Delville Wood

by Ian Uys

  He came to Natal in 1899 with the Lancashire Fusiliers, under the command of Col Charles Blomfield, after whom he later named his elder son “Charles”. Barlow was an excellent golfer and, while serving as Blomfield’s aide-de-camp at Dundee, established the Dundee Golf Club.

  Barlow was also an excellent pianist. The nickname of “Billy” was bestowed on him, reputedly, after a well-known stage personality of the time whose sobriquet was “Billy Barlow”. At this time, he met his future wife, Anne Montgomery, an Irish nurse, whom he married in October 1902 in England.

  After the war Barlow resigned his commission as he had decided to establish his own firm in Durban. He had no previous business experience, however with faith in the future of the country and the determination to succeed he founded Thomas Barlow & Sons in 1902.

  Barlow was a popular man whose sense of humour and sportsmanship won him many friends. He was a first-rate golfer and became the Natal champion in 1906. In 1912 Barlow recruited the services of a capable man, Frank Euting. His staff now consisted of Euting as manager, a small office staff, and two engineers. On the formation of the brigade Barlow felt the call of duty strongly. He left Euting to run the business and enlisted as a captain in the 2nd SAI.

  *

  Agagia 26.2.1916

  In February 1916 the Senussi forces were concentrated at the ports of Barrani and Sollum. As the harbours were mined, Gen Lukin decided on an overland advance along the coast. The scorching sun and wind and lack of water would make it an extremely arduous march. The only respite would be occasional sea bathing.

  On 22 February Gen Lukin left the advanced depot with his column, which comprised the Notts Battery RHA, 1st SAI, 3rd SAI, l/6th Royal Scots, Dorset Yeomanry and one squadron of the Royal Bucks Hussars. Late on the afternoon of the 25th they were shelled by the enemy.

  They attacked at Agagia at 11 am the following day when Lieut-Col Thackeray advanced with the 3rd SAI, flanked by the yeomanry and armoured cars. The enemy attacked his left flank only to be beaten back by a company of the 1st SAI who had been sent there from the reserve. They were followed through the broken enemy line by the 3rd SAI.

  The cavalry of the Dorsets then charged at 3 pm, which completely broke and dispersed the enemy. Among the many prisoners taken was the Senussi commander, Gaafer Pasha, and his staff. General Lukin’s textbook victory was due to his brilliant co-ordination of infantry and cavalry. Barrani and Sollum were then occupied without further resistance.

  *

  Private Henry Sherman, 19, of Walmer, Port Elizabeth was guarding ammunition stores when the shelling began and later wrote to his father of their first action.

  “… The only man in our platoon to get hit was an old Walmer postman, in fact he used to live at 9th Avenue for a while. He was with our General Staff, and a stray bullet got him in the stomach. He has gone to hospital marked ‘Severe Case’.

  “One of the 3rds who was wounded in the lungs, was gasping for breath when I came across him. I could see he was far gone, I gave him my water and called for an ambulance cart. I came across several men dead and wounded on both sides, but it is not much of a subject to write on.

  “The general was well pleased with our work and thanked us all. Compliments came in from all over the country. I was surprised to see how calmly and fearlessly our boys went into the fire. We just duck our heads when we hear the bullets and shells whizz by.

  “The fight lasted all day and we covered about 10 to 12 miles of their country. The next day search parties were out to bring in the fallen and clear up the field.”

  *

  Private Coenraad Nelson, 20, from Cape Town had served with the Cape Peninsula Rifles before volunteering for the brigade. After the battle at Agagia, he had been sickened by what Arabs had done to the dead.

  “The next morning we brought them in. All killed and everything taken off them, identification, the lot. It was a bit too much for me and after a while I walked away. Then we marched on to a hill which we called ‘Thurst Hill’ because there was no water.”

  *

  Private Albert Marr was shot in the right shoulder. His pet baboon, Jackie, was an inseparable friend, and was beside himself with grief. In his agitation he attempted to do what he could to comfort the prostrate Marr and licked his wound until the stretcher-bearers arrived.

