Haigs notion - battle of Amiens (from the book "Neath a Foreign Sky" by Paul Allen)
R.I.P.
- Private John Alfred Raney
- Private William Lightfoot
- Private Charles Lightfoot
- Private James Lightfoot
- Private George Harold Lancaster
- Private Alfred Reginald Collinson
Whilst the guns had continued to flash and crash in France and Flanders, during the summer of 1918, in Britain so long as you had not been amongst the scores of people who had recently lost a relative to the war, and the untold thousands anxiously awaiting news of missing loved ones, life had continued pretty much as it always had done. Nevertheless, there had been shortages in the shops [rationing having been introduced the previous year], and in July the Ministry of Food had withdrawn the country’s first issue of ration cards, which had been replaced by books of coupons for all rationed foods, only tea, cheese, and bread remaining unrestricted.
‘The Scarborough Mercury’ of Friday the Ninth of August had duly reported the news of an increase in price of a pound of ‘country butter’ to two shillings and sixpence, and the probability of the town’s council adoption of a Ministry of Food ‘priority scheme’ within the borough for the supply of milk to infants and invalids. Despite the shortcomings the town had enjoyed a bumper, albeit wet, August Bank holiday. The same edition of the Mercury had reported;
‘Bank Holiday - Busy scenes in Scarboro. The long and heavy trains of last week on the main line service to Scarborough promised a busy Bank Holiday period, but it was not anticipated that the numbers visiting the town would be very great as they proved. The preliminary inrush of the preceding days culminated on Saturday in a deluge of visitors, which had the railway facilities been more adequate would have been very much greater.
In spite, however, of those restricted facilities, it is perfectly remarkable how very large was the number of visitors to Scarborough who succeeded in getting through on the huge and packed trains of double and triple the size that entered the town.
All indications are in agreement with the general belief that Scarborough has had the heaviest and best Bank Holiday since the now seemingly distant days of peace’…
The same newspaper had also announced;
‘Allies big advance - Danger to Amiens removed - Thousands of prisoners - Many guns taken - German General caught in bed’…
Whilst the war news hungry readers of the ‘Scarborough Mercury’ had been digesting the momentous headlines of their newspapers that Friday evening, in France the ninth of August 1918 had marked the second day of a gigantic Allied operation that would go down in the history as ‘The Battle of Amiens’.
The operation had begun during mid July 1918 with the overall commander of operations on the Western Front, the French Marshal Ferdinand Foch, had made suggestions to the British High Command pointing towards a British offensive in the Lys front of Northern France, in the Festubert-Robecq sector. On the 17TH of July Haig had replied to Foch’s suggestion, stating he could see no object ‘in pushing forward over the flat and wet country between Robecq and Festubert’, and had put forward a proposal of his own;
‘The operation which to my mind is of the greatest importance, and which I suggest to you should be carried out as early as possible, is to advance the Allied front east and south east of Amiens so as to disengage that town and the railway line. This can best be carried out by a combined French and British operation. The French attacking south of Moreuil, and the British north of the river Luce’…
Haig’s notion had found favour with Foch, and whilst still maintaining that preparations for an operation on the Lys should continue, he had replied;
‘The combined operation of the British Fourth Army and the French First Army intended to free Amiens and the railway seems to me also one of the most profitable to execute at the moment by reason of the prospects which it offers… General Debeney, on his part, has been studying an offensive with the same objectives, but his proposals differ a little from yours’…
Realising that surprise was the key to a successful outcome for his forthcoming attack Rawlinson [the commander of the British Fourth Army] had begun to formulate his plan of attack under a shroud of the utmost secrecy, the preliminary arrangements being made during a number of conferences which had been held in different places involving, at first, small numbers of the principle officers, increasing in number as the time of the assault had approached. The secrecy surrounding the operation had in fact been so profound that the British Cabinet had not received hints of the attack until the first of August, by which time the attacking force had begun its assembly.
Rawlinson had eventually submitted his plan of attack to British General Headquarters. It would take the form of a three stage advance by the Canadians, Australians, and Third Corps, the objectives being a line about three miles beyond the front at Villers Bretonneux, fanning out to the north across the Somme near Morlancourt, and south westwards in the direction of Moreuil. The reasoning for using this area for the assault being based on the ground being suitable for the use of tanks and cavalry, the German defences were poor, the morale of the defenders was low, and in addition, few divisions of German infantry were being held in reserve there.
Mindful of the poor outcomes of previous Anglo British operations, especially on the Somme during 1916, Rawlinson would have preferred his operation to be a solely British affair, and for this purpose had proposed taking over four miles of the French front. Except for this latter proposal Haig had approved ‘Rawli’s’ overall plan.
On the 24TH of July Haig had put Rawlinson’s plan in front of Foch who had approved the plan with the modification that the French First Army should operate on the right of Fourth Army, and had directed that Rawlinson and General Debeney [the commander of the French First Army] should meet to formulate their plans.
And so the new operation had got underway. Obviously the assembly of the large number of guns, tanks, ammunition, and stores required for the assault could not be hidden from the troops and a small notice headed ‘Keep your mouths shut’! had been issued to each man of Fourth Army, the notice going on to say;
‘The success of any operation we carry out depends chiefly on surprise. Do not talk—when you know that your unit is making preparations for an attack, don’t talk about them to men in other units, or to strangers, and keep your mouth shut, especially in public places.
Don’t be inquisitive about what other units are doing; if you see or hear anything, keep it to yourself’…
Consisting of four divisions of infantry [plus the British 35TH Division], the Canadian Corps, commanded by General Sir Arthur Currie, had served on the Western Front since 1915 and during that time had acquired a fearsome reputation, which had welded the formation into the finest British fighting force on the Western Front. Before Amiens the Canadians had been serving with First Army in the Arras sector and had played no part in any of the offensives of March-April 1918. A move by this formidable unit would have inevitably given the game away, therefore, to mislead German Intelligence, two battalions of infantry along with a wireless section to be moved opposite Kemmel Hill in the Flanders sector of Second Army where they had made numerous false moves and jammed the air with false radio messages indicating the preparation of an operation in that area. After a series of night marches the Canadians had duly arrived on the Somme between the end of July and the 4TH of August.
Formed on the first of November 1917 the Australian Corps had still been flushed with success following its successful recapture of the village of Hamel on the 4TH of July and had already been in the Somme Sector. Commanded by Lieutenant General Sir John Monash, the Corps, consisting of five divisions of infantry and numbering over 166,000 officers and men [the largest Corps in the B.E.F.] the Corps was to play the leading role in the forthcoming operation, however, with his forces sandwiched between the British on his left flank and the French on his right, Monash, a Gallipoli veteran and always a man with the welfare of his men close to his heart, had not been happy with the French at his side, preferring to have the British on both of his flanks. His preference had duly been communicated to Haig, who had allowed the Canadians to take position on the Australian right flank.
Whilst the twenty one divisions of Fourth Army had been gathered together for the assault [a further nine divisions would be committed by the French First Army], the Allies had collected the largest force of tanks that would take to the field during the war. Under cover of darkness, and with their engine noises shrouded by those of aircraft belonging to the four months old Royal Air Force [formed on the 1ST of April 1918 following the amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service] and French Air Force, 324 Mark 5 heavy tanks, along with 96 of the newer and faster [capable of around 8 mph] ‘Whippet’ light tanks, together with 120 of the new Mark 5 [star] tanks, a stretched version of the Mark 5 battle tank, capable of carrying infantry and machine guns. In addition the British had brought to the front over 1,386 field guns and howitzers, along with 684 heavy artillery pieces. The French had also brought into action 780 field guns and 826 ‘heavies’.
