Hi to all on PF ,
If anything there are 3 words that instantly puts a picture into our minds of the horror of WW1 , the split second when men faced the hardest thing ever ....I refer of course to the phrase "Over the Top" where men had to climb out of the relative safety of an often waterlogged trench with a barrage support at times , and a hail of bullets from the enemy ,some made it no farther than the trench ladder top before being hit , others miraculously got close to the the enemy line only to be met by a wire entanglement which the artillery barrage was meant to destroy, this trapped the brave men like a spiders web many dying on the wire.
Led by their officers , often no older than 19 and just out of Sandhurst or Welbeck as a 2nd Lt, some who had by some miracle survived were older and possibly a Captain , this is the subject of the release from a while back and now even more poignant in this 100 year anniversary of WW1.
It is of course the bust depicting a Captain from the Gloucester Regt 2/5th Bn
2/5th Battalion:
Formed at Gloucester in September 1914 as a home service ("second line") unit.
January 1915 : came under command of 2nd South Midland Brigade, 2nd South Midland Division, at Northampton. Moved to Chelmsford in April 1915 and on to Park House Camp (Tidworth) in February 1916.
Landed in France on 23 May 1916.
August 1915 : formation became 184th Brigade, 61st (2nd South Midland) Division.
The 61st Division:
In February and early March 1916 the Division moved to Salisbury Plain. King George V inspected the Division at Bulford on 5 May 1916.
The Division was warned in May that it would go on overseas service and entrainment began on the 21st. By 28 May the Division, less the Ammunition Column (which was still at Le Havre), had concentrated in the area of Merville - Gonnehem - Busnes - Thiennes. The Division then remained in France and Flanders and took part in the following engagements:
1916
The Attack at Fromelles
The first major action in which the Division was engaged turned out to be an unmitigated disaster. An attack was made on 19 July 1916 at Fromelles, a subsidiary action to the much larger battle taking place further south on the Somme. The Division suffered very heavy casualties for no significant gain and no enemy reserves were diverted from the Somme. Such was the damage to the Division and its reputation that it was not used again other than for holding trench lines until 1917.
This is an entry from a diary by Pte Fred Bell of the Liverpool Pals which conveys the feelings at this time:
The date was July 27th, 1916
All through that night I never had a wink of sleep. My stomach would insist on rising to my throat to choke me each time I thought of some lurid possibility. And so the night passed and we remained where we were.
I have one chance in four of coming out none the worse. And the other chances, what are they? Maybe they are three to one against being killed.
There is some comfort in that. One chance in four of being wounded, which means a respite, and one in four of being taken prisoner - almost as good as escaping scot free.
Zero was 7.15 a.m. In a few minutes we should endure the supreme test. Furtive peeps over the parapet revealed nothing of the enemy trenches, for a mist lay over all. What if our artillery had failed to cut "his" wire? Were his machine-gunners waiting to mow us down as we struggled to break a way through his entanglements? The monotonous hammering of these questions must have had different effects on different men.
In me, strangely enough, they induced feelings of utter weariness followed by spasms of fatalistic carelessness, which I could have wished to last the whole war through. But our emotions come and go like clouds in the sky, and my new-found peace of mind was short-lived.
Suddenly the noise of the guns eased off. For a second or two there was quiet. Then the fury of our barrage dropped like a wall of roaring sound before us. By some means the signal to advance was given and understood and we found ourselves walking forward into the mist, feeling utterly naked. Who can express the sensations of men brought up in trench warfare suddenly divested of every scrap of shelter?
Forward we stumbled into a mist that seemed to grow ever thicker.
Well documented here are a few from my library :
Continued in next post:
Nap
If anything there are 3 words that instantly puts a picture into our minds of the horror of WW1 , the split second when men faced the hardest thing ever ....I refer of course to the phrase "Over the Top" where men had to climb out of the relative safety of an often waterlogged trench with a barrage support at times , and a hail of bullets from the enemy ,some made it no farther than the trench ladder top before being hit , others miraculously got close to the the enemy line only to be met by a wire entanglement which the artillery barrage was meant to destroy, this trapped the brave men like a spiders web many dying on the wire.
Led by their officers , often no older than 19 and just out of Sandhurst or Welbeck as a 2nd Lt, some who had by some miracle survived were older and possibly a Captain , this is the subject of the release from a while back and now even more poignant in this 100 year anniversary of WW1.
It is of course the bust depicting a Captain from the Gloucester Regt 2/5th Bn
2/5th Battalion:
Formed at Gloucester in September 1914 as a home service ("second line") unit.
January 1915 : came under command of 2nd South Midland Brigade, 2nd South Midland Division, at Northampton. Moved to Chelmsford in April 1915 and on to Park House Camp (Tidworth) in February 1916.
Landed in France on 23 May 1916.
August 1915 : formation became 184th Brigade, 61st (2nd South Midland) Division.
The 61st Division:
In February and early March 1916 the Division moved to Salisbury Plain. King George V inspected the Division at Bulford on 5 May 1916.
The Division was warned in May that it would go on overseas service and entrainment began on the 21st. By 28 May the Division, less the Ammunition Column (which was still at Le Havre), had concentrated in the area of Merville - Gonnehem - Busnes - Thiennes. The Division then remained in France and Flanders and took part in the following engagements:
1916
The Attack at Fromelles
The first major action in which the Division was engaged turned out to be an unmitigated disaster. An attack was made on 19 July 1916 at Fromelles, a subsidiary action to the much larger battle taking place further south on the Somme. The Division suffered very heavy casualties for no significant gain and no enemy reserves were diverted from the Somme. Such was the damage to the Division and its reputation that it was not used again other than for holding trench lines until 1917.
This is an entry from a diary by Pte Fred Bell of the Liverpool Pals which conveys the feelings at this time:
The date was July 27th, 1916
All through that night I never had a wink of sleep. My stomach would insist on rising to my throat to choke me each time I thought of some lurid possibility. And so the night passed and we remained where we were.
I have one chance in four of coming out none the worse. And the other chances, what are they? Maybe they are three to one against being killed.
There is some comfort in that. One chance in four of being wounded, which means a respite, and one in four of being taken prisoner - almost as good as escaping scot free.
Zero was 7.15 a.m. In a few minutes we should endure the supreme test. Furtive peeps over the parapet revealed nothing of the enemy trenches, for a mist lay over all. What if our artillery had failed to cut "his" wire? Were his machine-gunners waiting to mow us down as we struggled to break a way through his entanglements? The monotonous hammering of these questions must have had different effects on different men.
In me, strangely enough, they induced feelings of utter weariness followed by spasms of fatalistic carelessness, which I could have wished to last the whole war through. But our emotions come and go like clouds in the sky, and my new-found peace of mind was short-lived.
Suddenly the noise of the guns eased off. For a second or two there was quiet. Then the fury of our barrage dropped like a wall of roaring sound before us. By some means the signal to advance was given and understood and we found ourselves walking forward into the mist, feeling utterly naked. Who can express the sensations of men brought up in trench warfare suddenly divested of every scrap of shelter?
Forward we stumbled into a mist that seemed to grow ever thicker.
Well documented here are a few from my library :
Continued in next post:
Nap
