1st Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment

[Guest endlessenigma]

I would like to know where the Easy Yorkshire Regiment were on that fateful day of March 22nd 1918-I keep coming up with different answers! If you could help I would be most grateful.

Robert Columbus Johnstone

Enlisted Edinburgh

Number 29687

Formerly T4/059339 Army Service Corps – transferred and posted 1st Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment 26 November 1917

Killed in Action 22 March 1918

Commemorated on Pozieres Memorial panels 27-28, Pozieres Albert Somme France

Took 40 primary schoolchildren to France in February this year.I managed (with a lot of arm twisting the head teacher) to visit his memorial (the only one of our family ever to to this) we also visited Thiepval, The Devonshire's memorial at Mametz, Albert museum, the Vimy trenches and beautiful monument also the underground tunnels at Arras. The children were very respectful and patient listening to our guides and they thoroughly enjoyed the 4 day experience-even wanting to go back next year.

[sotonmate]

t

The tie breaker is::: the War Diary, WO95/2161 which runs from Dec 1915 to Apr 1919. You can download it as it's in digital format,from the National Archives Catalogue,for 3.50 for the whole period.

That will give you day-by-day action from his arrival to his last day.

Sotonmate

[larney]

On the following day the Battalion was at Saulcourt, near Epehy. A( man from my village was killed with 1st East Yorkshires on 31 March.)

Here is the page for the War Diary for 22-23 March (there's not a lot on it, so I think you'll need the full months diary).

SteveJ.

[larney]

Out of interest, Joseph Johnson was the man who I was concerned with, and his name is just next to your Grandfathers on the Pozieres Memorial.

SteveJ.

[joseph]

The tie breaker is::: the War Diary, WO95/2161 which runs from Dec 1915 to Apr 1919. You can download it as it's in digital format,from the National Archives Catalogue,for 3.50 for the whole period.

That will give you day-by-day action from his arrival to his last day.

Seems cheap or the site is playing up again.................

an Account from the Medical Officer

On the morning of the 22nd March 1918 the German attack started again, and now we were to be introduced to low-flying aeroplanes in large numbers, and these were not countered by our men, who seemed to have vanished. Silent was the voice of our artillery. Incessant rifle fire, however, indicated that fighting was in progress. During the previous day the line had been badly breached in front of Roisel to the south, and beyond Chapel Hill to the north, and the enemy was slowly but surely working round our right flank. Epehy and Peziere, held by the Leicester Brigade, had not been captured; this being the only point on the British line attacked which had not been breached that day, and this fact;

(The brave defence of Epehy) was proclaimed in the enemy accounts of the battle in his newspapers.

