Private Reginald Buckwell, 12th Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment.

Private Reginald Buckwell, SD/1578 12th Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment.
He was the son of Mrs. Catherine Chapman, of 11, Marine Rd., Eastbourne. He died 11th June 1916 aged 23 and is buried in Ocklynge Cemetery, Eastbourne.

This report of his life and funeral appeared in the Eastbourne Gazette.


Military Funeral

Private Reginald Buckwell

“On June 11, Private Reginald Buckwell, the youngest son of the late Mr. James Buckwell (ex-member of the Metropolitan Police) and Mrs. Chapman, 45, Channel View Road, Eastbourne, died in Nottingham Hospital.

He joined the Royal Sussex Regiment (“Lowther’s Own”) in October, 1914 and underwent training at Cooden. After a short time in France the deceased was shot through the ankle and was invalided to Nottingham, where he died of pneumonia and pleurisy.
Private Buckwell was born in Eastbourne and was educated at Christ Church and St. Andrew’s Church Schools, afterwards entering the greengrocery trade.

The funeral, attended with full military honours, took place on Saturday afternoon at Ocklynge Cemetery. The band of the Convalescent Camp accompanied the cortege and a military firing party was present. The “Last Post” was sounded at the graveside. The coffin was polished oak with solid brass fittings, bore the inscription: “Private Reginald Buckwell, died 11th June 1916 aged 23.” Messers Haine & Sons were the undertakers.”

Private Buckwell's grave lies underneath the tree in the foreground

Ocklynge Cemetery, Eastbourne, East Sussex.

Ocklynge Cemetery is located in Old Town, Eastbourne, East Sussex.

The Cross of Sacrifice designed by Reginald Bloomfield for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission stands at the main entrance to Ocklynge Cemetery. 130 casualties of the Great War lie randomly within the walls of the great cemetery.



In Ocklynge there are buried 18 officers and 112 other ranks. The Army has 107 burials, the Royal Navy 9 and the Royal Flying Corps 14.

42 of the burials in the cemetery have local connections and 17 of the men are soldiers who succumbed to wounds at the Central Military Hospital in Old Town. In fact, between January 1916 and July 1919 there were 16,000 admissions to the hospital, only 100 of these admissions succumbed to wounds or sickness.

The nationalities buried at Ocklynge:
South Africans 2
Canadians 8
Australians 6
New Zealander 1
Brazilian 1

The first military funeral at Ocklynge took place in October 1914. Private Edward William Langford of the 1st Battalion Befordshire Regiment he was 23. He enlisted in 1907 and was called up as a reservist in 1914. During the retreat from Mons he was wounded by sniper fire whilst resting in an orchard. His brother who was in the same battalion and a bandsman/stretcher bearer picked him up. Although he made it back to the Royal Herbert Hospital, Woolwich he subsequently died. The family home was in Wellesley Road, near the town centre.
His brother was killed the following year at Ypres.

Private Henry Smith, 9th Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment.

Private Henry Smith, 9th Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment

Son of George and Emma Smith, of 1, Parks Terrace, Hampden Park, Eastbourne, Sussex.

Killed in Action by a shell on 9th June 1916. Buried in BERKS CEMETERY EXTENSION, Belgium and is commemorated on the Hampden Park Memorial.

The first reports of his death are in the Eastbourne Gazette 21st June 1916.

Private Henry Smith

Tributes from Three Officers – “One of the Very Best”

Four letters received from France by Mr and Mrs George Smith (1, Park Terrace, Hampden Park) state that their son (Private Henry Smith of the Royal Sussex Regiment) has been killed in action. Deceased, who completed his nineteenth year on November 1 , was brought up in the parish of Willington and attended the church school. As a youth he worked on the land and in May last year he enlisted at Eastbourne. Ten months ago his Battalion was ordered to France, and he wrote home regularly his letters being the most cheery and hopeful character.

Lieutenant Theodore E Bourdillon, writing to Mrs. Smith on June 9 says: - “It is my painful duty to have to inform you that your son, Harry Smith, was killed in action this morning. I feel it useless to try and console you in your terrible bereavement, but I am sure you would like to know that he died a painless death. Officers and men alike mourn the loss of one of the very best.”

Lieutenant Banham wrote to Mrs. Smith:- “I can tell you that this is a grief and a big loss to me, which I feel very much. He was always so brave and so cheerful, always the one to volunteer when we had a tough job; and when he was there I felt we had a man who was going to stick it to the last.”

Second-Lieutenant Vidler writes:- “Private Smith was killed in action by a shell today. He was not in my platoon, but I knew him well and looked on him as a true, hardworking soldier and one who could always be relied on in a tight corner.”

Private A.W. Hawkins writes: - “He (Private Smith) was such a plucky chap. He did not care where he went or what he did."

Later that year, this letter was published in the Eastbourne Gazette 19th September 1916

Mrs G. Smith of 1 Park terrace, Hampden Park, Eastbourne has received the subjoined letter in reference to her son Private Harry Smith, Royal Sussex Regiment, whose death was recently announced.

“c/o 9th Royal Sussex, 73rd Brigade, 24th Division, B.E.F., France.

Dear Mrs Smith, I am just writing a line as I intended to do some days ago. To try and offer you what poor sympathy I can at loss of your son. He was a great favourite with the ’boys’ of his company and a great member of them turned out to the funeral. We laid him to rest in a little cemetery on the side of the hill near where he was killed. Mr. Bourdillon tells me that you would like to have a photograph of the grave. I am sorry to say that as we are not allowed to take any photos out here that will be impossible. But I can assure you that the graveyard will be well looked after. The cross with the name on it is in position; the exact spot can be obtained from the Graves Registration Commission., who have the keeping of all the registered graves out here. May God comfort you and support you in your time of trial. It is your loss and ours, but I hope not his. Perhaps that thought will be your strongest consolation in the days to come. Please accept these few words of sympathy – Believe me. Yours very faithfully, R.P. Dodd (C. of E. Chaplain).”

He is now buried in BERKS CEMETERY EXTENSION, Belgium.

Hairdressing needed at home, not at the Front.

