1st Highland Light Infantry

[Perth Digger]

I have the War Diary of the 1st HLI for December 1914 but have been looking for a good account of what happened to the battalion between 20 and 22 December 1914. The Official History is silent, except in general terms about the collapse of the Lahore Division. The only book I have on the Indian Army does not mention them either. Can anyone suggest a good secondary source please?

 

My interest is in the large number of officers who disappeared.

 

Thanks

 

Mike

[michaelpi]

Does this link from Google books/ Highland Light Infantry Chronicle Pages 11 and 12 add anything?

https://books.google.fr/books?id=pCxtyaZr8ZQC&pg=RA1-PA130&lpg=RA1-PA130&dq=1st+battalion+highland+light+infantry+1914&source=bl&ots=f2nYgDhEWs&sig=ACfU3U11HiCEh9QEmRX8N9puZX-Vt9FQzw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwif4ZjL5eLmAhXwyIUKHeG4A0Y4HhDoATAGegQIChAB#v=onepage&q=1st battalion highland light infantry 1914&f=false

[Coldstreamer]

it is possible that nothing got recorded due to the events going on around them / or the diary got lost - I know this happened to a Coldstream battalion in 1914

is the number of officers disproportionate to the other ranks ?

[FROGSMILE]

From the Long Long Trail it suggests that 50% of 1st HLI were wiped out in the German Defence of Givenchy, 20-21 Dec 1914.  In particular via several mines exploded beneath the trenches, but also simply from the high attrition rates:

 

“The defence of Givenchy 20-21 December 1914.”

 

“German retaliation to The Indian Corps’ attacks was swift and heavy. From dawn on 20 December, in torrential rain and cold, the German artillery subjected the whole corps front line trenches to a deluge of high explosive shells, which was also supplemented by the fearsome trench mortars. Behind the German front, men of the 57th Infantry Regiment (of 79thBrigade, 14th Division) took up an assault position, facing the front between La Quinque Rue and Givenchy. The epicentre of the bombardment was the front held by the Sirhind Brigade, on which on this occasion the German had an extra ace to play. The brigade was of course still in the process of recovering and reorganising after the fighting of the previous day, and as such its front line was being held by a very mixed set of units. On the brigade’s right, a company of the 1st Highland Light Infantry, two double companies of the 1/4th Ghurkas and two machine gun teams from the 125th Rifles held the line. On their left came another company of the 1stHighland Light Infantry and two double companies of the 1/1st Ghurkas. Parts of the 1st Highland Light Infantry, 1/1stGhurkas and 125th Rifles were not far behind, in local reserve on the Festubert road.”

 

“While shells were still raining down and the men of the brigade were doing as best they could to take shelter in the flooded trenches, the area north of Givenchy (east of Le Plantin) was shaken at 9am by the sudden, deep and violent explosion of underground mines. Givenchy would acquire a terrible reputation as being a place for that most feared of trench fighting technique, and the explosion under the brigade’s trenches was the harbinger of many horrors yet to come. In comparison with later mine warfare this was small beer – a captured report suggested that ten mines each of 50kg of explosive were used, with a 300kg charge under Picquet House failing to explode – but it caused carnage and confusion. The timing of the explosions had been set in order to give the German engineers daylight in which to test the electrical circuits and to make any improvements needed before the switches were thrown.”

“The Sirhind Brigade had been caught out by the very thing that all British units had been warned to look out for: the Germans digging saps out from their front line towards the British. From the sapheads closest to the brigade’s parapets, just three metres away, German engineers had tunnelled below and quietly laid the charges. To some extent this explains the strong resistance that had shown during the previous days fighting when men of the Indian Corps had stormed into some of the saps. For the infantry, the underground explosions were a terrible and new development. The technique was one of classical siege warfare from previous centuries and could not have been entirely unexpected, although it is apparent that there was no intelligence that the Germans had yet commenced any operations to actually undermine the British trenches. It was not unexpected because the British Royal Engineers had been having similar thoughts.  Some days previously, a tunnel seventy feet deep had been dug to within thirteen feet of the German lines on the front held by the Dehra Dun Brigade, but activity was detected and the mine shaft near the orchard and nearby trenches destroyed by mortars.“

 

“It was not until later than an assessment could be made of the exact effect of the German mines, but it was immediately evident that it had been very grave. On the brigade’s right front, one of the of the double companies of the 1/4th Ghurkas were simply erased, apparently without survivors. The greater part of half a company of the 1st Highland Light Infantry suffered the same fate. A report from German VII Corps captured later stated that ‘In dugouts of the trenches which were destroyed by the mines, a large number of Indian corpses were found still sitting; they had apparently been suffocated’.”

NB.  A significant number, albeit not all of the HLI officers who “disappeared” must surely have been vaporised by the sheer force of the explosions.

Edited 2 January , 2020 by FROGSMILE

[lostinspace]

Hi Mike,

Happy New Year. Here are a couple of pages from the HLI Chronicle (1915) describing the 1st Bn. action at Givenchy.

Dave

Highland Light Infantry Chronicle 1.pdf Highland Light Infantry Chronicle 2.pdf

Edited 4 January , 2020 by lostinspace
spelling

[lostinspace]

Here is a paragraph from "Proud Heritage (HLI 1882-1918)" vol. III,L.B. Oatts, 1961, though it's probably just info from the war diary.

On more than one occasion companies were isolated and cut-off, but continued to hold out while surrounded. After an attack on Le Bassée, for example, ‘B’ Company was thus isolated during the counter-attack but held out for four days; the last two being spent without food, water or sleep. Its forward trench (taken from the enemy) was mined and blown up, a disaster immediately followed by a German assault with the bayonet, while its other trenches were under constant bombardment. Lieutenant Pitts-Tucker was killed while attempting to take support to the survivors in the mined trench. The position was finally secured by a Brigade attack and ‘B’ Company was rescued after a defence which had saved the whole line. The 71st were relieved on 23 December and on their way back to billets in Verdun met the 74th at Givenchy as de­scribed. Its casualties during its last four days in the trenches amounted to 2 officers and 54 rank and file killed; 63 rank and file wounded, and 8 officers and 226 rank and file missing. It had captured a considerable number of Germans —the total is not recorded, but 8o were taken in one day and others daily—and as it had brought all counter-attacks against it to a standstill it is safe to say that the other casualties in­flicted on the enemy must have far exceeded its own.

[Perth Digger]

Thank you all for this information, which is very helpful. The War Diary has ten officers as fatal casualties, including Edward Gearey attached from the Cameron Highlanders. Two were reported killed, 8 as missing. All bar two are commemorated on the Le Touret Memorial. One DOW as a POW and is buried in Lille Southern Cemetery, another was found in 1927.

 

Mines were certainly a major cause of missing men. A similar thing happened in January 1915 with the Guards.

 

Mike