Guards Memorial, Lesboeufs.

The Memorial commemorates the fighting in this area in 1916.

In a letter dated the 13th July 1915 Lord Kitchener advised Sir John French that the King had approved the formation of a Guards Division actually formed in August 1915.  There were three Brigades. The 1st Guards Brigade consisted of the 2nd Grenadier Guards, the 2nd and 3rd Coldstream Guards and the 1st Irish Guards. The 2nd Guards Brigade consisted of the 1st Coldstream Guards, the 1st   Scots Guards, the 3rd Grenadier Guards and the 2nd  Irish Guards. The 3rd Guards Brigade consisted of the 1st Grenadier Guards, 2nd Scots Guards, 4th Grenadier Guards and the 1st Welsh Guards (itself formed following a Royal Warrant of 26th February 1915). The Pioneer Battalion was the 4th Coldstream Guards.

The Memorial stands on the summit of a ridge West of Lesbouefs in a position approximating to the German 3rd Line reached by the Division in the attack mounted on the15th September 1916 in a North Easterly direction from Assembly Trenches East and North of Ginchy.  On the 25th September 1916 the Division attacked again, the start line being the line captured on the 15th September and the objective a line East of Lesbouefs and Morval the capture of Lesbouefs being described as a thoroughly well planned and admirably conducted feat of arms which reflected the greatest credit upon every unit in the division. Casualties in the Division in the period 18th – 30th September 1916 totalled 60 Officers and 2,280 Other Ranks.

The Memorial was unveiled on the 21st October 1928 by General Sir Geoffrey Feilding General Officer Commanding the Division during the Battle of the Somme.
 

Le Touret Memorial

Le Touret Memorial, Le Touret Military Cemetery, Richebourg- L’Avoue, Le Touret , Pas de Calais ,France. The Memorial is at the East end of Le Touret Military Cemetery, about 4 miles North East of Bethune and on the south side of the Bethune - Armentieres, and takes the form of a loggia surrounding an open court surrounded by walls and a colonnade. Over 13,000 names are listed on the Memorial of men who fell in the area  in the Battles of Aubers Ridge , Cuinchy, Festubert, Givenchy, La Bassee and Neuve-Chapelle 1914 - 1915 and who have no known grave.  The names are inscribed on panels set into the walls of the court and  the colonnade and are listed under the Regiment in which the casualty served, the Regiments following the order of precedence, under the title of each Regiment by ranks and under each rank alphabetically. . The names are listed under the Regiment in which the casualty served, the Regiments following the order of precedence, under the title of each Regiment by ranks and under each rank alphabetically. First come Commands and Staff, Marines and Navy,  Cavalry and Yeomanry Regiments, Artillery and Engineers, then the Foot Guards and Infantry and other Corps and Services.  Canadian casualties are commemorated at Vimy and Indian casualties at Neuve Chapelle.  The Memorial was designed by J. R. Truelove and unveiled by Lord Tyrrell on the 22nd March 1930.

Commemorated here and on the listed Village War Memorial

Pailton Village War Memorial

2nd Lieut. Edward Phillips Jackson
3rd Royal Warwickshire Regiment
att. South Wales Borderers
Killed in Action 9th May 1915

Panel on the Memorial

Wolston Village War Memorial

Private Frederick Howard
1st Battn Worcestershire Regiment
Killed in Action 13th March 1915

Panel on the Memorial

Commemorated here from the 1st Battalion the Coldstream Guards killed in action 25th January 1915.

Captain the Honourable John Beresford Campbell D.S.O.
2nd Lieutenant George Carlyon Armstrong.
No. 1540 Private William Aldridge
No. 11859 L/Corporal Harold Sydney Barker
No. 12519 Private William Henry Barlow
No.11364 Private William Barnes
No. 11390 L/Corporal Arnold Baxter
No. 11438 L/Corporal Clive Baxter
No. 11195 Private Richard Ingram Horsfall Bill
No. 11984 Private Edward Bird
No. 8907 Private George Brotherton
No. 11845 Private John Burrows
No. 11948 Private William Carter
No. 11377 Private Robert Chapman
No. 9108 L/Corporal George William Covey
No. 12676 L/Corporal William Davison
No. 11002 Private Henry Debney
No. 11352 Private Ivan Stanley Eades
No. 4347 L/Corporal Bertie Frederick Eden
No. 10887 Private Robert George Emmett
No. 11847 Private John Ferrie
No. 11336 Private William Forshaw
No. 7203 Private Arthur Cecil Foster
No. 12239 Private James Found