Mr. Beattie the military reprsentative at the Eastbourne Military Tribunals was a man not to be argued with. In this reported case in the Eastbourne Gazette in 1916, Mr. Beattie is amazed when the applicant insists on hairdressing being a national necessity:

Haircutting a Necessity

G.H.Williams, hairdresser, newsagent and tobacconist, Langley road urged that enlistment would result in a loss of business.

Mr. Beattie, “Your wife could carry on the news agency and tobacconist business and she could get 23s a week separation allowance in addition, without the cost of keeping you.”

Applicant, “But if the hairdressers business is closed the customers of the other part of the business will go.”

Mr. Beattie, “You would not claim that your business is a national necessity?”

Applicanat, “It is a necessity!”

Mr. Beattie, “What! To get your hair cut!”

Applicant, “Yes.”

Eight weeks conditional was granted, applicant being advised to make application to the Commissioners (at the County Hall, Lewes) nfor help in the matter of his rent.
It was remarked that replies to such applications were often belated.

The Front Line and Rats

Life in the trenches was a world away from drill halls and every day life. Rats were one of the Front line's most unpleasant guests.

The 11th Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment crossed to France via Southampton on 5th/6th March 1916, landing at Havre.

This letter from Private Wenham of the 11th appeared in the Eastbourne Gazette on 14th June 1916 and gave the people back in Eastbourne a taste of what was happening.

“Lowthers Lambs” and the Rats

'Mr and Mrs H. Wenham, of Meads Street Eastbourne, have received a letter from their son (Private F.P. Wenham) in which he says,

“We are doing another four days in the trenches, but as we have already done two we shall soon be out again. Then we shall go back a little way for eight days rest.

We are like the rats which infest this place – we only get active at night! When in the front line we have a fine game with the rats. When the rifles are placed on the parapet we stick a piece of toasted cheese on the bayonet, then when ‘Nibs’ comes along, pull trigger, and exit rat! The advantage of this means of execution is that there is always a chance of the bullet finding its way into the German trench and making Fritz nervous. You can take it from me, there is no need to worry on my behalf. The grub is pretty good, I am absolutely fit, and Fritz is far too busy to make a bullet with my number on it.”'


Private Frederick Peter Wenham served in the 11th Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment (1st Southdowns). Service number SD/261.

He was subsequently transferred to the 9th Battalion. He died on 30th July 1917, aged 21 and is buried in LIJSSENTHOEK MILITARY CEMETERY, Belgium.

Remembrance Day - 'In Flanders Fields.'

For Remembrance Day 2007, 'In Flanders Fields' by John McCrae:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch: be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

John McCrae's grave in Wimereux Cemetery, France.


John McCrae was born in Guelph, Ontario and attended the Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute. He then studied medicine on a scholarship at the University of Toronto. While attending the university he joined the Zeta Psi Fraternity (Theta Xi chapter; class of 1894) and published his first poems. He was a member of The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada while studying at the University of Toronto, during which time he was promoted to Captain.

McCrae served in the artillery during the Second Boer War, and upon his return was appointed professor of pathology at the University of Vermont, where he taught until 1911 (although he also taught at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec). In 1910, he accompanied Lord Grey, the Governor General of Canada, on a canoe trip to Hudson Bay.

At the start of the war McCrae was appointed as a field surgeon in the Canadian artillery and was in charge of a field hospital during the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915. The poem ‘In Flanders fields’ was written upon a scrap of paper upon the back of Colonel Cosgrave, in the trenches during a lull in the bombings. On May 3, 1915, after he witnessed the death of his friend, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, the day before (as recited to his grandson). The poem was first published on December 8, that year in Punch magazine, London


From June 1, 1915 McCrae was ordered away from the artillery to set up No. 3 Canadian General Hospital at Dannes-Camiers near Boulogne-sur-Mer, northern France. C.L.C. Allinson reported that McCrae "most unmilitarily told [me] what he thought of being transferred to the medicals and being pulled away from his beloved guns. His last words to me were: 'Allinson, all the goddam doctors in the world will not win this bloody war: what we need is more and more fighting men.'"

'In Flanders Fields' appeared anonymously in Punch on 8 December 1915, but in the index to that year McCrae was named as the author. The verses swiftly became one of the most popular poems of the war, used in countless fund-raising campaigns and frequently translated (a Latin version begins In agro belgico...). 'In Flanders Fields' was also extensively printed in the USA, which was contemplating joining the war, alongside a 'reply' by R. W. Lillard, ("...Fear not that you have died for naught, The torch ye threw to us we caught...").

In late January 1918, while still commanding No 3 Canadian General Hospital (McGill) at Boulogne, McCrae died of pneumonia. He died on January 28, 1918, and was buried with full honours in Wimereux Cemetery, just a couple of kilometres up the coast from Boulogne. McCrae's horse, "Bonfire", led the procession, his master's riding boots reversed in the stirrups. McCrae's gravestone is placed flat, as are all the others, because of the sandy soil.

51st Division Memorial, Beaumont-Hamel, France.

The 51st Division memorial is in the Beaumont-Hamel Park. It takes the form of rough blocks of Rubislaw granite which were produced by Garden & Co. in Aberdeen, and are assembled in a pyramid form. On the top stands a statue of a kilted Highland soldier, looking east towards the village of Beaumont Hamel which men of the 51st Division took on 13th November 1916. The three panels on the pyramid bear inscriptions in Gaelic, English and French.

The Gaelic words can be translated as 'Friends are good on the day of battle.’

The monument was initially unveiled, following a procession from Beaumont Hamel village to the site, by Marshal Foch in September 1924. He concluded his speech with the words "Sons of Scotland, sleep in peace".

The memorial was originally dedicated by the Reverend Sinclair, who had been a chaplain with the Division. Pipers played, and the school-children of the area were among the crowds

Directly opposite, and in front of Y ravine, is another memorial to the 51st Division, a simple wooden cross. This originally stood at High Wood, and the inscription reads "In memory of the 51st Highland Division Officers, NCOs and men who fell at High Wood July 1916". The Division was in action there on the 23rd of July, when the 4th Gordon’s and 9th Royal Scots between them suffered 450 casualties, and also on the 29th of July (4th Seaforth’s).

