405 Bty 37 Brigade RFA EEF in Palestine 1917-1918

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My grandfather was a Gunner in 405 (Howitzer) Battery 37 Brigade RFA EEF.  A century ago this month he was on his way to Palestine.  Recently I have located his diaries (1917 and 1918) and a letter(s) he wrote on his journey from Larkhill to Palestine. The diaries give factual information censored from his letter. The letter compliments this with a lot more human interest and additional information (all locations were censored) but only covers departure from the UK on 15 Sept 1917 to arrival and service in Palestine up to end November 2017. I thought I would start a thread sharing his journey and service in Palestine. I hope this is of interest to others here and any relevant information members can share gratefully received.

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Grandad left Larkhill for Palestine on 15 Sept 1917. His diary for 1917 contains some brief details of service and training up until then and I'm very grateful to David Porter for some very helpful additional information.  Here's the information I have on the period up to 15 Sept 1917.

 

Grandad's number puts him being called up to No.2 Depot RFA, Preston, around December 27, 1916. He would have been 19 and was from Liverpool.  From there he would be passed on to a Reserve Battery for preliminary training. Nos. 7, 8 or 9 Reserve Batteries seem to be favourite and these were part of 2A Reserve Brigade at Fulwood Barracks, Preston.

 

Grandad's diary records the following. On 17 Feb 1917 it mentions "Home on leave for weekend" same on 23 March 1917 and 7 April. On 12 April he "Passed out as a Gunner". The following week he was at Fleetwood followed by leave on 21 April 2017. On 15 June 1917 he was "Warned for draft at Larkhill" and arrived there on 17 June. 2 July 1917 appointed Limber Gunner. On 16 August he writes "1 Howitzer arrived for 405 Battery. Now a 4.5" Howitzer Battery". 405 Bty was part of 37th Brigade RFA which was part of 75th Divisional Artillery. On 27-28 August 1917 he was practising unloading the 4.5" Howitzer and limber from rail wagons at Amesbury station (near Larkhill). Next entry was 15 Sept 1917 when he left Larkhill for Southampton and eventually Palestine.

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My grandfather's letter starts "I do not think I shall ever forget Sat Sept 15th 1917 the day on which I left England with my battery". 405 Bty left Larkhill at dawn having spent the previous day and most of the night packing and preparing according to his letter. They travelled to the station - probably Amesbury - where the vehicles, guns, horses and rations were loaded on the train. They arrived at Southampton at 9.30 am where the train pulled right alongside the transport, the SS Archimedes. Dock labourers put the vehicles on board, the horses required a fair amount of coaxing up the gangway by the battery. At 4pm the Battery paraded before departure during which "several men were warned to stay behind". No explanation why but that gave my grandfather another pair of horses to look after.

 

SS Archimedes left at 5.30pm for Le Havre accompanied by the escorts P18 and P27. " Two or three seaplanes kept hovering over us for sometime & were the source of much interest to us all". My grandfather's letter also says "It was a glorious evening and a beautiful sunset could be seen making a most memorable picture which gradually faded as we got further out to sea"

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The SS Archimedes arrived at Le Havre at 6am on 16 September 1917. "French seaplanes were plentiful & also a large dirigible was flying about, with a large number of warships of all types acnchored here and there". The battery landed at 11.30am and while waiting for the guns and wagons to offload ("they were well down in the hold"), Grandad had a look around. "There were captured German guns galore and naturally they were of great interest to us, each gun having written on it the name of its captors".

 

The battery left the docks for rest camp arriving around midnight.

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17 September 1917 was the start of 405 Battery's journey through France to Marseilles. Grandad's diary records the route. Leaving Le Havre at 1pm the train travelled through Rouen, St Etienne and Versailles, then on 18 Sept Orleans and Argenton, followed on 19 Sept by Toulouse, Beziers, Carcasonne then Montpellier arriving at Marseilles at 8am on 20 September 1917. At each stop the horses were fed and watered and the battery took advantage to buy various items, cigarettes, bread and "being Autumn fruit was very plentiful". At some of the larger towns "the local inhabitants used to come and talk to us, giving each one of us a picture postcard of the place".

