Second Battle of the Aisne - World War One (from the book "Neath a Foreign Sky" by Paul Allen)
In Remembrance of;
- Corporal Joseph Vevers Cromack
- Sergeant Louis James Moore [Hackness]
- Private William Simpson Doody
- Private Sidney Simpson
- Private Ringrose Boreman
- Second Lieutenant William Tasker
- Private Frank Tasker
Named after the almost straight carriage road which had been hacked across along its crest for the convenience of the daughters of King Louis the XV so that they could have pleasant views as they travelled to visit friends in the area, the Chemin des Dames [‘the road of the ladies’] runs in an east- west direction across the Champagne region of France. Extending for about twenty four miles from Craonne in the west to midway along the Soissons to Laon road, the hogs back, with bare white limestone sides, has steep slopes on its northern [German held] side, and less so on its southern [Allied] side, has a flat top between 350-400 yards in width and is clefted by numerous small valleys, whose ascent has sometimes been described as ‘a matter of climbing on hands and knees’.
No stranger to battle, the ridge had been taken by the Allies during September 1914, but it had been lost by the French during the following year. The scene of terrible slaughter during Nivelle’s supposed ‘masterstroke’ which had been supposed to have defeated Germany during the Spring of 1917, the ridge had ultimately been retaken by the French during October that year. Relatively untouched by war ever since, the Chemin des Dames had been considered a ‘quiet’ sector by Western Front standards, and by the beginning of May 1918 the ridge, and its immediate area had been garrisoned by units of the French 45TH Division, belonging to General Denis Duchene’s Sixth Army.
During April 1918 Haig had received a letter from Foch stating that he was anxious to maintain fifteen French divisions in a General Reserve behind the British. In order to achieve this Haig had reluctantly agreed to send tired British divisions into the line to relieve the required French units. Thus, totally exhausted during the fighting of March and April, at the beginning of May four British Divisions; the 8TH, 21ST, 25TH, and 50TH [Northumbrian], had been ordered southwards to the Chemin de Dames to take up their positions on the right of 45TH Division, at the eastern end of the ridge known as the ‘California Plateau’.
Collectively known as Ninth Corps [Commanded by Major General Sir Alexander Hamilton Gordon], the British had begun to arrive in the region by the fifth of May. From the start the Tommies had noted the startling contrast between the harshness of the battle torn northern France with that of the lushness of Champagne.
‘All the houses are standing, roofs on, shutters up …Our fellows are always joking about the French front. There is never any strafing here, and if there is a Boche plane it is umpteen thousand feet up, and is quickly plastered with anti aircraft shells for miles around it…the atmosphere on this front is wonderful. From a road nearby I can see the towers of Rheims Cathedral, as though it were only a hundred yards away, yet it was some kilometres. Here everything is green and blue, and bright, not like Flanders with its frightfulness, dullness, rain, mud, stench, and dead bodies…This place makes war a pleasure’…[1]
As with any paradise there had been faults. Although believed impregnable by the French, the British had found the defences at the Chemin des Dames, arranged with a Forward, Battle, and Rear Zones, ‘lacking’, and had been unhappy with the state of repair of the Forward Zone. In addition, Gordon had not been content about having to pack all his infantry and artillery into such a narrow band of land that fell away to a river [the Aisne] and a canal at his rear. Despite Gordon’s protestations, the French had been adamant that the ridge’s defences were adequate, probably on the grounds that the sector had been considered quiet. Events were soon to prove otherwise.
During the latter half of April With their Georgette operations on the wane in the north and centre, the Germans had begun to look for an alternative to their floundering operation. Regarding another attack on the British front as useless and counter productive, their gaze had obviously extended southwards towards the French sector. After numerous intelligence meetings following the many reconnaissance flights which had been made over the proposed area of attack, Colonel Georg Wetzell, Ludendorff’s chief of operations staff had proposed to mount an operation between Soissons and Rheims in the Chemin des Dames sector. This idea had at first not found favour with the War wary German High Command who had initially expressed grave misgivings on the idea. Nevertheless, despite numerous arguments, and heated meetings where Wetzell’s plans had been dissected, added to, subtracted from, and in some instances, simply overridden, a plan had eventually been adopted. Duly, during May, Ludendorff had withdrawn thirty two divisions to train and to rest in preparation for the new assault codenamed ‘Blucher’. In the days leading up to the operation fifteen of these fresh and rested formations had begun to move forward under the cover of darkness, brining with them their artillery, and the few tanks which the Germans had had available.
On the Allied side of the wire, oblivious to the massive force assembling in front of them, life had gone on as usual. Decimated during the recent fighting the four British Divisions had become mere shadows of their former selves. Most of the veterans belonging to the four formations had by this time either been killed off or wounded, their places being taken over by the eighteen and nineteen years olds who had only recently arrived in France, barely trained and totally unfit for front line service. Nevertheless, despite their shortcomings, the youngsters had taken their places in the Front, as well as continuing with their training. [2]
Typical of the British forces at the Chemin des Dames during May 1918 had been the 50TH [1ST Northumbrian] Division. Well known to the reader by this time, the Division, which had once contained so many local men, had by May 1918 borne little resemblance to the magnificent band of men belonging to the Territorial formation that had crossed the Channel during April 1915 to shortly cut their teeth in the Battle of St Julien [24-28 April]. Losing many of its finest during this action and the subsequent Second Battle of Ypres, the formation had fared little better throughout the ensuing three years of war and by May very few of the unit’s original members had remained, their places being taken by youngsters, and worst of all, men not belonging to the North of England.
Commanded at this time by Major General Henry Jackson, the Division had been in positions at the eastern end [and highest point] of the ridge know as the ‘Plateau de Californie’, where the Division had been holding a front extending over two thousand yards from the ‘Piste d’Orleans [on the left] to the village of Chevreux.
The first inklings of the forthcoming offensive had been gathered soon after the arrival of the British, when reconnaissance aircraft belonging to 9TH Corps had reported seeing dust clouds on the roads to the south of Laon, and at night the sounds of large bodies of troops and horse transport had clearly been heard. The British had also been surprised during the morning of the 25TH of May, to find three exhausted former French prisoners of war on their doorstep. These men had told of the vast array of forces being assembled by the Germans The British had obviously reported their misgivings to their French allies but they had remained unconvinced of an impending attack on their fortress.
