136th Field Ambulance RAMC, 40th Division, 1917 War Diary

[taylov]

I am researching a 1917 DCM to 69522 Pte. Robert Jones 136th Field Ambulance, RAMC. This was Gazetted on 26 March 1917 suggesting an action between 28th January 1917 and Mid February 1917.

The citation reads "For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He repeatedly tended the wounded under very heavy fire. He has at all times set a fine example of courage and determination."

I'm outside of my comfort zone (Rifle Brigade and KRRC) with this award and am having trouble finding a relevant War Diary on-line at Kew. If there's not one for 136th FA, RAMC, is there one for the 40th Division ? Can someone on the Forum give me a steer, please.

Tony

[GraemeClarke]

Morning Tony

Its here BUT not downloadable

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/Details?uri=C7354267

Regards,

Graeme

[taylov]

Robert Jones' DCM shown here with a couple of erased WW1 medals.

Thanks to Graeme (above), I've added that Diary to the list for my first visit to Kew.

Another post on the forum drew my attention to WO/391 at the National Archive which is a month by month listing of the London Gazette entries for WW1 DCM awards. Importantly, an Army clerk has added the Schedule Number and the place and date of the DCM action in pencil on the original entries. The spelling of the locations seem to leave a lot to be desired in some cases (as here) but the files at WO/391 are still most useful. Better still they can be downloaded as PDF documents free of charge.

The London Gazette entry for Robert Jones' DCM has the place recorded as "Combles Freqicourt". The second named I think should be "Fremicourt". Both this and Combles are near Bapaume (Combles 5 miles to the south and Fremicourt, 2 miles to the east). He is shown in the Gazette as serving with 136th F.A., RAMC but attached to C/178 Bde, RFA. We have confrimed that he was living In Bradford, Yorks and that he appears on the Bradford Roll of Honour.

The date of the action is given as 29 January 1917.

Tony

[Bradford WW1 Group]

Hi Tony

In terms of personal details, I have little to add to Robert Jones. The Bradford Roll of Honour will be correct with his address etc . . . as families were charged for lodging an entry and they tended to get things right!

I believe that the LG entry will be correct in referring to Combles - Fregicourt. A couple of years ago we were exploring the area between Combles and Sailly Sallisel (now divided by the motorway!) and a local person told us about the 'lost' village of Fregicourt. It stood on the French - German front line and was completely obliterated, never to be re-built.

Here's a trick: go to http://maps.nls.uk/, click on 'Series Maps', scroll to the bottom of the list and click on Map Series Belgium/France: Ordnance Survey, War Office . . .

In Browse the Maps click on Zoom-able Overlays and on the next page enter Combles, France in the Gazetteer search box. In the drop down 'Select a Map Group' select a relevant date, eg 7 October 1916.

You will see Fregicourt to the east of Combles. Having located the village you can then use the 'Change transparency of overlay' slider bar (under the search menus) to see the village disappear.

Choose the trench map of 1 January 1917 and under the name of the village it now says In ruins! The German front line has also disappeared.

Great new toy!

I have a great photo of about 125 RAMC men grouped on the steps of Victoria Hall, Saltaire in September 1914. This group was led by 2 local doctors who had started St John's Ambulance volunteer groups. When the war began almost all of those involved enlisted in RAMC. One of the doctors took his group (about 40 men by all accounts) to support Royal Navy bases. Saltaire might be a little far out of town for Robert Jones - but more family details might help place his whereabouts.

Let me know if anything else turns up about Cpl Robert Jones DCM. He could feature in one of our weekly centre page spreads. I did NOT write the headline for this but it is a true 'Pals' story:

http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/tahistory/featuresnostalgiapasttimes/11345265.Slaughter_on_the_Somme__One_day_when_so_many_Bradford_Pals_died/?ref=arc

BW

Tricia

[Bradford WW1 Group]

The Auckland Star of 27.09.1916 also carries a report about the French taking 800 prisoners when taking Fregicourt village.

[taylov]

Combles was rebuilt after the war, but Fregicourt was never repopulated and as far as I can tell nothing now exists except for an information board adjacent to the D172 which can be found on Google Earth with 2 photographs.

Thanks for the help.

Tony

[kenf48]

I have the Divisional History of the 40th Division and the war diary for the 14th Argylls which are both unremarkable for January 1917.

However the good news is that since you first posted the war diary for 136 FA is now downloadable.

Curious to see what you find

Ken

[taylov]

Found this 1916 map on Google Images. I have cropped it to show the area around Combles.

The North-South road on the right of the map is the Bapaume-Peronne Road.

Thanks to Ken, I've downloaded the 136 FA War Dairy. Whilst the narrative is not of much help - essentially a list of how many officers and men were available on a day to day basis - there is a map of trenches to the west of the Bapaume-Peronne Road where some of 136 FA were located at the end of January 1917. The lack of any scale does not help but this appears to be near where Fregicourt was located. An Advanced Dressing Station is shown further west on the road towards Combles.

On 28 January 1917, 136 FA were re-located to Sailly-Laurette to the south of Combles, but 69522 Pte. Jones must have been held back with his unit of the RFA. (He is shown in the Gazette as serving with 136th F.A., RAMC but attached to C/178 Bde, RFA.).

Tony

[kenf48]

178 Brigade RFA War Diary http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/Details?uri=C7354248

go on it's only 3 quid!

Ken

[taylov]

Thanks, Ken.

Paid my £3.30 and downloaded the War Diary for 1916-1919.