No. 10266 Private Enos Guy
No. 11234 Private Albert Hemming
No. 10176 Private John Robert Hetherington
No. 12481 L/Corporal Sidney Isaac Hughes
No. 11308 L/Corporal Arthur Husbands
No. 11003 Private Henry Jones
No. 11180 Private Thomas William Leppington
No. 10995 Private Gordon Edgar Lewington
No. 41779 L/Corporal Robert Henry Loades
No. 843 Private Frederick Livingstone Marshall
No. 11307 L/Corporal Lawrence Albert Massey
No. 3109 Private William Matley
No. 8759 L/Corporal Andrew John Simon Miles
No. 10961 Private Frederick Charles Morgan
No. 2233 Private John Mounsey
No. 11868 Private Harry Murphy
No. 12338 Private John Orwell
No. 9318 Drummer Herbert Page
No. 12393 Private Richard Palmer
No. 12628 Private Frederick John Prescott
No. 12647 Private John Radcliffe
No. 11215 Private William Rendle
No. 12396 Private Oliver Augustus Robson
No. 9797 Drummer Arthur Thomas Rumfitt
No. 12665 Private Samuel Russell
No. 9166 L/Corporal John Rutter

No. 11487 Private Harry Salter
No. 11127 Private Charles Walter Siffleet
No. 11219 Private George William Simons
No. 12450 Private Percy Skelton
No. 11091 Private Henry Smith
No. 11228 Private Richard Smith
No. 11054 Private Lionel Edward Thackeray
No. 11041 Private Harry Thomas
No. 12627 Private Thomas Thorne
No. 10724 Private Frederick John Tovey
No. 11284 Private William Varley
No. 3700 L/Corporal Timothy Henry Wall
No. 12352 L/Corporal Arthur James Walsh
No. 9280 Private John Ward
No. 13205 Private Charles Whitehurst
No. 11827 Private Albert Edward Wilton
No. 8753 Private Charles William Wright

For information as to the circumstances see the entry under French Cemeteries – Cabaret-Rouge British Cemetery – Privates Arthur and Richard Follows

Loos Memorial

Loos Memorial forms the sides and back of Dud Corner Cemetery, Loos-en-Gohelle.  The Cemetery is some 4 miles North West of Lens on the Bethune – Lens road. The Loos Memorial commemorates over 20,000 officers and men who have no known grave who fell in the area from the River Lys to the old southern boundary of the First Army, east and west of Grenay in the Battle of Loos in September – October 1915 and Lys, Estaires and Bethune April 1918, the period from the first day of the Battle of Loos to the date of the Armistice.   On either side of the cemetery are walls to which are fixed tablets bearing the names commemorated and at the back four circular courts open to the sky and two apses in which the lines of tablets are continued. The names are listed under the Regiment in which the casualty served, the Regiments following the order of precedence, under the title of each Regiment by ranks and under each rank alphabetically. First come Commands and Staff, Marines and Navy, Cavalry and Yeomanry Regiments, Artillery and Engineers, then the Foot Guards and Infantry and other Corps and Services.

Commemorated here and on the listed Village War Memorial

Harborough Magna Village Memorial

Private Charles Davenport
2/7th Royal Warwickshire Regiment
Killed in Action 28th August 1916

Pailton Village War Memorial

Rifleman James Clarke
2nd Battn King’s Royal Rifle Corps
Killed in Action 25th September 1915

Monks Kirby Village War Memorial
Private George Henry Watkins
10th (Svce) Battn Royal Warwickshire Regiment
Killed in Action 25th September 1918

Wolston Village War Memorial
Sergeant Walter Atkins
1st Battn Royal Welch Fusiliers
Killed in Action 25th September 1915

Commemorated here

Private 266488 Albert Portman,  2/7th Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment killed in action 19th July 1916 aged 19 years.  Commemorated on the Loos Memorial to the Missing, Dud Corner Cemetery, France.

Albert Portman was the son of George William and Jane Portman of 56 Little Park Street, Coventry.  He enlisted in Coventry. 

The 2/7th Battalion  (a Territorial Force) was formed at Coventry in October 1914.  In February 1915 became part of the 2/1st Warwickshire Brigade, 2/1st South Midland Division going in March of that year to the Chelmsford area in Essex, in August the formation became the 182nd Brigade of the 61st Division and the Battalion landed in France with the Division on the 21st May 1916.