  At first Jackie’s presence in the regiment had been ignored, but he was so well-behaved and had such an impressive bearing that he was officially adopted as the 3rd SAI mascot. He was taken on the strength of the regiment and when in England was provided with a special uniform and cap, complete with buttons and regimental badges. He became a comrade, rather than a pet, of all ranks. Jackie drew rations like any other soldier and drilled and marched with them.

  Eustace Hill was in the middle of this battle and some days later wrote:

  “I have a fig-tree, under the branches of which Fynn and Moses built a stone altar. I have daily Eucharist there at 7 am, but I don’t find the atmosphere of war easy of course … I was a bit surprised at a quartermaster saying: ‘My conviction is that the battlefield is no place for a clergyman, as he lessens the killing spirit.’ — I have always felt that the Church has been, if anything, too generous in support of war, and wondered if we had been fair ourselves; and to have him criticising aroused me. I told him duty was the driving power in a fight, and not blood-lust, and duty we inculcated continually.”

  *

  Dudley Fynn was wounded in the engagement. “Our regiment came into the thick of it. I got a bullet through the left hand, and another just under the skin of the leg — not very serious. I soon had the field-dressing out and a bandage on and was able to advance again. The enemy gave us a very hot time of it and it was wonderful that so many of us came out alive. My brother didn’t get a scratch. Moses (Meredith), Bissett and Weir were all in it and didn’t get a scratch either.”

  The campaign ended when the Duke of Westminster pursued the enemy with ten armoured cars and rescued the prisoners whom the Senussi had at their camp deep in the interior.

  The South African Brigade was then transferred to France.

  Chapter 2 — Flanders and the Somme

  The four transports carrying the brigade docked at Marseilles on 19 April 1916. Owing to a case of contagious sickness on board one of the troopships, HMT Oriana, the 4th SAI and 20 officers and 594 men of the 1st SAI were placed in quarantine and moved to a camp La Valentine, a farm outside Marseilles. The remainder of the brigade entrained for Flanders.

  *

  Arthur Betteridge, 19, was born at Birmingham, England. He was a railway telegraphist at Bloemhof when the war began and was eventually compelled to resign his position as the railway authorities would not release him for active service. He was to join C Company of the 4th SAI. Betteridge recalled the trip and reception at Marseilles.

  “On board we were innoculated for every conceivable disease. Physical jerks and routine “look-out” duties for spotting enemy submarines passed the time away. We signallers occupied some of the time giving morse practice to the less experienced chaps.

  “There was one regrettable incident, when one of our fellows jumped over the side because he was afraid of reporting he had VD which would be reported to his wife if he went to hospital.

  “In spite of all the injections and other medical precautions, two days before arriving at Marseilles we had a case of spotted fever (spinal meningitis). As a result, the whole regiment was placed in quarantine when we landed. The improvised quarantine camp was two miles outside Marseilles.

  “As we marched out of the docks and through the streets of this lovely French seaport, women and children threw flowers and cheered the first kilted allied troops they had seen. The two weeks quarantine was a dreary business because we were forbidden to leave camp, and no one was allowed to visit us.

  “Nevertheless a few of us managed to see the city the day before we left for the front. Numerous French people approached us offering coffee or beer, but there was a
language difficulty we could not surmount at that time.

  “At last we left that quarantine camp and marched to the station where we were packed into trucks stencilled ‘12 cheveaux — 40 hommes’. It was certain the most recent occupants of those trucks had been horses.”

  *

  The population of Marseilles took the South Africans to their hearts. “Nancy” was led by Bugler Petersen at the head of the pipe band through the main street of Marseilles, much to the astonishment of the locals. Not only had they never seen a springbok, but it was also the first occasion that a “Highland” regiment had been quartered in the town.

  George Warwick wrote that Nancy was a little wild when first presented to the regiment at Potchefstroom “… but by the time we had soldiered in Egypt she was quite tame. She would eat chocolate or porridge or tobacco. Nancy, led by Bugler Petersen, marched proudly at the head of the battalion as if she owned the regiment. She was greatly admired by the French people who spoke of her as ‘votre si jolie gazelle’.”

