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Remembered Today:

Careys Force


Black Watch

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This composite unit was involved in the defence of Amiens. I'm looking in particular for details of the 213th Technical Engineers Unit. Any help gratefully received.

Neil

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Neil: I have been interested in Carey's Force for several years and have some info and references to its operations, but nothing specific about the unit you are interested in. It has not been an easy subject to dig into. All I can confirm is the 213th was part of the force. If I can help with more general info about the force let me know with a post or a pm.

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Neil: I have been interested in Carey's Force for several years and have some info and references to its operations, but nothing specific about the unit you are interested in. It has not been an easy subject to dig into. All I can confirm is the 213th was part of the force. If I can help with more general info about the force let me know with a post or a pm.

Thanks for that Pmaasz, not really sure what I'm looking for. Just the area they fought in and brief details of the engagement.

Neil

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Neil: Here is an extract from a paper I wrote for my regiment's archives.

CAREY’S FORCE

The origin of ‘Carey’s Force’.

In December 1917 General Gough and his Fifth Army were ordered to take over the southern sector of the Allied Front. As he drove towards the front through the area around Villers-Bretonneux he was astonished to see parties of French locals busy filling in the trenches and removing the wire just to the east of the village. This line, called the Amiens Defence Line, was part of the defences of Amiens that had been elaborately constructed and heavily wired some two years previously. The locals, believing mistakenly that the area was safe, were busy trying to bring their land back into cultivation. Gough immediately stopped all further demolition of this line, and it was well that he did so, for it formed a key part of the defensive position where the German Spring Offensive that began some 40 miles to the east on March 21st 1918 was finally brought to a halt. The tired and depleted British army that fought and eventually succeeded in holding this part of the line, vital if Amiens was not to be taken, included the last remnants of reserves that Gough could scrape together.

When Gough took over the front line his Fifth Army was hugely under strength, having suffered heavy losses and been starved of desperately needed reinforcements. It was spread over much too large a front for the number of men and the armaments at his disposal. The front line under his command, previously held by the French, was poorly constructed and in a bad condition. Much of it comprised only outposts with little or no defensive works in between. Unfortunately it was against his army that the Germans decided to direct the main thrust of their offensive. Inevitably the British were overcome, and fighting valiantly as they retreated they were driven back nearly to Amiens. As casualties increased and the fighting units became ever more depleted and exhausted it was necessary for Gough to improvise fighting formations from anyone he could lay hands on. Several of these makeshift groups were put together: Gough refers (2) to Hunt’s Force and Harman’s Detachment as well as the one that later became known as ‘Carey’s Force’ after Brig.General G.G.S. Carey who was put in command of it after it had been organised.

Preparations for these improvised forces had been laid for some time. The veteran war correspondent Hamilton-Fyfe (1) wrote at the time:

‘An arrangement, already planned and well advanced, was now completed. It was that every man who could use a rifle should be put into the line at once. There was a considerable front so thinly held that the enemy might at any moment pierce it. A cool-headed, resolute brigadier (sic) of the Royal Artillery was told off to take command of the force intended to defend this front. He was given a staff and told to set to work at once.’

Composition.

The collection of men that later became known as ‘Carey’s Force’ came into being on 25th March 1918 at the explicit direction of General Gough. On that day Gough had moved his Headquarters to Dury, south of Amiens. As the Germans continued to advance rapidly and successfully he looked to the Amiens Defence Line as an essential backstop. He scraped together as many men as he could find from his headquarters and from the rear areas to work on and garrison this line.