During the following morning a British Intelligence officer had noticed raised blackboards in the enemy’s line. On further investigation these had turned out to be direction signs to guide tanks and transport. Soon after dawn more definite information had been forthcoming from two captured German soldiers who had admitted that an attack was coming, perhaps on the next day or the day after, the artillery bombardment beginning soon after midnight that night. At first the interrogators had remained so sceptical of what the prisoners had told them that this warning had not been sent to the Headquarters of the French Six Army until mid-afternoon. Still the French had remained unmoved, believing the words of the prisoners to be yet more trench rumours; nevertheless, all troops had eventually been placed on the alert by early evening.
Duly, at 1am on Monday the 27TH of May 1918, just as the three prisoners had forewarned, over four thousand German artillery pieces had begun to throw two million shells at the ‘Winterberg’ [so called by the Germans because of the Chemin des Dames white limestone sides, which from a distance resembles snow]. The bombardment, considered larger than that which had been unleashed on the 21ST of March, had at first consisted predominantly of gas, ‘Blue Cross’ and its derivative, ‘Yellow Cross’ gas shells had rained into the French and British positions on the whole of the twenty four miles front, the hardest hit being the positions of the French 22ND Division and the British 50TH. A German account recalls the moment
At the start of the bombardment many of the terrified French and British soldiers, most of whom would never fire a shot that day, had scampered into the deep bunkers sunk some forty feet into the top of the Chemin des Dames. Trapped like rats in a trap all they could do was listen to the thunder of the bombardment up above;
‘The dugouts rocked and were filled with acrid fumes of cordite mixed with the sickly sweet tang of gas. The men scrambled for gas masks, grabbed their kits, weapons, message pads, and dived for deeper shelter. It was a descent into hell. Crowded with jostling sweating humanity, the deep dugouts reeked and to make matters worse we had no sooner got below than gas began to filter down. The entrances were hastily blocked with saturated blankets. This excluded the gas but also the air… At first my heart thumped and my head swam distressingly, but I found if I kept still I could just bear it’…
At 3-35am the bombardment had switched target to the Allied front lines, five minutes later shells had begun a creeping barrage, behind which hordes of German infantry [including a Corporal named Adolf Hitler] had risen from their cover to begin their advance across the small River Ailette and onwards towards the top of the ridge.
By this time the first light of a new day had begun to appear but this had soon been wiped away by a thick mist, which had mingled with the smoke from hundreds of smoke shells. Under cover of this the 'stormtruppen' had soon been across ‘No man’s
Land’ to be amongst the positions of the French 22ND Division. Outnumbered by over five to one the remnants of the decimated French formation had been swept from the ridge like so much detritus in front of a brush to make their escape across the Aisne, where despite the charges being laid to destroy the vital bridges, there had been no time to light the fuses.
Fiftieth Division had fared little better. Wyrall has this to say;
‘Suddenly at 1am there was a fearful and awesome crash. Observers stated that the whole German line leapt into flame; that the enemy’s guns must have been placed almost axle to axle so continuous was that first flash. The bombardment which followed was said to be the most violent the 50TH Division had experienced. To the ordinary shells were added gas shells, four kinds being used—Lachrymatory, sneezing, lethal, and thermits; the gas was principally on battery positions, brigade and battalion headquarters, even Divisional headquarters being lightly shelled, making the use of masks imperative…The German attack developed at 3-30am on the extreme right from the Ouvrage la Carriere spreading thence to the left. A slight ground mist, smoke and dust from the bombardment, and the uncertainty of very early morning made visibility bad, and nothing could be seen of the progress of the fighting. The enemy was at first checked on the outpost line, and later on the main line of resistance by rifle, Lewis, and machine gun fire, and at some points fell behind a line of tanks. The latter appeared to be of two types, renovated captured British tanks and a German pattern; aluminium coloured and armed with three light guns. It is doubtful whether they attempted to penetrate forward more than five hundred yards, but they carried the enemy’s line forward into the battle zone, the front line of which was broken on the right by about 4am., the remaining posts being shortly afterwards encircled from that direction’…[4]
Virtually wiped out during the initial bombardment, the survivors of the Division’s149TH Brigade, on the right of the attack, had nonetheless succeeded in momentarily breaking up the assault on their positions with rifle and Lewis gunfire. However, at around 4am the Germans had attacked with infantry supported by tanks. Driven out of their positions by the sheer weight of numbers the few survivors had fought their way back to the Butte de l’Edmond, where, along with a party of gunners from the Divisional [50TH] Machine Gun Battalion, the Northumberlands had made another gallant, but futile stand, from which only two men had managed to eventually extricate themselves to make their way to safety.
The 151ST Brigade, smack in the middle of the German attack, had shared the same fate as its neighbour. The unit’s ‘War Diary’ simply reports…’At 4-45am the company commander of the left company [of the 6TH Durham Light Infantry] reported to Battalion Headquarters and stated that the Bosche was all over his area. He believed that he was the only one who had escaped’…[4]
On the right wing of the assault, the destruction of 150TH Brigade had completed the total annihilation of one of the finest British formations to serve on the Western Front.
… ‘All Colonel Thompson [the Commanding Officer of 1ST/5TH Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment] was able to report was that his H.Q. Company was fighting round his command post and appeared to be surrounded; The Brigadier [H.C. Rees] decided that no counter attack was likely to be successful, and he therefore gave out that he proposed holding the intermediate line with the 4TH Green Howards, moving his Brigade H.Q. back to a point six hundred south of Craonelle; this withdrew accordingly about 7am, but on arrival at the proposed position it was learnt that the 4TH Green Howards had been overwhelmed on the Mt. Hermel Line and that the enemy was already approaching Craonelle from the west. All attempts to organise any defence at this point had then to be abandoned’…[4]
Around this time, the completely surrounded Colonel Thompson had telephoned his Brigade Commander for the last time; …’I’ll say goodbye General I’m afraid that I shall not see you again’… last seen ‘making a run for it’, Thompson had soon afterwards been killed. By 8am that day the 150TH Brigade had ceased to exist as a fighting unit. [5]
Elsewhere in the British line it had been the same tragic story. To the right of the 50TH Division the 8TH and 21ST Divisions had also been badly mauled during the preliminary bombardment, nevertheless a few pockets of British soldiers had put up a fierce resistance to the enemy attack. Amongst these had been the 2ND Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment [belonging to the 23RD Brigade of 8TH Division]. Led by Lieutenant Colonel Anderson-Morshead, the battalion had been ordered to hold the Bois de Buttes, near Pontavert, and had done just that until the unit had been completely surrounded. Ordered by the Germans to surrender, the survivors had elected to fight on, the Colonel, along with twenty-eight officers and five hundred and fifty other ranks had perished to a man, not one had survived. In the same area the 5TH Battery of the 45TH Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery had suffered a similar fate, the unit continuing to fire its guns until no one was left to fire them.