 On the 1st July 1916 the Battle of the Somme began and  an operation to discourage the Germans from bring up reinforcements from other parts of the Front was conceived.  An initial scheme envisaging an attack to capture Aubers Ridge including the villages of Aubers and Fromelles was abandoned but upon a suggestion that German troops had been withdrawn from the Lille area to reinforce the Somme front, offensive action at the junction of the British First Army (General Monro) and Second Army (General Plumer) in the area of Laventie was ordered, the preliminary bombardment to “give the impression of an impending offensive operation on a large scale” but the objective was limited to the German front-line system and reduced to a 4000 yard frontage having regard to the artillery available part of it lacking training: both the Australian 4th and 5th Division artillery had had practically no experience of warfare on the Western Front and some of the heavy batteries were newly formed and had never fired in France.

The operation at Fromelles on the 19th and 20th July 1916 involved the British 61st Division and the Australian 5th Division and the attack frontage was, from the south near the village of Fouquissart, the right of the 61st Division’s sector being 182nd Brigade area, next to the 183rd Brigade in the middle with 184th Brigade to the left, the 5th Australian Division’s 15th Brigade being alongside the 184th Brigade, the Divisional boundary being just to the North of the Sugarloaf salient in the German line.  The Sugarloaf was about 420 yards from the front line from which the Australian 59th Battalion was to attack across totally exposed ground.  The 2/7th Royal Warwickshire was the Right Hand Battalion in 182nd Brigade advancing alongside the Rue d’Enfer, a road running from Fouquissart to cross the German front line to enter the southern end of Aubers village.

 The troops were committed to a short advance across the flat water-logged Flanders country under the eyes of the enemy on Aubers Ridge who during daylight hours could watch all the preparations for the attack and in the 12 months since any substantial action in this sector the Germans had had ample opportunity to strengthen the defences with many machine-guns in concrete emplacements, well sited and concealed.

Six British and Six Australian battalions were to carry out the assault but with a concentration of artillery amounting to 296 field guns and howitzers and 78 heavier guns, the proportion of heavy guns to frontage of attack being more than that of Fourth Army for the opening of the Somme offensive on the 1st July.  Such of the batteries as were in place began wire-cutting on the 14th July.  On the 16th July the heavy artillery was to begin registration and a slow bombardment whilst from zero hours on the 17th July a special artillery programme was to be carried out until the infantry assault some seven hours later. 

However the necessary reliefs and concentration of troops were still incomplete on the morning of the 16th July, batteries of the 4th Australian Division were not in position. On the 18th and 19th June the 61st Division had brought 1500 gas cylinders into the trenches intended to be used in the course of normal active trench warfare, gas was mistakenly  released  in the afternoon of the 15th July.  At about 9 p.m. there was another gas attack with a great rolling cloud of gas being blown to the German trenches causing some casualties. German artillery retaliation and a “well staged” raid by 96 German raiders caused a considerable number of casualties. 

On the 16th July Sir Douglas Haig advised that he no longer needed the attack to take place unless the commanders on the spot were sure their resources were adequate. Lieut. General Sir R. C. B. Haking confident of success was against either postponement or cancellation and this view was maintained despite a change in the weather with heavy rain falling.  On the 17th July an order was issued fixing the 19th July for the attack, zero hour not to be earlier than 11 a.m.  This delay came as a welcome relief to the exhausted Infantry who had been engaged in removing gas cylinders from the trenches and bringing ammunition and stores from the rearward dumps to the front line.

Haze in the early morning of the 19thJuly preceded a find day with good visibility and at 7 a.m. XI Corps fixed zero hour definitely for 11 a.m. with the infantry to attack in broad daylight at 6 p.m.  The British artillery began its pre-attack bombardment the “feint” lifts in the afternoon failing in its object, to make the Germans man the parapets.  German artillery retaliation was successful, battering the houses used by the British artillery observers on the Rue Tilleloy, hitting batteries in the fields and blowing up a number of ammunition dumps.

Only the 2/7th was in any way successful:  the 2/6th had lost heavily in their initial deployment but were checked then stopped by close range enfilade machine gun fire.  In the centre the 183rd Brigade had been shelled as they waited for the signal to advance and were then caught by shrapnel as they began to advance and in No Man’s Land machine gun fire was so deadly that few men got anywhere near the German wire. The situation of the 184th Brigade was similar; they were caught by machine-gun fire as they left the British front line, the German wire was uncut with one company being practically destroyed and whilst a party reached the north-eastern face of Sugarloaf salient where there was sharp fighting all were killed or wounded.

