Read Ebook: The History of the 36th (Ulster) Division by Falls Cyril

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 534 lines and 237557 words, and 11 pages

CHAP. PAGE

I THE RAISING AND TRAINING OF THE DIVISION: SEPTEMBER 1914 TO SEPTEMBER 1915 1

Lord Kitchener and Sir Edward Carson--Sir Edward Carson's Appeal--Formation of the Division--A Commander appointed--Training begins--The Clan Spirit--Realities of War--The Move to England--Lord Kitchener's Tribute--His Majesty's Review.

II THE DIVISION IN FRANCE: OCTOBER 1915 TO JUNE 1916 22

First Experiences--Picardy--107th Brigade in Line--The Division enters Line--Holding a Quiet Front--Rations--The Brighter Side--Preparation for Offensive--Reorganization of Artillery.

New Aspect of Warfare--Plans for the Attack--Artillery Programme--A Successful Raid--Anniversary of the Boyne--Attack North of Ancre--Advance of 107th Brigade--A Desperate Situation--July 2nd--Causes of Failure--Move to Flanders.

In Line before Messines--Warfare Underground--Trench Mortar Battles--The Policy of Raids--Lieutenant Godson's Ambush--A Series of Raids--La Plus Douve Farm--A Growth of Activity--Shelling of Ulster Camp.

V MESSINES: JUNE 1917 82

Preparation for the Offensive--Plans for the Attack--Second Army Methods--Medical Arrangements--Waiting for Zero--First Objective reached--Wytschaete captured--Artillery moves Forward--Pack Transport--Death of Captain Gallagher--German Commander's Problem--Von Richthofen.

VI THE BATTLE OF LANGEMARCK: AUGUST 1917 107

Plans of the Allies--107th Brigade enters Line--Wieltje Dug-outs--Barrage Plans--Failure of 108th Brigade--The Division's Losses--Causes of Failure--General Nugent's Suggestions.

The Hindenburg Line--Fighting at Yorkshire Bank--Raiding Activity--The Livens Projector--Life amidst Desolation--British Organization--Problem of Man-power--Work in the Mist.

Plans for Cambrai--Task of 109th Brigade--Tanks move up--Capture of Spoil Heap--Defence of Flesqui?res--Results of November 20th--Gains of November 21st--Moeuvres: November 22nd--A New Phase.

Plans for Nov. 23rd--The Grapple at Bourlon--Relief of 36th Division--The German Counter-offensive--British Withdrawal--Defence of 9th Inniskillings--Attack of 11th Inniskillings--Relief in a Blizzard--Summary of the Battle.

X THE GERMAN OFFENSIVE ON THE SOMME : JANUARY TO MARCH 22ND, 1918 181

The New Line--Reorganization of Division--System of Defence--Dispositions--The Weeks of Waiting--Morning of March 21st--The German Assault launched--Defence of Le Pontchu--Break-through to the South--Defence of Racecourse Redoubt--Heroic Action of Lieutenant Knox--The Second Withdrawal--Open Warfare begins.

Back to Ypres--108th Brigade on Messines Ridge--Fighting at Wulverghem--A Black Day--Withdrawal from Poelcappelle--German Rebuff in Flanders--Changes in Command--Back after a Rest.

Successful Raids--The Enemy withdraws--A Fighting Retreat--September 3rd and 4th--Attack of September 6th--Move to Ypres--The Hope of Victory.

Attack of September 28th--Advance of September 29th--Menin-Roulers Road reached--Review of Situation--Death of Captain Bruce--Attack of October 14th--A Great Day--Courtrai entered--Difficulties of Supply.

Plan for Forcing the Lys--Success of the Crossing--Attack of October 20th--The Advance continued--Kleineberg Ridge occupied--General Jacob's Tribute--Special Order of Marshal Foch.

Preparations for Christmas--The Divisional Fund--Characteristics of 36th Division--The End.