 

Grandad describes his journey. "I was rather fortunate in getting into the forage van amongst the horses' hay, out of which I was able to make quite a respectable bed for myself". The forage van had other advantages. "Youngsters would run towards the train and throw pears etc. to us. Here was where I scored for I used to have the large sliding doors of the train open while I sat on the footboard & plenty of fruit would find it's way into the van, while the chaps in the ordinary passenger carriages often had the aggravating sight of pear juice on the carriage windows & no fruit". Grandad's fruit collecting wasn't always successful. "It was about this time I had the misfortune to lose my cap badge, for when passing one of those vineyards, I noticed several French girls running towards the train each with a bunch of grapes & to catch them, I together with all the others held out my hat to catch a few, but the grapes were not thrown hard enough & I missed them and my badge as well".

 

Finally, "One thing which struck me very much was the evident delight of the French people when they saw the guns on the train. Most of them would point to the guns & then take their hats off & cheer".

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Arriving in Marseilles at 8am on 20 Sept 1917, 405 Battery detrained straight away and went to rest camp in the centre of town. The following day (21st) was spent embarking the horses on the troopship and the battery embarked just in time for tea. At reveille 6am the following morning after a night in a hammock Grandad found the ship still in port. But at "dinner time" on 22nd the troopship left port "accompanied by two fine Japanese destroyers for our Eastern destination". Grandad also notes in his diary on 22 Sept that he saw an airship orbiting well out at sea after leaving Marseilles.

 

Grandads letter, which was presumably censored, does not mention place names but his diaries do and the destination was Alexandria via Malta. His diaries also give ship names although his Mediterrean troopship was almost indecipherable from his handwriting. But after some considerable scrutiny I've established it was the SS Minnetonka. 

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Grandad describes the voyage as very calm. Horses were fed and watered four times a day, the work was hot and close and the stables well down in the ship. Stables were cleaned out at reveille each morning - "a very unpleasant job". Life belts had to be worn at all times.

 

23 Sept at sea passed off uneventfully other than a barrel / tub being thrown overboard and practice shots fired at it. "At the time, I was on deck watching the proceedings, but there were a good many below having their tea, & it was very funny to see them all rushing up expecting to see a submarine. On finding the cause of the firing they returned and finished their tea in peaceful mind".

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Both Grandad's letter and diary only make brief reference to 24 September 1917.  Describing the sea as calm, the "usual routine", arriving at Malta at 4pm in the afternoon and leaving at 5pm having changed escorts.

 

Unbeknown to Grandad the events of 24 Sept were not as uneventful as he thought. With a bit of Internet research remarkably there is reference to the SS Minnetonka being at sea on 24 Sept 1917 between Sicily and Tunisia (before reaching Malta) and narrowly avoiding being torpedoed by UC34 which was out of range, presumably on account of the Japanese escorts. Grandad doesn't mention that - hopefully unaware. How very different things could have been.

 

http://www.atlantictransportline.us/content/32Minnetonka.htm

 

The site also gives the names of the Japanese destroyers on the trip to Malta as Kashi and Yanaga. This correlates nicely with Grandad's reference to two "fine" Japanese destroyers. The Japanese sent the 2nd Special Squadron to Malta in WW1 to escort Allied shipping. The Kashi and Yanaga only arrived the month before and would have been virtually brand new having been finished the year before.  The Malta stop I believe was because the escorts did not have the range to cross the Mediterranean from Marseille to Alexandria. So to keep things moving the escorts were simply swapped in Malta. Grandad notes they arrived in Malta at 4pm and left at 5pm. "Here we left our old escorts & two other Japanese destroyers took charge of us". His diary notes the replacement escort destroyers as the "U" (so possibly the "Ume") and "K" (there were a number of Japanese destroyers at Malta starting with "K").  Grandad notes "It was a treat to see the way these little beggars slipped about all over the shop; & if they spotted anything doubtful they were after it like a shot". Perhaps no surprise given events earlier in the day.

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2nd_Special_Squadron_(Japanese_Navy)

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The rest of the voyage on the Minnetonka to Alexandria from Malta was uneventful.  Arrived at Alexandria at 11am on 27 September 1917, horses offloaded first, some searching for kit as it "was dumped all over the place", then the guns which took until 9pm that evening.  After which 405 Bty left for camp at Sidi Bishr about 10  miles away, arriving at 4am on 28 September.  Grandad notes that "the camp was all on sand & several of our heavier waggons got stuck, causing us any amount of extra trouble".

