Part 2

Of Immingham, the Battalion has only confused memories of concrete floors as sleeping places, of endless tours of sentry-go, of its first experience of strict army rations, and of countless rumours to which unnecessary credence was given, since the troops had not yet learnt the tainted source from which such stories rise. Early one morning there was a particularly strong report of a great battle in the North Sea, and an officer asked a recruit just coming off duty if he had heard any firing in the night. “I’m very sorry, sir, it was me!” was the unexpected reply: “I let it off by accident.”

After about a week the battalion moved into billets at the pleasant and hospitable village of Healing, near Grimsby. Here they spent a happy and healthy month, and on Sept. 15th moved into camp in Riby Park, about four miles further inland. The weather was glorious and the physique of the battalion improved out of all knowledge. Faces and arms turned brown, packs and equipment felt lighter, and the marches over the Lincolnshire downs insensibly grew longer. During all this time both officers and men had been continually welcoming friends among the new recruits who came to take the places of those unfit for active service, under age, or whose circumstances prevented them from volunteering for work overseas. And when a cold wet spell at the end of October brought on a welcome move from tents into the warmer shelter of schools and other billets in Doncaster, it was a strong battalion of fit men, ready to go anywhere, that marched to the station.

At Doncaster the battalion settled down for the winter and made a vast number of firm friendships among the inhabitants, who had viewed the arrival of troops with some apprehension. The Christmas dinner, served in all the company billets, was a huge success, though there were already many who were sore that they were not yet in the trenches and feared that the war would be finished without them!

All this time progressive training had gone on. At Healing the battalion was alone in the village, and battalion and company drill were the usual order of the day. Riby was a Brigade camp, and the presence of the 4th, 5th and 7th Duke of Wellington’s and a battery of Artillery gave an added rivalry to the quest of military efficiency and to endurance in long marches. The harvest was now in and field manœuvres became possible, and the battalion received its initiation in trench digging. There was a good deal of musketry instruction and a little firing on an indifferent range. The signallers under Lieut. A. Slingsby and the machine-gunners under Lieut. B. R. Brewin improved enormously along their special lines; while the cyclists under 2nd Lieut. “Pedaller” Palmer tested their wind and muscles up the gradients of Swallow Downs. The Brigade was inspected at Brocklesby by Major-General Plumer, who was, in a few months’ time, to welcome them to his own particular salient of Ypres.

At Doncaster musketry practice was more seriously undertaken and, when the Cantley ranges overflowed, parties proceeded to all parts of Yorkshire. The field days, under the eye of Major-Gen. Baldock, commanding the Division, with an added force of Artillery, Royal Engineers and Divisional Cavalry, were on a larger scale, and the continual battles of Marr and Rossington Bridge taught officers to handle men, men to acquire something of an eye for country, and outposts to keep alert with eye and ear--particularly necessary if Lieut. Anthony Slingsby and his Scouts were on the opposing side. And if the night operations caused an annoying interference with more romantic engagements, they taught lessons in finding the way at night that proved valuable later on.

In the later stages trenches were dug, and one battalion relieved another in their occupation by night; billeting schemes were carried out in the surrounding villages, and the constant alarms of raids or invasion, which on one occasion brought the brigade scurrying back to billets from a field day, lent a feeling of reality to the training. About the same time the Machine Gun Section acquired for a few weeks an armoured motor-car of enormous dimensions, with which, after spreading terror and confusion among the children of the neighbourhood, they proceeded to patrol the East Coast from the Humber to Flamborough Head, to reassure the inhabitants who had been startled by the raid on Scarborough. As a fighting machine the vehicle might be open to criticism, but it possessed two Vickers guns and thus enabled the section to familiarize themselves with these weapons. It was a lucky chance, for they next met this gun when a number were dumped upon them, without further instruction, in the unspeakable trenches of Ypres, to make of them what use they could. The machine was finally handed over to a battalion of desolate cyclists, who, in their overflowing gratitude, addressed the second-lieutenant in charge as “Major” and took the whole outfit off his thankful hands without a murmur.