  The quarantine regulations were not rigidly applied, and many of the wilder spirits enjoyed the delights of the seaport. When they marched to the railway station the crowds pressed sweets, flowers and chocolates on the troops and forced them to break column and march in single file. At the station they found champagne provided on long tables to sustain them on their journey.

  *

  The Brigade HQ was established at Bailleul, where it was attached to the 9th Scottish Division, to replace the 28th Brigade which had suffered severe losses. The divisional commander, Maj-Gen W T Furse was the brother of the Bishop of Pretoria.

  A Scottish battalion commander, Lieut-Col W D Croft, summed up the initial feeling of resentment of those in the 9th Division. “Just before we left Plug Street the South African Brigade came to us; this caused the abolition of the 28th Brigade for three years. They were a fine lot, the South Africans, and any division in the army would have been proud to have them.

  “But we were not particularly happy about the arrangement for, you see, we had been blooded at Loos together, and we all felt that it was a bit hard on a brigade which had died well to be cast aside like an old rag, however good the displacers might be.

  “The original South Africans were mostly old soldiers with a fair sprinkling of Boers who had fought against us in the South African War. By gum! they were magnificent men and officers. There were not a few district commissioners serving in the ranks. Unfortunately, too many of them joined that far greater majority at Delville Wood.”

  The 9th Division was composed of three infantry brigades, each of four battalions, and a pioneer battalion, altogether some 19,000 men.

  26th Brigade Brig-Gen A B Ritchie

  8th Black Watch Lieut-Col G W Gordon

  7th Seaforth Highlanders Lieut-Col J Kennedy

  5th Cameron Highlanders Lieut-Col G B Duff

  10th Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders Lieut-Col W J Tweedie

  27th Brigade Brig-Gen S W Scrase-Dickens

  11th Royal Scots Lieut-Col W D Croft

  12th Royal Scots Lieut-Col H L Budge

  9th Scottish Rifles Lieut-Col H A Fulton

  6th Kings Own Scottish Borderers Lieut-Col J C Connell

  1st South African Brigade Brig-Gen H T Lukin

  1st Battalion Lieut-Col F S Dawson

  2nd Battalion Lieut-Col W E Tanner

  3rd Battalion Lieut-Col E F Thackeray

  4th Battalion Lieut-Col F A Jones

  Pioneer Battalion

  9th Seaforth Highlanders Lieut-Col T Featherstonhaugh

  Each infantry battalion consisted of some 36 officers and 1,000 men, organised into a headquarters staff and four rifle companies, each of approximately 240 men. The fighting strength would be less as personnel had to be detached to act as signallers, stretcher-bearers, cooks, clerks and sanitary and transport men.

  Of the four platoons per company, one would act as a “carrying platoon” to bring up supplies of ammunition, rations and water. Each platoon consisted of four rifle sections of 10 men each, of whom three would be grenadiers each carrying 15 to 20 Mills bombs. The riflemen carried a .303 Lee Enfield rifle, sword bayonet and 170 rounds of ammunition. His kit altogether weighed 58 lbs

  *

  The infantry were armed with the trusty Lee-Metford rifle (.303), Mills bombs (hand grenades) and 17 inch (43 cm) Mark I bayonets. Each company had American Lewis guns (.303) the forerunner of the bren-gun. The Lewis gun could be carried and fired standing when supported. It has a round overhead drum magazine containing 47 or 97 rounds and a rate of fire of 450 rounds per minute. As it had no cooling apparatus it tended to overheat and jam if overused.

  The heavier fixed water-cooled Vickers machine-guns were used by the Brigade machine-gun company. The South Africans inherited the 28th Machine-gun Coy from the 28th Brigade. Officers were armed with .455 revolvers.

  Artillery support included 18 pounders, 9.2 howitzers and the light support trench mortars — the 3 inch stokes mortar was the darling of the men who served it. It had an enormous rate of fire and with a good team could have ten bombs in the air at the same time. The light trench mortar batteries were placed under brigade command for tactical reasons.

