655 | Sgt. | Jackson, J. F. | D.C.M.
36888 | Sgt. | Osmond, E. F. | M.M.
235663 | Sgt. | Atkinson, T. | Croix de Guerre
17387 | Sgt. | Mathews, J. | M.S.M.
| | | Medaille
| | | d’Honneur avec
| | | Glavies en Argent
17583 | L.-Sgt. | Brennan, J. | M.M.
18673 | Cpl. | Smith, J. | M.M.
36820 | Cpl. | Jones, W. | M.M.
36442 | Cpl. | Hird, G. | M.M.
17357 | Cpl. | Fennd, A. | M.M.
17572 | Cpl. | Mayell, F. | M.M.
36637 | L.-Cpl. | Foreman, E. J. | M.M.
202606 | L.-Cpl. | Hitchen, J. | M.M.
34928 | L.-Cpl. | Chadwick, F. | M.M.
49469 | L.-Cpl. | Gear, H. | M.M.
238153 | L.-Cpl. | Wainwright, W. | M.M.
34941 | L.-Cpl. | Warburton, S. | M.M.
49513 | L.-Cpl. | Davies, J. | M.M.
49534 | L.-Cpl. | Potter, H. M. | M.M.
17866 | Pte. | Taylor, E. | M.M.
27577 | Pte. | Settle, J. | M.M.
18911 | Pte. | Christian, L. | Croix de Guerre
18595 | Pte. | Bradbury, T. | M.M.
23544 | Pte. | Leech, E. | M.M.
36706 | Pte. | Pooley, A. G. | M.M.
45935 | Pte. | Fisher, V. | M.M.
17916 | Pte. | Milligan, F. | M.M.
36909 | Pte. | Prosser, T. J. | M.M.
202378 | Pte. | Booth, W. H. | M.M.
25058 | Pte. | Fogell, G. | M.M.
5320 | Pte. | Wolfenden, A. | D.C.M.
203188 | Pte. | Thomas, C. W. J. | Croix de Guerre
3RD MONMOUTH REGIMENT
| Captain | Steel, O. W. D. | M.C.
| | (R.A.M.C.) |
| Captain | Gattie, K. F. D. | M.C.
135 | S.M. | Gravenoe, G. A. | D.C.M.
| | | Croix de Guerre
1920 | Sgt. | Jenkins, B. | D.C.M.
2172 | Sgt. | Sketchley, G. W. | D.C.M.
675 | Cpl. | Hoare | D.C.M.
1425 | L.-Cpl. | Dixon, W. | D.C.M.
1511 | L.-Cpl. | Leonard | D.C.M.
1814 | L.-Cpl. | Andrews, L. | M.M.
2440 | Pte. | Skidmore, J. | D.C.M.
1343 | Pte. | Moore, J. J. | D.C.M.
1317 | Pte. | Powell, G. | M.M.
49TH MACHINE-GUN BATTALION
| Major | Sproulle, W. J. M. | M.C.
| Major | Rideal, J. G. E. | D.S.O.
| Major | Hanson, H. W. | M.C.
| Major | Boxer, H. T. | French Croix
| | | de Guerre
| Major | Milne, W. | French Croix
| | | de Guerre
| Captain | Bain, C. W. C. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Thresh, A. E. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Bellerby, J. R. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Ratcliff, W. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Bain, J. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Durlacher, P. A. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Hawes, W. A. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Jones, D. T. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Bentley, A. E. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Wood, S. F. H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Steel, A. K. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Nathan, L. G. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Scott, R. C. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Dudley, F. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Marshall, W. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Barker, N. P. | M.C.
1669 | Sgt. | Stembridge, E. | D.C.M.
24616 | Sgt. | Thompson, R. S. | M.S.M.
16023 | Sgt. | Maule, H. J. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
24270 | Sgt. | Stancliffe, F. | M.M.
15664 | Sgt. | Luffrum, A. H. | D.C.M.
| | | M.S.M.
1962 | Sgt. | Bradley, A. | M.M.
2385 | Sgt. | Brignell, A. E. | M.M.
1971 | Sgt. | Binney, E. | M.M.
2207 | Sgt. | Berry, C. | D.C.M.
23588 | Sgt. | Crawshaw, G. | M.M.
23636 | Sgt. | Jakeman, T. C. | D.C.M.
23655 | Sgt. | Linton, C. | M.M.
9848 | Sgt. | Morris, | M.M.
46118 | Sgt. | Stafford, P. H. | M.M.
9285 | Sgt. | Fewell, C. W. | M.M.
44626 | Sgt. | Kennedy, J. J. | D.C.M.
24612 | Sgt. | Walker, A. | D.C.M.
20247 | Sgt. | Jackson, F. J. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
16761 | Sgt. | Burkett, J. | D.C.M.
23658 | Sgt. | Collumbine, A. C. | M.M.
| | | M.S.M.
23587 | Sgt. | Lowe, J. E. | M.M.
23056 | Sgt. | Sainsbury, A. L. | M.S.M.
24764 | Sgt. | Garside, H. | M.S.M.
67534 | Sgt. | Crockett, D. | D.C.M.
1242 | L.-Sgt. | Dibb, D. | M.M.
1927 | L.-Sgt. | Naigh, H. | M.M.
34885 | Cpl. | Fogarty, T. | M.M.
19271 | Cpl. | Smoothy, F. | M.M.
72533 | Cpl. | Turner, F. | M.M.
1605 | Cpl. | Micklethwaite, J. | M.M.
23603 | Cpl. | Stevenson, W. J. | M.M.
11942 | Cpl. | Barratt, T. | M.M.
36711 | Cpl. | Godfrey, L. | M.M.
36466 | Cpl. | Wood, J. | M.M.
81329 | L.-Cpl. | Willis, T. C. | M.M.
102862 | L.-Cpl. | Precious, A. M. | M.M.
59214 | L.-Cpl. | Barratt, C. | D.C.M.
36740 | L.-Cpl. | Deadman, T. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
10288 | L.-Cpl. | Walton, H. | M.M.
70626 | L.-Cpl. | White, W. H. | M.M.
5259 | L.-Cpl. | Toon, A. | M.M.
55721 | L.-Cpl. | White, A. J. | M.M.
1240 | Pte. | Creyke, R. | D.C.M.
60482 | Pte. | Mason, F. | M.M.
20738 | Pte. | Start, S. | M.M.
24620 | Pte. | Harris, L. | Belgian Croix
| | | de Guerre
73432 | Pte. | Banson, J. | M.M.
24693 | Pte. | Field, G. E. | M.M.
24688 | Pte. | Bolton, G. | Belgian Croix
| | | de Guerre
1925 | Pte. | Spurr, P. | M.M.
2251 | Pte. | Wallace, J. | D.C.M.
85656 | Pte. | Biddle, A. E. | M.M.
12700 | Pte. | Ditchfield, J. | M.M.
16270 | Pte. | Mason, L. | M.M.
7945 | Pte. | Middleton, A. R. | M.M.
24752 | Pte. | O’Neill, J. | M.M.
147840 | Pte. | Ramsden, J. | M.M.
60493 | Pte. | Maplethorpe, S. | M.M.
108125 | Pte. | Byrne, G. H. | M.M.
139628 | Pte. | Frost, E. D. | M.M.
139630 | Pte. | Walker, F. | M.M.
136591 | Pte. | Polwin, W. | M.M.
142701 | Pte. | Kitchen, E. | M.M.
137524 | Pte. | Price, G. | M.M.
139627 | Pte. | Rawson, E. | M.M.
24684 | Pte. | Spavin, L. | M.M.
45587 | Pte. | Chidgey, R. J. | M.M.
87801 | Pte. | Barincoat, R. H. | M.M.
28754 | Pte. | Colley, H. C. | Croix de Guerre
57445 | Pte. | Griffin, E. | M.M.
71584 | Pte. | Spinks, A. | M.M.
49TH DIVISIONAL R.A.S.C.
| Lt.-Col. | Chambers, J. C. | C.B.
| Lt.-Col. | Haigh, B. | D.S.O.
| Major | Montgomery, C. E. | M.C.
| Major | Butler, H. B. B. | O.B.E. 4th
| Captain | Milner, J. | M.C.
| Captain | Pearson, R. T. | M.C.
| Captain | Mills, G. H. | O.B.E. 4th
T4/249822 | S.S.M. | Welburn, A. E. | M.S.M.
S4/072024 | S. Sgt. | Jacques, H. | M.S.M.
M/2/164229 | Q.M.S. | Telfor, W. | M.S.M.
T4/250989 | S.Q.M.S. | Leng, J. R. | M.S.M.
S4/249596 | Sgt. | Elsworth, C. | M.S.M.
T4/250904 | Sgt. | Keighley, J. E. | Medaille Barbatie
| | | si Credinta, 2nd
| | | Class
MS/1401 | Sgt. | Ridley, W. | M.S.M.
T/232 | Cpl. | Kay, J. S. | M.M.
T/3008 | Dr. | Liversedge, F. | D.C.M.
| | | Croix de Guerre
T/418 | Dr. | Styles, J. | M.M.
T4/25101 | Dr. | Hook, E. | M.M.
T4/250886 | Dr. | Robinson, A. | M.M.
T4/251948 | Dr. | Olford, A. | M.M.
T4/252278 | Dr. | Smith, N. B. | Medaille
| | | d’Honneur
| | | Avec Glavies
| | | en Bronze
HEADQUARTERS R.A.M.C.
| Colonel | Sharp, A. D. | C.M.G.
| | | C.B.
| Major | Turner, A. C. | D.S.O.
107 | Q.M.S. | DeBarr, S. G. | M.S.M.
403556 | Sgt. | Cox, A. | M.S.M.
1/1ST WEST RIDING FIELD AMBULANCE
| Lt.-Col. | Whalley, F. | D.S.O.
| Major | Goode, H. N. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Captain | Partridge, H. R. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Captain | Metcalfe, J. C. | M.C.
| Captain | Pinder, J. | M.C.
| Revd. | McGuinness, E. | M.C.
401417 | S. Sgt. | Wood, A. E. | M.S.M.
1670 | Sgt. | Robson, F. W. | M.M.
175 | Sgt. | Turner, C. S. | M.M.
596 | Sgt. | Johnston, J. W. | M.M.
1735 | Sgt. | Maury, P. | M.M.
401452 | Sgt. | Beevers, F. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
M/2/076141 | Sgt. (A.S.C. | Routh, J. | M.M.
| Attd.) | |
401039 | Sgt. | Daniels, A. | M.M.
401330 | Sgt. | Slater, F. H. | M.M.
401004 | Sgt. | Pawson, F. | M.S.M.
401234 | L.-Sgt. | Kew, A. | M.M.
M2/005122 | Cpl. (A.S.C. | Beale, H. C. | Belgian Croix
| Attd.) | | de Guerre
401090 | Cpl. | Harvey, P. | M.M.
123 | L.-Cpl. | Fisher, G. H. | M.M.
45 | L.-Cpl. | Wiles, H. | M.M.
401205 | L.-Cpl. | Ibbetson, J. W. | M.M.
401194 | L.-Cpl. | Vaughan, R. | M.M.
128 | Pte. | Brown, B. | M.M.
279 | Pte. | Dibbs, E. | M.M.
1603 | Pte. | Middleton, E. | M.M.
1550 | Pte. | Robinson, W. | M.M.
206 | Pte. | Gott, A. | M.M.
28 | Pte. | Castlelow, F. | M.M.
594 | Pte. | Hinchcliffe, T. J. | M.M.
401436 | Pte. | Johnson, H. | M.M.
401325 | Pte. | Adams, H. V. | M.M.
92903 | Pte. | Mackie, A. J. G. | M.M.
401024 | Pte. | Haley, T. B. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
401491 | Pte. | Dickinson, A. | M.M.
M2/076128 | Pte. | Jackson, F. | M.M.
M2/073631 | Pte. | Thorn, W. | M.M.
401340 | Pte. | Daniels, J. | M.M.
401033 | Pte. | Ormsby, G. | M.M.
401334 | Pte. | Hursley, J. T. | M.M.
401047 | Pte. | Tillotson, J. | M.M.
403634 | Pte. | Peckett, L. V. | M.M.
405169 | Pte. | Hague, J. | M.M.
405445 | Pte. | Welsh, R. | M.M.
405424 | Pte. | Treddwell, W. H. | M.M.
1/2ND WEST RIDING FIELD AMBULANCE
| Lt.-Col. | Collinson, H. | D.S.O.
| Lt.-Col. | Dobson, F. G. | D.S.O.
| Major | Smith, C. N. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Captain | Foxton, H. | M.C.
| Revd. | Jarvis, E. C. | M.C.
403033 | S.M. | Moss, H. C. | M.S.M.
T4/253975 | S.S.M. | Norris, G. H. | M.S.M.
176 | Sgt. | Bland, G. | D.C.M.
| Sgt. | Holdsworth, W. E. | D.C.M.
M2/055497 | Sgt. | Culmane, J. | M.M.
407 | Sgt. | Hind, J. F. | M.M.
845 | Sgt. | Earl, V. | M.M.
403067 | Sgt. | Wilkinson, E. | M.M.
403243 | Sgt. | Hind, J. F. | D.C.M.
403576 | L.-Sgt. | Geavins, A. J. E. | M.M.
368046 | Cpl. | John, A. E. | M.M.
137 | L.-Cpl. | Knight, H. | M.M.
403550 | L.-Cpl. | Turner, H. H. | M.M.
403564 | L.-Cpl. | Cooper, R. J. | M.M.
403549 | L.-Cpl. | Hill, C. H. | M.M.
403338 | L.-Cpl. | Todd, P. R. | M.M.
364 | Pte. | Todd, M. W. | M.M.
72 | Pte. | Linley, A. | M.M.
385 | Pte. | Bradley, E. N. | M.M.
1590 | Pte. | Waters, S. | M.M.
198 | Pte. | Partridge, J. N. | M.M.
403111 | Pte. | Bottomley, R. | M.M.
403203 | Pte. | Newton, H. | Belgian Croix
| | | de Guerre
403582 | Pte. | Arnold, D. | M.M.
M2/073659 | Pte. | Somerville, J. M. | M.M.
403591 | Pte. | Kellett, W. | M.M.
403163 | Pte. | Bolton, R. E. | M.M.
403446 | Pte. | Booker, J. H. | M.M.
403425 | Pte. | Lickess, H. | M.M.
403575 | Pte. | Haigh, K. C. | M.M.
403134 | Pte. | Kirby, W. | M.M.
403534 | Pte. | Dellar, H. | French Croix
| | | de Guerre
405267 | Pte. | Carter, H. | M.M.
1/3RD WEST RIDING FIELD AMBULANCE
| Lt.-Col. | Mackinnon, J. | D.S.O.
| Major | Allen, (V.C.), W. B. | D.S.O.
| | | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Captain | Stark, R. A. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Captain | Carr, G. F. | M.C.
| Captain | Partridge, H. R. | M.C.
837 | Sgt. | Brookes, W. | Medaille
| | | Militaire
476 | Sgt. | Oliver, H. | D.C.M.
903 | Sgt. | Brownhill, E. H. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
405160 | Sgt. | Crofts, H. E. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
405244 | Sgt. | Pickering, F. | M.M.
405120 | Cpl. | Bollard, G. W. | M.M.
405247 | Cpl. | Bower, H. | M.M.
405272 | Cpl. | Briggs, W. | M.M.
M2/053961 | Cpl. | Davies, F. C. | M.M.
180 | L.-Cpl. | Needham, G. H. | D.C.M.
405267 | L.-Cpl. | Carter, H. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
405109 | L.-Cpl. | Dent, F. | M.M.
| | | M.S.M.
M2/073647 | Dr. | Lewis, W. | M.M.
173 | Pte. | Northend, E. | M.M.
405195 | Pte. | Harvey, B. | M.M.
405114 | Pte. | Bradshaw, H. | M.M.
405079 | Pte. | Hoyland, L. B. | M.M.
83339 | Pte. | Marshall, W. F. | M.M.
405424 | Pte. | Tradewell, W. H. | M.M.
405027 | Pte. | Emmerson, J. W. | French Medaille
| | | Militaire
405133 | Pte. | Hayward, A. C. | M.M.
405152 | Pte. | Gregory, E. | M.M.
405199 | Pte. | Marris, H. | M.M.
405147 | Pte. | Jenkinson, J. H. | M.M.
405039 | Pte. | Lockington, J. E. | M.M.
405451 | Pte. | Hilliam, J. H. | M.M.
405485 | Pte. | Richards, A. R. | M.M.
UNITS ATTACHED TO 49TH (W.R.) DIVISION
M.M. POLICE.
P/4816 | Sgt. | Ryan, J. F. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
P/868 | Sgt. | Lewendon, G. | M.M.
P/4812 | Sgt. | Beveridge, G. O. H. | M.S.M.
P/2871 | L.-Cpl. | Hignett, R. | M.S.M.
P/4760 | L.-Cpl. | Joel, H. M. | M.M.
P/4890 | L.-Cpl. | Till, J. | M.M.
P/4824 | L.-Cpl. | Parker, J. | M.M.
P/7661 | L.-Cpl. | Tokins, A. | M.M.
P/1365 | L.-Cpl. | Agar, G. | M.S.M.
3RD SOUTH LANCS. 243RD EMPLOY. COY.
118154 | Pte. | Furniss, O. | M.M.
R.A.O. CORPS.
S/6351 | S. Condtr. | Young, J. E. | M.S.M.
S/4976 | S. Condtr. | Stagg, F. G. | M.S.M.
| S. Condtr. | Parker, W. | M.S.M.
CHAPLAIN.
| Revd. | Barnes, S. R. | O.B.E., 4th
| Revd. | Goodwin, H. F. | M.C.
34TH T.M. BATTERY.
| 2/Lieut. | Whittaker, O. | M.C.
62376 | Gr. | Raynor, W. | D.C.M.
ATTACHED TO A.P.M.
S/243106 | L.-Cpl. | Haigh, H. | M.S.M.
DIVISIONAL GAS OFFICER.
| Lieut. | Stott, O. | M.C.
ARMY VETERINARY CORPS.
| Captain | Keir, D. | M.C.
TT/03171 | Sgt. | Heveringham, A. G. | M.S.M.
TT/03216 | Sgt. | Taylor, F. J. S. | M.S.M.
TT/33338 | Sgt. | Wilks, J. | M.S.M.
NEW ZEALAND FIELD ARTILLERY.
11/2074 | Sgt. | Davis, C. H. | M.M.
NEW ZEALAND DIVISIONAL AMMUNITION COLUMN.
2/651 | Sgt. | Burt, O. C. H. | M.M.
2/2221 | Cpl. | MacGibbon, D. A. | M.M.
10622 | Bdr. | Malone, D. | M.M.
10597 | Dr. | Henry, G. E. | M.M.
13/2846 | Dr. | Mason, S. | M.M.
1/1ST FIELD COY. NEW ZEALAND ENGINEERS.
4/1227a | Cpl. | Duggan, J. W. | M.M.
4/1978 | 2nd Cpl. | McKinlay, W. D. | M.M.
4/126a | Sapr. | Ramsey, J. K. | M.M.
4/1207 | Sapr. | Walker, J. | M.M.
1/3RD FIELD COY. NEW ZEALAND ENGINEERS.
4/2112 | Sapr. | McMillan, H. | M.M.
(B). SUMMARY OF HONOURS AND AWARDS OBTAINED BY 62ND (W.R.) DIVISION.
V.C. 5
C.M.G. 4
M.B.E. 1
D.S.O. 61
Bar to D.S.O. 6
M.C. 402
Bar to M.C. 49
2nd Bar to M.C. 3
3rd Bar to M.C. 1
D.C.M. 169
Bar to D.C.M. 6
M.M. 1,754
Bar to M.M. 97
2nd Bar to M.M. 3
M.S.M. 68
Foreign Orders, etc. 26
-----
Total 2,655
-----
LIST OF HONOURS AND AWARDS OBTAINED BY 62ND (W.R.) DIVISION.
------------+---------------+-------------------------+------------------
Regtl. No. | Rank. | Name. | Award.
------------+---------------+-------------------------+------------------
| | |
HEADQUARTERS 62ND (W.R.) DIVISION.
| Maj.-Gen. | Braithwaite, Sir W. P. | K.C.B.
| | (C.B.) |
| Maj.-Gen. | Whigham, Sir R. D. | K.C.M.G.
| | (K.C.B.) |
| | | D.S.O.
| Br.-Gen. | Foot, R. M. (C.M.G.) | D.S.O.
| Br.-Gen. | Gillam, —. | D.S.O.
| Lt.-Col. | Newman, C. R. (D.S.O.) | C.M.G.
| | | Legion d’Honneur
| | | (Chevalier)
| Major | Bissett, F. W. L. | D.S.O.
| | | M.C.
| Major | Lindsett, W. G. (M.C.) | D.S.O.
| S.S.M. | Preston, —. | M.S.M.