A handful of survivors had eventually crossed over the Aisne near Chaudardes to form a flimsy defensive line on the south bank of the Aisne. This line had also been swept aside by the enemy artillery and advancing hordes of infantry. The remnants of 50TH Division had wound up near Maizy, where another defensive line had been assembled to the south of the village, but by midday the Germans had crossed the Aisne and had rapidly been approaching the village. In danger of being surrounded, once again the men of the north country had once again taken to their feet to fall back yet again, initially to the village of Glennes, and later that day to positions to the north of Fismes, where the exhausted men had at last been allowed to rest.
Early the following day the Germans had attacked these positions. Virtually useless without artillery support, the remnants of 50TH division had been forced to make yet another ‘fighting retreat’ to the south bank of the River Vesle, where the remains of the formation had been formed into a composite battalion [consisting of around 950 all ranks] which had remained in action until the 30TH of May, when the tattered and filthy men had at last been withdrawn from the fighting having been driven back a staggering twenty four kilometres, to the banks of the Marne.
The last operation of the Great War that the original 50TH Division had taken part in, the 27TH of May 1918 had resulted in the formation losing somewhere in the region of two hundred and twenty officers, and no less than four thousand eight hundred other ranks, killed, wounded, and missing, along with all its transport and artillery.
Diluted accounts of the ‘desperate fighting’ in Champagne had been included in the British Press, but the full extent of the tragedy that had unfolded on the 27TH of May 1918 had never been fully revealed to the nation’s public. Despite this, much used to bad news from France and Belgium by this stage of the war, Joe public had been able to gauge for themselves the extent of the disaster through the large casualty lists which had appeared in Britain’s newspapers in the weeks, and indeed, months to follow. Inevitably, Scarborough had not been spared from these extensive casualty lists, ‘The Scarborough Mercury’ reporting the demise, wounding, and capture of many local men throughout the remains of that summer. In the evening edition of Friday the 14TH of June the ‘Mercury’s ‘Scarboro Casualties’ column had included the names of seven men from the town and district who had become casualties of the recent fighting. One of the entries reads;
‘Old Territorial killed - Mr A.M. Cromack, photographer, Newborough, this [Saturday] morning received the sad intelligence that his son, Corporal J.V. [Joe] Cromack, of the Machine Gun Corps, was killed in action on May 29TH. Corporal Cromack was an old Territorial and he rejoined at the outbreak of war. He has seen much fighting with a noted division and has been in France since 1915’…
Born in Scarborough at No 33 Queen Street during 1886; 23527 Corporal Joseph Vevers Cromack had been the eldest son of Kate and ‘artist/photographer’ Arthur May Cromack, who, at the time of their son’s death had been residing in the town at ‘Taunton Villa’ in Westbourne Grove. A pupil of Scarborough’s St Martins Grammar School between 1893 and 1900, after leaving the school Cromack had worked in the family’s busy Newborough photographic studio. However, like many young men in the years immediately before the Great War, in search of adventure and escape from the humdrum of everyday life, during 1904 Joe had enlisted into the Territorial Force 2ND Volunteer Battalion of The Princess of Wales’s Own [Yorkshire Regiment] to serve as a Private [Regimental Number 1026]. Based in Scarborough’s North Street the Headquarters of the battalion had been Cromack’s second home for the next few years [during 1908 the 2ND Volunteers had been re-designated as the 1ST/5TH Battalion Alexandra, Princess of Wales’s Own [Yorkshire Regiment], more popularly known as ‘The Green Howards]’.
By the outbreak of war in August 1914, Joe had left the Territorials to devote more time in the running of family business. However, soon after Britain’s declaration of war he had re-enlisted into his old unit to serve in one of the battalion’s two Machine gun sections. Consisting of one officer and twelve other ranks [manning two obsolete Maxim Machine Guns], the majority of the section had been photographed by Cromack’s father in his Newborough studio before the unit had left Scarborough for Newcastle and eventually the war in April 1915 [This photograph had appeared in ‘The Scarborough Pictorial’ of Thursday the 28TH of April 1915, by which time Joe’s unit had received its ‘baptism of fire’ at St Julien. Only three of the thirteen men featured in this photograph would survive the war].
A survivor of the St Julien battle, Cromack had continued to serve in Flanders with the Fifth Yorks until September 1915, when all of 50TH Division’s machine gunners had been withdrawn from their parent infantry battalions to be incorporated into the newly formed [October 14TH] Machine Gun Corps. Sent for training at the M.G.C.’s Base Depot at Camiers, in Northern France, whilst there Joe and his comrades had exchanged their familiar ‘Eiffel tower’ cap badges of the Yorkshire Regiment for the new crossed machine gun emblem of the M.G.C., and issued with new Regimental Numbers. The men had eventually been formed into 150TH Machine Gun Company belonging to the 150TH Brigade of 50TH Division.