Hunter’s Cemetery, Beaumont-Hamel, France.

Hunter’s Cemetery, Beaumont-Hamel, France.

Beaumont-Hamel was attacked in vain on the 1st July, 1916, and captured by the 51st (Highland) and 63rd (Royal Naval) Divisions on the following 13th November. Hunter's Cemetery (the origin of the name is not known) is, in fact, a great shell-hole, in which soldiers of the 51st Division, who fell in the capture of Beaumont-Hamel, were buried after the battle. There are now over 46, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site.

The cemetery itself is also circular, whilst all the known casualties (41) buried here except one died on the 13th of November, and all except two are men of the Black Watch (6th and 7th battalions) or Gordon Highlanders.

The fighting at Pozieres descriped by Lieutenant J.A. Raws.

This is a famous extract from a letter by Melbourne journalist Lieutenant J. A. Raws, who in a very graphic account, describes a scene during the battle for Pozieres

"... we lay down terror-stricken along a bank. The shelling was awful ... we eventually found our way to the right spot out in no-man's-land. Our leader was shot before we arrived and the strain had sent two other officers mad. I and another new officer took charge and dug the trench. We were shot at all the time... the wounded and killed had to be thrown to one side ... I refused to let any sound man help a wounded man; the sound had to dig ... we dug on and finished amid a tornado of bursting shells ... I was buried once and thrown down several times ... buried with dead and dying. The ground was covered bodies in all stages of decay and mutilation and I would, after struggling from the earth, pick body by me to try and lift him out with me and find him a decayed corpse ... I went up again the night and stayed up there. We were shelled to hell ceaselessly. X- went mad and disappeared... there remained nothing but a charred mass of debris with bricks, stones, girders and bodies pounded to nothing ... we are lousy, stinking, unshaven, sleepless ... I have one puttee, a man's helmet, another dead man's protect dead man's bayonet. My tunic rotten with other men's blood and partly spattered with a comrade's brains".

2nd Lieutenant John Alexander Raws of the 23rd Battalion who was born in Manchester, England, enlisted at Adelaide, South Australia and was killed in action on 23rd August 1916 aged 33.

His younger brother, Lieutenant Robert Goldthorpe Raws, was also killed at Pozieres. He was also in 23rd Battalion, born in Manchester, enlisted at Adeleaide and was killed instantly by a shell on the 28th July 1916, 26 days before his brother, aged 30.

Also see - Pozieres - today

Pozieres an account by C.E.W. Bean

Pozieres as recalled by Phillip Gibbs, War Correspondent.

Corporal Walter Clarence Gehan, 8th Battalion, AIF.

Corporal Walter Clarence Gehan, 2365, 8th Battalion, AIF.

Born on 9th January 1898 at Stawell, Victoria, the son of Mr. A. Gehan, Post Office, Stawell, Victoria.

He was 5’ 5” tall, weighed 10 stone and had brown eyes and brown hair.

8th May 1915 he enlisted at Stawell, Victoria aged 18 years and 5 months. His job at enlistment is recorded as a labourer.
(His younger brother Herbert James Gehan enlisted 4 days before).

28th May 1915 he was allocated to the 14th Battalion reinforcements.
22nd June 1915 he reallocated to the 7th Reinforcements 8th Battalion.
16th July 1915 he left Australia for Egypt on the “Demosthenes.”
23rd November he joined the 8th Battalion at ANZAC.
7th January 1916 he disembarked at Alexandria.
26th March 1916 he left Egypt for France.
31st March 1916 he disembarked at Marseilles.
1st October 1918 he was appointed Lance-Corporal.
19th December 1918 he was promoted to Corporal.
23rd March 1919 he returned to Australia on the “Kildonan Castle.”
29th June 1919 he was discharged from active service.

His brother Herbert James Gehan, was killed in action on 18th August 1916 aged 20 at Pozieres.

Source : National Archives of Australia

Mont Huon Military Cemetry, Le Treport, France.

When the original military cemetery at Le Treport filled, it became necessary to use the new site at Mont Huon.

There are now 2,128 Commonwealth burials of the First World War in the cemetery and seven from the Second World War. The cemetery also contains more than 200 German war graves.

The cemetery was designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield.

Private Herbert James Gehan, 8th Battalion, AIF.

Private Herbert James Gehan, 2364, 8th Battalion, AIF.

He was form Lake Lonsdale, Victoria and the son of Mr. A Gehan Post Office, Stawell, Victoria.

He was 5’ 6” tall, weighed 154 lbs and had grey eyes and dark hair.

4th May 1915 he enlisted at Stawell, Victoria aged 19 years and 8 months. His job at enlistment is recorded as a labourer.
(His younger brother Walter Clarence Gehan enlisted 4 days after).

28th May 1915 he was allocated to the 14th Battalion reinforcements.
22nd June 1915 he reallocated to the 7th Reinforcements 8th Battalion.
1st October 1915 he was temporarily transferred to Divisional Headquarters at Lemnos.
23rd November he joined the 8th Battalion at ANZAC.
7th January 1916 he disembarked at Alexandria.
26th March 1916 he left Egypt for France.
31st March 1916 he disembarked at Marseilles.

18th August 1916 He was killed in action aged 20.

He is buried in Pozieres British Cemetery Ovillers-La-Boisselle

National Archives of Australia - Digital Image 4025083.

Mr A Gehan's letter of permission for his son to join up.

His brother Walter Clarence Gehan, survived the war and returned to Australia on 23rd March 1919.

Source : National Archives of Australia

Le Treport Military Cemetery, France

Le Treport is a coastal town approximately 30 kilometres north-east of Dieppe. The Military Cemetery lies to the south of the town next to the town's Communal Cemetery on the D940.

During the First World War, Le Treport was an important hospital centre. No 3 General Hospital was established there in November 1914, No 16 General Hospital in February 1915, No 2 Canadian General Hospital in March 1915, No 3 Convalescent Depot in June 1915 and Lady Murray's BRCS Hospital in July 1916. These hospitals contained nearly 10,000 beds. No 47 General Hospital arrived in March 1917 and later that year, a divisional rest camp and a tank training depot were established in the neighbourhood.
By March 1919, the hospitals had been closed and Le Treport became the headquarters of the 68th Division, which re-formed there before going to the Rhine. The divisional supply depot was closed in June 1919.