The force he put together comprised a motley collection of men – ‘anyone who could hold a rifle’ – taken from a variety of regiments and units. It included “...electrical and mechanical engineers, surveyors, 500 men of the US Engineers tunnellers and miners, Army, Corps and Sniping Schools, and signallers.” The Army Signal School provided communications, nine grooms acted as mounted orderlies, there were odd stragglers of infantry, the staff of a machine gun school, clerks, technical engineer units the 144th, 213th, 216th and 217th Army Troop Companies, 243rd Tunnelling Company, 253rd Electrical and Mechanical Company, No 4 Workshops Company, 5th Survey Battalion, two companies (some 500 men) of 6th Regiment US railway engineers, (none of whom had any military experience), 400 officers and men of 2nd Battalion Canadian railway engineers, a 10-gun battery of newly arrived reinforcements for the 1st Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigade, and a detachment of Fifth Army Signals. In total it was equipped with 16 Vickers and 76 Lewis guns, and some wagons and horses to provide transport.

By the time Carey’s Force was relieved the Canadians had acquired further machine guns manned by scratch British crews, bringing their total up to 32 weapons. (Note: the original Canadian machine gun unit in Carey’s Force was replaced on March 29th by the Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigade’s ‘D’ Eaton and ‘E’ Yukon batteries.)

Officers in the Force came from a variety of sources. Gough ‘scooped up’ all his officers returning from leave. The total strength came to well over 2000 men, some references say up to 3000.

The ‘brigadier’ commanding the force that Hamilton-Fyfe refers to was actually General Grant. General Gough wrote (2):

‘I put General P G Grant, who was my Chief Engineer, in command, and gave him two officers of our Army Staff to assist him. When General Carey came home from leave on Tuesday afternoon [26th March] I directed him to take command to set General Grant free to attend to his proper functions.’

Operations.

The Force was initially deployed along the line of the old Amiens defences that Gough had earlier rescued from demolition. Its first task was to return the defences to a proper state. Its second task was to fight. The defensive line ran approximately from in front of Hamel village, behind Warfusee and Lamotte and across the Roman Road (now N29) that runs due east from Amiens through Villers-Bretonneux, down to the village of Marcelcave, which is some three miles NNE of Rifle Wood. There is one reference (3) that describes Carey’s Force as being deployed as far as Bangard Wood (sic: a mis-print for Hangard Wood.) No other traced sources mention the Force being used that far south, and this reference is therefore deemed un-substantiated. It is clear that parties of men from Carey’s Force were deployed to wherever help was needed.

On 27th March two engineer companies from the Force were deployed to Hill 66 which overlooked the village of Cerisy from the southwest. They were pushed off the hill by German attacks. Gough has described these men as having received ‘no training as soldiers and could hardly hold a rifle’, but enough time had been gained for 400 stragglers to be collected at Lamotte and organised for a counter-attack. This was launched at 4pm, and by an hour later had reached a small wood at map reference Q.14.b that commanded the exits from Cerisy some 1500 yards to the northeast.

On 28th March Carey’s Force was at Marcelcave, but they caved in when fiercely attacked. At 4pm the Germans tried to seize both Marcelcave and the spur running up to Hill 104. 2/Queen’s Bays and 5/Dragoon Guards of 1st Cavalry Brigade, the remnants of 16th (Irish) Division together with Carey’s Force men repulsed the attack. The history of The Queen’s Bays (2nd Dragoon Guards) describes this action and records that on the Bays’ positions at Bouzencourt (some 8 miles NE of Villers-Brettoneux) were strengthened by the addition of members of Carey’s Force, whom the Bays proceeded to organise while enemy artillery and snipers remained active all day.

Other references from the same source tell us that on 30th March a fierce German attack on the village of Hamel was repulsed with assistance from detachments of Carey’s Force; and again on 31st March the three dismounted regiments of 1st Cavalry Brigade were holding the line ‘reinforced by 300 odds and ends from Carey’s Force’.

On 2nd April the French agreed to extend their line northwards between Moreuil and Hangard, releasing the British 14th Division to relieve the !st Cavalry Brigade and what was left of Carey’s Force who were in the line running from the N29 to the Somme. Relief took place during the night of 3rd/4th April. By this time Carey’s Force had been decimated by casualties, and so few were left that they had virtually disappeared as a unit. They were amalgamated into Whitmore’s ‘Cosmopolitan Force’, which comprised the remaining Carey’s men, the 16th Division and some cavalry.