Most of the ground over which the forthcoming battle would take place had been south of the Somme, between the river Avre and the Somme itself. Here lies the Santerre plateau; ideal for the use of tanks, there were also few woods of any size those that had existed had been clustered around the numerous villages dotted around the table flat plateau. Running through the plateau and parallel to the proposed line of attack runs the River Luce, little more than a stream in August 1918, the area is also dissected by two ruler straight Roman roads which run from Amiens due east to the city of St. Quentin, and south east to the town of Roye, the latter forming the boundary between Fourth Army and the French First Army. North of the Somme had been the area of Third Corps attack.
Facing the Allies had been ten front line divisions belonging to General Von der Marwitz’s Second Army; these had been supported by four more in reserve. By German standards, their defences in this area had been considered light, gone were the almost impregnable defences three zone defence systems that had defied the allies for over four years. In their place the Germans were holding a line that had consisted of little more than a Forward Zone, which had consisted of a solitary trench without the customary deep dugouts, and poorly wired. Nevertheless, the Germans had held a few surprises for their attackers, notably numerous and well concealed machine guns, which had been sited in shell holes and every piece of cover that could be found, including the abundant shoulder high corn, which would not be harvested that year.
On the fourth of August Ludendorff had issued an ‘Order of the day’, part of it reads;
‘I am under the impression that, in many quarters, the possibility of an enemy offensive is viewed with a certain degree of apprehension. There is nothing to justify this apprehension, provided our troops are vigilant and do their duty’…
Originally planned for the 10TH of August, the operation had been brought forward by two days to begin on Thursday the 8TH of August 1918, ‘Zero Hour’ finally being fixed by Rawlinson and Debeney for 4-20am that day [The French would begin their attack forty five minutes later].
During the night of the 7TH/8TH of August the infantry had been brought forward into their assault positions. The night had been fine, however, two hours after dawn a ground mist had begun to form over the as yet silent battlefield. This mist had gradually thickened into full-blown fog reducing visibility to less than ten yards as Zero Hour had rapidly approached.
At precisely 4-20 in the morning of the 8TH of August the gun had opened fire. Unlike previous preliminary bombardments, which had often lasted for weeks before an assault, this one had lasted for just three minutes. During that time the pre targeted German artillery batteries had been plastered with almost a million British and French artillery shells. This bombardment had shortly been ‘lifted’ by a hundred yards and as it did so the advance of the infantry had begun their advance into the fog.
A typical unit amongst those taking part in the attack had been the 52ND [New Ontario] Canadian Infantry Battalion. Belonging to the 9TH Brigade of the Canadian 3RD Division, the unit had been positioned on the right flank of the assault, its ‘War Diary’ reports of the momentous day;
‘In connexion with the Anglo French offensive, the 9TH Canadian Infantry Brigade attacked the enemy positions near Bourges, with the 43RD, 116TH, and 58TH Battalions in the line, and the 52ND Canadian Infantry Battalion in immediate support. The 52ND Battalion’s duty was to follow immediately the attacking line and support wherever needed by the attacking battalions of the brigade.
Zero Hour was at 4-20 A.M. and very soon after the battalion commenced to move forward through a very heavy enemy barrage. ‘C’ Company advanced at 4-20am, ‘D’ Company about the same time, ‘A’ and ‘B’ Companies moving forward at 5-oo am.
The attacking battalions of the brigade moved forward very rapidly, and numerous small bodies of the enemy, passed in the fog, were dealt with in detail, prisoners and machine guns being taken.
On arrival at rendezvous [a trench position known as ‘C 5 Central’] companies were reorganised, casualties and equipment checked up, equipment and ammunition to complete the battalion, salvaged, and the battalion put in a state of readiness to go forward as soon as called upon to do so.
During the attack the battalion’s casualties were, unfortunately, fairly heavy, Lieutenants A.P. Milk M.M., and E.A. Langford killed, Lieutenants K. Spencer and J.L. Evans died of wounds, Captain S.R. Wallace and Lieutenants J.A.D. Slemin, D.F. Beaubiar, and R.A. Gluff wounded amongst the officers. The casualties amongst the other ranks were, 8 killed, 4 died of wounds, 82 wounded, 4 wounded at duty, and 6 missing.
Late in the afternoon the battalion moved to Hamon Wood...where they bivouacked in the open’… [1]
Amongst the eight ‘other ranks’ killed during the action had been thirty years old; 892118 Private John Alfred Raney.
Born in Bridlington on the 3RD of October 1887, John had been youngest son of Annabella Frances, and James Raney, a clerk employed by the North Eastern Railway Company at their railway good depot located in Falsgrave [the site is now [2006] occupied by Sainsbury’s supermarket]. [2]
Although a native of the East Riding of Yorkshire, Raney had nonetheless spent many years of his life in the Gladstone Road area of Scarborough, where he had lived at No.32 Candler Street, and had also been a member of the congregation of the nearby Saint Saviours Church. Also a former pupil of the town’s Central Board School, at the age of thirteen John had left the Central to become an apprentice machine minder for ‘The Scarborough Gazette’ [during 1900 the newspaper had been located at No 36 St. Nicholas Street].
Amongst the hordes of Britons who had quit the mother country in search of a better life in the ‘promise lands’ of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand during the years leading up to the Great War, Raney had crossed the Atlantic to Canada during 1910, and by the outbreak of war in August 1914 he had been farming in the vast prairies of Manitoba, where he had resided in the settlement of Clanwilliam.
Situated in the south central part of Manitoba, the village [according to Statistics Canada’, in 2001 the commune had numbered 467 inhabitants], is
Located immediately to the south of the beautiful Riding Mountain National Park, and strides Manitoba’s Provincial Trunk Highway 10. Situated in a landscape consisting of ‘rolling picturesque countryside with lakes of various sizes surrounded by rich coniferous and deciduous forests’, Clanwilliam’s main economy has always been based on agriculture, farming being focused on the production of cereals and livestock operations such as dairy produce and in recent times, bison and deer farming, activities far removed from Raney’s day when the work had been hard scratching a living from the bare earth.
Raney had left Clanwilliam, never to return, during March 1916. Journeying eastwards, he had travelled the two hundred miles or so miles to Winnipeg, Manitoba’s capitol, where, on Wednesday the 22ND of the March he had enlisted into the Canadian army.
Described as being aged 28 years and 6 months at the time, Raney is also recorded as being five feet six inches in height, and in possession of a ‘ruddy’ complexion, blue eyes, brown hair. Found also to be able to see the required distance with either eye be in possession of a healthy heart rate and lungs: and had ‘free use of his joints and limbs’, and following his making of a declaration that he had not been subjected to fits of any description, Raney had duly sworn the oath of allegiance to King and Country, and had duly been accepted for service with the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force. [1]
Initially posted to the 190TH Overseas Battalion for training, Raney had been transported further eastwards to Valcartier Camp, a huge encampment outside Quebec, which had been the proving ground for all C.E.F. recruits. Whilst there Raney had been introduced to the various forms of military drill, and had eventually learned the arts of firing different weapons, including the Ross Rifle, the standard firearm of the Canadian infantryman.
Raney had remained at Valcartier until August 1916, duly posted for service in France with the Canadian Corps, he had shortly left Halifax, Nova Scotia, amongst a huge draft of replacements which had crowded the decks of the gigantic 32,000 tons
S.S. Mauretania. Following his landing at Liverpool, Raney had been transported to the large Canadian Base Camp located in Kent at Witley Camp, near to Folkestone.
John Raney had been posted to France during January 1917 amongst a draft of twenty eight other ranks destined for service with the 52ND Battalion. Raney had duly joined the unit on the 27TH of the month. At the time the fifty second had been stationed in the Souchez sector of Northern France where it had been in Third Canadian Divisional Reserve at Bruay, a town located some miles to the north west of Lens. Commanded at this time by Lieutenant Colonel William Barnard Evans D.S.O., the 52ND Battalion had shortly taken over trenches in the 1st Sub Section of the front line near the village of Telus [pronounced ‘Teloo’]. The weather at the time being described by the Battalion’s ‘War Diary’ as ‘cold and fine’. Raney had served in these positions, alternating with time spent in support trenches at Maison Blanche, throughout the remainder of 1917, and had taken part in 3RD Canadian Division’s operations at Vimy Ridge [April-May 1917]. Also a veteran of the subsequent Third Battle of Passchendaele [July –November 1917], by January 1918 Raney and the remainder of the 52ND had been back in positions to ‘the north of Lens’, at Cite St Pierre.