In December, 1914, the battalion had been reorganized upon a four-company, instead of the old eight-company system. The two Skipton companies (A and B) became A company: the two Keighley companies (D and E) became D company: Guiseley and Settle (C and F) united to form the new C company, and Bingley and Haworth (G and H) became B company. About the same time the cyclists left the battalion to form part of the new divisional cycling company. The battalion had got nicely settled into its new dispositions when in April it received the long deferred order to go overseas.

IN THE FRONT LINE.

The first portion of the battalion, consisting of the Transport and Machine Gun section, left Doncaster on the night of April 12th, 1915, and crossed from Southampton to Havre on the night of 13/14th April. The remainder of the battalion crossed by a more direct route to Boulogne on the following day, and after a long and weary march joined the same train at Hesdigneul on the 15th. The re-united battalion travelled on by the sleepy little branch line through Lumbres to St. Omer and then forward to Merville where they detrained at 11-30 p.m. After unloading horses, mules and waggons, the whole battalion set off on a three-mile march to Neuf Berquin. What with the darkness and the unfamiliar language, the task of billeting was no easy one, but all the men were got under shelter before dawn and enjoyed a well-earned repose in their first French billets.

The names of the officers who went overseas with the battalion, noting the casualties which occurred among them, may be given here as some indication of the severe fighting through which the battalion passed. Many of the officers given as wounded were hit more than once: and the casualties among the other ranks were in much the same proportion:--

Lieut.-Col. J. Birkbeck, of Settle, commanding officer; Major C. P. Cass, of Keighley, second in command; Adjutant, Capt. S. F. Marriner. Company commanders--Major C. M. Bateman (wounded) (A), Capt. A. B. Clarkson (wounded) (B) Capt. N. B. Chaffers (C) and Capt. T. K. Wright (D), with Capt. H. Dixon, Capt. C. H. Sarsby (wounded), Capt. E. G. Whittaker and Capt. K. Nicholson as their respective seconds-in-command. The platoon officers were Lieuts. M. Law (killed), Supple (killed), H. Knowles (killed), C. H. Petty (wounded), C. Horsfall (killed), 2nd Lieuts. F. L. Smith (wounded), K. Ogston (killed), V. W. Greaves, T. S. Whitaker (killed), L. Jaques (wounded), N. Geldard (wounded), R. C. Barrett, T. Brayshaw (wounded) and Stuck (wounded). The quarter-master was Lieut. J. Churchman, D.C.M; Signalling officer, Lieut. A. Slingsby (killed); Transport officer, Lieut. S. H. Clough (wounded); Machine Gun officer, 2nd Lieut. R. M. Robinson, and Medical Officer, Lieut. A. C. Haddow (wounded).

2nd Lieut. G. Buxton (wounded) and 2nd Lieut. Coulthurst (killed), who were on the sick list at the time, followed the battalion a few weeks later, and Capt. M. Wright, who was left behind to organize a nucleus company to provide reinforcements, himself came out with a draft during the early autumn.

Major General Baldock was in command of the Division and Brig.-General E. F. Brereton of the brigade.

Arrived at Neuf Berquin the 6th Duke’s was not allowed to remain idle. After three days’ rest the battalion was taken up by detachments for trial trips to the trenches and on April 26th the brigade took over from the London Regiment a portion of the line in front of Fleurbaix. It was at this time that the First West Riding Division became the 49th; the 2nd West Riding Brigade, consisting of the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th Duke of Wellington’s Regiments, became the 147th Infantry Brigade, the whole being attached to the Indian Corps in the First Army.

In after days men commonly looked back on the Fleurbaix era as a time of peace and plenty. It is true that the weather was good and the life not too strenuous. But the sniping was unusually severe. Few reliefs took place without a casualty and the shelling of billets was a far from comfortable novelty. The way the battalion settled down to work in its new surroundings augured well for the future.

