26 September, 1915, Battle of Loos, 'Lone Pine', Walter Hitchcock - Cent...

26 September, 1915 - A Centenary, 8th Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment, Walte...

1918 - German Spring Offensive / Injured and Left Behind

18th March, 1918, and 8th Battalion, Royal West Surrey Regiment (“The Queen’s”), is holding a ‘strong point’ around the village of Le Verguier, about 30 miles south-east of Arras.  Walter Hitchcock is on leave, unaware of the offensive which is about to hit the battalion hard. In his own words,

“The casualties included 486 [...] known to have been killed, in addition to twenty four thousand wounded, and six thousand missing - of whom I was one.”L1

The first phase of the German Spring Offensive, Operation Michael commences at 4.30am. on 21st March.  The German attack is well-planned and overwhelming: 8,000 artillery pieces open up on British lines, dropping around one million shells on the BEF over eight hours.  Covered by fog, German assault parties advance across no man’s land and break through sections of the old British front line. The 8th Queen’s, positioned at Le Verguier, a small French village surrounded by rolling farmland, are right at the heart of the German offensive. The 8th Queen’s and the 17th Infantry Brigade (24th Division) have manned trenches at strong points covering roads and the approaches to the village.W7  By 7am telephones communication with the forward companies are lost. At 10.30am, A-Company, on the frontline near Priel Farm is retreating under heavy machine-gun fire from the north.B1

Location of Priel Farm, start of the German Offensive

WH, although in France, is still returning from leave.  A letter written on pages torn from a notebook and sent to Rachel back in England on Friday, 22nd March, describe his current situation,

If I don’t get interrupted this should be quite a long letter.  I had quite a nice run to F. After I left you when we got there the boats were full so we had to wait till the afternoon and got across about 7.30.  (I was not seasick.)

While we were waiting for the boat the W.O.s [Warrant Officers] were allowed into town so a chap of the Royal Artillery who I chummed up with went out with me and we had a good dinner and had a walk along the seafront and afterwards cakked back and had some tea.

The journey across was quite nice and as soon as we got to France we had to alter our watches.

We should have come to rest camp but as usual some of us did not do the thing we ought to have done and slipped out the back way into the town and got a bed in a second-class hotel.  We got there soon after 8 and had a nice supper, egg and chips and went to bed about 10. It was quite a good bed too, only it seemed a little strange getting into bed alone. You did have Florrie to console you for a little.  We got up about 8 a.m. and had fish for breakfast and had to get on the train at 12 o’clock and since then the journey has been very rotten, we did not get off the train till 4 a.m. this morning and our present quarters can hardly be described as comfortable, however I think we are leaving here very shortly.

It is a lovely morning and there is a lot of activity.  I expect the papers will have plenty of news tomorrow. That I think is about as far as I have got at present, darling.  I hope my dear sweetheart that you got back safely and are not worrying at all about me. I am glad after all that you came to the station, you are such a good girl.  When you are there it helps me to keep cheerful. I will try to get another note to you tomorrow but it may not be possible to do so as I have not yet found the Bn [Battalion].  Well, darling, I am writing this in a very uncomfortable place so shall have to close now. Trusting you are not unhappy. All my love darling wife, always your own ever-loving hubby

Walter

“I expect the papers will have plenty of news tomorrow”; With each word carefully chosen due to the risk of mail being intercepted, this is, perhaps, the closest WH can get to expressing concern that something very big is happening.

Although not yet at the front - which is around ten miles east on 22nd March, In WH’s own words, a lot of decisions had to be made, not least concerning food:

“Now, from the 22nd we were fighting a rearguard action the whole of the time, and we were placed just outside Chaulnes - I can't remember the name of the place now - but we only had one officer, I was the senior chap and we had a very, very small contingent of men. So, however, on this particular night we had no food, we had no rations, so, I had a chap named Quantor who was one of the sort of fellers who would always get something. He said,

"Look, Major" he said, "Can we go down the village and see if we can find anything?". I said,

"You may go down the village, certainly, but don't do anything in the way of looting. If you can find food, get it."

Well they came back with four chickens, some carrots, potatoes and they said,

“We could have got plenty of milk if we'd had anything to put it in, there were cows down there bellowing about and we couldn't milk 'em".

