12th Bn Rifle Brigade

[RammyLad1]

I would appreciate it if any one can provide me with the details of the diary entry for 7th June 1916. Made the mistake of downloading WO95/2120 from the N.A. only to find that it was for the 12th K.R.R.C.

Duncan

[John Milner]

Duncan

The enemy were fairly quiet all day. A few whizz bangs fell along the front parapet, but no damage was done. The crater was not shot at at all. A working party of 200 KRRs came up at night and worked on wiring and consolidating crater.

Regard

John

[GraemeClarke]

Morning

Not the WD but .....

The Battalion returned to the trenches on the 31st. From 1st June to the 8th the Battalion was in the line and during the tour lost Captain F.E.M. Roe and thirty two other ranks killed, and 2nd Lieut. W.C. Messenger and sixty one wounded. On relief it returned to Poeringhe. On the 17th it returned to Ypres and was in the trenches from the 23rd to the 30th.

June began with heavy fighting in the Salient. The line was held by the Canadian Corps on the right hand and XIV Corps on the left. The boundary between the 3rd Canadian Division, the left of the Canadian Corps and the 20th (Light) Division, the right of the XIV Corps was in the neighbourhood of the Eclusette and some four hundred yards north-west of Hooge. The 20th Division line ran back in front of Y Wood to Wieltje, and the Canadian line included Hooge and ran south-west past Sanctuary Wood and Hill 62. The attack which was delivered on the morning of June 2nd was directed against the Canadian position from Hooge southwards, though, in fact, it slightly overlapped the boundary and engaged in addition the right Battalion of the 60th Brigade. North of the Menin Road it made little if any progress. On the extreme right of the 60th Brigade the enemy was caught by artillery and machine gun fire with heavy losses. But the attack which developed in the early afternoon upon the Canadian front met with success. Two lines of trenches fell into the enemy's hands, including Sanctuary Wood and Hill 62. Vigorous counter attacks during the next two days made no important difference to the enemy's gains, and he was now in a position to launch a formidable attack from Hooge. This developed on the 6th, preceded by a heavy bombardment at 12.30p.m. which extended to the front of the 60th Brigade, and lasted till 3.45 p.m. The attack was delivered in two places. A main attack on the Canadians at Hooge, and a subsidiary attack on the 20th Division at the junction of the 59th and 60th Brigades north of the Ypres-Roulers railway. The 60th Brigade line on the front of the attack was held by the 12th Battalion Rifle Brigade which, despite the explosion of a small mine that blew in fifty yards of trench at Gully Farm, was manning its parapet in readiness for the assault, and broke it completely with Lewis gun and rifle fire. In the explosion of the mine Captain W.C. Messenger and thirty men of "A" Company were all completely buried. The reinforcements that were hurried up to hold the crater succeeded in digging out all but two men alive. Machine guns posted on the top of the crater brought heavy enfilade fire to bear on the enemy advancing over the open to attack the Canadians.

Regards,

Graeme

[stiletto_33853]

War Diary

[RammyLad1]

Many thanks for the replies. I would have responded earlier but for some reason couldn't log in on my main computer (Windows 8) so I am on my old one, XP, and that works fine.

A point of interest then is that this chap I'm looking at, Rifleman Moses Storer, S/6357, was according to C.W.G.C. and a local newspaper report, K.I.A. on 7th June but S.D.G.W. has the date as 6th June. I wonder if he was one of the casualties of the 6th but buried on the 7th? The earlier date seems more likely given the description of the events.

Duncan