Ferozepore Brigade

[djcrtoye]

Hi, I've just hold of the casualty figures for the above brigade. The figures are 1084 officers and men, killed, missing and wounded. These figures are for 26 April 1915. What I want to know are these figures representive of the casualities all over the theatre on that particular day or are they high for the brigade alone.

Thanks.

Dominic

[sotonmate]

D

This was Neuve Chapelle. There were 7 and 8 Divisions,Lahore and Meerut Divisions involved.

Ferozepore Bde was part of Lahore Division. The make-up of Ferozepore was:

1 Connaught Rangers

9 Bhopal Infantry

57th Wilde's Rifles

128 Duke of Connaught's Own Baluchis.

I read that the Indian troops advanced without the assistance of artillery and suffered heavily,and then came the gas.

Sotonmate

[Steven Broomfield]

Not Neuve Chapelle: that was in March.

Aubers Ridge?

[djcrtoye]

Doing some digging found out that it was the opening engagements of 2nd Ypres.

[Steven Broomfield]

Makes sense.

If no one else gets there first I'll do some digging this evening.

[truthergw]

Steve will have more detail but in the meantime, 26th April was Battle of St Julien. Lahore Div. attacked against Langemarck. They came under attack from artillery, gas and machineguns. O.H. says that shells from 5.9 howitzers in particular, were knocking them down in heaps.

[Steven Broomfield]

The history of the 129th (not 128th - typo by sotonmate) Baluchis (W S Thatcher) is good: the regiment were in the Rue du Bois sector when, on the 24th April, they received orders to march, with the rest of the brigade, to the Ypres area.

The Brigade arrived in Ypres at 9.00 a.m. on the 26th and deployed more or less immediately into the St Jean sector, and at 2.15 launched a counter attack on the newly-won German front. Their axis was north, against Langemarck, on a 1,000-yard front. "Strongly reinforced" French units were on the left, and the british 5th Corps (13th brigade in particular) were to co-operate.

The attack was supported by woefully inadequate artillery, was overlooked by the germans (who were - as ever - well-supported). To add to the fun, the attacking troops had small yellow flags to show progress to supporting artillery. And, of course, to German artillery!

The Jullundur Brigade (1st Manchester, 40th Pathans, 47th Sikhs, 59th Scinde Rifles and 1/4th Suffolk) also attacked, with the Sirhind brigade (1st HLI, 27th Punjabis, 1/1st Gurkhas and 4th King's) in support. The Jullundur Bde was on the right of the Ferozepore.

The attack had to cover 1,700 yards, up the slope to Hill Top Ridge, down a gentle valley, and back up to Mauser Ridge (held by the enemy). The whole thing was swept by enemy fire (as Tom says, 5.9's in particular). The attacking troops were knocked out in platoons, "Falling literally in heaps". The attack of the 129th commenced at 2.15, and by 3 the survivors were back in the British trenches.

The attack seems to have been driven to the left (into the French), officer casualties were heavy (always a problem in Indian units), and the Germans released gas. For the latter, the Indians had no answer: they had no gas masks of any sort, apparently, and the Ferozepore suffered more than the Jullundur, as the gas drifted to the British left.

The 129th went into action 470 strong. One Subedar and 51 Indian o.r. were killed or missing; 6 British officers, 8 Indian officers and 207 Indian o.r. were wounded.

The 1/4th Londons were with the ferozepore Brigade at the time, and their history states: as they breasted the rise at Hill Top "The valley was covered with ragged crowd of agonised and nerve-wracked men, both Moroccans and Indians, who, having thrown down their arms and everything which could impede them, were streaming back from the front trenches suffering the tortures of poison gas. It was a revolting sight."

On the 27th, the Londons, the Connaught Rangers, and the 9th Bhopals undertook another attack (the 57th and the 129th being in reserve, having suffered so heavily on the day before). This was aimed at Oblong Farm (beyond Hampshire farm, and across Admirals Road). Again, the distance was 1700 yards, and success was impossible, there being no cover the whole way. In the two days, the Londons lost nearly 400 men.

