The story of the Munsters at Etreux, Festubert, Rue du Bois and

Transcription

The story of the Munsters at Etreux, Festubert, Rue du Bois and
-IHh
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
ET R E y X
F F S T B RT
.RUE DU B01S VN, HVLLOCH
.iv
Br MRS. F;.
RJCKJRD
•
.V
•
i
*
IJ
h:
THE STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
THE STORY OF
THE MUNSTERS
AT
ETREUX, FESTUBERT,
RUE DU BOIS AND
HULLOCH.
MRS. VICTOR RICKARD
^
"THE
LIGHT ABOVE THE CROSSROADS,
AUTHOR OF "DREGS,' It
"the frantic boast," "the fire OF GREEN BOUGHS "
>)
friTH
AN
INTRODUCTION BY
LORD DUNRAVEN
Honorary
Colonel, ^th
Royal Munster Fusiliert
HODDER AND STOUGHTON
LONDON
NEW YORK
MCMXVIII
TORONTO
DEDICATED TO
VICTOR RICKARD
AND
HIS
MUNSTER
COMRADES
FUSILIERS,
IN
IN ALL
RANKS OF THK
WHO FOUGHT AND
FELL
THE GREAT WAR, I914-15
" One who never turned
his
back but marched breast
forward,
Never doubted clouds would break,
Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong
would triumph,
Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, sleep
to wake."
The shamrock, which forms part of the cap badge of the
Royal Munsler Fusiliers, was first introduced, in February
1915, by Lieut. -Colonel Rickard, in the Second Battalion,
with the object of giving a distinctively Irish emblem to
all
ranks of the
Regiment.
battalions of the Munsters.
It
is
now worn by
all
the
PREFACE
I
SHOULD
like to express
officers of the
also
my
thanks to the
Royal Munster Fusiliers, and
and relatives who have
to the friends
helped me to collect and arrange this book.
In the following accounts of the engagements of Etreux, Festubert, Rue du Bois
and Hulloch,
I
do not wish
to appear as an historian
;
in
any sense
that task awaits
and more qualified hands.
follows has been threaded together as
What
far abler
men who gave
and who were brave
a little
tribute to the
their lives for
an Ideal,
Great War.
soldiers in the
The
first
three chapters of this
book ap-
peared
in
New
of
5,
and were shortly afterwards
191
Ireland during the
summer
re-
published by that paper, together with the
supplementary letters, as The Story of the
Munsiers.
A
second
impression was
sold
PREFACE
vi
out by the end of the year, since when no
copies of the book have been obtainable.
The new
features of the present edition are
the historical
Introduction specially written
by Lord Dunraven, to whom my best
thanks are due, and the four pictures and
account of the
the
Munsters
at
Hulloch
which have already appeared in The Sphere.
Mr. Clement Shorter, has a
Its Editor,
special claim to the lasting gratitude of the
Munster
Fusiliers for the deep interest he
has always
ment
;
shown
and
illustrations,
is
Regi-
his permission that the
by
which add incalculably to the
here reproduced.
thanks are also offered to Mr. Geddes,
slender
My
it
in all records of the
story
itself,
are
who
has designed the colour plate on the
cover, and brought into the book a sense of
the traditions which surround the regimental
flags.
L. RiCKARD.
INTRODUCTION
The
origin
of
Royal Munster
the
Fusiliers, like that of those other great
Irish Regiments, the Dublins and the
Leinsters,
is
inextricably
bound up with
movements of Imperial expansion which took place in the eighteenth century.
Of the Leinsters one
battalion was originally raised in Canada
those great
and
Both regular
were raised in
Like them, the ist and 2nd Batof the
Royal Munsters (before
another
in
India.
battalions of the Dublins
India.
talions
the
Caldwell reconstruction the loist
and 104th Foot) were originally regiments in the army of the East India
Company,
raised
out
of
British-born
volunteers in India and only taken over
as part of the British
when the
Army
vii
INTRODUCTION
viii
control of India passed
pany to the Crown.
from the ComIt
is
for
this
reason that on the grenade which, in
with other Fusilier battaHons,
is worn
by the Munsters the royal tiger
common
of India
is
superimposed.
present war, with the
exception of the notable service performed by the ist Battalion in South
Until
Africa,
the
all
the
battle
honours of the
Regiment come from India
or the sur-
The
regimental
rounding
countries.
colours record service for the ist Battalion at the following actions:
Plassey,
Condore, Masulipatam, Badara, Buxar,
Rohilcund, Carnatic, Sholinghur, GuKerat,
Deig,
Bhurtpore,
Afghanistan,
Ghuznee, Ferozeshah, Sobraon, Pegu,
Delhi,
Lucknow and Burmah
for the
2nd Battalion,
raised as
see eighty years after the
first,
;
we
while
shall
there arc
the Punjaub, Chillianwallah, Goojerat,
Pegu and Delhi. To trace these records
INTRODUCTION
ix
would be to write the history
by which we acquired our
in detail
of the steps
Indian Empire.
They explain sufficithe
ently (with
regimental origin in
the Company's forces) why there were
no Munsters
The
in the
Napoleonic wars.
ist Battalion
from
existence
dates
its
22nd
the
corporate
December,
1756, when Clivc, who had just returned
to India and was about to
begin the most
glorious epoch of his career, raised it
under the title of the Bengal European
The Regiment
Regiment.
his
in
army
at
fought in
Plassey and Condore and
every action of that war up to the
great victory of
In 1779
it
Buxar
was sent
October 1764.
in
to the
Presidency of
Madras and under Eyre Coote fought
at
Windeywash
under
wars
then,
;
;
in
1794
in
Abercrombey
it
was present
after
Army, by
the
the
it
the
took part
Rohilla
(being known
fashion of the India
name
of
its
Colonel^
INTRODUCTION
X
Clark's
Corps)
in 1808.
Macao
the
at
occupation
of
In 1839 it served in
when out of volunteers
Afghanistan,
it
the 104th
2nd Battalion
Regiment (now the
Royal Munster Fusiliers)
was formed.
It
for
in the
served with distinction
Sikh War, and
services
was
as a
The
the
at
Regiment
the dignity of a
colours carried by
this
fiercest
period hang in
went through
engagements of the
Winchester Cathedral.
the
its
raised to
fusilier corps.
all
reward for
It
Mutiny and was present at the siege
and capture of Lucknow.
In 1861 it
went under the Crown and becam.e the
loist
liers).
in
Regiment (Royal Bengal FusiFrom 1868 to 1874 it served
England, then abroad again, and in
1883 became the
ist
Battalion
Royal
had the
distinction of being sent to South Africa
from Fermoy before mobilisation, being
Munster
Fusiliers.
the
home regiment
first
In 1899
to
it
go out
to
INTRODUCTION
xi
served with great distinction in Lord Methuen's force at Bel-
the war.
It
mont, and afterwards on the march
Pretoria, and in the latter period
the war
mounted
supplied a
to
of
infantry
battalion.
The
history of the 2nd Battalion is
Formed
shorter, but no less glorious.
during the
first
Afghan War
out of surplus volunteers for
Battalion,
it
took
in
in
1839
its
sister
the
great
victory of Chillianwallah, went through
the Burmese War 1851-53, and in the
Mutiny was
part
stormed Delhi.
into
the
part
of
the force
In 1861
line as the
it
which
was brought
104th Regiment,
but served for ten years more in India
before it came home. In i 887 it joined
the Second Burmah Expedition, and
with great
distinction in the South African War in
Natal, and later under Lord Kitchener
like the ist Battalion served
in
the
Transvaal
and
Cape
Colony.
INTRODUCTION
xii
The 2nd
Battalion
was sent
France
to
the present war.
beginning
It suffered very
severely and has been
at
the
of
reinforced by the 3rd, 4th and 5th Battalions.
The ist, 6th and 7th Battalions
have
served
I
St
Dardanelles,
evacuation of
the
after
the
at
Battalion
went
to
Gallipoli
France.
and
the
They
suffered heavy losses.
Both
on the Western front and in the East
have
also
the Regiment has splendidly maintained
its ancient renown.
To go further into
modern
history
would be
to
trespass
upon Mrs. Victor Rickard's admirable
I write these few lines about
pages.
the
origin
they
may
of
the
Regiment because
be interesting to her readers.
We
must not forget that though the
bones come from Bengal, the blood and
sinews
as
an
Irish
regiment that the Munsters
are
cele-
brated in these pages.
Irishmen
are
Irish.
who have won
its
It
new
is
It
is
battle honours.
INTRODUCTION
xiii
men and women who have
suffered, Irishmen who have triumphed
The record of the Regiin the field.
It is
ment
Irish
is
splendid, and I
am
proud to
sign myself
DUNRAVEN,
Hon.
Col. ^th Battalion^
Royal Munster
Fusiliers.
CONTENTS
FAGB
THE STAND OF THE MUNSTERS AT ETREUX
.
I
THE MUNSTERS AT FESTUBERT
,
,
.17
THE MUNSTERS AT RUE DU
.
,
-32
.
-45
THE MUNSTERS AT HULLOCH
BOIS
...
THE STAND AT ETREUX
55
APPENDIX
67
XV
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
THE MUNSTERS AT ETREUX
{Drawn by Christopher Clark) To face page t
6
MAJOR p. A CHARRiER {Photograph)
„
THE MUNSTERS AT FESTUBERT
„
{Drawn by Philip Dadd)
17
LT.-COL. A. M. BENT, C.M.G.
{Photograph)
LT.-COL. G.
J.
RYAN,
D.s.o. {Photograph)
„
24
„
28
THE LAST ABSOLUTION AT RUE DU
BOIS
LT.-COL.
CAPT.
J.
.
{Draivn by F. Matania)
G H. RiCKARD {Photograph)
CAMPBELL-DICK {Photograph)
V.
„
34
„
38
„
40
,,
45
THE MUNSTERS AT HULLOCH
{Draivn by F. Matania)
w. CONSIDINE {Photograph)
MAJOR J.
„
49
MAPS TO ILLUSTRATE THE STAND OF
THE MUNSTERS AT ETREUX {Sketch A) page 57
{Sketch B)
„
63
OFFICERS OF THE 2ND RL. MUNSTER
FUSILIERS,
MAY 1915 {Photograph) To/acepage66
TVl
THE STAND OF THE
MUNSTERS AT ETREUX
August 21 th^ 19 14
(WHICH TOOK. PLACE DURING
THE RETREAT
FROM MONS)
"Then lift the flag
And fill the ranks
March on
And
of the
crusade,
where the world's remade
to the fields
the ancient dreams
"A
last
of the last brigade,
Song of the
Kettle.
come
Irish
true."
By T. M.
Armies."
On
the 13th of August, 19 14, the 2nd
Battalion Royal Munster Fusiliers left
Aldershot on their
destination "
to an
way
somewhere
unknown
in France."
The Expeditionary Force was
as
ing forward,
wrote, towards
and he
B
also
one
"a
added,
jolly
"
the
of
in
some
reachofficers
Belgium,"
of us
will
2
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
not come back."
The same joy that
was with Garibaldi and his thousand
when they went forth to the redemption
and gallant race, went, we
all know, with the men of the First
Division.
Each one knew that an hour
of
a small
lay ahead
when
great issues were to be
joined, and the Munsters were proud to
feel that the chance was with them to
add to the records of their Regimental
history.
The
Battalion
embarked
at
South-
ampton, and the transport steamed out
shortly after noon, arriving at Le Havre
at 3 a.m. on the 14th of August.
From
there they marched to a rest camp on
the ridge west of Harfleur, where they
August, and
marched to Havre,
remained until the i6th
once
more they
of
where they entrained for the concentraOn Sunday,
tion area at Le Nouvion.
the 17th, Le Nouvion was crowded with
French troops, and the townsfolk, wild
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
3
with enthusiasm, welcomed the Munsters, and from thence the Regiment
marched to Bouey, three miles distant
from Etreux. The dawn of the 22nd of
August saw the Battalion on the road
again, marching towards Mons.
All of this is now like the
fragment
of a dream, and the
who
marched
troops
and sang are many of them on
the
further side of the
boundary but still
the memory remains,
though the rows
and ranks of men are gone, and, like
the clerk in the old story, " Come to
;
Oxford and
"
It's
A
•
their friends
a long
way
to
Tipperary,
•••..
long wa-ay
to go."
All round and about
a village
no more."
near the
Chapeau Rouge,
river
Sambre, and
not far from Le Cateau, the
country is
a bower of
green hedgerows in the
month of August. In
ordinary times,
when
trenches, deeper than any grave.
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
4
and wire entanglements, and
devastation
of
war
cut up into small
is
fields
not,
a
all
the
country-
has an intimate
It
and friendly look.
suggests little
things, and is small and near and has
none
of the
sudden desolation of open
space, stretching empty to the sky line.
But what is beautiful in times of peace
may
moment become
one
in
terrible
time of war, and the little hedgerows
cost Ireland dear on the morning of
in
the 27th of August,
1
The morning broke
and
of
the
distant
in
were placed
to
the
as the
sullen
electric
and
coming storm
vibrated
9 14.
air.
and heavy,
premonition
coming
The
battle
Munsters
Right Battalion, next
them came the Coldstream,
further
on the Scots Guards, with the Black
Watch
in
reserve.