 

I'm aware, and thanks to David Porter for this information, that accompanying 405 (H) Bty from Larkhill on the journey described above was also 406 (H) Bty. The batteries were formed at the same time at Larkhill and travelled to Egypt on the same two ships.  A third battery, 413 (H), also has the same dates for the journey. 405 (H) and 406 (H) were sent to different brigades but under the same division and so would follow the action of the divisional troops.  413 (H) was posted to 302nd Brigade RFA in 60th Division.

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Friday 28th September to Sunday 7th October 1917 were spent in camp at Sidi Bishr.  Acclimatising no doubt.

 

On 28th September Grandad writes "I had orders to "camouflage" - what a wonderful word - the guns and waggons, so that day & the following days found me armed with paints of many colours & brushes camouflaging for all I was worth".

 

On Monday 1 October he received a pass for Alexandria and "had a jolly fine time".  Journey into Alexandria first by donkey ("great sport to make them gallop by digging our spurs into them" much to the annoyance of the drivers), then tram.  Tea and a tree course meal "a good feed which we got allright" at the Union Jack Club, plus "the opportunity of enjoying several delicious ice creams served up in a very high class style" before returning to camp by 10pm.

 

Life in camp, in addition to the camouflaging, also involved daily bathing in the Mediterranean,  guard duty - "against natives on the pinch" and at the army canteen "many a plateful of fried eggs & onions followed by jolly fine pancakes straight off the fire".

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On Sunday 7th October 1917, 405 Bty struck camp at 6pm for an overnight journey to Kantara on the Suez Canal - "this being a night journey prevented us seeing anything of the country, which I rather regretted".  Stopped at Damanhour on the way to feed and water the horses and buy "one or two things from the native vendors who were on the station in force".  On reaching Kantara at 5am the following morning "we detrained & crossed to the eastern side by means of a Pontoon bridge, making for a rest camp nearby".  Then "at 3pm we started to get our guns and horses on the train . . . this job being finished by 5pm when our train journey (to Deir el Belah) commenced.  Just before leaving the station a long Red Cross train arrived, known to us more commonly as 'White Trains'".

 

Here's Grandad's description of the overnight journey up the line to Deir el Belah. "Our journey up the line was anything but comfortable, travelling as we did, in ordinary goods trucks, with a light wooden cover temporarily fixed on.  We travelled all night, & I leave you to imagine 40 of us sleeping, or perhaps more correctly trying to sleep, in one of these almost springless trucks on a military railway".  "Travelling during the night again deprived us of the opportunity of seeing the surrounding country, however, I do not think we missed much, for the railway, one of the marvels of the Palestine campaign, ran right across the Sinai desert".  There's a picture of these carriages, full of men, at Figure 8 of David Woodward's book "Hell in the Holy Land".

 

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At 10am on Tuesday 9 October 1917, 405 Bty reached Deir el Belah which was the "advanced base at the time" and the end of the railway, pitching camp about 2 miles away from the station.  A place which "frequently received the attention of Johnny's (the Turks) guns and aeroplanes.  This place is all sand & it was very difficult for the horses and guns to get along, & to make matters worse a sandstorm was blowing at the time . . . the very fine dust which accompanies those storms sticks to ones face most disconcertingly.  After the storm we all looked like dark yellow Chinamen, our eyes peeping out of cakes of this stuff, our ears and other cavities".

 

405 Battery at this point joined 37 Brigade RFA (389th, 390th and 405th Batteries), and the first mention in the 37 Brigade War Diaries of 405 Bty is on 9 October 1917.  "405 (How) Battery arrived at Belah and became C / 37 Bde".  The War Diaries are in The National Archives (WO 95/4684).

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On Thursday 11 October 1917 Grandad and the Battery left Belah 5pm for gun pits at Sheik Abbas / Abbas Ridge arriving at midnight "without any interference from Johnny". The 37 Brigade War Diary records 405 Battery moving into action at ref W.32.c.20.22 on the Gaza Atawineh 1:20000 map (link below). Relieved A/264th Brigade RFA (422 Battery) of the 52nd Division.