There are now 445 Commonwealth burials of the First World War in the cemetery. Three of the four Second World War burials are unidentified. The cemetery, one of the first three Commission cemeteries to be built after the First World war, was designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield.

An Account of Pozieres by C.E.W. Bean

The Australian 1st Division attacked Pozieres early on July 23rd 1916 and captured the town after fierce fighting. The Germans who were not giving up launched several counter-attacks in a grave effort to wrest control from the Australians, but these were repulsed. The Germans eventually launched one of the heaviest artillery barrages of the war and shelled the Australians unremittingly - at the height of the bombardment the shells rained down at the rate of 20 a minute.

After three days the 1st Division had lost 5285 men and the rest were exhausted. The Division was withdrawn and replaced by the 2nd Division. German continued on relentless and after 10 days the 2nd Division had lost 6848 officers and men. It too was withdrawn and replaced by the 4th Division. This cycle continued until September 3rd - each Division fought until exhausted and was then replaced. When the replacement Division was itself exhausted, the original Division was rotated back into the line. The 1st, 2nd, and 4th Divisions were used as a battering ram against the German strong points at Pozieres until they were almost destroyed.More than 50% of the Australians who fought at Pozieres were killed, wounded or captured. Five Victoria Crosses were won by Australians during the relentless fighting.

(Rough sketch showing some of the German defences of Pozières and the direction of the Australian attacks between July 22 and September 4 1916. (From Pozières to Moquet Farm is just over a mile.)

This account of the action of 1st Australian Division around Pozieres for July 23rd – July 26th 1916 comes from the Letters from France, by C. E. W. Bean.



(Charles Edwin Woodrow Bean (November 18, 1879 – August 30, 1968), usually known during his career as C.E.W. Bean, was an Australian journalist, war correspondent and historian who is renowned as the editor of the 12-volume Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918.)



"POZIÈRES


France, July 26th.


I have been watching the units of a certain famous Australian force come out of action. They have fought such a fight that the famous division of British regular troops on their flank sent them a message to say that they were proud to fight by the side of them.


Conditions alter in a battle like this from day to day. But at the time when the British attack upon the second German line in Longueval and Bazentin ended, the farther village of Pozières was left as the hub of the battle for the time being. This point is the summit of the hill on which the German second line ran. And, probably for that reason, the new line which the Germans had dug across from their second line to their third line—so as to have a line still barring our way when we had broken through their second line—branched off near Pozières to meet the third line near Flers. The map of the situation at this stage of the battle will show better than a page of description why it was necessary that Pozières should next be captured.


There were several days' interval between the failure of the first attack on Pozières and the night on which the Australians were put at it. The Germans probably had little chance of improving their position in the meanwhile, for the village was kept under a slow bombardment with heavy shells and shrapnel which made movement there dangerous. Our troops could see occasional parties of Germans hurrying through the tattered wood and powdered, tumbled foundations. The garrison lost men steadily, and on about the night of Thursday or Friday, July 20th or 21st, the Second Guard Reserve Division, which had been mainly responsible for holding this part of the line, was relieved; and a fresh division, from the lines in front of Ypres, was put in. The new troops brought in several days' rations with them, and never lacked food or water. It was probably a belated party of these new-comers that our men noticed wandering through the village in daytime.


During the afternoon of Saturday our bombardment of Pozières became heavier. Most of these ruined villages are marked on this shell-swept country by the trees around them. It is not that they originally stood in a woodland; but when the village is a mere heap of foundations powdered white the only relic of it left standing erect, if you except a battered wall or two, is the shredded trunks and stumps of trees which once made the gardens or orchards or hedges behind the houses. Our troops had three obstacles before them—first a shallow, hastily dug trench in the open in front of the trees around the village; then certain trenches running generally through the trees and hedges and behind a trench railway; thirdly, such lines as existed in the village itself. The village is strung out along a stretch of the Albert-Bapaume road up which the battle has advanced from the first. Just beyond the village, near what remains of the Pozières Mill on the very top of the hill, is the German second line still (at time of writing) in possession of the Germans. Another line crossing the road in front of the village was then in their hands.


On Saturday afternoon our heavy shells were tearing at regular intervals into the rear of the brick heaps which once were houses, and flinging up branches of trees and great clouds of black earth from the woods. A German letter was found next day dated "In Hell's Trenches." It added: "It is not really a trench, but a little ditch, shattered with shells—not the slightest cover and no protection. We have lost 50 men in two days, and life is unendurable." White puffs of shrapnel from field guns were lathering the place persistently, so that when the German trenches were broken down it was difficult to repair them or move in them.


Our men in their trenches were cleaning rifles, packing away spare kit, yarning there much as they yarned of old over the stockyard fence or the gate of the horse paddock.


That night, shortly after dark, there broke out the most fearful bombardment I have ever seen. As one walked towards the battlefield, the weirdly shattered woods and battered houses stood out almost all the time against one continuous band of flickering light along the eastern skyline. Most of it was far away to the east of our part of the battlefield—in some French or British sector on the far right. There must have been fierce fire upon Pozières, too, for the Germans were replying to it, hailing the roads with shrapnel and trying to fill the hollows with gas shell. They must have suspected an attack upon this part of their line as well, and were trying to hamper the reserves from moving into position.


About midnight our field artillery lashed down its shrapnel upon the German front line in the open before the village. A few minutes later this fire lifted and the Australian attack was launched.


The Germans had opened in one part with a machine-gun before that final burst of shrapnel, and they opened again immediately after. But there would have been no possibility of stopping that charge with a fire twenty times as heavy. The difficulty was not to get the men forward, but to hold them. With a complicated night attack to be carried through it was necessary to keep the men well in hand.