185TH INFANTRY BRIGADE.
| Bt.-Major | O’Connor, E. N. | D.S.O.
| Captain | Lloyd, W. A. C. | M.C.
| Captain | Harter, J. F. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Freer, E. H. | M.C.
48214 | Sgt. | Ellis, H. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
186TH INFANTRY BRIGADE.
| Brig.-General | Burnett, J. L. G. | C.M.G.
| | | D.S.O.
| Major | Boyd, J. D. (D.S.O.) | Bar to D.S.O.
| Major | Wright, W. O. | D.S.O.
| Captain | Wingfield-Stratford, | Croix de Guerre
| | G. E. |
| Sgt. | Hirst, H. | D.C.M.
S269578 | Sgt. | Robertshaw, W. G. | M.S.M.
187TH INFANTRY BRIGADE.
| Brig.-General | Reddie, A. J. | C.M.G.
| | | D.S.O.
| Captain | Manley, M. A. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Captain | Impson, —. | M.C.
| | | M.B.E.
229TH INFANTRY BRIGADE.
| Brig.-General | Thackeray, F. S. | D.S.O.
| | | M.C.
310TH BRIGADE, R.F.A.
| Major | Currie, J. M. | Croix de Guerre
| Major | Foot, E. C. | M.C.
| Major | Jephson, E. W. F. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Major | Lockhart, J. F. K. | D.S.O.
| Captain | Archer, D. de B. | M.C.
| Captain | Robinson, J. G. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Abrahams, F. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Mills, J. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Holt, W. P. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Morgan, R. G. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Gane, L. C. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Murray, A. C. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Nowill, J. C. F. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Parkinson, E. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Hess, N. | M.C.
255022 | B.S.M. | Salmon, J. P. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
77638 | B.Q.M.S. | Woolf, E. | M.S.M.
786097 | Sgt. | Stradling, C. H. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
| | | Medaille
| | | Militaire
775421 | Sgt. | Bentley, J. A. | M.M.
776389 | Sgt. | Clements, L. D. J. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
03191 | Sgt. | Mollett, T. A. | M.M.
776403 | Sgt. | Stapley, A. H. | M.M.
50531 | Sgt. | Eggot, G. H. | M.M.
968755 | Sgt. | Darling, G. | M.M.
03221 | Sgt. | Daniels, G. W. (A.V.C.) | M.M.
776674 | Sgt. | Rider, H. | M.M.
| | | D.C.M.
40915 | Sgt. | Chamberlain, C. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
775542 | Sgt. | Waide, E. H. | M.S.M.
119305 | Sgt. | Parker, J. | M.M.
776671 | Sgt. | Harrison, H. | M.M.
796614 | Sgt. | Moseley, W. | M.M.
775909 | Cpl. | Chapman, A. | M.M.
776418 | Cpl. | James, T. E. | M.M.
686809 | Cpl. | Mitchell, J. | M.M.
775025 | Cpl. | Clarke, F. | M.M.
776679 | Cpl. | Harrison, A. | M.M.
780184 | Cpl. | Settle, W. | M.S.M.
797096 | Cpl. | Schofield, H. H. | M.M.
479756 | Cpl. | Swithenbank, H. L. | M.M.
775811 | Cpl. | Othen, P. | M.M.
775071 | Cpl. | Howard, A. | M.M.
49163 | Cpl. | Bourne, F. H. | M.M.
479751 | L.-Cpl. | Clarke, F. W. | M.M.
776421 | Bdr. | Kirk, J. | M.M.
776689 | Bdr. | Aspinall, C. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
776686 | Bdr. | McCart, J. | M.M.
775526 | Bdr. | Pawsey, O. | M.M.
776629 | Bdr. | Simpson, J. | M.M.
149519 | Bdr. | Gerrard, F. B. | M.M.
785747 | Bdr. | Jow, G. R. | M.M.
775809 | Bdr. | Preston, J. | M.M.
686749 | Bdr. | Blakeley, J. | M.M.
775228 | Bdr. | Naylor, C. B. | M.M.
57500 | Bdr. | Heard, J. | M.M.
776659 | Gnr. | Wood, F. | M.M.
776440 | Gnr. | Slater, F. | M.M.
170024 | Gnr. | Hales, H. E. | M.M.
775175 | Gnr. | Fender, M. | M.M.
776435 | Gnr. | Pearce, H. E. | M.M.
14383 | Gnr. | Cooper, S. | M.M.
776595 | Gnr. | Charlesworth, G. | M.M.
776518 | Gnr. | Eshelby, J. | M.M.
777007 | Gnr. | Foster, E. | M.M.
40813 | Gnr. | Johnson, W. L. | M.M.
26073 | Gnr. | Wendrop, E. | M.M.
796216 | Gnr. | Fisher, R. | M.M.
765565 | Gnr. | Walker, H. | M.M.
73649 | Gnr. | Champton, M. F. | M.M.
534665 | Spr. | Stockwell, A. W. | M.M.
526246 | Spr. | Page, W. | M.M.
775859 | Sgnr. | Milnes, N. | M.M.
154325 | Sgnr. | Thornton, S. W. | M.M.
775451 | Sgnr. | Doolan, J. | M.M.
247749 | Sgnr. | Courtney, H. | M.M.
775873 | Dr. | Simpson, A. | M.M.
775729 | Dr. | Fincham, G. | M.M.
4317 | Dr. | Smart, G. | M.M.
312TH BRIGADE R.F.A.
| Major | Elston, A. J. | Croix de Guerre
| Bde.-Major | Fitzgibbon, F. | D.S.O.
| | | Croix de Guerre
| Major | Swain, G. A. | M.C.
| Major | Fleming, G. R. | Croix de
| | | Chevalier
| | | (French)
| Major | Arnold Foster, F. A. | D.S.O.
| Captain | Senior, A. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Yore, P. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Lieut. | Bennett, A. G. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Watson, H. S. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Ness, N. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Lieut. | Boden, J. B. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Lieut. | Smith, H. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Lloyd, E. S. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Swain, G. A. | Croix de Guerre
| | | (French)
| 2/Lieut. | Latter, H. A. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Nelson, H. G. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Dowden, H. J. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Douett, C. F. M. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Alderton, B. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Lintern, E. E. C. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Lee, A. G. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Reynolds, J. L. T. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Gooch, F. E. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Smart, E. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Ellis, G. A. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Nicholson, K. B. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Furlong, P. C. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Williams, E. T. | M.C.
240004 | B.S.M. | Brown, J. D. | M.M.
5341 | B.S.M. | Turner, G. | M.M.
73925 | B.S.M. | Hodges, J. W. | M.M.
785528 | B.S.M. | Bowden, G. F. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
90174 | Sgt. | Wild, T. | M.M.
785264 | Sgt. | Brothwell, T. | M.M.
781817 | Sgt. | Butcher, W. T. | M.M.
786046 | Sgt. | Lupton, W. | M.M.
39688 | Sgt. | Anson, A. E. J. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
78621 | Sgt. | Firth, H. | M.M.
785292 | Sgt. | Buchanan, H. | M.M.
786257 | Sgt. | Sweeney, A. | M.M.
786145 | Sgt. | Penny, A. | M.M.
786788 | Sgt. | Simpson, T. | M.M.
786051 | Sgt. | McGowen, H. | M.M.
70957 | Sgt. | Stevenson, W. | M.M.
786071 | Sgt. | Parr, G. | M.M.
| Sgt. | Whittaker, F. | D.C.M.
62908 | Sgt. | Yates, J. | M.M.
785248 | Sgt. | Hebblethwaite, —. | M.M.
686744 | Sgt. | Black, J. | M.M.
786705 | Sgt. | Kettlewell, J. | M.M.
785538 | Sgt. | Roper, F. | D.C.M.
786449 | Cpl. | Jeffrey, W. | D.C.M.
786191 | Cpl. | Pollard, F. | M.M.
785989 | Cpl. | Bland, C. | M.M.
786041 | Cpl. | Jeffrey, H. | M.M.
786087 | Cpl. | Smith, J. A. | M.M.
786714 | Cpl. | Worshop, C. | M.M.
785268 | Cpl. | Steele, A. | M.S.M.
117895 | Bdr. | Roberts, R. | M.M.
786581 | Bdr. | Orme, O. | D.C.M.
786289 | Bdr. | Stobart, G. | M.M.
786186 | Bdr. | Tweed, A. | M.M.
785655 | Bdr. | Davis, H. | M.M.
786597 | Bdr. | Brears, B. | M.M.
81459 | Gnr. | Mellor, T. H. | M.M.
90085 | Gnr. | Head, W. | M.M.
811015 | Gnr. | Fellows, A. | M.M.
68531 | Gnr. | Brackfield, E. | M.M.
947529 | Gnr. | Glass, A. | M.M.
786570 | Gnr. | Hollyhead, G. | M.M.
165323 | Gnr. | Holmes, T. | M.M.
786409 | Gnr. | Leaf, E. | M.M.
786176 | Gnr. | Noble, J. | M.M.
785544 | Gnr. | Clapton, G. | M.M.
786216 | Gnr. | Heaton, R. | M.M.
686672 | Gnr. | Potts, J. | M.M.
785507 | Gnr. | Heslam, W. | M.M.
14394 | Gnr. | Friend, F. | M.M.
78372 | Gnr. | Austin, E. J. | M.M.
786188 | Gnr. | Wakefield, E. | M.M.
178962 | Gnr. | Gething, H. | M.M.
155862 | Sgnr. | Hill, F. | M.M.
403491 | Pte. | Yates, C. | M.M.
786267 | S.-Smith | Wilthew, L. | M.M.
775441 | Dr. | Marsden, W. | M.M.
795579 | Dr. | Marks, H. | M.M.
785515 | Dr. | Ames, L. | M.M.
670 | Dr. | Morgan, D. E. | M.M.
786427 | Dr. | Whitaker, S. | M.M.
786321 | Dr. | Howard, G. | M.M.
796698 | Dr. | Taylor, E. | M.M.
216999 | Dr. | Willis, W. | M.M.
786277 | Dr. | Cartwright, M. | M.M.
786245 | Dr. | Utley, F. A. | M.M.
786012 | Dr. | Ellis, W. | M.M.
785652 | Dr. | Wheatley, G. | M.M.
786070 | Dr. | Parkinson, T. | M.M.
11390 | Dr. | Slater, B. | M.M.
796529 | Dr. | Edwards, H. | M.M.
47715 | Dr. | O’Reilly, M. | M.M.
479981 | Spr. | Butcher, C. | M.M.
490257 | Spr. | Fisher, H. | M.M.
354350 | Spr. | Starding, E. | M.M.
293RD BRIGADE R.F.A.
48262 | Sgt. | Mackrill, S. W. | D.C.M.
52069 | Sgt. | Rae, W. | M.M.
781506 | Cpl. | Burton, E. | D.C.M.
606140 | Gnr. | Evans, J. | M.M.
WEST RIDING DIVISIONAL AMMUNITION COLUMN.
| Captain | Long, V. H. S. | Croix de Guerre
| Lieut. | House, W. H. | M.C.
796450 | Sgt. | Mather, W. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
795060 | Sgt. | Mallinson, G. | M.M.
795531 | Sgt. | Lacey, W. | M.M.
796760 | Bdr. | Bawn, A. S. | M.M.
795487 | Bdr. | Hattersley, J. W. | M.M.
795655 | Bdr. | Firth, A. | M.M.
795432 | Gnr. | Scott, E. | M.M.
795519 | Gnr. | Simmons, F. W. | M.M.
68968 | Dr. | Bain, W. | M.M.
795469 | Dr. | Wheater, T. W. | M.M.
796096 | Dr. | Morley, T. H. | M.M.
745725 | Dr. | Green, T. J. | M.M.
796893 | Dr. | Marton, W. J. | M.M.
62ND TRENCH MORTAR BATTERY.
| Captain | Bate, R. E. de B. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Lieut. | Schofield, H. O. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Wilson, E. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Gaulder, C. W. E. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Hart, P. H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Doig, K. H. | M.C.
786598 | Cpl. | Firth, E. | M.M.
781506 | Cpl. | Burton, E. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
775751 | Cpl. | Smith, H. | M.M.
775939 | Cpl. | Arundel, J. W. | M.M.
781904 | Cpl. | Adams, E. | M.S.M.
776494 | Bdr. | Mornan, J. | M.M.
776523 | Bdr. | Malhom, A. | M.M.
26073 | Gnr. | Windrop, E. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
190884 | Gnr. | Newby, M. D. | M.M.
200961 | Dr. | Metcalf, J. F. | D.C.M.
62ND (W.R.) DIVISIONAL ROYAL ENGINEERS.
| Lt.-Col. | Chenevix-Trench, L. | C.M.G.
| | | D.S.O.
| Major | Montgomery, R. V. | M.C.
| Major | Paul, A. F. B. | M.C.
| Major | Walthew, E. J. | M.C.
| Major | Seaman, W. A. | M.C.
| Captain | Phillips, C. K. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Stranger, J. R. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Lieut. | Cooper, D. E. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Pearce, H. J. | M.C.
| Lieut. | O’Dowda, B. F. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Collins, A. B. C. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Howard, A. H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Shannon, J. A. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Smith, S. A. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Clarson, C. L. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Froggatt, W. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Graham, M. R. | M.C.
480031 | C.S.M. | Neale, R. C. | M.M.
| | | M.S.M.
428181 | C.Q.M.S. | Alexander. E. T. | M.S.M.
482140 | Sgt. | Ellis, H. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
482147 | Sgt. | Anstwick, G. H. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
482032 | Sgt. | McNeille, J. L. | M.M.
482310 | Sgt. | Laxton, T. J. | M.M.
482134 | Sgt. | Marples, N. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
482182 | Sgt. | Barker, G. R. | M.M.
484141 | Sgt. | Dawson, H. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
482119 | Sgt. | Harrington, W. J. | M.S.M.
482348 | Sgt. | O’Neill, J. | M.S.M.
480057 | Sgt. | Wood, T. | M.M.
480070 | Sgt. | Proctor, E. | M.M.
| | | M.S.M.
480098 | Sgt. | Williams, J. H. | M.S.M.
480316 | Sgt. | Bruins, F. | M.M.
480315 | Sgt. | Bailey, W. | M.M.
| | | M.S.M.
478021 | Sgt. | Chapman, F. | M.M.
476246 | Sgt. | Fox, W. | M.M.
476404 | Sgt. | Edwards, C. | M.M.
476392 | Sgt. | Whitehead, J. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
476425 | Sgt. | Elliott, E. | M.M.
476433 | Sgt. | Henry, J. | M.M.
482190 | Cpl. | Lodge, A. | M.M.
482037 | Cpl. | North, G. H. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
458759 | Cpl. | Doyle, T. | M.M.
482341 | Cpl. | Squires, A. | M.M.
481804 | Cpl. | Bilton, W. H. | M.M.
482353 | Cpl. | Rogers, J. | M.M.
482170 | Cpl. | King, S. | M.M.
482409 | Cpl. | Mallinson, B. | M.M.
482347 | Cpl. | Spencer, R. H. | M.M.
482180 | Cpl. | North, H. | M.M.
482135 | Cpl. | Goodsir, T. B. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
482136 | Cpl. | Marshall, W. | M.M.
482138 | Cpl. | Wallace, W. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
482124 | Cpl. | Maxfield, T. | M.M.
482421 | Cpl. | Groocock, A. W. | M.M.
479979 | Cpl. | Blair, S. | M.M.
552167 | Cpl. | Ashby, S. | M.M.
480443 | Cpl. | Smith, B. | M.M.
430042 | Cpl. | Tyldesley, E. | M.M.
476432 | Cpl. | Field, L. | M.M.
470888 | Cpl. | Reay, G. | M.M.
498457 | Cpl. | Wilson, E. | M.M.
482256 | L.-Cpl. | Oven, H. G. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
482419 | L.-Cpl. | Borthwick, T. D. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
282422 | L.-Cpl. | Draycott, G. | M.M.
482375 | L.-Cpl. | Yeadon, L. W. | M.M.
316723 | L.-Cpl. | Piggott, E. C. C. | M.M.
482271 | L.-Cpl. | Lake, F. E. | M.M.
482125 | L.-Cpl. | Dixon, L. | M.M.
492533 | L.-Cpl. | Trueman, H. | M.M.
37010 | L.-Cpl. | Hearne, W. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
32675 | L.-Cpl. | Randall, H. | M.M.
482301 | L.-Cpl. | Wallace, A. | M.M.
482176 | L.-Cpl. | Ebbatson, A. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
259377 | L.-Cpl. | Williams, M. A. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
400195 | L.-Cpl. | Craig, R. | M.M.
476397 | L.-Cpl. | Pettifer, W. | M.M.
498404 | L.-Cpl. | Arnold, G. | M.M.
400622 | L.-Cpl. | Nairn, J. | M.M.
62366 | Spr. | Read, D. W. | M.M.
482385 | Spr. | Adamson, —. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
268251 | Spr. | Arch, J. C. | M.M.
479989 | Spr. | Wilson, H. | M.M.
142357 | Spr. | Gisby, S. | M.M.
482169 | Spr. | Meeks, —. | M.M.
482239 | Spr. | Beeley, A. | M.M.
266449 | Spr. | Lyle, J. A. | M.M.
282274 | Spr. | Steedman, A. | M.M.
508141 | Spr. | Hooper, G. | M.M.
428148 | Spr. | Marshall, E. H. | M.M.
482313 | Spr. | Pycock, E. | M.M.
482131 | Spr. | Snowden, W. H. | M.M.
479981 | Spr. | Butcher, C. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
322132 | Spr. | Connelly, F. G. | M.M.
548448 | Spr. | Pearce, J. | M.M.
325997 | Spr. | Pitts, B. | M.M.
482343 | Spr. | Holmes, F. H. W. | M.M.
166287 | Spr. | Justice, W. C. | M.M.
48049 | Spr. | Middleton, J. A. R. | M.M.
480641 | Spr. | Green, J. | M.M.
480637 | Spr. | Goodrum, E. | M.M.
476579 | Spr. | Cross, J. | M.M.
183791 | Spr. | Critchley, F. D. | M.M.
482130 | Pnr. | Jackson, W. H. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
325692 | Pnr. | Hayton, H. W. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
221657 | Pnr. | Watton, F. G. | M.M.
166154 | Pnr. | Wright, E. | M.M.
259599 | Pnr. | Douglas, E. R. | M.M.
267573 | Pnr. | Douglas, H. | M.M.
2/5TH WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT.
| Lt.-Col. | Josselyn, J. | D.S.O.
| Lieut. | Skirrow, G. | Croix de Guerre
| | | (French)
| Lieut. | Green, A. E. | D.S.O.
| Lieut. | Smith, A. W. L. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Sawyer, E. C. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Airey, J. C. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Riley, B. M. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Bardsley, E. H. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Anderson, J. M. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Bailey, R. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Tewson, H. V. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Veal, L. T. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Simpson, J. H. | Croix de Guerre
| 2/Lieut. | Kermode, E. M. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| | | D.S.O.
| 2/Lieut. | Donkersley, R. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Gwynn, A. J. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | McKintoch, W. J. | M.C.
| Lieut. & Q.M. | Riley, T. | M.C.
200372 | R.Q.M.S. | Richmond, W. E. | M.M.
200026 | C.Q.M.S. | Pope, A. | M.M.
200783 | Sgt. | Abbott, J. | M.M.
201195 | Sgt. | Rathke, W. E. | D.C.M.
201129 | Sgt. | Pearson, H. A. | M.M.
201012 | Sgt. | Huggins, J. W. | M.M.
4252 | Sgt. | Symonds, W. | M.M.
201115 | Sgt. | Irving, J. | M.M.
306966 | Sgt. | Horner, J. W. | D.C.M.
238027 | Sgt. | Campbell, R. W. | D.C.M.
201138 | Sgt. | Wright, —. | M.M.
200950 | Sgt. | Sigsworth, W. | M.M.
200047 | C.Q.M.S. | Greaves, G. E. | M.M.
252897 | L.-Sgt. | Priestley, H. | Bar to M.M.
42438 | Cpl. | Moody, J. A. | M.M.
200436 | Cpl. | White, J. H. | M.M.
200463 | Cpl. | Hudson, T. | M.M.
200985 | Cpl. | Cole, A. | M.M.
42436 | Cpl. | Burdett, T. H. | M.M.
42120 | Cpl. | Raw, J. R. | M.M.
4265 | L.-Cpl. | Marston, T. | M.M.
3717 | L.-Cpl. | Crust, J. W. | M.M.
305451 | L.-Cpl. | Shepherd, H. | M.M.
42032 | L.-Cpl. | Briggs, F. | M.M.
201126 | L.-Cpl. | Bradley, J. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
201557 | L.-Cpl. | Newbank, J. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
200094 | L.-Cpl. | Lamb, C. W. | M.M.
265469 | L.-Cpl. | Crowther, C. | M.M.
267154 | L.-Cpl. | Brear, G. W. | M.M.
20166 | L.-Cpl. | Falconer, J. S. | M.M.
202109 | L.-Cpl. | Appleby, S. P. | M.M.
3700 | L.-Cpl. | Plumb, F. | M.M.