So they set to work and they plucked these chickens, the three or four chaps we had there and we cooked two of them - God knows how they were cooked, I don't know, shove a stick through them and hold them over the fire - at any rate, carrots, potatoes and chicken, so we had quite a good meal.” L1

From early morning on the 22nd March, the situation at the front near Montécourt is clearly worsening, with the Germans having moved round to the south of the Division, as well as in the north.  Expecting the worst, key confidential papers are hastily destroyed. B1

The next day is no easier.  From 3 a.m. there is a retreat from the front.  The troops begin to dig in at Douvieux, anticipating holding the position and getting some rest, but a cavalry officer soon appears with order for the rear movement to continue as far as Pargny on the Somme.  At this point, the 8th Bn move forward to meet the retreating front, intent on holding the river crossings.  It is hoped that the troops retreating from the front can get some rest at nearby Licourt but, late at night, instructions come to move north to the village of Saint-Christ-Briost where the 1st Sherwood Foresters were attempting to hold the bridge.  The bridge, only having been partially destroyed, had already allowed German troops to cross and, while these had been forced back, German guns had clear sight of the bridge, which did not allow its destruction by the Division. B1

Dawn, 24th March, and the 8th Queen’s reinforce the retreating troops en route to Chaulnes.  A line of defence is formed between Omiécourt and Hyencourt-le-Grand.  This is considered a good place to form a defence, utilising German ‘pillbox’ defences, built by the German army in 1917. B1

Omiécourt and Hyencourt-le-Grand Defensive Line, 24th March, 1918

25th March and moods lift as it appears the Germans are being pushed back - though this joy is short lived.  With the 8th Queen’s ammunition running low, the enemy pushes forward again.  Withdrawal to Omiécourt begins - but here Major Peirs, commander of the 8th Queen’s, is injured and further retreat to Lihons and Vrély is undertaken. B1  The retreat continues through to 27th March, with the German attack coming, “in mass” from Mérharicourt.

28th March, and WH’s war takes a new path.

The morning of 28th sees heavy fighting.  In the words of the 8th Queen’s adjutant,

6.A.M.   Early in the morning the enemy renewed the attack in the extended order.  The Battn found itself exposed on both flanks and was obliged to fall back.  It now comprised 200 men of various units. Officers stopped and rallied all available men incorporating then into the Battn.  It was at this juncture that all troops became very much disorganised and started falling back coming under heavy machine gun fire.  The main feature of the attack was the intensity of the machine gun fire, especially from VRELY village. Many casualties were sustained.

Walter Hitchcock is among those casualties.  Shot in the leg, left behind and unable to leave the trench he is in, on the back of letter*, he records the following:

I lay in a trench and was kindly treated by German soldiers who passed, one gave me two wp [waterproof] sheets to cover over me, another gave me bread.  Towards night it started raining, pain very bad. Our artillery nearly got me once.  About 10 o’clock some English prisoners lifted me out of the trench on to the side so I should be seen.  Got some snatches of sleep but could not move, rain very heavy at times, grateful for w/p sheets which kept one dry.

One can only imagine what WH thought his prospects may have been at this moment.  Cold, in pain and unable to move, if he survived the night, his saviours would have to be those who, hours earlier, had been his enemy.

We close the events of 28th March, 1918, with the words of WH, recorded in the early 1970s.

WH: Well, on the day that I was wounded, the Germans - we were on a piece of sloping ground and the Germans were up there - they really opened up on us. Our instructions, my instructions, Major Peirs had just been wounded, we were standing on top of the trench when they put some shells over, and I was in the bottom of the trench, quick! He stood there, and he broke his arm, so I said to him "Would you like me to send somebody back to the dressing station?" he said, "No, no. I want you to take a machine gun over to that cross-roads" this was after he was wounded, "if the Germans come down there, they've all got to come down that road." I said, "We haven't got a machine gun, and we haven't got a machine gunner, Sir." so he said, "Well, do the best you can". Nothing was done, I didn't do anything at all, there was nothing I could do.