 

http://digitalarchive.mcmaster.ca/islandora/object/macrepo%3A4073

 

 "On reaching our position we were not long in getting our guns into the pits, making everything ready for action, and laying out guns on the "night line". Each battery has a certain section of the line to support and the "night line" is always laid on before retiring for the night,for the guns are thereby trained onto a position where our infantry may require assistance in case of an enemy attack, warning being given to us by a pre-arranged rocket signal."

 

Friday 12 October; "Excellent gun pits. Johnny very quiet." Time spent "screening" the guns. "We have brought that business up to a fine art, for it is practically impossible to find a gun position when it has been camouflaged".

 

"Just before dinner we were given a target . . . evidently a working party of Turks making a redoubt of some kind. Mine was the first gun to fire and being the layer, I had that duty to perform and needless to say I was very proud of firing the first shot for the battery." We fired 14 rounds only "when our observation officer …. at the observation station ("OP") gave the order to stop, having noticed there was no further movement on the part of the enemy".

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Sunday 14 October1917; "Down with diarrhoea. During the morning had to turn in and keep quiet due to an attack of dysentery which kept me off duty for 10 days." Ordered to move to a new position and at dusk a section of 2 guns were got out of the pits and left around 8pm, Grandad's section stayed behind to move the following night.

 

Monday 15 October;"Our remaining two guns including mine followed for new gun pits on left flank - arrived at midnight."  "I did not feel like travelling at all but the Doctor gave me some pills to buck me up and ordered me to ride on one of the wagons."

War diary describes exactly this section by section move for 405 Bty,  including the section moving the night before.  The new position was south of  Gaza at the rear of Queens Hill according to Grandad's diary. The War Diary also has the position there at ref R.22.a.82.98 on the above mentioned map. Relieved C/272 Brigade RFA (54th Division).

 

If Grandad had climbed to the top of Queens Hill presumably this is the view he would have seen.

 

http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-234266368/view

 

Tuesday 16 October; Grandad describes the gun pits behind Queens Hill as "very well made alongside a wadi". "The pit was about four feet deep and on the left hand side we had a dugout for storing ammunition and on the right we had a passage, a covered trench leading to our dugouts, which were cut out of the Earth on each side of the trench. There were three dugouts on each side, each containing a bed made of sandbags and various little comforts … There are pegs in the wall for our clothes and shelves for odds and ends, a stand for a candle and a looking glass, even books and newspapers which previous occupants had left. Needless to say our rifles were always neatly resting on a rack - a place for everything and everything in it's place. The only drawback was the presence of "creeping things" and to keep these pests down as much as possible we always induced lizards to stay with us, as they ate all these nuisances and soon became tame if we'll looked after".

 

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Wednesday  17 to Saturday 20 October 1917; No entries in Grandad's diary - laid up with dysentery in the dugout. Letters from home on 19th. According to the War Diary on 18th October 405 / C/37 Battery carried out aeroplane registration successfully on various points along the frontline from the coast to south of Gaza during this period.

 

Sunday 21st October; Much better- Light duty.

 

Monday 22nd October 1917; Johnny busy this morning. Saw air fight. "Today was the first time that I witnessed an air fight. It was a most exciting affair and although the two combatants were high up their machine guns could be heard quite distinctly Johnny tried his best to get back to his lines, but our chap was too smart for him and stopped him every time eventually bringing him down well behind us."

 

Tuesday 23 October; Quiet day, several new chaps joined battery. "Just an occasional bang at Johnny. Every night we used to disturb him at 11pm and 3am just to show there was no ill feeling."

Edited 4 November , 2017 by drfisk
Tidy up

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Friday 26th October 1917; "Called up at 4am to take our part in bombardment of Turks lasting half an hour".  The War Diary gives more details "A bombardment was carried out on enemy trenches at 0400 hours in cooperation with Heavy Artillery." C/37 405 Battery bombarded locations R.5.b.25.00 to d.05.70 (48 rounds HE) and trench junctions R.5.b.20.35. - 05.50 - a.80.40 - a.60.50 (8 rounds HE total). Referring to the map these locations were on Middlesex and Outpost Hills.