However, Epehy was taken in the flank and rear on the 22nd, and the two guarding tanks taken and put out of action by small enemy guns, which rushed up and fired at them over open sights. The Leicester Brigade slowly returned to the Yellow Line, and held off the advancing enemy until late in the afternoon. Whilst this was in progress his planes flew low down over our heads, - and we could see his troops marching, as it appeared then, in column of route out of Epehy along the sunken road to Saulcourt. He was chivalrous, as we found out later, for when he entered the Dressing Stations in Epehy, the German and British doctors continued to work together in dressing the wounded, some of which he allowed to escape to our lines. He appeared to think that the British resistance was broken, and that he could afford to let the prisoners escape with impunity, but subsequent events proved his mistake. We saw the Germans drive a small field gun at the gallop into Jacquavenne Copse; about 2,000 yards away to our front, and it immediately opened fire over open sights on our Battalion H.Q. With great accuracy. Our artillery had vanished, and we were powerless to do any thing in the matter, except admire the way in which he was able to rush his guns into action, and thus annoy us. Late in the afternoon Germans seemed to spring up from nowhere, in Front of us, and to the right, and to the left, and our only alternative was to retreat. However, before withdrawing, our men did consider able execution. The Adjutant—Lieut. (A/Capt.) A. H. Ewing—who was unarmed, was “flushed1” by two Germans, who shouted “Hands up!” to him in guttural accents, but he managed to get away, although they fired rapidly at him. We made back over the football field at Saulcourt, and across the road leading to Longavesnes to the next high ground, about a mile in the rear. The German Infantry advanced in extended order, and their low-flying aeroplanes, to the number of four or five, peppered us with machine gun bullets, and gave directions to the troops on the ground. One could not help admiring the perfect co-operation of his Airmen and his Infantry on this terrible evening. During this retreat young Mansfield (2nd Lieut. G. S. Mansfield), the Lewis Gun Officer, was hit through the femoral artery by an aeroplane bullet, and died in about three seconds, near the goal-posts in the football field. He was an officer of great promise, and very popular with every one. On hearing the news of his death, his father, in England, was so overcome with grief that he died almost at once. Second Lieuts. P. Wadsworth and T. A. Stockham were killed in action on the same day. As dusk was falling, the remains of the 64th Brigade took up positions in the Green Line, to the north of the Longavesnes-Saulcourt Road, with H.Q. In a dug-out, at the point where the road and the trench meet. In the meantime the Germans contented themselves in our old camp, and Capt. Raine, R.A.M.C. (M.O.), was able to collect numerous wounded men, carrying them back on stretchers, gate posts, and pieces of corrugated iron. Most of the H.Q. Company took part in this melancholy procedure, and the Brigadier put all his signallers and orderlies to the same task. At dusk all enemy activity ceased absolutely, and not a shell or a bullet disturbed the peace of a beautiful but frosty evening. During the night the Germans slowly took up positions in front of our wire. A British Ordnance dump, somewhat ahead of our position, blazed furiously, and in the lurid light we could see parties of the enemy walking about. A British motor ambulance drove up about midnight, and we were only just able to warn the driver to turn round, or he would have driven straight on into the enemy’s lines. They offered no hindrance to his turning, and he was able to get away with a full load of wounded.

Regards Charles

[joseph]

Steve,

There is a detailed account in the War Diary of the operations that took place between 21st March to 6pm on the 25th March 1918 was it not part of your download?

Regards Charles

[Guest endlessenigma]

A GREAT thanks to all who have helped me-its very much appreciated. Now maybe I can fill in some of the holes in his life as I'm the only one living who even remembers his name.

SteveJ-I was just looking at my own photo of RC Jonstone's nameplate-small world eh?

[larney]

Steve,

There is a detailed account in the War Diary of the operations that took place between 21st March to 6pm on the 25th March 1918 was it not part of your download?

Regards Charles

Hi Charles,

I had a photocopy from Kew years ago, before the diaries were available online. I think I'll get it now though- it's got to be worth £3.50!

Cheers,

SteveJ.

[Lockardian]

I would like to know where the Easy Yorkshire Regiment were on that fateful day of March 22nd 1918-I keep coming up with different answers! If you could help I would be most grateful.

Robert Columbus Johnstone

Enlisted Edinburgh

Number 29687

Formerly T4/059339 Army Service Corps – transferred and posted 1st Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment 26 November 1917

Killed in Action 22 March 1918

Commemorated on Pozieres Memorial panels 27-28, Pozieres Albert Somme France

Took 40 primary schoolchildren to France in February this year.I managed (with a lot of arm twisting the head teacher) to visit his memorial (the only one of our family ever to to this) we also visited Thiepval, The Devonshire's memorial at Mametz, Albert museum, the Vimy trenches and beautiful monument also the underground tunnels at Arras. The children were very respectful and patient listening to our guides and they thoroughly enjoyed the 4 day experience-even wanting to go back next year.

Hello,

Just picked up on your thread.

My wife's great uncle was No.29694 Pte James Logan, 1st Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment.

He was formerly T4/062284 Army Service Corps and transferred to East Yorks on 26th November 1917.

He enlisted at Kilmarnock in Ayrshire.

He died of wounds on 26th March 1918 and is buried at Dernacourt Communal Cemetry Extension.

Both your great granddad and my wife's great uncle had service numbers which were very close both in the ASC and the East Yorks.

Do you think it is possible they knew each other ?

I realise my next question is a bit of a long shot but I don't suppose the name James Logan means anything to you ?

We sadly don't have any photos of him although through the kindness of Kevin - another Forum member - we now have a photo of his grave.

Regards

John