The battalion had received orders to move southwards at the end of July 1918. By this period, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel William Wasbrough Foster D.S.O., the unit had moved towards the Somme in a series of journeys by bus and night marches via Berneville, Gouvres, Beudricourt, Epaumesnil, Namps-au-Mont, and St Fuscien until the fifth of August, when the battalion, consisting of around 48 officers and 917 other ranks, had reached Bois de Boves, located some six miles to the south east of Amiens. Here the battalion had rested until the following day when it had moved into support at nearby Gentelles Wood.
On the seventh the 52ND’s War Diarist reports…’Fine, Battalion completed supplies and munitions, and at night moved forward and took up position in jumping off trench, in order to the enemy positions at dawn. Our positions running across the main Roye road’…Just before dawn the battle had commenced. [1]
The actual circumstances surrounding Private Raney’s death will obviously be never known. However, ‘Appendix No 5’ of his battalion’s War Diary says…’unfortunately, all companies had suffered from the enemy barrage. The barrage was heavier than had been anticipated and seemed to be placed just along the line where our companies had assembled, with the result that we had considerable casualties. Indeed the greater proportion of casualties suffered throughout this day were those received at the very beginning of the attack’… [1]
The remains of the Fifty Second Battalion’s one officer and eight ‘other ranks’ who had lost their lives on the 8TH of August had duly been interred in a small cemetery close to Domart-sur la Luce, a village located in the valley of the Luce, near to the village of Hourges, on the road between Amiens and Roye, which had been taken that day by the 42ND [Manitoba Regiment] Battalion of Canadian Infantry. Now known as ‘Hourges Orchard Cemetery’, the burial ground contains the graves of 144 casualties of the Great War [11 of which are unidentified], mostly of Canadian troops who had fallen in the area during April and August 1918. Those belonging to eight men of 52ND Battalion are grouped together in Section A, and consist of; Lieutenant Archie Payne Milk [an English born [Norfolk] 22 years old holder of the Military Medal] [A68], 891118 Private John Alfred Raney [A69], 234394 Private Harry Jakeman [aged 46 years at the time of his death] [A70], 439137 Corporal W.S. Dumma [A71], 892631 Private C. Burwell [A73], 439416 Private H.H. Hilliard [A74], 19778 Private Edward Leake [aged 22 years, born at Birmingham] [A75], 441471 Private Edward Pious Mahoney Military Medal [A 76], whilst the ninth, that of
43959 Private T. Lowe, is located, for some unknown reason, in Section B [Grave 37].
[The remains of English born [Middlesex 1879] Lieutenant Everett Alexander Langford, the second officer belonging to the 52ND Battalion to be killed on the 8TH of August 1918, had never been recovered from the battlefield. His name is commemorated on the Vimy Memorial].
At the time of their son’s death Annabella and James Raney had been residing in Scarborough at No.7 Park Road, where they had received the dreaded brown envelope bearing notification of John’s demise. The news had subsequently been reported in the ‘Scarborough Mercury’ of Friday the 27TH of September 1918
‘Local Canadian killed - Mrs. Raney, 7 Park Road, has received news of the death of her youngest son, Private John Alfred Raney; who went to Canada about eight years ago. Pte. Raney served his apprenticeship with the ‘Scarborough Gazette’ Company. He was about 31 years of age and was killed on the 8TH of August. He was on leave in Scarborough last September. A brother, Corporal E. Raney, is serving in France’…
No further information regarding the demise of John Alfred Raney had ever appeared in the local press. His parents had duly received a small pension, and a package containing John’s medal entitlement [the British War and Victory Medals] in recompense for his loss, and during the post war years they had also received the commemorative bronze plaque bearing his name, which had frequently been referred to as the ‘dead man’s penny’.
John’s elder brother, James Thomas Edward Raney, had served as a Private [Regimental Number 316128] with the Northumberland Fusiliers; however, by the end of the war he had been promoted to Corporal. Unlike his younger brother, he had survived the conflict. John Raney’s parents had continued to live at their home at No.7 Park Street until Annabella Frances had died at the house at the age of 71 years on Friday the 10TH of July 1925. Her remains had subsequently been interred in Scarborough’s Manor Road Cemetery during Monday the 13TH of July 1925. Two years late, on the 24TH of February 1927, John’s father, James Thomas Edward Raney had also passed away, at the age of sixty two years. Both are interred in Section L, Row 22, Grave 36 of Manor Road Cemetery, sadly, their final resting places are not marked.
In Scarborough, apart from the Oliver’s Mount Memorial John Raney’s name is commemorated on the Triptych war memorial inside St Saviours Church which contains the names of twenty two former members of the church congregation who had lost their lives during the 1914-19 war [the memorial also bears the names of twelve members of the church who had lost their lives during World War Two].
In Canada John’s name is included on page 489 of the First World War Book of Remembrance, which commemorates over 66,000 Canadian casualties of the Great War. This book is amongst a series of seven volumes which remember the names of 118,000 Canadians and Newfoundlanders who have made the ultimate sacrifice whilst serving Canada in uniform and can be found in the Memorial Chamber of a ‘Peace Tower’ located on Ottawa’s Parliament Hill.
During 1922 the residents of Clanwilliam had decided to have a cenotaph built to commemorate the village’s thirty war casualties. The memorial had duly been brought to Clanwilliam by train and erected on a vacant lot within the village. Born in the village during1866 Bill Williams had cared for the memorial for much of his life and had planted trees and beautiful flower beds, and had also created a park around the cenotaph in honour of the settlements fallen. Bill had died in 1957, nevertheless, the memorial, bearing John Alfred Raney’s name, is still being well cared for, albeit by a Veterans Association [the memorial also bears the names of ten men of Clanwilliam who had lost their lives during the Second World War].
Completely taken by surprise by the Allied assault on the eighth of August [which had made an advance of around nine miles], by nightfall the Germans had lost between 27,000 and 28,000 officers and men, whilst the Allies had suffered fewer than 9,000 casualties. In his memoirs Ludendorff would later describe the day as ‘the blackest day of the German army’, and would go on to describe;
‘The report of the staff officer I sent to the battlefield as to the condition of those divisions which had met the first shock of the attack of the 8TH perturbed me deeply. I summoned divisional commanders from the line to Avesnes to discuss events with them in detail. I was told not of deeds glorious valour, but of behaviour, which I openly confess, I should not have thought possible in the German Army; whole bodies of our men had surrendered to single troopers or isolated squadrons. Retiring troops, meeting a fresh division going into action had shouted out things like ‘blackleg’ and ‘you’re prolonging the war’, expressions that were to be heard again later. The officers in many places had lost their influence and allowed themselves to be swept along with the rest…Everything I had feared, and of which I had so often given warning, had here, in one place, become a reality. Our war machine was no longer efficient’…
Pleased with the way the operation had gone during the day; in the afternoon of the eighth Rawlinson had decided that it should be continued the following day. There had been no fog to cover the Canadian infantry advance on Friday the 9TH of August. Amongst the units who had taken to the field that day had been the 4TH [Central Ontario Regiment] Infantry Battalion. Attached to the 1ST Brigade of the Canadian 1ST Division, the unit’s ‘War Diary’ reports;
‘Battalion Headquarters near Ingaucourt, the four companies 2 kilometres in advance [to the east] in outpost formation. Orders received from Brigade to take up assembly positions southeast of Cayeaux. Battalion, less transport move at 7-30am to this position. Settled in position by 8-40am. Officers chargers and Lewis Gun limbers and Medical cart accompany battalion. Enemy shelling Cayeaux, no damage. Battalion moved to assembly position 1 mile north east of Le Quensnel ; moved at 2-00pm to attack and obtained objective, [the villages of] Beaufort and Rouvroy by 10-15pm. Casualties very heavy, one officer killed and 11 wounded, many casualties in N.C.O.’s. Commanding Officer [29 years old Lieutenant Colonel Lafayette Harry Nelles] received rifle bullet through leg but remained in command until 10TH inst. Many gallant acts were performed by all ranks in face of extremely heavy machine gun fire. Battalion set out on outpost line at dusk Lieutenant Harris and sixteen other ranks buried beside Battalion Headquarters this afternoon, all the H.Q. personnel and officers attended, numbers limited on account of desultory shelling at the time’…[1]
Amongst the Battalion’s casualties for the ninth of August had been thirty-three years old; 868180 Private William Lightfoot. Born at ‘ Falsgrave Moor Farm’, on the 20TH of October 1884, Bill had been the youngest son of Frances and Isaac Lightfoot, a farmer of 70 acres of land on Falsgrave Moor. [4]
By 1914 Bill Lightfoot had migrated to Canada. A married man by this time he had living with wife Sarah Ellen and working as a labourer in the town of Morris. Located in the Province of Manitoba and a few miles to the south of Winnipeg, Lightfoot had left Morris to report to the city for war service in the on the 25TH of March 1915. Here he had undergone the same rudimentary medical examination as John Raney, which had established little more than he had had the ‘apparent age’ of 26 years and 2 months, and had stood at five feet six and a half inches in height, and had been in possession of a ‘fresh complexion, grey eyes, and brown hair’. In addition, Lightfoot’s religeous denomination had been recorded as ‘Wesleyan’.
