7th Royal Irish Rifles versus Saxon IR 133 - 8th March 1917

[bierast]

I'm currently looking into a trench raid by a Stosstrupp of IR 133 on the night of 8th-9th March 1917 in the Petit Bois (Wytschaete) sector. According to Sachsen in Grosser Zeit this operation netted the Saxons thirty prisoners, and allowed them to identify 16th (Irish) Division (which they believed to have recently relieved 41st Division). Here are the German sector boundaries; the British ones are unclear to me.

 

 

After some review of the war diaries I am convinced that the Saxons attacked the front of 48th Infantry Brigade, then held by two battalions abreast. These were 8th Royal Dublin Fusiliers (left) and 7th Royal Irish Rifles (right). According to the battalion and brigade war diaries, the preliminary barrage began about 3:30pm British time. About 4:40pm three raiding parties of about fifty men each attacked; the right party was beaten off by Lewis Gun fire, but the left and centre parties broke in at N24.7 (ASH LANE) and N24.9 (LARK LANE) and penetrated as far as PARK AVENUE. I've not been able to pin down any of these references on a map thus far.

The Saxons left after about fifteen minutes (almost certainly according to plan, though the British war diaries credit this to a counter-attack). They left three dead and four wounded, resulting in 'normal' identifications according to the brigade report. Now, the intriguing part - 7th Royal Irish Rifles lost twenty-five missing and 8th Royal Dublin Fusiliers a single man who was then seconded to the brigade trench mortar battery. This obviously does not account for all of the thirty prisoners claimed by IR 133, let alone the approximately forty shown in a photo my co-author has recently acquired (and which we intend to use in our next book).

 

Can anyone familiar with the 16th (Irish) Division elaborate on any other units in the sector which may have been hit, such as tunnellers (250th TC I think)? I could also do with some help ID'ing the officers named in the war diary of 7th Royal Irish Rifles. Relevant war diary pages follow below.

 

[Colin W Taylor]

Bierast,

 

Have you examined the Divisional General Staff diaries which include a number of reports and a copy of a map taken off a German prisoner.?  These reports state a more stealthy raid at 4am on 9 March captured ten men of the 6th Connaughts.  The Germans might have combined the haul from the two raids.   A bombing party from the Connaughts was also involved on the flanks of the main raid.  Two men of Y/16th Trench Mortar Bty were also captured.  The 250th Tunnelling Company diary is not a complete narrative but I couldn't see reference to the raid in the copy I have.

 

Regards

 

Colin

[bierast]

1 hour ago, Colin W Taylor said:

Have you examined the Divisional General Staff diaries which include a number of reports and a copy of a map taken off a German prisoner.?  These reports state a more stealthy raid at 4am on 9 March captured ten men of the 6th Connaughts.  The Germans might have combined the haul from the two raids.   A bombing party from the Connaughts was also involved on the flanks of the main raid.  Two men of Y/16th Trench Mortar Bty were also captured.  The 250th Tunnelling Company diary is not a complete narrative but I couldn't see reference to the raid in the copy I have.

 

Hi Colin - I've not tried the divisional war diary yet. However note that in addition to the operation by IR 133 (24. Inf. Div.) there was a much better documented operation on the same night by IR 104 and IR 181 of neighbouring 40. Inf. Div. (see sector map above; IR 181 was adjacent to IR 104). Patrol Wehmeyer of IR 104 (1 officer, 1 Vizefeldwebel, 4 Unteroffiziere, 4 attached Pioniere and 30 infantrymen) broke in near Gerardyn-Ferme, a few hundred metres north of Spanbroekmolen and near the boundary with IR 133. It was Wehmeyer's party which took the ten prisoners from 6th Connaught Rangers (plus a Lewis Gun and thirteen rifles). Patrol Fiedler of IR 181 (1 officer, 1 sergeant, 4 Unteroffiziere, 4 attached Pioniere and 30 infantrymen) tried to break in west of Fransecky-Ferme / Franseckyhof (north of the Wytschaete-Wulverghem road) but was beaten off by intensive defensive fire.