Finally, Corrigan's Sepoys in the Trenches devotes a lot to this action. He states that the Lahore Division suffered 3,889 casualties. Wilde's Rifles (the 59th) lost 5 British officers, 9 Indian officers and nearly 350 Indian o.r. in the battle. They did win a VC (Jemadar Mir Dast), though.

Corrigan's book is well worth getting, if you haven't already.

[Steven Broomfield]

What I want to know are these figures representive of the casualities all over the theatre on that particular day or are they high for the brigade alone.

Thanks.

Dominic

Sorry - didn't answer that one!

I suspect, from the figures quoted by Corrigan, that all three brigades of the Lahore suffered equal casualties.

Interestingly, I've been looking at the history of the 50th (Northumbrian) Division, who had been on the receiving end of the German attack. On the 27th, the 8th Durham Light Infantry were holding Boetleer farm and the Gravenstafel Ridge; they lost 19 officers and 574 men. The 1/3rd Monmouths (28th Division), on the other hand, were in reserve in the Polygon Wood area and reported a very quiet day.

My suspicion, on that evidence, is that the units and formations involved in the counter attacks on the day in question were universally hard-hit. An attacak, across open ground with little effective artillery support, having arrived the morning of the attack after a forced march from the south: what did they expect?

Corrigan does make the point that the German attack was stopped, so I suppose it could be counted effective, but at what a cost.

[sotonmate]

SB et al

Sorry,mixed my notes up (viz.scrap paper with several items on it !). It says St Julien next to 26.4.1915 and a badly formed 9 at the end of 129 which I took as an 8,this next to another scribbling about Neuve C !! Anyway the main points of insufficient artillery support and gas effects were OK !

More water shall be taken with it in future.

Sotonmate

[archangel9]

Jourdain & Fraser, The Connaught Rangers, Vol. 1, 1st Bn.

Page 467.

"Number of officers with the battalion on the morning of April 26th . . . 24

Actually in action on the 26th . . . 20

Killed and wounded (3 killed, 12 wounded) . . . 15

Other ranks in action - approximately . . . 900

Killed (31); Wounded (192); Missing (123) . . . 351"

Page 470.

"The Rangers left Meteren on the evening of May 2nd, being greeted as they quitted the village by the children, singing "Its a Long Way to Tipperary,"..........

After billeting during the day on May 3rd at Doulieu, the Battalion set off at 7 p.m. on May 4th for Paradis again, by Estaires, La Gorgue and Lestrem, and eventually reached Paradis at midnight. They had been away for ten days and returned having had 354 killed, wounded, gassed, or missing, in the fields round Ypres. As General Wilcocks mentions in With the Indians in France (p. 265): "Of 16,000 combatants of all arms detached from the Indian Army Corps to take part in the second battle of Ypres, over 24 per cent. were returned as casualties." The Rangers casualties numbered 35 per cent. of the battalion."

John

[djcrtoye]

Hi thanks for the detailed explanation of the action on that day. It seems that every bn who went into that meat grinder came out badly mauled. It only seems that the British could come up with the yellow flag.

Nuff said.

Thanks again.

[stiletto_33853]

Not sure how this will come out with the size limitations of images but these are the brigade's casualty figures for this action from the Brigade War Diary attached to the back of the action report of the day.

Andy

[stiletto_33853]

These are for the Jellundur Brigade, a little higher as you can see.

[djcrtoye]

Thanks for the 2 casualty reports. Just shows the rate on that particular day.

[truthergw]

................................... It only seems that the British could come up with the yellow flag.

Nuff said.

Thanks again.

Not so. This idea was employed by Canadians and French troops to my knowledge. It is such an obvious answer to a new problem that I'll be surprised if there were not a lot more instances.

[djcrtoye]

Fair cop.