So then we were told we were to hold this position. I looked to the right and I saw the Battalion there, or the company or whatever it was, was falling back. I looked to the left and I saw they were falling back, I said, "Come on chaps, it's time we retired" or words to that effect, I don't know what I said!  We started to retire, some were in the open, I was in a sunken road - there are lots of them in France as you probably know. I was going down there when Germans opened up and it felt just as though somebody had given me a smack across the legs. Of course that was when I was hit. So I struggled along and went down, well then some of the chaps said, "Well, we haven't got a stretcher" I said, that's all right, you just look after yourselves, and they put me in a trench on the side of the road. Well they hadn't been gone long when the Germans came.

Interviewer: They were that close?

WH: They were what was called ground Scouts. The first two that came along, I could see 'em coming - incidentally, I had dropped a bit of my... I had a revolver, I got rid of that, and they had a look, and they - it was raining now - got a couple of waterproof sheets and covered over me, they threw me a haversack which had got some bread in it, and as luck would have it I had a flask in my pocket and they had a third of a pint full of rum - and that was worth a hundred pounds to me. So, I lay in this trench, and night came. Oh, prior to that, there were some South African soldiers and they said could they do anything and I said, "If you could send a message to my wife to say that I'm alright, I'm just merely wounded and I'll be alright." and they did, and she got the letter.

To be continued …

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Copy of first diary entry

Letter, on back of which first diary entry was written

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References

B1  History of the Queen's Royal (West Surrey) Regiment In The Great War, Colonel H. C. Wylly, C.B., N&M Press, ISBN 9781843425397

W1  Website of The Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment - http://www.queensroyalsurreys.org.uk/war_diaries/local/8Bn_Queens.shtml

W7  The First World War Letters of H.J.C. Peirs (letters): http://jackpeirs.org/

1917

During the interview recorded in the 1970s, as was the case for 1916, Walter Hitchcock (“WH”) spoke very little of events in 1917.  Therefore, gaps in the narrative have been pieced together below from different published sources on the history of the Royal West Surrey Regiment, with particular focus on the 8th Battalion “B” Company; events which, employing some assumptions, WH may have been involved in.

Note: Maps are contemporary (2017).

1917

February 12th and after a number of skirmishes and raids on enemy lines through severed defensive wire, the 24th Division (WH’s) is relieved by the 37th Division, with the 24th moving to Allouagne via Noeaux-les-Mines.  From February, there is some to-ing and fro-ing until, on the 13th May, the Division moves to Bradhoek and, from there, to the right sub-sector of the Hooge-Observatory Ridge line (see map above).  As the regimental history records,

The whole salient was found to have greatly changed since the 8th The Queen’s had left it more than a year previously; Camps and dumps on both sides were very active.  Great preparations for an offensive were on foot, and there was a great deal of work on the roads in bringing forward rations and material.B1  

At the end of June, the Division moves again, eventually reaching the Canal Reserve Camp near Ouderdom (below Brandhoek in the above map) where it is assigned in reserve to the X Corps.  

The war is at a pivotal point.  In order to deny the German army use of the Belgian coast - from which it could launch attacks on merchant ships and troop movements in the North Sea and English Channel - the British put into action plans to clear the coastal regions.  To this end, before an operation to capture the Gheluvelt plateau further north, in January 1916, Field Marshal Herbert Plumer (Commander of the 2nd Army in the Ypres Salient between 1915 and 1917) recommended to Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig the capture of Messines Ridge, part of the southern arc of the Ypres Salient.W4  The Battle of Messines is part of this plan, where 8th Battalion now finds itself; incoming fire is heavy and massive mines are detonating.  There is little sleep.  To put the size of the mines into context, Vera Brittain, an English Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse, noted at the time feeling, “a strange early morning shock like an earthquake”B5; Vera was in the south of England.

As the week progresses, the Battalion moves closer up to the front; By June 13th, B Company, under the command of Captain Fellows, has taken over the Railway Dugouts to the south-east of Zillebeke (just south-west of Ypres).

Note: Although many of the records for the RWSR were destroyed in a fire during World War Two - hence it is not possible to trace WH’s exact movements to the day - it is possible to say with absolute certainty that on 20th June, 1917, WH was on leave in England.  The evidence for this exists in the form of a marriage certificate …

20th June and WH is back in England on leave to marry long term sweetheart, Rachel Eliza Jobson at the parish church in Letherhead.  His father, John, a labourer, and railway man John Jacob as witnesses.  Congratulations are sent by colleagues (see images at end).