The first trench was a wretchedly shallow affair in places. Most of the Germans in it were dead—some of them had been lying there for days. The artillery in the meantime had lifted on to the German trenches farther back. Later they lifted to a farther position yet. The Australian infantry dashed at once from the first position captured, across the intervening space over the tramway and into the trees.


It was here that the first real difficulty arose along parts of the line. Some sections found in front of them the trench which they were looking for—an excellent deep trench which had survived the bombardment. Other sections found no recognizable trench at all, but a maze of shell craters and tumbled rubbish, or a simple ditch reduced to white powder. Parties went on through the trees into the village, searching for the position, and pushed so close to the fringe of their own shell fire that some were wounded by it. However, where they found no trench they started to dig one as best they could. Shortly after the bombardment shifted a little farther, and a third attack came through and swept, in most parts, right up to the position which the troops had been ordered to take up.


As daylight gradually spread over that bleached surface Australians could occasionally be seen walking about in the trees and through the part of the village they had been ordered to take. The position was being rapidly "consolidated." German snipers in the north-east of the village and across the main road could see them, too. A patrol was sent across the main road to find a sniper. It bombed some dug-outs which it found there, and from one of them appeared a white flag, which was waved vigorously. Sixteen prisoners came out, including a regimental doctor. There were several other dug-outs in this part and various scraps of old trenches, probably the site of an old battery. The Germans, now that they had been driven from their main lines, were naturally fighting from the various scraps of isolated fortification which exist behind all positions. During the afternoon two patrols were sent to clear out other snipers from these half-hidden lurking places. But the garrison was sufficiently organised to summon up some sort of reserve, and the patrols had to come back after a short, sharp fight more or less in the open.


After dark, the Australians pushed across the road through the village. By morning the position had been improved, so that nearly the whole village was secure against sudden attack.
An official report would read: "The same progress continued on Tuesday night, and by Wednesday morning the whole of Pozières was consolidated." That is to say—in the heart of the village itself there was little more actual hand-to-hand fighting. All that happened there was that, from the time when the first day broke and found the Pozières position practically ours, the enemy turned his guns on to it. Hour after hour—day and night—with increasing intensity as the days went on, he rained heavy shell into the area. It was the sight of the battlefield for miles around—that reeking village. Now he would send them crashing in on a line south of the road—eight heavy shells at a time, minute after minute, followed up by burst upon burst of shrapnel. Now he would place a curtain, straight across this valley or that, till the sky and landscape were blotted out, except for fleeting glimpses seen as through a lift of fog. Gas shell, musty with chloroform; sweet-scented tear shell that made your eyes run with water; high bursting shrapnel with black smoke and a vicious high explosive rattle behind its heavy pellets; ugly green bursts the colour of a fat silkworm; huge black clouds from the high explosive of his 5.9's. Day and night the men worked through it, fighting this horrid machinery far over the horizon as if they were fighting Germans hand-to-hand—building up whatever it battered down; buried, some of them, not once but again and again and again.


What is a barrage against such troops! They went through it as you would go through a summer shower—too proud to bend their heads, many of them, because their mates were looking. I am telling you of things I have seen. As one of the best of their officers said to me, "I have to walk about as if I liked it—what else can you do when your own men teach you to?" The same thought struck me not once but twenty times.


On Tuesday morning the shelling of the day before rose to a crescendo, and then suddenly slackened. The German was attacking. It was only a few of the infantry who even saw him. The attack came in lines at fairly wide intervals up the reverse slope of the hill behind Pozières windmill. Before it reached the crest it came under the sudden barrage of our own guns' shrapnel. The German lines swerved away up the hill. The excited infantry on the extreme right could see Germans crawling over, as quickly as they might, from one shell crater to another, grey backs hopping from hole to hole. They blazed away hard; but most of our infantry never got the chance it was thirsting for. The artillery beat back that attack before it was over the crest, and the Germans broke and ran. Again the enemy's artillery was turned on. Pozières was pounded more furiously than before, until by four in the afternoon it seemed to onlookers scarcely possible that humanity could have endured such an ordeal. The place could be picked out for miles by pillars of red and black dust towering above it like a Broken Hill dust-storm. Then Germans were reported coming on again, as in the morning. Again our artillery descended upon them like a hailstorm, and nothing came of the attack.


During all this time, in spite of the shelling, the troops were slowly working forwards through Pozières; not backwards. Every day saw fresh ground gained. A great part of the men who were working through it had no more than two or three hours' sleep since Saturday—some of them none at all, only fierce, hard work all the time.


The only relief to this one-sided struggle against machinery was the hand-to-hand fighting that occurred in the two trenches before-mentioned—the second-line German trench behind Pozières and the similar trench in front of it. The story of it will be told some day—it would almost deserve a book to itself."

Also see - Pozieres - today

Pozieres as recalled by Phillip Gibbs, War Correspondent.

Pozieres described by Lieutenant J.A. Raws.

1st Australian Division

1st Australian Division

On the 3rd of August 1914 the Australian government offered to send an expeditionary force of 20,000 men to Europe, which it decided to organise as an infantry division and a light horse brigade. Accordingly, the First Division was formed in Australia in August 1914. Intended to be representative of the nation as a whole, it was organised from contingents from all states. It was originally intended to send the division to England for training and thence on to the Western Front but the division was diverted to Egypt instead on the recommendation of Colonel Harry Chauvel, owing to the state of training areas in the United Kingdom. The division arrived in Egypt in December and began training at Mena, near Cairo.

On Anzac Day, 25 April 1915, the First Division made an amphibious assault at what is now known as Anzac Cove, on the Gallipoli Peninsula. On Anzac Day the division was unable to capture its objectives but secured a toehold on the peninsula. It served throughout the campaign there. In May the 2nd Brigade was re-embarked and participated in the attack on Krithia at Helles but returned in time for the Turkish counter offensive on 19 May. On 15 May, its commander, Major General William Bridges was fatally wounded by a sniper. During the August offensive, the First Division captured the Turkish positions around Line Pine. Finally, it was involved in the withdrawal to Egypt in December 1915.

In March 1916 it moved to France, taking over part of the line in the "nursery sector" around Armentieres. On 23 July 1916, it joined the Somme Offensive, capturing the town of Pozieres. A second tour of Pozieres followed in August and a third at Flers in October after a rest break in the Ypres sector.