Joe Cromack had served with this unit for the remainder of his life taking part in much of the heaviest and bloodiest fighting of the war, including the Somme Offensive. Writing to his old school’s headmaster [Mr. G.F. Turnbull] at the end of the Battle of Flers/Courcelette [October1916], Joe had commented…’I had some pretty near shaves in the last affair, which I believe has been the biggest of the year…at present enjoying a little spell of rest, and in spite of the mud, which is absolutely vile, having a grand time. Our footer team is doing well in the knock out competition for troops here, and after some hard fights, still figures in the winning lists. I find I am a bit past the playing era now, but can still shout with the best of them’…. [6]
A veteran of the subsequent First Battle of Arras [April-May 1917], Passchendaele [July-November 1917], and the German Spring Offensive of 1918, following Joe’s death St Martin’s Head, Mr Turnbull had had this to say about the former ‘Martinian’…’Quiet, unobtrusive, unassuming, he will be very much missed by those who knew him well. He was a consistent helper in the choir both at Wheatcroft and also in the mother Church [St Martins on the Hill] and had a promising future before him, especially in outside work, and many of his letters reveal, unconsciously, his artistic temperament’…[6]
Like those of many of the men who had lost their lives on the Chemin des Dames on Monday the 27TH of May 1918, no identifiable remains of Joe Cromack had ever been found, and after the war his name had been included on a memorial to the thousands of British troops who had lost their lives in the area of the Aisne and Marne between the end of May and the beginning of August 1918 and for whom there is no known grave, which had been constructed in the public square of the city of Soissons. Consisting of a Cenotaph in front of which stand the figures of three British soldiers, the memorial also incorporates a three-sided wall, which carries the names of nearly 4,000 World War One British Casualties.
In Scarborough, apart from the Oliver’s Mount Memorial, Joe Cromack is also commemorated inside St Martins on the Hill Church, on a wooden wall case, known as a ‘Triptych’, which had been constructed by Hughes Bolcowe & Co, of Battleship Wharf, Blyth, from timber which had once belonged to H.M.S. Britannia, the Cadet Training Ship at Dartmouth between 1869 and 1905. This memorial, apart from commemorating the names of sixty-four former members of the congregation of the church [including nurses Alice Flintoff and Edith Elizabeth Taylor] who had lost their lives during the war of 1914-18, also contains the inscription;
‘My marks and scars I carry with me to be a witness for me that I have fought his battles, who will now be my rewarder’.
‘So he passed over and all the trumpets sounded for him on the other side’…
[In addition, Joe’s can just barely be discerned on the badly deteriorated War Memorial standing out side the main entrance to the church].
Joe Cromack’s name can also be found on a now [2006] fallen gravestone in the town’s Manor Road Cemetery [section L, Row 17, Grave 8], which also bears the name of his mother, Kate Cromack. Born at Leeds around 1863 Kate had been the daughter of Mary Ann and cloth manufacturer Joseph Vevers. She had died at the age of sixty-six years in Lancashire at ‘Scarborough’, No.51 Bagslate Moor Road, Norden, Rochdale, the home of daughter Mrs. T.B. [Doris May] Percival, on Friday the 29TH of March 1929. Kate’s remains had subsequently been brought back to Scarborough for burial in the plot in Manor Road Cemetery on the 2ND of April 1929.
Joe’s father, Arthur May Cromack, had once been a prominent and much respected photographer in Scarborough, had been born in the town during 1854, and had been the son of Mary and Benjamin Cromack, the proprietor of ‘Cromack’s Bazaar and Fancy Goods Emporium’, which had been located on the corner of Scarborough’s King Street, at No.30 Newborough. These premises had eventually been taken over by Arthur, who by the time of the 1871 Census had been advertising himself as an ‘Artist’. However, from this time onwards, in Scarborough’s trade directories he had been listed as a ‘photographer’. A specialist in the reportedly difficult art of the photography of children, he had also been adept in the photography of large groups of up to fifty people in the outside grounds of his studio.
Following the death of his wife, Arthur had continued to live with their daughter, Doris May, in Norden, Lancashire, where the old photographer had died at the age of eighty-two, on Sunday the 30TH of June 1935. Cremated at Manchester Crematorium on the 3RD of July 1935, the ashes of Arthur Cromack had also been returned to Scarborough, where they had been interred in the family grave in Manor Road Cemetery on the 21St of August 1935.
[The memorial in Manor Road Cemetery also contains the name of Arthur May’s sister, Sarah Jane Cromack. Formerly of 105 Castle Road, Scarborough, Sarah had passed away on Saturday the 29TH of January 1921, at the age of sixty-nine years. Also commemorated is their daughter Doris May Percival who had died during 1940].
Joe’s younger brother [born in Scarborough during 1892] Arthur had also been a pupil at St Martins Grammar School. A Private in the Royal Army Medical Corps during the war [Regimental Number 70447], he had gone to the Middle East at the beginning of July 1916 to serve in the 33RD British Hospital in Mesopotamia. Unlike his elder brother he had survived the war.
The Soissons Memorial to the Missing also contains the name of Joe Cromack’s fellow machine gunner; 23530 Sergeant Louis James Moore. Born at Hackness during 1891, Louis had been the eldest son of Edith Mary and William Moore, the village’s blacksmith. A former pupil of Hackness School, and Scarborough’s Municipal School [1904-06], Moore had left the ‘Muni’ at the age of sixteen to become an apprentice draper at Marshall and Snelgrove, a departmental store, which had been located in Scarborough’s exclusive St Nicholas Street [demolished during the 1980’s the site of one of the town’s premier shopping outlets in 2006 is occupied by ‘Yates’s Bar’].
By the out break of war Moore had been residing and working in Sunderland, nevertheless, like Joe Cromack, Moore had been another former ‘Saturday Night soldier’ [Regimental Number 2313], and the war had barely drawn breath before he had reported for duty at the 1ST/5TH’s Headquarters. Louise’s subsequent military career had run along the same lines as Corporal Cromack. Also initially recorded as ‘missing believed killed in action’ on the 25TH of May, Louis Moore had been the holder of a Distinguished Conduct Medal at the time of his death at the age of twenty seven, and his commanding officer, in writing to Moore’s father during June 1918, had had this to say about his lost soldier…’we fought against overwhelming and Sgt. Moore carried himself with an utter disregard for danger and his example in defence of a position was the heart and soul of things’…[7]
Although Louis James Moore’s name is not included on Scarborough’s War Memorial, his name can be found on the Memorial located in front of Hackness Village Hall. It can also be found on a gravestone in the churchyard of the village’s St Mary’ Church, which states that he had been ‘killed in action at Maizy, on the Marne, France, May 27TH 1918…He gave his life’…
[A nearby memorial also commemorates Louis’s parents; Edith Mary Moore, Born March 24TH 1868; Died December 1ST 1910, and William Moore, who had passed away at the age of 66 years on the 12TH of February 1931].