For some unknown reason Lightfoot had not joined the army at this period, having, according to his Attestation Papers, finally taken the oath of allegiance to ‘His Majesty King George the fifth, His heirs and Successors’ a year later, at Port Whitby, a town located on the banks of Lake Ontario, in the province of Ontario, on Saturday the 29TH of April 1916. [1]
Lightfoot had duly been posted to Valcartier for training with the 182ND Overseas Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Already a veteran of five years military service with the Scarborough based Territorial Force 1ST/ 5TH Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment, Lightfoot’s initial military career had begun pretty much the same at Private Raney’s, except that shortly after his arrival in England during November 1916, he had been posted almost immediately to France, as a replacement to the veteran 4TH Battalion.
Amongst the first Canadian Infantry units to take their places in the war, the Fourth Battalion had arrived in Belgium in time to take part in the Second Battle of Ypres [April- May 1915], where the battalion had lost over five hundred of its officers and men [including the Battalion’s C.O. Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Percival Birchall] to enemy artillery and machine gun fire. More recently, during September 1916, the formation had taken part in the Battle of Courcelette, where once again the formation had lost over 150 officers and men to enemy shellfire. By the time that William Lightfoot had joined the Battalion, on the 25TH of November, the unit had been in ‘Brigade Support’ in trenches in the Cabaret Rouge Sector. However, during the following day the unit had been withdrawn to ‘Divisional Reserve’ at Gouy Servins.
A veteran of the operations at Vimy Ridge, and the subsequent Third Battle of Ypres, prior to the beginning of the operation at Amiens Lightfoot and the remainder of 4TH Battalion had been stationed in the Arras Sector where the unit had been manning the front line trenches near to Fampoux. However, soon the formation had received orders to begin moving southwards in preparation for the forthcoming operation, and like the remainder of the Canadian Corps, the Fourth Battalion had duly began their move.
By the beginning of August the battalion had reached the village of Warlus. The following day it had moved to Grand Rullecourt, thence to St Maulvis, where the men had ‘embussed’ aboard 270 buses which had conveyed the battalion throughout the night and through the darkened city of Amiens to Boves Wood, which had been reached at midnight on the sixth of August. The Battalion had duly marched to its assembly point at Gentelles on the seventh. The following day the men of the unit, each carrying 150 rounds of ammunition, 48 hours iron rations, two filled water bottles, together with three boxes of smoke bombs, twenty mills bombs [per platoon], and 100 shovels had joined in the battle of Amiens. The Battalion’s diary entry for the eighth reports…
‘Battalion advanced for attack…Zero Hour was 4-20am, battalion reached objective by 11-30am. Casualties were about 125. 1 officer was killed and O.C. & 6 officers wounded. Excellent work was affected by officers of ‘A’ and ‘D’ Companies in keeping their direction in thick mist at the opening of the battle. Battalion transport moved up from Boves Wood in the morning and received orders to move up and join battalion east of Aubercourt…fifty four men joined the Battalion today; 40 of them being reinforcements. Cool and cloudy. Thick mist during the early morning. Visibility poor’… [1]
The day after the death of Private Lightfoot the 4TH Battalion had still been at Rouvroy, the unit’s war diarist [and newly appointed Commanding Officer], Major George Gooderham Blackstock, had reported for the 10TH of August;
‘Battalion resting and clearing battlefield and burying the dead under direction of Captain Hamilton, Chaplain, who performed excellent work on both August 8TH and 9TH. The commanding officer evacuated, Major G.G. Blackstock assumes command of the battalion…Heavy shelling, many aerial combats and numerous planes destroyed…The Hun is being driven back and is destroying his dumps by fire…This open warfare in this ideal country presents a magnificent, ever changing panorama. 1 casualty today. Weather ideal’… [1]
The news of Private Lightfoot’s death had initially been transmitted to his widow in Canada. However, by the beginning of September the news had reached the soldier’s mother, and although William’s name had never appeared in any of the casualty lists included in ‘The Scarborough Mercury’ at this time, Frances Lightfoot had inserted an epitaph to her lost son in the ‘In Memoriam’ section of the edition of Friday the 13TH of September 1918;
‘Lightfoot. —Killed in action, somewhere in France, on August 9TH, 1918. Private William Lightfoot, of the Canadians, youngest son of Mrs. F. Lightfoot, Oak Road, and the late Isaac Lightfoot, aged 33 years’…
Following the Armistice the remains of Private Lightfoot, along with those of Irish born Lieutenant Dermot Alan Harris, and the other fifteen casualties belonging to the 4TH Battalion, had been exhumed from their battlefield burial ground to be taken to a newly created cemetery near the village of Bouchoir. Captured on the 9TH of August by the 8TH Canadian Brigade, Bouchoir is located in the Department of the Somme on the main road [D934] between Roye and Amiens, the cemetery, known today as ‘Bouchoir New British Cemetery’, is to be found just before you enter the village on the right hand side of the road and contains the graves of 763 casualties [mostly Canadian] of the ‘Great War’ [231 of these burials are unidentified].
The final resting place of Private William Lightfoot is located in Bouchior’s Section 1 /Row B/ Grave 37, alongside those of fellow 4TH Battalion soldiers; 769863 Private Daniel McDonald Foreman [1/B/38] and 862849 Private Hugh Gilmour [the Battalion’s remaining twelve casualties of the 9TH of August are largely congregated in Section 2/A of the Cemetery].
Apart from the Oliver’s Mount Memorial, William Lightfoot’s name is not commemorated on any of Scarborough’s surviving church or school war memorials. In Canada his name is commemorated on page 449 of the First World War Book of Remembrance located in Ottawa’s Peace Tower. Extensive research by the author has found that the village of Morris also possesses a memorial dedicated to sixteen members of the settlement who had lost their lives between 1914 and 1918. Named as ‘The Morris Veterans Memorial Cenotaph’, sadly this memorial also does not contain the name of William Lightfoot.
William’s father, Isaac Lightfoot, had died at the age of 49 years at Falsgrave Moor Farm on Tuesday the 14TH of October 1890. Buried in Scarborough’s ‘New [Manor Road] Cemetery’ [Section P/ Row12/Grave 10] three days later, Isaac’s final resting place is marked by a badly weathered sandstone grave marker which also contains the names of youngest daughter Louisa Frances, who had died at the age of 26 years on the 25TH of January 1907, and wife Frances Lightfoot who had passed away on the day of her 91ST birthday at her home at No.10 Oak Road, Scarborough, during Friday the 1ST of February 1935.