" II LIST OF HONOURS AND AWARDS 313

INDEX 347

MAPS

I THE BATTLE OF ALBERT, 1916 at page 62

II THE BATTLE OF MESSINES, 1917 " 106

V THE POSITION BEFORE GERMAN ATTACK, MARCH 21ST, 1918 " 206

VI THE RETREAT OF MARCH 1918 " 230

SKETCH IN TEXT page 284

THE MEMORIAL TO THE 36TH DIVISION AT THIEPVAL Frontispiece

MAJOR-GENERAL SIR C. H. POWELL, K.C.B. facing page 14

MAJOR-GENERAL SIR O. S. NUGENT, K.C.B., D.S.O. " " 36

WINNERS OF VICTORIA CROSS, 1916 " " 76

" " " " 1917 & 1918 " " 184

THE HISTORY OF

THE 36^ DIVISION

THE RAISING AND TRAINING OF THE DIVISION: SEPTEMBER 1914 TO SEPTEMBER 1915

It is no rightful part of the historian of a Division in the Great War to embark upon preliminary sketches of the state of Europe or of the movements in international politics that preceded the catastrophe. If once he begin to seek for causes he must seek far. Three pistol shots fired in the narrow streets of Serajevo may be likened to an accidental spark that explodes a great charge. But the charge was long laid. War had been determined upon in Berlin. Without that accidental spark, there can be no doubt that it would shortly have been deliberately exploded by a detonator from that quarter. If the divisional historian cannot trace the laying of the charge, which had been accumulating, it may be a hundred, and certainly fifty, years, let him not begin by dealing with what were merely the final accretions. Let him begin with the beginning of the war. War was declared between this country and Germany on the 4th of August, 1914.

There are, however, certain local circumstances anterior to that declaration, which have an intimate connection with the particular Division that is the subject of this History, and so could not be omitted without robbing the latter of much of its significance. The Ulster Division was not created in a day. The roots from which it sprang went back into the troubled period before the war. Its life was a continuance of the life of an earlier legion, a legion of civilians banded together to protect themselves from the consequences of legislation which they believed would affect adversely their rights and privileges as citizens of the United Kingdom--the Ulster Volunteer Force.

Believe we dare not boast, Believe we do not fear.

Colonel Hickman replied: "You must see Carson and Craig."

Lord Kitchener saw them. Sir Edward Carson's position was not easy. He was most eager to help by every means in his power. But he had a heavy responsibility towards the people of Ulster. If the fighting men of the Province were to go to the war, and in their absence a Home Rule Act, such as they had banded themselves together to resist, were to be forced upon those they had left behind, they would have had cause to reproach him. The Prime Minister was asked for an assurance with regard to the Home Rule Bill. No definite assurance could be obtained from him. A political truce had come into operation at the beginning of hostilities, but it was ill-defined, and the Prime Minister evidently did not see his way clearly out of the difficulties of his situation. Sir Edward raised some minor points, asking that the word "Ulster" might succeed the number of the Division which it was proposed to raise. To this Lord Kitchener at first demurred, but the appelation was subsequently granted.

"Don't say another word! There's a thousand pounds: to go on with, and nine more will follow in a day or two. This is out of a special fund just available for your purpose."

The short delay may have lost a few men to the Ulster Division, but it had created an atmosphere of expectation and excitement. When the recruiting officers arrived the men came forward with a rush, above all in Belfast. A building near the Old Town Hall had been taken over. As each man came out of the former after attestation, he entered the latter, was passed from department to department, emerging from another door a recruit in uniform, leaving his civilian clothing to be packed up and sent home. In this respect the Ulster Division was peculiarly fortunate. The men who enlisted in it had not to endure those weeks of drilling in wet weather in their civilian clothes, with inadequate boots, which were productive of moral as well as physical discomfort. For this advantage they were indebted to the foresight and powers of organization of Captain Craig and his assistants, the generosity of their friends, and the aid of the big business men of Belfast; the work being carried out without any cost to the State. Captain Craig made further visits to the War Office, on one of which he pointed out to Lord Kitchener that the camp accommodation in Ulster was insufficient. Lord Kitchener replied that such details must be arranged by others. Knowing him well from South African days, when he had learned to regard him with the highest admiration, Captain Craig answered that it was all very well to talk in that autocratic manner, but that at present he himself had not the weight behind him to carry the matter through. The response was characteristic. Lord Kitchener summoned in succession the Adjutant-General, the Director of Personal Services, the Quartermaster-General, and the Director of Fortifications, and said to them:

"Take Craig away and see that he gets what he requires."