On May 9th the men were spectators of one of those early attacks which cost so much and gained so little. The limit of the main attack was the right of the 6th Battalion; and if it had been successful the battalion was also to advance and take a part. But backed by insufficient artillery and faced by relentless machine gun fire, the attack failed to reach the foot of the Aubers Ridge, and the battalion was ordered to stand fast in its trenches. It was a day of tense anxiety and the battalion was lucky to have so few casualties. The signallers especially distinguished themselves, mending the lines back to the brigade as soon as they were cut by shellfire; and few will forget the picture of Lieut. Anthony Slingsby striding upright across the open, while he sternly commanded some diminutive signaller beside him to “keep his head down.”

Quieter days followed, and on June 26th the brigade left those trenches for the last time, handing them over to their gallant fellow-territorials of the 51st Division. The battalion was no longer raw: it had seen its dead. One officer (Lieut. Knowles) had been killed in a bombing accident, and two (Lieut. Petty and Capt. Sarsby) had been severely wounded. About twenty other ranks were among the casualties. And the old grey walls of the ruined abbey, with its little fishpond and the stately remnants of its tower, will always be remembered by those who helped to defend it.

THE YPRES SALIENT IN 1915.

On leaving Fleurbaix the 147th Brigade moved north by rapid marches, and soon the whole Division found itself in the Second Army under Major-General Plumer. The last march, from the neighbourhood of Meteren to St. Jans-ter-biezen Wood, was particularly severe for troops that had just come out of trenches. It was a good fifteen-miles tramp over rough and hilly roads: it was undertaken at night when most men had been on their legs all day, and everyone had to carry all his belongings on his back. When the battalion finally halted in its allotted position in the wood, the men had no difficulty in sleeping where they lay.

Here the battalion bivouacked for a week and underwent inspection by various generals, renewing their acquaintance with the Army commander. On July 7th they moved forward and for the first time entered the never-to-be-forgotten salient of Ypres.

Northward from Ypres runs the Yser canal, and in insecure shelters scratched into the embankments the support battalions had their home. The bridges crossing the canal were enfiladed by the enemy’s machine guns and were constantly destroyed by shell fire: and the rain of shrapnel whistling through the distorted trees caused men moving up either bank to dodge like rabbits from shelter to shelter. But this was a haven of rest compared to the front line. In front of the canal was sheer desolation, with ridges sloping upwards towards the enemy. Wet weather turned the whole country into a quagmire and many were drowned in the mud. Across this waste stretched the trenches, formed of sandbagged breastworks, with arms and legs of dead Frenchmen projecting from them at intervals. The enemy was too close for rebuilding. The line was curiously irregular, as one side or the other had bitten off a piece of the opposing defences, and at more than one place our men were only fifteen yards from the enemy. In some parts the bombing was worst, in others the trench mortars, and in others again the shells: but none were healthy and all smelt abominably. As for retaliation, a few rounds of shrapnel were all the ammunition our artillery could spare in those early days. No regular division had stopped in the line for more than six weeks, even in summer, and the West Ridings looked hopefully forward to an early move. They held that line against shelling and gas, in deepening mud and rising water, for six long months.

The 49th Division had a stormy welcome. In the first few days the Divisional commander, Major-General Baldock, was wounded by shrapnel at the door of Trois Tours Chateau, and was succeeded by Major-General Perceval; and a shell through his bedroom caused Brig.-General Brereton to leave his cottage for safer quarters. Before the 6th Battalion had finished its first turn in the line it had grievous losses to deplore. Among them the gallant Lieut. Slingsby had been killed by a sniper; Lieut. Supple mortally wounded by a shell, and 2nd Lieuts. Jaques and Brayshaw severely wounded. It was then, too, that Pte. Bracewell, a stretcher bearer, himself wounded, won the first D.C.M. for the battalion.