Scarborough’s War Memorial also remembers; 32782 Private Charles Lightfoot. Born in Scarborough during 1890 at No.39 William Street, Charlie had been the youngest son of Jane and ‘hotel porter’ John Lightfoot. Married at St Mary’s Parish Church on Wednesday the 6TH of April 1914 to Scarborough born Sarah Jane Fletcher, by the outbreak of war the couple had been living in the town at No 3 Hunter’s Yard in James Street where their only child Emma [Queenie] had been born later in the year [the September quarter of 1914].
A former employee of Scarborough wine and spirit merchants W. & A. Gilbey [at the time located at No.79 Newborough], Charlie Lightfoot had enlisted into the army at Richmond during January 1917 [by which time the family had been residing at No.23 Oxford Street] to serve in the 9TH [Service] Battalion of the York and Lancaster Regiment during the Third Battle of Ypres [Passchendaele], where he had lost his life at the age of twenty seven to enemy shell fire on Sunday the 23RD of September 1917.
The news of Charlie’s death had been reported in a casualty list that had appeared in ‘The Scarborough Mercury’ of Friday the 5TH of October 1917. The newspaper had reported…’Mrs. C. Lightfoot, 23 Oxford Street has received from an officer the following letter conveying the news of her husband’s death in action;
‘It is my sad duty to inform you that your husband, Private C. Lightfoot was instantaneously killed by shell fire in the trenches on the 23RD inst. As his platoon officer I wish to convey to you my deepest sympathy in your bereavement, and must add that your husband was a splendid soldier, being most willing on every occasion to do the duty entrusted to him. He was buried by us on the night of the 23RD inst’…
Despite the officer’s assurance that his remains had been given a descent burial, after the war the remains of Charlie Lightfoot had never been found amongst the detritus of the Flanders battlefield, and his name had eventually been commemorated amongst those of thirty five thousand other ‘lost’ casualties of ‘Third Wipers’ who that had been included on the Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing at Zonnebke, West Flanders. Charlie’s name can be located amongst those included on Panels 125-128.
31409 Private James Lightfoot. Also born in Scarborough during 1890, at No.8 Clarence Street, Jim had been the youngest son of Sarah, and ‘general labourer, John Lightfoot. By the outbreak of war Lightfoot had been employed in the West Riding of Yorkshire as a coal miner at Denaby Main Colliery, and although in a job which had exempted him from military service, he had enlisted during 1916 at Mexborough. Initially also a soldier in the York and Lancaster Regiment [Regimental Number 25136], Jim had eventually been transferred to the 8TH [Service] Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment with which he had lost his life during Friday the 13TH of April 1917, whilst serving in the Arras Offensive. Like those of Charlie Lightfoot, the remains of twenty seven years old Jim Lightfoot had never been recovered, his name being commemorated amongst those of thirty five thousand missing servicemen included on the Arras Memorial to the Missing. Jim’s name can be found amongst those displayed in Bay 4 and 5.
[Information regarding James Lightfoot’s demise is not included in any surviving editions of ‘The Scarborough Mercury’ newspapers of 1917, which are conserved on microfilm in the town’s Reference Library].
By Saturday the 10TH of August the astonishing Allied advance of the previous two days had begun to falter. By this time the Canadians and Australians had reached the area of the Somme which had been devastated by the Germans as they had made their withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line 1917, and some areas of the devastated Somme battlefield of 1916, a wilderness of shell holes and old trench systems woven with rusting barbed wire entanglements which by this time had sprouted grass and weeds several feet in height, in short, a perfect killing ground for the enemy’s massed machine guns. Throughout the day the German forces had had stiffened their resistance and would be reinforced with seven fresh divisions of infantry [with a similar number en route to the battlefront], nevertheless, the day had begun promisingly for the Allies with the capture of the village of Le Quesnel, by units belonging to the 3RD Canadian Division.
Amongst the units taking part in these operations had been the 2ND Battalion of the Canadian Mounted Rifles, an infantry unit, albeit with a cavalry name, that had served with the 8TH Brigade of 3RD Canadian.
Already veterans of two days hard fighting for the village of Demiun, during the night of the ninth the Battalion’s four companies….’were to assemble in front of Bouchoir as soon after midnight as possible. As soon as assembled they would move forward and take up battle positions about 400 yards west and north west of Le Quesnel; at 4-20am they would move forward to the attack from these positions
Through the kindness of Brigadier Brutinell D.S.O., Commanding Corps machine guns, ‘A’, ‘B’, and ‘C’ Companies were moved up to the Factory 8in Machine Gun motor lorries, where the debussing was protected by a screen of motor cycle machine gunners. The remainder of the battalion marched to positions’.
‘Assembly positions were taken up without incident, valuable assistance being rendered by the O.C. and officers of the 5TH C.M.R..
Heavy fighting developed at dawn, but the battalion fought its way forward until at
6-30am, it was in entire possession of all objectives.
Valuable aid was rendered by 2 tanks which came up at 6-am, the two originally detailed to come up at 4am having broken down.
Several attempts to reoccupy the north end of the village were made [by the enemy] between 7am and 9am, but these were easily broken down by our Lewis Gun and rifle fire’…[1]
‘Appendix B’ of the Battalion’s War Diary for the August period goes on to report the losses to the 2ND C.M.R. during the period 8-10TH of August, which had amounted to four officers killed, five wounded, whilst the casualties amongst the ‘other ranks’ had been seventy eight killed with a further one hundred and thirty five wounded. Amongst the latter had been forty six years old; 916783 Private George Harold Lancaster.
Born in Scarborough on the 8TH of August 1877, George had been the eldest of six children of Ellen and George Lancaster, a joiner/undertaker by trade, who had been residing in Scarborough at No. 48 Gordon Street at the time of his son’s death. [5]
Formerly a soldier in the Regular Army of Queen Victoria, Lancaster had been stationed at Bradford during 1899 with the 1ST Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment and had been amongst the ranks of troops who had marched out of barracks to be met by a crowd of over 50,000 cheering people who had burst into ‘God save the Queen’ as the men had made their way to the railway station, and eventually the Second South African War, where Lancaster had seen action in the Orange Free State at the Battle of Paardeberg [18TH February 1900] where Sergeant Alfred Atkinson had gained the Yorkshire Regiment’s third [and first posthumous]Victoria Cross, ‘Kitcheners Kop’ [19-23 February], and subsequently at Driefontein. Amongst the ranks of Yorkshiremen who had subsequently marched into the ‘Free State’s’ Capitol [Bloemfontein] ‘dressed in rags and broken boots’, Lancaster had also taken part in a massive chase across Africa in pursuit of the Boer leader Kruger, which had involved the battalion marching for five futile weeks march across the scorching African veldt until the unit had arrived at Pretoria, the capitol of the Transvaal, the unit having lost many of its men along the way to enteric fever and dysentery. Lancaster’s journey across Africa had finally ended during mid September at Koomati Poort, on the Crocodile River [the border with Portuguese East Africa [now Mozambique]], by which time; he and the surviving officers and men of 1ST Yorkshire Regiment had tramped over one thousand miles.
Lancaster had returned to Britain with his regiment during September 1902 to serve at Sheffield until 1903, when he had been discharged from the army. Returning for a short while to civilian life in Scarborough, which had held few attractions for a discharged soldier with few qualifications of use to industry. During 1904 George had migrated to Canada, where he had lived for over ten years in the Province of Ontario, in the city of Toronto. By the outbreak of war in August 1914 Lancaster had been living in the city at No.15 Leonard Avenue, and had been employed as a labourer on the Canadian railways.