Post wedding, it is not known when WH returned to France to rejoin his battalion - and one can only imagine the thoughts of his new bride - but more significant movement occur on 27th June.  After a train journey to a small village south of the St. Omer - Boulogne road, Coulmby, three weeks are spent training and the much improved weather is appreciated.  However, July 18th sees the Battalion on a march to Reninghelst, just to the south-west of Ouderdom, ending on July 21st.

With the weather improving significantly, the first couple of weeks in July are spent training in Coulomby.  Special training is undertaken over “prepared ground”B1, a sign something larger is coming.  Between the 18th and 21st July, the Queen’s march from Coulomby back to Reninghelst.  99 extra men are added to the regiment but are soon removed again as not considered ‘suitably trained’.

29th July and under control of Major Peirs, the Battalion is in the trenches.  “B” company is assigned ‘reserve’ status.  The Queen’s has three objective, namely the capture of enemy trenches ‘Job’s Post’, ‘Jehovah Trench’ and ‘Jordan Trench’.  The regimental history by Colonel H. C. Wylly, describes the battlefield,

“[...] the country had been wooded, but shell fire had thinned the trees, and on July 31st it was on open and desolate bog from which all landmarks had been obliterated”B1

The battle - subsequently known as, “Passchendaele, the Third Battle of Ypres” - builds swiftly and before long, “B” Company’s Lewis machine gunners are brought in to support “A”, “C” and “D” Company.  Heavy rain has now arrived.

While supplying the front, “B” Company also engages in skirmishes, at one point recapturing a point lost by the Durham Light Infantry.B1

The rain continues, the trenches begin to flood.  Many wounded are drowned.

The night of the 1st August, the day after the battle commenced, and 8th The Queen’s are sent back to camp, having been relieved.  105 men are missing, nine officers and 156 non-commissioned officers and men wounded, three officers and 32 other ranks are dead.  Yet the Battalion has achieved its aims, Job’s Post, Jehovah Trench and Jordan Trench have been captured.

From the 15th August, the Battalion finds itself acting in the capacity of a carrying party - moving supplies to the front, often under heavy shell fire.

September 20th and the Battalion marches away from, “the Bloody Salient” for good.  Although the war is a long way from over.

From September 1917, time is split between six days, “in the line” and six days in support (delivering supplies to the line and the such).

Christmas is spent in divisional reserve.

1918 is to see WH’s war take a very dramatic turn - a turn that is rich in primary source documentation ...

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Wedding congratulations for 20th June, 1917

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References

B1  History of the Queen's Royal (West Surrey) Regiment In The Great War, Colonel H. C. Wylly, C.B., N&M Press, ISBN 9781843425397

W4  Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Messines_(1917)]

1916 - The Somme

For such a key year for the First World War, rather frustratingly, there is no primary source information from Walter Hitchcock about 1916.  It is frustrating - and slightly shameful - to write so little.  Given the chance to interview again, with the knowledge now of how involved the 8th Queen’s Royal West Surrey were in the Battle of the Somme, more questions could be asked.  Perhaps the lack of reference to this time was deliberate on the part of Walter Hitchcock?

What we do have documented are the movements of great-grandad’s battalion during 1916.  I have summarised these here.  A goal for another day is to go back through Walter’s letters and artifacts with a view to finding some personal link to these events.

January - June 1916

On January 3rd, it was much rumoured that the 24th Division would be heading for the Hooge Salient B1 and on the 5th, the 8th Queen’s marched to a collection of huts to the west of the Ouderdom - Vlamertinghe road.  To put the relative to the German line in context, while staying in these huts, a Second-Lieutenant C.P. Burnley walked towards the German wire and brought back a small German flag, “bearing an eagle upon it” B1, which had been spotted earlier in the day.  Unfortunately, the same Second-Lieutenant Burnley went to explore a trench the follow day, dropped into it, and was immediately surprised to be captured and taken prisoner.

