Hard time for 12/13th Northumberland Fusiliers, 16 April 1918 - The Long, Long Trail (original) (raw)
This unit was formed on 10 August 1917 from the merger of the former 12th and 13th (Service) Battalions. It was under command of 62nd Infantry Brigade of 21st Division, which had originally been raised in 1914 but which by 1918 had undergone much change and had accumulated a great deal of front line and battle experience.
On 16 April 1918, more than 300 officers and men of the battalion were killed, wounded or captured, with the majority being taken prisoner.
Background
When the German offensive Operation “Michael” struck the British Third and Fifth Armies along a 70 mile front from Arras to the Somme on 21 March 1918, the 21st Division was immediately engaged, and over the next few days of desperate defensive fighting sustained very large numbers of casualties. The division was finally relieved in late March and was sent northwards to French Flanders, to an area that had been relatively quiet since 1915 and had a reputation as being a fairly “cushy” sector where a unit might be rebuilt and reorganised. This proved to be a false assumption, for it was the very area chosen by German high command for the third of its successive attacks: Operation “Klein-Georg”, which the British recognised as “Georgette” and which would officially later be given the name of the Battles of the Lys.
Drawing upon the battalion’s war diary and work done for my two books on this battle (details given later in the report), the following series of maps describe the action:
A present-day map of part of northern France. The area of relevance to Operation “Georgette” lies to the west of Armentières. This town, which is near to the international border with Belgium, can be seen centre-right in this image. The vital English Channel ports of Dunkirk, Calais and Boulogne, through which the British Expeditionary Force was supplied, are only some 20 miles from the German front line as it was before the offensive began: their immediate objective was however the railway junctions at Hazebrouck, through which the British Second Army holding Ypres was supplied.
The battalion had arrived at Locre (now called Loker in modern Flemish) when a draft arrived to bring it back up towards fighting strength. Many men of this darft were 18 years old, straight from England. The village can be seen in the centre of this present-day map, lying to the west of the strategically important hill known as Mont Kemmel (and now Kemmelberg).
In action
The German Sixth Army’s attack began on 9 April 1918, by which date the battalion had already had a short period of holding a front line position east of Wytschaete (shown as Wijtschate on Map 2, above). It had been withdrawn and was now in a reserve position. The first day’s attack took place a few miles away to the south, with the Germans breaking through the British front to the south west of Armentières. That attack continued next day, 10 April, but was joined by a further attack north of Armentières and reaching almost up to Ypres, carried out by German Fourth Army. The battalion was ordered that day to move forward again to join in the defence of Wytschaete, which lies on a dominant north-south ridge of high ground along which runs the N365 road.
From the British Official History of Military Operations. German progress in the northern attack on 10 April 1918. The solid black line marks the position of the British front before the attack began. By day’s end it had been forced westwards to the dashed line, bringing it closer to Wytschaete and Messines and essentially running along the ridge top. The position of the 12/13th Battalion before the attack is shown on the left of the image. During the day it was ordered forward to support the 26th Infantry Brigade at Wytschaete. The Wytschaete position held out for now, but German progress at the bottom of this map began to turn the position and endanger the British flank (that is, Wytschaete could now also be attacked from the south).
From my 2018 book “The Battle of the Lys: North: Objective Ypres”:
“During the day [of 10 April], 62 Infantry Brigade of 21 Division had been placed at the disposal of 26 Brigade, and during the night it was ordered to secure Wytschaete and to reach before dawn a line between Pick House and the southern end of Onraet Wood. Employing 2/Lincolnshire Regiment on its left and 12/13/Northumberland Fusiliers on the right, the brigade achieved its objectives by 5am on 11 April. It was a considerable feat: a very dark night, little time to organise, and an advance across destroyed ground with few present who knew the area at all. The contemporary reports provide a rather mixed picture of the resistance that was faced: the Lincolns reported meeting only a few enemy patrols, taking 14 prisoners of Magdeburgisches Pionier-Bataillon 4 and Thüringisches Infanterie-Regiment 393 (both of 7 Division), and Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment 76 (17 Reserve-Division), “and [we] killed a good lot more by Lewis Gun and rifle fire”. The Northumberland Fusiliers reported 80 casualties after encountering German infantry and machine gun detachments moving forward through Wytschaete; hand to hand fighting ensued for half an hour and German artillery fired a barrage before the Fusiliers overcame resistance and pressed on.
At 5.30am a second advance began, driving the position a few hundred metres to a “Corps Line” between Torreken Farm and Somer Farm.
_During the rest of the day [11 April], heavy artillery bombardments and several infantry attacks fell on the division, but all were beaten off and no significant change to the position took place. It was however necessary, as 19 Division fell back from Messines, for two companies of the 7/West Yorkshire Regiment to come forward from reserve to form a flank defence stretching back to Bogaert Farm. Brigade would later report that “under very heavy shelling the battalion moved forward splendidly and their steadiness undoubtedly saved the situation”. Wytschaete remained in British hands until 16 April._”
Continued German pressure had, by 15 April, failed to make any further advance at Wytschaete but it was making progress further south. To counter this threat, any British unit that could be found was ordered to man a second defensive position known as the “Vierstraat Line”. This is shown as a chain of black dots. Note that at the beginning of this day, the 12/13th Northumberland Fusiliers was situated south west of Wytschaete. During the day it was ordered to fall back into the “Vierstraat Line”.