Not amongst the many former British soldiers in Canada who had hurried to rejoin the colours at the outbreak of war, Lancaster had enlisted into the Canadian Expeditionary Force at Toronto on the 5TH of May 1916. At the time, according to his service papers, he had been aged 38 years and nine months, and had stood at five feet seven and a half inches in height, had possessed a ‘fair’ complexion, grey eyes, and brown hair. Duly considered as being ‘physically fit in every way’ for service abroad, Lancaster had been posted to the 198TH [Toronto] Battalion of infantry for training at Valcartier Camp. This unit had duly left Canada from Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the 25TH of March 1917 in a packed troop transport that had crossed the Atlantic to arrive in the Port of Liverpool on the seventh of April.
Posted to the Canadian Base Depot located at Witley Camp, near Folkestone, where the 198TH had been absorbed by the 3RD Canadian Infantry Reserve Battalion for further training before being sent ‘across the water’, on the 16TH of March 1917 George Lancaster had left Witley amongst a draft of 15 other ranks that had been destined for service with the 2ND Canadian Rifles. He had duly joined the battalion on the 11TH of April in the Arras Sector whilst the unit had been ‘resting’ at ‘Hills Camp’, which had been located near to the town of Neuville St Vaast.
Attached to Captain Robert Ernest Gunn’s ‘D’ Company, there had been little rest for Private Lancaster for the day after his arrival the 2ND C.M.R. had begun to move towards positions in the Hill 70 sector, where during the night of the twelfth the battalion had relieved the 5TH Battalion of the Lincolnshire Regiment, Lancaster’s company occupying the ‘Left Front Line’.
Some of the conditions experienced by Lancaster during his first term in the trenches can be gathered from the Battalion’s ‘War Diary’, which on the 13TH of April had reported… ‘The enemy shelled the front line at intervals with light Trench Mortars and in the support areas with field artillery during the night. Casualties; Lieut. C.R. Grothe, M.M., ‘wounded’ and 1 other rank ‘wounded’. Weather fine, good observation’. Later that day… ‘Situation quiet, enemy artillery much more quiet than usual. The battalion sniper claimed two hits during the afternoon’…
Like the remainder of the Canadian Corps, the 2ND Mounted Rifles had arrived, after a series of night marches, in the area of Amiens at the beginning of August. By the fifth the unit had been bivouacking in the Bois de Boves prior to their move towards Gentelles Wood, where, on the fifth, the battalion had relieved the Australian 51ST Infantry Battalion. Whilst there, during the night of the seventh, the Battalion’s Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel George C. Johnston D.S.O. M.C., had issued his battalion’s up till then Most Secret ‘Battalion Operation Order No. 139’, the unit’s plan of attack for the next day.
On the eighth the 2ND C.M.R., consisting of twenty six officers and seven hundred other ranks, had advanced, with the remainder of 8TH Brigade, towards its objective, the town of Demuin. ‘Appendix B’ of the Battalion’s War Diary reports;
‘Some difficulty in keeping direction was experienced owing to fog and elements of the leading companies joined in the at Hangard; these however were gathered together and sent on by B.H.Q. [Battalion Headquarters] At Tirpitz Trench ‘B’ and ‘D’ Companies passed through ‘A’ and ‘C’; ‘A’ and ‘C’ reforming and following in support; at 6-30am reports were received that the Demuin bridgehead was being consolidated and the Battalion in touch with the 58TH on that flank and at the same time, the five crossroads position was reported ours and ‘A’ Company established and consolidating forward of it. B.H.Q. was established at the five crossroads…No serious fighting was encountered during this advance; odd groups of Germans only, putting up any resistance, which was easily dealt with.
During the morning the G.O.C. Commanding 8TH Canadian Infantry Brigade and staff came up and inspected the new positions, congratulating the men on their work’…[6]
During the action Lancaster had received severe gunshot wounds in his abdomen and an ankle that had been inflicted by a machine gun belonging to one of the ‘odd groups of Germans’, taking part in the battle. Mortally injured and with little hope of survival, George had nevertheless been evacuated to the 48TH Casualty Clearing Station, which had been located under the walls of a lunatic asylum at the village of Drury, where, despite the best attentions of Royal Army Medical Corps surgeons, he had succumbed to his injuries two days later.
The body of Private Lancaster had initially been buried at Drury in the cemetery that had been attached to the 48TH Casualty Clearing Station known as ‘Drury Hospital Military Cemetery’. However, shortly after the Armistice his remains, along with those of 194 Canadian and 185 British soldiers and airmen, 63 Australians soldiers, one South African serviceman, one French soldier, and one American soldier, had been removed from this burial ground to be re-interred in the much larger concentration of graves located at Villers Bretonneux. Now known as Villers Bretonneux Military Cemetery’, this Cemetery is located 16 kilometres to the east of the Somme city of Amiens, and about two kilometres north of the village of Villers Bretonneux and contains the graves of over two thousand servicemen of the Great War of 1914-1918 [of these over 600 are unidentified burials]. George Harold Lancaster’s final resting place is located in Section 5, Row BB, Grave 1.
Like fellow ‘Scarborough Canadian’ Private William Lightfoot, George Lancaster’s name is not included in any of the casualty lists included in the surviving newspapers of the period. Nevertheless, his does appear in the ‘Births, Deaths, and Marriages’ section of ‘The Scarborough Mercury of Friday the 6TH of September 1918;
‘Lancaster. —In France, 10TH August 1918, died of wounds, Private George Harold Lancaster, aged 43 years. After ten years residence in Toronto, he volunteered for service with the 198TH Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force. Later, in France, he was transferred to the 2ND Canadian Mounted Rifles. He also served in the South African War’….
In Scarborough apart from the Oliver’s Mount Memorial, George’s name is also not commemorated on any of the town’s surviving church or school war memorials. Nonetheless, his name can be found on a now broken and fallen gravestone in Scarborough’s Dean Road Cemetery [Section F, Row 16, Grave 15] which also bears the name of Frederick Stanley, the fourth son of the Lancaster’s, who had died at the age of four years and nine months on the 1ST of February 1890, and that of his Scarborough born mother, Ellen Lancaster, who had died at her home at No.23 Raleigh Street, on Tuesday the 21ST of August 1900 at the age of forty nine years. The memorial also bears the name of Harold’s father. Born in Scarborough during 1861 George had been the son of William and Emma Lancaster, and for over thirty years he had been an employee of Scarborough Councillor James Bland.
However, by the 1890’s George had become a self employed joiner and undertaker with a workshop located in Scarborough at No.111 Lower Nelson Street. Living at No. 213 Prospect Road by the outbreak of war in 1914, by the end of the conflict he had been residing at No.48 Gordon Street, where he had passed away at the age of sixty eight on Saturday the 10TH of September 1921.
In Canada, George Harold Lancaster’s name is commemorated on Page 445 of the First World War Book of Remembrance located in the Peace Tower on Ottawa’s Parliament Hill. There are numerous memorials in Toronto dedicated to the men of the city of Toronto who had lost their lives during the two World Wars and conflicts since. At the time of writing [2007], the author has been unable to establish whether George’s name is included on any of them.
Sandwiched between the Canadian Corps on its right and Third Corps on its left, the Australian Corps had also achieved all of its objectives on the 8TH of August. With a start line just to the north of Villers Bretonneux the Diggers had advanced on a two division front. The two leading formations, the 2ND and 3RD Divisions, had been tasked with the capture of the Corps first objective, the so-called ‘Green Line’, whilst the 4TH and 5TH were to go through these to assault the subsequent objectives known as the ‘Red and ‘Blue Lines’. The leading formations had reached their objectives by 7am that day; and as planned the following divisions had taken over to take the Red Line three hours later, and the Blue Line an hour after that, so that by noon on the eighth they had advanced five miles and had been in Harbonnieres.
Although by this time the operation at Amiens had seemed a relative ‘walk over’, the price of success had not been cheap, the 4TH Australian Division losing many men in their advance across the open country to heavy fire from skilfully concealed machine guns and artillery positioned on the north bank of the River Somme.