5264 | L.-Cpl. | Taylor, W. | M.M.
268521 | L.-Cpl. | Keteley, J. C. | M.M.
201935 | L.-Cpl. | Holliday, R. | M.M.
200162 | L.-Cpl. | Waite, R. | M.M.
42044 | L.-Cpl. | Damme, R. | M.M.
203581 | L.-Cpl. | Stones, J. | Decoration
| | | Militaire
| | | (Belgian)
42028 | L.-Cpl. | Bevens, G. H. | M.M.
202019 | Pte. | Collinson, A. E. | M.M.
200858 | Pte. | Foster, W. V. | M.M.
20476 | Pte. | McGrigor, J. | M.M.
201361 | Pte. | Grasby, J. W. | M.M.
200982 | Pte. | Doe, C. | M.M.
11307 | Pte. | Bell, S. D. | M.M.
202093 | Pte. | Bingham, T. | M.M.
38216 | Pte. | Rushworth, A. | M.M.
48379 | Pte. | Haigh, W. | M.M.
52035 | Pte. | Cope, R. | M.M.
203630 | Pte. | Bryant, C. E. | M.M.
201202 | Pte. | Smith, J. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
203773 | Pte. | Beetham, H. | D.C.M.
57492 | Pte. | Boult, J. R. | M.M.
41785 | Pte. | Page, P. | M.M.
57460 | Pte. | Ross, D. G. | M.M.
42016 | Pte. | Allen, A. E. | M.M.
52004 | Pte. | Aves, C. A. | M.M.
20484 | Pte. | Platt, A. T. | M.M.
57191 | Pte. | Plant, H. G. | M.M.
241936 | Pte. | Allinson, W. B. | M.M.
53706 | Pte. | Raynor, W. | M.M.
59207 | Pte. | Cross, A. | M.M.
40973 | Pte. | Dagg, J. T. | M.M.
201163 | Pte. | Sheard, B. | M.M.
59588 | Pte. | Johnson, J. | M.M.
20928 | Pte. | Smith, H. | M.M.
201908 | Pte. | Day, A. | M.M.
201906 | Pte. | Broomfield, J. | M.M.
2/6TH WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT.
| Lt.-Col. | Hastings, J. H. | D.S.O.
| Lt.-Col. | Hoare, C. H. | D.S.O.
| | | Bar to D.S.O.
| Major | Whiteaway, E. G. L. | M.C.
| Captain | Smith, H. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Ling, G. F. M. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Lieut. | Stewart, G. F. | D.S.O.
| Lieut. | Lawrence, F. C. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Frost, T. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Rhodes, H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Bickerdike, R. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Humphries, E. B. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Allett, J. R. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Brookbank, G. E. J. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Hodgson, G. H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Worth, J. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Moor, J. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Bonsor, G. F. | M.C.
| Lieut. & Q.M. | Welch, A. | M.C.
7840 | R.S.M. | Brough, A. | M.C.
| | | D.C.M.
240730 | C.S.M. | Silkstone, M. | D.C.M.
241831 | Sgt. | Huggins, W. | D.C.M.
201284 | Sgt. | Banfield, H. | D.C.M.
240954 | Sgt. | Robinson, A. | M.M.
240788 | Sgt. | Aldrid, E. | M.M.
241047 | Sgt. | Pickles, H. | M.M.
242062 | Sgt. | Taylor, J. R. | M.M.
202528 | L.-Sgt. | Piper, A. | D.C.M.
242001 | Cpl. | Binnington, R. | D.C.M.
241043 | Cpl. | Sadler, F. N. | M.M.
4995 | Cpl. | Heart, A. | M.M.
201126 | Cpl. | Bradley, J. | M.M.
241356 | Cpl. | Ellis, E. | M.M.
240069 | Cpl. | Lawford, J. | M.M.
241246 | Cpl. | Westerman, A. W. | M.M.
241718 | Cpl. | Speight, E. | M.M.
12078 | Cpl. | Moore, J. | D.C.M.
| | | Bar to D.C.M.
241124 | L.-Cpl. | Sellers, H. | M.M.
240105 | L.-Cpl. | Sellars, E. | M.M.
241744 | L.-Cpl. | Boyle, T. | D.C.M.
40152 | L.-Cpl. | Gamble, R. | M.M.
240132 | L.-Cpl. | Healey, H. | M.M.
306068 | L.-Cpl. | Hudson, W. H. | M.M.
200971 | L.-Cpl. | Andrews, W. | M.M.
24183 | L.-Cpl. | Garbett, S. | M.M.
2746 | Pte. | Pickthall, W. | M.M.
242987 | Pte. | Russell, E. | M.M.
240931 | Pte. | Haseltine, L. | M.M.
203744 | Pte. | Hobson, J. A. | M.M.
203487 | Pte. | Allinson, J. H. | M.M.
266968 | Pte. | Hird, S. | M.M.
306624 | Pte. | Wright, A. | M.M.
41950 | Pte. | Matthews, L. G. | M.M.
242462 | Pte. | Mosley, A. | M.M.
21529 | Pte. | Self, R. | M.M.
203058 | Pte. | Brown, F. | M.M.
41981 | Pte. | Hambleton, F. | M.M.
241211 | Pte. | Benn, W. | M.M.
17682 | Pte. | Emmett, G. | M.M.
240203 | Pte. | Hard, S. H. | M.M.
241866 | Pte. | Busfield, J. H. | M.M.
203442 | Pte. | Gelby, W. | M.M.
41973 | Pte. | Johnson, A. | M.M.
2/7TH WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT.
| Lt.-Col. | James, C. K. | D.S.O.
| | | Bar to D.S.O.
| Captain | Cooper, S. R. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Hannam, C. D. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Hamilton, J. S. | D.S.O.
| Lieut. | Raven, G. E. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Chance, J. | M.C.
| | | D.C.M.
| 2/Lieut. | Swaney, L. T. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Hall, J. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Ling, G. F. M. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Mowen, C. H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Jones, L. R. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Sagar-Musgrave, C. L. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Fane, F. L. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Bazley-White, J. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Edwards, C. G. | D.S.O.
| 2/Lieut. | Brown, W. R. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Rugh, W. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Donne, P. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Tillotson, J. E. | D.S.O.
| | | M.C.
238203 | C.S.M. | Cropper, J. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
| C.S.M. | Sykes, T. | D.C.M.
| Sgt. | Smith, A. | D.C.M.
267100 | Sgt. | Wells, T. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
202522 | Sgt. | Lancaster, C. F. | M.M.
3508 | Sgt. | McHugh, J. | M.M.
2929 | Sgt. | Gavins, J. | M.M.
265747 | Sgt. | Dean, T. | M.M.
267000 | Sgt. | Holmes, H. E. | D.C.M.
265918 | C.S.M. | Rosindale, H. | M.C.
303015 | C.S.M. | Robson, J. M. | D.C.M.
265720 | Sgt. | Burns, W. | M.M.
266033 | Sgt. | Stead, H. | M.M.
3038 | Sgt. | Cooper, C. | M.M.
267466 | Sgt. | Smith, T. | M.M.
203478 | L.-Sgt. | Bone, C. | M.M.
266385 | Cpl. | Riley, O. | M.M.
266407 | Cpl. | Elsworth, C. | M.M.
266325 | Cpl. | Dutton, J. | M.M.
267136 | Cpl. | Little, W. | M.M.
266165 | L.-Cpl. | Yates, F. | M.M.
275830 | L.-Cpl. | Dickinson, —. | Medaille
| | | Militaire
| | | (French)
365062 | L.-Cpl. | Hirst, C. | M.M.
266131 | L.-Cpl. | Child, J. A. | M.M.
39555 | L.-Cpl. | Webb, H. | M.M.
43338 | L.-Cpl. | White, G. E. | M.M.
16189 | L.-Cpl. | Precious, G. | M.M.
22211 | L.-Cpl. | Metcalf, T. | D.C.M.
39615 | L.-Cpl. | Connor, T. | M.M.
266411 | L.-Cpl. | Arnold, G. C. | M.M.
266418 | L.-Cpl. | Izatt, R. | M.M.
4940 | Rfm. | Wells, T. | M.M.
3443 | Rfm. | Leach, A. | M.M.
267274 | Rfm. | Walker, J. W. | M.M.
267313 | Rfm. | Atkinson, H. | M.M.
267121 | Rfm. | Walker, A. | M.M.
266124 | Rfm. | Green, C. | M.M.
17331 | Rfm. | Oates, S. | M.M.
403165 | Rfm. | Bourn, W. O. H. | M.M.
52083 | Rfm. | Lordan, D. | M.M.
52308 | Rfm. | March, A. | M.M.
265714 | Rfm. | Walgate, G. | M.M.
266240 | Rfm. | Barker, W. W. | M.M.
51881 | Rfm. | White, F. | M.M.
266494 | Rfm. | Turner, E. | M.M.
26449 | Rfm. | Trench, W. | M.M.
268661 | Rfm. | Mortimer, R. | M.M.
267621 | Rfm. | Tompofski, M. | M.M.
270176 | Rfm. | Watson, C. H. | M.M.
586317 | Rfm. | Coinllault, L. H. | M.M.
3-596 | Rfm. | Leake, J. R. | M.M.
24178 | Rfm. | Roberts, D. | M.M.
205542 | Rfm. | Holmes, J. | M.M.
2/8TH WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT.
| Lt.-Col. | James, A. H. | D.S.O.
| Lt.-Col. | England, N. A. | D.S.O.
| Major | Whiteaway, E. G. L. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Captain | Kinder, G. G. | M.C.
| Captain | Wall, D. L. | M.C.
| Captain | Hutchinson, B. | M.C.
| Captain | Reay, P. T. | M.C.
| Captain | Milligan, A. | M.C.
| Captain | Taft, C. F. T. | M.C.
| Captain | Hirst, G. M. | M.C.
| Capt. & Q.M. | Farrar, B. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Jowett, P. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Burrows, H. R. | M.C.
| | | Croix de Guerre
| Lieut. | Graves, H. J. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Friend, C. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Pyman, J. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Nicholson, F. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Nethercot, R. P. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Crabtree, R. M. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Hartley, W. H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Bullock, A. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Naylor, A. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Harrison, I. R. S. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Henderson, A. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Oates, A. H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Monkman, G. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Foster, S. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Hauson, F. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | McLintock, W. C. | Croix de Guerre
| 2/Lieut. | Clay, G. F. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Stead, C. V. | M.C.
306197 | C.S.M. | Wheeler, W. | M.M.
7047 | C.S.M. | Winters, H. E. | M.M.
| C.Q.M.S. | Leisham, J. | M.S.M.
18/209 | C.Q.M.S. | Oliver, J. | M.M.
305674 | Sgt. | Gowar, T. H. | M.M.
306265 | Sgt. | Speight, H. | D.C.M.
306251 | Sgt. | Andrews, W. | M.M.
303966 | Sgt. | Horner, J. | M.M.
305374 | Sgt. | Elliott, G. N. | M.M.
305960 | Sgt. | Wilson, J. | M.M.
306144 | Sgt. | Crymble, A. | M.M.
306795 | Sgt. | Buttery, E. F. | M.M.
306238 | Sgt. | Bryce, J. | M.M.
305700 | Sgt. | Hutton, W. R. | D.C.M.
305621 | Sgt. | Bullock, F. H. T. | M.S.M.
201685 | Sgt. | Suffil, S. G. | M.S.M.
305958 | Sgt. | Hipps, J. | M.M.
305213 | Sgt. | Swarbeck, H. | M.M.
306413 | Sgt. | Lockridge, W. | M.M.
306818 | Sgt. | Stanhope, J. | M.M.
59618 | Sgt. | Hubbard, C. F. | M.M.
305932 | Sgt. | Richardson, J. | M.M.
235234 | Sgt. | Mulrooney, H. | M.M.
265562 | Sgt. | Trott, J. W. | M.M.
265422 | Sgt. | Elsworth, R. J. | D.C.M.
306674 | Sgt. | Booker, A. | M.M.
365685 | Sgt. | Gough, H. T. | M.M.
305814 | Sgt. | Threadgould, H. | M.M.
305804 | Sgt. | Broadley, G. | D.C.M.
305904 | Sgt. | Audsley, F. | M.M.
306209 | L.-Sgt. | Wallis, T. | M.M.
42393 | L.-Sgt. | Pamment, C. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
241935 | L.-Sgt. | Hensey, R. | M.M.
305183 | Cpl. | Elliott, D. W. | M.M.
305404 | Cpl. | Dunant, E. | M.M.
42378 | Cpl. | Brown, H. | M.M.
306280 | Cpl. | Russell, F. T. | M.M.
305066 | Cpl. | Latts, A. | M.M.
15760 | Cpl. | Emms, F. | M.M.
305726 | Cpl. | Webster, F. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
201025 | Cpl. | Earl, H. | M.M.
24535 | Cpl. | Stevenson, J. | M.M.
15-1744 | Cpl. | West, W. B. | M.M.
52909 | Cpl. | Briggs, T. | D.C.M.
240436 | Cpl. | Hill, H. | M.S.M.
305949 | L.-Cpl. | Athe, F. | M.M.
305208 | L.-Cpl. | Markinson, J. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
236016 | L.-Cpl. | Shepherd, H. R. | M.M.
18-158 | L.-Cpl. | Garside, G. F. | M.M.
306898 | L.-Cpl. | Sawyer, H. | M.M.
201997 | L.-Cpl. | Kelly, J. H. | M.M.
37391 | L.-Cpl. | Anderson, S. | M.M.
20166 | L.-Cpl. | Falconer, J. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
3370 | L.-Sgt. | Potts, W. E. | M.M.
4548 | L.-Cpl. | Priestley, J. | M.M.
306240 | L.-Cpl. | McCourt, E. P. | M.M.
13-383 | L.-Cpl. | Emmett, S. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
241152 | L.-Cpl. | Hollings, F. | M.M.
305209 | L.-Cpl. | Wise, W. | M.M.
266418 | L.-Cpl. | Izitt, R. | M.M.
46068 | L.-Cpl. | Caset, T. M. | M.M.
-1226 | L.-Cpl. | Todd, J. E. | M.M.
265746 | L.-Cpl. | Winn, W. | M.M.
307403 | L.-Cpl. | McCready, T. R. V. | M.M.
20578 | L.-Cpl. | Lewis, C. | M.M.
266208 | L.-Cpl. | Wainwright, R. | M.M.
8171 | L.-Cpl. | Carney, J. | M.M.
58777 | L.-Cpl. | Keen, W. | M.M.
305223 | L.-Cpl. | Slater, H. | M.M.
59164 | L.-Cpl. | Youds, G. | M.M.
307755 | L.-Cpl. | Sykes, A. | M.M.
60286 | L.-Cpl. | Swynhoe, J. | M.M.
61028 | L.-Cpl. | Leach, W. | M.M.
20442 | L.-Cpl. | Booth, C. L. | M.M.
43397 | Rfm. | Bird, W. | M.M.
305111 | Rfm. | Pratt, D. C. | M.M.
42889 | Rfm. | Stockdale, A. | M.M.
306774 | Rfm. | Greenwood, L. | M.M.
8055 | Rfm. | Cooper, F. | M.M.
205144 | Rfm. | Lumbley, G. | M.M.
24144 | Rfm. | Willoughby, J. H. | M.M.
27605 | Rfm. | Clunie, A. | M.M.
58868 | Rfm. | Hakey, J. H. | M.M.
205506 | Rfm. | Harrison, R. E. | M.M.
205143 | Rfm. | Collier, F. | M.M.
63934 | Rfm. | Routledge, W. | M.M.
305447 | Rfm. | Westerman, D. | M.M.
306092 | Rfm. | Schofield, A. | M.M.
42440 | Rfm. | Butler, W. | M.M.
61033 | Rfm. | Cooper, G. | M.M.
60609 | Rfm. | Dobson, G. | M.M.
306746 | Rfm. | Owens, W. | M.M.
63912 | Rfm. | Longbottom, E. | M.M.
13633 | Rfm. | Taylor, A. | M.M.
60475 | Rfm. | Reed, J. W. | M.M.
16-107 | Rfm. | Grayson, A. | M.M.
2993 | Rfm. | Preval, S. | M.M.
3730 | Rfm. | Draycott, B. | M.M.
306873 | Rfm. | Gough, W. | M.M.
308646 | Rfm. | Sutton, P. | M.M.
306188 | Rfm. | Harland, T. | M.M.
306362 | Rfm. | Hirst, J. | M.M.
235247 | Rfm. | McGowan, A. | M.M.
306202 | Rfm. | Morton, T. | M.M.
307729 | Rfm. | Schofield, J. | M.M.
306218 | Rfm. | Wilby, A. | M.M.
39331 | Rfm. | Ibbitson, J. H. | M.M.
267732 | Rfm. | Ibbitson, W. | M.M.
307766 | Rfm. | Rooney, J. | M.M.
14-13409 | Rfm. | Lunn, A. | M.M.
57267 | Rfm. | Jackson, A. | M.M.
306506 | Rfm. | Russell, R. | M.M.
306113 | Rfm. | Rawcliffe, H. | M.M.
306297 | Rfm. | Hallas, H. | M.M.
306810 | Rfm. | Gaunt, I. | M.M.
306864 | Rfm. | Issitt, R. | M.M.
57449 | Rfm. | Newrick, I. C. | M.M.
306274 | Rfm. | Hutchinson, M. A. | M.M.
40210 | Rfm. | Cross, S. L. | M.M.
39497 | Rfm. | Harrison, J. J. | M.M.
61919 | Rfm. | Marsh, G. | M.M.
266321 | Rfm. | Gibson, H. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
53953 | Rfm. | Eagin, S. E. | M.M.
61949 | Rfm. | Robinson, W. E. | M.M.
307254 | Rfm. | Wilkinson, T. | M.M.
305968 | Rfm. | North, H. | M.M.
16-62 | Rfm. | Beasley, J. | M.M.
58765 | Rfm. | Shepherd, H. | M.M.
267455 | Rfm. | Colman, G. | M.M.
60703 | Rfm. | Barnett, C. H. | M.M.
267197 | Rfm. | Goodall, A. | M.M.
27582 | Rfm. | Bell, T. | M.M.
42815 | Rfm. | Allan, G. | M.M.
40804 | Rfm. | Palframan, J. | M.M.
62441 | Rfm. | Smith, P. | M.M.
40633 | Rfm. | Haywood, H. | M.M.
39440 | Rfm. | Hirst, A. | M.M.
42395 | Rfm. | Robinson, J. S. | M.M.
307108 | Rfm. | Lax, T. | M.M.
52337 | Rfm. | Smith, W. T. | M.M.
306703 | Rfm. | Worrall, C. L. | M.M.
58787 | Rfm. | Darlington, J. R. | M.M.
306731 | Rfm. | Prentice, J. E. | M.M.
266112 | Rfm. | Collinson, J. | M.M.
52471 | Rfm. | Spurway, G. | M.M.
59620 | Rfm. | Emms, G. | M.M.
305147 | Rfm. | Mellor, J. L. | M.M.
53747 | Rfm. | Tinker, W. | M.M.
38494 | Rfm. | Hinchliffe, A. | M.M.
39356 | Rfm. | Kermody, C. | M.M.
81373 | Rfm. | Binns, J. H. | M.M.
39568 | Rfm. | Fairlie, C. | M.M.
59620 | Rfm. | Freeman, S. | M.M.
49515 | Rfm. | Haw, H. | M.M.
305868 | Rfm. | Curry, J. | M.M.
268038 | Rfm. | Jeffrey, H. | M.M.
52146 | Rfm. | Warrell, W. | M.M.
52119 | Rfm. | Reading, F. | M.M.
236316 | Rfm. | Carter, F. | M.M.
20366 | Rfm. | Holdsworth, F. | M.M.
306294 | Sglr. | Curnock, B. | M.M.
24323 | Sglr. | Collephy, H. | M.M.
267658 | Sglr. | Scott, H. | M.M.
63779 | Bdsmn. | Clarke, J. | M.M.
2/4TH WEST RIDING REGIMENT.
| Lt.-Col. | Nash, H. E. P. | D.S.O.
| Captain | Smithson, W. | M.C.
| Captain | Stocks, J. | M.C.
| Captain | Lupton, B. C. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Captain | Threappleton, —. | Croix de Guerre
| Lieut. | Sherrick, J. W. (U.S.) | M.C.
| Lieut. | Sayers, R. H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Cordingley, L. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Knowles, W. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Castle, J. P. | D.S.O.
| 2/Lieut. | Metcalf, H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Irons, J. H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Duckett, R. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Hully, M. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Dunnett, J. H. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Scott, B. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Potter, A. C. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Cram, J. E. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Radcliffe, H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Saunders, W. | M.C.
| | | M.M.
| 2/Lieut. | Spafford, A. V. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Bilsbrough, H. J. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Marsden, F. K. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Walker. H. W. | M.C.
202040 | R.Q.M.S. | Lowes, W. R. | M.S.M.
203174 | C.S.M. | Wilcox, R. P. | D.C.M.
| | | Bar to D.C.M.