Sergeant Moore’s name can also be found on a ‘Roll of Honour’ [which incorrectly states he had also been the holder of a Military Medal in addition to his two D.C.M.’s] inside St Mary’s Church, which bears the names of twelve other men belonging to Hackness who had lost their lives during the ‘Great War’. Younger brother [born 1895] William Frederick Moore had also served as a machine gunner with the
1ST/5TH Yorkshire Regiment and eventually the Machine Gun Corps, alongside brother Louis and Joe Cromack. Although wounded and captured at the Chemin des Dames, William had survived the war. [8]
By the end of the first day of Operation Blucher the Germans had advanced a staggering ten to twelve miles. Driving all before them, at the end of the following day they had marched, virtually unopposed, into Soissons. During this period over sixty thousand British and French soldiers had become prisoners of the Kaiser. Many of these men had inevitably been wounded to some degree or another. Amongst them had been; 42059 Private William Simpson Doody.
Born in Scarborough’s Spring Hill Road ‘Laundry Cottage’, during 1899, ‘Billie’ had been the youngest son of Emily and Reuben Doody, a ‘machine minder’ and eventually foreman of the nearby Scarborough Laundry and Washing Company. [9]
A former pupil of Falsgrave Junior, and the Central Board School, Billie Doody had enlisted into the army at Scarborough during late 1916 and had eventually been posted in April 1918 to France to serve with the Territorial Force’s 1ST/4TH Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment, which had been attached to the 150TH Brigade of 50TH Division.
By midnight of the 26th/27th of May the First Fourth East Yorkshires, consisting of around thirty officers and six hundred and forty two other ranks, had been on the extreme left flank of Fiftieth Division manning positions near to the village of Craonne in a section of the line just under the southern crest of the Craonne Plateau. The night had been described as ‘extremely quiet’ before the start of the bombardment of the Allied positions, however, with the start of the hurricane of shellfire the situation of the East Yorkshire men had deteriorated as fast as it had for the remainder of the British force on the Chemin des Dames, and by 4am that day their almost obliterated positions had been completely overrun. The Battalion’s War Diary reports that by this time…’the battalion was completely disorganised and rearguard actions were fought by isolated parties who managed to escape and work their way back to the Aisne and the bridge at Maizy, the number which succeeded in crossing was very small’…[10]
[By the 31ST of May the Battalion had consisted of just 4 officers and 105 men].
Wounded during the initial bombardment Private Doody had been left behind during the general rout and had eventually been taken prisoner, along with many others, by members of the Prussian Guard. Amongst the hordes of British and French prisoners who had been marched north eastwards away from the battlefield towards the German frontier and by the end of June Doody had arrived in the German held town of Montcornet, where on Saturday the 1ST of July 1918 the nineteen years old had died as a result of his injuries.
Billie had initially been reported as ‘missing’ in ‘The Scarborough Mercury’ of Friday the 5TH of July 1918. By this time Reuben and Emily Doody had been residing in Scarborough at No.8 Hampton Road, where, during mid August 1918 they had received a postcard from their son saying simply that he was a prisoner of war and wounded, and that he would write again in the future. Unaware of Billie’s death a month previously, the Doody’s had lived in the false belief that he was safe, however, whilst the couple had anxiously awaiting further news of their wounded youngest son they had received the tragic news of the death in action of their eldest son.
Two years older than Billie, Sidney Doody had been born during 1897 and like his younger brother had also attended Falsgrave Junior School, and the Central Board School before leaving education at the age of thirteen to become an errand boy in the Falsgrave Road shop of local grocer, Mr. William Vasey, with whom he had been employed until his enlistment into the army [at Scarborough] during 1916 [for some unknown reason Sid Doody had opted to join up using his grandparents surname and had served as 3/10379 Private Sydney Simpson].
Attached to the 2ND/5TH Battalion of the Prince of Wales’s Own [West Yorkshire Regiment], a part of the 185TH Brigade of the 62ND [2ND West Yorkshire] Division, Syd ‘Simpson’ had been killed not so far from where his younger brother had died, during Saturday the 20TH of July 1918, whilst taking part in the Battle of the Marne 1918 [20 July-2 August], during Allied operations in the valley of the Ardre, which are officially recorded as the Battle of Tardenois [20-31 July 1918]. Killed during the severe and bloody fighting for the villages of Marfaux and Cuitron, the news of Sid’s death had appeared in ‘The Scarborough Mercury’ of Friday the 30TH of August 1918. [During the 20TH of July the 2ND/5TH West Yorkshires had sustained over 400 casualties]:
‘Killed - Mr and Mrs. Doody, 8 Hampton Road, have been officially informed that their eldest son was killed in action on July 20TH. Prior to joining up he was a porter with Mr Vasey, grocer. A younger son, Pte. W.S. Doody, is wounded and a prisoner in Germany. Both are grandsons of the late Mr. Simpson, market constable’…
Located some eighteen kilometres south west of the city of Rheims, the village of Marfaux had been captured by the 62ND Division and elements of the 51ST [Highland] Davison along the New Zealand Cyclist Battalion after three days of bitter fighting on the 23RD of July 1918. At the end of the war Simpson’s remains, along with those of over a thousand British casualties who had died in the surrounding cornfields and thick woodlands which had constituted the battlefields between May and August 1918, who had been buried in battlefield graves, had been taken to the newly created ‘British Cemetery’ located near to the village, where Simpson’s remains had been interred in the cemetery’s Section 3, Row E, Grave 7. [11]
With the ending of the war in November 1918 the Doody’s had at last expected to hear some good news relating to their youngest son. Dead and buried many months before, the unknowing parents had still lived in the belief that he was safe and well in a prison camp in Germany, despite having heard nothing more from Billie since August 1918 to the time of the Armistice. However, during February 1919 their hopes had been shattered when at last they had received an official telegram from the War Office stating Billie had died over a year previously. By this stage the all too familiar ‘Scarboro Casualties’ listings which had obviously been a prominent feature of ‘The Scarborough Mercury’ throughout the war years had disappeared and the news of Billie’s death had been sidelined to the ‘Local News’ section of ‘The Scarborough Mercury’ of Friday the 28TH of February 1919;
‘Died in Germany - Private W.S. Doody, 8 Hampton Road, was taken prisoner of war on May 27TH 1918. His parents received a postcard from him to say that he was wounded and they never heard another word until today, when they received a communication from the War Office stating that he died on July 1ST. Another son was killed in France’…
There had been no further official information regarding the Doody’s lost sons. A few months after the death of Sidney Simpson the war had ended, and Scarborough’s surviving servicemen had begun their journey home. Obviously not amongst those who had returned to the town, the Doody brothers had nevertheless never been forgotten, and for many years after the war the names of the well known and loved pair had been commemorated in the ‘In Memoriam’ section of ‘The Scarborough Mercury’. The newspaper of Friday the 4TH of July 1919 had included;
‘In ever loving memory of Pte. W. Doody [Billie] who died in Germany, July 1ST 1918—Ever remembered by his two pals, Jim and Jack—He bravely answered duty’s call’…
‘In loving memory of William Simpson Doody, who was wounded and taken prisoner May 27TH 1918—Also of Sydney, his elder brother, who was killed in action July 20TH 1918. From his father and mother, grandmother, aunts and uncles at York, uncle and aunt at Hartlepool. Grandsons of the late William Simpson, late market constable’…
In Scarborough, apart from the Oliver’s Mount Memorial, Sydney Simpson’s and Billie Doody’s names do not appear on any of the town’s surviving school or church memorials. However, their names are commemorated on [a now fallen] gravestone in Scarborough’s Manor Road [Section R, Row 14, Grave 10] that also remembers the names of the boys parents Rueben Doody, who had died at the age of 65 years at his home at No.8 Hampton Road on Tuesday the 22ND of September 1931 Emily had subsequently at Hampton Road during Wednesday July the 10TH 1963 at the age of eighty three.