The Australian assault would be spearheaded by one hundred and forty four Mark V tanks belonging to the four battalions [2ND, 8TH, 13TH, and 15TH] of Brigadier General Anthony Courage’s 5TH Tank Brigade. Each of these battalions had been assigned to its own division, and the plan had been for two companies of tanks [24 machines] to lead their respective division to their first objective, thence for the same number, plus any survivors, to lead onwards towards the Australian Corps second objective. The third and final objective to be reached by sixteen troop carrying Mark V [star] tanks [each designed to carry fifteen soldiers with Vickers or Lewis Machine Guns].
On the right flank leading the Australian 2ND Division into battle had been the forty two Mark V’s of Major Francis Seward Laskey’s 2ND Tank Battalion, amongst which had been Tank No. 9003, belonging to ‘C’ Company. Known as ‘Barrhead’ by her crew, the thirty five tons ‘bus’ had been built at Lincoln by Foster & Co. during 1917 and had been one of the newly introduced [July 1918] Mark 5 versions of the Mark 1 tank which had caused such a sensation two years earlier during the Somme Offensive, when the tank had gone into action for the first time on the 16TH of September 1916 to take part in the successful capture of the village of Flers. Although now carrying a more powerful engine and improved steering to that of her primitive forebears, Barrhead had nonetheless still only been capable of reaching a top speed of around four miles per hour.
Equipped as a ‘Male’ tank, Barrhead had been armed with two six pounder guns sited in sponsons attached to the tank’s sides, in addition she had also been equipped with three light machine guns which were to be used for close defence if the tank should be attacked by infantry. Although bearing some improvements to the earlier versions of the British battle tank, Barrhead had still borne the same abominable working conditions for her crew. Battened down for action the inside of the tank had become a living hell. In almost total darkness and without ventilation the interior had been filled with the heat, roar, and fumes of the tank’s large six cylinder Daimler engine, couple this with the choking smell of cordite when in action we can see what the crew had had to endure. Nevertheless, given that they had often been in extreme danger and forced to work and live in the most abominable conditions, like most tank crews the discomfort of Barrhead had welded her crew into a close knit band that had been immensely proud of their ‘bus’.
The tanks had begun to assemble during the night of the 7TH of August arriving just before Zero Hour at their ‘jumping off point’ slightly to the east of Villers Bretonneux…
’We arrived just when the barrage commenced, and each tank at once got into its own sector in front of the infantry. At Zero Hour [4-20am] there was a thick mist which made observation most difficult, and it was only by using my tank compass and following the barrage that we were able to keep to our proper course. The mist lifted afterwards, about 6-45am. Very little opposition was met in the first phase of the attack, we had taken the enemy completely by surprise and they put up a poor fight. Whenever a tank was sighted they ran forward with their hands well up and we passed them and allowed the infantry to deal with them. A few enemy machine guns kept on firing but they were soon silenced by running over them with the tank. Any of the gun teams who remained were dealt with effectively’…
By 7am that day Barrhead had reached her first objective and after patrolling in front of the infantry until they had consolidated their newly acquired positions had returned to the start point at ‘Villers Bret’. The tank, along with two others, had then received orders to assist the infantry in the ‘clean up’ of the village of Bayonvillers…
’We entered the village, followed by the other tanks and infantry, and steered a zigzag course through it, travelling down behind the houses ad swinging round, then passing through a house on the other side and so on. This had the effect of bringing out any enemy who were hiding in the houses and they immediately surrendered. There was little resistance met within this village and a good number of prisoners were rounded up and afterwards handed over to the infantry for disposal. We patrolled the village until infantry commander informed us that the assistance of Barrhead was no longer required. We then set off for Harbonnieres. On arrival there we found other tanks of the battalion cleaning up the village; they had also captured an enemy train full of reinforcements. After seeing that the village was cleared of the enemy, all the tanks returned to the rallying point. It was a good day’s work and the crews were in excellent spirits, although somewhat exhausted, having been in the tanks for nearly sixteen hours’…
Overall, the eighth of August had been a day of triumph for Fourth Army, however for the Tank Corps it had been a day of slaughter, the carcasses of many knocked or burnt out machines charting the route of the day’s seemingly wondrous advance. Of the four hundred or so machines that had set into the fog of war that morning only 145 had remained by the dawning of the ninth. That day the few surviving tanks belonging to the 2ND Tank Battalion had been assigned to the 1ST Australian Division, which had been tasked with the capture of the villages of Lihons and Chaulnes.
The advance had begun at 1-30pm that day. Unlike the previous day the Germans had been expecting an attack, and had indeed observed the preparations for the forthcoming assault. The attacking force had duly met with a veritable storm of fire from machine guns, anti tank guns, artillery and bombing from aircraft.
‘The machine guns were soon silenced. Barrhead’s six pounder guns opened fire on some splendid targets and her machine guns poured forth a leaden hail of bullets on the Germans who were running in all directions. Pushing ahead and getting nearer the objective, the artillery fire became very heavy shells kept busting around Barrhead so the driver steered a zigzag course to avoid them and meanwhile the gunners kept up a heavy fire. At this time one of the crew was wounded, and whilst the N.C.O. was examining his wounds, a shell hit the tank. The concussion from this shell threw the crew all over the tank and filled it with suffocating fumes. I got four of the crew outside and placed them at the rear of the tank as they were all wounded. On re-entering the tank to ascertain what had happened to the other two members of my crew I found them both dead. The shell, which must have been a large high explosive, had hit the tank near the right hand sponson and burst inside, wrecking the cylinders of the engine.
After dressing the wounded men I sent three of them to the nearest dressing station and went in search of a stretcher for the other man whose wounds prevented him from walking. While I was bringing the stretcher the tank was again hit and burst into flames. When I returned I found that Barrhead was a blazing furnace and the ammunition was going off like a machine gun firing. The seriously wounded man has since died of his wounds in hospital’… [7]
The only son of Elizabeth and Anthony Arthur Collinson, 305106 Private Alfred Reginald Collinson had been born in Scarborough at No.53 Sandringham Street on the 12TH of October 1899. Baptised at St Mary’s Parish Church on the 8TH of December 1889, from the age of six Alf had been a pupil of Scarborough’s Central Board School until the summer of 1912, when at the age of thirteen he had left formal education to become an apprentice to local plumbing firm of Waters and Woodhouse, of No.8 Newborough. Alf had begun his military career at the age of eighteen following his conscription into the army during 1917. Initially a Private in the Territorial Force 2ND/5TH Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment [Regimental number 27234], the adventure seeking soldier had shortly transferred to the Tank Corps, and like the majority of recruits to the formation, had trained for service with the Corps at its sprawling depot at Bovington Camp, located in Dorset.
Whilst at Bovington Collinson had learned the rudiments of tank maintenance and had learned to drive the caterpillared monsters, however, it had been in the gunnery department that the youngster had excelled, and had duly passed the Corps gunnery course to pass out of the Depot as a qualified tank gunner. Subsequently posted to the 2ND Battalion during March 1918, Collinson had eventually joined the battalion in France.
Badly wounded in his left side, Private Collinson had initially been taken to a nearby Dressing Station. With limited equipment and resources the doctor’s there had patched the young soldier up as best as they could before he had been taken by away by ambulance to the close by railhead, where he had been loaded aboard one of the packed ambulance trains which had carried Collinson to the town of Etaples, where he had been transferred to the British 28TH General Hospital. The injured gunner had survived until Wednesday the 14TH of August, when, at the age of nineteen, he had succumbed to his injuries. The news of their son’s death had reached ‘Lizzie’ and Arthur Collinson at their St Thomas Street home three days later. ‘The Scarborough Mercury’ of Friday the 23RD of August 1918 had duly reported;
‘Amputation fails to save life - Mr. A. Collinson, ‘The Cottage’, St Thomas Street, has been officially informed of the death from wounds of Private A.R. Collinson, Tank Corps. Private Collinson, who was an only child, was admitted to a French hospital suffering from gunshot in the arm, with gas infection. His arm was amputated, but in the case of gas gangrene nothing is, as a rule, of any avail and it was found impossible, despite every effort, to save young Collinson’s life. A sympathetic letter from the Matron stated that the staff had grown to like Private Collinson and greatly regretted his death. He would, said the Matron, be buried in Etaples Cemetery, which just now was full of flowers. Private Collinson died on August 14TH’.