201254 | C.S.M. | Taylor, L. | D.C.M.
265479 | C.S.M. | Peacock, E. | M.M.
34578 | C.S.M. | Elliott, J. J. S. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
200455 | C.S.M. | Hoyle, W. H. | M.C.
10908 | C.S.M. | Mann, J. H. | D.C.M.
201134 | Q.M.S. | Furness, F. | M.M.
201170 | C.Q.M.S. | Wood, A. | M.M.
201583 | Sgt. | Kingham, S. | M.M.
201680 | Sgt. | Spetch, J. R. | M.M.
200709 | Sgt. | Beverley, G. | M.M.
201217 | Sgt. | Heaton, H. | M.M.
305265 | Sgt. | Garrod, G. | M.S.M.
201273 | Sgt. | Harrison, E. | M.S.M.
201066 | Sgt. | Hipwood, J. | M.M.
201458 | Sgt. | Smith, W. H. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
202122 | Sgt. | Haigh, A. | M.M.
200735 | Sgt. | Greenwood, E. | M.M.
201000 | Sgt. | Hay, H. | M.M.
306764 | Sgt. | Redfearn, E. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
201649 | Sgt. | Thompson, A. | D.C.M.
200707 | Sgt. | Whitebread, F. | M.M.
202257 | Sgt. | Crabtree, A. | M.M.
200798 | Sgt. | Crossley, W. | D.C.M.
200897 | Sgt. | Hoyle, E. H. | M.M.
263065 | Sgt. | Clayton, F. | M.M.
235044 | Sgt. | Madden, D. | D.C.M.
267261 | Sgt. | Holmes, F. | M.M.
266173 | Sgt. | Blackburn, A. | M.M.
201295 | Sgt. | Nettleton, F. | M.S.M.
205610 | L.-Sgt. | Scott, A. | M.M.
265081 | L.-Sgt. | Scarborough, J. W. | M.S.M.
49839 | Cpl. | Smith, E. | M.M.
201630 | L.-Sgt. | Greenwood, H. | M.M.
265294 | Cpl. | Falkingham, H. | D.C.M.
34628 | Cpl. | Scotton, H. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
201774 | Cpl. | Hanson, F. | D.C.M.
200708 | Cpl. | Berry, K. | M.M.
266167 | Cpl. | Rowley, C. | M.M.
306966 | Cpl. | Kirton, C. W. | M.M.
201148 | L.-Cpl. | Hanson, H. | M.M.
200800 | L.-Cpl. | Foulds, W. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
22406 | L.-Cpl. | Atkins, G. | M.M.
34721 | L.-Cpl. | Cowell, A. | M.M.
201544 | L.-Cpl. | Matthews, P. | M.M.
24981 | L.-Cpl. | Waller, D. | M.M.
263171 | L.-Cpl. | Mitchell, G. | M.M.
205531 | L.-Cpl. | Hegarty, R. | M.M.
241737 | L.-Cpl. | Freshwater, E. | M.M.
306026 | L.-Cpl. | Haigh, G. A. | M.M.
265844 | L.-Cpl. | Smith, W. | M.M.
202333 | L.-Cpl. | Smith, S. | M.M.
202398 | L.-Cpl. | Horner, R. | M.M.
3053 | Pte. | Astin, W. | D.C.M.
8825 | Pte. | Allen, S. | M.M.
202441 | Pte. | Butterworth, S. | D.C.M.
201484 | Pte. | Greenwood, H. | M.M.
200968 | Pte. | Hind, S. | M.M.
3562 | Pte. | Sunderland, E. | M.S.M.
201209 | Pte. | Sutcliffe, W. | M.M.
202253 | Pte. | Barrett, W. | M.M.
31910 | Pte. | Calligan, S. | M.M.
201051 | Pte. | Smith, W. H. | M.M.
202382 | Pte. | Rawnsley, H. | M.M.
202305 | Pte. | Cotton, T. J. | D.C.M.
238024 | Pte. | Kershaw, A. | M.M.
201294 | Pte. | Nutton, E. | M.M.
204069 | Pte. | Hutchinson, N. B. | M.M.
202075 | Pte. | Kelly, T. | M.M.
202017 | Pte. | Walford, J. | M.M.
256394 | Pte. | Marshall, W. A. | M.M.
245738 | Pte. | Taylor, J. | M.M.
49796 | Pte. | Shackleton, R. | M.M.
235728 | Pte. | Heslop, W. | M.M.
307574 | Pte. | Maude, H. | M.M.
35278 | Pte. | Allen, A. V. | M.M.
49836 | Pte. | Lister, H. | M.M.
44634 | Pte. | Priest, F. C. | M.M.
34718 | Pte. | Ash, A. C. | M.M.
201072 | Pte. | Mitchell, B. | M.M.
202236 | Pte. | Dumstead, A. | M.M.
22382 | Pte. | Eastgate, S. | M.M.
235572 | Pte. | Hall, H. | M.M.
202046 | Pte. | Henley, C. | M.M.
22484 | Pte. | Johnson, J. | M.M.
202066 | Pte. | Ellis, C. H. | M.M.
202227 | Pte. | Woodhead, H. | M.M.
350417 | Pte. | Crabtree, W. H. | M.M.
34327 | Pte. | Cleghorn, R. | M.M.
34720 | Pte. | Cardon, J. | M.M.
22367 | Pte. | Tranter, W. | M.M.
24135 | Pte. | Rodgers, J. | M.M.
34860 | Pte. | McGarvey, M. | M.M.
40086 | Pte. | Reay, J. L. T. | M.M.
26318 | Pte. | Bennett, F. | M.M.
267405 | Pte. | Firth, H. | M.M.
267199 | Pte. | Richardson, F. L. | M.M.
202133 | Pte. | Massey, J. T. | M.M.
201540 | Pte. | Woodhead, A. | M.M.
200620 | Pte. | Jones, A. | M.M.
202472 | Pte. | Sunderland, W. | M.M.
203564 | Pte. | Shaw, H. | M.M.
306781 | Pte. | Fox, H. | M.M.
267128 | Pte. | Feather, E. | M.M.
201536 | Pte. | Patchett, J. H. | M.M.
31749 | Pte. | Hamer, J. A. | Croix de Guerre
17491 | Pte. | Mote, F. T. | M.M.
201239 | Pte. | Patrick, A. | M.M.
11760 | Pte. | Lipman, J. | M.M.
205560 | Pte. | Robertshaw, P. | M.M.
203075 | Pte. | Allison, J. | M.M.
46783 | Pte. | Haines, E. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
9154 | Pte. | Blythe, T. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
266273 | Pte. | Cockerill, B. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
322103 | Pte. | Dodd, J. A. | M.M.
22372 | Pte. | Bailey, A. | M.M.
235711 | Pte. | Robinson, A. | M.M.
201614 | Pte. | Barber, V. | M.M.
22506 | Pte. | Atkins, D. | M.M.
32836 | Pte. | Bradley, A. | M.M.
308095 | Pte. | Whitehouse, H. | M.M.
32417 | Pte. | Hardcastle, F. | M.M.
33475 | Pte. | Bennett, G. H. | M.M.
257247 | Pte. | Livesey, P. | M.M.
267774 | Pte. | Cockerill, B. | M.M.
266273 | Pte. | Broughton, A. | M.M.
308063 | Pte. | Shannon, R. | M.M.
10504 | Pte. | Massheder, J. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
242061 | Pte. | North, S. | M.M.
202115 | Pte. | Waterfield, C. | M.M.
32641 | Pte. | Lockwood, A. | M.M.
26840 | Pte. | Booth, G. R. | M.M.
25125 | Pte. | Pindred. J. W. | M.M.
203844 | Pte. | Hart, A. J. | M.M.
202310 | Pte. | Blacks, S. | M.M.
265791 | Pte. | Wood, T. | M.M.
26376 | Pte. | Glading, A. | M.M.
266258 | Dmr. | Lyons, F. | M.M.
2/5TH WEST RIDING REGIMENT.
| Lt.-Col. | Best, T. A. D. | D.S.O.
| | | Bar to D.S.O.
| Lt.-Col. | Walker, J. | D.S.O.
| Captain | Jackson, H. S. | D.S.O.
| Captain | Robinson, W. | M.C.
| Captain | Goodall, T. | D.S.O.
| Captain | Moxon, C. S. | D.S.O.
| Captain | Sykes, K. | M.C.
| | | Croix de Guerre
| Captain | Watkinson, P. J. | M.C.
| Captain | Tinker, G. L. | M.C.
| Captain | Cockhill, J. B. | D.S.O.
| | | M.C.
| Captain | Ellis, C. G. H. | D.S.O.
| | | M.C.
| Lieut. | Harris, E. W. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Bernay, G. V. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Black, D. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Tod, J. McK. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Mollett, B. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Lieut. | Yates, W. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Osincup, G. S. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Walte, H. F. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Ridley, P. R. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Jack, A. S. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Morton, T. R. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Dodd, G. M. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Chapman, F. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Barnes, P. R. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Machin, J. R. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Walker, L. F. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Hogan, J. | M.C.
| Revd. | Wright, A. B. | M.C.
9323 | R.S.M. | Earle, B. | Italian Bronze
| | | Medal
240139 | C.S.M. | Hulse, W. | M.M.
240358 | C.S.M. | Fisher, W. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
240101 | C.S.M. | Schofield, H. | D.C.M.
240222 | C.S.M. | Jones, G. V. | D.C.M.
340598 | C.S.M. | Waterhouse, C. E. | D.C.M.
12275 | C.S.M. | Handby, K. | D.C.M.
240957 | C.S.M. | Dennis, W. H. | M.M.
240431 | C.Q.M.S. | Pedley, J. | M.S.M.
240829 | C.Q.M.S. | Airey, W. | M.S.M.
| C.S.M. | Wilkinson, W. S. | D.C.M.
241414 | Sgt. | Priestley, E. | M.M.
240950 | Sgt. | Mitchell, R. | M.M.
12391 | Sgt. | Dean, F. E. | M.M.
240719 | Sgt. | Eastwood, H. R. | M.M.
266035 | Sgt. | Burrows, G. | M.M.
241337 | Sgt. | Siswick, B. | D.C.M.
| | | Bar to D.C.M.
15807 | Sgt. | Hamshaw, J. | M.M.
12886 | Sgt. | Greaves, G. R. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
306308 | Sgt. | McNay, W. | M.M.
242879 | Sgt. | Hazle, R. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
202122 | Sgt. | Haigh, A. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
240156 | Sgt. | Ware, G. A. W. | M.M.
241704 | Sgt. | Dyson, B. | M.M.
15002 | Sgt. | Judson, M. | M.M.
240763 | Sgt. | Hepworth, T. | M.M.
235755 | Sgt. | Pearson, A. | M.M.
241596 | Sgt. | Draper, F. N. | M.M.
240320 | Sgt. | Micklethwaite, F. | M.S.M.
240076 | Sgt. | Lee, S. H. | D.C.M.
| | | Bar to D.C.M.
240008 | Sgt. | Merriman, H. S. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
240219 | L.-Sgt. | Field, R. | M.M.
268050 | L.-Sgt. | Spivey, F. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
306019 | L.-Sgt. | Sykes, H. | M.M.
266170 | L.-Sgt. | Southgate, H. | M.M.
240157 | Sgt. | Allen, W. B. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
25069 | Cpl. | Cockrane, J. | M.M.
203206 | Cpl. | Gledhill, J. | M.M.
240970 | Cpl. | Quarterman, R. C. | M.M.
241689 | Cpl. | Parker, C. F. | M.M.
265094 | Cpl. | Shires, H. | D.C.M.
11099 | Cpl. | Williams, C. | M.M.
240832 | Cpl. | Cox, A. F. | M.M.
267955 | Cpl. | Pemberton, P. | M.M.
266325 | Cpl. | Tillotson, S. | M.M.
267226 | Cpl. | Simpson, H. | M.M.
308501 | Cpl. | Hinchcliffe, J. T. | M.M.
242106 | Cpl. | Whitterton, W. | M.M.
238190 | Cpl. | Arnold, D. | M.M.
305152 | Cpl. | Buckley, T. | D.C.M.
8397 | L.-Cpl. | Priestley, H. | M.M.
241742 | L.-Cpl. | Johnson, G. | M.M.
240981 | L.-Cpl. | Eglinton, C. | M.M.
240971 | L.-Cpl. | Halliwell, J. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
201484 | L.-Cpl. | Greenwood, H. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
202472 | L.-Cpl. | Sunderland, W. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
267064 | L.-Cpl. | Bates, J. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
23773 | L.-Cpl. | Chapman, J. G. | M.M.
240464 | L.-Cpl. | Fawcett, C. | D.C.M.
306466 | L.-Cpl. | Parker, A. E. | M.M.
241549 | L.-Cpl. | Armitage, J. | M.M.
240954 | L.-Cpl. | Nedderman, R. M. | M.M.
205353 | L.-Cpl. | Wilkinson, E. | M.M.
241860 | L.-Cpl. | Lockwood, H. | M.M.
11013 | L.-Cpl. | Grogan, J. | M.M.
14870 | L.-Cpl. | Watson, J. | M.M.
10664 | L.-Cpl. | Fairburn, J. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
240604 | L.-Cpl. | Ingram, G. E. | M.M.
240320 | L.-Cpl. | Whiting, W. | M.M.
48495 | L.-Cpl. | Bell, E. C. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
33488 | L.-Cpl. | Ramsay, R. M. | M.M.
30106 | L.-Cpl. | Healey, T. A. | M.M.
242979 | L.-Cpl. | Keogh, J. W. | M.M.
34410 | L.-Cpl. | Donkin, A. S. | M.M.
17016 | L.-Cpl. | Chapman, J. | D.C.M.
240204 | L.-Cpl. | Buckley, J. | M.M.
240205 | L.-Cpl. | Shaw, L. | M.M.
266072 | L.-Cpl. | Rowley, G. | M.M.
24726 | L.-Cpl. | Ackroyd, J. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
49707 | L.-Cpl. | Hall, R. | M.M.
238188 | L.-Cpl. | Straker, R. | M.M.
240858 | L.-Cpl. | Ball, E. | M.M.
241907 | L.-Cpl. | Garbutt, J. | M.M.
241638 | L.-Cpl. | Shoarsmith, E. W. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
241222 | L.-Cpl. | Rhodes, C. | M.M.
235629 | L.-Cpl. | Levey, J. | M.M.
34510 | L.-Cpl. | Wild, F. | M.M.
268800 | L.-Cpl. | Barker, W. | M.M.
241030 | L.-Cpl. | Farrell, R. P. | M.M.
5100 | Pte. | Chapman, C. | French Croix
| | | de Guerre
263029 | Pte. | Tipton, W. A. | M.M.
203949 | Pte. | Tewlett, S. | M.M.
241049 | Pte. | Moete, A. | M.M.
265782 | Pte. | Walker, W. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
25078 | Pte. | Ellis, W. | M.M.
241417 | Pte. | Marsden, W. | M.M.
235092 | Pte. | Slater, H. | M.M.
241688 | Pte. | Robinson, G. G. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
242439 | Pte. | Raistrick, T. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
242392 | Pte. | Brook, H. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
205564 | Pte. | Shaw, H. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
240750 | Pte. | Squires, A. | M.M.
26337 | Pte. | Glass, W. | M.M.
242367 | Pte. | Raynard, J. | M.M.
242759 | Pte. | Pearce, G. W. | M.M.
265891 | Pte. | Butterfield, J. | M.M.
242466 | Pte. | Wray, E. G. | M.M.
23901 | Pte. | Holroyd, B. | M.M.
242859 | Pte. | Ibbotson, P. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
29495 | Pte. | Strafford, T. | M.M.
241978 | Pte. | Hartley, F. | M.M.
25262 | Pte. | Binsley, B. | M.M.
266187 | Pte. | Wiltham, J. S. | M.M.
241045 | Pte. | Dale, E. | M.M.
240742 | Pte. | Tomlinson, R. | M.M.
22602 | Pte. | Frank, T. | M.M.
240159 | Pte. | Dobson, G. B. | M.M.
266281 | Pte. | Ready, N. | M.M.
34506 | Pte. | Tandy, H. | V.C.
| | | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
204703 | Pte. | Appleyard, L. | M.M.
241663 | Pte. | Simpson, J. | M.M.
241887 | Pte. | Sutcliffe, S. | M.M.
24603 | Pte. | Marshall, H. | M.M.
202639 | Pte. | Gibbs, W. | M.M.
241465 | Pte. | Bonner, C. | M.M.
204034 | Pte. | Battye, H. | M.M.
242392 | Pte. | Brook, H. | M.M.
241596 | Pte. | Locking, A. | M.M.
24165 | Pte. | Robinson, G. D. | M.M.
262472 | Pte. | Baker, T. | M.M.
25101 | Pte. | Lee, A. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
242683 | Pte. | Beardsley, P. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
242607 | Pte. | Taylor, R. | M.M.
203539 | Pte. | Sykes, J. W. | M.M.
268909 | Pte. | Denton, T. A. | M.M.
240433 | Pte. | Crossland, W. D. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
203121 | Pte. | Mackrell, S. | M.M.
268800 | Pte. | Barker, W. | M.M.
34561 | Pte. | Walker, H. | M.M.
34759 | Pte. | McClintock, W. | M.M.
241691 | Pte. | Cook, L. H. | M.M.
306313 | Pte. | Stead, H. W. | M.M.
241048 | Pte. | Taylor, F. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
242034 | Pte. | Castle, F. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
236722 | Pte. | White, H. J. | M.M.
201823 | Pte. | Womersley, E. | M.M.
26204 | Pte. | Harris, B. | M.M.
54426 | Pte. | Hill, J. | M.M.
34499 | Pte. | Peel, B. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
241669 | Pte. | Asquith, H. O. K. | M.M.
34464 | Pte. | Rider, A. | M.M.
16100 | Pte. | Overend, J. | M.M.
34757 | Pte. | Parkes, A. | M.M.
340623 | Pte. | Dondaband, E. | M.M.
203562 | Pte. | Armitage, H. | M.M.
235598 | Pte. | Bashford, J. E. | M.M.
25098 | Pte. | Jeffcott, H. | M.M.
240674 | Pte. | Middleton, W. | M.M.
34588 | Pte. | Williams, L. | M.M.
241857 | Pte. | Cox, P. | M.M.
235593 | Pte. | Bell, M. | M.M.
201575 | Pte. | Birchenough, J. | M.M.
26327 | Pte. | Bale, P. | M.M.
35158 | Pte. | Charnock, W. | M.M.
26304 | Pte. | Tippett, C. T. | M.M.
269234 | Pte. | Laverock, W. | M.M.
269091 | Pte. | Baldwin, R. | M.M.
34563 | Pte. | Harrison, E. | M.M.
241184 | Pte. | Swale, S. | M.M.
34552 | Pte. | Snowden, J. W. | M.M.
240885 | Pte. | Holroyd, G. W. | M.M.
34515 | Pte. | Auton, T. | M.M.
203657 | Pte. | Darlington, H. | M.M.
26663 | Pte. | Cartledge, A. | M.M.
35639 | Pte. | Johnson, T. | M.M.
266597 | Pte. | Fletcher, C. H. | M.M.
307334 | Pte. | Talbot, N. | M.M.
34408 | Pte. | Dewhirst, J. | M.M.
202065 | Pte. | Ellis, E. D. | M.M.
33500 | Pte. | Gracie, D. | M.M.
33754 | Pte. | Pallett, A. | M.M.
305187 | Pte. | Hollingworth, H. | M.M.
203297 | Pte. | Daft, C. | M.M.
263016 | Pte. | Fox, A. | M.M.
17112 | Pte. | Wilson, G. | M.M.
205420 | Pte. | Drake, B. | M.M.
241352 | Pte. | Haywood, H. | M.M.
235653 | Pte. | Ward, T. | M.M.
34488 | Pte. | Key, C. | M.M.
240883 | Pte. | Jennings, R. | M.M.
306037 | Pte. | Shaw, H. | M.M.
14367 | Cpl. | Roberts, G. | M.M.
17052 | Dmr. | Moran, P. | M.M.
2/6TH WEST RIDING REGIMENT.
| Captain | Somervell, A. | M.C.
| Captain | Geldard, N. | D.S.O.
| | | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Luckman, W. F. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Thompson, J. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Barraclough, G. W. | M.C.
6872 | C.S.M. | Gartside, C. H. | M.C.
265530 | C.S.M. | Maude, J. | D.C.M.
265926 | Sgt. | McLeod, J. T. | D.C.M.
265690 | Sgt. | Mason, R. | M.M.
240661 | Sgt. | Davies, W. | M.M.
265835 | Sgt. | Smith, A. | M.M.
266926 | Sgt. | Garnett, T. H. | M.M.
10921 | L.-Sgt. | Rigg, G. | M.M.
266961 | Cpl. | Constantine, T. | M.M.
267272 | Cpl. | Egan, M. | M.M.
266956 | Cpl. | Caton, W. | M.M.
265828 | Cpl. | Bowman, G. | M.M.
265664 | Cpl. | Metcalf, G. | M.M.
26640 | Cpl. | Carey, A. | M.M.
266475 | Cpl. | Midgley, J. | M.M.
266876 | L.-Cpl. | Hodkinson, A. | M.M.
266022 | L.-Cpl. | Patterson, J. | M.M.
5107 | Pte. | Nussey, J. T. | M.M.
4564 | Pte. | Williams, J. | M.M.
267064 | Pte. | Bates, J. | M.M.
266338 | Pte. | Birkett, J. | M.M.
266771 | Pte. | Mills, A. E. | M.M.
266766 | Pte. | Robinson, A. V. | M.M.
266966 | Pte. | Bateson, R. | M.M.
266356 | Pte. | Stevens, R. | M.M.
267043 | Pte. | Hodges, S. | M.M.
300077 | Pte. | Standish, A. | M.M.
11628 | Pte. | Devannie, F. | M.M.
267279 | Pte. | Cooks, H. | M.M.
267212 | Pte. | Simpson, B. | M.M.
269304 | Pte. | Mokes, W. H. | M.M.
2/7TH WEST RIDING REGIMENT.
| Major | Cockburn, G. E. | D.S.O.
| Captain | Miller, G. W. M. | M.C.
| Captain | Shearne, F. E. C. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Hayward, S. P. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Hopper, H. L. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Furniss, H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Tanner, E. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Vaughan, J. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Gloag, A. F. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Muff, F. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Pepper, F. G. W. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Buckley, J. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Hardaker, H. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
305815 | Sgt. | Robinson, B. | D.C.M.
306155 | Sgt. | Cooper, W. | M.M.
305362 | Sgt. | Holroyd, A. | M.M.
305158 | Sgt. | Hitchcock, A. | M.M.
266285 | Sgt. | Golding, G. | M.M.
305544 | Sgt. | Allen, H. | M.M.
305852 | Cpl. | Walton, G. | M.M.
11826 | Cpl. | Neatby, E. | M.M.
306271 | Cpl. | Holden, J. | M.M.
265487 | Cpl. | Alton, E. | M.M.
306015 | Cpl. | Baxter, E. | M.M.
26695 | Cpl. | Nutter, R. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
305907 | Cpl. | Blakeley, J. E. | M.M.
19370 | Cpl. | Ramsden, T. V. C. | D.C.M.
306568 | L.-Cpl. | Heaton, H. | M.M.
15005 | L.-Cpl. | Robinson, E. | M.M.
7302 | L.-Cpl. | Wooley, R. | Bar to M.M.
306779 | L.-Cpl. | Marshall, H. | M.M.
267177 | L.-Cpl. | Hay, A. | M.M.
10926 | L.-Cpl. | Holmes, J. | M.M.
306861 | Pte. | Crowther, F. | M.M.
25139 | Pte. | Smith, R. | M.M.
28041 | Pte. | Turnbull, G. | M.M.
305946 | Pte. | Hoyle, M. | M.M.
306908 | Pte. | Barron, B. | M.M.
306231 | Pte. | Jackson, J. M. | M.M.
16300 | Pte. | Crombie, A. | M.M.
17275 | Pte. | Tunney, M. | M.M.
306811 | Pte. | Smith, H. | M.M.
306625 | Pte. | Thornton, J. | M.M.
25140 | Pte. | Taylor, J. | M.M.
91541 | Pte. | Blythe, T. | M.M.
305944 | Pte. | Sykes, J. | M.M.
16842 | Pte. | Graham, W. | M.M.
33484 | Pte. | Smith, J. | M.M.
23624 | Pte. | Dyson, F. | M.M.
266932 | Pte. | Smales, —. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
306659 | Pte. | Hainsworth, L. | M.M.
305283 | Pte. | Fisher, H. B. | M.M.
267054 | Pte. | Horner, T. M. | M.M.
25336 | Pte. | Gallagher, J. | M.M.
32701 | Pte. | Owen, F. | M.M.
25265 | Pte. | Stott, J. R. | M.M.
23698 | Pte. | Wilson, A. | M.M.
306890 | Pte. | Bancroft, H. | M.M.
308112 | Pte. | Armitage, W. | M.M.
2/4TH KING’S OWN YORKSHIRE LIGHT INFANTRY.
| Lt.-Col. | Chaytor, C. A. | D.S.O.
| | | Croix de Guerre
| Lt.-Col. | Power, R. E. | D.S.O.
| Major | Brook, —. | D.S.O.
| Major | Shearman, C. | D.S.O.
| Major | Beaumont, G. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Captain | Wellington, J. H. | M.C.
| | (East Yorks, attached) | Bar to M.C.
| Captain | Bentley, P. | M.C.
| | | 3 Bars to M.C.
| Captain | McNicol, M. | M.C.
| Capt. & Adjt. | Earle, A. E. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Captain | Clarke, J. T. E. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Lee, N. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Hale-White, R. | M.C.
| Lieut. | McCausland, C. J. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Hirst, C. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Briggs, T. H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Curtis, G. S. C. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Spencer, G. E. | D.S.O.
| 2/Lieut. | Ireland, C. A. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Rodger, J. L. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Cocker, F. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Schools, P. | M.C.
240829 | R.S.M. | Ledger, W. H. | M.C.
| | | D.C.M.
201304 | R.Q.M.S. | Townend, E. W. | M.S.M.
| C.S.M. | Hudson, R. | D.C.M.
36812 | C.Q.M.S. | Woods, E. S. | M.M.
200649 | Sgt. | Naylor, B. | M.M.
8244 | Sgt. | Fenton, J. | D.C.M.
240961 | Sgt. | Robinson, A. | M.M.
242411 | Sgt. | Howsley, J. | D.C.M.
200797 | Sgt. | Walsh, J. | D.C.M.
241337 | Sgt. | Andrew, R. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
34580 | Sgt. | Stevens, W. | M.M.
201539 | Sgt. | Hunt, F. A. | M.M.
| Sgt. | Cater, W. W. | M.S.M.
17262 | Sgt. | Fox, W. R. | M.M.
235661 | Sgt. | Davenport, C. | M.M.
8995 | Sgt. | Hampson, E. | D.C.M.
11787 | Sgt. | Parker, J. W. | M.M.
200866 | Sgt. | Bryan, J. | D.C.M.
63249 | Sgt. | Shaw, D. R. | D.C.M.
63250 | Sgt. | Broughton, S. | D.C.M.
300670 | Sgt. | Auty, J. | M.S.M.
202230 | Sgt. | Hommingway, E. | M.S.M.
200958 | Sgt. | Walker, H. V. | M.S.M.
240374 | L.-Sgt. | Johnson, S. | D.C.M.
201303 | L.-Sgt. | Turpin, A. | M.M.
201216 | Cpl. | Maddox, E. | M.M.
| | | D.C.M.
16933 | Cpl. | Game, J. G. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
201471 | Cpl. | Baker, J. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
10400 | Cpl. | Newbolt, A. | M.M.
201693 | Cpl. | Thompson, H. | M.M.
39442 | Cpl. | Carr, H. | M.M.
201154 | Cpl. | Hampson, H. | M.M.
241765 | Cpl. | Booth, H. E. | D.C.M.
201402 | Cpl. | Dakin, S. | M.M.
35967 | Cpl. | Barmby, F. | M.M.
63264 | Cpl. | Beardsley, T. C. | M.M.
15780 | Cpl. | Parr, G. H. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
200948 | L.-Cpl. | Taylor, G. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
35540 | L.-Cpl. | Cooke, A. H. | M.M.
201432 | L.-Cpl. | Wimpenny, G. A. | M.M.
200778 | L.-Cpl. | Lee, G. | M.M.
47618 | L.-Cpl. | Chatterton, V. | M.M.
201213 | L.-Cpl. | Shepherd, J. I. | M.M.
39343 | L.-Cpl. | Kennedy, T. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
201517 | L.-Cpl. | Scholey, J. | M.M.
200267 | L.-Cpl. | Benson, H. | D.C.M.
238009 | L.-Cpl. | Geary, J. | M.M.
201388 | L.-Cpl. | Simpson, E. | M.M.
200807 | L.-Cpl. | Elliott, R. | D.C.M.
235834 | L.-Cpl. | Newton, J. | D.C.M.
201558 | L.-Cpl. | Oakland, H. | M.M.
43549 | L.-Cpl. | Mattingley, H. | M.M.
263112 | L.-Cpl. | Sleightholme, A. | M.M.
241771 | L.-Cpl. | Eayling. H. W. | M.M.
40620 | L.-Cpl. | James, J. W. | M.M.
263113 | L.-Cpl. | Mitchell, R. | M.M.
41329 | L.-Cpl. | Kay, J. C. | M.M.
201319 | L.-Cpl. | Armitage, G. T. | M.M.
202341 | L.-Cpl. | Sheard, W. | M.M.
201816 | L.-Cpl. | Rooker, E. | M.M.
41431 | L.-Cpl. | Parker, L. | M.M.
203928 | L.-Cpl. | Hayes, H. | M.M.
24729 | Pte. | Sternburg, N. | M.M.
201216 | Pte. | Maddox, E. | M.M.
238024 | Pte. | Lockwood, M. | M.M.
202835 | Pte. | Fairburn, F. | M.M.
201934 | Pte. | Hazel, H. D. | M.M.
245289 | Pte. | Simpson, S. J. | M.M.
200111 | Pte. | Johnson, E. | M.M.
37455 | Pte. | Jackson, G. W. | M.M.
263188 | Pte. | Hum, W. | M.M.
63455 | Pte. | Potts, W. | M.M.
52885 | Pte. | Posser, J. | M.M.
201197 | Pte. | Heaps, T. | M.M.
201817 | Pte. | Ward, K. | M.M.
202215 | Pte. | Wadsworth, F. | M.M.
202313 | Pte. | Williamson, A. | M.M.
235832 | Pte. | Haigh, W. | M.M.
601457 | Pte. | Burton, C. | M.M.
63266 | Pte. | Bosward, E. A. | M.M.
63899 | Pte. | French, A. | M.M.
63940 | Pte. | Strawbridge, W. P. | M.M.
63935 | Pte. | O’Neill, S. | M.M.
32868 | Pte. | Crookes, J. | M.M.
204328 | Pte. | Gill, W. H. | M.M.
63899 | Pte. | Cockman, V. C. | M.M.
242510 | Pte. | Senior, H. | M.M.
253987 | Pte. | Jones, J. | M.M.
63336 | Pte. | Clewlow, H. E. | M.M.
200955 | Pte. | Goodfellow, H. | M.M.
36194 | Pte. | Lawler, T. | M.M.
38737 | Pte. | Northin, G. J. | M.M.
51840 | Pte. | Peacock, T. R. | M.M.
201288 | Pte. | Whiteley, H. | M.M.
202468 | Pte. | Machin, W. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
202451 | Pte. | Greaves, E. | M.M.
5532 | Bugler | Burkill, W. | M.M.
2/5TH KING’S OWN YORKSHIRE LIGHT INFANTRY.
| Lt.-Col. | Watson, O. C. S. | V.C.
| | | D.S.O.
| | | M.C.
| Lt.-Col. | Peter, F. H. | M.C.
| | | D.S.O.
| Lt.-Col. | Barton, B. J. | D.S.O.
| | | Bar to D.S.O.
| Captain | Bentley, P. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Captain | Oliphant, T. A. H. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Captain | Crawford, W. L. | M.C.
| Captain | Crow, W. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Captain | Spencer, G. E. | M.C.
| Capt. & Adjt. | Robinson, A. | M.C.
| Capt. & Adjt. | Lynn, A. C. | M.C.
| Hon. Capt. & | Barker, H. | M.C.
| Qr. Mstr. | |
| Lieut. | Rose, A. R. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Houghton, R. A. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Stansfield, J. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Lieut. | Townend, O. E. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Lieut. | Tomalin, H. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Lieut. | Champion, A. S. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Logan, R. B. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Trigg, G. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Prestall, W. G. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Doherty, F. J. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Moore, P. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Callear, E. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Gray, G. C. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Crofts, C. H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Jenkins, W. J. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Atkins, J. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Mottram, T. W. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Platt, O. G. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Morris, E. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | James, W. G. | D.S.O.
| 2/Lieut. | Ibbott, W. C. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Haigh, E. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Douglass, A. F. S. | M.C.
240650 | C.S.M. | Sampson, B. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
63076 | C.S.M. | Younghusband, W. | D.C.M.
5541 | C.S.M. | Watson, F. W. | D.C.M.
240829 | C.S.M. | Ledger, W. H. | M.C.
242172 | C.Q.M.S. | Wilson, G. | M.M.
240012 | C.Q.M.S. | Firth, E. | M.M.
240020 | C.Q.M.S. | Strudwick, E. E. | M.S.M.
241146 | Sgt. | Fox, P. | M.M.
18805 | Sgt. | Drage, H. | M.M.
241572 | Sgt. | Ward, H. P. | D.C.M.
11777 | Sgt. | Tordoff, H. | D.C.M.
8461 | Sgt. | Boughby, E. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
205688 | Sgt. | Hamilton, G. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
15368 | Sgt. | Norbury, J. | M.M.
63132 | Sgt. | Dawson, E. | M.M.
249099 | Sgt. | Brooke, A. L. | M.M.
241315 | Sgt. | Raywood, E. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
240231 | Sgt. | Robinson, W. | M.M.
240536 | Sgt. | Chatterton, T. H. | M.M.
240683 | Sgt. | Mulligan, J. | M.M.
240043 | Sgt. | Westlake, F. A. | M.M.
240194 | Sgt. | Calvert, L. | V.C.
| | | M.M.
241658 | Sgt. | Kirkham, B. | M.M.
241326 | Sgt. | Hasky, J. W. | D.C.M.
241103 | Sgt. | Thomas, O. C. | D.C.M.
242191 | Sgt. | Roberts, F. | D.C.M.
240781 | Sgt. | Foster, J. G. | D.C.M.
240537 | Sgt. | Guy, W. | D.C.M.
240415 | Sgt. | Leng, R. A. | M.S.M.
240349 | C.S.M. | Fletcher, J. T. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
240075 | C.S.M. | Cooper, C. | D.C.M.
240890 | C.Q.M.S. | Schmidt, A. W. | M.M.
240675 | C.Q.M.S. | Smith, H. | M.M.
| | | M.S.M.
242072 | L.-Sgt. | Stocks, J. D. | M.M.
63846 | Cpl. | Williamson, T. T. | M.M.
202150 | Cpl. | Essery, J. | M.M.
42157 | Cpl. | Close, S. | M.M.
242869 | Cpl. | McNamara, J. | M.M.
242945 | Cpl. | Machin, J. | M.M.
240592 | Cpl. | Wright, J. | M.M.
235096 | Cpl. | Womersley, H. | M.M.
202196 | Cpl. | Harris, W. | M.M.
58137 | Cpl. | Riddle, H. W. | M.M.
240658 | Cpl. | Foulstone, W. | M.M.
242174 | Cpl. | Wardle, S. G. | M.M.
240699 | Cpl. | Marchington, B. | M.M.
58077 | L.-Cpl. | Routledge, R. | M.M.
58112 | L.-Cpl. | Yates, L. | M.M.
1336 | L.-Cpl. | Martin, E. | M.M.
242887 | L.-Cpl. | Reynolds, A. | M.M.
18329 | L.-Cpl. | Jenkins, W. | M.M.
241690 | L.-Cpl. | Hawes, H. J. | M.M.
65196 | L.-Cpl. | Williamson, T. | M.M.
205687 | L.-Cpl. | Clazey, J. | M.M.
263057 | L.-Cpl. | Pallett, R. | M.M.
240668 | L.-Cpl. | Stocks, H. | M.M.
241189 | L.-Cpl. | Buck, G. | M.M.
55081 | L.-Cpl. | Errington, J. | M.M.
35875 | L.-Cpl. | Dungworth, W. | M.M.
39734 | L.-Cpl. | Ayre, F. | M.M.
241455 | L.-Cpl. | Porter, E. F. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
19117 | L.-Cpl. | Bennett, F. | M.M.
263053 | L.-Cpl. | Crosland, J. | M.M.
19091 | L.-Cpl. | Williams, A. | M.M.
241070 | L.-Cpl. | Morris, B. | M.M.
63215 | Pte. | Shaw, J. W. | M.M.
45520 | Pte. | Turner, J. | M.M.
263042 | Pte. | Ledger, W. H. | M.M.
241361 | Pte. | Toplis, P. | M.M.
26080 | Pte. | Norfolk, E. | M.M.
27233 | Pte. | Smith, T. | M.M.
35055 | Pte. | Hunter, L. | M.M.
240643 | Pte. | Brompton, J. | M.M.
242650 | Pte. | Bower, H. | M.M.
241920 | Pte. | Spiers, T. | M.M.
242640 | Pte. | Bell, J. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
41157 | Pte. | Broomhead, A. | D.C.M.
142701 | Pte. | Smith, S. H. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
| | | 2nd Bar to M.M.
62318 | Pte. | Smith, E. | M.M.
24084 | Pte. | Rendle, W. H. | M.M.
65193 | Pte. | Bevans, G. H. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
205677 | Pte. | Robinson, T. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
205708 | Pte. | Shaw, A. | M.M.
60872 | Pte. | Ayscough, T. L. | M.M.
240742 | Pte. | Cragg, T. | M.M.
14701 | Pte. | Flynn, F. | M.M.
60869 | Pte. | Hooley, P. | M.M.
11245 | Pte. | Hooley, C. D. | M.M.
63189 | Pte. | Macfarlane, R. W. | M.M.
42996 | Pte. | Hinchcliffe, H. | M.M.
27756 | Pte. | Barnes, A. | M.M.
263004 | Pte. | Lingley, J. W. | M.M.
202854 | Pte. | Dickinson, W. | M.M.
243047 | Pte. | Wilkinson, J. | M.M.
65183 | Pte. | Duffy, L. | M.M.
62969 | Pte. | Clark, N. | M.M.
36427 | Pte. | Maiser, C. | M.M.
205202 | Pte. | Humphries, F. | M.M.
203132 | Pte. | Harrison, J. T. | M.M.
205677 | Pte. | Robinson, T. | M.M.
203515 | Pte. | Westoby, S. | M.M.
38208 | Pte. | Peters, A. | D.C.M.
65177 | Pte. | Allan, A. E. | D.C.M.
| | | Bar to D.C.M.
201923 | Pte. | Malham, E. | M.M.
65192 | Pte. | Shipley, M. C. | M.M.
23016 | Pte. | Ferguson, H. | M.M.
64027 | Pte. | White, J. | M.M.
203132 | Pte. | Harrison, T. J. | M.M.
35035 | Pte. | Graham, J. | M.M.
240328 | Pte. | Crowcroft, T. R. | M.M.
240388 | Pte. | Gladwin, C. H. | M.M.
241508 | Pte. | Woodall, J. | M.M.
242605 | Pte. | Greaves, G. | M.M.
4170 | Pte. | Clarke, F. | M.M.
240990 | Pte. | Beddoes, J. | M.M.
241025 | Pte. | Boyer, W. | M.M.
242959 | Pte. | Hird, H. | M.M.
46423 | Pte. | Petty, F. | M.M.
40437 | Pte. | Jessop, J. | M.M.
241829 | Pte. | Benson, H. | M.M.
200765 | Pte. | Hutchinson, A. | M.M.
26226 | Pte. | Godfrey, W. | M.M.
241191 | Pte. | Speight, B. | M.S.M.
22262 | Pte. | Budby, E. | D.C.M.
242753 | Pte. | Boam, H. J. | M.M.
38454 | Pte. | Muir, J. | M.M.
242439 | Pte. | Fennel, G. | M.M.
242142 | Pte. | Day, J. T. | M.M.
240455 | Pte. | Abbott, A. | M.M.
42858 | Pte. | Cooper, J. W. | M.M.
2/4TH YORK AND LANCASTER REGIMENT.
| Lt.-Col. | Blacker, F. S. J. | D.S.O.
| Major | Ludgrab, C. W. | M.C.
| Major | Stickney, J. E. D. | D.S.O.
| | | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Captain | Hill, C. M. | M.C.
| Captain | Smith, R. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Captain | Lucas, E. | M.C.
| Captain | Ormesher, A. H. | M.C.
| Captain | Wilson, A. F. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Captain | Ellse, J. | M.C.
| Captain | Maxwell, S. C. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Captain | Rodgers, J. | M.C.
| Captain | Pennington, B. C. | M.C.
| Lt.-Col. | Hart, L. H. P. | D.S.O.
| | | Bar to D.S.O.
| | | Croix de Guerre
| Lieut. | Mitchell, A. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Hedges, N. H. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Dixon, C. V. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Skrine, D. V. D. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Lieut. | Perkins, S. M. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Munro, M. | M.C.
| | | 2 Bars to M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Halliday, A. H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Carter, R. W. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Longmire, L. A. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Thackeray, E. A. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Revitt, C. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Penny, J. E. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Bradbury, J. C. L. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Summerbell, A. W. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Murrell-Talbot, E. R. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Eckersley, J. | M.C.
| | | M.M.
| 2/Lieut. | Simpkin, A. L. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | May, W. B. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Dryden, G. A. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Fisher, T. D. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Proudfoot, F. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Bailey, R. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
200893 | C.S.M. | Davis, J. C. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
201402 | C.S.M. | Fish, P. V. | M.M.