178 Bde. were confirmed to be in the same area as shown on the map above throughout January 1917 as revealed here -

10.1.17 "Enemy shelled around FREGICOURT"

11.1.17 "Enemy shelled at PRIEZ FARM"

13.1.17 "Enemy shelled around COMBLES"

20.1.17 "Reconnaissance made for a perm. O.P. in ABODE LANE" "Abode Lane" was on the map in the 136 FA Diary near the Bapaume-Peronne Road.

C/178 were still there or thereabouts in mid-February -

20.2.17 "Section of C/178 went into action in old position at FREGICOURT".

Of Private Jones, there is no mention. He does not appear in the list of names submitted for honours by 178 Bde. on 25.2.17. However both War Diaries confirm that his DCM action must have been in the Combles-Fregicourt sector.

Found just one postcard image online of Fregicourt -

Tony

[kenf48]

Tony, a bit disappointing.

I was surprised at the date as both the Divisional History and 40th Division diary make no mention of any action (accepting there could have been counter battery fire). The latter in particular mentions over two inches of snow and freezing temperatures during this period.

Ken

[taylov]

Ken, the Diary is a little disappointing. Very much an admin. report with no mention of what was happening to the men of the batteries. The cold weather gets a single mention. Its a bit tricky to read at places -

26.1.17 - The O.C. interviewed the following candidates for Commission from the ranks - list of 4 names.

27.1.17 - Col. Campbell O.C. 45 Bde. arrived and visited all the Batteries with O.C., also Infantry Battalion and HQ. Going through all schemes and instructions with a view to handing on tomorrow.

28.1.17 - Handed on command of left (???) to Col. Campbell. Reported completion of relief to 40th D.A. and to 8th D.A. 178 HQ Staff moved to ????? Camp 20.

29.1.17 Dealing with administrative matters of the Bde. Names of ?? Barnes and BQMS Harper forwarded and recommended for commission.

30.1.17 Names of A/Capt. Price and A/Capt. Bavister recommended for Battery Commanders. Conditions for waiting ??????? bad, all the horses have to go to Suzanne for water. This is the only place round here not frozen up.

31.1.17 Lt Col. Parsons left for England ????. Major L.E.O. Davidson DSO. in command of the Bde.

1.2.17 RSM McLellan commissioned and proceeded to report to 50th D.A. C/178 took out their guns, hailed them to position near Marriers Wood. Officers then returned to Camp 21.

After reading both the 136 FA and 178 Bde War Diaries, the only step forward is confimation that both units were around the area of Combles-Fregicourt at the end of January 1917. We are still left with just the annotations to the DCM Gazette entries in WO/391 to give a date for the DCM action. This at least fits within the dates given by Howard Williamson in the Collectors Guide for DCM awards Gazetted on 26 March 1917.

Tony

[crabbie54]

Tony,

I don't know if this helps in any way but I've been looking at the War Diary for the 1st Battalion of the Welsh Guards on behalf of my partner, Carole, whose great-uncle was killed on 29th January 1917. The entry in the diary for that date (when the Battalion was located "IN THE LINE FRIGICOURT SECTOR") contains the following: "....at 7.30 p.m Bosch put a barrage on the front line of the Right Sector occupied by the 4th Bn GRENADIER GUARDS, it extended on our right up to post 14 where they obtained a direct hit killing 1 man wounding 2 Sgts & 2 men, it only lasted about 1/2 an hour..."

There was no attack on the Welsh Guards on 27th and 28th January 1917 so I wonder whether it was the above action by the enemy on the 29th that led to the award of the DCM to Robert Jones?

Incidentally, no other members of the Welsh Guards were killed in January 1917 and so Carole and I feel that her great-uncle must have been the man killed in that 30 minute attack. He was unlucky as his Battalion was relieved at 11 p.m that night by a battalion of the Scots Guards. We visited this man's grave (at Bronfay Farm Cemetery) a few years ago and plan to go again on 29th January 2017, the centenary of his death.

Peter

[crabbie54]

Tony,

I should also have pointed out that the Welsh Guards (1st Battalion), when relieved by the Scots Guards, marched to MAUREPAS via FREGICOURT and COMBLES".

Peter

[taylov]

Peter,

Many thanks. Most interesting information which opens up another possibility to explain this DCM.

Tony

[johnmelling1979]

Hello

I am wondering what the 136th Field Amb, RAMC was up to as of 23 March 1918.

As I am researching this soldier -

Willam T Walmsley

Born Whittle le Woods

Killed in Action: 23 March 1918

France and Flanders

Reg no - 69474

Rank : Private

Enlisted at Aldershot

136th Field Amb, Royal Army Medical Corp

Joined up on 6 October 1915

Living at 2 Spring Bank, Wheelton in 1911

Lived at Black Lion Brow with wife and children, Jessie (17 Sept 1913) and

Evelyn Mary (20 March 1915) in 1915

Husband of Eleanor Annie Walmsley nee slater, of Rye Bank Cottages, Wheelton.

His name is on Bay 10 of the Arras Memorial

Cheers John Melling

[kenf48]

The war diary is on Ancestry, which if you're not a subscriber should be available at your local library.

However the entry for the 23 March 1918 gives no report of casualties, it is quite difficult to read but essentially the previous day the unit was evacuated, unfortunately it doesn't help with individuals especially in the general chaos following the German attack.

22/3 9pm Walking wounded ???

All large ambulance cars sent to Ayette Evacuated all serious cases

Midnight. ??? to hand over kit

23/3 Handed over to 93 FAmb Unit moved to Ayette (37D F11 69?) arriving at 1.30 pm

17 ORs sent to report to OC 137 F A at Gomiecourt (57c a 23d Central) 3 ? ? out of ? ? Hamelinecourt

Ken