Amongst over one hundred and sixty members of the Tank Corps who had lost their lives during the Battle of Amiens, Alfred Collinson’s final resting place is indeed to be found in Etaples British Cemetery. The largest of the many Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemeteries located on French soil, Etaples Military Cemetery contains the graves of over 10,000 servicemen who had died within the numerous hospitals which had been located nearby between 1915 and 1919 [Etaples also contains the graves of 119 British servicemen belonging to the Second World War, and those of 658 Germans and a few other nationalities]. Alf’s grave is located in Section LXV11, Row G, Grave 7].
Amongst 408 officers and 1,759 other ranks of the Tank Corps who had lost their lives between the 8TH of August and 27TH of September 1918, Private Collinson is commemorated on the Tank Corps Memorial located on the Somme atop Pozieres Ridge. The only memorial on the Western Front dedicated to the men of the Corps, the memorial stands at the side of the main road [D929] between Albert and Bapaume and consists of an obelisk guarded by four bronze models of four types of the British tank surrounded by a fence constructed from 6 pounder gun barrels and tank drive chains. The memorial also carries the inscription;
‘Near this spot the first tanks used in war went into action on 15TH September 1916. This monument is dedicated to the officers, warrant officers, Non commissioned officers and men of the Tanks Corps who fell in action during the years 1916-1917-1918 during the Great War’…
With little further information to hand regarding Private Collinson, and another of Scarborough’s fallen that are not represented on any of the town’s surviving church, or school war memorials, the story of Alfred Collinson could have ended here, however, a year after their son’s death Arthur and Elizabeth Collinson had inserted the following in the ‘In Memoriam’ section of ‘The Scarborough Mercury’ of Friday the 15TH of August 1919;
‘In loving memory of our dearest son Private Alfred Reginald Collinson, who had died of wounds in France, August 14TH 1918, aged 19 years…What would I give to clasp his hand, his dear kind face to see; his loving smile, his welcome voice that meant so much to me. With aching hearts we shook his hand, tears glistened in our eyes; We wished him luck, but never thought it was his last goodbye…from his loving father and mother’…
[Soon after this had appeared in Scarborough’s local press the Collinson’s had left the town, one can only wish that they had found peace and repose elsewhere].
After experiencing heavy fighting along the way, the 1ST Australian Division had reached Lihons by the fall of night on the ninth, by this time the 2ND Tank Battalion had consisted of just two serviceable tanks. Of the 414 vehicles that had begun the assault on the 8TH, by the morning of the tenth of August eighty five had still been operational. The following day, with all its reserves committed to battle thirty eight tanks had gone into action; by the following day only six had remained.
The ultimate fate of ‘Barrhead’ is not known. probably cannibalised for parts some after her demise, the tank had inevitably been cleared from the battlefield and scrapped after the war. Her former commander has the last word…’Thus ended the career of Barrhead, and the loss of such a reliable is very regrettable. It did splendid work on both days of the attack and was instrumental in the capture of at least ten enemy machine guns and about two hundred prisoners. When one considers the number of lives of our own infantry that were saved by this tank, owing to its valuable assistance in subduing the enemy’s fire and overcoming his resistance, the existence of Barrhead was well justified and the initial expense of its construction more than ten times repaid’…
On the tenth of August Rawlinson had ordered Fourth Army to ‘press on to the Somme between Ham and Peronne and establish bridgeheads on the right bank of the river’, despite this, little further progress had been made and on the 11TH, after conferring with Haig, the commander of Fourth Army had written in his diary;
‘I have stopped the attack and told the Corps to rest and reorganise we shall renew the attack on the 15TH, deliberately with as many tanks as we can collect. The country over which we shall be working is seamed with old trenches which will be full of machine gun nests, so I fear we shall have a high casualty list’…[8]
The Battle of Amiens had end, during the three days of fighting the French and British lost around 22,000 casualties apiece, whilst the Germans had lost some 75,000 men, 50,000 of which had been taken prisoner of war.
[1] Courtesy of the Library and Archives Canada. The majority of the War Diaries belonging to Canadian army units of the First World War are available on line on the Libraries website. This website also includes information regarding the service papers of Canadian troops, including the front and back of all available attestation papers.
[2] Although John Raney had recorded Scarborough as his place of birth upon his enlistment into the Canadian army; his birth had been registered at Bridlington during the December Quarter of 1887. At the time of the 1901 Census the Raney’s had been residing in Scarborough at No.32 Candler Street. The family had consisted of; James, 43 years, rail clerk, born Bubwith Yorks, Annabella, 47 years, born Tadcaster, Elsie J. 20 years, born Normanton, Hilda L., 17 years, born Hull, Joseph B., 15 years, bookbinder, John A., 13 years, both born at Bridlington, and one year old Sybil F., born Scarborough.
[3] My War Memoirs 1914-1918; General Ludendorff; Hutchinson; London; 1919.
[4] Seamer born Frances Stephenson and Falsgrave born farmer Isaac Lightfoot had been married in Scarborough’s St Mary’s Parish Church on the 6TH of December 1870. A widow by the time of the 1891 Census, forty seven years old Frances Lightfoot’s family at this time had also consisted of; Sarah Jane, 16 years, born Falsgrave, Jessie Mary, 15 years, Falsgrave, Frank, also aged 15 years, born Scarborough, John, 13 years, born Algarve, Louisa Frances, 10 years, Scarborough, Christopher, 8 years, Scarborough, and William, 6 years, born Falsgrave.
[5] Despite George reporting his place of birth as Scarborough at the time of his enlistment in 1916, the 1891 Census records state George Harold’s place of birth as being South Shields. However by the time of the 1891 Census the family had been residing in Scarborough at No.28 Raleigh Street and had consisted of George Lancaster, 30 years, Ellen, 39 years, George H., 15 years, Tom E., 13 years, Frank H., 11 years, and daughter Jessie E., aged 8 years, all except George Harold, had been born in Scarborough [another of the Lancaster’s sons, Frederick Stanley Lancaster, had died at the age of 4 years 9 months on the 1ST of February 1890. By the time of the 1901 Census George is recorded as a ‘widower’, and the family had been joined by another daughter, Amy Elizabeth, who had been born during 1893].
[6] During this attack on Demiun twenty seven years old 823028 Corporal Henry [Harry] Garnet Bedford Miner of the 58TH [Central Ontario Regiment] Canadian Infantry Battalion had gained a posthumous Victoria Cross ‘for most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty in attack, when despite severe wounds he refused to withdraw. He rushed an enemy machine gun post single handed, killed the entire crew, and turned the gun on the enemy. Later, with two others, he attacked another enemy machine gun post, and succeeded in putting the gun out of action. Cpl. Miner then rushed single handed an enemy bombing post, bayoneting two of the garrison and putting the remainder to flight. He was mortally wounded during this gallant deed’…
[Extracted from the London Gazette of October 25TH 1918. Also the holder of the French Croix de Guerre, the grave of Corporal Miner is located in Crouy British Cemetery at Crouy-Sur-Somme, France].
[7] Extracted from Tanks and Trenches; edited by David Fletcher; Alan Sutton Publishing; 1994. The account of the tank’s part in the Battle of Amiens is reproduced as recorded by Barrhead’s unnamed commanding officer. Whether Private Collinson had in fact been the wounded soldier mentioned in the text is, unfortunately, not known.
[8] The papers of F.Meisel; The Department of Document; Imperial War Museum.