200824 | C.S.M. | Wyman, G. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
200850 | Sgt. | Murfin, T. | M.M.
200797 | Sgt. | Elsworth, A. | M.M.
201253 | Sgt. | Turton, W. | M.M.
201312 | Sgt. | Nelson, L. | M.M.
201861 | Sgt. | Box, J. A. | M.M.
200955 | Sgt. | Levesley, G. | M.M.
201006 | Sgt. | Hunter, A. K. | M.M.
15496 | Sgt. | Bissel, A. | M.M.
205353 | Sgt. | Daykins, J. | V.C.
| | | M.M.
2984 | Sgt. | Blakemore, G. | M.M.
200949 | Sgt. | Askham, T. S. | M.M.
201550 | Sgt. | Hodgson, A. | M.M.
263013 | Sgt. | Murphy, G. | D.C.M.
19731 | Sgt. | Bowman, T. W. | D.C.M.
202740 | Sgt. | Slingsby, P. | M.M.
201042 | Sgt. | Pashby, T. | M.M.
200971 | Sgt. | Dickenson, A. | M.M.
200931 | Sgt. | Pemberton, A. | M.M.
55779 | Sgt. | Harrop, —. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
25989 | Sgt. | Wellington, G. | M.M.
241246 | Sgt. | Orwin, R. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
200202 | Sgt. | Coldwell, B. | M.M.
32819 | Sgt. | Munn, W. | M.M.
201350 | Sgt. | Stephens, E. | M.S.M.
200810 | Sgt. | Birtles, J. | D.C.M.
202582 | L.-Sgt. | Robertson, A. H. | M.M.
201258 | L.-Sgt. | Priest, W. | M.M.
202655 | L.-Sgt. | Hulley, H. | M.M.
201568 | Cpl. | Simpson, T. | M.M.
201432 | Cpl. | Shelton, H. H. | M.M.
38319 | Cpl. | Turner, R. | M.M.
24749 | Cpl. | Park, J. | M.M.
201064 | Cpl. | Pettit, F. | M.M.
19731 | Cpl. | Bowman, T. W. | M.M.
57603 | Cpl. | Thompson, S. | M.M.
205348 | Cpl. | Coke, S. C. | M.M.
235930 | Cpl. | Elridge, H. J. | M.M.
201906 | Cpl. | Hudson, H. | M.M.
55597 | Cpl. | Roddy, F. | M.M.
201884 | Cpl. | Ibbotson, T. E. | M.M.
3-1479 | Cpl. | Guy, J. | M.M.
7551 | Cpl. | Flintham, J. | M.M.
58392 | Cpl. | Leggett, G. T. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
| | | 2nd Bar to M.M.
37698 | L.-Cpl. | Shelly, L. | M.M.
201168 | L.-Cpl. | Mann, A. E. | M.M.
241908 | L.-Cpl. | Corbett, H. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
39445 | L.-Cpl. | Winterbottom, W. | M.M.
235931 | L.-Cpl. | Ferguson, J. E. | D.C.M.
205319 | L.-Cpl. | Aherns, A. G. | D.C.M.
58246 | L.-Cpl. | Lawson, M. | D.C.M.
24245 | L.-Cpl. | Buck, W. | M.M.
57717 | L.-Cpl. | Hill, L. | M.M.
18786 | L.-Cpl. | Waldron, J. J. | M.M.
943 | L.-Cpl. | Harrington C. | M.M.
236171 | L.-Cpl. | Nash, E. | M.M.
235999 | L.-Cpl. | McNeill, R. | M.M.
235937 | L.-Cpl. | Wood, W. | M.M.
241934 | L.-Cpl. | Riley, W. | M.M.
35560 | L.-Cpl. | Gibbons, W. | M.M.
57269 | L.-Cpl. | Jones, H. | D.C.M.
321926 | L.-Cpl. | Lumley, F. | D.C.M.
27227 | L.-Cpl. | Jackson, W. E. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
200095 | L.-Cpl. | Hattersley, A. | M.S.M.
201406 | Pte. | Rowe, H. | M.S.M.
201712 | Pte. | Coggin, J. M. | M.M.
202468 | Pte. | Machen, W. | M.M.
35616 | Pte. | Hainring, J. | M.M.
204426 | Pte. | Edwards, J. W. | M.M.
202486 | Pte. | Danby, W. J. | M.M.
201180 | Pte. | Bacon, W. | M.M.
205355 | Pte. | Denton, A. B. | M.M.
202634 | Pte. | Garside, A. B. | M.M.
732 | Pte. | Milner, A. | M.M.
204405 | Pte. | Willett, A. | M.M.
202405 | Pte. | Farnham, R. | M.M.
37633 | Pte. | Hewe, T. W. | M.M.
32914 | Pte. | Stainthorpe, N. T. | M.M.
241683 | Pte. | Greensmith, E. | M.M.
241168 | Pte. | Dale, W. | D.C.M.
9578 | Pte. | Turrell, J. | M.M.
901955 | Pte. | Bagshaw, B. | M.M.
37618 | Pte. | Vause, G. E. | M.M.
240732 | Pte. | Slater, F. | M.M.
201540 | Pte. | Bradley, O. H. | M.M.
201084 | Pte. | Slater, G. | M.M.
202760 | Pte. | Lewin, F. J. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
20491 | Pte. | Adamson, F. | M.M.
265175 | Pte. | Platt, B. T. | M.M.
200476 | Pte. | Bradshaw, S. | M.M.
56751 | Pte. | White, F. | M.M.
263185 | Pte. | Kirton, T. W. | M.M.
265255 | Pte. | Dickenson, H. | M.M.
202774 | Pte. | Jubb, J. | M.M.
58081 | Pte. | Dickins, G. | M.M.
57365 | Pte. | Todd, E. J. | M.M.
9610 | Pte. | Spreckley, G. | D.C.M.
241672 | Pte. | Hinds, J. | D.C.M.
57911 | Pte. | Powner, S. | D.C.M.
523874 | Pte. | Horan, J. | D.C.M.
21198 | Pte. | Rankin, F. | M.M.
57723 | Pte. | Hill, J. | M.M.
200763 | Pte. | Clark, H. | M.M.
204923 | Pte. | Whyatt, J. | M.M.
201457 | Pte. | Lockwood, B. | M.M.
58445 | Pte. | Errington, W. | M.M.
241678 | Pte. | Slater, H. | M.M.
58241 | Pte. | Rogers, A. | M.M.
235994 | Pte. | Arnold, E. | M.M.
203903 | Pte. | Hammerton, P. W. | M.M.
32878 | Pte. | Graham, T. W. | M.M.
35637 | Pte. | Wigglesworth, T. H. | M.M.
57753 | Pte. | Beever, W. H. | M.M.
58092 | Pte. | Francis, J. | M.M.
32688 | Pte. | Rawcliffe, S. | M.M.
57538 | Pte. | Patterson, F. D. | M.M.
202430 | Pte. | Cragg, J. W. | M.M.
222432 | Pte. | Hunt, W. F. | M.M.
58383 | Pte. | Cockerill, J. W. | M.M.
36446 | Pte. | Spencer, A. | M.M.
57675 | Pte. | Venus, R. | M.M.
240304 | Pte. | Dye, J. C. | M.M.
202350 | Pte. | Oxley, E. | M.M.
201164 | Pte. | Mills, R. | M.M.
4132 | Pte. | Brown, P. | D.C.M.
18786 | Pte. | Waldren, J. J. | D.C.M.
57603 | Pte. | Thompson, S. | D.C.M.
2/5TH YORK AND LANCASTER REGIMENT.
| Lt.-Col. | Prince, P. | D.S.O.
| Cap. | Wilson, A. F. | M.C.
| (R.A.M.C.) | |
| Captain | Surridge, S. O. R. | M.C.
| Captain | Hall, R. C. | M.C.
| Captain | Lancaster, A. C. | Chevalier de
| | | l’Ordre de
| | | Leopold Belgian
| Captain | Bate, R. E. de B. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Stansee, J. R. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Hill, J. J. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Beetham, C. C. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Dunkerton, E. L. H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Maxwell, S. C. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Wells, D. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Shooter, J. H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Thompson, G. | M.C.
240370 | C.S.M. | Rudd, F. W. | M.M.
| | | D.C.M.
240331 | C.S.M. | Gray, G. | M.M.
1772 | Sgt. | Williams, J. F. | M.M.
240791 | Sgt. | Robinson, J. | M.M.
240279 | Sgt. | Shenton, A. | M.S.M.
241974 | Sgt. | Chadwick, A. | M.M.
241760 | Sgt. | Rollett, E. | M.M.
240797 | Sgt. | Gummer, T. | M.M.
240268 | Sgt. | Pennington, J. | D.C.M.
242683 | Sgt. | McGarrell, D. | M.M.
240318 | L.-Sgt. | Whitaker, J. W. | M.M.
241248 | Cpl. | Front, T. | M.M.
240580 | Cpl. | Bareham, F. | M.M.
241363 | Cpl. | Cutler, J. W. | M.M.
241135 | L.-Cpl. | Evans, E. | M.M.
200637 | L.-Cpl. | Jackson, A. | M.M.
2920 | L.-Cpl. | Auty, S. | M.M.
241816 | L.-Cpl. | Banks, H. | M.M.
3086 | L.-Cpl. | Gledhill, J. W. | M.M.
3294 | L.-Cpl. | Causer, J. H. | M.M.
3295 | L.-Cpl. | Parkinson, M. | M.M.
3746 | L.-Cpl. | Simpson, P. | M.M.
241327 | L.-Cpl. | Hewitt, S. | M.M.
241714 | L.-Cpl. | Guest, R. E. | M.M.
241922 | L.-Cpl. | Blenkharn, A. | M.M.
242637 | L.-Cpl. | Burn, M. | M.M.
241704 | L.-Cpl. | Corbett, M. | M.M.
241047 | L.-Cpl. | Cartledge, R. | M.M.
240956 | L.-Cpl. | Statham, W. | M.M.
240042 | L.-Cpl. | Longden, G. | M.M.
241882 | L.-Cpl. | Hogg, R. | M.M.
240899 | L.-Cpl. | Peat, W. | M.M.
241246 | L.-Cpl. | Orwin, R. | M.M.
241949 | L.-Cpl. | Smithson, J. | M.M.
241208 | L.-Cpl. | Shepherd, B. | M.M.
241589 | L.-Cpl. | Roberts, R. | M.M.
241636 | L.-Cpl. | Lodge, J. | M.M.
240579 | L.-Cpl. | Trout, G. | M.M.
473 | L.-Cpl. | Pickersgill, F. | M.M.
203539 | L.-Cpl. | Thompson, T. M. | M.M.
241687 | L.-Cpl. | Wilson, W. V. | M.M.
241700 | L.-Cpl. | Headley, T. | M.M.
241022 | L.-Cpl. | Bamforth, W. | M.M.
1/5TH DEVONSHIRE REGIMENT.
| Lt.-Col. | Bastow, H. V. | D.S.O.
| Captain | Windeatt, J. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Captain | Hamlyn, H. | M.M.
| Captain | Antony, G. H. | M.C.
| Captain | Pitts-Lewis, G. F. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Treacher, H. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Captain | Bedford, R. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Edgar, J. H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Steer, W. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Coleman, R. W. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Matthews, S. F. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Fisher, D. K. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Stanley, H. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Northey, T. | M.C.
240062 | R.Q.M.S. | Bessell, S. J. | M.S.M.
240068 | C.S.M. | Winsborrow, A. J. | M.M.
204679 | Sgt. | Hepper, E. T. | D.C.M.
240601 | Sgt. | Cowles, F. W. | M.M.
240113 | Sgt. | Crispin, E. J. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
240917 | Sgt. | Hodge, C. | M.M.
240586 | Sgt. | Lethbridge, W. O. | M.M.
240070 | Sgt. | Woolcott, L. W. | M.M.
240774 | Sgt. | Sparkes, F. J. | M.M.
8733 | Sgt. | Pascoe, W. G. | M.M.
240441 | L.-Sgt. | Pook, F. E. | M.M.
240473 | L.-Sgt. | Aggett, S. | M.M.
240034 | Cpl. | Botterell, G. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
72002 | Cpl. | Craigie, W. | M.M.
240075 | Cpl. | Yolland, Y. H. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
37057 | Cpl. | Sullivan, B. T. | M.M.
240682 | Cpl. | Penwarden, W. T. | M.M.
240967 | Cpl. | Hudson, W. H. D. | M.M.
67450 | Cpl. | Matthews, W. H. | M.M.
241056 | L.-Cpl. | Tribble, W. | M.M.
240124 | L.-Cpl. | Radmore, W. G. | M.M.
240258 | L.-Cpl. | Heath, C. | M.M.
240990 | L.-Cpl. | Cooper, J. H. H. | M.M.
240468 | L.-Cpl. | Ashton, A. C. | M.M.
23772 | L.-Cpl. | Lang, J. J. | M.M.
45643 | L.-Cpl. | Short, A. T. | M.M.
240452 | L.-Cpl. | Phillips, P. | M.M.
240755 | L.-Cpl. | Collman, E. | M.M.
240396 | L.-Cpl. | Dollen, F. M. | M.M.
240640 | L.-Cpl. | Cox, W. J. | M.M.
241182 | L.-Cpl. | Walters, J. W. | M.M.
63831 | L.-Cpl. | Leach, A. J. | M.M.
240176 | L.-Cpl. | Willis, E. J. | M.M.
315348 | Pte. | Skinner, W. F. | M.M.
240335 | Pte. | Rice, S. | D.C.M.
241029 | Pte. | Hale, G. | M.M.
67595 | Pte. | Thomas, G. | M.M.
240338 | Pte. | Sillitoe, W. T. | M.M.
241015 | Pte. | Stone, G. | M.M.
241398 | Pte. | Stephens, H. | M.M.
241072 | Pte. | Martin, W. J. | M.M.
240244 | Pte. | White, C. W. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
203600 | Pte. | Ponsford, M. | M.M.
240159 | Pte. | Mann, G. G. | M.M.
67466 | Pte. | Crawshaw, R. L. | M.M.
241089 | Pte. | Hooper, A. C. | M.M.
67275 | Pte. | Bates, H. | M.M.
241046 | Pte. | Foghill, J. L. | M.M.
241090 | Pte. | Jarvis, T. H. | M.M.
240464 | Pte. | Blight, A. | M.M.
32370 | Pte. | Morris, T. B. | M.M.
240017 | Pte. | Menhinnick, W. | M.M.
241160 | Pte. | Roberts, W. J. | M.M.
65351 | Pte. | Lawerence, W. | M.M.
240291 | Pte. | Ball, J. T. | M.M.
240495 | Pte. | Jolly, J. H. | M.M.
240882 | Pte. | Taylor, J. R. B. | M.M.
67383 | Pte. | Salter, H. | M.M.
240526 | Pte. | Leach, J. | M.M.
32322 | Pte. | Dunford, F. J. L. | M.M.
206144 | Pte. | Baker, J. | M.M.
240233 | Pte. | Warren, W. | M.M.
24155 | Pte. | Furneaux, L. G. | M.M.
72039 | Pte. | Brown, C. J. | M.M.
345266 | Pte. | Eddy, R. | M.M.
241009 | Pte. | Phillips, C. E. | M.M.
67150 | Pte. | Wilcoxon, A. H. | M.M.
72015 | Pte. | Arrowsmith, T. | M.M.
24594 | Pte. | Williams, H. J. | M.M.
241253 | Pte. | Metherell, W. G. | M.M.
240937 | Pte. | Ridge, C. L. | M.M.
240324 | Pte. | Potter, W. T. | M.M.
67397 | Pte. | Trinder, R. J. | M.M.
206044 | Pte. | Taylor, A. E. | M.M.
51273 | Pte. | Taylor, F. | M.M.
30049 | Pte. | Dean, A. | D.C.M.
67550 | Pte. | Matthews, W. H. | M.M.
47479 | Pte. | Duxbury, R. | M.M.
241180 | Pte. | Pearce, R. J. | M.M.
240889 | Pte. | Knight, S. | M.M.
240998 | Pte. | Flood, W. R. | M.M.
240770 | Pte. | Bearne, F. | M.M.
241145 | Pte. | Grate, W. | M.M.
240713 | Pte. | Southern, R. C. | M.M.
241115 | Pte. | Hill, F. | M.M.
315728 | Pte. | Johns, W. F. | M.M.
77313 | Dmr. | Edwards, C. J. | M.M.
9TH DURHAM LIGHT INFANTRY.
| Lt.-Col. | Crouch, E. | D.S.O.
| | | D.C.M.
| Major | Wilson, P. P. | D.S.O.
| Captain | Jameson, T. B. | M.C.
| Captain | Thompson, W. D. B. | M.C.
| | | D.S.O.
| | | Croix de Guerre
| Captain | Rickaby, J. D. | M.C.
| Captain | Marshall, C. A. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Captain | Gee, C. H. R. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Weightman, J. G. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Johnson, H. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Lieut. | Armstrong, J. R. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Lieut. | Plummer, H. C. V. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Lieut. | Meikle, W. E. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Cowling, F. W. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Blakey, J. F. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Dodds, L. | M.C.
203361 | R.S.M. | Johnstone, W. | D.C.M.
S/1424 | Sgt. | Simms, F. | M.S.M.
325082 | Sgt. | Noble, F. | M.M.
327152 | Sgt. | Carr, J. R. | M.M.
325025 | Sgt. | Munro, J. | M.M.
325306 | Sgt. | Wilson, G. | D.C.M.
325036 | Sgt. | Hutton, J. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
248045 | Sgt. | Graham, F. | M.M.
325066 | Sgt. | Wilson, W. J. H. | M.M.
325314 | Sgt. | Mason, T. | D.C.M.
327253 | Sgt. | Paliant, E. | M.M.
325854 | Cpl. | Jones, A. | M.M.
326790 | Cpl. | Clay, H. S. | M.M.
27629 | Cpl. | Williams, H. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
325063 | Cpl. | Holburn, R. | M.M.
200536 | Cpl. | Edmundson, F. | M.M.
325637 | Cpl. | Gill, E. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
276275 | Cpl. | Fenwick, M. | M.M.
327169 | Cpl. | Outram, A. | M.M.
325981 | Cpl. | Bickerton, C. | M.M.
348018 | Cpl. | Scorer, W. H. | M.M.
325224 | Cpl. | Garrity, M. | M.M.
325545 | L.-Sgt. | Hammond, S. | M.M.
201310 | L.-Cpl. | Moore, J. G. | M.M.
325617 | L.-Cpl. | Waters, T. | M.M.
76439 | L.-Cpl. | Jones, A. E. | M.M.
325586 | L.-Cpl. | Farrow, R. | M.M.
325465 | L.-Cpl. | Masters, J. | D.C.M.
325379 | L.-Cpl. | Stirling, W. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
325479 | L.-Cpl. | Landreth, G. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
| | | 2nd Bar to M.M.
325647 | L.-Cpl. | Burnside, A. | M.M.
40519 | L.-Cpl. | Henry, P. | M.M.
325709 | L.-Cpl. | Cobb, C. J. | M.M.
325498 | L.-Cpl. | Hardy, J. | M.M.
325910 | L.-Cpl. | Leadbitter, T. | M.M.
41052 | L.-Cpl. | Smith, G. E. | M.M.
325054 | L.-Cpl. | Taylor, J. | M.M.
325658 | L.-Cpl. | Nobes, C. | M.M.
325833 | L.-Cpl. | Robson, T. W. | M.M.
325832 | L.-Cpl. | Hudson, T. | M.M.
25115 | L.-Cpl. | Nichol, —. | M.M.
203391 | L.-Cpl. | Wallace, G. | M.M.
325497 | L.-Cpl. | Norris, J. | M.M.
39804 | L.-Cpl. | Otley, R. | M.M.
325156 | L.-Cpl. | Quinn, R. | M.M.
348014 | L.-Cpl. | Nicholson, T. | M.M.
327247 | L.-Cpl. | Wood, B. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
235673 | L.-Cpl. | Hindmarsh, E. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
325178 | L.-Cpl. | Henderson, T. | M.M.
204230 | L.-Cpl. | Timothy, R. | M.M.
52854 | L.-Cpl. | Baxendale, W. | M.M.
325054 | L.-Cpl. | Carmichael, R. | M.M.
348022 | L.-Cpl. | Fenwick, J. | M.M.
40531 | Pte. | Gill, T. | M.M.
325326 | Pte. | Caygill, C. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
325604 | Pte. | Howe, J. W. | M.M.
203197 | Pte. | Slack, J. | M.M.
325886 | Pte. | Moore, J. W. | M.M.