In terms of casualties the 61st Division lost 1,550 men whilst the 5th Australian Division lost  5,500.   15th Brigade lost heavily from German artillery whilst waiting in the front-line trenches and the leading elements were forced to entrench in shallow depressions 100 yards from the German breastwork hundreds being mown down by machine-gun fire especially from the Sugarloaf. In 16th Brigade, the 54th Battalion found that the bombardment had cut the wire but the breastwork was intact. But the defenders were caught emerging to defend and in hand-to-hand fighting most were killed and the Australians captured machine-guns and cleared concrete shelters before going on to what they thought would be a second German line but most of the principals had become casualties and persistent German shelling and some shelling by the Australian artillery, who did not know where the infantry were, resulted in a retirement. 8th Brigade also found that what aerial photographs appeared to show as trenches were in fact water-filled ditches; elements dug in some 20 yards beyond the German parapet but were under fire from German machine-guns from Delangre Farm, some 500 metres ahead, and were being shelled so withdrew to the only place where a defence could be maintained, the old German front-line.  Following German counter-attacks and attempts at re-inforcement, the operation was called off at around 8 a.m. on the 20th July.

What were the objectives?  First Army Order issued on the 15th July stated “offensive operations to be carried out as early as possible with a view to seizing the enemy’s first line system of trenches on the front between Fauquissart-Trivolet Road and La Cordonnerie Farm.”  And the overall purpose of the action was “to prevent the enemy from moving troops southwards to take part in” the defence of the British Somme offensive.  In the words of the Australian Official History of the war “It is difficult to conceive that the operation as planned was ever likely to succeed.”  On the 20th July the Germans ordered the Guard Reserve Corps to be moved from the Sixth Army to Cambrai to provide a reserve on the Somme and the German first line of trenches remained firmly in German hands.

One mile north of Fromelles is VC Corner CWGC Cemetery which contains the identified bodies of 410 Australians and on a screen wall the names of 1298 Australians who died in the Battle and are “Missing.”  The British lost a total of 411, of whom 91 were from the 2/6th Royal Warwickshires, 82 from the 2/7th Royal Warwickshires in 182nd Brigade;  33 from 2/4th Gloucesters, 62 from 2/6th Gloucesters in 183rd Brigade and 22 from 2/4th Royal Berkshire, 110 from 2/1st Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light infantry and a further 11 from the 2/4th Oxford and Buckinghamshire in 184th Brigade.

Commemorated here

.No. 29995 Private Walter James 2nd/5th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment was killed in action on the 18th April 1918 aged 28 years.  Commemorated on the Loos Memorial in Dud Corner Cemetery. 

Walter James was born in Cirencester in about 1890 the son of William James and Alice James of 181 Smerrill Cottages, Kemble, Cirencester, Gloucestershire.   In 1901 William and Alice were living in Smerrill Cottages with their children Francis (18) Labourer on a farm, Ellen (14), Frederick (13) Walter (11) Albert (9), Ada (7) Victor, Muriel and Harold.  He was the husband of Myra James of Bournville Terrace, Bourne, Brimscombe, Gloucestershire.

Walter James was one of three brothers who enlisted, served in the Army and died in the War.  The eldest, Francis, was born in 1883. Following enlistment Francis did not serve overseas and died on the 5th November 1918.  Particulars of his service are annexed to this record.  Walter’s brother Albert was killed in action on the 18th February 1915 and is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial.  For particulars see under Belgium-Memorials-Menin Gate.

The 2nd/5th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment  was a Second Line Territorial Force Battalion formed at Gloucester in September 1914.  The Battalion landed at Havre on the 25th May 1916 in 184th Brigade, 61st (South Midland) Division.

The Division participated in the Subsidiary Attack at Fromelles 19th – 20th July 1916 but the 2/5th Battalion was in reserve to the attacking battalions, the 2/4th and 2/6th Gloucestershires, the 2/6th losing heavily to enemy shelling and machine-gun fire. 

The Division took no part in the Battle of the Somme arriving at Albert on the 18th November 1916.  However the 61st Division was one of the three divisions in IV Corps of the British Fourth Army and in February 1917 the IV Corps had taken over part of the front previously held by the French.  Between the 25th February and 5th April 1917 the German Retirement to the Hindenburg Line took place and the 61st Division’s role was mainly in connection with the cutting out of the main German outposts.

The 3rd Battle of Ypres began on the 31st July 1917 and the 61st Division, then in XIX Corps, relieved the 36th Division on the 17th August 1917.   The Division first attacked on the evening of the 22nd August.  184th Brigade was used starting from south of St. Julien and advancing in a north easterly direction.  The enemy pill boxes in farm ruins re-covered in mud each night made them impossible for the infantry to see and the Division advanced its line by only 600 yards to include the capture of Somme Farm and Hindu Cottage but the 184th Brigade had casualties of 9 officers killed, 26 wounded and 6 missing, with 126 other ranks killed, 488 wounded and 259 missing.  Companies from battalions in 182nd Brigade were engaged in unsuccessful attacks in early September.  In mid September the Division was transferred to V Corps.