 

Saturday 27 October 1917; A fierce bombardment of positions around Gaza accompanied by a thunderstorm and heavy rain. The War Diary notes this as "Zero-B day for the operations against Gaza. Batteries registered various points" including Turkish positions and wire cutting at Outpost Hill and Middlesex Hill.

 

In Grandad's letter  "Saturday Oct 27 was a night of great excitement. Just after dusk about a dozen wagon loads of ammunition came up, for we were getting ready for a big bombardment prior to the "stunt" and we were busy unloading and stowing the shells away in dugouts until about 10.30pm . . . We had barely finished unloading the ammunition when we had to get into action. This was apparently the prelude to the big bombardment, for guns of all types started barking and the noise and flashes of guns and lightning made it most weird and the accompanying heavy rain did not make matters any better, for in a few minutes we found ourselves up to our knees in mud and water. We banged away for about an hour finishing our wokrk just as the rain stopped." 

 

"What a sight met our eyes when we got to our dugouts. The places were properly washed out and everything covered in mud, while our blankets were soaking. There was little sleep after that."

 

"The above bombardment was one of the fiercest known on this front and many chaps who were at Gallipoli admit that they had never heard anything like it before."

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Sunday 28th to Tuesday 30 October 1917; Although no details in Grandad's diary or letter the War Diary records bombardments of the front line south of Gaza from the coast (location P.34.d.16) to south of Gaza (R.4.a.07) which was "The Plantation" according to the map. Regular bombardment of Outpost Hill and wire cutting.

 

Wednesday 31st October; On 31st the War Diary notes "wire cutting continued and preparations made for a raid on Outpost Hill".  Grandad's letter records a fierce bombardment from 2 to 4am "each gun in our battery fired over 200 rounds apiece and every night after we repeated the same programme." 

 

"Our usual afternoon routine was a shoot at Johnny's wire defences for an hour or so prompt at 3pm - one of our "buses" (aeroplanes) would come along and direct our fire. Attached to our battery we had a portable wireless station, which was the means of communication between us and the plane, the observer signalling the direction of the target to us and giving us the necessary particulars. We would promptly lay the gun and fire while the observer in the plane would watch for the burst of our shell and signal any correction should our shot not be on the target.

 

This was the usual afternoon and night bombardment routine from 31 October until 6 November 1917.

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Other than the description of the daily bombardment routine above, Grandad's diary and letter is quiet about the period to 6 November.  But here is the War Diary extract which describes the objective of the bombardment in that period.

 

 

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6th November diary entry: "Big bombardment prior to infantry advance opened 11.30pm and lasting until 1.15am on the 7th."  The letter adds  "At this hour we got the order to cease fire and stand by, for the infantry were then just going over, having three important objectives to take [Outpost Hill, Middlesex Hill and probably The Plantation].  Needless to say this was a time of tense excitement for us, anxious to know how the infantry were getting along and if we had done our work clearing away all obstacles to make their task easier.  Everything went well and one by one the objectives were taken and we were not needed any more. Johnny offered little resistance and did not make any serious counterattacks. We eventually turned in very pleased with ourselves"

 

This was the culmination of 405 Bty's contribution to the Third Battle of Gaza, fairly comprehensively documented here.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Battle_of_Gaza

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7th November 1917 diary entry reads: "Infantry captured Outpost Hill and advanced several miles. Received orders to be ready to move forward".  The letter adds a few more details "This order arrived during the morning and shortly after tea we were on our way after Johnny again. We went forward 3 miles and took up position just outside Gaza amongst a large lemon grove. Johnny was sending shells over every now and then but they did not cause us any trouble.  In this new position we only fired a few rounds for Johnny was retiring so quickly that he was soon out of our range again".

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From this point onwards Grandad's diary and letter reflects a much greater impression of movement and pace - relative to the last few weeks bombarding Gaza from static gunpits - as the EEF chased the Turks out of Palestine. 

 

On Thursday 8th November the battery moved to a new position outside Gaza amongst cactus gardens according to Grandad's diary.  The 37 Bde War Diary adds that on that day "Batteries shelled Turks retreating N from region of Atawineh Redoubt, but most of the targets were out of range".

 

Grandad's diary records Friday 9th November as a day in the same position, with no mention in his letter, and the War Diary refers to it as "quiet day".