In 1917 it was involved in the pursuit of the Germans to the Hindenburg Line. While maintaining outposts close to that line around Lagnicourt, the division was struck by a powerful German counterattack on 15 April 1917. In May it relieved the Second Division in the Second Battle of Bullecourt.

After a rest spell, the division returned to the Ypres Salient and participated in the Third Battle of Ypres, in which it fought with at Menin Road in September and Broodeseinde in October.

In April 1918 the First Division halted the German offensive at Hazebrouck. It remained there, apart from the other divisions for four months, it rejoined the Australian Corps in the Somme region in 1918 in time to participate in the Battle of Amiens and fought on to the Hindenburg Line.

Commanders:

Major General William T. Bridges 6 August 1914 to 15 May 1915 (mortally wounded)

Brigadier General H. B. Walker 15 May 1915 to 24 June 1915

Major General J. Gordon Legge 24 June 1915 to 26 July 1915

Brigadier General H. B. Walker 26 July 1915 to 13 October 1915 (wounded)

Brigadier General J. J. Talbot Hobbs 13 October 1915 to 6 November 1915

Brigadier General/Major General Harry Chauvel 6 November 1915 to 14 March 1916

Major General H. B. Walker 14 March 1916 to 31 May 1918

Major General T. William Glasgow 31 May 1918 to past November 1918

Campaigns:

Egypt: Defence of Suez Canal,

Gallipoli: Landing at Anzac, Defence of Anzac, Sari Bair,

Western Front: Pozieres, Mouquet Farm, Le Barque, Tilloy, Boursies, Demicourt, Hermies, Lagnicourt, Bullecourt, 3rd Battle of Ypres, Menin Road, Broodseinde Ridge, Passchendale, Battle of the Lys, 2nd Battle of the Somme, Lihons, Chuignolles, Hindenburg Line.

Casualties:

killed in action: 10,447
died of wounds: 3,553
other deaths: 1,133
prisoners: 500
wounded: 35,984
total: 51,647

Memorial

Pozieres, France,


Order of battle:

First Division (Egypt and Gallipoli, 1914-15)

1st Division Artilley

1st Field Artillery Brigade [12 x 18 pounders]
1st, 2nd, 3rd Field Artillery Batteries (New South Wales)
1st Brigade Ammunition Column

2nd Field Artillery Brigade [12 x 18 pounders]
4th, 5th, 6th Field Artillery Batteries (Victoria)
2nd Brigade Ammunition Column

3rd Field Artillery Brigade [12 x 18 pounders]
7th, 8th, 9th Field Artillery Batteries (Queensland; Western Australia; Tasmania)
3rd Brigade Ammunition Column

1st Heavy Battery [2 x 6 inch howitzers, 1 x 4.7 inch gun]

1st Division Ammunition Column

1st Division Engineers
1st,2nd,3rd Field Companies (New South Wales; Victoria; Outer States)
1st Signal Company
2nd Signal Troop

1st Infantry Brigade
1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th Infantry Battalions (New South Wales)

2nd Infantry Brigade
5th, 6th, 7th, 8th Infantry Battalions (Victoria)

3rd Infantry Brigade
9th, 10th, 11th, 12th Infantry Battalions (Queensland; South Australia; Western Australia; Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia)

1st Division Medical Services
1st, 2nd, 3rd Field Ambulances (New South Wales; Victoria; Outer States)
2nd Light Horse Field Ambulance
1st Sanitary Company

4th Light Horse Regiment (Victoria)

2nd Light Horse Brigade
5th, 6th, 7th Light Horse Regiments (Queensland; New South Wales; New South Wales)

1st Divisional Train
1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th Army Service Corps Companies (New South Wales and Victoria; New South Wales; Victoria; South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania)

First Division (France, April 1916)

1st Division Artillery

1st Field Artillery Brigade [16 x 18 pounders]
1st, 2nd, 3rd, 22nd Field Artillery Batteries
1st Brigade Ammunition Column

2nd Field Artillery Brigade [16 x 18 pounders]
4th, 5th, 6th, 23rd Field Artillery Batteries
2nd Brigade Ammunition Column

3rd Field Artillery Brigade [16 x 18 pounders]
7th, 8th, 9th, 24th Field Artillery Batteries
3rd Brigade Ammunition Column

21st Field Artillery (Howitzer) Brigade [12 x 4.5 inch howitzers]
101st,102nd,103rd Field Artillery (Howitzer) Batteries
21st Brigade Ammunition Column

1st Division Ammunition Column

1st Division Trench Mortars
V1A Heavy Trench Mortar Battery [4 x 9.45 inch heavy trench mortars]
X1A,Y1A, Z1A Medium Trench Mortar Batteries [12 x 2 inch medium trench mortars]

1st Division Engineers
1st, 2nd, 3rd Field Companies (New South Wales; Victoria; Outer States)
1st Signal Company

1st Infantry Brigade
1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th Infantry Battalions (New South Wales)
1st Machine gun Company [16 x Vickers Machineguns]
1A/1, 1A/2 Light Trench Mortar Batteries [8 x 3.7 and 4 inch trench mortars]

2nd Infantry Brigade
5th, 6th, 7th, 8th Infantry Battalions (Victoria)
2nd Machinegun Company [16 x Vickers Machineguns]
2A/1, 2A/2 Light Trench Mortar Batteries [8 x 3.7 and 4 inch trench mortars]

3rd Infantry Brigade
9th, 10th, 11th, 12th Infantry Battalions (Queensland; South Australia; Western Australia; Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia)
3rd Machine gun Company [16 x Vickers Machineguns]
3A/1, 3A/2 Light Trench Mortar Batteries [8 x 3.7 and 4 inch trench mortars]

1st Pioneer Battalion

1st Division Medical Services
1st, 2nd, 3rd Field Ambulances (New South Wales; Victoria; Outer States)
2nd Sanitary Section

B Squadron, 4th Light Horse Regiment (Victoria)

1st Cyclist Company

1st Salvage Section

1st Divisional Train
1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th Australian Army Service Corps Companies