The Battle of Cambrai, fought 20th November – 7th December 1917 was the last considerable operation in 1917 and 61st Division was initially in XVII Corps.  The Division was not involved in the attack itself but was brought up in reserve and first engaged in repelling the German counter attack which involved both the 2nd/4th and 2nd/6th Gloucestershires at la Vacquerie.

By February 1918 there were unmistakable signs that the enemy was planning a major offensive but the problem was to identify upon which sector the blow would fall.  It was subsequently established that the German Army Commander, General von Hutier, was opposing the Fifth Army and that was where the blow was likely to fall as he was the architect of the Austrian victory at Caporetto and at Riga on the Eastern Front and he banked on the element of surprise, a hurricane bombardment followed by his troops surging forward behind a rolling barrage  sweeping all opposition aside, bypassing strong-points for mopping up by following formations.   

By the evening of the 20th March 1918 a ground fog had developed steadily over the whole area occupied by the British Fifth and Third Armies which thickened during the night.  Some British Divisions set about manning their battle stations forthwith and from about 3.30 a.m. onwards the artillery began intermittent fire on areas where it was thought the Germans might be assembling.

About 4.40 a.m. on the 21st March 1918 a terrific bombardment opened  on the whole front of the Fifth Army;  on the frontages of V, IV and VI Corps of the Third Army and on the front of the First Army between Fleurbaix (just north of the La Bassee canal) and Armentieres. The bombardment, which included gas shell, at first appeared to be directed chiefly on artillery positions, and on machine-gun posts in the Battle Zone as well as behind that zone.  Initially the shelling of the forward zones was insignificant but from 9.35 a.m. light and heavy trench mortars opened rapid fire on the British front lines.

The British artillery responded to the German bombardment firing on their night lines as unable to see their aiming posts and orders were issued for the troops held in readiness behind the Battle Zones to man battle stations.

At 9.40 a.m. the German bombardment changed to a creeping barrage behind which the specially trained Storm Troops equipped with flamethrowers and light machine-guns advanced:  more than a million German troops had been lined up to attack the fronts of the British Third and Fifth Armies.

The 61st Division covered a front of about 6,000 yards mostly on the reverse slope of a spur running north from St. Quentin.  It was in XVIII Corps and was to retire to the Somme but the 2/5th Battalion Gloucesters next to the 2/6th Royal Warwickshire, received no orders mainly because the brigade staff were disorganised, the Brigadier having been wounded and the brigade major captured by the enemy.  The Battalion certainly had heavy casualties.  On the 24th March the Division was described as “sadly depleted”  obviously in numbers and was in reserve near Ham and moved to Roye the following day remaining in that area until the 26th March 1918.

The German offensive was halted by General Erich Ludendorff, quarter master general to Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg German Army chief of staff on the 5th  April 1918.  Whilst the offensive had forced huge gaps in the British 5th Army line, advancing up to 40 miles in places, there had been no strategic advantage gained.  There had been considerable casualties in the German Army especially amongst the storm troopers who could not easily be replaced.  The German armies had also outrun their supplies which had to be brought forward over ground ravaged by 3 years of war.

Taking stock of the BEF resources on the 1st April 1918 there were inter alia fifteen exhausted divisions still in or near the British front line of which the 61st Division was one.  In the period 21st – 27th March 1918 the Division had lost 213 officers and 5,328 other ranks, these figures included lightly wounded and absentees who rejoined later.

On the 6th April OHL (the German Supreme Command) made its assessment of the British front.  The strongest sector was around Arras.  However to the north the front was held by tired divisions battered by the March offensive: the Portuguese troops on the Lys were regarded as particularly weak and OHL had a similar view of the Belgian army further north.

The Lys offensive followed.  It was intended to capture the commanding heights of Mont Kemmel, Cassel and Mont des Cats which would render the occupation of the Messines Ridge and the southern part of the Ypres Salient most difficult for the British.  Next it was intended to take the vital rail centre of Hazebrouck and the line of the Cassel-Poperinghe-Ypres road which would cut off the route of supply to the Ypres front and also affect the supply of the important Bethune sector, between the River Lys and the La Bassee Canal.  Having overrun the southern sector of the Ypres Salient, the intention was to drive on to the coast between Calais and Dunkirk which would lead to the defeat of the Allied forces in Flanders.