 

On the 10th November in his letter "We packed up again and trekked to a village (Beit Jerja from his diary entry and a corresponding entry in the War Diary) where we stayed for the night.  On our way we were surprised to see the amount of ammunition Johnny had left behind, which testified to his quick departure.  In fact in some places he cleared off so quickly that our infantry lost sight of him and only our cavalry was able to attend to him".

 

Sunday 11th November dairy "Grooming all day until we moved on 4 miles to another village (Mejdel) resting there for the night.  Thunder and rain at night."  The War diary adds "Brigade marched to Mejdel in order to obtain a better supply of water".  Grandad adds a little more colour about the changing terrain and water situation the very same day in his letter. "We were now off the desert and getting amongst very fertile ground and plenty of villages so we did see a bit of life, but the uncertainty was now the uncertainty of our meals & scarcity of water, for Johnny had destroyed most of the wells in his retreat, necessitating the presence of the Royal Engineers to set things right."

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At this point the 37 Bde War Diary helpfully cross references the map related to 405 Bty's /37 Bde's location on 11 November - Sheet 16 of the 1917 Palestine 1:63,360 series.  Image below with original available at The National Archives (WO 303/284).  El Mejdel is in the bottom left hand corner and 37 Bde's advance over the next few days is in a north easterly direction following the railway line. on the map.

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12 November 1917 was a busy day for 37 Bde and 405 Bty, taking three pages of Grandad's letter to cover it.

 

"Next day 12th Nov was a busy day for us, as the enemy had made one or two stands, & consequently our infantry required the help of our guns.  We were on the road about 3am and by 8am were close up by the infantry and got into action, plastering Johnny until he shifted.  He did not take long to do this, so we moved on after him till he stopped again.  This time he stayed in a village & with the aid of a larger number of machine guns he again held up our infantry, so we gave him another bashing.  He thought better of it again & cleared off & we were soon on his heels".

 

"Our next position was alongside a village amongst some cactus bushes  (the War Diary records this as a ridge SW of El Kustineh following the line of the railway on the map above) where we were busy sending "iron rations" over, for Johnny was now putting up a stiff fight.  One of his planes came over & spotted us in the village, the result being that shells came our way galore, but he did not do any damage to us".

 

"Shortly after the major sent down word by phone to advance & we accordingly packed up & started forward in order to get close to the enemy, who by this time was opposing us strongly.  We, acting on orders were soon out of the village, but had not gone far when we met an 18pdr battery retiring at the gallop under a hail of shrapnel.  We thought that queer so went on.  So Johnny promptly turned  his guns on to us & we got it hot.  Just at the moment the Major came running along having lost his horse, yelling "for ----- sake get back" which we did.  It appears he had cancelled his previous order to advance, but owing to shell fire, the [phone] wires had been cut, so we did not get his second order."

 

"We turned back towards the village when we got the order "Halt action near" & immediately we unhooked the horses and dropped into action.  Being in the open and on a long flat plain we could see the Turks easily & also our own infantry, so we at once banged away as fast as we could.  It was a treat to fire the gun & watch for the bursting of the shells scattering the Turks all over the shop!"

 

"During this action the cavalry (Australian) were held up on the right by a machine gun & we got orders to shift that obstacle, so two of our guns were turned on that target.  The third shot according to reports knocked the machine gun etc. clean up in the air, enabling the cavalry to go forward.  We therefore banged away at Johnny in front of us & before long had the pleasure of seeing our infantry advance and clear Johnny out of sight, which finished our work."

 

"While this action was on we were the target for bags of shells of all kinds which covered us in dirt, sand and all sorts of muck, but not one of us was touched, although many a time we could not see anything round us for the smoke from the bursting shells.  Strange to say there were several batteries behind us waiting to go forward, but not in action & they were hit several times, but no one hurt for the chaps had left the guns etc. & taken their horse out of the road."

 

"I will always remember the "do" which was the most exciting experience I have had.  By the way, the above day's work resulted in the Battery being mentioned in despatches."

[Stuart T]

Thanks for this, which I shall have to read in detail later on.  I like the view from Queen's Hill.  My grandad was with the 1st/4th Northants around here, eg at Kurd Hill on 27 Aug 1918.

[Stuart T]

Now read and fully digested thank you.  Enlightening to say the least.