As the autumn wore on and worse conditions supervened, the battalion still stuck to its work, making its regular trips to the front line and always leaving behind some of the best of comrades. At the end of October, Lieut.-Col. Birkbeck, who had already suffered from rheumatism, was invalided home. Of the battalion commanders who had come out with the Brigade he was the last remaining, and there was general regret that he had not had the chance of leading the battalion in open warfare in which he had trained them and for which his experience of African campaigns had peculiarly adapted him. “Honest John” the men called him, and they were all sorry to lose one who had always given them fair play. Major Bateman had already been wounded and Lieut.-Col. J. Adlercron, of the Cameron Highlanders, took over the command.

The men took a little time to understand their new commander and he probably thought them a queer lot. But his wide military knowledge, his boundless energy, and, above all, his absolute fearlessness, soon won their admiration and respect and established a satisfactory mutual understanding that lasted throughout his command. It has been said of some leaders that they never sent their men where they would not go themselves; if Col. Adlercron sent men to a particularly nasty post he would commonly go twenty yards further himself and inspect the enemy’s wire in front of them.

Conditions grew steadily worse. “Trench foot” made its appearance among the troops, and though many precautions were taken there was much painful suffering. The mud difficulty and the fall of the leaves made the work of the Transport increasingly arduous, and Lieut. Churchman’s stores at Hospital Farm became a favourite target for shells from either side of the salient. The death of Lieut. T. S. Whitaker, always most cheery when times were worst, was a serious loss to C company. But through it all the spirits of the battalion never flagged. Sergt. Bury, with a few fellow bombers, was holding a peculiarly noisome forward post within bombing range of the enemy when he received word that he was to go on leave. He protested indignantly. “Who’s to look after my sap?” he cried. And it was only when Lieut. F. L. Smith promised to give the sap his own special attention that the sergeant, with some misgiving, consented to return for five days to civilization. And a like feeling animated all.

At this time the ⅙th Duke’s had the French as their next-door neighbours, and at the bridge over the Yperlys stream, where the two Armies met, an international post was established, consisting of an officer and a few men from each army, specially selected for their knowledge of their allies’ language.

THE GREAT GAS ATTACK.

On December 19th, in the darkness of the early winter’s morning, the Germans made another desperate attempt upon the line after discharging the deadly phosgene gas from cylinders. It was the strongest concentration of gas sent over by the enemy during the war: the ground over which the cloud passed was covered with powdered crystals like hoar frost, and Canadians on parade at Bailleul, twelve miles back, felt the effects. The 4th Duke of Wellington’s was in the front line, the 6th had B company and the machine gunners on the Canal Bank and the remainder in ruined farms a short distance behind. At 6-30 a.m. the battalion received orders to move forward through the clouds of gas to support the 4th. All reached their positions in perfect order and the men of the 4th were astonished at the speed with which the much-needed succour had reached them. The Germans, though they inflicted heavy losses on the 147th Brigade, reaped no tactical advantage from the outrage. The 6th had many casualties both from gas and shelling. The machine gunners, worn out by a particularly arduous time in the line, suffered very heavily, and among the eight who succumbed to gas was that excellent soldier Lance-Cpl. J. W. Willan, of Skipton, who had refused a commission elsewhere to serve in the ranks of the 6th.

The battalion, sadly reduced in numbers, had a last turn in the line and lost 2nd Lieut. T. Carson, mortally wounded on patrol, and Lieut. Malcolm Law, an admirable bombing officer, who was killed in the act of handing over to the incoming division.

Getting clear of the line by dawn on the last day of the year, the battalion, now little more than 200 strong, travelled by motor-bus to the neighbourhood of Herzeele and Wormhoudt for a month’s rest and reorganization. The Machine Gun Corps had recently been formed as a separate arm of the service, and the machine gunners under Sergts. J. Watson and F. Stork, who had both done sterling work for the battalion, were transferred to the brigade company under the new corps. At the beginning of February, 1916, the battalion moved by train to the neighbourhood of Amiens. It was a welcome change and the clean fields and green hills were a grateful sight to Craven eyes after the shellmarked flatness of the Salient. Though the Division was by no means up to strength it had temporarily to take over the line at Authuille, north of Albert, during a snowy spell at the end of the month. The share of the 6th Battalion was limited to two or three unpleasant days. Water up to the knees was no novelty, but the men have vivid recollections of some lively trench-mortaring, and of the droves of enormous rats that scampered over the snow at night like flocks of sheep.

THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME.

The great attack on the Somme had already been planned, and the 6th Duke’s were engaged for some months in digging assembly trenches, laying railway tracks, carrying material to the line, and generally assisting in the many preparations that had now become recognised as necessary to a successful offensive. They were quartered at different times in most of the villages from Toutencourt to the river Ancre, and in April and May went farther back to the pleasant village of Naours lying in a beautiful valley north of Amiens. Here vigorous training was carried on for the coming offensive, and replicas of the famous Thiepval defences were constructed and successfully attacked.

Conditions were now growing better. Expeditionary Force Canteens had come into being; Y.M.C.A. huts at times were encountered; organized entertainments were given. The general standard of living was much improved and wire beds were occasionally found in billets. The old days of scarceness had passed, and “rest areas” had become more worthy of the name and were visited with greater regularity.

But before the battle opened another change came in the command of the battalion. Lieut.-Col. Adlercron, D.S.O., received well-deserved promotion to the command of the 148th Brigade (in the same division), and Major C. M. Bateman, D.S.O., was appointed Lieut.-Colonel in his place. No more popular choice could have been made. Colonel Bateman had commanded the headquarters detachment of the Craven territorials for many years before the war and had already won golden opinions in France both as company commander and as second-in-command. Always cool in danger, and naturally endowed with a fine military judgment, he had a special asset in his intimate knowledge of his men, who would have followed him anywhere.

The great battle of the Somme, which was to last into November, opened at 7-30 a.m. on July 1st, 1916. On this day the 49th acted as reserve to two other Divisions in the 10th Corps, ready to exploit any success that might be won. The roar of the bombardment had been heard for some days and shells were singing overhead on the evening of June 30th as the 6th Battalion moved up from Warloy into the assembly trenches it had previously dug in Aveluy Wood. At 7-25 a.m. the trenches rocked as the mammoth mine went up at Beaumont Hamel. The roar of the heavies ceased for a moment, giving place to the rattle of machine guns as the British went over the top, to be succeeded by a terrific drumfire from the 18-pounders and French 75’s whose shells came swishing over the tree-tops.

Though the attack had been a success to the south, it made little headway against the powerful fortresses of Thiepval and Beaumont Hamel. The battalion crossed the river without loss and spent the night in the Crucifix dug-outs near Aveluy village. Next afternoon it received hurried orders to move to Thiepval Wood, prepared to attack at dawn next morning. It was an unpleasant march up the river valley, for this provided the only cover behind the line and the enemy’s artillery were giving it particular attention. At the North Bluff, Capt. Haddow, the popular medical officer, was wounded by a shell with some of D company, and Cpl. E. Briggs was killed while bringing up machine gun ammunition. In Thiepval Wood, reached in the darkness, there was little shelter and the battalion spent the night under heavy shelling and machine gun fire. What had been in the evening luxuriant woodland was found in the morning to resemble a group of clothes props. The attack, however, was postponed, and the battalion returned for a night of thunderstorms into Aveluy Wood. Next day it moved forward again and took over the line immediately facing Thiepval with headquarters at Johnson’s Post. Here the Brigade remained for forty-eight days, never moving further back than the support positions, some 800 yards from the German line. The trenches had been practically obliterated and had to be re-dug in close proximity to the enemy; there were many bodies to bury during the short hours of darkness, and rations and water were brought up with difficulty. In the first twenty-four hours the battalion, without making any attack, suffered over sixty casualties, and losses continued daily. At times the battalion had to make “Chinese attacks,” feints to hold the reserves opposite in their positions while other divisions were attacking to the south, and also threw out smoke bombs to obscure from the view of the Germans in Thiepval the flanking movement against them. This always drew a heavy bombardment. Meanwhile a good line was dug, and saps were pushed forward ever nearer to the doomed fortress.