From March 31st onwards  British aircraft reported a general northward movement of German reserves and artillery by road and rail concentrating in the areas northwards from the La Bassee Canal.  That area was held mainly by Divisions which had been involved in the substantial fighting in the area of the Somme and which had been sent North to recuperate and receive fresh troops to make up for those killed or wounded in that fighting.  The drafts to bring the divisions up to establishment had been almost entirely composed of lads of 19 with 9 months training arriving in large batches with a portion being kept back in the corps area for a further 3 months training.  (The age limit for service overseas had been 19 years but because of the losses in the 21st March offensive was reduced in April 1918 to 18 years 7 months and then 18 years 6 months, who had 6 months training, until the end of August 1918 when the limit for overseas service was put back to 19 years).

It was originally intended that the German 4th and 6th Armies would attack simultaneously, 4th Army  north of the River Lys towards Messines, 6th Army to attack the Portuguese on the front between Armentieres and the La Bassee canal, cross the River Lys and push on to Hazebrouck but 4th Army was unable to meet the 9th April start date because of the poor weather conditions and lack of sufficient artillery.

At 4 a.m. on the 9th April 1918 an intense bombardment was opened on the 11 mile front between the La Bassee Canal and Armentieres using high explosive and poison gas.  Whilst the main German infantry attack did not begin until about 8.45 a.m., supported by heavy mortar fire on the front line, parties of German infantry had advanced about 7 a.m. to force the 2nd Portuguese Division back the enemy taking 6,000 Portuguese prisoners and creating a 3 mile wide gap in the British line.   North of the River Lys was the responsibility of XV Corps of the British First Army whilst XI Corps was responsible for the area south of the River down to the La Bassee Canal.  The attack on the Givenchy sector adjacent to the canal failed but on the first day over 200 officers and over 3,400 other ranks were admitted to the Medical units of First Army and the number of dead and those captured could not be calculated.

At 2.45 a.m. on the 10th April, the German 4th Army bombardment barrage began and three German divisions attacked at 5.15 a.m. on a 7 mile front.  Messines was encircled and Ploegsteert taken but British resistance was strong on the high ground.    Obviously reinforcements were required.

During the morning of the 10th April the 61st Division which since the 3rd April had been resting and refitting around Pissy (10 miles west of Amiens) in reserve of the Fourth Army was (less artillery) placed at the disposal of  XI Corps.  It was ordered to move and detraining at Steenbecque, 4 miles north east of Aire and Berguette, 4 miles south east of Aire, the units of the 61st Division were put into buses and sent up piecemeal as they arrived.

The 2/5th Battalion Gloucesters (C.O. Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Lawson D.S.O.) had left the Amiens area believing it was being sent north to carry out training in reserve to the Portuguese Corps who were holding the line Neuve Chapelle-Laventie.  However by the time the Battalion had got on the train to take them north they were told that on the 9th April the enemy had attacked the Portuguese Corps driving them back , had captured Laventie and was still advancing.  The Battalion reached Steenbecque about 5 a.m. on the 12th April (in part because of damage to the railway) but did not leave until just before 9 a.m. to march to Saint Venant about 6 miles East of Aire, near a canalised part of the River Lys where they were told by Brigade to bivouac in a field near the canal where a draft of 200 men again mostly lads straight from England joined.  The 2/5th Gloucestershire, the third battalion of the 184th Brigade, was then in a position to support the hard pressed 183rd Brigade near the Lys.  A new line which it had been ordered should be held was thus completed between the La Bassee canal and the Lys and the infantry was then able to report to the artillery a safe “shooting line” to hit the enemy and not British units.

The German 4th Army made minimal gains on the 12th April being held up by strong British defences at Kemmel.  The German 6th Army advanced a further 4 miles but the mud prevented German field kitchens from being brought forward and the progress was impeded by the German infantry stopping to consume the stock of food supplies found in captured British trenches.

On the 13th April the 61st Division was holding a sector from Robecq  (about 6 miles North West of Bethune) North to the Lys River.  Robecq is a small village just under 2 miles south east of St. Venant, a small town about 9 miles north-west of Bethune.  For much of the War, St. Venant and Robecq remained practically undamaged but in April 1918 during the Battle of the Lys the German line was established within just over a mile of the (now D937) road that joins them.

During the course of the day the enemy made four distinct and furious attacks.  The ground was absolutely open and flat and the troops had no more cover than the small trenches they could dig with the portable entrenching implements or such cottages and hedges as stood there.  The attacks were preceded by ill-directed bombardments which fell mainly on the roads and villages followed by trench mortars and a few low-flying aeroplanes.  All were stopped by artillery barrages and rifle fire, helped by enfilade machine-gun fire from buildings.  A particularly heavy onslaught against the left of the 61st Division near Cornet Malo, south of the Lys canal and about 2 miles east of Robecq was brought to a standstill by the 2/5th Battalion which contained in its ranks a large proportion of young soldiers just out from England.  Further to the North on the same day an attack on Bailleul by six German divisions was stopped by six Brigades supported by British observed artillery support from the high ground still held.