325784 | Pte. | Waterworth, J. W. | M.M.
43084 | Pte. | Annable, M. | M.M.
325786 | Pte. | Whittaker, S. | M.M.
325979 | Pte. | Galley, E. | M.M.
325098 | Pte. | Slater, D. | M.M.
325253 | Pte. | Johnson, C. | M.M.
295094 | Pte. | Todd, W. | M.M.
203582 | Pte. | Cranny, P. | M.M.
325715 | Pte. | Morgan, S. | M.M.
325493 | Pte. | Watts, J. | M.M.
325111 | Pte. | Timothy, F. | M.M.
327171 | Pte. | Forbes, T. | M.M.
325513 | Pte. | Parker, J. | M.M.
325394 | Pte. | Dempsey, G. | M.M.
325474 | Pte. | Morris, J. | M.M.
325697 | Pte. | Hewitt, W. R. | M.M.
325055 | Pte. | Cass, J. | M.M.
325165 | Pte. | Smith, J. | M.M.
325952 | Pte. | Fortune, A. | M.M.
325915 | Pte. | Williamson, J. H. | M.M.
77892 | Pte. | Skilbeck, G. | M.M.
350981 | Pte. | Wood, C. | M.M.
325642 | Pte. | Tebb, H. | M.M.
61720 | Pte. | Wright, F. | M.M.
325392 | Pte. | Newton, F. | M.M.
200538 | Pte. | Kitching, W. | M.M.
375495 | Pte. | Wiseman, H. | M.M.
82592 | Pte. | Munt, P. | M.M.
325705 | Pte. | Radford, J. | M.M.
82159 | Pte. | Jackson, —. | M.M.
277132 | Pte. | Atkin, T. E. | M.M.
325492 | Pte. | Byrne, F. | M.M.
325212 | Pte. | Edwards, R. | M.M.
25803 | Pte. | Purvis, J. W. | M.M.
91404 | Pte. | Holmes, C. | M.M.
273099 | Pte. | Gundry, J. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
325975 | Pte. | Thompson, T. | D.C.M.
8579 | Pte. | O’Neill, P. | M.M.
12217 | Pte. | Coombes, J. T. | M.M.
78047 | Pte. | Jackson, W. | M.M.
12165 | Pte. | Cooper, J. | M.M.
325410 | Pte. | Prudham, T. | M.M.
44760 | Pte. | Burton, T. | M.M.
203590 | Pte. | Young, T. | V.C.
325256 | Pte. | Brown, G. W. | M.M.
325977 | Pte. | Laws, A. F. | M.M.
72989 | Pte. | Lowes, J. W. | M.M.
325850 | Pte. | Chambers, J. | M.M.
325863 | Pte. | Fodden, A. | M.M.
302220 | Pte. | McCoy, J. | M.M.
325291 | Pte. | Gray, G. | M.M.
325091 | Pte. | Wishart, W. | M.M.
40529 | Pte. | Glanville, J. | M.M.
325623 | Pte. | Taylor, F. | M.M.
2/4TH HAMPSHIRE REGIMENT.
| Major | Parsons, B. E. T. | D.S.O.
| Captain | Cave, W. S. | D.S.O.
| Captain | Pulley, C. P. | M.C.
| Captain | Ledgard, W. H. | M.C.
| Captain | Cottam, H. C. B. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Cotelee, R. H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Willsher, H. L. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Wheeler, H. F. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Wheeler, J. P. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Barker, A. H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Neil, E. M. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Brierley, W. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Gadcey, C. A. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Turner, T. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Dear, R. R. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Young, W. G. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Shorland, J. W. | D.S.O.
| 2/Lieut. | Lane, J. H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Bryant, H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Fenn, R. P. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Greenhalgh, S. D. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Holbrook, F. C. | M.C.
4893 | R.S.M. | Hubert, A. R. | D.C.M.
200027 | R.Q.M.S. | Porter, S. | M.S.M.
201105 | C.S.M. | Dennett, H. | D.C.M.
200343 | C.S.M. | Rilson, J. H. | M.M.
201335 | C.S.M. | Corney, E. C. | M.M.
200069 | C.S.M. | Walsh, W. P. | M.M.
201152 | C.Q.M.S. | Barney, A. E. | M.M.
200031 | Sgt. | Hamilton, T. | D.C.M.
| | | Bar to D.C.M.
39016 | Sgt. | Morris, G. | D.C.M.
12856 | Sgt. | Jarvis, J. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
201328 | Sgt. | Gundry, A. | M.M.
200100 | Sgt. | Meaden, G. | M.M.
201109 | Sgt. | Churcher, H. T. | M.M.
205050 | Sgt. | Moscrop, T. | M.M.
306830 | Sgt. | Redman, R. | M.M.
230378 | Sgt. | Sandy, W. | M.M.
9657 | Sgt. | Gardner, A. E. | M.M.
201136 | Sgt. | Raymont, D. | M.M.
200183 | Sgt. | Lansdowne, F. | M.M.
209966 | Sgt. | Painting, C. | M.M.
201253 | Sgt. | Samways, C. | D.C.M.
200305 | Sgt. | Shadwell, W. | D.C.M.
202820 | Sgt. | Tucker, M. | M.M.
19706 | Sgt. | Harrison, H. G. | M.M.
205042 | Sgt. | Charlton, T. C. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
202609 | Cpl. | Williams, A. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
200534 | Cpl. | Digweed, J. R. | M.M.
200613 | Cpl. | Bone, W. | M.M.
202347 | Cpl. | Hopkinson, J. J. | M.M.
37635 | Cpl. | Holles, W. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
202440 | Cpl. | Kent, R. A. | M.M.
40896 | Cpl. | Brogden, E. G. | M.M.
356847 | Cpl. | Broadley, W. | M.M.
200315 | Cpl. | Hixon, H. | M.M.
202740 | Cpl. | Baldwin, F. | D.C.M.
18801 | Cpl. | Steere, W. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
21392 | Cpl. | Hurford, E. | M.M.
205032 | Cpl. | Horner, G. W. | M.M.
201193 | Cpl. | Arnold, F. L. | M.M.
1238 | L.-Cpl. | Pulham, F. | D.C.M.
12334 | L.-Cpl. | Childs, F. | M.M.
201562 | L.-Cpl. | Allen, F. J. | M.M.
11617 | L.-Cpl. | Falder, C. | M.M.
356621 | L.-Cpl. | Jameson, G. | M.M.
13714 | L.-Cpl. | Langston, G. | M.M.
33627 | L.-Cpl. | Tonge, S. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
42296 | L.-Cpl. | Ford, V. | M.M.
200475 | L.-Cpl. | Taylor, J. M. | M.M.
201206 | L.-Cpl. | Higgins, E. C. | M.M.
357322 | L.-Cpl. | Stevens, F. | M.M.
202496 | L.-Cpl. | Kearley, J. | M.M.
201630 | L.-Cpl. | Adams, T. | M.M.
11417 | L.-Cpl. | Cavell, C. | M.M.
10161 | L.-Cpl. | Ayling, P. | D.C.M.
45716 | L.-Cpl. | Ward, W. | M.M.
201332 | L.-Cpl. | Stewart, G. | M.M.
14031 | L.-Cpl. | Fox, A. | M.M.
8630 | L.-Cpl. | Purkiss, F. | M.M.
28438 | L.-Cpl. | Tompkinson, J. L. | M.M.
204788 | L.-Cpl. | Simms, E. T. | M.M.
20089 | L.-Cpl. | Murrell, J. | M.M.
27031 | L.-Cpl. | Starr, G. | M.M.
7728 | L.-Cpl. | Marshall, W. C. | M.M.
200298 | L.-Cpl. | May, H. | M.M.
205440 | Pte. | Buckett, W. | M.M.
202427 | Pte. | Kervill, A. E. | M.M.
202711 | Pte. | Mitchell, J. | M.M.
201600 | Pte. | Panker, A. | M.M.
202475 | Pte. | Carter, G. H. | M.M.
202586 | Pte. | Seevior, S. | M.M.
17079 | Pte. | Raybould, T. | M.M.
31737 | Pte. | Blunn, J. | M.M.
55034 | Pte. | Holland, A. | M.M.
202848 | Pte. | Hillier, J. | M.M.
202244 | Pte. | Charlton, T. | M.M.
205041 | Pte. | Austin, J. | M.M.
27630 | Pte. | Hewitt, H. | M.M.
202423 | Pte. | Earley, J. A. | M.M.
27928 | Pte. | Box, J. | M.M.
202875 | Pte. | Mannock, F. | M.M.
39033 | Pte. | Hall, S. | M.M.
202475 | Pte. | Cawte, G. H. | M.M.
236839 | Pte. | Morson, F. | M.M.
201339 | Pte. | Brandon, S. | M.M.
200757 | Pte. | Ellis, J. | M.M.
202461 | Pte. | Clarke, F. W. | M.M.
201652 | Pte. | Banning, C. J. | M.M.
201825 | Pte. | West, P. | M.M.
202815 | Pte. | Tappenden, F. | M.M.
202428 | Pte. | Street, A. G. | M.M.
8470 | Pte. | Purdue, W. | M.M.
33560 | Pte. | Tonkin, F. | M.M.
38473 | Pte. | Stone, F. T. | D.C.M.
201824 | Pte. | Moody, H. J. | M.M.
200464 | Pte. | Bushby, S. | M.M.
202479 | Pte. | Cooper, F. W. | M.M.
20570 | Pte. | Ackerman, A. B. | M.M.
200897 | Pte. | Piper, A. J. | M.M.
201459 | Pte. | Stone, E. | M.M.
205099 | Pte. | Spencer, J. | M.M.
200763 | Pte. | Meager, W. | M.M.
40672 | Pte. | Cuthbert, G. W. R. | M.M.
11227 | Pte. | Bushell, S. | M.M.
43613 | Pte. | Phillips, G. H. | M.M.
202769 | Pte. | Hampton, W. J. | M.M.
30911 | Pte. | Kenny, A. | M.M.
28714 | Pte. | Vincent, A. | M.M.
201752 | Pte. | Bennett, V. | M.M.
201452 | Pte. | Richardson, A. | M.M.
203833 | Pte. | Trasher, F. | M.M.
205037 | Pte. | Anger, C. | M.M.
19186 | Pte. | Nolan, P. | M.M.
55074 | Pte. | Gleinster, F. | M.M.
202534 | Pte. | Parfoot, S. A. | M.M.
202836 | Pte. | Budden, B. C. | M.M.
45673 | Pte. | Pickard, H. | M.M.
25199 | Pte. | Kibby, A. E. | M.M.
26566 | Pte. | Surridge, W. | M.M.
44119 | Pte. | Dowie, J. | M.M.
202490 | Pte. | Sheath, A. | M.M.
26452 | Pte. | Fry, E. | M.M.
202527 | Pte. | Trent, F. | M.M.
21480 | Pte. | Squires, J. | M.M.
202746 | Pte. | Chapman, D. | M.M.
31551 | Pte. | Besant, T. | M.M.
45697 | Pte. | Sellars, A. | M.M.
45692 | Pte. | Robinson, W. H. | M.M.
201090 | Pte. | Siggance, H. | M.M.
40399 | Pte. | Ellis, R. | M.M.
2823 | Pte. | Donsan, A. | M.M.
26456 | Pte. | Collins, T. | M.M.
33126 | Pte. | Lewington, E. | M.M.
54883 | Pte. | Seymour, S. | M.M.
27705 | Pte. | Frampton, E. | M.M.
44940 | Pte. | Sullivan, P. | M.M.
17301 | Pte. | Boyes, A. J. | M.M.
205069 | Pte. | Hogg, J. | M.M.
38595 | Pte. | Campbell, H. | M.M.
200212 | Pte. | Gosse, J. | M.M.
28799 | Pte. | Levey, E. F. | M.M.
201140 | Pte. | Rivers, H. | M.M.
202792 | Pte. | Newington, H. G. | M.M.
2/20TH LONDON REGIMENT.
| Major | Craddock, W. M. | M.C.
| | | D.S.O.
| Capt. & Adjt. | Elliot, W. R. | M.C.
| Captain | Hunt, A. H. | M.C.
| Captain | Bacon, D. C. | M.C.
| Captain | Wilson, H. W. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Woolfe, B. T. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Pritchard, J. S. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Smout, P. L. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Rogers, W. J. | M.C.
6530 | R.S.M. | Skeer, W. T. | D.C.M.
630283 | R.Q.M.S. | Clyne, E. H. | M.S.M.
630905 | C.S.M. | Salkeld, J. B. | M.M.
530828 | Sgt. | Mahony, W. | M.S.M.
630662 | Sgt. | Powell, F. | M.M.
630629 | Sgt. | Cook, W. | M.M.
632883 | Sgt. | Cannon, H. F. | M.M.
632750 | Sgt. | Lewis, A. | M.M.
630570 | Sgt. | Dickens, C. | M.M.
630957 | Sgt. | Eames. J. | M.M.
630386 | L.-Sgt. | Beckley, C. R. | M.M.
632492 | L.-Sgt. | Graney, J. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
650720 | Cpl. | Hadlow, H. | M.M.
630986 | Cpl. | Crate, A. C. | M.M.
632016 | Cpl. | Smith, G. | M.M.
634492 | Cpl. | Feaver, W. G. | M.M.
630659 | Cpl. | Challis, H. M. | M.M.
630022 | Cpl. | Smith, T. | M.M.
630925 | Cpl. | Robinson, C. | M.M.
631887 | L.-Cpl. | Giddings, G. | M.M.
630313 | L.-Cpl. | Crawley, C. F. | M.M.
632665 | L.-Cpl. | McRobie, J. | M.M.
36678 | L.-Cpl. | Gardner, J. H. | M.M.
632034 | L.-Cpl. | White, W. | M.M.
632603 | L.-Cpl. | Shaw, J. | M.M.
630149 | Pte. | Smith, A. | M.M.
663040 | Pte. | Westall, A. | M.M.
630463 | Pte. | Woolfe, D. | M.M.
634306 | Pte. | Hales, S. G. | M.M.
38874 | Pte. | Taylor, W. H. | M.M.
630071 | Pte. | Tapsfield, W. J. | M.M.
633179 | Pte. | Critchell, C. | M.M.
632788 | Pte. | Roberts, H. G. | M.M.
630405 | Pte. | Mardell, W. | M.M.
630350 | Pte. | Barron, A. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
36604 | Pte. | Earl, G. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
36659 | Pte. | Clark, J. D. | M.M.
36617 | Pte. | Bates, A. | M.M.
645067 | Pte. | Timms, S. | M.M.
630780 | Pte. | Owen, B. J. | M.M.
633010 | Pte. | Meade, H. J. | M.M.
G/28610 | Pte. | Allsopp, G. | M.M.
36750 | Pte. | Ross, P. | M.M.
633837 | Pte. | Barnett, J. T. P. | M.M.
633077 | Pte. | Marrison, T. R. | M.M.
630061 | Pte. | Haynes, J. L. | D.C.M.
BLACK WATCH.
241344 | Cpl. | Graham, C. | M.M.
268658 | Cpl. | Simonette, E. | M.M.
S/41332 | L.-Cpl. | McMonagle, T. | M.M.
267467 | L.-Cpl. | Hopkins, R. | M.M.
S/7978 | Pte. | Prentice, A. | M.M.
62ND MACHINE GUN CORPS.
| Major | Pollak, L. A. | Croix de Guerre
| | | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Major | Lismore, F. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Major | Gordon, A. D. | M.C.
| | | Croix de Guerre
| Captain | McSweeney, D. L. | M.C.
| Captain | Lang, J. E. | M.C.
| Captain | Williams, N. V. | M.C.
| Captain | King, C. B. R. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Horsley, W. F. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| Lieut. | Margerison, J. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Gulston, A. S. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Lane, G. H. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Gordon, K. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Crossman, A. A. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Mann, F. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Waterhouse, H. A. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Blundell, T. H. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Madge, G. M. A. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Long, A. J. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Gadsby, T. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Boyd, F. J. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Baxendale, J. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Mason, P. N. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Madge, M. H. A. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | Trimlett, E. | D.S.O.
| 2/Lieut. | Newman, W. A. | M.C.
| 2/Lieut. | McFarlane, J. | M.C.
141703 | R.S.M. | Keane, S. | M.S.M.
8238 | R.Q.M.S. | Brown, J. K. | M.S.M.
5518 | C.S.M. | Vernon, H. S. | M.S.M.
42523 | Sgt. | Hazel, W. | D.C.M.
27800 | Sgt. | Hogg, T. | M.M.
5828 | Sgt. | Bennett, W. | M.M.
16908 | Sgt. | Little, A. | M.M.
20100 | Sgt. | Shepherd, J. | D.C.M.
66665 | Sgt. | Littlefair, A. G. | D.C.M.
46188 | Sgt. | Driver, H. | M.M.
35035 | Sgt. | Wilkinson, F. W. | M.M.
65550 | Sgt. | Carter, E. | M.M.
17312 | Sgt. | Still, G. | D.C.M.
| | | Bar to D.C.M.
| Sgt. | Donnelly, R. J. | M.S.M.
23048 | Sgt. | Macrea, M. | D.C.M.
9632 | Cpl. | Read, G. P. | D.C.M.
67840 | Cpl. | Turner, L. G. | M.M.
89602 | Cpl. | Hitchcock, H. J. | M.M.
64401 | Cpl. | Condon, T. | M.M.
26630 | Cpl. | Hindle, A. | M.M.
34308 | Cpl. | Todd, B. J. | M.M.
67866 | Cpl. | Gardner, T. | M.M.
62735 | Cpl. | Phillips, G. | D.C.M.
3663 | Cpl. | Chapman, R. F. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
22714 | Cpl. | Torkington, A. J. | M.M.
65650 | Sgt. | Bate, F. | M.M.
148291 | Cpl. | Knowles, A. | M.M.
81450 | Cpl. | Newby, W. | M.M.
6776 | L.-Cpl. | Gibson, G. | M.M.
63949 | L.-Cpl. | Thorne, W. G. | M.M.
54666 | L.-Cpl. | Thornleigh, A. | M.M.
63955 | L.-Cpl. | Schofield, G. P. | M.M.
87182 | L.-Cpl. | Wilson, J. W. | M.M.
7084 | L.-Cpl. | Haigh, H. | M.M.
119135 | L.-Cpl. | Kelly, G. | M.M.
66254 | L.-Cpl. | Baseley, W. | M.M.
142545 | L.-Cpl. | Dye, A. E. | M.M.
8546 | L.-Cpl. | Tyles, F. W. | M.M.
63891 | L.-Cpl. | Laws, F. | M.M.
126104 | Pte. | Stiff, W. | M.M.
127375 | Pte. | Wood, L. H. | M.M.
142589 | Pte. | Spurr, A. | M.M.
67088 | Pte. | Tracey, J. | M.M.
142099 | Pte. | Howard, F. | M.M.
86963 | Pte. | Pallington, A. | M.M.
146656 | Pte. | McAlindin, J. | M.M.
123701 | Pte. | Robins, E. | M.M.
117196 | Pte. | Cawthan, C. | M.M.
142534 | Pte. | Ratcliffe, G. | M.M.
136805 | Pte. | Proctor, T. | M.M.
119562 | Pte. | Carter, W. | M.M.
88251 | Pte. | Compton, J. | M.M.
128062 | Pte. | Smith, F. | M.M.
142612 | Pte. | Beaumont, F. | M.M.
68560 | Pte. | Constables, C. | D.C.M.
137277 | Pte. | Whybrow, T. H. R. | M.M.
60242 | Pte. | Johnson, J. | M.M.
126041 | Pte. | White, F. | M.M.
32796 | Pte. | Russell, J. H. | M.M.
105266 | Pte. | France, W. | M.M.
11266 | Pte. | Wilson, J. | M.M.
87841 | Pte. | Munleck, H. | M.M.
66254 | Pte. | Webster, J. | M.M.
142500 | Pte. | Leake, M. G. | M.M.
103908 | Pte. | Pollard, J. W. | M.M.
146183 | Pte. | May, J. H. | M.M.
132987 | Pte. | Cawkwell, A. | M.M.
121759 | Pte. | Renalls, C. | D.C.M.
66389 | Pte. | Birkby, G. E. | M.M.
34041 | Pte. | Lovett, F. M. | M.M.
67758 | Pte. | Murray, G. | M.M.
44307 | Pte. | Henderson, P. A. | M.M.
64420 | Pte. | Bailey, A. D. | M.M.
64406 | Pte. | Downes, W. | M.M.
62ND (W.R.) DIVISIONAL R.A.S.C.
| Lt.-Col. | Wilberforce, H. H. | D.S.O.
| Major | Wright, P. W. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Wooliscroft, W. | M.C.
251981 | S.-Sgt. | Park, J. | M.S.M.
T4/250911 | Sgt. | Hanstock, J. | M.M.
T4/250951 | Sgt. | Holdsworth, H. | M.M.
54/252530 | Sgt. | Close, J. W. | M.M.
S/4251921 | Sgt. | Martin, A. E. | M.M.