The
frontage
of
the Munsters extended from Chapeau
Rouge, where the roads crossed, to
another
cross
roads north
of
Fesmy.
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
5
Major Charrier (commanding the Munhad explicit orders to hold the
sters)
above
cross
roads
unless
or until
retire.
Dawn
Chapeau
he received
found
Rouge,
orders
to
men
of
the
B Company, commanded by Captain
Simms, busily
digging
and
trenches
strengthening their position, w^hile the
air
was comparatively
cool.
The German
attack was expected in
the course of the morning, and B Com-
pany was
the
first
Battalion to receive
its
of
company
baptism of
the
fire.
For men whose record shows them
proud, fiery, and dashing soldiers, the
task alloted to
one.
It
B Company was no
was necessary that
easy
their posi-
at last the
crackle and rattle of
when
German
musketry
broke
of
tion should
be kept secret, and
the
tension
this
waiting, the Company holding the outThe German patrol,
post did not reply.
whose business it was to locate their
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
6
an intermittent fire,
position, kept up
and the small handful of Irish did the
hardest
thing
of
waited.
The
lulls
all
one upon the other
them
for
— they
and bursts followed
;
tremendous echoes
of sound, and the
repeated the volleys
swinging shrill of flying bullets con-
tinued overhead, punctuated
now and
of intense quiet.
again by spells
midsummer
the
Suddenly
storm
broke with a violence that is indeTorrents of drenching rain
scribable.
soaked the
men
to the skin
and in the vortex of
in the trenches,
the
storm the
the
"
attack.
and collected
Germans advanced
In
one
moment
it
to
was
War, war, bloody war," and the first
onslaught fell upon B Company, and
D Company (commanded by Captain
Jervis)
with
Lieutenant R.
Lieutenant
fierce
and
W. Thomas.
The Munsters
with
Crozier
repelled
the
attack
determination, and the
little
Major
and Royal Munster
P. A.
Charrier
head of his Battalion
Mons, August 27th, 1914
Fusiliers, killed at the
at Etreux, near
Record of Service — West Africa, 1900 — Operations in Ashanti, slightly
wounded Despatches, London Gazette, 8th March, 1901. South African War,
—
1902 Employed with Imperial Yeomanry operations in Cape Colony, May,
—
1902.
Queen's Medal, with two clasps. East Africa, 1903-4 Operations in
Somaliland on Staff (as Special Service Officer). Employed on Transport (from
November, 1903). Medal, with clasp.
:
;
[To face p.
6.
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
fields
7
Chapeau Rouge became
and terrible memory,
around
a place of violent
men
held doggedly to their
position until the order came to withdraw a mile to the rear. B Company
but
the
was
at
this
detailed
point
to
act
as
guard on the east, where
was hottest, and in en-
right flank
the attack
deavouring to carry out this order, they
from the flank by the
thick green hedgerows, and so to them
were cut
'
off
came the adventure
little
battle of their
The
of
own.
continued
rain
maintaining a
and
mud
the
grew deep, and very slowly and without
loss
heavy
B Company
back
fell
through Fesmy, fighting through the
small wide street until it rejoined the
Battalion
on
the
further side.
had shaken the Germans
moment
in
spite
of
their
off
They
for
the
immensely
superior numbers, and had done most
After a short delay Major
gallantly.
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
8
them
Charrier sent
of the
to
take the head
column and march
to
Oisy
as
advance guard.
The day continued showery for some
hours, with occasional drenching bursts,
,
men cared nothing for the discomfort of soaked clothes.
It has been
but the
Power
decreed by the
destiny of
call
of
a
men and
vital essence of
desired
file
it
morning the actual
was touched by the
;
of the
as
safety
marching men,
condition
a
give
to
has never entered very
into the Celtic vision of
in
that the
makes the heart of
There was real adventure
in their lives that
abstract
nations
bugle
Ireland glad.
rank and
that rules the
those
what
moments when
be
much
can
life
it
for
is
at
its best.
From Fesmy
the
Munsters pushed
on
to Etreux, there to join the
that town.
body of
troops holding
main
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
Up
9
the wide road
where the bridge
the curve of the river
at
Oisy spans
Sambre, and some miles from where
the Munsters were retiring towards
Etreux, about sixty
talion,
up
of
the
Bat-
under Captain Emerson, took
their position,
road.
men
hoping
They were here
the Coldstream Guards,
to hold the
reinforced by
who were en-
deavouring to get into touch with the
Munsters, now separated from them
by
five miles of road,
enemy were advancing
To
the
meadow
upon which the
rapidly.
near
the
bridge
where the Munsters were collected an
orderly carrying a dispatch came up at
about three
The time
o'clock in
of
the
the afternoon.
dispatch
was
not
marked upon the message, which was
to
order the
once."
The
Munsters to
orderly
who
retire
" at
carried
the
message had, he said, been chased by
the enemy, and after
lying hidden for
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
10
time under the nearest cover, believed
that it was not possible for him to
a
bring the
message through to Major
Charrier.
incident
this
Upon
the
tragedy of the whole day turned. Time
had been lost, time too precious ever
the exclusive supremacy is
to regain
;
nearly always a question of minutes.
Colonel Ponsonby decided that
was
best to retire the Coldstreams
the handful of Munsters
it
and
who were with
them, and these were joined some miles
back by Captain Woods and seventy
men, who had fallen back to the Guise
road.
•
•
The
and
river
winds
•
•
Sambre
past
is
•
•
of curves,
and Etreux.
full
Fesmy
Just along the right bank there runs a
railway line, turning through a deep
cutting into the station of Etreux.
From
before
there, the old
the
you
or
I
war could have
who
lived
travelled
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
ii
comfortably across three frontiers in a
In this pastoral
few short hours.
country, surrounded at evening by the
softness of rising damp, stands Etreux,
but none of the wandering fortunes of
anyone back to
look at the same picture any more.
When the Munsters marched onlife
ever
will
carry
wards the early evening was bright
again, and the heavy clouds had rolled to
The
westward.
little
environs stretched
a few houses, a
out along the road
cabaret, an orchard bright with cider
;
apples,
some already
under the
trees
;
collected in piles
further again another
proud house, bigger than the rest, and
then streets, a palisade of trees and a
All this seen at a glance, where
the road passed the railway cutting ;
spire.
month of August war had
made France hag-ridden and
Near to the railway cutting,
for in the
not yet
•desolate.
and
on
the
rise
of
ground
a
cross
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
12
marked
a
number
of tiny lath crosses stuck into
turn to a side road, and a
the grass signified that the good folk
Etreux carried their dead that way.
the high cross was written
of
Beneath
"Ave Crux
fell
Spes Unica," and its shadow
over the road, dividing the Munsters
from the
village like the
boundary of
a
frontier.
Within
buildings, a
few yards of the outlying
sudden burst of rifle and
artillery fire
swept through the ranks of
a
the Regiment, informing
them
finally
and terribly that they were cut
The men
B Company
rallied
off.
magnificently, and
at once.
Led by
extended
Captain Simms, they went forward to
attack the enemy's main position, which
was in the loopholed house that domi-
nated the road.
was held
D
in force
The
railway cutting
the
Germans, and
by
Company, commanded by Captain
Jervis,
and covered by the steady
rifle
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
fire
of the
men
the
fields
on
rushed
man
the
save
attempt
;
by one of
in position
the
side
railway
13
the
of
road,
Every
cutting.
two were shot down
in the
Lieutenant Crozier, showing
the greatest gallantry, crossed a narrow
lane, and exposing himself recklessly to
the enemy's
are
come
;
fire,
shouted,
"There they
on, men," and
The
instantaneously.
ketry, the booming of
rattle
fell,
killed
of
mus-
guns speaking
the air itself
terribly, was everywhere
vibrated and the ghastly transformation
;
which men call war, continued. Everywhere the dead lay in huddled heaps,
and the wounded with grey faces tried
to rise, or crawled ini
little
maimed agony
a
further on to die.
Bit
by
bit the shattered
the Battalion
fell
remnant of
back into the orchard,
where Captain Chute brought the
machine guns along the road under a
hail of lead, and placed them in posi-
14
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
tion.
He
was wounded
in
the
side,
and immediately afterwards was killed
by another bullet.
Led by Major Charrier, the Munsters
charged and charged again, against the
enveloping force which now circled
them around with a ring of fire, drop-
ping
rier,
and
Major Charwho was twice wounded, steadily
shells
bullets.
continued the direction of the action.
He
was standing by one of the guns
which had been put out of action when
Gower came and reported
to him, just about sunset.
Once more
he rallied the men to the charge, and
Lieutenant
mortally wounded,
crossed the road.
he
fell
as
they
Incident by incident the later stages
of the heroic stand developed as the
hours passed on, and ammunition could
only be renewed by taking what was left
on the dead and dying, and moment after
moment gave
fresh hostages to death.
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
Slowly and
came
onslaught gathered
many sounds of battle
and the
force,
twilight
German
the
as
dreadfully the
15
rose and rose around the men who,
with the Battalion thinned to less than
half their fighting forces,
the massed battalions of
diers
still
Munsters gave themcourage and lavishness,
with
and
strong
unconsciously
Once more they charged, and
of
seas
crushed
uncounted
and
broke
who were
enemy's
troops
left to
surrender.
all
was the
•••••
last.
•
told
is
that the
said that
men had
bravely
it
back
splendid.
the great
them and forced
So the bitterest hour of
It
sol-
but the
;
selves
those
resisted
German
;
is
to their
German
ofHcers
never fought more
also said
that they sent
headquarters for a chap-
bury the Irish dead.
Major Charrier and eight
lain to
officers of
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
i6
the
Munsters were
buried
men were
trench where the
though we
call
them
the
where
But
great fight.
under the shadow of the
they had fought their
near
laid to rest,
trees
dead,
we know
that the spirit that is strong and cheerful, and that has added to the page of a
nation's
outlives
history,
untimely endings.
The
all
so-called
finished work,
the completed undertaking, is not for
many in the story of this great war,
and it is not a little thing but a fine
deed, to have left a record that betters
the honourable traditions of the Royal
Munster
"
Fusiliers.
Dying ye
die greatly with a
surpass the glories of
shall
glory that shall
the past."
The Munsters at Festubert
December 22nd, 1914
Drawn by Phthp Dadd.]
[To tace
p. 17.
THE MUNSTERS AT
FESTUBERT
December 22nd^ ^9^\-
" Your ashes o'er the flats of France are
scattered,
But hold a fire more hot than flesh of ours.
The stainless flag that flutters frayed and tattered,
Shall wave and wave like spring's immortal
flowers.
You die, but in your
You shall not know
death
the
life
grows intenser,
shame of growing old.
In endless joy you wave the holy censer,
And blow
a
trumpet
though your
Dead."
By Edmund
lips
are
cold."
"
To Our
Gosse.
On
the evening of the 20th December,
19 14, the 2nd Battalion Royal Munstcr
Fusiliers,
commanded by Colonel A. M.
Bent, were billeted in
Bailleul.
in
They were
the farm
c
the outskirts of
scattered
about
houses and barns, in the
17
1
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
8
narrow, yellow-plastered chateaus, that
draughts from all the
corners of the country, and in the little
in
let
villa
all
the
houses on the threshold of Bailleul
itself.
Up to that time Bailleul had escaped
from the destruction of falling shells,
and only the far-away boom of guns
made war very strongly evident
that
;
and the masses of British troops and the
passing of motor transport, divorced
it
dreaming quiet of a few
months back. The weather was in-
from
old
its
an icy west wind came
frozen flats, and drove the
tensely cold
over
the
;
tearing
rain-storms
covered
fens.
out
of
the
mist-
The Regiment had been some weeks
in
billets,
re-equipping
and
training,
going steadily through the process by
which freshly drafted youngsters are
made
into fine soldiers.
was unusually
gifted
Colonel Bent
with the quality
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
that inspires men
of central control
19
to realise the value
;
and
his personality
indomitable will made for an influence
that
the hundreds of
command
responded
men under
to
his
instinctively.
fought with him at
Ypres and elsewhere have testified to
Many
of those w^ho
this.
Previous to December 20th the Bat"
talion had been "
standing by
ready to
move at the shortest notice, but on the
morning of December 20th a message
was received from Brigade Headquarters
to the effect that the Battalion need
no
so normal,
longer be held in readiness
semi-peace conditions reigned. They
;
were, however, not destined to enjoy
these conditions for long, nor to turn
their thoughts towards the
completion
of Christmas festivities, for at
an
urgent message was
Colonel Bent that the
to
5
received
p.m.
by
3rd Brigade,
which the Battalion belonged, was
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
10
to
be
ready
march "
to
as
soon
as
possible."
was quite dark when the order
came, and though the men were scatIt
tered in their billets, at 6.15 p.m.
the
Munsters were
place
out into
the
them
the
Brigade,
stormy
dream
many
in
their
in
and marching
darkness.