1st Division Supply Column

1st Division Ammunition Sub Park

1st Mobile Veterinary Section


First Division (France, July 1916)

1st Division Artillery

1st Field Artillery Brigade [12 x 18 pounders, 4 x 4.5 inch howitzers]
1st, 2nd, 3rd Field Artillery Batteries
101st Field Artillery (Howitzer) Battery

2nd Field Artillery Brigade [12 x 18 pounders, 4 x 4.5 inch howitzers]
4th, 5th, 6th Field Artillery Batteries
102nd Field Artillery (Howitzer) Battery

3rd Field Artillery Brigade [12 x 18 pounders, 4 x 4.5 inch howitzers]
7th, 8th , 9th Field Artillery Batteries
103rd Field Artillery (Howitzer) Battery

21st Field Artillery Brigade [12 x 4.5 inch howitzers]
22nd, 23rd, 24th Field Artillery Batteries

1st Division Ammunition Column

1st Division Trench Mortars
V1A Heavy Trench Mortar Battery [4 x 9.45 inch heavy trench mortars]
X1A,Y1A,Z1A Medium Trench Mortar Batteries [12 x 2 inch medium trench mortars]

1st Division Engineers
1st, 2nd, 3rd Field Companies (New South Wales; Victoria; Outer States)
1st Signal Company

1st Infantry Brigade
1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th Infantry Battalions (New South Wales)
1st Machine gun Company [16 x Vickers Machineguns]
1st Light Trench Mortar Battery [8 x 3 inch Stokes Mortars]

2nd Infantry Brigade
5th, 6th, 7th , 8th Infantry Battalions (Victoria)
2nd Machinegun Company [16 x Vickers Machineguns]
2nd Light Trench Mortar Battery [8 x 3 inch Stokes Mortars]

3rd Infantry Brigade
9th, 10th, 11th, 12th Infantry Battalions (Queensland; South Australia; Western Australia; Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia)
3rd Machine gun Company [16 x Vickers Machineguns]
3rd Light Trench Mortar Battery [8 x 3 inch Stokes Mortars]

1st Pioneer Battalion

1st Division Medical Services
1st, 2nd, 3rd Field Ambulances (New South Wales; Victoria; Outer States)
2nd Sanitary Section

1st Salvage Section

1st Divisional Train
1st, 2nd 3rd, 4th Australian Army Service Corps Companies

1st Mobile Veterinary Section


First Division (France, September 1918)

1st Division Artillery

1st Field Artillery Brigade [18 x 18 pounders, 6 x 4.5 inch howitzers]
1st, 2nd, 3rd Field Artillery Batteries
101st Field Artillery (Howitzer) Battery

2nd Field Artillery Brigade [18 x 18 pounders, 6 x 4.5 inch howitzers]
4th, 5th, 6th Field Artillery Batteries
102nd Field Artillery (Howitzer) Battery

1st Division Ammunition Column

1st Division Trench Mortars
1st, 2nd Medium Trench Mortar Batteries [12 x 6 inch Newton Mortars]

1st Division Engineers
1st, 2nd, 3rd Field Companies (New South Wales; Victoria; Outer States)
1st Signal Company

1st Infantry Brigade
1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th Infantry Battalions (New South Wales)
1st Light Trench Mortar Battery [8 x 3 inch Stokes mortars]

2nd Infantry Brigade
5th, 6th,7th, 8th Infantry Battalions (Victoria)
2nd Light Trench Mortar Battery [8 x 3 inch Stokes mortars]

3rd Infantry Brigade
9th, 10th, 11th, 12th Infantry Battalions (Queensland; South Australia; Western Australia; Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia)
3rd Light Trench Mortar Battery [8 x 3 inch Stokes mortars]

1st Machine gun Battalion [64 x Vickers Machineguns]
1st, 2nd, 3rd, 21st Machine gun Companies

1st Pioneer Battalion

1st Division Medical Services
1st, 2nd, 3rd Field Ambulances (New South Wales; Victoria; Outer States)
2nd Sanitary Section

1st Salvage Section

1st Division Train
1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th Australian Army Service Corps Companies

1st Mobile Veterinary Section

Source and for more information : The AIF Order of Battle.

Private Richard Saxon, 8th Battalion AIF

Private Richard Saxon, 3915, 8th Battalion AIF

Son of Margaret Saxon, 36 St Johns Street, East Brunswick. His father had died by the time he had enlisted.

He was 5’ 10” tall, weighed 12 stone and had brown eyes and black hair.

27th May 1915 He enlisted at East Brunswick, Victoria aged 43 years and 6 months. His occupation is given as a miner.

4th November 1915 he joined the 12th Reinforcements of the 8th Battalion.
29th March 1916 he left Alexandria on the ‘Trannsylvania” for Europe.
4th April 1916 he arrived in Marseilles.
25th June 1916 he joined the entrenching Battalion at Etaples.
14th July 1916 he joined the 8th Battalion.

18 August 1916 Killed in action aged 44.


The Red Cross reports into his death:

“I knew Saxon who was in my platoon. I was told by Corporal de Weir, D Company, 14th Platoon , that he was in charge of a bombing party of whom Saxon was one near Contalmaison about 18th August 1918. He said he had seen Saxon killed and that his body was left. It was at night.” Pte. B.H. Beaton, 1742, 8th Battalion.

He is buried in Pozieres British Cemetery Ovillers-La-Boisselle

Source : National Archives of Australia

Private John Leo Egan, 8th Battalion A.I.F.

Private John Leo Egan, 4779, 8th Battalion A.I.F.

He was the son of William and Mary Egan, of 20, Hopkins Street, Richmond, Victoria, Australia

He was 5’ 5” tall, weighed 9 stone 5 lbs, and had blue eyes and dark hair.

16th November 1915 enlisted at Richmond, Victoria aged 18 years and 7 months. His Occupation at enlistment was Leather Worker.

3rd December 1915 He was placed in 14th Depot Battalion at Ballarat.
13th January 1916 he was moved to the 15th Reinforcements of the 8th Battalion at Broadmeadows.
7th March 1916 embarked on the ‘Wiltshire’
28th May 1916 he embarked from Alexandria for Europe.
4th June 1916 he disembarked at Marseilles.
7th June 1916 he was marched into Etaples.
29th July 1916 he joined the 8th Battalion.