M2/053265 | Sgt. | Dobbyn, W. | M.M.
M2/188488 | Sgt. | Boyd, J. | M.M.
M2/052965 | M. S. Sgt. | Grimshaw, J. H. | M.S.M.
M2/078332 | Cpl. | Bailey, C. H. | M.M.
S/253855 | Cpl. | Shuttlesworth, F. | M.S.M.
T4/253750 | Cpl. | Carter, T. | M.M.
T4/250935 | Cpl. | Simpson, H. | M.M.
T/249588 | L.-Cpl. | Craven, W. | M.S.M.
T4/251497 | Dr. | Stabler, F. | M.M.
T4/252514 | Dr. | Nettleton, A. | M.M.
T/24988 | Dr. | Tuffley, H. | M.M.
T4/260354 | Dr. | Mackellor, A. | M.M.
T/364956 | Dr. | Jordan, A. S. | M.M.
T4/253666 | Dr. | Lockwood, W. | M.M.
T4/252331 | Dr. | Parkin, E. | M.M.
T4/252477 | Dr. | Faulkingham, H. | M.M.
T/21788 | Dr. | Mannering, J. | M.M.
T4/253892 | Dr. | Allet, J. | M.M.
M/206143 | Dr. | Prothers, D. | M.M.
HEADQUARTERS, R.A.M.C.
| Major | Steill, G. | M.C.
| Captain | Jack, G. | M.C.
| Captain | Scott, J. A. | M.C.
| | | Bar to M.C.
| | | 2nd Bar to M.C.
| Captain | Hird, F. W. | M.C.
| Captain | Pringle, J. H. | M.C.
| Captain | Frew, J. W. | M.C.
| Captain | Hickey, W. J. L. | M.C.
405380 | Sgt. | Gregson, W. | M.M.
401178 | Sgt. | Hirst, E. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
403156 | L.-Sgt. | Barber, J. H. | D.C.M.
403297 | Cpl. | Langley, F. C. | M.M.
403389 | Cpl. | Squire, G. H. | M.S.M.
405305 | L.-Cpl. | Warner, T. | M.M.
403343 | Pte. | Marsden, W. H. | M.M.
403640 | Pte. | Green, A. | M.M.
401255 | Pte. | Braddock, J. W. | M.M.
403533 | Pte. | Edwards, N. E. | M.M.
403358 | Pte. | Bourke, T. E. | M.M.
56962 | Pte. | Thomas, L. J. | M.M.
403150 | Pte. | Allen, W. H. | M.M.
79505 | Pte. | Sayer, J. | M.M.
405470 | Pte. | Evers, O. | M.M.
405300 | Pte. | Charlesworth, C. | M.M.
47867 | Pte. | Scholes, C. | M.M.
11445 | Pte. | Smithson, W. | M.M.
457517 | Pte. | Dayment, W. J. | M.M.
405223 | Pte. | Smith, A. | M.M.
2/1ST WEST RIDING FIELD AMBULANCE.
| Major | Pope, H. E. | M.C.
| Captain | Mackenzie, L. A. | M.C.
| Captain | Pickles, H. D. | M.C.
| Captain | Blackburn, J. H. | M.C.
401327 | Sgt. | Knaggs, H. | D.C.M.
| | | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
401178 | Sgt. | Hirst, E. | M.M.
401144 | Sgt. | Wood, F. D. | M.S.M.
401173 | Sgt. | Micklethwaite, G. J. | M.M.
401152 | Pte. | Odgers, A. D. | M.M.
401160 | Pte. | Summerscales, D. G. | M.M.
22655 | Pte. | Burdon, J. | M.M.
461489 | Pte. | Williamson, A. | M.M.
M2/182142 | Pte. | Titterton, W. | M.M.
53660 | Pte. | McLean, R. W. | M.M.
401494 | Pte. | Coates, R. W. | M.M.
403494 | Pte. | Yates, O. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
401401 | Pte. | Hunter, T. W. | M.M.
401225 | Pte. | Braddick, J. W. | M.M.
| | | Bar to M.M.
51846 | Pte. | Goodwin, J. | M.M.
| Pte. | Wood, G. H. | M.M.
M2/102446 | Pte. | Coleahill, W. | M.M.
2/2ND WEST RIDING FIELD AMBULANCE.
| Lt.-Col. | Eames, C. W. | D.S.O.
| Captain | Kenworthy, T. R. | M.C.
403183 | Sgt. | Tamar, T. A. | M.S.M.
403173 | Sgt. | Disbrey, W. T. | M.S.M.
403420 | Sgt. | Fuguel, A. | M.S.M.
388039 | Sgt. | Liddell, S. | M.S.M.
405068 | Cpl. | Lake, H. H. | M.M.
403117 | Cpl. | Thomas, G. F. | M.M.
403567 | L.-Cpl. | Hillaby, J. | M.M.
403528 | Pte. | Watkinson, F. | M.M.
403249 | Pte. | Peakman, G. J. | M.M.
405142 | Pte. | Barker, S. | M.M.
403468 | Pte. | Marshall, A. | M.M.
403330 | Pte. | Wright, C. V. | M.S.M.
403642 | Pte. | Cockerham, R. | M.S.M.
DM2/190928 | Pte. | Horton, R. | M.S.M.
403410 | Pte. | Boshell, A. | M.S.M.
403500 | Pte. | Chadwick, S. S. | M.S.M.
402334 | Pte. | Senior, J. | M.S.M.
403295 | Pte. | Dawson, A. J. | M.S.M.
2/3RD WEST RIDING FIELD AMBULANCE.
| Major | Wrigglesworth, F. | M.C.
| Captain | Young, J. C. | M.C.
T4/252459 | S.S.M. | Roberts, F. | M.S.M.
405375 | Q.M.S. | Fowler, G. | M.S.M.
405202 | S.-Sgt. | Torr, J. W. | D.C.M.
405051 | Sgt. | Pattison, A. | M.S.M.
| | | M.M.
46986 | Sgt. | Wignall, W. | M.S.M.
405444 | Pte. | Thornton, E. | M.M.
405309 | Pte. | Harris, G. B. | M.M.
403103 | Pte. | Robinson, H. | M.M.
36280 | Pte. | Richardson, F. W. | M.M.
405052 | Pte. | Shaw, N. | M.M.
M/321557 | Pte. | Kinnear, H. | M.M.
65036 | Pte. | Tipping, P. J. | M.M.
MISCELLANEOUS UNITS ATTACHED TO 62ND (W.R.) DIVISION.
QUEEN’S OWN OXFORD HUSSARS.
285372 | Sgt. | Jones, N. F. | M.M.
KING EDWARD’S HORSE.
| Lt.-Col. | Russell, C. G. | D.S.O.
2/1ST (W.R.) MOBILE VETERINARY SECTION.
TT/03262 | Sgt. | Mollekin, | M.S.M.
ARMY ORDNANCE CORPS.
5788 | Condtr. | Bush, A. G. | M.S.M.
MOUNTED MILITARY POLICE.
P/2367 | Sgt. | Hood, W. | M.S.M.
P/2899 | L.-Cpl. | Jones, J. | M.M.
P/5963 | L.-Cpl. | Dent, J. W. | M.M.
62ND DIVISIONAL TRAFFIC CONTROL.
241941 | L.-Cpl. | Whitehead, A. | M.M.
623583 | Pte. | Smale, A. | M.M.
DIVISIONAL EMPLOYMENT COMPANY.
224596 | Sgt. | Town, P. A. | M.M.
CHAPLAINS.
| Revd. | Chavasse, C. M. | M.C.
| Revd. | Martin, O. | M.C.
| Revd. | Harland, C. H. | M.C.
| Revd. | Wood, D. | M.C.
| Revd. | Moran, M. | M.C.
| Revd. | Hindle, B. F. | M.C.
| Revd. | Price, H. G. | M.C.
| Revd. | Thornhill, R. W. | M.C.
APPENDIX III.
HONOURS AND AWARDS OBTAINED BY WEST RIDING TERRITORIAL TROOPS NOT SERVING
WITH THE 49TH AND 62ND DIVISIONS.
------------+---------------+-------------------------+------------------
Regtl. No. | Rank. | Name. | Award.
------------+---------------+-------------------------+------------------
| | |
YORKSHIRE HUSSARS
| Major | Watts, A. F. | D.S.O.
| Major | Pearson, R. S. | O.B.E.
| Captain | Collins, A. E. D. | Knight of the
| | | Crown (Belgian)
| Captain | Howard, A. H. | M.C.
| Captain | Preston, T. | M.C.
| Captain | Slingsby, H. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Mars, L. J. | M.B.E.
| Lieut. | Ferrier, C. G. | O.B.E.
YORKSHIRE DRAGOONS.
| Major | Thompson, R. | D.S.O.
| Major | Brooke, R. W. | D.S.O.
| | | M.C.
| Captain | Hirst, C. J. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Barrett, F. P. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Sheppard, M. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Unwin, H. T. H. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Thompson, R. C. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Watson, R. A. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Beilly, R. B. | M.C.
| Lieut. | Snowden, S. | M.C.
2484 | Sgt. | Fanvel, L. | M.M.
2650 | Sgt. | Storer, J. | M.M.
2361 | Sgt. | Tinker, | M.M.
2172 | Cpl. | Granswick, W. | M.M.
WEST RIDING R.G.A.
| 2 Officers |} {| M.C.
| 1 Other Rank |} Names not obtainable {| Croix de Guerre
| 18 Other Ranks|} {| M.M.
| 1 Other Rank |} {| Bar to M.M.
NORTHERN SIGNAL COMPANIES R.E.
| Lieut. | Jackson, W. F. | M.C.
YORKSHIRE MOUNTED BRIGADE FIELD AMBULANCE.
| Captain | Downie, J. | D.S.O.
| | | Order of St.
| | | Anne, 4th Class
| | | (Russia)
1147 | Cpl. | Carey, H. | D.C.M.
APPENDIX IV.
RETURN OF CASUALTIES UP TO THE END OF DECEMBER, 1918.
This Return is provisional only, and, though so deplorably heavy, cannot
be regarded as complete.
-----------------------------------+---------------------------------+
| OFFICERS. |
UNIT. +-------+--------+--------+-------+
|Killed.|Wounded.|Missing.| Sick. |
-----------------------------------+-------+--------+--------+-------+
Yorkshire Hussars | 3 | 4 | | 7 |
Yorkshire Dragoons | 2 | 4 | | 5 |
West Riding R.H.A. | 1 | | | 4 |
Yorks. Mtd. Bde. R.A.S.C. | | | | |
Yorks. Mtd. Bde. Field Ambulance | | 4 | | 2 |
Signal Troops with Mtd. Bde. | | | | |
Headquarters W.R. Division | | 4 | | 1 |
245th Brigade R.F.A. | 6 | 15 | | 7 |
246th Brigade R.F.A. | 9 | 10 | | 16 |
247th Brigade R.F.A. | 1 | 8 | | 12 |
248th Brigade R.F.A. (Howitzer) | | 3 | | 6 |
310th Brigade R.F.A. | 1 | 26 | | 3 |
312th Brigade R.F.A. | 3 | 24 | | 6 |
West Riding R.G.A. (Heavy Battery) | | 1 | | 2 |
Divisional Ammunition Column | | 5 | | 7 |
Trench Mortar Batteries | 2 | 18 | 2 | 2 |
W.R. Divisional Royal Engineers | 19 | 26 | | 27 |
5th Bn. West Yorks. Regt. | 33 | 105 | 11 | 54 |
6th Bn. West Yorks. Regt. | 38 | 96 | 5 | 48 |
7th Bn. West Yorks. Regt. | 28 | 70 | 4 | 51 |
8th Bn. West Yorks. Regt. | 46 | 116 | 11 | 60 |
4th Bn. West Riding Regt. | 38 | 107 | 4 | 57 |
5th Bn. West Riding Regt. | 28 | 121 | 9 | 64 |
6th Bn. West Riding Regt. | 24 | 66 | 3 | 43 |
7th Bn. West Riding Regt. | 22 | 70 | 2 | 66 |
4th Bn. K.O.Y.L.I. | 48 | 138 | 2 | 83 |
5th Bn. K.O.Y.L.I. | 48 | 103 | 7 | 58 |
4th Bn. York and Lancaster Regt. | 36 | 113 | 4 | 56 |
5th Bn. York and Lancaster Regt. | 35 | 83 | 5 | 40 |
5th Devon Regt. | 10 | 31 | | 3 |
4th Hants. Regt. | 5 | 24 | | 5 |
19th Lancashire Fusiliers | | 6 | | 3 |
9th Durham Light Infantry | 2 | 24 | | |
2/20th London Regt. | 4 | 11 | | 1 |
Machine-Gun Corps | 2 | 47 | | 7 |
Divisional Cyclists Corps | | 1 | | 4 |
West Riding Divisional R.A.S.C. | | 1 | | 8 |
1st West Riding Field Ambulance | 1 | 6 | | 14 |
2nd West Riding Field Ambulance | 1 | 5 | | 8 |
3rd West Riding Field Ambulance | | 7 | | 5 |
Casualty Clearing Station | | | | 11 |
Mobile Veterinary Section | | | | 1 |
Sanitary Section | | | | |
Chaplains | | 2 | | |
243rd Employment Company | | | | |
M.M.P. | | | | |
-----------------------------------+-------+--------+--------+-------+
TOTAL | 496 | 1,505 | 69 | 857 |
-----------------------------------+-------+--------+--------+-------+
-----------------------------------+---------------------------------+
| OTHER RANKS. |
UNIT. +-------+--------+--------+-------+
|Killed.|Wounded.|Missing.| Sick. |
-----------------------------------+-------+--------+--------+-------+
Yorkshire Hussars | 11 | 42 | | 120 |
Yorkshire Dragoons | 3 | 14 | | 59 |
West Riding R.H.A. | 1 | | | 3 |
Yorks. Mtd. Bde. R.A.S.C. | 1 | 2 | | 3 |
Yorks. Mtd. Bde. Field Ambulance | | 4 | | 8 |
Signal Troops with Mtd. Bde. | | 1 | | 2 |
Headquarters W.R. Division | 1 | 4 | | 7 |
245th Brigade R.F.A. | 36 | 173 | 1 | 184 |
246th Brigade R.F.A. | 82 | 221 | 3 | 268 |
247th Brigade R.F.A. | 4 | 19 | | 92 |
248th Brigade R.F.A. (Howitzer) | 4 | 20 | | 61 |
310th Brigade R.F.A. | 20 | 204 | 1 | 375 |
312th Brigade R.F.A. | 47 | 177 | 1 | 291 |
West Riding R.G.A. (Heavy Battery) | 5 | 11 | | 21 |
Divisional Ammunition Column | 80 | 103 | 2 | 306 |
Trench Mortar Batteries | 22 | 211 | 2 | 55 |
W.R. Divisional Royal Engineers | 110 | 635 | 20 | 983 |
5th Bn. West Yorks. Regt. | 497 | 1,902 | 323 | 1,339 |
6th Bn. West Yorks. Regt. | 374 | 1,488 | 196 | 1,044 |
7th Bn. West Yorks. Regt. | 433 | 1,642 | 145 | 1,535 |
8th Bn. West Yorks. Regt. | 528 | 2,917 | 237 | 1,689 |
4th Bn. West Riding Regt. | 720 | 2,651 | 251 | 1,731 |
5th Bn. West Riding Regt. | 535 | 2,404 | 437 | 1,517 |
6th Bn. West Riding Regt. | 252 | 1,396 | 131 | 868 |
7th Bn. West Riding Regt. | 375 | 1,514 | 100 | 1,101 |
4th Bn. K.O.Y.L.I. | 630 | 2,947 | 579 | 1,560 |
5th Bn. K.O.Y.L.I. | 676 | 2,878 | 493 | 1,867 |
4th Bn. York and Lancaster Regt. | 614 | 3,015 | 438 | 1,538 |
5th Bn. York and Lancaster Regt. | 481 | 1,861 | 216 | 851 |
5th Devon Regt. | 138 | 645 | 60 | 353 |
4th Hants. Regt. | 157 | 662 | 105 | 422 |
19th Lancashire Fusiliers | 18 | 433 | | 194 |
9th Durham Light Infantry | 93 | 506 | 46 | 345 |
2/20th London Regt. | 91 | 421 | 40 | 210 |
Machine-Gun Corps | 109 | 702 | 16 | 627 |
Divisional Cyclists Corps | 4 | 45 | | 58 |
West Riding Divisional R.A.S.C. | 4 | 25 | | 300 |
1st West Riding Field Ambulance | 11 | 61 | | 161 |
2nd West Riding Field Ambulance | 9 | 65 | | 248 |
3rd West Riding Field Ambulance | 18 | 162 | 1 | 201 |
Casualty Clearing Station | 1 | 4 | | 23 |
Mobile Veterinary Section | | 1 | | 20 |
Sanitary Section | 1 | | | 1 |
Chaplains | | | | |
243rd Employment Company | 1 | 4 | | 10 |
M.M.P. | | | | 2 |
-----------------------------------+-------+--------+--------+-------+
TOTAL |7,197 | 32,192 | 3,844 |22,653 |
-----------------------------------+-------+--------+--------+-------+
REMARKS
Total Officers 2,927
Other Ranks 65,886
------
68,813
BY THE SAME AUTHOR AND PUBLISHERS.
_428 pages._ _12s. net._
A GENERAL SKETCH OF EUROPEAN LITERATURE IN THE CENTURIES OF ROMANCE.
Chap. I Story-Matters and Story-Writers.
” II The Age of Dante.
” III The Fourteenth Century.
” IV 1374 to 1492.
” V The Transit through 1492.
” VI Europe at School.
” VII Europe at Large.
” VIII The Maturity of Romance.
” IX The Age of Milton.
” X The Watershed of 1637.
BY LAURIE MAGNUS, M.A.
Starting at the twelfth century, “The Centuries of Romance”
brings down the history of literature in Europe to the year
1637 (including the works of Milton and Calderon), when the
French Academy was founded, and a natural break occurs between
the centuries of Romance and _Bon Sens_. It is intended to
provide English students, both professional and amateur, with a
measure and a standard of comparison for the true and correct
appreciation of the literature and literary history of our own
country.
_The Spectator_ says: “Many people who are not students will find this
survey of a wide field both interesting and useful, for few writers since
Hallam’s day have attempted to envisage the literary activity of medieval
and modern Europe as a whole.”
_The Morning Post_ says: “Hitherto no guide-book of the kind has existed
in the English language.... The author of this ample and learned book,
which shows an amazing depth and range of reading, writes with power and
precision, and has provided an invaluable literary map, so to speak, of
that which is a _terra incognita_ to most English students of literature.”
_The Times Literary Supplement_ says: “The mass of knowledge of which
he disposes, if nowhere amounting to specialism, is in the aggregate
extraordinarily copious and varied; and he handles it with an agility
of mind, an openness to impressions, and a deftness in seizing salient
points, which make his book constantly fresh and informing.”
_The Journal of Education_ says: ... “The other and nobler way, of which
Goldsmith (with all his shortcomings) and Hallam set the example, and
which Mr. Laurie Magnus has followed, gives us something different from
a ‘cram’ book or a book of reference. The student is led by his guide to
the summit of hills that command a great stretch of plain: he views the
country spread out as a map before him, and places that he has passed
through or will visit in days to come are seen in their right relations
to each other. To attempt this kind of conspectus is incomparably
the more difficult task, and success in it seems to require the wide
knowledge and power of generalization of a Lord Acton. Mr. Laurie Magnus
would doubtless disclaim the ambition to ‘rival the cultivated mind of
Europe incarnate in its finest characteristics,’ but he has performed
a very arduous feat with a skill that, to one reader at least, has
pleasantly recalled Viscount Bryce’s memorable description of Acton’s
conversation.”
C.H.H., whose initials reveal a distinguished authority on the subject,
writes in the _Manchester Guardian_: “Mr. Magnus has conceived his task
on large lines.... Continental culture through the centuries has moved
to vast and complex rhythms of its own, only fitfully and in fragments
caught up into our island music, and it is the merit of Mr. Magnus’s
sketch to have made these larger rhythms in outline clear.... The sketch
of the age of Dante in the second chapter is an admirable synthesis....
The Renaissance is unfolded in a series of vivid delineations and
portraitures, lightly but significantly touched. Some of them, such as
Petrarch, Montaigne, Cervantes, could not well be bettered within their
compass, ... and there is no lack of acute and curious observation by
the way, in which even the well-read may find it worth their while to
glean.... The wealth of knowledge, though never that of a specialist, is
very remarkable.”
Prof. GEORGE SAINTSBURY writes in the _Observer_: “This book of Mr.
Magnus’s is, for its subject, just the sort of book upon which to set
training college students, while it ought to do not a little good to the
superior shepherds—perhaps to some of the chief pastors themselves....
Here you get a view of the whole body to be compared with a view of the
other whole.... A very difficult thing to construct; a thing almost
impossible to construct without some gaps or weak points here and there;
but a thing very well worth attempting, and, in this example, a thing
very fairly and usefully done.”
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