  The “secret weapon” South Africans had was their incredible marksmanship. A British artillery officer, Lieut R Talbot Kelly, noted this when on an officers’ course “… compared with the officers from the South African Brigade I did not impress at all. Daily their performance with a rifle amazed and staggered me, any of them being able to fire fifteen rounds in about 40 seconds, without ever taking his eye from his sights or allowing the stock to shift a fraction of an inch from his shoulder. And every one of those rounds would be a bull either at a stationary or a moving target.”

  The German high explosive shells were given appropriate nicknames — the sound of the whizzbang (77 mm) came with the shell, giving no warning. The Jack Johnson or Coalbox (5.9 Howitzer — 150 mm) gave off dirty black clouds of smoke. These shells bursting in soft ground would scoop a hole the size of a room. “Lachrymatory” (tear-gas) shells were fired and chlorine and mustard gas also used.

  The German troops used water-cooled Maxim Model 1908 machine-guns, stick grenades, the 7 mm mauser and gewehr 98 rifle with five-round magazines (7.92 mm) with mauser action, 9 mm Luger parabellums, 52 cm or 37 cm bayonets and the new flammenwerfers (flame throwers).

  Certainly the greatest advantage the Germans possessed on the Somme was their prepared defences. In the nearly two years that they had occupied the area they had excavated dug-outs, some nearly forty feet deep. Churchill was to describe the Somme as “undoubtedly the strongest and most perfectly defended position in the world”.

  *

  This unit was also known as the SA Sharpshooters and served with the South African forces in France. The sharpshooters were posted to D Company of the reserve battalions at Bordon.

  Sir Abe Bailey KCMG, 52, served as Deputy Assistant Quartermaster-General and played an active part in recruiting, later being awarded the Croix-de-Guerre by France.

  The sharpshooters did not take part in the Egyptian Campaign. They were recruited in South Africa and sailed on the RMS Saxon, arriving at Bordon in May 1916. Most of the men were allowed a week’s leave then immediately left for France where they disembarked on 30 May.

  *

  Private Cecil Rice, 19, from Klerksdorp was a signaller in the front lines near Armentieres.

  “Whilst there I just about received a German shell to myself. I was on water fatigue for the signalling unit of HQ staff at the time. I took two petrol cans to get water and while walking along the trench I heard the shell coming. I had one of the other signallers with me and he was carrying a water bottle. I shouted ‘drop!’ I leaped into the bottom of the trench and got down between the water cans.

  “This shell landed on top of the bank right in front of this trench and I was covered in mud and dirt. I couldn’t see my half-section. When I continued on to get the water he came runni
ng round the corner of the trench carrying his water bottle which was as flat as a pancake.”

  *

  Private Eddie Fitz found that the Germans were often too close for comfort.

  “We were initiated into trench warfare by one of the Scottish battalions. They went in with us and used to show us the way around. We went in for a week, and out for a week at a time. We were so close to Jerry, about 35 yards in places, that their artillery couldn’t do much about our front line. There was a gap of only 15 or 20 yards between our wire and their wire, so we could not even patrol. The situation was so tight that if you raised your head in the same place twice, you got a bullet through the middle of it.

  “Then we had work parties, carrying iron and timber. One night we had to advance a trench which was too far from Jerry for take-off. It was 300 to 400 yards from Jerry and they wanted to get closer to him. They marked out a whole lot of lines and we went down with wooden spades to avoid making any noise. No lights, no smoking, no talking — just dig! We got to within about 150 yards of the Jerries, then dug a new front line. That was one sort of job we did.”

  *

  Private Howard Douglas (Duggie) Brice-Bruce, 20, came from a farm in the Ixopo district and had served in SWA with the Natal Mounted Rifles. He found it ironic to be fighting in a Scottish division in France, as his great-grandfather, Col Robert Brice-Bruce of the 1st Royal Scots, had married the only daughter of a French general who was stationed in India.

  “On 1.5.1916, we route-marched to link up with the 9th Highland Division commanded by Maj-Gen Furse. We were very proud of being associated with such a fine body of men. On approaching our destination, Plug Street, we were met by the 9th Division pipe band. What a difference it made marching to the pipe band, there is something about the pipes that gives one a boost.

  “We were sent to learn trench warfare with the London Scottish, under the command of a noted personality Col Winston Churchill. He was the colonel of the London Scottish.