18th August 1916 he was killed in action, aged 19.

The Red Cross reports into his death:

“He was on my gun. Pte. Braybook told me that he was killed. His pay-book and disc were handed in to the office. He was a dark young fellow of about 18 and was in C. Company, Machine Gun Section.” L/Cpl Wilton, 5258, C Company

“He was amote of mine and went into action about August, at or near Pozieres. He was on the same gun as myself, and we both went over the parapet together and we were about hundred yards from the enemy trench, and a shell burst close to us and knocked me into a shell hole and I never saw him after, and the next I heard was that his pay book was found, if so he is dead, but he never suffered any pain because I was in the same shell-hole for about ten minutes, and he could not have been more than ten yards away at the time, when he got killed and I could have heard him.” Pte. L. Braybrook, 5049, 8th Battalion, A.I.F. Machine Gun Section.

“While retiring from an unsuccessful battalion raid when about a third of the way back I saw him struck by Machine Gun fire and killed instantly. His pay-book and disc were brought in with us. He was buried later in the vicinity. Short, slight, fair, clean shaven, about 20.” H. Ladkins, 4317.

“He was killed at Pozieres on the 8th august 1916. I know this because Father O’Heran, the Roman Catholic Chaplain to the Brigade had his pay boo. Somebody had found it on his body and gave it to the padre. Pte. Ladkins, of c. Company Machine Gun Section told me this. I saw Ladkins in April. He was then with the battalion.” Pte. O’Laughlin, 5429, C Company.

He is buried in Pozieres British Cemetery, Ovillers-La-Boisselle.

Source : National Archives of Australia

Sidcup War Memorial, London

I was in Sidcup, London on Saturday and took these Photo's of the War Memorial.

Sidcup War Memorial is a simple yet beautiful monument on the edge of The Green in central Sidcup. The memorial was erected to give thanks to the many brave people who lost their lives during the First and Second World Wars.

The Lochnagar Mine Crater, La Boisselle, France

The Lochnagar mine crater is one of several which remain visible on the Western Front today. In the Somme area, others may be seen at Hawthorn Ridge near Beaumont Hamel and on the edge of High Wood

It is the largest British mine crater on the Western Front, this was one of several mines exploded under the German front line positions on the Somme on 1st July 1916. A charge of 60,000 lbs (26.8 tons) of Ammonal explosive was blown at 7.28am resulting in a crater 90 feet deep and 300 feet across.

Lochnagar Crater, named after the trench from where the main tunnel was started, is now owned by Englishman Richard Dunning. He saved it from being filled in 1978, and now each year on the 1st July a ceremony is held here to remember men of all sides who fell on the Somme in 1916.

Units of the 34th Division attacked the area and the nearby village of La Boisselle on 1st July. This formation contained two whole brigades of ‘Pals’ battalions – the Tyneside Irish and the Tyneside Scottish. They suffered many casualties that day – five battalions losing over 500 men each. Indeed the whole division lost 6,380 that day.

The Dairy of Lieutenant William Pitt of the 8th Battalion, on being relieved after the 1st Australian Division had captured the town of Pozieres and had endured horrendous shelling.

"Thursday July 27th 1916.

We had heard rumours of being relieved today but did not think it was right. However we were agreeably confused when at 2 o/c the 24th battalion (a company) came in to relieve us and we moved out. Thankfully it was very dark and a good night for a relief and we went straight down to the battalion cookers and got a drink of hot tea, the first for some time. We then marched to the place where we first camped. Turned in and had a good sleep and then woke up to find a good meal awaiting us. The battalion has suffered very heavily there only being about 381 of us left after collecting all stragglers. We have had a very trying time and will want a good rest to reorganize before we are fit to fight again. Our CO is nowhere to be seen, I have not seen him since we went into the line. We got our overcoats on the way here last night. We are camped just close to the original Hun line and practically alongside the huge La Boiselle crater. It is 57 feet deep and was blown by 70 tons of ammonal. Perfectly marvellous. Things must have been very lively about here the 1st week in July. We left here about 6 o/c and picked up the rest of the brigade from then on. Arrived at our bivouac about 11 o/c. On the way I met Major Dexter. Issued with blankets and I slept like a log."

Cecil Lewis, then an officer in the Royal Flying Corps, witnessed the explosion of the mine on 1st July from his aircraft high above La Boisselle:

“The whole earth heaved and flared, a tremendous and magnificent column rose up into the sky. There was an ear-splitting roar, drowning all the guns, flinging the machine sideways in the repercussing air. The earth column rose higher and higher to almost 4,000 feet."

The site is now maintained by the Friends of Lochnagar. Their website is found at:
http://www.friendsoflochnagar.co.uk/


Photos: Roger Stoakley at: rjstoakley@btopenworld.com

A Register of Aliens

This story on the home front is about keeping a Register of Aliens. The lady in question, although guilty was given a very lenient fine.

The Mayor must have had some sympathy with her, but the frustration is obviously with the Chief Constable who sent out forms for them to be thrown away!

It appeared in the Eastbourne Gazette on 25th July 1917:

“Boarding House Keeper Fined

Sarah Hill, boarding house keeper, of Marine Parade, was summoned for failing to keep a register of aliens staying at her house on July 12.

Inspector Cunnington gave evidence to the effect that two Belgians subjects were staying at defendant’s house was unable to produce an alien’s register recording the fact.

Defendant said she understood that it was not necessary to register foreign visitors when the customary forms had been filled in and submitted to the police by the aliens themselves.

The Chief Constable mentioned that he received three or four hundred forms a week which were not properly filled in. He also remarked that forms of instruction sent by the police to the boarding house keepers were sometimes relegated to the dustbins.

The Mayor emphasised the necessity for boarding house keepers and others to comply with the regulations and pointed out that defendant had rendered herself liable to a penalty of £100 by the breach. The Bench however, proposed to take a lenient view and imposed a fine of 15 shillings.”