Attack on Gauche Wood

[the judge]

Hi

Can anyone help me find anything out about the attack on Gauche Wood on the 18th september 1918. my gg grandfarther was killed there would like to try and find out a little. If anyone has any maps or orders for this attack.

Thanks

Mark Alton

[Neil Mackenzie]

Welcome to the Forum Mark. Which unit was your gg granfather in? I think the 21st Division were involved in its recapture and they had been in the area when it was overrun by the Germans in March 1918.

Neil

[the judge]

Thanks Neil

My gg granfather was in the 10th Sherwood Foresters he was posted as missing after the attack. Later confirmed as k i a

Thanks

Mark Alton

[Robert Dunlop]

The attack on Gauche Wood was part of a series of actions in the advance to the Hindenburg Line. It is mentioned briefly in 'The Story of the Fourth Army', which deals primarily with III Corps' part in the attack:

'...about midday the situation on the front of the III Corps was that the 74th Division was established on the second objective on the right, with its left thrown a little back; the 18th Division held a line east of Basse Boulogne and Quid Copse, north of which it joined with the 12th Division,... while the 58th Division... had not succeeded in maintaining connection with the 21st Division on the right of the V Corps, which, attacking further north, had captured Chapel Crossing and Gauche Wood'.

So this fits with Neil's observation above. The 10th Bn Sherwood Foresters were, however, in 51st Brigade of the 17th Division. The war diary entry for 18th September reads:

"Bn moved off in artillery formation at 5.24 am to the first objective - LOWLAND SUPPORT - HEATHER SUPPORT trench system. At 6.40 am the Battalion moved forward again to the line of the railway from X.7.C.2.0. - X.7.C.0.8. and at 7.43 am advanced through the 50th Bde, and moved closely to a heavy barrage, seized BEET trench which was the final objective. D Coy (Capt Jacques MC) was on right flank, B Coy (Lieut Steggall) on the left. A Coy (Capt Brandt) right support and C Coy (Lieut Hope) in reserve. D Coy took FIVES trench - a whole strong point without a casualty and got 75 prisoners, and reached their final objective with little loss capturing the entire garrison. B Coy was equally successful on the left flank & was successful in assisting the Border Regt who were held up by MG fire from the sunken road in X.8.b.4.9., routing the enemy ad capturing 100 prisoners from a dugout. C Coy stopped in CHAPEL trench. Touch was maintained throughout the attack with the 7th Border Regt and the 9th KOYLI (21st Div) on the right. Approximate number of prisoners - 250, 15 machine gunes and two field guns; the latter were captured by D Coy about 200 yds in front of their final objective. During the actual advance casualties were only 30 OR.

Bn HQ was established with the 7th Border Regt in a dugout at X.1.a.5.0.

At 1.30 pm the enemy put down a heavy MG barrage and bombed the Borders out of their front line & commenced to push out B Coy. Lieut Steggall & End Lieut Tack were killed while gallantly rallying their men. 2/Lieut Greenwood of A Coy who was in close support immediately formed up his platoon and regained the whole of the lost trench, killing 25 of the enemy and capturing two together with 6 MGs. This fine piece of work saved a critical situation; at 8.15 pm the enemy again commenced bombing down the front line of the Borders but was held up when the Borders became more organised; throughout the night enemy MGs were very active, 2/Lieut Langham was killed."

Robert

[Robert Dunlop]

Here is a map of the area. You can clearly see the railway mentioned, running north-south. The 10th Sherwood Foresters were just south of Gauche Wood (or the wood was on their left, pardon the pun). They were attacking towards Villers Guislain.

Robert

[the judge]

Hi

Thanks for all the info and the map. How would i find out how many Sherwood foresters died in this attack?

Thanks again

Mark Alton

[BRONNO]

Hi

How would i find out how many Sherwood foresters died in this attack?

Thanks again

Mark Alton

Looking at 10th Battalion Sherwood Foresters casualties for your date, Soldiers Died shows 26 K.I.A. on the 18th September 1918 and 9 D.O.W. the following day.

BRONNO.

[Paul Davey]

Hi, I have researched the Gauche Wood action around 18-21 Sep 1918 as my dad's great uncle dies there on 21 Sep 18.