To further illustrate how close to the enemy lines WH would have been at this point, the regimental history B1 documents that, after moving for the Dranoutre area on 28 March and staying in three large farms near Wulverghem, the regiment was no more the thirty yards - or twenty-eight meters - from the German trenches.  Although arms exchange was not frequent, the 8th Queen’s suffered a great number of casualties through the enemy’s use of gas B1, leaving the Battalion numbers low by June.  Reinforcements arrived but the Battalion was hit hard again after a heavy and prolonged gas attack on the night of the 16th/17th June.  The regimental history records this as a particularly long and heavy attack - about an hour and a half - and was followed by heavy bombardment against “B” Company - WH’s company - in the region of Wulverghem.

July, The Somme

There can be few in Europe to whom the words, ‘the Somme’, do not conjure up images terrible suffering.  The battle of the Somme began on 1st July, 1916.  It is disappointing that WH’s personal involvement has not been documented.  However, it is possible to trace the movement of WH’s regiment during the battle and, although some aspects of WH WW1 involvement were family stories while I was growing up, I have been surprised during this light research to read how personally deeply involved my great-grandfather must have been at this most famous - infamous - battles of modern war.

At the outbreak of hostilities, and for most of July, 72nd Brigade (which included WH’s battalion) was used for defencive purposes, ending up at “Stinking Farm”, Battalion HQ, on 18/19 July.

From the regimental history B1 it is possible to ascertain that there was a lot of movement for WH’s battalion between 24th July and 10 August, with a lot of training and additional movement orders cancelled soon after they were received, such.  However, on the evening of the 10th August, the Battalion found itself at the front, near Talus Bosiee <map>; 382 being the total ‘trench strength’ with the rest of the Battalion in reserve in the former German front line - essentially craters.  It is not known in which section WH was positioned.

What is known is that at 4.30pm on 21st August, the 8th Queen’s - along with the 17th Infantry Brigade - went in for the attack.B1  The enemy was found to be in large numbers than anticipated, and quite close by, and a fierce bomb-fight ensued, in which neither side made any gains.  With this, and other skirmishes around the 21st, the 8th Queens lost 89 souls plus seven officers.  However, by the end of August, with the brigade in the Longueval area, an additional 224 men joined 8th Queen’s, along with one officer.

Although WH did not leave detailed records of his movements at this time, if the knowledge that he was in B Company is applied to the documented history, then it is possible to ascertain that, on 1st September, WH would have moved with the Queen’s into Delville Wood, near Longueval, with B Company in the ‘Inner Trench’.  The story is best told by the regimental history by Colonel H.C. Wylly, C.B.,B1

“Here the Battalion remained in vile weather for three days, during the whole of which time the enemy continued to batter all that was once Delville Wood; only the stumps of trees remained, the whole centre of the wood being now a mass of tangled and rotting debris, still strewn with corpses and at intervals made impassable by wire which both sides had thrown up during the confused and terrible fighting which had preceded the capture of the ground.  At night the place was a veritable maze, illuminated only by the bursting shells and the pale rays of a Very light.  Formed troops could only be moved through it all after lights, carefully, shaded from the enemy, had been hung at short intervals on the stumps of trees, and even then reliefs and ration parties only dribbled slowly through the front line.

It soon became apparent that it was unthinkable to remain within the wood without incurring very heavy losses and on the night of 5th/6th September The Queen’s were relieved, having lost 26 men (including one officer), with 104 non-commissioned men injured and 13 missing.

So this was the horror of The Somme.  Perhaps a modern audience has been anaesthetised to the worst of the conditions by the many dramatised interpretations.  However, it remains that this was a hellish place to have been, which may account for an absence of detail in WH’s personal recollections?

While the battle of the Somme continued, the RSWR moved into reserve positions, the first three weeks of October being spent in the neighbourhood of Camblain l’Abbé until, on the 24th October, the Battalion marched to billets at Mazingarbe, seeing out the remainder of 1916 in this position where, as the regimental history documents,B1 “the rest of the year was passed, without any incidents of unusual importance taking place on the front occupied by the 8th Queen’s”.

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References

B1  History of the Queen's Royal (West Surrey) Regiment In The Great War, Colonel H. C. Wylly, C.B., N&M Press, ISDN 9781843425397