There is no doubt that all of these composite units fought well, despite their inexperience as battle troops.

The naming of ‘Carey’s Force’.

Carey’s Force probably would have slipped away un-noticed into history as completely as did all the other temporary units that were cobbled together, and there was a number of them, had it not been for Lloyd George. On 9th April in offering an explanation to the House of Commons of the recent adverse events in France, he included - in a devastating attack on General Gough that was full of inaccuracies - a commendation of General Carey for ‘putting together the force’ and ‘throwing them into the line... thus closing the gap against the Germans for six days’.

Gough rightly was very offended by Lloyd-George’s words; he wrote(2):

‘General Carey did nothing of the kind. He was not in the slightest degree responsible for the formation, organization or posting of this force. He was away on leave in England when it was formed and posted, and he did not take command of it until it had been in position for two days. Such formations as these “forces” were envisaged and provided for weeks before the attack, and were part of our defensive scheme. This force, which was only one of several, organized by the Corps as well as by the Army, was entirely formed, organized and posted under my directions and by my Staff.’ (4)

References.

1. War Illustrated magazine, 8th June 1918,

2. ‘The March Retreat’, General Sir Hubert Gough, 1934,

3. www.careyroots.com/hf6.html. attached

4. ‘The March Retreat’, Gough, p.189.

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  • 2 months later...

A belated thanks for all that Pmaasz, most grateful

Neil

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  • 1 year later...

Just come across, in today's Guardian, a death notice for Diana Pooley who died on 10 November 2009 aged 94.

"Daughter of Major General George Glas Sandeman Carey, inspiring leader of Carey's Force March 1918.

It says that she was "a countrywoman, she loved books, music, people and jokes".

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Black Watch

The unit to which you refer was 213 Army Troops Company RE. They were raised in the spring of 1915 at Leamington Spa, specifically for the New Armies. Their sister units were were 214 and 216 Companies from nearby Coventry and Nuneaton respectively. These units consisted of 100 all ranks and were involved in construction work in the area behind the front line. This consisted of running saw mills, constructing hutments, digging wells, laying water pipes ect. In 1918 they were also involved in bridge building, particularly the Hopkins bridge and in some cases in bridge demolition when the Germans launched their spring offensive.

An account of service with Carey's Force, appears in James Sambrook's "With the Rank and Pay of A Sapper". Based his grandfathers diary, written whilst serving with 216 (Nuneaton) AT Company, it will give you a good idea what was going on at this time from the point of view of Sapper.

213 Company served with the following formations:

5.3.16 1st Army Troops (attached to XIV Corps 24.4.16)

1.7.17 5th Army Troops

22.12.17 4th Army Troops

1.2.18 5th Army Troops

1.5.18 to 11.11.18 - 4th Army Troops

Their War Diary is at the NA in WO 95/484. Incidentally, from your man's number he was a territorial from one of the Welsh Divisional field companies. It was quite usual for Army Troops Companies to be reinforced on this way, on a temporary basis.

TR

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As far as I can gather the remnants of the 16th (Irish) division came under him as they staggered back into Corbie/Aubigny area. The few men of 1sr Royal Dublin Fusiliers that made it were assigned to a group called the "Aubigny Details" and went to Le Hamel

At Hamel, where the retreat stopped, what was left of the 16th (Irish) Division came together to form a unit under the command of Major General Carey, known as Carey’s Force. It comprised of pioneer and engineer troops from all disciplines. It included five hundred Americans and four hundred Canadians. Its object was to dig in the fields just outside the village to the east of Hamel, fight and stop the German advance, and to their credit, this they did.

29th March, 1st Dublins were then incorporated into a group known as the "Aubigny Details", and marched out at 5am to occupy a position Bois de Vaire at Le Hamel, in support of the line at Bois des Tailloux. Heavy enemy shelling was reported.

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As I understand it the action described at the end of Buchan's Mr Standfast is in part based on that of Carey's Force

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