I have copies of the hand written action reports obtained from the National Archives. If you are interested let me know but they do relate to the &Bn Borders not Sherwoods.

Paul

[andrew pugh]

Hi Mark

If you log onto the search engine called Geoffs Search Engine punch in the date you are interested in then put in the Regiment you want hit search and it will list every single casualty of that particular regiment killed that day. You will then have to filter out the casualties from the Battalion you are interested in. I find it a good tool to use.

Regards 

Andy

[Guest]

Hi Paul -  i had a close relative  who died at gauche wood on 18.9.18 id really appreciate it if you could email me had written action reports from the national Archives regards peter 

[Guest]

hi Paul  my great uncle Captain William Constantine was killed at Gauche woods on sept 18th 1918  could you send me copy of the action reports He was with the 7 Borders.  thanks glen

[Guest]

Tomorrow will be the 100th anniversary of the death of my great uncle, Albert Edgar Winfield of the 10th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment and I will be visiting his grave in Gauche Wood cemetery. If anyone has any information regarding the battle/action that took place on the 20th of September 1918 I would grateful for anything that you could share with me. Eight of his comrades also died the same day and are buried alongside him.

 

Dave

[Albert Bowler]

On 14/03/2018 at 18:40, glen cameron said:

hi Paul  my great uncle Captain William Constantine was killed at Gauche woods on sept 18th 1918  could you send me copy of the action reports He was with the 7 Borders.  thanks glen

Hi Glen, I know this is an old thread but I only read it recently whilst researching my grandfather & the threads which some of the kind people who helped me have posted on.  The name of your Great-uncle stuck in my mind. I've noticed something on Ebay which might pertain to your relative & be of some interest to you. 

[Michelle Young]

Paul hasn't visited the forum since January. I would try sending him a private message.

 

Michelle 

[Albert Bowler]

Than you Michelle for letting me know. It would be nice if it  could be reunited with the family.

I'm not great with technology but will try & work out how to pm him.

Thanks again.

[Guest]

Hi there, just to add to this thread... I have been researching my great-grandfather, Sgt. Edward J. Harris. He volunteered for the British Army circa 1910 (I only know that in 1912, he was promoted to a Corporal in the Territorial Army). Sgt. Harris was in the 10th Battalion of the Sherwood Foresters, my understanding that they saw action in several of the major theaters from 1914 to 1918. He was not a hero but just a regular bloke doing his job. Sgt. Harris was reported KIA during the Battle of Cambrai at Gauche Wood on 22 September 1918. His name is on the Leighton Buzzard war memorial, and his grave is in Gauche Wood Cemetery,  in Villers-Guislain, France. 

 

Here is an excerpt from the family history my father wrote (1999). (Please attribute if quoted. Thanks.)
 

"The War Diaries of the 10th Battalion of the Sherwood Foresters for September 1918 tell of the bloody, costly and grim advances made to capture enemy trenches as they fought to take the strategic town of Cambrai in northern France.  After one gruelling battle, the 10th Battalion in which our Sergeant Harris serves, was rested and reorganised following the ghastly mauling it received.  Later, during the night of the 21st September, 'D' Company that included the platoon of which Edward is in charge, with other platoons moved under cover of darkness to relieve the 10th West Yorkshires.  The West Yorkshires were defending and holding on to a battered small dense clump of coppiced oak and birch trees, less than two hundred metres across.  The place was called Gauche Wood. The copse, for it is hardly wood, lay exposed at the top of a rise in the ground and was surrounded by open, naked fields that were savagely pock-marked by deep shell holes and deeply scored by lines of shattered trenches.

 