By the 15th April however Bailleul had fallen.

On the evening of the 17th April the Germans stopped attempts to advance near Bailleul.  However on the 18th April after a period of 4 days rest the enemy had concentrated artillery and infantry to try to gain possession of Givenchy and Festubert and the line of the La Bassee canal as far as Robecq.  The German attack nearly succeeded but the enemy was compelled to withdraw on account of counter attacks supported by the fire from uncaptured machine-gun nests.

On the XI Corps front, where the 61st Division and 5th Division faced four German divisions, there was an attempt by the enemy to secure a passage over the Clarence stream near Baquerolles Farm which was in the 184th Brigade sector.  The stream runs in a south westerly direction from the River Lys, running through Calonne-sur-la-Lys and past the Eastern edge of Robecq to turn South towards the Canal d’Aire/La Bassee canal.  The farm had changed hands several times and there was incessant sniping.  It was actually on the front line and about 2,000 yards North East of Robecq.  Heavy shelling began at 1 a.m. on the 18th April followed shortly after by the seizure of the farm from which a platoon of the 2/5th Gloucestershire at once ejected the assailants, capturing 17 prisoners and a machine-gun.  Another attack made about 6 a.m. was brought to a standstill by rifle and machine-gun fire in spite of the mist.  By midday the situation was normal but at 8.15 p.m. heavy shelling began once more whereupon the British artillery replied which seems to have discouraged the Germans for no infantry attack followed and by midnight all was again quiet.

A final attempt to cut off the British Second Army and the Belgians led to savage fighting around Mt Kemmel from 24th to 29th April 1918 in which German storm troopers made significant advances but British and French counter attacks stabilised the position and at 11 p.m. on the 29th April Ludendorff finally discontinued  the Flanders offensive.

By the evening of the 30th April 1918 the German front line ran North West from the La Bassee canal, passing about a mile North of Hinges then swinging North to cross the Lys River just over a mile East of Robecq.  Hazebrouck  was over 5 miles to the West of the line.  Gradually swinging North East the line passed under a mile West of Meteren and Bailleul to Locre, just to the West (although Mont Kemmel was in German hands) then swinging towards Ypres itself passed about 3 miles West of Wytschaete then around Ypres (leaving the town about 2 miles to the West, to pass to the South of Houthulst Forest, continuing North on the line as it was on the 9th April 1918.

Private Walter James was awarded the Victory and British War Medals.

The 2/5th Battalion had 12 of its soldiers killed in action on the 18th April 1918.  5 have no known grave and are commemorated on the Loos Memorial.  

In St. Venant Robecq Road British Cemetery, Robecq, Pas de Calais there are 4 burials.  These are:
No. 202749 Private Harold Phelps
No. 201491 Private Frederick William Taylor
No. 24803 Lance Corporal Edward Tittley and
No. No. 203376 Private Alfred Henry Upton.

Finally in Vielle-Chapelle New Military Cemetery, Pas de Calais are buried:
No. 37495 Private William Frederick Baylis and
No. 241586 Private John Henry Pates.

Whilst Walter James has no known grave, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission has calculated that 49% of the dead of the Commonwealth who died in the First World War have no known grave.

Private Francis William James

No. G/13588 Private Francis William James 1st Home Service Battalion, Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment) died 5th November 1918 aged 35 years, formerly No. 3251 Gloucestershire Regiment.   Buried in Cirencester Cemetery, Gloucestershire.

Son of William and Alice James of Smerrill Cottages, Cirencester, husband of Daisy (Emily) James (now Sollis) of 8 Gas Lane, Cirencester.  In 1901   William and Alice James were living in Smerrill Cottages with their children Francis (18) Labourer on a farm, Ellen (14), Frederick (13) Walter (11) Albert (9), Ada (7) Victor, Muriel and Harold. 

Francis William James attested for service at Horfield Barracks, Bristol on the 19th October 1914 aged 31 years and 126 days and was posted on the 22nd October 1914 to the General Reserve of the Gloucestershire Regiment.  He had served with the Regiment in the South African War in 1903-1904.

He never served overseas in the 1st World War.  On the 1st November 1916 he was at a training camp when in a gale and heavy rain all the tents were blown down, the blankets of the men getting very wet.  He contracted a severe cold due to sleeping in wet blankets.