[A nearby kerbstone also commemorates Violet, the wife of [Gunner] Ernest ‘Mac’ Doody [born 1914, the youngest son of Rueben and Emily Doody] who had died at the age of twenty eight years on Sunday the 21ST of June 1942. This memorial also remembers the couple’s ‘darling daughter’ Jean who had died on Thursday the 24TH of October 1940].
Fifteen days after the death of Billie Doody, Scarborough had lost another of its captive sons; 78953 Private Ringrose Boreman.
Attached to the 1ST/7TH Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry [the Pioneer Battalion of the 50TH Division], Boreman had been wounded and subsequently captured on the Craonne Plateau and eventually taken southwards to the village of Bucy-le Long, a picturesque town located five kilometres to the north west of Soissons, where he had died shortly after his fortieth birthday during Wednesday the 17TH of July 1918.
Born in Scarborough on the 29TH of June 1878, Ringrose had been the only son of Jane and Ringrose Boreman, a farmer, who for many years had owned the land attached to ‘Lingholme Farm’ at Lebberston until around 1902, when the Boreman’s had returned to Scarborough to reside in the Falsgrave area at No.116 Falsgrave Road [Ringrose Boreman and Jane Jackson] had been married at St Mary’s Parish Church on the 31ST of January 1870].
At the time of the 1901 Census Boreman had been residing in the North Wales county of Merionethshire in the market town of Dolgelly, at No.4 Idris Terrace, Cader Road. Described in the Census as a ‘boarder, living on own means’, by 1911 he had returned to Scarborough where he had been described in that year’s town ‘Trade Directory’ as a ‘boarding house keeper’ of No.10 Blenheim Street. However, by the outbreak of war in August 1914 the thirty-six years old had been residing with sisters Jane Ann, and Mary Elizabeth ‘May’ in Scarborough at No 28 Nares Street.
Conscripted into the army during 1917, Boreman had initially joined the Yorkshire Regiment [Regimental Number 243140] at Richmond during February that year and after training with the regiment’s 3RD [Reserve] Battalion had been posted to the Western Front in January 1918 to serve with the Territorial Force 1ST/4TH Battalion, which had been attached to the 150TH Brigade of the 50TH [Northumbrian] Division. Subsequently redeployed to the 1ST/7TH D.L.I., Boreman had been serving with this unit, probably as an infantryman, during the initial bombardment, and like the remainder of his unit had been swept away like a leaf in the wind in the face of the massive fusillade of shellfire which had fallen on the British and French positions on the 27TH of May.
Boreman had briefly been reported as missing in action amongst a casualty list that had appeared in ‘The Scarborough Mercury’ of Friday the fifth of July 1918, nothing more had been reported in the local press regarding his subsequent demise.
Although a number of French Army casualties had been buried by the Germans in the churchyard of St Martins at Buchy le Long during the summer of 1918 Amongst, Ringrose Boreman had been the sole British casualty to be interred at this location, and at the end of the war his remains had been exhumed to be re-interred in the newly created British Cemetery near Vailly-sur-Aisne, a small town located on the north bank of the Aisne, some thirteen kilometres to the east of Soissons. Situated on the outskirts of Vailly, the British Cemetery contains the final resting places of 675 British casualties of the Great War, 306 of these burials are unidentified, although forty of these British servicemen, who are known, or believed to be buried there are commemorated on Special Memorials. The grave of Ringrose Boreman is located in the cemetery’s Section 2, Row A, [Grave 20].
Apart from the town’s War Memorial, in Scarborough, Private Boreman is commemorated in Dean Road Cemetery [Section E [Border] Vault 1/2], on an impressive monument which also includes the names of the soldier’s parents; Jane Boreman, the daughter of Lebberston farmer James and Mary Jackson, had been born at ‘Deepdale’ near Lebberston on the 26TH of February 1840, and had died at the age of sixty five years at ‘Lansdowne Villa’, No 3 Avenue Road, on Wednesday the 26TH of September 1905. Boreman’s father, Ringrose [an English Christian name of ‘uncertain origin’] senior, had been the son of Ringrose and Mary Boreman and had been born at Scarborough on the 25TH of October 1832. He had died at the age of seventy nine years, also at the family home in Avenue Road, the day after the coronation of King George the Fifth, on Saturday the 24TH of June 1911.This memorial also bears the names of Ringrose Boreman’s sisters; Mary ‘May’ Elizabeth who had been born in Scarborough on the 23RD of May 1876, and had died on the 9TH of June 1937, whilst Jane Ann, the eldest, had been born in the town on the 28TH of August 1874, she had passed away on the 15TH of September 1966.