Captain Craig was then able to return to Ireland, and set about the building of hutted camps at Clandeboye, Ballykinlar, and Newtownards in the east, and Finner on the Donegal coast.

The organization of the Division proceeded swiftly. A large house, 29, Wellington Place, Belfast, was taken over and equipped as Headquarters. Three Infantry Brigades were formed: the 107th from the City of Belfast itself; the 108th from the counties of Antrim, Down, Armagh, Cavan, and Monaghan; the 109th from Tyrone, Londonderry, Donegal, and Fermanagh, with one Belfast Battalion. The Pioneer Battalion was also recruited in County Down, mainly from the Lurgan area. The Royal Engineers, of which two Field Companies only were raised at first, the 121st and 122nd, as well as the Divisional Signal Company, came mainly from Belfast, above all from the great shipyards. Royal Army Medical Corps personnel was recruited and sent to Clandeboye, where, on the appointment of an A.D.M.S., Colonel F. J. Greig, it was formed into three Field Ambulances, the 108th, 109th, and 110th, and moved to Newry. So successful was recruiting for the R.A.M.C. that Colonel Greig was instructed by the War Office to raise a Casualty Clearing Station, the 40th, which served both in France and at Salonika. The Royal Army Service Corps personnel was fine both in physique and intelligence. The horses were good, as was natural, seeing how large was the proportion of horses bought for the Army in Ireland, and among the officers were some excellent horsemen and horsemasters. Indeed the horsemastership in the Division was throughout the campaign of a very high order, the Infantry contriving to keep their mules sleek and fat and the Artillery their gun-horses fit and well-groomed amid conditions which none can realize who did not witness them. A Cavalry Squadron and a Cyclist Company were also formed, the former being unique in that it was a service Squadron of the Inniskilling Dragoons.

The 36th Divisional Artillery was raised, six months after the rest of the Division, in the suburbs of London, though from quarters stranger to one another than towns fifty miles apart in Ireland. The 153rd and 154th Brigades R.F.A. were formed by the British Empire League, of which one of the moving spirits was General Sir Bindon Blood. They were recruited chiefly from Croydon, Norbury, and Sydenham. The 172nd and 173rd Brigades, on the other hand, came from North-east London. They were formed on the initiative of the Mayors of East and West Ham and recruited from those districts.

The first date recorded in the Artillery annals is that of May the 5th, 1915, when sixty recruits of the 153rd Brigade assembled at 60, Victoria Street, the headquarters of the British Empire League, and marched to Norbury, where they were billeted in private houses. Londoners from South and North did not meet until July, when the four Brigades and the 36th Divisional Ammunition Column were moved to Lewes. It was within a few days of the arrival of the rest of the Division, already at a high standard of efficiency, in England, that serious training of the Divisional Artillery really began.

To the great regret of all Ulster, it was ruled that Sir George Richardson, owing to the seniority of his rank, could not take command of the Division. He remained in Belfast, working for the good of the cause, and none can speak more highly of his efforts and his loyalty than Sir James Craig and General Hickman, the chief organizers of those early days. "Trusted by every class," writes an officer who had long worked on his staff, "he was able to induce employers to permit those of their workmen to enlist who were not indispensable, and to perform the much more difficult task of making the skilled craftsmen of the shipyards realize that their duty to their country called them to remain at work, helping the Navy and Merchant Service to hold command of the sea, on which our success depended equally with our victory on land." How they and others, notably the makers of linen for aircraft, who were, for the most part, women, played their part, cannot be discussed here, though it is a record worthy the pen of a eulogist. What is less generally known to the people of Great Britain is that in Ulster not a strike occurred throughout the course of the war.

Major-General C. H. Powell, C.B., an officer with a distinguished record in the Indian Army, was appointed to the command of the Division. Colonel Hickman, after remaining in Belfast till the three Brigades had been formed, went to Finner to take command of the 109th.

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet