VCs of the First World War 1915 The Western Front

by Peter F Batchelor

  As a British Army reservist he joined the 3rd Bn, Manchester Regt, on reaching England and sailed to France where he rejoined the 1st Manchester Regt, who had disembarked from the SS Panjola at Marseilles on 26 September 1914. Smith was wounded at the battle of Neuve Chapelle on 11 March 1915.

  Following the VC action A/Cpl Smith was gassed in May 1915, and after treatment, was sent on 8 August to the Mount Joy (Dublin University VAD Auxiliary) Hospital, Dublin, to recuperate. It was there on 24 August that he heard the news of his Victoria Cross award. The London Gazette had published his citation on 23 August.

  An Irish newspaper report stated that: ‘the hospital was besieged by Jews, who came to offer their congratulations to Cpl Issy Smith, the first Jewish NCO to win the VC’. (The first Jewish VC of the war had been won by Lt Frank de Pass on 25 November 1914, and Smith was the second of five VCs awarded to Jews.) Smith was carried shoulder-high to a restaurant in Sackville Street, where he was entertained. He later attended a reception in his honour at the Dublin Mansion House where he was presented with a purse of gold. On 25 August he was awarded the Russian Cross of St George 4th Class, and on 4 September 1915, having returned to England, Smith was presented by the Mayor of Stepney, London, with a gold watch and chain from fellow members of the Berners Old Boys Club.

  King George V presented the Victoria Cross to Smith at Buckingham Palace on 3 February 1916; later, like several other VC winners, Smith embarked on a recruiting campaign in various towns and cities, particularly in the north of England. He held strong views and spoke out against conscription.

  Rejoining his battalion he was promoted sergeant in March 1916 and survived the torpedoing of his ship en route to Mesopotamia where, at Baghdad in March 1917, he was again wounded. Smith transferred to the Royal Engineers (Inland Water Transport) on 1 April 1917 and served in Palestine during the fall of Jerusalem in December of that year.

  Demobilized in 1919 he married, on 8 February, Elsie Porteous Collingwood McKechnie, who was a tailoress, at Camberwell Registry Office, London. His parents, still living in Egypt, disowned him for marrying a Gentile, even though a Jewish wedding ceremony was held on 24 March 1919 at the Hallam Street Synagogue. At this ceremony, performed by Maj. Adler DSO, Senior Jewish Chaplain, assisted by the Revd E Spero, he gave his name as Israel Shimovitz, otherwise Smith.

  Living in the East End, Smith had a variety of jobs in the immediate post-war years including working as an actor, a music-hall manager and a cycle accessory salesman. In common with many other returning soldiers he found regular employment difficult to obtain.

  Smith attended the garden party at Buckingham Palace on 26 June 1920 for Victoria Cross winners, and was present at the Cenotaph on 11 November of the same year. He was photographed on both occasions. On the anniversary of the Third Battle of Ypres he was among those who made the pilgrimage to Ypres on 30 July 1922. In 1924, being unable to work through illness, he pawned his medals for £20. This fact was discovered by Mrs Hertz, wife of the Chief Rabbi, who with eleven others, gave £10 each to Smith. The medals were taken out of pawn and placed in the Mocatta Library, University of London, by the Jewish Historical Society, on the understanding that Smith could acquire them at any time on payment of £20. On 8 October 1921, with Harry Kenny VC (see page 201), he unveiled the Hackney War Memorial.

  Smith did redeem his medals in 1925 and, with his wife and daughter Olive, returned to Australia, where, in 1928, he was local manager for British International Pictures at Melbourne. In 1930 he was appointed Justice of the Peace, frequently sitting on the City Bench, and in 1931 unsuccessfully contested the Melbourne seat for the House of Representatives as a candidate for the United Australia Party.

  A well thought of and very generous man, he was often to be found, during the Depression, helping the less well off, sometimes to the detriment of his own family. His son Maurice was born in 1932 while he was employed by the Dunlop Rubber Company as a commercial traveller. The Civil Aviation Department was his next employer, for whom he worked as a control officer at Essendon Airport, Melbourne, from 1928.

  Issy Smith VC died of a coronary thrombosis at his home in Moonee Ponds on 11 September 1940 and was buried, with full military honours, in the Hebrew section of Fawkner Cemetery, Victoria. He was survived by his wife and both children.

  Smith’s Victoria Cross and seven other medals (1914–15 Star, BWM, BVM, Delhi Durbar 1911, Coronation 1937, Croix de Guerre with bronze palm, Russian Cross of St George, 4th class) were sold in Melbourne on 23 April 1991 for A$23,100 – approximately £10,000 – and on 10 October 1995 were again offered for sale by auction, this time in London, and were purchased by a private collector for a hammer price of £30,000, way over the expected £18,000–£22,000. His medals are not publicly held.

  On 12 September 2010, at Fawkner Jewish Cemetery, Melbourne, a memorial service was held for the 70th anniversary of Issy Smith’s death. More than 25 family members attended, including his son Maurice. After the ceremony and wreath laying, two trees were planted in his honour and a plaque unveiled commemorating the event, which was organized by the Victorian Association of Jewish Ex-Serviceman and Women Inc. (VAJEX) in association with the Jewish National Fund of Australia Inc. (Victorian Division).

  J. LYNN

  Near Ypres, Belgium, 2 May

  When the German gas attack at Ypres was launched on 22 April 1915, the 2nd Lancashire Fusiliers (12th Bde, 4th Div.) were in billets at the ‘Blue Factory’, Armentières. The battalion was up to full strength, having received drafts totalling 38 officers and 1,440 other ranks since the beginning of the war.

  Leaving Armentières on 27 April the battalion arrived at Vlamertinghe on the 29th and took over the front line from the 1st Royal Warwickshire Regt north of Wieltje. The journey was hampered by almost continuous shelling, and the battalion was impeded by numbers of French Colonial troops, many suffering from the effects of gas, moving in the opposite direction. Two of the companies lost their way during this forward move owing to lack of maps, but by 01.30 hours on 30 April the battalion was in its new position. One company was east of Shell Trap Farm, facing north, with the other three companies forming the longer arm of the L-shaped position running from the farm in a northerly direction facing east.

  The battalion was equipped with four machine-guns, three of which were with B Coy. One was at the far left of the position, the second, under Pte John Lynn, was slightly west of the Wieltje–St Julien road, while the third was between Lynn’s position and Shell Trap Farm (see map on page 89). The position held by B Coy was not a continuous trench, but was more like several separate banks, hedged with minimal parados, which the battalion spent time improving. The next day, 2 May, began quietly, but the peace was interrupted by British artillery shelling the enemy opposite B Coy’s position, where small parties of Germans were seen behaving as if an attack was imminent. No attack materialized, but at about midday, enemy incendiary shells were directed at all the farm buildings in the area, setting them on fire and destroying a dressing station in the front line close to B Coy.

  Tea had just been brought to the front line troops, shortly after 16.00 hours, when British sentries raised the alarm. Described as being ‘like water out of a hose’, yellow clouds of gas were shooting up in the air at about 30 yard intervals from the enemy line some 600 yards away. The gas settled down, forming waves about 3 feet high, and was carried by the light easterly wind towards the British front line. A few respirators, made of rectangular pads of compressed cotton soaked in sodium hypochloride, had been issued at Vlamertinghe – two per platoon. These pads were of little use as they did not cover the nose, so the MO improvised and arranged for containers of water and tea, with which to moisten handkerchiefs, to be placed at intervals along the trenches. Unfortunately, this liquid was spilt so he shouted for the men of B Coy nearest him to urinate on any available material, and hold it to their faces. He then proceeded to show them by example. The natural ammonia proved to be effective, neutralizing the chlorine in
the gas.

  The gas took two to three minutes to cross to the British trenches, during which time rapid fire was directed into it in case the Germans were following up behind. Pte Lynn opened fire with his machine-gun, but as his view was limited he lifted the gun up to the top of the bank and secured it to a tree stump. With this much wider field of fire he caused terrific casualties to the advancing enemy troops, now just visible. He continued firing although he was badly affected by the gas, and did not stop until the attackers stopped coming forward. He finally collapsed, blue in the face, and had to be lifted from the parapet and taken to a dugout. One of his comrades reports him saying, ‘This is the last carry’, as they lifted him from his gun. Shortly after, he was taken to hospital where he died in great agony the next day.

  The London Gazette of 29 June 1915 announced the award of the Victoria Cross. It was through the efforts of Lynn’s MO, Lt Tyrell, that Private Lynn was recommended for the award of the VC. Tyrell’s methods of combatting the gas on 2 May were indeed very effective, and the only men able to carry on at the end of that fateful day were those of B Coy who had followed his example. Lt Tyrell himself won the MC on 10 December 1914 and later became Air Vice-Marshall Sir William Tyrell KBE, DSO, MC.

  While the battalion’s casualties on 2 May were listed as 9 men killed, 2 officers and 38 other ranks wounded, this does not give a true reflection of the state of the battalion at the end of the day. The Battalion War Diary reported that 18 officers and 431 other ranks were admitted to hospital suffering from the effects of gas.

  On the evening of 3 May the battalion was withdrawn to reserve trenches near Vlamertinghe. Pte John Lynn VC was buried in Vlamertinghe churchyard but his grave was later destroyed by shell-fire. There is now a special memorial erected to him in Grootebeek British Cemetery, Reninghelst. Private Lynn also enjoyed the rare distinction of being named in Sir John French’s Despatch.

  John Lynn was born in 1887 and when only three days old was fostered by John and Elizabeth Harrison of 20 Hindsley Place, Forest Hill, London. His foster-mother worked in a laundry at Forest Hill.

  Known at school as John Harrison, he was educated at Christ Church School, Forest Hill, before leaving to join the training ship Exmouth. In 1901 he enlisted as a band boy under his real name of John Lynn in the 4th Bn, Lancashire Fusiliers, aged 141⁄2, and with the 2nd Bn served in Malta and India. Prior to the outbreak of war, when stationed at Wellington Barracks, Bury, Lancs., he met, and later became engaged to, Alice Mason. He left the army and worked at Armstrong-Whitworth Ltd, in Openshaw, lodging with Alice’s family at 56 Queen’s Road, Gorton, Manchester.

  A double wedding was planned for Alice and her sister, to take place in November 1914, but Lynn’s call-up as a reservist in August of that year took him with 2nd Lancs. Fusiliers to France. Alice was on holiday in Blackpool when war broke out and despite her efforts she did not see her fiancé before he left, her late arrival at his depot sadly caused by the trains being overcrowded with soldiers.

  The 2nd Lancs. Fusiliers were in action from the beginning, and it was near Armentières in October that the name of Pte John Lynn first came to prominence. On 18 October orders were given for the enemy to be pushed back from the River Lys, the battalion’s objective being the village of Le Touquet. Enemy shrapnel fire held up the final advance when the battalion was on the outskirts of Le Touquet, even though the Regimental History states that: ‘gallant and valuable work was done by a machine-gun manned by Sergeant E.M. Parkinson and Privates H. Pulford, J. Lynn and Yates.’

  On 21 October heavy shelling preceded an enemy attack in which the battalion machine-gun section played its part in holding back the attackers. One gun was positioned at the level-crossing to the north of Le Touquet but unfortunately it was alongside a white post, which provided an easy aiming mark for the enemy; this forced the team to retire quickly, but not before two men, Sgt Parkinson and Pte Pulford, were killed by two consecutive shots and one other man was slightly wounded. The gun was brought out by Ptes Lynn and Grundy. Later Lynn collected spare gun parts, together with four belt boxes and two rifles; despite being under heavy fire, his return was described as ‘unperturbed and unhurried’.

  Pte Lynn was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for this action, which was gazetted on 17 December 1914. Some accounts attribute the award of Lynn’s DCM to action in fighting on either the Marne or the Aisne, but the official name of the action was the Battle of Armentières. The 2nd Lancs. Fusiliers remained in the same sector during the winter of 1914/15, mainly being involved in static trench warfare which took its daily toll of casualties. The battalion took part in the Christmas truce, with a team from A Coy defeating a Saxon side at football 3–2.

  Meanwhile the proposed wedding had been postponed, with a new date arranged for April 1915, subject to Lynn obtaining the necessary leave but his fiancée’s distress on the news of his death was made worse when her bag containing his many letters from the front was lost. On 25 August 1915 Lynn was awarded the Cross of St George, 4th Class (Russia), and his VC was posted to Alice Mason by the War Office on 29 March 1916, as she was his legatee.

  In 1955 Lynn’s Victoria Cross and other medals were presented to the Lancashire Fusiliers Museum at the Barracks where he had been stationed over forty years earlier. John Lynn’s wooden battlefield marker is in St Mary the Virgin church, Bury, Greater Manchester, and his name appears on the marble tablet inscribed with those who died in the First World War positioned, together with a stained glass window, on the right of the south entrance of Christ Church, Forest Hill. He is also commemorated on a mural to Victoria Cross Holders in Lewisham Shopping Centre, unveiled 28 May 1998.

  E. WARNER

  Hill 60, Belgium, 1 May

  The 1st Battalion, Bedfordshire Regt (15th Bde, 5th Div.), was moved into the line to the east of Hill 60 to relieve the 1st Cheshire Regt on 25 April. The enemy had launched the main gas attack on this front on the 22nd and severe fighting had continued almost uninterrupted since. The War Diary notes that on 1 May the ‘Enemy made sudden attack on trenches to our right with asphyxiating gas and shells, at about 6.30 p.m.’ All the men were affected, being violently sick and consequently unable to fight effectively, and were forced to vacate their position, Trench 46 (see map on page 64). Private Edward Warner, No. 7602 1st Bedfords, then re-entered the trench single-handed to prevent the enemy taking possession of it. The Germans did not press home the attack, possibly, according to the War Diary, ‘because some of the fumes blew back towards them’. Nevertheless, Warner held the trench alone against advancing enemy troops. Reinforcements were sent to Warner’s aid, but they were unable to reach him because of the gas. Warner, by now becoming completely exhausted, then came back and brought up more men to hold the line. Because of his determination Trench 46 was held until the enemy’s attack ceased. Warner died shortly afterwards from the effects of gas poisoning. His gallant example earned him the Victoria Cross, which was gazetted on 29 June 1915. It was presented to his mother by King George V at Buckingham Palace on 16 November 1916.

  Edward Warner was born at 36 Cannon Street, St Albans, Hertfordshire, on 18 November 1883, the town where he later enlisted in the Army. Before her death his mother, Mrs Warner, bequeathed her son’s VC to Edward’s niece, Mrs Dixon of Forest Gate, London. After her husband died, Mrs Dixon felt that her uncle’s VC should be in safer keeping and so offered it to his regiment. On 20 June 1962 Lt-Col. Norbury, CO of the Bedfordshire Regiment, accompanied by Col. Young, the Regimental Secretary, called on Mrs Dixon at her home, 114 Earlham Grove, Forest Gate, to receive Warner’s VC. Until then the medal had been kept in a recess with a framed picture showing Mrs Warner receiving the VC from the late King George V. The picture had been presented to Edward Warner’s mother by the Officers of the 3rd Bn, Bedfordshire Regt. Warner’s name appears on the Menin Gate, Ypres, Belgium.

  THE BATTLE OF AUBERS RIDGE

  9 May

  Sir Douglas Haig planned to attack both north and south of Ne
uve Chapelle after a forty minute artillery bombardment. The southern attack was to be carried out by 1st and Meerut Divs between Chocolat Menier Corner and Port Arthur, with the Meerut Div. swinging north-east to take the Stützpunkte at La Cliqueterie Farm. The northern attack by the 8th Div., was to advance south-east towards Rouges Bancs and then secure a line from Rouges Bancs to Fromelles and along the Aubers Ridge where its right would join up with the Meerut Div. The attack was originally planned to begin on 8 May but was delayed to the 9th so as to act in concert with a large attack by the French in Artois.

  The Germans had been quick to learn from their experiences at Neuve Chapelle in March and had strengthened their defences: front breastworks were increased in width to at least 15 feet and to a height of more than 6 feet; wire defences increased to a depth of 15 yards, some of which lay in sunken areas immediately in front of the breastworks and could not be easily seen from the British lines; sandbags of different colours disguised the position of the numerous machine-gun emplacements built into the breastworks, with guns just above ground level; and the number of German troops in both front and support lines was increased.