With four years of soldering in his blood, Edward knew only too well the hellish savagery his men had to face as they took over the position.  When morning came the soldiers would see, across a wide open, shallow vale, concealed among the battered remnants of the smashed, fragmented walls of houses and farm buildings of Villers-Guislane, a small village less than 1,500 yards away. Hidden in the wreckage were dozens of deadly heavy 100mm field guns.  From the moment there was enough light on the dawn of the 22nd, the lethal German artillery had been battering away with its 100mm diameter shells - battering away with a mortal mixture of high explosive and air-bursting shrapnel fired to hammer the men hidden in the hell holes of Gauche Wood.  The enemy knew that there are between two and three hundred English men sheltered by the small cluster of trees.  During daylight, 'D' Company dare not move.  Protected by the maze of trenches burrowed through the clay and chalk soil the soldiers of the Sherwood Foresters lie low.  But that small deciduous wood lay naked and mercilessly exposed right at the top of the slight slope across from the Germans.  It is a perfect target for their great guns.  Throughout daylight, leaves were continuously blasted from the trees by exploding shells only to flutter innocently down like blackened flakes of snow on the men cringing below.  Through the swirling grey-brown smog of bursting shells and the wisps of smoke from burning vegetation, the clump of trees was clearly visible to the ever watchful Germans. Their target stands out prominently, there,  over on the other side of a shallow dip in the fold of the rolling pale-brownish furrowed fields of the Champagne chalklands.  Heavy artillery continues to bark and roar as the guns send over their constant hail of death.

 

Among those trees in Gauche Wood, 35-year old Sergeant Harris, with his soldiers, cowered low to shelter from the continuous cacophony of ear-shattering and gut thumping explosions of the detonating shells only a few feet above them.  For him and his men this was just another ordinary day of battle. Nothing new. Nothing out of the ordinary. It was just another day, just like hundreds past and now lost in their fear and nightmares.  Naught was different.  Indeed, the Sherwood Forester's War Diary of the 10th Battalion for September 1918 dismisses the very ordinariness of the two deadly days in just one line: 

 

" 22/23rd. Battalion holding GAUCHE WOOD. Nothing of importance happened." 

 

To be under heavy lethal fire was normal; nothing was important.  Perhaps nothing important did happen for the diary writer to note - except that on the 22nd, a Sunday,  just one of the hundreds of 100mm enemy shrapnel shells burst a six feet or so above Roger's great-grandfather, Sergeant Edward James Harris, father of three.  In just one fraction of an unprotected moment an exploding fragment, a piece of shrapnel, a supersonic red-hot splinter of thick metal sliced brutally through his body in a less than a millisecond and killed him.  He fell, dead.  Killed in action.

 

~ "Memories for an Heirloom: An assortment of recollections and some notes for those that inherit the future" John Anthony Harris, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, 1999 (198 pp)

[Keith_history_buff]

On 29/07/2010 at 22:16, the judge said:

Hi

Thanks for all the info and the map. How would i find out how many Sherwood foresters died in this attack?

Thanks again

Mark Alton

 

  

On 14/11/2017 at 22:34, andrew pugh said:

Hi Mark

If you log onto the search engine called Geoffs Search Engine punch in the date you are interested in then put in the Regiment you want hit search and it will list every single casualty of that particular regiment killed that day. You will then have to filter out the casualties from the Battalion you are interested in. I find it a good tool to use.

Regards 

Andy

 

Not sure whether Geoff's Search Engine has the kind of utilisation that it had 5-10 years ago. One alternative is the astreetnearyou website which came into being in 2018 I think.

This link will bring back the CWGC casualties for the Notts & Derby
https://astreetnearyou.org/regiment/167/Sherwood-Foresters-(Notts-and-Derby-Regiment)

For other regiments, they can be navigated to via here. The "search" box on the right can be used to filter. This is what I did by typing "Derby".
https://astreetnearyou.org/regiments

I find it quicker than the revamped CWGC portal. The hints and linkages that it provides are of interest to me, too.

 

[GrenPen]

On 19/09/2018 at 19:18, Guest said:

Tomorrow will be the 100th anniversary of the death of my great uncle, Albert Edgar Winfield of the 10th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment and I will be visiting his grave in Gauche Wood cemetery. If anyone has any information regarding the battle/action that took place on the 20th of September 1918 I would grateful for anything that you could share with me. Eight of his comrades also died the same day and are buried alongside him.

 

Dave

Here's a link to a transcript of the battalion war diary, containing map coordinates too.
https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/13262-10th-bn-west-yorkshire-regt-prince-of-wales-own/?tab=comments#comment-1558485

From what I can recall I had read in Wyrall's regimental history, I had the impression they were south of Gouzeaucourt on 18 September 1918, attacking a redoubt centred around the former St Quentin windmill. 
 

[Fritzthecat]

My GG is Captain Lewis Jacques who was in charge of D Company. He won a bar to his MC during the attack.