He attended a Medical Board on the 3rd April 1917 and was described as thin and anaemic.  He was diagnosed as having Pulmonary Tuberculosis and discharged under paragraph 392 XVI King’s Regulations as no longer physically fit not as a result of but by active service conditions.  He was awarded a small pension.  Discharge address was given as 1 Gas Lane Cirencester.

He had married Emily Robbins on the 13th July 1907 at Cirencester Register Office and the couple had 3 children, Francis Walter James, Lilian Mary James and Albert George James.

He died on the 5th November 1918 and was buried in the local town cemetery at Cirencester.

Commemorated here

Killed in action on the 18th April 1918 whilst serving with the 2/5th Battalion the Gloucestershire Regiment:

No. 8006 Sergeant Matthew Brooks
No. 18998 Private Alfred James Davis
No. 202798 Private Albert Parker
No. 33206 Private Reginald Roe and
No. 241559 Private Henry Ward.

South African Memorial

 To the East of Longueval is Bois d’Elville (Delville Wood) and the Memorial is within the Wood to the North of the minor road from Longueval to Ginchy with Delville Wood Cemetery on the opposite side of the road.

Delville Wood and the site of the Memorial is the property of South Africa.  Delville Wood was selected as the site for a National Memorial as the fighting there during the battle of the Somme was particularly ferocious.  The majority of the wood was eventually taken by the South African Brigade on the 15th July 1916 who repulsed counter-attacks until being relieved on the 19th/20th July. 

“No battlefield on all the Western Front was more bitterly contested than was “Devil’s Wood”, where fighting, practically uninterrupted and intense, went on for six consecutive weeks from mid July until August 26th, 1916.  It was in the first week of the struggle that the South African forces won their imperishable fame – grimly hanging on against overwhelming odds and repulsing counter-attacks by troops five and six times their number.”

At midnight on the 14th July 1916 when Brigadier General Henry Lukin received orders to capture and consolidate the outer edge of Delville Wood the Brigade numbered 121 officers and 3,032 men. On the 20th July there was a remnant of 143 and the total assembled in Happy Valley was 750.  Total casualties of the four regiments in the Brigade were 2,320.

The Memorial consists of  flint and stone screen walls with a Pavilion at each end and in the middle an arch surmounted by figures of a horse and two men, described as a sculpture of Castor and Polllux holding hands, a symbol of unity of English and Afrikaaner South Africans.

The Arch bears an inscription in English and Afrikaans, “To the Immortal Dead of South Africa who at the call of Duty made the Great Sacrifice on the battlefields of Africa, Asia and Europe and  on the Sea, this memorial is dedicated in proud and grateful recognition by their countrymen.”  Above the entrance arch is inscribed “Their ideal is our legacy, their sacrifice our inspiration” and in the centre and above “Aux Mortis.” The Memorial was designed by Sir Herbert Baker; the bronze sculpture is the work of Alfred Turner.

It was unveiled by General J M B Hertzog, Sir Percy Fitzpatrick, Field Marshal Haig and the widows of Generals Botha and Lukin on the 10th October 1926.

It is a memorial to those who died, rather than to those with no known grave, and the South African casualties are recorded in Cemeteries and Memorials with those from the United Kingdom.

Originally for the Great War, the Memorial is now dedicated to all those from South Africa who died in the Great War, the Second World War and Korea.

Behind the Memorial is now a Museum opened by Mr. P W Botha on the 11th November 1986.

  Pipers’ Memorial, Longueval unveiled 20 July 2002 to perpetuate the pipes of various regiments who fought in World War One and many of whose badges are on the wall behind.  Longueval was chosen for the site as it was captured by the 9th Scottish Division in July 1916 and through it many pipers marched.

 Inscription on the Pipers’ Memorial:

“The pipes in the street were marching bravely
The marching lads went by
With merry hearts and voices singing
My friends went out to die
But I was hearing a lonely pibroch
Out of an older war
‘ Farewell, Farewell, Farewell
MacCrimon, MacCrimon comes no more’”
 
 Lieutenant A E Mackintosh M.C. Seaforth Highlanders.

(Lieutenant Ewart Alan Mackintosh was himself killed in action on the 21st November 1917 the second day of the Battle of Cambrai and is buried in Orival Wood British Cemetery, Flesquieres, having been wounded and gassed during the Battle of the Somme in early August 1916 at High Wood).

 New Zealand Division Memorial, Longueval.  The column marks the area from which the Division set out on the 15th September 1916  for the Battle of Flers-Courcelette.  It bears inscriptions “From the uttermost ends of the Earth.”  and  “The New Zealand Division after gaining this position as their first objective launched from it the successful attack on Flers 15th September 1916.”