 

It had not occurred to me that the prisoners taken by both divisions might have been combined for the photo, but they did of course report to the same corps HQ. The detailed orders which have survived for the 40. Inf. Div. operation (and which we translated and published in our first book) make no mention whatsoever of an operation by its sister division on the same night, so I had mentally filed the two events as separate and unrelated. Logically though there must have been coordination and very probably a common source to both operations in orders handed down from corps level.

[Steve1871]

Hey Bierast

You mention "Our next book". 

What books have you published, titles, author to search, what exactly are they about? Thanks

[bierast]

15 hours ago, Steve1871 said:

Hey Bierast

You mention "Our next book". 

What books have you published, titles, author to search, what exactly are they about? Thanks

 

Hi Steve -

 

My name is Andrew Lucas (Bierast was my German WW1 veteran great-grandfather's surname). You can see a detailed list of publications by myself, my German co-author and my father here:

 

http://www.royalsaxonarmy.co.uk/royalsaxonarmy/index.php/our-publications

 

The book I'm currently working on will be an English translation / revision of this one:

 

http://www.royalsaxonarmy.co.uk/royalsaxonarmy/index.php/our-publications/17-von-armentieres-nach-langemarck

 

 

[Steve1871]

Thank you

[bierast]

On 07/01/2019 at 20:24, Colin W Taylor said:

Bierast,

 

Have you examined the Divisional General Staff diaries which include a number of reports and a copy of a map taken off a German prisoner.?  These reports state a more stealthy raid at 4am on 9 March captured ten men of the 6th Connaughts.  The Germans might have combined the haul from the two raids.   A bombing party from the Connaughts was also involved on the flanks of the main raid.  Two men of Y/16th Trench Mortar Bty were also captured.  The 250th Tunnelling Company diary is not a complete narrative but I couldn't see reference to the raid in the copy I have.

 

Regards

 

Colin

 

Thanks Colin, that was an excellent tip! It looks like the Saxon 'bag' amounted to (at least) 25 from 7th RIR (taken by IR 133), 10 from 6th Connaughts (taken by IR 104) and 2 from Y/16 TM Battery (taken by IR 133). This seems to correspond to the 37 prisoners mentioned in the exchange of message forms between 16th Division and IX Corps which is preserved in the 16th Division staff war diary.

 

It looks like this is what happened - groups 'B' and 'C' from IR 133 broke into the middle of the 7th RIR sector during the afternoon of 8th March, after an extremely effective Minenwerfer and artillery bombardment of the target area which eliminated most of its six Lewis Guns and did considerable damage to the trench system. Group 'A' however was stopped by flanking machine-gun fire. Interestingly 'D' Company (the Jersey Company) of 7th RIR was in the left sub-section at the time, and the Saxons bombed their company HQ dugout! Despite the 16th Division's horrific losses on the Somme and the company's subsequent inevitable influx of non-Jerseymen, it seems highly likely that some members of the island's volunteer contingent fell into Saxon hands as a result of this operation.

 

2nd Lieutenant Kenneth Kemble Pelton MC (later killed in August 1917 and commemorated on the Menin Gate) is credited with rallying the defenders to resist the break-in:

http://www.hambo.org/hazelwood/view_man.php?id=76

 

In the small hours of 8th-9th March Patrol Wehmeyer of IR 104 (1 officer, 1 Vizefeldwebel, 5 Unteroffiziere, 4 Pioniere and 34 men) and Patrol Fiedler of IR 181 (1 officer, 1 Sergeant, 4 Unteroffiziere, 4 Pioniere and 30 men) launched raids respectively at 'Peckham' and just north of the Wulverghem-Wytschaete road. While Fiedler was unsuccessful, Wehmeyer captured the party from 6th Connaughts. Recriminations in the British war diaries aside, the regimental history of IR 104 states that the defenders got their Lewis Gun onto the parapet as the raiders were approaching but that the quick-thinking Soldat Taube picked off the gunner in time with a well-aimed pistol shot.

 

I think the map below is pretty accurate - the inter-battalion boundary between 8th RDF and 7th RIR is not absolutely clear to me from the sources, and I couldn't find any clues to the location of the one between 6th Connaughts and 7th Leinsters. The southern boundary of 47th Brigade (and of the division) was just below the bottom of my map.

 

 

 

Edited 22 January , 2019 by bierast