My book continues, “
“Wytschaete was prised from the grip of the [9 (Scottish) Division] on 16 April. … While the Germans had been successfully pushing on to capture Neuve Eglise and Bailleul, leaving Wytschaete sticking out in a more pronounced salient, as many British troops as could be gathered had been put to work on digging and erecting barbed wire defences of two new defensive lines. At around 3.2km behind the front, the first of these was the Vierstraat Line. It lay a little way east of, and parallel to, the road that ran up from Kemmel and La Polka, through Vierstraat crossroads towards Ypres. Another, the Cheapside Line, lay another kilometre further west. South of Spanbroekmolen, in the area of the British IX Corps, the front line was held by six tired and under-strength brigades that had been fighting since 9 April, now all under operation control of 34 Division. Their improvised position was a poor, one of shallow trenches and little barbed wire. They were cheered, though, by the arrival of more field artillery, from 38 (Welsh) and 36 (Ulster) Divisions and even the French 28 Division d’Infanterie: with good cause, for the guns played the vital part in breaking up several attacks that were attempted by 10 Ersatz-Division, 117 Infanterie-Division and 32 Infanterie-Division against the Corps’ line on 16 April. At the cost of considerable numbers of casualties, the German attack achieved only making small dents in the British line astride the St. Jans Capelle and Locre roads.
From Spanbroekmolen northwards, the 9km front held by 9 (Scottish) Division, which now also incorporated 62 and 64 Infantry Brigades (of 21 Division) and 146 Infantry Brigade (of 49), came under a pulverising gas and High Explosive bombardment from 5am (some say 4.30am). All telephone communications were cut, from which we can deduce that the division now largely, if not totally, lost the use of the network of buried cable that had been so helpful in the earlier fighting. Battalion signallers would now face the prospect of laying out and fixing breaks in ground lines, while under fire: either that, or messages would need to be taken by runner or signalled by visual means. Not that there was much to signal to, for the division’s front was covered by very little artillery and there were few infantry reserves on which it could call.
…
Once again being greatly assisted by dense fog, the German infantry began to attack at 5.30am after an hour of intense fire on the British front line, the village and all approaches. Within a very short time, Wytschaete fell. The breakthrough came in the area held by the 1/Lincolnshire Regiment. This battalion, the right-most of the two of 62 Brigade that were defending Wytschaete, had been holding from Staenyzer Cabaret to Scott Farm. It later said that the bombardment had remained on its front for another ten minutes after it had lifted elsewhere, and it had been under shellfire ever since coming into the line on the night of 12-13 April. With no shelter worth mentioning, casualties were heavy: two of the only twelve officers available, and 80 men. German infantry penetrated the battalion’s position just north of Staenyzer Cabaret and then wheeled inwards. With the fog and smoke, visibility was so poor that it was impossible to get a clear idea of the situation: men in separated posts would have only seconds to identify figures as they loomed out of the fog and to even conclude that they were being attacked.
…
Next in line to the Lincolns, the 7/West Yorkshire Regiment were holding the long line from Scott Farm to the Spanbroekmolen mine crater. Over half of its men were recently arrived drafts, many of them 18 year-olds. Records of their experience on 16 April 1918 are scanty indeed: the war diary has a single line “enemy attacked”. They certainly did, and according to 62 Brigade the battalion was overwhelmed. The fact that the battalion lost 48 men dead, not one of whom has a known grave, stands as testament to a very difficult day. By 6.55am, a straggler from 1/Lincolns found his way to 156 Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery, which was headquartered at Parret Camp near Vierstraat. He reported that the Germans had captured Spanbroekmolen. This meant that the way was open to Kemmel. But it was evident to the artillery that men were fighting on at Wytschaete. A man at its observation post at North House, who called to report that the infantry had been firing SOS rockets and that he could now see German infantry for himself. He was told to carry on and use his rifle: what happened to him we can only guess. Even by 8.05am, 62 Brigade headquarters was reporting by phone to 9 Division that some 200 men were still fighting in the village: this seems highly optimistic and possibly based on badly out of date information. The engulfing of these battalions suggests that the attacking force had an easy time. This, from German sources, was certainly not the case. There are reports that the assembly of the attacking force was badly disrupted by British artillery fire and that when the advance was made it met with such intense fire that it at first wavered. At 2pm, orders were given to cases the attack.
_North of where the Germans were now streaming into the gap cut in the Lincolns’ and West Yorkshires’ position, the 12/13 Northumberland Fusiliers, reinforced by a company of 2/Lincolnshire Regiment, held its position despite coming under heavy attack and swung back to create a south-facing defence on its right flank. On the Fusiliers’ left, D Company of 1/East Yorkshire lost an entire platoon killed or captured but otherwise also held on against attack by the German 7 Infanterie-Division. Together, these units eventually held from Somer Farm, through North House to Black Cot. Two companies of 8/Black Watch continued it from there to the Vierstraat Lin_e.”
The war diary of 62nd Infantry Brigade headquarters for 16 April 1918.
Onraet Wood, which appears to have been the left extremity of the position held by the 12/13th Battalion (it was now facing south) can be seen at the top right of the map. One company (sadly, none of the diaries say which) had been detached and began the day at Store Farm, which appears at bottom left. This company was completely engulfed as the Germans broke through in that area, and many men were taken prisoner.
Store Farm pinpointed on a present-day map (using Linesman).
Thanks to Google Maps we are standing on the (yellow) main road just north of Store Farm, which is over the high ground on the right. We are looking towards Wytschaete. The German breakthrough on 16 April 1918 advanced along this road and the high ground, coming in our direction.
Links
(Youtube) My talk “Six miles from victory”
This page is in the memory of James Edward Waslin. He had already been wounded, on 4 October 1917, servinng with 1st East Yorkshire Regiment, when he arrived to join the 12/13th Northumberland Fusiliers with the draft just before the German attack commenced. he was taken prisoner of war. I researched him for a private client in 2019.