[The obverse of the memorial also bears the names of Jane Boreman’s sisters; Emily Annie Jackson, who had died at the age of 43 years on the 28TH of August 1929, and Eliza Ann Keith, the Jackson’s eldest daughter, who had passed away at the age of sixty-seven on the 26TH of July 1941. The monument also carries the name of Mary the daughter of Eliza Keith, who had been ‘re-united’ with her mother on the 24TH of August 198. The memorial also bears the inscription…’Until’].
Almost annihilated on the 27TH of May 1918 the Chemin des Dames had been the last battle for the original 50TH [Northumbrian] Division. During June 1918 the remnants of the battalions which had once formed one of the most magnificent Territorial Force formations to serve on the Western Front, had been reduced to the strength of a single battalion [around a thousand officers and men] and had played no further active part in the war. Another Fiftieth Division had been formed during July 1918 and had consisted of such ‘foreign’ units as the Black Watch, the Royal Fusiliers, and the Royal Munster Fusiliers, units which had been as far removed from the formation’s original northern roots as the moon.
Another casualty of the fighting of the 27TH of May had been twenty-four years old; Second Lieutenant William Tasker.
Attached to the 7TH [Service] Battalion of the Leicestershire Regiment [belonging to the 110TH Brigade of the 21ST Division], ‘Billy’ had been born at Ashby-de –la Zouche during 1894, and had been the eldest son of Louisa [formerly Saxelby] and plumber Joseph Tasker, who had been residing in Scarborough at No.46 Ramshill Road during 1918.
Although born in Leicestershire, Tasker had lived for most of his life in Scarborough, and by April 1901 he had been residing in the Falsgrave area of the town at No.50 West Bank, the seven years old Billy being a pupil of the redoubtable Miss Julia Pritchard’s infant department of the nearby Gladstone Road Board School. However, by 1904 Billy had been living in South Cliff at No.46 Ramshill Road, close to the prestigious St Martins Grammar School, where he had a student from 1904 to1908.
A staunch ‘Martinian’, Tasker had been amongst the school’s remarkable group of former pupils of pre war days who had enlisted en-masse at the outbreak of hostilities to serve in the 2ND/5TH Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment. A ‘Second Line’ Territorial Force unit, this battalion had been raised in Scarborough [September 1914] soon after the original 1ST/5TH Battalion had left the town for ‘battle training’ near Darlington, and whilst former Martinians like Joe Cromack had been preparing to take their places in the war, Tasker and his fellow recruits had been undergoing less lethal forms of training in the depths of North Yorkshire near Ripon.
Soon the days of training under England’s blue skies had been exchanged for the darkness of service on the Western Front, when during June 1915 Tasker had been sent to Flanders amongst a draft of replacements for the large number of casualties which had been suffered by the 1ST/5TH Battalion at St Julien [between the 22ND of April and the 25TH of May 1915 the battalion had lost 30 men killed and over 100 wounded]. Wounded during the autumn of 1916, whilst taking part in the Battle of Flers/Courcelette [September 16TH], Tasker [by this time promoted to Corporal] had subsequently been evacuated to ‘Blighty’ for hospitalisation, and upon his recovery had been sent for officer training with the 8TH Officer Cadet Battalion, which had been based at Lichfield. Five months later Tasker had passed out as a Second Lieutenant to be shortly gazetted to the Leicestershire Regiment. Initially attached to the Territorial Force 1ST/4TH Battalion of the regiment, following the German Spring Offensive of 1918 Tasker had been posted to the sorely depleted 7TH [Service] Battalion of the Leicesters, which had lost a good many of its officers and men in ferocious fighting near the Hindenburg Line, around the village of Epehy.
On the 27TH of May the 7TH Leicestershire Regiment [attached to the 110TH [Leicestershire] Brigade of 21ST Division] had been in positions to the right of the Fiftieth and Eighth Divisions, just to the north of Rheims near the village of Bermericourt and during the day had ‘vanished’ under the enormous initial artillery bombardment in much the same way as the latter formations.
Like so many of the thousands of British officers and men who had been lost on the Chemin des Dames, the fate of Billy Tasker remains unknown. At first recorded as ‘wounded and missing in action’, his parents had been informed that he had been ‘wounded’ during June 1918, Billy’s name subsequently appearing in the same casualty list of the ‘Scarborough Mercury’ of Friday the 14TH of June 1918, which had also included the name of fellow Martinian Joe Cromack;
‘Sec.-Lieut. W. Tasker wounded - The parents of Sec. Lieut. W. Tasker, 46, Ramshill Road, Leicester Regiment, have received a telegram stating that he has been wounded. Nature of wounds not stated. He was wounded in 1916’…
The same edition of the newspaper had also reported….
’Second Lieutenant Tasker’s injuries - The parents of Second Lieutenant W. Tasker, Leicestershire Regiment, Ramshill Road, Scarborough, have received a little further new regarding their son, who has been officially reported wounded. A friend writes that as far as he could make out, Lieutenant Tasker was wounded on the 27TH of May, in the thigh, and was taken to hospital. Later the Germans captured the hospital, but whether the wounded were got away or not is not known by the writer of the letter. The parents have not received any message from their son personally. Lieutenant Tasker was previously wounded in 1916 when serving with the 5TH Yorks’…
There had been no further information surrounding the disappearance of Billy Tasker, nor had any remains, identifiable as those of the missing twenty six years old
Lieutenant ever been found. His name had also been included on the Memorial to the Missing at Soissons, and like that of fellow ‘Old Martinian’ Corporal Joseph Vevers Cromack can be found on the wooden Triptych, which [in 2006] resides on the north interior wall of St Martins on the Hill Parish Church. Tasker’s name can also be found on the brass plate Roll of Honour belonging to Gladstone Road School, which is located in the school’s junior hall.
Billy Tasker’s name is included on a now fallen down gravestone located in Scarborough’s Manor Road Cemetery [Section N, Border, Grave 3]. This memorial also includes the names of his parents. Born at Burton on Trent during 1867, Louise Tasker had died at the family home at No.46 Ramshill Road during March 1930, whilst Billy’s father, Malton born William Tasker, once a partner in the well known Scarborough plumbing firm of Clough and Tasker, and former water engineer for Scalby Urban District Council had passed away on Thursday the 10TH of January 1935 at the age of sixty eight years.