Behind
of
the
Christmas vanished like so
Reality took its place, a
a road ankle deep in mud,
dreams.
reality of
a tearing blizzard of rain
and
hail,
and a
black drenching tempest to face with
bent heads.
For
six
hours the Battalion marched
forward until
at
Merville a halt was
and in an empty factory there
was rest and shelter for the drenched
called
;
and weary men.
There was no
sign
anywhere
of
it
any promise of day in the sky
might have been the commencement
;
of
eternal
night and of eternal dark-
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
21
when the Munsters stood to arms.
The men were heavy with their four
ness
hours' sleep, heavy, too, with their load
ammunition and equipment. They
left the factory behind them and took
of
the sodden road, and at
grey
dawn
broke,
cleared
slowly
and
from
the ashen
last
the
the
landscape
shadow
of
night, but the rain never ceased nor
and the sound of the heavy
lessened
'*
" business
told that the
;
as usual
guns
war had begun
of the
At
8
again.
a.m., outside Bethune, the Bat-
talion halted again awaiting orders, the
sitting or lying in the mud
men
along
the roadside, keeping as cheerful as cir-
With his
permit.
cheerfulness and
energy,
cumstances would
unwavering
Colonel Bent worked against the conditions of the weather and the
hardships
his men were
undergoing, affecting
everyone with his
own courage and
dis-
pelling the despondency of weariness,
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
22
which
can
one of the hardest things
is
A
face.
human
battle
itself
calls
characteristics of dash
and
but weariness
rain
and
man
a
up the
and
fight,
mud
are
cruel adversaries, fought at a disadvanIt is in those hours that most of
tage.
all
the magnetism of personality
issue
Afterwards, when
longer doubtful and
value.
superb
is
no
is
of
the
the
is over, and the definite,
conspicuous end gained, it is easy for anyone to
raise a cheer
but sitting in the liquid
battle
;
mud, weary and very cold, it takes a
strong heart and the truest kind of pluck
to rise above it all.
By
p.m. orders were received that
3
the Battalion was to occupy the trenches
at
Festubert vacated by the Indian
the leading
Brigade deployed
and shortly after the Third
Brigade were placed on the left of the
First Guards Brigade.
This Brigade
troops
;
for attack,
consisted of the 2nd
Welsh Regiment,
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
23
Gloucesters, supported by the
Munsters, the ist South Wales Borderers,
the
and
I
St
the
Royal Welsh
4th
(Territorial).
Fusiliers
After the issue of these
orders the Brigade resumed
its
through Gorre
Battalion remained
where the
to Festubert,
in
march,
reserve, but
on
the night of the 21st received orders
that there was to be a general attack
upon the German line.
All the night of the 21st the Munsters
waited, and all the night of the 21st it
rained and snowed and stormed.
The
pitch
darkness of
a
night of
waiting is a memorable experience,
even when there are many such to
There
the curious feeling of
loneliness common to all humans out in
record.
is
The bright smoke of fires
the night.
over the land behind the parapets of the
German trenches made will-o'-the-wisp
columns
of misty
light
;
sometimes
a
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
24
star
shell
shot
up, lighting the place
like day, and sometimes the crack of a
rifle tore the dark and
spattered in the
mud
of the
trench.
come much
they do
almost
and death
Life
the night than
day time, and the whole
intolerable mystery of war is
closer
in
in the
intensified a thousandfold.
the sullen
dawn
Very slowly
broke, as if
unwilling
to reveal the sights that
night clothed
over, and the sodden fields and the barns
and farmsteads stood out blackly against
the grey.
The green and yellowish
water lying over the flats was frozen,
and the dead were very
in pathetic
visible,
lying
heaps amid the refuse of a
thousand unexpected things. The
weary
desolation of dawn over French Flanders
passes
The
light,
all
description.
noise grew with the
and
the
morning
boom and bang
of
heavy crashes grew fiercer, until the
hour arrived when the Battalion,
Lteutenant-Colonel a. M. Bent, C.M.G.
2nd Royal Munster
Fusiliers, dangerously
wounded
at Festubert,
22nd December, 19 14
—
—
South African War, 1902 Operations in the TransRecord of Service
January to April, 1902. Queen's Medal, with three clasps. North-West
:
vaal,
Frontier of India,
—
igoS Operations
in
Mohmand
Country.
Medal with
clasp.
[To face
p. 24.
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
led
by Colonel Bent,
started
to
25
the
attack.
The men swarmed
and raced across the
over the parapets
fields,
carrying their
heavy equipment and following their
officers over the shell-scarred, churncdStrands of barbed wire beset
earth.
up
way, and the ground was broken
by great shell-holes. Before them, from
the German trenches, the machine guns
their
hammered
welcome
;
out their deadly message of
and the men went gamely
on,
most splendidly
fell
across the
led by their officers.
Second
in Command,
Major Thomson,
first
German
removed
orders from where
would not permit himself
to
issue
trench, but
to be
;
continuing
he lay, he was wounded again, the second
wound proving fatal. He met his death
unvanquished and unappalled, and his
name remains bound in with the great
Colonel Bent
story of the Regiment.
in
the
earlier
of
fell
the charge.
part
26
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
desperately
wounded
killed a little later,
gallantry
a
;
Major Day was
showing the greatest
;
and Captain
Hugh
O'Brien,
Irish officer beloved by his
young
men, and who had been proved
War
South African
to
in the
possess unusual
dash and coolness, fell as he shouted to
" Get a bit of
his company,
your own
Not twenty yards from
back, boys.'^
where Captain O'Brien fell Captain
Durand met his death. He had joined
the 3rd Battalion Royal Munster Fusiliers in
1906, having served through the
Mashonaland camhe died
the Rhodesian Horse
Matabeleland
paigns in
and
;
most nobly, leading
at
the extreme point
made by C Company,
enfilading fire. The sorrow
of the advance
under
fierce
and the heroism of such death
by the great enduring
Men
is
touched
light of glory.
on the right and left, and
again and again they rallied and stumbled
over the broken ground, holding steadily
fell
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
27
on under the wail of tearing shrapnel,
and at last the Munsters reached their
goal, the given point
;
and in the
fierce
counter attack they did not lose an inch
of
what they had taken.
So the day passed, and the wounded lay
out under the cruel lash of the sleet and
the bitter wind.
Not one man
returned
some wounded
to Headquarters, except
who
The
straggled in, dazed and bleeding.
chorus of the field guns, and the
detonation of the great guns, and the
crack, crack of
rifle
fire
went on per-
Lyddite and high explosives
sistently.
rained through the murky evening, and
no orders were issued that reached
the Munster Fusiliers.
They had gone
out, as is their way, to do their bit, and
still
had disappeared into the
behind the night.
;
nothingness
and great flashes lit the
those pale, awful gleams of super-
Darkness
dark
vast
civilisation
fell,
swept over the ghastly land.
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
28
The enemy's
search-lights were feeHng
after the mutilated
and wounded, showing up the stretcher bearers and Red
Cross dressers, and as each slow beam
swung
in
its
followed
lead
deadly course, a hail of
it, bearing death on its
coming.
In
a big
dyke and
yawning gap
mud
of
bog and
the Munsters held on,
unassisted, supports
having
The
failed.
Companies were lying out under
fire,
pinned to the ground, and with nearly
all
their officers killed or
still
wounded, they
•••••
held on.
•
Major Julian Ryan, D.S.O., who had
gone back to Brigade Headquarters on
the morning of the 22nd, to arrange
about ammunition and transport, as he
himself in a
trouble
when " the
put
it
" sized
up
Regiment
into nothingness."
left a record of the
peared
who
letter,
"
It
disap-
was he
work done
Lieutenant-Colonel G. J. Ryan, D.S.O.
2nd Royal Munster Fusiliers, killed near Festubert,
January 23rd, 1 91 5
Record of Service :— South African War, iSgg-igor — Employed with the
Mounted Infantry, advance on Kimberley, including actions at Belmont and
Modder River operations in the Transvaal from June to 29th November, 1900
operations in Cape Colony, operations in the Transvaal, 30th November, 1900,
to March, 1901
operations in Orange River Colony, March to June, 1901.
—
Despatches, London Gazette, loth September, 1901 Vaal, June to 29th NovemQueen's Medal and five clasps, D.S.O.
ber, 1900; operations in Cape Colony.
;
;
;
—
Soudan, 1905 Operations against the Nyam-Nyam tribes in Bafir-el-Gazel
Province
Egyptian Medal
Despatches, London Gazette, i8th May, 1906.
Soudan, 1906 Operations at Talodi in Southern Kordofan Clasp to
Clasp.
Egyptian Medal. Soudan, igo6 Operations in Blue Nile Province. Promoted
Temporary Lieutenant-Colonel, London Gazette, 22nd January, 1915.
[To fact p. 28.
;
—
—
—
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
by the
whose
six
men
29
of the search party to
return of a
own, the safe
single man of the Munster
Fusihers
chiefly due.
efforts,
is
as
to his
Having reported
at
Brigade Head-
quarters, and having received the reply
that no help could be given. Major
Ryan
split
his
men
into
patrols
At
of
two and sent them out.
p.m.,
when it was very dark and the enemy's
fire
unceasing, the men, whose names,
unfortunately, are not recorded, came
8
"Very few officers left
many casualties; Colonel wounded; two
back reporting
senior
Majors
:
;
killed.
Send
orders."
Major Ryan, fully aware that daybreak
would see the end of the gallant Battalion if nothing were done, redoubled his
efforts.
" It was 10 o'clock before the
Brigadier's orders got to me to get orders out
to the Battalion to retire,
then
I
and even by
had not a single unwounded
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
30
man
the four companies that
7 a.m. to show me
left of all
had gone out
at
where they had got
called
on
them
at
to.
Once more
I
trusty six who had located
dusk, and sent them out in
my
three parties, again with definite orders
to come back to me at a certain point
where I was alone but for a few stray
men and no
officers.
By midnight,
to
got the remnant of the four
companies in, worn out and starved, as
my
relief, I
their officers
had
in the advance.
to
follow
volunteers
my
and many men,
All they could do was
fallen
guides
and took
in.
I
called for
a party out
with
and got some wounded in,
drew blank for the Colonel and
stretchers
but
Major Thomson. The Adjutant had
come in unwounded, but dead beat, and
could not say where the Colonel was.
"At 2 a.m., or nearly 3, I went
round and collected the exhausted non-
commissioned
officers
who had come
in,
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
31
called for volunteers again, and put the
machine-gun
party
wounded.
done under
All
fire.
.
.
and more than
all,
do
The
charge.
carrying the Colonel
the rescue work was
officer
returned
in
The Regiment did
all, that men could
,
they played up splendidly.
never known men do so much.
;
I
have
I
am
very proud of them."
A
few weeks
officer of the
later
most
Major Ryan, an
promise and
was
killed
striking personality,
by a
of the
sniper, to the great sorrow
Battalion.
brilliant
THE MUNSTERS AT
RUE DU BOIS
May
"
()th^
1915.
She, beyond shelter or station,
She beyond limit or bar,
Urges to slumberless speed
Armies that famish and bleed,
Giving
That
That
their lives for her seed.
their dust
their souls
may
may
re-build her a Nation,
re-light her a star."
A. C. Swinburne.
About
of Neuve
mile from the market-place
Chapelle, and above Festubert
a
and Givenchy,
street
lying
is
east
the
Rue du
Bois, a
and west, some
500
yards behind the British trenches. Last
year the bells of Neuve Chapelle sent
the sound swinging over the little distance, but the pounding of the shells
32
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
and enemy
of friend
33
the
alike, silenced
when war let loose the great
stream of human blood and human
The Rue was once a thoroughtears.
bells,
fare
for
early
carts
and other
traffic
going towards the Distillery on the
Violaines Road, and had been built
one
according to the Roman system
—
houses
of
line
straight
all
built
to-
Along this street the carts
used to pass, coming up from Richebourg St. Vaast and Richebourg Avoue,
gether.
1'
and going on by the road that leads to
The Rue du
distant Lille.
a
sad
have
place,
fallen,
for
Bois
is
now
the
chimney-stacks
and the roofs and walls
gape desolately.
Changed times for
since
the
France
early carts went by,
and a changed world for many of us.
On
8th,
the
19
1
5,
evening of
the
2nd
Saturday,
Royal
May
Munster
commanded by Colonel Victor
Rickard, were on their way to take
Fusiliers,
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
34
their place in the trenches in front of
Rue du
Bois
;
with them was Father
Francis Gleeson, whose name is known
throughout the whole of Munster. It
was
a
a clear spring evening, dark
green
sky,
the
orchards
under
through
the country heavy with blossom, their
scent
The
recalling
manifold
poplar trees,
many
recollections.
of
them
shell-
scarred and broken, were very still in
the windless twilight, dark spires against
the clear clean sky.
At the entrance
to
the
Rue du
Bois
there
stands
a
broken shrine, and within the shrine
is
a crucifix.
When
Munsters came up the
road, Colonel Rickard halted the BatThe men were ranged in three
talion.
the
square, their green flags,
embroidered with the Irish harp and
a
from
the word "
sides
of
a
Munster,"
gift
Lady
Gordon, placed before each Company.
Father Gleeson mounted, Colonel Rick-
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
35
ard and Captain Filgate, the
Adjutant
on their chargers, were in the centre,
and in that wonderful twilight Father
Gleeson gave a General Absolution. To
some
" vitam
present, very certainly, the
ceternam
manifest,
"
was intensely and beautifully
the
day-spring of Eternity
" Miseratur
vestri Omni-
very near.
potens Deus, et dimissis peccatis vestris,
The
perducat vos ad vitam sternam."
whole Regiment with their heads bared,
sang the Te Deum, the great thanks"
" Sursum
Corda of all the
giving, the
earth.
There
are
many
journeys and
many
stopping-places in the strange pilgrim-
age we call life, but there is no other
such journey in the world as the
journey
a
road
on
the
eve
of
and no
battle,
up
stopping-place
more holy than
a
way-
side shrine.
The men who prayed
very few of
them,
the
there were,
men
of
the
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
36
Gaps had been filled
again and again, and most of the
Munsters who fought next day were
newly come from Ireland and new to
Lads from Kerry and Cork,
the life.
who, a year before, had never dreamed
original Battalion.
of
marching
in the ranks of the British
Army.
The Regiment moved
on, and dark-
the skirl of the Irish pipes
broke out, playing a marching tune.
The Munsters were wild with enthu-
ness
fell
as
siasm, they were strong with the invincible strength of faith and high
they had with them the
vital conviction of success, the inspiration that scorns danger
which is the
hope,
for
—
lasting
heritage
of
the
Irish
;
theirs
and theirs to remain when great
armaments and armies and empires shall
still
be swept away, because
as the eternal stars.
it is
immovable
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
On
37
the
morning of May the 9th,
191 5, the Third Infantry Brigade were
ordered to attack.
Their right was on
the Cinder Track, and their
left
on the
Orchard Redoubt. The Munster Fusiliers were the assaulting Battalion, with
the
Royal Welsh
4th
Fusiliers
;
the
Gloucesters and South Wales Borderers
in reserve.
The morning
of
9th broke intouching the land
the
credibly still and fair,
with the strange suggestion of
unreality,
which is part of the mystery of early
dawn
and the Rue du Bois, for all its
desolation, was for a moment beautiful
;
with the spaciousness of peace. Night
dews were still in the air, and the first
coming
when
of the sun
sustained
whole world.
was not
far distant
thunder pervaded the
The bombardment
of
the enemy's trenches had
begun, and
noise grew to the dimensions of
the
intensest
force,
crashing
and
roaring
38
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
with the rage
of a
storm
The
at sea.
object of the bombardment was to cut
gaps in the barbed wire in front of the
Battahon, and
for
minutes
seven
the
torrent of sound tore and rent the
Only
for thirty
air.
minutes the guns spoke,
and on the amazed instant of silence
Colonel
Rickard
order
for
attack.
Cheering wildly the men
fol-
the
gave
lowed him over the breastworks, with
a rush that swept
them
across the
open
some
under deadly fire to a
ditch,
and GerBritish
the
between
half-way
little
man lines.
down and
take cover while the Artil-
lery again
bombarded, only continuing
the rush
when
As they
fifty
There they were
the
to
lie
fire lifted.
crossed the
first
hundred and
yards to the given point. Colonel
Rickard
fell,
killed
by
a
bullet
that
struck the spinal column of the neck.
No one who knew him could ever
doubt that he would have chosen any
Lieutenant-Colonel
V. G. H.
Rickard
2nd Royal Munster
Fusiliers, killed while gallantly leading
the Battalion at Rue du Bois, 9th May, 1915
—
—
Record of Service
South African War, 1902 Served as Adjutant, 2nd
Royal Munster Fusiliers, operations in the Transvaal, April to May, 1902.
Operations in Orange River Colony, February, April and May, 1902. Queen's
Medal, with three clasps. Promoted Temporary Lieutenant-Colonel, 8th March,
:
1915.
[To face p.
38.
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
39
other end than to die leading the Regiment he so loved all his life he gained
the perfect death that takes no thought
;
of
self,
and
swallowed up
which,
in
all
truth,
is
in victory.
Captain Campbell Dick, leading with
magnificent dash, carried on B Com-
pany with
5
and
6
Platoons, led
to
by Lieutenant Price and
Lieutenant Horsfall
by this time the
close-range fire of the Germans poured
like rain from thunder-clouds.
Caring
admiration
;
nothing
at
all
for the
enemy's
bullets.
Captain Dick swept on, followed by
men, his great buoyant spirit lifted
his
to
by the joy of the
If life
charge.
may truly be measured
by its intensity, the Munsters lived
well and dangerously in those moments.
the
very
heights
Captain Dick, gifted,
of another very brave
as
certain devilry of spirit
less
militancy in
life
has been said
" with
officer,
"
"
and
a
a cease-
and death," was
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
40
well
known
to be a
man
unshaken
nerve and flame-like attributes
as he
reached the second hne of the German
trenches he stood on the enemy's breastof
;
works, quite indifferent to the danger
lay on every side, and standing
which
he often stood cheering a winner in
the old days in Ireland, he waved his
" Come
cap and shouted to his men,
as
on, the Munsters
he
"
!
A
moment
after,
German trenches, and
Company he commanded dashed
fell
the
into the
onwards
with
Lieutenant Price and
Lieutenant Horsfall, and were
enveloped
in
the very heart of the
grey enemy
Lieutenant Carrigan and Lieu-
forces.
tenant Harcourt brought the machine
guns over the parapet of the German
and there faced an enfilading
that beat and battered
upon the
first line,
fire
men,
grimly
who,
without
to the trenches
wavering,
;
held
a little further
up the line Lieutenant Sealy
King died
Captain
2nd Royal Munster
J.
Campbell-Dick
Fusiliers, killed in action 9th
— South
—
May,
191 5
African War, 1 899-1 902 Advance on Kimberley, including action at Belmont
operations in the Transvaal, West of Pretoria,
to
November,
July
29th
1900; operations in Orange River Colony, May to
29th November, 1900, including actions at Linaley (27th June), Bethlehem (6th
and 7th July), and Wittenbergen (ist to 2gth July) operations in Cape Colony,
South of Orange River, 1899-1900; operations in Transvaal, 30th November,
1900, to January, 1901
operations in Orange River Colony and Cape Colony,
September, 1901, to 31st May, 1902 operations in Cape Colony, North of Orange
London
River; Despatches,
Gazette, September 19th, 1901. Queen's Medal with
three clasps
King's Medal with two clasps.
Record of Service:
;
;
;
;
;
[To face
p.
40
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
most gallantly as
attack.
he dashed
The Regiments on
the
to a
left
41
renewed
and right
being unable to get near the line where
the Munsters were fighting, the
position
became
that of a forlorn
fighting
stuff
Fusiliers
are
of
hope
;
but the
which the Munster
made, does not break.
Their dash and coolness drew words of
admiration from
who were
almost
the Artillery officers
observing, and the men,
entirely
rallied
N.C.O.'s,
abated courage.
without
officers
or
and fought with un-
Only 300 yards away was the safety
of the British trenches, but between
that point and where the Battalion
fought the gulf might as well have
been as wide as eternity.
The
and the rain of
bullets never ceased, and as the time
went on and the Battalion was unsupported.
hail of
shells
Major Gorham, then
in
com-
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
42
mand and wounded
a
message
in the arm, sent
back that the assault was
held up by the great breaking superiority of the enemy's forces.
Once again
the heavy guns
out, pitching shell after shell
German
lines,
boomed
into the
and under cover of
this
protective fire the Battalion withdrew.
Incidents of great self-sacrifice were
many during the retirement. Sergeant
Gannon
wounded
carried
one
comrades
and four
officer
out
under
fire
;
Private Barry, himself mortally wounded,
and only a slight slip of a boy from
Cork, brought in Captain Hawkes, one
of the biggest officers in the Battalion.
Hawkes was
Captain
in
three
and
as
places,
severely
and could
he carried his
wounded
not move,
officer to
safety,
Private Barry fell, dying heroically, his
death a tribute to the feeling that so
strongly existed between officers and men.
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
So
the
their
Munsters came
day's
in
the
again
work
Rue du
200 men and three
almost superfluous to
after
formed
they
;
back
43
Bois,
officers.
up
numbering
It
make any
seems
further
comment.
In a garden near a place called Windy
Corner, Colonel Rickard is buried at
the head of a line of graves.
Gleeson wrote:
gave their
fully, have,
"The
As Father
Munsters who
lives so heroically
even in death,
and cheer-
at their
head,
their kindly and loving leader, who
so much inspired them and cheered
us
all."
Honest and brave
soldiers, the
world
must go on without you, and those who
are left to mourn you must face what
remains in life with a little of your own
But your lives and your
fine spirit.
have enriched the story of
great deaths
44
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
the world, the story of Ireland and the
story of the Battalion, even though,
through
sounds of
and will
all
life,
the
we
voices
and
listen for
listen still in vain.
all
the
your voices,
The Munsters at IIulloch
Drawn by F Matania.]
September 25th, 1915
[To face
p. 45.
THE
MUNSTERS AT HULLOCH
September 2 '^th^ IQ^S-
"In
a trench
is
upon a
battlefield of
France himself
lying,
And shall never set potatoes any more.
Just himself and me together, in the spring and
autumn weather,
Will not set or dig potatoes any more."
OoNA
Below
there
with
is
a
the
chateau of
wood which
Ball.
Vaudricourt
closes
it
around
a sense of security
belonging to fir
woods, and the zone of pines is dense
and fragrant.
On
the night of September 2 3rd, 1915,
the Royal Munster Fusiliers marched
from the little village of Philosophe and
bivouacked in the Vaudricourt domain.
The battalion was on the march again,
45
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
46
and that dim, cloudy night they trooped
in under the shelter and lighted their
camp
fires.
The whole
was mysterious and
the
things seen in dreams
of
luminous smoke soared
unreal as
effect
;
columns
upwards, illuminating the low strong
branches of the trees, and around the
fires
the
coats,
men
lay
huddled
grouped within
in their great-
the
circles
of
flickering light.
Just as the
into blackness
were dying down
fires
a
little
incident
that
memory dwells upon changed the Vaudricourt woods into an undying picture
for those
who saw
stretched
out
it.
of the
men
arm
his
lighted candle on a
head, and
One
and placed a
branch just over his
though this simple act
the memories and imagina-
as
appealed to
tions of his comrades, in a
woods
moment
Vaudricourt
the
became
pine
transformed into a forest of Christmas
of
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
One
trees.
flames
another
after
appeared,
and
the
burned
47
tiny
hke
a
hundred little glittering shrines. God
knows what memories of childhood and
things that were far enough away from
war it recalled to the hearts of these men.
Yet the memory of the clouded night,
the whisper of the wind in the trees,
and the woods of Vaudricourt, bright
with the soldiers' candles, comes like a
gleam across the vast darkness and lights
again the faces of the war-worn battalion
once more on
to
way
the fighting
•••••
line.
•
On
its
September 24th
the
Munsters
took up their position close to La Routoire
Farm.
Germans
ridge of
Beyond
a
occupied
down
land
these trenches the
;
long, sweeping
a space of quiet
scenery spread out to the horizon like
On the German side were
a calm sea.
Auchy, Hulloch, and Loos, and on the
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
48
British
Cambrin, Vermelle, Philosophe,
Mazingarbe, and between them
the desolate ground from which Uving
and
things are fenced and barred out.
trenches divided the two main
at
right angles, and
the
HuUoch
The
roads
road
played an important part in subsequent
Here and there over the
operations.
grass, piles of slag stood out like
towers,
black
and
desolate
stubborn
as
some
minor, haunting fragment of an evil
dream.
They masked the mines, and
were treacherous', cruel defences on a
poor, wasted land.
The weather was
gloriously fine, and
under the heavy bombardment of the
British guns the whole sky-line seemed
to
be
in
eruption.
Huge
masses
of
chalk-dust and smoke lifted hundreds of
and rolled slowly away
cloud
drowsy
trailing near the
feet into the air,
like
a
ground and reluctant
" best of
this
all
to
depart
worlds."
possible
from
Major
and Royal Munster
J.
W. Considine
Fusiliers, killed while leading the
Battalion at Hulloch, September 25th, 1915
1908.
—
Left Sandhurst in April, 1902. Mohmand Expedition,
Took temporary
France, April nth, 1915.
King's Medal and clasp.
of the 2nd Battalion, May loth.
Record of Service
:
command
[To face p. 49.
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
In the
of
grey light
opened
furious
a
the morning
of
25th the
September
fire,
49
British
joined
guns
by the
Withand machine guns.
the Munsters
or disorder
rattle of rifle
out
fuss
awaited the
face
a
moment when
pouring stream
of
they should
bullets
and
charge into the teeth of the storm.
Led by Major Considine,the Munsters
pushed up the winding trenches to the
front line, exchanging a word or two
as they went, and relying, as all men do
in
time of
crisis,
upon those unexplained
resources that stand for
in a soldier.
When
all
that
is
best
they reached the
the leading company was
blocked, for the trenches were full of
men, with their faces coloured an ashen
front
line
and badges on
Some were
their coats turned green.
dead and others unconscious, for they
blue and the
were the
When
E
buttons
helpless victims of gas fumes.
the
Munsters charged over
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
50
the parapet the Hulloch road was alive
with troops racing towards the German
trenches, but to the front all was quiet,
and a number of khaki figures in blue
gas helmets lay very still out over the
grass towards the German lines, having
so encountered that " last
of all fine sights
of half oblivion.
The
"
from
fire
and greatest
in the cold dimness
the
enemy's guns
Munsters advanced
with a yell, and the wire ahead of them
was apparently unbroken.
increased
Leading
sidine
fell
the
as
"
A
in
"
Company, Major Con-
the advance,
and
as
he
down Sergeant-major Jim Leahy
rushed forward to carry him into
safety.
sank
He,
a
was
hit
through the heart by
German bullet, and when he fell the
too,
advancing
him as
with them
Munsters cheered
they raced ahead, carrying
the memory of the two men
fallen
so
gallantly,
into
who had
their fierce
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
51
Major Considine and
Sergeant-major Leahy are buried on the
battlefield almost where thev fell, 800
charge.
Both
yards west of Vermelles.
Up the long-deserted,
Hulloch road
grass-grown
came
six batteries
at
a
across the open
gallop, wheeling boldly
under heavy fire, the Munsters, in conat
junction with the brigade, following
Great volcanoes of black smoke
a run.
shot
up immediately
worked down
the
as
the
German
bombers
trenches.
Lieutenant Denis Conran with six of
his company occupied a support trench
crowded with German
troops, and
for
this small salient
forty-eight hours held
of the advance, waging a steady war
determination
with
unwavering
grit.
The enemy were
gmall
handful,
all
around
and
this
and from where they
fought they could
see
the village
of
Hulloch being knocked to pieces like a
card-house, and again on the right the
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
52
shell-torn
havoc of the advance
the chalk pit, and Hill 70.
stride had been taken at
men
in their gas
to Loos,
The
last,
larger
and the
helmets with their five
beard looked strange
and almost Oriental as they advanced,
growth
days'
receded,
and
of
again
advanced
as
the
deadly conflict rolled onwards.
Towards evening the weather turned
bitterly cold
fall.
The
and
smell
heavy rain began to
of
poison
gas,
shell
fumes, and blood became almost over-
powering.
flotsam of
Among
war
lay
the torn bodies the
unheeded
in the
mud.
Innumerable blankets, rifles, caps, belts,
and bloodstained dressings told that a
memory was all that was left to many
of those who had been alive and
glad a
few hours before, and everywhere there
were dead, dying, and wounded men,
and all the helpless misery of battle.
The
troops charged again, and the
remnants of the Munsters raised another
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
.
cheer and rallied for the
then the strain ended
men
rush, and
last
as
53
you may
see
pulled suddenly over at a tug-of-
Four columns
war.
of
German
soldiers
out of the trenches,
holding their
hands above their heads.
filed
The
road from Loos to Hulloch v^as
clear at a cost of
1,000,000 shells and
A
50,000 men.
right of way was
established at a price that no one can
ever tell, since broken lives and hearts
are not entered into
any
honour, and this right of
known
roll of
way was made
good by the simple valour and indomitable constancy of the
ordinary man.
For them there is no return, for those
who
waited for them no more reason to
cross the days off the calendar
has intervened
— the
;
stillness
stillness that
marks
the passing of the mortal to
immortahty.
Tears are
life will
The
useless,
broken hearts
useless
;
not alter because of these things.
days
go on, and
we with them
;
54
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
those
who
"
gone have
bought
Httle hour, and are not
have
eternity with a
dead."
And
the road
to Hulloch.
is
now
clear
from Loos
THE STAND AT ETREUX
being an account written by an officer
of the r.m.f., prisoner of war
Maintz-am-rhein, Germany,
July i6th^ 1915-
I
the
SEND now, by special permission,
account of the engagement of
full
August 27th, 1914.
The
night of the 26th the Battalion
Fesmy with B Company
(Captain Simms commanding) on outpost duty at Chapeau Rouge (Sketch A).
At 4 a.m. on the 27th D Company
bivouacked
at
(Captain Jervis commanding) was sent
up as a reinforcement. The role allotted
was rear guard to the
Army Corps, with the
to the Battalion
retiring
1st
remainder of the Brigade
55
in
support.
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
56
Our general
we were on
direction
was Guise, and
the right of the Expeditionary Force, the French having occupied Bergues on our right on the 26th.
At
on the 27th, our scouts having
reported the village of Bergues evacu8 a.m.
ated,
Major
Charrier
Woods with A Company
About two hours
sent
to
later the
Captain
occupy
enemy
it.
at-
tacked us here sharply, and on receiving
this
the
information,
Commanding
Officer sent a troop of the 15th Hussars
(placed together with i section 118
Battery R.F.A., under
him
for the day)
reinforcement
at the same time
he sent one platoon of A
Company
as a
;
Rawlinson commanding)
(Captain
assist his
of
to
withdrawal from the East end
Fesmy.
With
the exception of a
portion of
platoon under Captain Emerson,
which succeeded in joining
and
this
up
with
withdrawing
Captain Woods, the
e c°^ f^f^F
HA
•
^JoLa. 6ou6
Line of Withdrawal sxHHiiJ
1
M
ILE
Sketch A
STORY OF THE IMUNSTERS
58
remainder
of the Battalion rejoined Bat-
morn-
talion
Headquarters
ing.
The enemy was now appearing
in
later in
numbers North
small
the
of
Chapeau
Rouge, and North-east of Fesmv.
the cross
roads
at
From
Chapeau Rouge
a
good view of the surrounding country
was obtainable, which was of a veryenclosed nature, the hedges being thick
and high.
Bv 1 1 a.m. B and D Companies were strongly entrenched, and
a brisk action began near Fesmv, and
we were
soon busv with
rifles,
machine
The
guns, and our two i8-pounders.
enemv seemed to be advancing mainly
from the North-east and rapidly approaching
the
An
village.
over
enemy's
the
aeroplane
passed
position
shortlv before noon, our effort to bring
it
down meeting with no
few minutes
in
torrents,
enemy
later the
rain
success.
came down
and under cover of
collected
to
A
attack
it
the
Chapeau
STORY OF THE MTXSTERS
59
This attack commenced at
out our
I
p.m., and having carried
obiect of delaying the enemy, the two
Companies en'jaged withdrew on Fesmy
Rouge.
without
loss,
and having arrived there
took up their position in support of
the remainder of the Battalion, which
had been hotlv en^a^ed some time.
The two guns were tiring rapidly.
Lieutenant Chute with his machine
guns was having, as he expressed it,
"the time of his life.'" A civilian might
be pardoned for questioning whether
lying full length in 6 inches of muddy
water under hea\^- hre warranted the
description.
However, he undoubtedly had some
and did remarkably
well, and ammunition was not spared.
excellent
Some
lage,
targets
of the
a
vers'
enemv penetrated the vildashing voung German
officer at their
head
he
fell
wounded,
and some prisoners were taken.
;
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
6o
At 2.30 p.m. the withdrawal
recorri".
menced, D Company as left flank guard,
and the movement across the countrywas very difficult and slow, gaps having
to be hacked in the hedges as the
Battalion
We
fell
were
back.
quite pleased with the
result of our first brush with the
enemy,
all
which
B
cost only six or eight wounded.
Company was detailed as right flank
guard and occupied a group of farm
buildings
some 1,500 yards from Fesmy.
We
thought our troubles over for the
day, but Major Charrier, who took
no chances, issued careful orders for
the continuation of our withdrawal,
Company
in
We
rearguard.
fired at
advance and
a
B
C Company
passed through Oisy,
few Cavalry, C Company
by
remained behind to hold the village of
"
" made
the rise
Oisy while we
good
to the South.
We were hardly clear
when
the
enemy attacked
again,
Cap-
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
6i
Rawlinson holding the East and
Lieutenant Awdry the Northern exits.
tain
Our two guns and two Maxims repHed
vigorously, and the cross-fire which
must have been pretty damagOffers of assistance were refused,
resulted
ing.
and
C Company withdrew
and proceeded
could do this
successfully
Before they
to rejoin.
heavy fire from rifle
and Maxim guns was opened on us
from East and South, and it became
obvious that
a
we were
cut
off.
Our
guns galloped South for the purpose of
coming
house
into action
a shell
;
as
they passed a
crashed into
them and
a
second struck the team, knocking out
three or four gunners and two horses;
the remainder dismounted, and in the
face of a murderous fire brought their
In addition to the
guns into action.
artillery
a raking
and
rifle
rifle fire
from the East,
took us in flank from
fire
the environs of Etreux, and
it
was
this
62
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
the
position
Lieutenant O'Malley
cided to attack.
was sent
to
to
Officer de-
Commanding
C Company
them
to direct
keep the road clear
as
Lieutenant
Chute was to open fire with his
machine guns at the enemy advancing
from North. Lieutenant O'Malley bicycled
back under heavy
ammunition
couple of
fire,
carts
and a
came up
to us at a gallop before the horses
shot, indeed a gallant feat.
B Company, with half
in support,
shook out
were
A Company
to attack.
The
enemy was located in a loopholed house
on the West side of the road (see Sketch
On the
B), and also in the near fields.
other side of the road a farmhouse had
caught fire and blazed furiously. The
Commanding
Captain Wise,
Mosely succeeded in
Officer,
and Lieutenant
within
yards of
this house, creeping along a ditch fol-
approaching
lowed by
to
their
men.
fifty
The enemy's
fire
*
y
off
sKeCcfi
<l^
O
,L
E-neiny
J)
6'^
X
^
't^^cna
Sketch B
t
i
8
«
cc°y
J
64
was
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
intense,
and though Captain Wise
succeeded in reaching the house, the
whole party was put out of action.
Major Charrier renewed the
again
later
made
a third
attack,
attack,
and
with
determination, but was shot
dead at close range in the last charge.
his usual
B Company was
heavily engaged from
the road, and Captain
both sides
of
Simms was
killed gallantly leading the
Company reinforced this
attack.
C
position, and D Company, which was in
the orchard East, converged into the
open and was met by a flank attack
from the enemy holding the cutting.
Aided by the fire of a platoon of A
Company, D Company advanced by
alternate rushes to within
70 yards of
the hedge, where the officer in command (Captain Jervis) ordered a charge.
The men
sprang up with a cheer, fixed
The enemy's
bayonets and charged.
fire redoubled, and Lieutenant Phayre
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
fell,
shot through the heart.
Man
65
after
man went down, and
only Captain Jervis
reached the
alive,
falling
hedge
into the
subsequently
hands.
enemy's
remnants of the Battalion
fell
The
back to
the orchard where
wounded.
Captain Hall was
Lieutenant Gower organised
a defence facing N.S.E. and West.
The
ammunition was exhausted and most
of
the gunners
killed. Major Bayley
wounded. The enemy had entirely surrounded the Battalion, but, encouraged
by the few remaining officers, the men
fought on until 9 p.m.
Sounds of ap-
proaching help were listened for in vain,
and the Battalion, reduced to 4 officers
and 256 N.C.O.'s and men, surrendered.
The Battalion was engaged against 7
Battalions
German
Cavalry and many
Infantry, 3 Batteries,
Maxim
guns.
•a
ON
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D
a
H
z
<
O a,
a
<:
z
o
e
c
o
fa
z
CI
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175
a
u
b
O
APPENDIX
Letter from Captain H. S. Jervis, 29TH
August, 1914, to Mrs. Charrier
France^ August
My
dear Mrs. Charrier,
It
have
to
29M, 1914.
is
inexpressibly painful to
to write to
you
to tell
me
you that
the Major, our splendid Commanding
Officer, fell in action the day before
yesterday,
most
while leading
gallantly
against
his
regiment
overwhelming
odds.
The regiment was
for
several
hours
left
fell
behind, and
back
fighting
under the personal direction of your
husband, who, although well aware of
the impossible nature of his task, issued
67
68
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
his
orders and
with the
well
made all arrangements
precision which made him so
known
in Aldershot.
Eventually
round
the
to the rear
Germans
worked
and cut us off com-
pletely, the key of their position being
The Major pera loopholed house.
sonally led two charges in a magnificent
In the first of
attempt to capture this.
these he was wounded, but insisted upon
retaining command and cheering us
on. Shortly afterwards he was wounded
still
again, but even this did not keep
him
duty. He
heroically continued the direction of the
six hours interaction till after sunset
from what he considered
his
—
mittent fighting.
Mr. Gower came up
to
make
a report
him and found him near one of our
guns which had been put out of action.
In reply to Mr. Gower he said, "All
right, wc will line the hedge; follow
to
me."
Still
leading and setting an example
APPENDIX
to
he was shot a third time, and
all,
He
mortally.
fell in
we
Yesterday
men
69
the road.
sent out a party of our
and bury the dead, and
they found Paul Charrier lying as he
had fallen, head towards the enemy.
The
to collect
Sergeant told
me
he looked
as if
They buried him,
asleep.
eight other officers of the regiment
was
were
killed, in a
he
with
who
grave separate from the
men.
personally received orders and made
entire day,
reports to him during the
and never for an instant did he lead mc
I
to
suspect
worried
The
loss
that
as to
our eventual
action,
an
of
wounded, and
on by some
he was in
involving
entire
a
highest praise that
able
by
a
did the
it
may
killed,
be looked
disaster,
I
way
safety.
as
battalion,
prisoners,
as
any
and
the
can think attain-
commanding
in that in spite of this
officer
was
his,
he retained the
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
70
entire trust and confidence of
all
ranks
to the last.
The
nearest village to the action
Etreux, I think.
is
All his personal trinkets were buried
His heavier kit was on the
with him.
regimental
transport.
I
believe
this
got away.
Six of us, officers, are prisoners here,
and 500 men of the battalion, many
whom
of
officers
are
wounded.
My
and the N.C.O.'s and
the battalion ask
me
brother
men
of
tender to you
to
and your family our deepest sympathy
in
your irreparable
felt
of
loss,
which
will be
throughout the Division, but most
all
in the old regiment.
Believe me,
etc..
Yours very
sincerely,
H.
S.
Jervis.
APPENDIX
71
2nd Battalion
Royal Munster Fusiliers, to the father
OF Lieutenant Carol Awdry, who was
KILLED AT EtREUX, 27TH AuGUST, I9I4
Letter from Captain
Jervis,
As
the senior of the surviving officers
of the action fought by the regiment
on August 27th, it is my sad duty to
have to write and inform you that your
boy lost his Ufe that day while leading
his men against overwhelming odds.
The Army was, at the time, withdrawing,
an
and the battalion was occupying
important
position
covering
the
movement.
In order the better to safeguard the
retreat of the remainder, our withdrawal
was delayed by some hours.
We
attacked on three sides, and
when we
were
moved
off finally it was found that the
greatly superior forces of the Germans
had enabled them to cut us off from
our main body.
Faced by odds
or
we
eight
to
one,
of six
put up the best
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
72
fight
we
from
all
—
to
could until compelled by
rear
E Company
sides to surrender.
which
your
course — was chosen
the
(on
withdrew
Rawlinson
fire
son
belonged, of
to watch our right
N.E.)
as
the
battalion
South, and Captain
selected your son to take
to
the
his platoon out to an
exposed position,
the far end of a village
named Fesmy,
through which our
line of retreat
lay.
the duty in a most
He
performed
manner, and although harassed
with a nasty fire, he held on until the
battalion withdrew, and then rejoined
able
with
his
little
force intact.
It
was
commendable performance, worthy
one of
a
of
greater age and experience
than your son.
His Company then
continued the withdrawal until we came
far
to the next village
detailed
to
act
(Oisy),
when
it
was
as
rearguard.
Again
were
they
sharply engaged, by largely
increased
forces
this
time,
but
they
APPENDIX
gallantly held their
73
own, your son again
detached position at important
cross-roads, and again the battalion was
holding
in safety.
Your boy's
last to come in, and
withdraw
able to
party
a
was the
few men he saved
many more. It was now six o'clock
(p.m.), and it was then discovered that
they were cut off from the main body.
The battalion shook out to the attack
though he
lost
a
endeavour to break through, every
officer doing good work,
your son no
less
than the others.
With sword
in an
drawn, he led his
men
in
support of
the attack, which was in progress in
front (to the South), and as he advanced
he
shot through the lungs.
His
was painless and practically instantaneous.
He was buried with his
fell,
death
eight brother officers,
day, in one grave.
who
fell
the same
74
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
Letter from Captain Jervis, 2nd Battalion
Royal Munster Fusiliers, to Mrs. C. T. F.
Chute
The regiment was
left in a
somewhat
orders for a
exposed position, and the
withdrawal seem to have gone astray.
handled
Chuty, with his guns, which he
during the day with really wonderful
skill,
covered
company
the
withdrawal of
at
my
was pouring
It
mid-day.
with rain, and with entire disregard to
of him,
personal comfort, characteristic
down in six inches of water to
he
lay
better.
manipulate his guns the
Germans were
The
crossing the front, and
he never neglected an opportunity of
delaying their advance.
He
withdrew
them from one
all
position to another,
escort to the
day forming an invaluable
we had attached to us.
two field
The
village,
guns
withdrawal continued through a
at about 5.30 p.m., and at the
other side of
it
he came
into
action
APPENDIX
75
down
the road, on
again, firing right
both edges of which Captain Rawlinson's company was withdrawing. Owing
your husband's guns the
company got safely through and rejoined
The enemy was now
the battalion.
to the help of
on three
sides of us,
fire.
opened
guns back
under
a
a
and their
artillery
his
machine
Chuty brought
at the gallop
along the road
positive hail of lead.
splendid
feat
and
was
It
was
successfully
accomplished, and once again the guns
were placed in position. We were now
completely surrounded, and your husband
tried to cross the road to try and find
As he crossed he
a target to aim at.
was shot in the right side and thigh
and
fell
Up
dead.
he was cheery and full
in fact, he was the life
ever
to the last
of spirits as
;
and soul of the mess.
It
is
impossible
to realise that we'll never hear his voice
again.
He
will leave a large gap, not
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
76
but in each and
only in the regiment,
It
all of his brother officers' hearts.
may be some
to know that
small consolation to
you
before the action he was
looked upon
as
the best machine-gun
Brigade, and his work
during the day only served to confirm
this view.
Yesterday, the 28th, the
of
officer
the
Germans allowed
us to send out a burial
and they found
party of our own men,
Chuty, and buried him, with the eight
other officers of the regiment
killed, in a grave separate
He
was buried with
effiscts
on him.
all
who were
from the men.
his
His heavier
personal
kit
is
with
the regimental transport, the only part
of the regiment to escape.
May
officers
I,
on behalf of the surviving
and
prisoners in
most sincere
we know
men of the regiment, now
German hands, tender our
sympathy
which
one which
for a loss
only too well
can never be replaced.
is
APPENDIX
77
Extract from a letter from Lieutenant
Thomas written to his mother
Havre on 12th August,
and we stayed in camp two days.
After that we came a long way by
train to Le Nouvion, and marched to
a little place called Boue, where we
went into billets. I stayed in a lovely
landed
I
at
the people were
and fed me on the
old farm house, and
awfully good to
of
best
me
were marched right up
— about
days
two
called
then
Well,
everything.
fifty
to
Belgium
we
in
miles, to a place
Grand Rong, and
second
the
the next day we
fought a small battle just on the frontier,
without any losses, and returned right
day thirty-two miles
away back
we
started
to
all
;
Fesing, just near where
then the
the machinery
real fighting started.
;
The
first
I
knew
was being roused at 3 a.m. by
an orderly from Headquarters, to pro-
of
it
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
78
with
ceed
another
my
Company
being attacked
;
to
reinforce
on outpost
who were
platoon
there
we fought
we thought
for
two days, and just as
all
was over we found we were surrounded,
and a desperate battle began.
not describe the horrors of
but
we were
it
I
could
on paper,
three-fourths of a Battalion
German Battalions, without
chance
of rehef, and I think we
any
We had a section
really did our best.
of
artillery and two machine-guns with
fighting six
which helped a lot, but they were
Our Colonel i
very soon knocked out.
was a wonder to see. He had
absolutely
us,
no
fear,
him
and
all I
I
followed
him and helped
could in every charge, but he
to pieces in the end
by a
was blown
We
shell.
killed
and
had,
I
think,
ten
officers
wounded, and the
mainder prisoners. I was wounded
1
in
This
five
refers to
command
Major
P.
of the Battalion.
A. Charrier,
re-
in
who was
APPENDIX
two
places
throat and
—
79
a bullet right
all
my
left
blown away by
a piece of shell.
throat, of course,
is
some.
me
in
to breathe,
drink, but
My
a
tube
and
so
as
to
can eat and
I
can't speak. All the officers
sent off to Germany yesterday, and
were
I
the
men who were
am
alone
for three
town
among the Germans,
men, who are very bad.
about the
is
able to travel, so
just one big hospital ;
full of wounded, and flies,
awful.
beaten,
I
We
Well,
believe
I
except
This
Bandon, and
every house is
size of
is
are
arm
bad and very trouble-
They put
allow
my
through
the biceps of
and the smells
we were
good as we
although
we gave
as
and wounded a great
got.
many Germans, and they say themselves
that
killed
we made
When
a
fight of it.
I will be able to
gallant
come home
tell
you some strange tales, but I can't
write it all.
Our fellows who were in
I
the South African
War
say
it
was
child's
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
8o
play
battle
to
and there never was
this,
as
fierce
knocked out
as
the
one we
a
were
in.
CONAN DOYLE AND THE
BATTLE OF MONS
SIR A.
March
191 5 Sir A. Conan Doyle
" The Great Battles
gave an address on
of the War," in the Usher Hall, Edin-
In
burgh, to a vast and enthusiastic assem-
The
following extract from the
Scotsman of the next morning refers to
blage.
the Munsters
Sir
Arthur,
Battle of
:
—
commencing with
Mons, pointed out
the real impact of the
the
that there
German army
upon two Brigades of the British.
It was true that the British had fallen
back from the defence of a peninsular
" a
sweep of the canal, which created
"
regarded from the
dangerous salient
fell
APPENDIX
outset
when
as
tactically
8i
indefensible
;
but,
the British Commander-in-Chief
received from
the French
the fateful
telegram which compelled his retirement, the battle was in a state in which
was difficult
who had lost.
it
to say
who had won and
The outstanding incidents in the masterly-conducted retreat
were finely told the forced marches
" who had the
of the fatigued troops,
depression of defeat without understand-
—
ing
why
they had to retire
"
;
the heroic
rearguard actions fought, notably by
the Cheshires, the Gordons, and the
Munsters
the
9th
the saving of the guns by
the hopeless odds
Lancers
;
;
which General Smith-Dorrien encountered of three to one in
to
one
in
artillery,
men and
six
and the dauntless
defence by the remnant of L Battery.
It was one of the misfortunes of a widespread action, he said, that
difficult to
keep
in
it
touch with
was very
all
units
;
82
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
they never
knew what might become
Three times in
messengers.
the course of the Mons retreat, first in
of
their
the
case
Gordons,
Cheshires, then the
thirdly the Munsters,
the
of
and
were left without orders.
Messengers were shot down, and orders
regiments
to
retire
units,
after
never
reached
these
gallant
which fought on and on, long
their comrades had retired, until,
utterly exhausted in strength and material,
the remnants had to surrender.
If ever
the world surrender was justifiable,
he remarked, it was under these circumin
In the case of the Cheshires,
Gordons, and the Munsters, the
stances.
the
same
thing
great
attention should
happened,
showing
that
be paid to the
point as to how far troops lying at a
distance should be notified as to what
was going on.
APPENDIX
83
Letter from Lieutenant-Colonel G.
D.S.O., TO A Friend
J.
Ryan
Yes, disaster again, eight of our best
officers, including those you knew
—
Thomson, Durand, Day, O'Brien and
Pcmberton
—
killed
while gallantly lead-
three others, including
ing their men
the Colonel, wounded, and two hundred
men killed and wounded. A sad story
;
when we think
too, of bravery
I
will first
of those, but a
tell
you
occurred, and then go on
which you
First
story,
and endurance.
want
Division marched
will
notice, at 6.30 p.m., on
briefly
what
to give details
to
hear.
at
The
one hour's
the night
of
Sunday, December 20th, lay down for
three hours before dawn, marched out
at dawn on 21st, a halt at
9 a.m. in
heavy rain and cold for breakfast, and
on again.
The
leading
Brigade
deployed
at
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
84
2 o'clock for an attack in relief of the
Indian Division.
The Third Brigade
followed, and were put in first after
2
p.m., the Welsh Regiment and the
Gloucesters, supported by the Munsters
and the South Wales Borderers.
By
dusk the Munsters were taken from
support, and
put out to the right to
fill a
gap between the Gloucesters and
the next Brigade of the Division.
No
with
was
food or rest came
to
the
men
and all that night
nightfall,
spent in endeavouring to recover
trenches
originally
held
by
Indians
from which they had been forced to
Before dawn came the order
retire.
trenches not retaken, originally
in British possession, must be captured,
that
all
the general attack to continue at 7 a.m.
Still no food or rest for men continually under arms since Sunday night.
By gallant advances, often in the open,
under heavy
fire,
in
swampy, boggy
APPENDIX
8s
country and drenching rain, the advance
continued.
The
the
line
was straightened
enemy contested every
only retired w^hen he saw
was
serious,
From
to
his
out, but
foot,
the attack
trenches.
original
that a continuous heavy
brought
to
heavily tried
bear
on
troops,
fire
when
was
and
exhausted
but
and
night
came on Tuesday, 23rd, the Division
was firmly established
in
its
lines,
and
not one foot of trench has been given
up since, nor was a single British
taken.
The Third
Brigade
and the Munsters worst
of all, an open bit, with dykes full of
The
water, old trenches and bog.
attack began at 7, and by 9 they came
prisoner
had
a nasty bit,
wicked fire. The men went
gamely on, most splendidly led by their
Officer
officers, but it was no good.
after officer was killed, and the com-
under
a
panies, pinned
to the
ground by
fire,
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
86
up and extended. There they layall
Night came, no orders not
day.
a man back, except some wounded who
trickled back.
By midnight came the
order to get word out to the Munsters
—
split
to
their
get
and
safety
Colonel
parties
companies
retire.
in at
had
4
I
to
a
only
place of
got the
two search
He had
him.
a.m., after
failed to find
been lying there badly wounded since
10 a.m. the previous day, and so the
companies got back one by one.
I
will
you how it came about
not touched myself.
had been out the whole
I
I
was
now
tell
of the
night before with Major Thomson.
He and I insisted we would not go
on into nothingness to be cut up
We
went out in the dusk
piecemeal.
towards the enemy's trenches, made a
good line about a thousand yards out,
sent
good,
back
left
for
spades,
dug
in,
made
one company out, and were
APPENDIX
87
back about 4 a.m. and reported to the
Colonel, who was in Reserve with the
two
other
companies
or
an hour
lay
;
down
to
and the
" Orders
Colonel woke us saying
just
the attack must be continued
come
for
rest
so,
:
;
at
a.m.,
7
and
trenches formerly
Indians must be re-
all
occupied by the
taken."
Soon
with
to
after 6.30 I
all
the
rest,
move
off,
when
me
"
:
on
out
this
front
of
taking every
are
us.
I
going or what
have no time
You must go back
write.
man
show, and nobody quite
knows where we
in
the Colonel said to
am
I
Ryan,
was just going out
and the men ready
the
see
to
is
to
Brigade
and
General,
Headquarters,
and transarrange about ammunition
anything you can and
the Battalion is
report where and how
the whole Brigade attacked,
gone
Collect
port.
;
much
split
up."
I
collected six
men,
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
88
all
I
could find, got back to Brigade
all
Headquarters,
was
and
sent
stretcher
under
to
bearers,
fire,
reported,
fetch
up doctor,
ammunition, food,
and stragglers, everything having disappeared in the furious advance of the
day and night. The men
were without food or water for 46
previous
hours, except what they had on them.
By 1 1 o'clock I was back at Brigade
Headquarters, reported
I
the
that
could,
I
had done
Regiment had
— not
appeared
nothingness
— heavy
them — no
into
of
reports in
everywhere.
We
all
dis-
a trace
firing
were the right regi-
ment
on
I
of the Brigade, the first Brigade
our right, and pushed into a gap.
my
kept
the
locate
using
my
men.
I
the
men and went
six
Battalion
glasses
sized
by yelling out,
and meeting wounded
up
trouble.
Brigadier and reported.
no help
out to
to give,
no
men
left
I
went to
He had
to put in.
APPENDIX
89
sent out again, splitting
my men into
patrols of two each, promised them
I
they could get to the
companies and get reports.
They went out and were back again
anything
by
if
8 o'clock
them under
few
officers
under
fire,
(it
fire,
left,
was dark
at
all
4)
"
with reports.
of
Very
companies lying out
search-lights of the
enemy
no orders,
going up, many casualties,
Colonel wounded, two Senior Majors
killed.
Send us orders, please."
I
reported to the Brigade again, saying
something must be done, for, if still
there
when daybreak came,
not a
man
would be
left.
All this time they were
no
getting
support from any regiment
on their right or left, in a bad gap of
bog, and dyke and mud.
By 9 a.m.
no orders had got
to
me
to
try
and get
them back.
The
Brigade people, quite unable to
communicate with them themselves.
90
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
the rest of the attack
hung up by
and things looked rotten.
I had collected odds and ends
I
cookers, everything
wit's
end
to
could
know what
to
—
— but
do
fire,
food,
at
my
real-
as I
ized only too well the impossible posiWounded
tion the Regiment was in.
came
in
trickling
;
to
make
matters
was pitch black night and
rain
not a
beastly cold, with heavy
worse,
it
—
a road or a path, only
light or a sign or
dykes, knee-deep in
always the German
intermittent, and
mud
rifle
and slime, and
fire and ours,
flames shot
like
up
rockets by them.
It was lo o'clock before the Brigadier's orders got to me to get orders out
to
them
had not
to retire,
a single
and even by then
unwounded man
I
left of
the four companies that had gone
out at 7 a.m. to show me where they
all
had got
to.
trusty six
Once more
who
I
called on
had located them
at
my
dusk.
APPENDIX
and sent them out
with
91
in three parties, again
definite orders to
come back
to
mc
point where I was alone but
few stray men and no officers.
at a certain
for a
to
By midnight,
remnant
my
of the four
rehef,
companies
and starved,
cers had fallen and many
out, scattered,
advance.
All
follow
guides
my
I
men
and took
worn
in
the
do was to
fed
Result
put them away.
and some others left out.
volunteers
in,
as their offi-
they could
in.
got the
I
them and
— wounded
I
called for
a party
out with
stretchers and got some in, but we drew
a blank for the Colonel and
Major
Thomson.
The
Adjutant had come in
not wounded, but dead beat, and could
not quite say where the Colonel was.
At
2
a.m.,
or
nearly
3,
I
think
it
went round again and collected
the exhausted non-commissioned officers
who had come in, called for volunteers
was,
I
again, put the
machine-gun
officer
in
92
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
not come back
charge, and said, "Do
without the Colonel and Major Thomson."
had some bad suspense until
I
the party returned carrying the Colonel
wounded and poor Thomson dead. All
work was done under
and many wounded brought in.
the rescue
fire
we
next day
ground
so
All
could not get more, the
swept by
moved them
rifle
to a
At dusk
fire.
village
ij-
miles
I
in
From
that
Brigade Reserve.
day on we have two companies out
of four at a time always in trenches
of
rear
about one mile from our disaster; eternal sniping and shooting, no one can
move up
had
to the trenches
fallen
knee
-
many
night
in
deep
Rain
in torrents, the trenches
water.
I
have
had
Last
sick since Christmas Day.
I had three killed in relieving.
To-night
companies
road
still,
by day.
into
I
took
the
two
relieving
up myself, right ofF the
bog and dirt, but off
APPENDIX
beaten
the
and
track,
93
got
rehef
the
through with no loss. The Colonel is
Of
at Boulogne and doing well there.
the officers the
last
two
regulars left
have knocked up since Christmas and
must go home.
I am keeping fit and well, having
what I want, responsibility and com-
mand, and have
do
just got to
my
best
to get officers and men through, now
that the best of our officers are gone.
same, the in-
are the
Night and day
in the most utterly
part spent
be-shelled and ruined village you can
door
imagine, and every other
or bullet hole.
I
mark
a shell
had eight of the sad-
home, besides three
the wounded, but have
dest letters to write
others of
news
of
not had time to write a
full
account to
until
anyone but you, and that not
fitter and not
night, when I feel
tired,
to
but you will
know
—
all
who
tell
all
toso
who want
care for the Regi-
94
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
mcnt and
for
feel
the losses
—
all
they
that
the
to
be
hear,
Regiproud
may
ment did all and more than they could
;
the officers killed
died most gallantly
all
leading their men, and the men did all
that men could do
played up splen-
—
didly.
I
have never
much, and
I
am
known men do
so
very proud of them.
In a special order by Sir Douglas Haig
he mentioned the
order.
He
said
:
Munsters
in
first
— " Seldom have troops
nobly responded to such a
their bravery and endurance."
so
of
test
Letter from Q.M.-Sergeant Wainwright,
2ND R.M.F. (since promoted 2ND Lieutenant FOR DISTINGUISHED SERVICE IN THE
field), TO Colonel D. G. Johnston, late
R.M.F.
27^/2
We
w^ere
January^ 191 5'
making preparations
for
spending our Christmas at this place,
and giving the men as good a show^ as
APPENDIX
On
possible.
December, at
march
order to
95
the evening of the 20th
6 p.m., we received the
at
6.15 p.m.
It
was
a
bit of a rush, but in
spite of short notice
we marched to time.
The
night was very cold, and about
10 p.m.
it
started to rain,
which added
very much to the men's discomfort, as
the roads were in a fearful state and
over ankle deep in mud; about 2 a.m.
on the morning of the 21st December
we
two hours halt and rested in a
broken-down factory as best we could.
got a
Marching again at 4 a.m. we kept on
the move until 10 a.m., and were then
kept lying about the road soaked to the
skin
as the rain had not ceased since
—
the previous night
move
— waiting
orders
to
These orders came about
3 p.m., when we found that we were
to go into the trenches.
on.
Early on the morning of the 23rd,
the order came that the trenches which
96
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
had once been occupied by our troops,
and were at this time in the enemy's
hands (having been
w^ere to be taken
lost
at
by native troops)
any
The
cost.
attack started at 7 a.m., led by Colonel
Bent, Major
command.
Thomson being second in
The following officers were
—
commanding companies
" A "
Company Captain Woods
" B "
" C "
Company Major Day
—
:
—
Company — Captain Hugh O'Brien;
D Company — Major Ryan, D.S.O.
;
;
*'
"
The ground
to be crossed
open country, and owing
was very
to the
heavy
rains a very sea of mud. From this you
will understand the task the Munsters
were put to. Two nights and
with only two hours rest, and
Add
case very little food.
wet and
The
trolled,
cold,
attack
which was
was carried
a
day
in this
to this the
intense.
out, well con-
and the trenches reached, but
with very heavy
loss
;
eleven officers
—
APPENDIX
all
of
whom we
could
— and 240 rank and
On
the
11.30 p.m.,
night
all
afford to lose
file.
of
we
ill
97
the
about
23rd,
could muster were
Major Ryan, one carriage machine-gun
Search parties
officer, and 150 men.
were organised and sent out. Captain
Pakenham was brought in wounded in
three places. Captain Emerson exhausted
and frost-bitten. By dawn on the morning of the 24th all who were left,
including the wounded, were brought
into the village, under
heavy
fire,
in a
The
thoroughly exhausted condition.
communication trench was waist-deep
in water and mud, and some of the
poor wounded had to be actually dug
out of this quagmire.
The
following day
we moved
to
a
different part of the line, and were in
the trenches until the 8th
January, when
we were relieved for a rest until the
13th,
H
when we
again
came up
to
the
98
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
trenches,
where we
with not
much
are
now
hard
at
it,
likelihood of another
some days to come. Since the
13th, up to date 27th, we have lost,
including a few men to hospital, one
rest for
(Major Ryan, D.S.O., shot dead)
and 140 men.
officer
On
the
25th
the
enemy made
a
general attack along the whole of our
line.
This was evidently paving the
way for the surprise birthday gift to the
Kaiser on the 27th.
About 6 a.m. on
the 25th the attack was started with a
heavy
then
rifle
all
and machine-gun
fire,
and
our positions were shelled with
heavy guns. Under the fire of these the
attack was pressed home, but although
some Regiments had to vacate their
trenches owing to force of numbers,
counter attacks were made and the
positions re-taken.
You will be glad to hear that in this
attack
made by
the
enemy
the Munsters
APPENDIX
did not lose an inch^ but
ground
in spite of the
99
hung
to their
heavy cannonade,
which lasted some five hours.
We
were congratulated by the Brigadier
and Sir John French for the splendid
work done, and were fortunate enough
to lose very few men, and
mostly slight
wounds.
Major King, who is at present commanding, slightly wounded by shrapnel
in the arm, and also two young officers
just joined
Regiment,
but not belonging to the
cuts
from
Major Ryan was
killed
received
shell splinters.
slight
returning from his visit to the trenches
about II a.m. on the 23rd.
After he
was
hit he only lived
some few minutes,
but was unconscious to the end.
He
was an officer of exceptional abilities,
and when the news of his death spread
everyone in the Brigade, from the
General down, owned to having lost
one of the best men here.
He never
H
2
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
100
spared himself for a minute, and was
always doing all he could for the comfort of his
time
On
men
— spending
in the trenches
a lot of his
among
the men.
returning from one of these
visits
he was shot.
I have not given you the names of
the ofhcers who fell on the 23rd, as they
have already appeared in the Gazette.
Colonel Bent was hit in the front line
Major Thomson, who
the trench when wounded
of trenches, also
fell
across
;
he would not allow himself
to be
moved,
but lay there directing operations until
late in the evening, when he was again
hit, this time the wound being fatal.
Captain O'Brien was hit first badly, but
" Now is
turned to his men saying,
your own back,
boys." He fell forward and died facing
the enemy.
Major Day was also killed
leading his men and died fighting to
your chance
the end.
to
get
APPENDIX
()th
I
had
loi
February^ IQ^S*
to stop writing this letter
on
27th January, owing to another
attack on our hnes, followed by a
counter attack, in which our troops
the
succeeded in dislodging the enemy, inand taking some
flicting heavy loss
ground.
few days
Our Brigade was
We are now
after.
relieved
a
in a village
The
billeted, resting and reorganising.
regiment was again addressed by the
yesterday and thanked for
their work, and before going the General
Brigadier
said
from the look
of the
men
would
only a few
it
hardly be credited that
hours ago they were in the trenches in
very severe weather and trying conditions.
It is
wonderful
to see the great
change a few days' rest works on
our men, and they now look fit for
anything.
Major Rickard arrived yesterday, and
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
102
command
of
the Bat-
from Major King
of
the
has taken over
taHon
4th
Battalion.
At
we are having very fine
weather, and we all hope it continues,
as it will give the men in the trenches
a chance to dry themselves and make
their trenches more inhabitable.
The
present
have been so heavy, add to this
the sudden bursts of thaw and frost, the
rains
country is like a large jelly, and it is
almost impossible to keep the trenches
from falling in, especially under heavy
shell fire,
and one has
to
be constantly
throwing back the falling earthy liquid
with scoops and improvised ladles made
of
old tin biscuit boxes, etc.
spite of all this hardship the
in wonderful spirits, and laugh
through
it.
;
yet in
are
men
and joke
APPENDIX
AT FESTUBERT
OFFICERS IN ACTION
Lieut.-Colonel A.
Major E.
Major F.
Major G.
P.
I.
M.
Bent, wounded.
Thomson,
Day,
103
killed.
killed.
J. Ryan.
Captain A. Gorham.
Captain G. A. Woods.
Captain H. C. H. O'Brien,
Captain
W.
Emerson.
Captain R. E,
wounds.
Captain F.
killed.
M. Pakenham,
died of
W. Durand, killed.
W. Grantham.
Captain F.
Captain O. Pemberton, killed.
Lieutenant J. F. O'Brien, killed.
Lieutenant H. H. Lake.
Lieutenant
W. E. Molesworth, wounded.
Second Lieutenant C. H. Carrigan.
Second Lieutenant R. A. Young, killed.
Second Lieutenant T. Price.
Second Lieutenant W.J. King, wounded.
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
104
Officers not in the action but
present
with the BattaHon
at the
time
:
—
Major A. E. King (Regimental Transport Officer).
W.
Lieutenant
J.
Hewett (Temporary
Brigade Transport Officer).
Lieutenant
P.
Devanney (Quartermaster).
TOTAL CASUALTIES
Officers
Killed
...
8
Wounded
N.C.O's. AND
Killed
.
.
Wounded and
.21
Letter
3
Men
Wounded
Missing
Missing
...
:
.
.
.
...
105
5
61
from
Sergeant-Major Ring, 2nd
TO
Colonel
A. M. Bent, C.M.G.
R.M.F.,
The
to
Battalion had about eight miles
march to the trenches, and the
Brigadier rode with Major V. G. H.
Rickard at the head, and was delighted
APPENDIX
105
with the men and the high spirits they
were in. At 5 a.m. the artillery started
which
the bombardment,
lasted half an
hour, to cut the wire in front of the
Germans'
forward
The
first line.
to
attack
the
infantry went
the Welsh
—
Regiment and ours were the assaulting
At 5.30 the assault took
Battalions.
When
CO.
gave the order
for the attack, every officer and man
mounted the parapet with a cheer. It
place.
was
they
the
to see the way
really magnificent
attacked
every man tried to beat
;
the others to get there
first,
and were
splendidly led by their officers.
Rickard was
the
so
delighted
men went about
their
at
Major
the
work
way
that he
could not stay, as he had arranged, to
He
go forward with the second line.
cleared the parapet, but did not go far,
he was hit by
through the
Death was
spinal column of the neck.
as
instantaneous.
B
a bullet
Co., led magnificently
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
io6
by Captain Dick, 5 and 6 Platoons, led
by Second Lieutenants Price and Horscharged and succeeded in reaching
the German trenches, under a hellish
fall,
from
fire
artillery
he reached the parapet
the enemy's trenches, turned and
Captain Dick,
of
and machine-guns.
waved
as
his cap,
encouraging his men,
and then went forward again, and just
as he was about to enter the trench he
was hit, and tumbled into the trench.
Another brave ofhcer his fate is unknown at present. Second Lieutenants
Horsfall and Price, with what was left
—
of the platoons, cleared the
first
line of
trenches and went to attack the second
They were
line.
and B
all
Co.'s,
their
not seen again.
who were
ofhcers
A
assaulting, lost
and N.C.O.'s before
covering half the ground.
The
sup-
porting companies, C, D, came under
a terrible
and
a
fire,
and
lost all their officers
good many N.C.O.'s,
so
eventually
APPENDIX
had
of
Out
to retire.
B
Co.
who
of the
107
two platoons
succeeded in doing their
job, only three men came back.
way the Battalion behaved under
terrible fire directed against
words
artillery
We were
who were
officers
the
them drew
from the
of admiration
The
observing.
the only regiment in the Brigade who
succeeded in doing the job we were put
to do, but eventually
as
three
left
officers
found ourselves
we
the same place
started,
in
with only
— Captain
Filgate
(Adjutant), Lieutenant Carrigan, and
Second Lieutenant Harcourt (machine-
gun
officers).
relieved
Brigade.
in
About
the
first
12 noon
line
we were
by the
Major-General Haking,
manding the
ist
Com-
Division, expressed
his appreciation of the splendid conduct
of the Battalion in the following terms
:
"
The G.O.C.,
Infantry Brigade.—
... I wish you also to convey to the
CO., 2nd Battalion Royal Munster
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
io8
my
Fusiliers,
set
example
appreciation of the fine
to the Division by the
successful assault of part of the leading
a feat of arms which the Battalion
line
—
must always be proud of, as this Battalion
was the only one in the Brigade whose
men
succeeded in storming the enemy's
breastworks."
For great gallantry and
think Captain Dick, Second
Lieutenants Price and Horsfall, also the
leading,
I
men
N.C.O.'s and
that followed them,
deserve the greatest distinction going
also, if any one earned a V.C., Sergeant
;
Gannon (machine-gun
Private
Barry
went out
did.
several
wounded men
Private Barry,
and
Sergeant Gannon
times and brought
wounded officer
although wounded twice,
in, also a
brought
in
severely
wounded
;
Captain Hawkes,
could not move.
in three
who was
places
Poor Barry
lost
and
his
he was hit again while bringing
Captain Hawkes, and died from
life, as
in
sergeant)
APPENDIX
wounds.
in
Except
109
few
a
exceptional gallantry, every
a
and
hero,
I
this
hope
cases
of
man was
time
will
meet with the recognition they deserve.
The
casualties are as follows
total
ranks)
:
—
46
Killed,
missing, 128
;
total,
;
(all
wounded, 205
;
379.
Extract from Letter to Mrs. Victor Rickard
FROM Sergeant Louis Moore, dated Midnight, 25TH
May, 1915
Dear Madam,
have just returned from the
trenches, and Captain Filgate told me
I
you would
Since
this
me
to write you.
terrible war commenced
like
we
have had many losses, as you know,
but I do not believe any one has been
as severelv
missed
as
he
has.
I
believe
Captain Filgate told you all about the
funeral, and the spot where he was
visited the little graveyard
and
saw everything was well.
yesterday
buried.
I
no STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
Later
intend to get a photo of it and
will send it on to you.
The cross is
I
marked
in paint
and inscribed
R.
VICTOR
—
P.
I.
G. H.
RICKARD,
Commanding 2nd Royal Munster
Fusiliers,
Killed in action^
^/^\'^^^5'
anything should happen to
have marked the exact place on
In case
me,
my
I
Did Captain
map.
how
nice he looked
not
let
war
I
much
me
tell
you.
peace.
As
tell
death
Through
you
?
If
all
the
who
looked so
in life,
he looked
have seen no one
at
Filgate
after
I know, and am certain, that
bonny.
he met his death in friendship with the
whole world. That he was happy at
the
moment
I
also
know,
for
when he
saw the way our brave men jumped
from the breastworks and started the
charge, he was overjoyed.
It was
I am enclosing two pictures.
APPENDIX
III
when I took them. Howknow you will like them
they
quite late
ever,
I
;
were the last he had taken. Perhaps
you would like to know the names of
the
officers.
Front row
(sitting)
to right
left
:
—
Lieutenant Horsfall (missing, believed
killed). Lieutenant Keating (wounded),
Captain Hewett (killed), Lieutenant
Harcourt, Lieutenant Page (killed),
Lieutenant Carrigan, Lieutenant Dennys
Seated
(killed).
(killed).
— Captain
Grantham
Captain Dick (missing, believed
wounded), Major Gorham (wounded),
Captain
Filgatc,
Captain
Fitzpatrick
(wounded). Captain Hawkes (wounded).
Standing
King
(left
(killed),
to
right)
— Lieutenant
Lieutenant Parker
(killed),
Lieutenant Conran, Lieutenant Wainwright (wounded). Lieutenant Rabone,
Lieutenant
Moore (wounded). Captain
(wounded), Lieutenant Stokes,
Lieutenant Pottinger (killed). Lieu-
Daly
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
112
tenant Price (missing), Captain Jeffries,
Lieutenant Steward (believed killed).
Note. Regretted that the death of
—
the
following
ascertained
:
officers
since been
has
— Captain Dick, Lieutenant
Stewart, Lieutenant Horsfall.
Extract from Letter from Sergeant
Louis Moore, 2nd R.M.F.
On his way up to our position on
that Saturday evening, and just before
reaching our trenches, we passed one of
those
little
The Major
shrines.
halted
Regiment, and the Father, still
mounted, gave the whole Regiment a
his
general absolution.
sang the Te Deum.
After
that
they
know you can
The semi-light,
I
see
the whole picture.
the
Major on his horse in front, and the
whole Regiment uncovered. It was a
I rememsight never to be forgotten.
ber once seeing such a picture of the
APPENDIX
Irish
113
Guards praying before they went
into action.
Rue du
Bois, gth
May,
1915.
Congratulations from the General Officers
COMMMANDING
1ST
CoRPS AND 1ST DiVlSION,
TO THE 3RD Infantry Brigade
The G.O.C.,
3rd Infantry Brigade.
am directed by the G.O.C.
Army and the G.O.C. ist Corps,
I
ist
to
express to the Officers, N.C.O.'s, and
men of the 3rd Infantry Brigade their
deep appreciation of the efforts of all
ranks to carry by assault the enemy's
defences in front of the Rue Du Bois on
the 9th
May.
On my own
you
will
inform
tell
their
behalf
I
Commanding
Battalions
be glad
shall
if
Officers to
that
nothing
could have exceeded the gallantry displayed by Officers and other ranks in the
assault.
114
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
deeply regret the casualties which
occurred, but they were not in vain.
I
The men who
a fine
fell
afford the rest of us
how such
delivered.
From
example
should be
of
an assault
a
military
view the attack was of the
value, because it drew away
point of
greatest
hostile reinforcements
to repel the successful
urgently required
French attacks
the South.
to
These reinforcements comtowards
our front formed an
ing up
excellent target for our
heavy guns,
who
fired
(Sd)
on them with great
effect.
R. FIaking, Major-Gencral,
Comdg.
H.Q.
May^ 19 15.
1st Division
iith
1st Division.
APPENDIX
IIS
Order
of Thanks to all Ranks serving under
HIM FROM THE BrIGADIER-GeNERAL COMMANDING 3RD Infantry Brigade
BRIGADE ROUTINE ORDERS,
BY BRI. -GENERAL H. R. DAVIES,
Commanding
3rd Infantry Brigade,
nth Ma)\
1915.
Brigadier-General Davies wishes to
thank
all
Battalions of the Brigade for
splendid manner
attacked on the 9th
the
which they
May. Though
in
the attack did not succeed, it has been
recognised by all the higher Com-
manders that the Brigade did all that
could have been done.
The loss of so
many
gallant officers
to the
and
men
testifies
It
courage of the troops.
a
of
which
all
can
be
day
proud,
the Brigadier
fine
spirit
is
will
was
and
confident that the same
be
displayed
in
the
future.
(Sd)
C. Berkeley, Captain,
Brigade Major, 3rd Infantry Brigade.
STORY OF THE MUNSTERS
ii6
Appreciation of the Gallantry of
Munster
2ND Battalion Royal
from
their
Divisional
ComFusiliers,
Special
THE
mander
The G.O.C.,
3rd Infantry Brigade.
wish you also to convey to the
O.C. 2nd Battalion Royal Munster
I
Fusiliers,
example
my
set
appreciation of the fine
to the Division
by the
successful assault of part of his leading
a feat of arms which the Battalion
line
;
must always be proud of, as this Battalion
was the only one in the Brigade whose
men
succeeded in storming the enemy's
breastworks.
(Sd)
R. Making, Major-General,
Comdg.
1st Division.
Printbd in Great Britain by Richard Clay & Sons, Limited,
brunswick st., stamford st., s.e. i, and bungay, suffolk.
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