bellenglise september/october 1918

[d-wilson]

iam researching my grand farther 200540 c/s/m acting r/s/m frank howse 1/5 bn south staffs. any info would be most help full in particular the fighting at bellenglise and mannequin hill.thanks diver den

[Roy Evans]

iam researching my grand farther 200540 c/s/m acting r/s/m frank howse 1/5 bn south staffs. any info would be most help full in particular the fighting at bellenglise and mannequin hill.thanks diver den

I have the battalion war diary for the 1/5th South Staffs but can't get at it until the weekend.

PM me a reminder and I'll post details then.

Roy

[Chris_Baker]

The published Divisional history "Breaking the Hindenburg Line" covers the battalion's actions in detail. It is a free download from http://www.archive.org/details/breakhindenburg00priesuoft

[Roy Evans]

To keep you going until the weekend, here is an extract from my book about the 1/6th and 2/6th South Staffords (sans Photos).

THE STAFFORDS GO IN

Three Staffordshire Battalions were to lead the attack on the German positions along the canal with the 1/6th North Staffords on the left, the 1/5th South Staffords in the centre and the 1/6th South Staffords on the right of the Divisional front, to the north-west of Bellenglise. During the night the men moved into their assembly areas, some in the front line trenches, others in shell holes in No Man’s Land and yet others in the shelter of various sunken roads.

Here the men stayed, in an atmosphere eerily still and quiet until a few minutes before ‘zero’ hour (5.50 a.m.) the air was rent with the indescribable noise of the artillery barrage and the clatter of machine guns trained upon the enemy trenches. Successive waves of the 1/6th South Staffords, on a four hundred yard front and with gaps of around three yards between each man, began a slow walk across the undulating ground, each hundred yards of the advance taking some five minutes, and all the time the bullets from their own machine-guns were whistling past just feet above their heads.

The Germans began to retaliate when the attackers were half way to the canal and laid down an intense bombardment but due to the ever thickening fog were unable to properly range their fire. Before they reached the canal they encountered a number of enemy outposts but these were lightly manned and presented little resistance. Passing through these defences and on over the crown of the hill they came to the west bank of the canal and here they regrouped.

What lay before them, still only half seen through the fog was a steep slope of perhaps fifty feet down to the wall of the canal and then a further drop of five or ten feet to the water itself. Each man was under orders to make his own way across the canal.

The Germans were defending their positions with machine-guns and bombs, but such had been the intensity of the preliminary Allied barrage and the rapidity of the following infantry attacks that the attackers were upon the Germans before they were able to fully emerge from their shelters to man the defences.

Once across the attackers regrouped once more and now in a single line moved up the eastern bank and after passing lines of unoccupied trenches came upon their next objective, a second line of trenches, substantial defences in the form of heavily fortified concrete defences and machine gun emplacements. Still enshrouded by the fog the Staffords were able to work their way almost up to the German trenches before rushing in to bayonet the defenders. In the face of such tactics many of the defenders made use of the fog to make good their escape although many more were made prisoner.

The Staffords pressed on with their attack towards the next lines of defence which they overcame with equal determination and here at between 9.30 and 10.00 a.m. they halted and allowed the 138th and 139th Division men to pass through in accordance with operation orders.

Major Edwin Lewis died of wounds received in this attack. The only son of Mr Rowland Lewis J.P. of Penn, Wolverhampton, after being educated at Repton he had joined the Territorial battalion some ten years earlier. He embarked upon active service with them when they first went to France in 1915, subsequently being promoted to the rank of Major. In civilian life Edwin Lewis had been running his family firm of Edwin Lewis and Sons Ltd., of Ettingshall. Having previously been severely wounded whilst acting second in command in 1917, Major Lewis died aged 36 on the 30th September 1918 and is buried in Brie British Cemetery, France.

BELLENGLISE

After a brief pause for reorganization, two companies of the 1/6th South Staffords continued the forward advance whilst the other two companies now turned to their right to enter Bellenglise. Such was the devastation caused to the village by the heavy shelling, that the Staffords met with little resistance and had little more to do than mop-up the remaining Germans and in this they paid special attention to the entrance to the Bellenglise canal tunnel, a previously impregnable part of the Hindenburg Line, and from where they captured almost a thousand prisoners.

Following the success of the attack, the Divisional Commander received a letter from General H. S. Rawlinson in which he said “The forcing of the Hindenburg Line on the canal, and the capture of Bellenglise ranks as one of the finest and most dashing exploits of the war.”, stark contrast to the disparaging remarks made by Sir Thomas Snow after the debacle of Gommecourt.

The South Staffords left Bellenglise at 2.00 a.m. on 3rd October and three hours later were in a position outside of Sequehart to began their attack at 6.05 a.m. with ‘C’ and ‘D’ Companies in the first line of attack, ‘A’ and ‘B’ Companies in the second wave. They encountered little resistance until they approached the crest of a hill just south of Chataignies Wood where they had to overcome considerable resistance, especially from the enemy machine guns which were protected by concrete emplacements. The only means of overcoming this resistance proved to be by rushing the positions and using bayonets against the gun crews. Not surprisingly the Staffords lost heavily during this stage of the fighting.

Outposts were then pushed forwards towards the final objective, the slopes of Mannequin Hill, but the Germans were holding this position in numbers and heavy enfilading machine-gun fire forced them to withdraw. The South Staffords had to fight off German counter-attacks during the rest of the day and were subject to heavy shelling and machine-gun fire, attacks that intensified the following day before they were relieved in the front-line by the 1st Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment.

Roy

[Roy Evans]

diver dan,

I'm having a few issues with posting diary, will do so in the week.

Roy

[d-wilson]

The published Divisional history "Breaking the Hindenburg Line" covers the battalion's actions in detail. It is a free download from http://www.archive.org/details/breakhindenburg00priesuoft

hi chris , thanks very much for the Link that you posted to me it as answer a lot of questions for me fascinating reading thanks once again dennis

[d-wilson]

diver dan,

I'm having a few issues with posting diary, will do so in the week.

Roy

hi roy ,thank you very much for the extract from the war diary that you posted it is most informativ i can i am looking forward to reading the rest,thank you so much dennis