Also included on this memorial is the name of the Tasker’s youngest son Edward Clough. Also born at Ashby-de-la-Zouche [during 1896] Edward had also been a pupil of St Martins [1904-09] and like his elder brother had served during the war, initially as a Private in the Artists Rifles, and finally as a 2ND Lieutenant with the 4TH [Pioneer] Battalion of the Coldstream Guards. On active service on the Western Front by Christmas 1917, unlike his elder brother, ‘Teddy’ had survived the war to eventually serve as a Captain in the Royal Engineers during the Second World War. A prominent post war Scarborough solicitor [based for many years in Londesborough Chambers, Westborough], Teddy had also been the representative for the Weaponess Ward of Scarborough Council from 1935 until his resignation due to ill health during 1946. The husband of Joan, and father of Diana Tasker, Edward Clough Tasker had died ‘after a long illness’ at Harrogate on the 28TH of July 1959 [the memorial also commemorates Edward’s wife, Joan Tasker, who had passed away on the 17TH of February 1984].
Scarborough’s Oliver’s Mount Memorial also commemorates the name of twenty-six years old; 250688 Private Frank Tasker. A former resident of No.2 Sydney Street, Scarborough, Frank had been serving with the 1ST/6TH Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry during November 1916 when he had taken part in an assault on the ‘Butte de Warlincourt’ [an ancient burial ground some forty feet high, located between Arras and Doullens] which had been mounted on the 5TH of the month by 50TH Division. Carried out in appalling weather conditions [before the attack 6th D.L.I. had reportedly lost several men drowned], the 6TH Durhams had suffered over three hundred casualties as a result of the attack. Amongst the battalion’s 144 wounded, Frank Tasker had been evacuated to the 43RD Casualty Clearing Station where he had, incredibly, survived until the 15TH of April 1917, when he had finally succumbed to his injuries. The remains of Private Tasker had subsequently been interred in the burial ground that had been attached to the C.C.S., which today is known as Warlincourt Halte British Cemetery. Located on the side of the main road [N25] between Arras and Doullens, the cemetery is near to the villages of Warincourt and Saulty, Frank’s final resting place is located in Section 8, G, Grave 13.
Obviously a great achievement, the momentum of Operation Blucher had nevertheless been brought to halt on the banks of the Marne on the 6TH of June 1918. On this day the American 2ND and 3RD Divisions had taken their place in the war and had fought with great gallantry in woods around the town of Château Thierry, whilst the U.S. Marines along elements of 3ND Division had eventually halted the Germans in a bloody and costly battle at Belleau Wood. Between the 27TH of May and the 6TH of June the Allies had lost 98,160 French, 28,703 British, and 474 American soldiers [by the time that Belleau Wood had finally fallen to the Americans on the 25TH of June this total had risen to 9,777] killed, wounded, and missing, whilst the Germans had lost somewhere in the region of 130,000 casualties.
The Germans had continued to mount various operations in the area of the Aisne and Marne throughout the remainder of June and into July. On the 9TH of June between Montdidier and Noyon they had launched ‘Operation Gneisenau’, which had begun promisingly with an advance of six miles and the capture of 8,000 French troops but had soon lost momentum. Two days later the French had mounted a massive counter attack that had stopped the Germans once and for all. Now, with the Americans fighting alongside them the Allies had begun to see the tides of war at last turning in their favour, the Germans awakening to the realisation that they, despite all their gallant efforts, may have lost the war.
[1] Private R.H. Kiernan; Little brother goes hunting; London; Constable; 1930.
[2] From the 21ST of March to the beginning of May 1918 Ninth Corps had lost 1,600 officers and 35, 000 other ranks.
[3] Military Operations France and Belgium; Volume 3; Edmonds; Brigadier General Sir J; Macmillan; London; 1939.
[4] Everard Wyrall; The 50TH Division 1914-1919; The Naval & Military Press; 1999.
Courtesy of Mr. Ian Hollingsworth.
[5] Described by Rees as ‘one of the finest character he had ever met’, Huddersfield born Captain James Albert Raymond Thompson had been the forty two years old son of Eliza and James Thompson, and the husband of Ethel Norah Mayson Thompson of ‘The Uplands’, Malton, North Yorkshire. The holder of a Distinguished Service Order, and the French Croix de Guerre, the remains of Captain Thompson [one of the original officers belonging to the 5TH Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment] had been recovered after the war to be interred in Section 2, Row A, Grave 2, in Vendresse British Cemetery, which is located in the Department of the Aisne near to the village of Vendresse - Beaulne, located sixteen kilometres to the south of Laon [Thompson is also commemorated on Malton’s War Memorial]. Wounded during the battle, General Rees, had been amongst the hundreds of officers and men belonging to 50TH Division who had been taken prisoner on the 27TH of May 1918.
[6] Extracted from ‘The Martinian’, the school magazine of St Martins Grammar School; Scarborough Reference Library.
[7] At the end of the war Louise James Moore had been rewarded for his ‘utter disregard for danger’ with another Distinguished Conduct Medal.
[8] Cromack and Moore are recorded by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission as having served with the 50TH Battalion of the Machine Gun Corps at the time of their deaths. However, as this designation had not been adopted by the M.G. Brigades attached to Fiftieth Division until June 1918, the author has, therefore, chosen to record the men as serving in their original unit.
[9] Shropshire [Tipton] born Reuben Doody, and Scarborough born Emily Simpson, had been married at Scarborough’s St Mary’s Parish Church on the 1ST of October 1898. By the time of the 1901 Census the family had been living in the town with Doody’s parents, ‘platelayer’ Charles, and Harriet Doody, at ‘Laundry Cottage’ in Spring Hill Road and had consisted of Rueben, aged 34 years, Emily, 22 years, Sidney, 4 years, William S., 2 years, and Rueben junior, aged seven months. Emily Doody, the eldest daughter of Lydia and William Simpson, had been born at Scarborough, as had all the Doody’s children.
[10] The East Yorkshire Regiment in the Great War 1914-1918; H. Wyrall; London; 1929.
[11] Marfaux British Cemetery is also the final resting place [Section 8, Row C, Grave 1] of nineteen years old; 200854 Sergeant John Meikle. Attached to the 4TH Battalion of the Seaforth Highlanders, Meikle had also been killed during the fighting near Marfaux on the 20TH of July 1918. Subsequently awarded with a posthumous Victoria Cross for his ‘most conspicuous bravery and initiative’ that day, Meikle is also the holder of a Military Medal.