The Bay of Bengal War Zone > 1914-15 Star

[Richard Stiles]

Yes, Maureen, thank you for that link to the Middlesex Magazines. They will no doubt prove very helpful in my research into other Middlesex Battalions. Richard 

[charlie962]

I'm trying to follow up a potential Naval involvement. That 14/15 Star qualification may have been added because the men were put on ships/boats where the Naval personnel had qualified?

For example I find this about HMAS Psyche, amongst other:

Before Psyche could be commissioned, however, the Admiralty enquired with the Naval Board as to whether the cruiser might take a more active role in the war in Asia. Although the Middle and Far East were remote from the European theatres of war, Germany had been actively fomenting sedition in India and Burma as early as 1911, controlled primarily through the German embassy in Washington, even planning to smuggle arms and propaganda in support of a general uprising.

While the Allies were aware that such activity was taking place, they remained unaware of its specifics. Psyche and HMAS Fantome (Lieutenant Commander Lewis Jones, RN), at that time an unarmed surveying ship, were hastily prepared to form part of a patrol in the Bay of Bengal. Both ships were necessarily manned by sailors still under training, augmented by experienced petty officers. Following a brief but intense work-up, Psyche departed Sydney on 16 August for Asian waters where she remained for the next two years.

War preparations were made en route and training for ratings under instruction continued throughout the voyage. The trainees and their instructors were only relieved from night War Stations once gunnery exercises had reached a degree of efficiency satisfactory to Commander Feakes.

Psyche arrived at Singapore on 4 September and departed two days later for Rangoon with orders to organise a patrol scheme for the Burmese coast. Upon his arrival at Rangoon on 10 September, Feakes found three vessels of the British India Steam Navigation Company's fleet had already been taken up and were fitting out for patrol duties, each commanded by an officer of the Royal Indian Marine. He established a coastal patrol the very next day with a military detachment aboard each vessel.

 

Perhaps Headlam's History of the Royal Indian Marine (1929) has something?

 

charlie

Edited 7 August , 2021 by charlie962

[Richard Stiles]

This is fantastic progress. Thank all for your support in this quest. I look forward to any further progress. I wonder if any other Indian deployed battalions qualified for the 1914-15 Star via service in the same with that annotion on the roll.... Richard 

[charlie962]

30 minutes ago, charlie962 said:

Perhaps Headlam's History of the Royal Indian Marine (1929) has something?

available online via jstor but I am not registered.  what about you @MaureenE ??

Edited 7 August , 2021 by charlie962

[MaureenE]

5 hours ago, charlie962 said:

available online via jstor but I am not registered.  what about you @MaureenE ??

Usually I do have access, and it was quite easy to register, and in the past I have had no problems. However I just tried to log in, and the system said I had used the wrong password, so I changed my password, and the system still said I had used the wrong password. So it seems there is problem at the time of writing. I will try again after the weekend (if I remember!)

The article link is https://www.jstor.org/stable/41358199 (22 Pages)

Maureen

Edited 7 August , 2021 by MaureenE

[charlie962]

Thanks, Maureene. To register one needs to be part of an educational establishment?

 

The AWM site has this little snippet re Bay of Bengal patrols:

An additional threat materialised during 1915 when intelligence was received indicating German plans to smuggle arms into India and Burma and thereby foment revolt. Shipping in the bay was heavily controlled during the latter half of 1915, and vessels of all sizes were stopped and searched on a wide scale. No arms or German raiding parties were ever intercepted and the Australian official historian described the "whole proceeding" as being "petty" and that there was "more excitement about arresting a pickpocket". The threat had passed by the beginning of 1916 and most ships involved in the patrols operations were relocated.

[charlie962]

..which leads me to the Australian Official History referred to above, available to download on the AWM site here

 

The pages 215- 20 of Vol IX cover Fantome and Psyche and the Bay of Bengal patrols.

Here is an extract:

All those launches and armed steamers sourced from Calcutta look good candidates for hosting some military personnel. Those ships based at Rangoon might have used local troops?

Edited 8 August , 2021 by charlie962

[charlie962]

navalhistory.net has the AMC HMS Laurentic's log. Here is an extract of November:

 

Col Waterlow is probably James Francis Waterlow of the 1/4th Border Regiment who was in Burma at that date.

Of course that trip might have been 'informal' ? I also suspect these Border men had an entry date Dec 1914 to 5L

Edited 8 August , 2021 by charlie962

[MaureenE]

2 hours ago, charlie962 said:

Thanks, Maureene. To register one needs to be part of an educational establishment?

No, any one can register, although possibly those who register through an institution may have access to more content.

If you do register, I'd delay it to after the weekend, in case the problems I had logging in earlier today were connected to computer systems maintenance. The administration seems to be in New York, so perhaps that is the relevant time zone.

Maureen

[KizmeRD]

4 hours ago, charlie962 said:

No arms or German raiding parties were ever intercepted and the Australian official historian described the "whole proceeding" as being "petty" and that there was "more excitement about arresting a pickpocket". 

Although there was the small matter of some 8,000 Springfield rifles, 2,400 carbines and 400 odd Hotchkiss repeating rifles purchased by German officials in the USA together with 500 Colt revolvers and 250 Mauser pistols plus a whole heap load of ammo loaded aboard the sailing ships ‘Annie Larsen’ and ‘Henry S.’ Only poor planning and execution prevented them meeting up (as intended) with the SS Marverick in order to tranship the cargo and smuggle them into India to arm the Ghadarites.

There was also a second shipment of over 7,000 Springfield rifles, nearly 2,000 pistols, 10 Gatling guns and a large amount of ammo shipped out on the SS Djember in order to equip a planned raid on the Andaman Islands (to release insurrectionist prisoners held there) and also to launch a take-over of Calcutta. The plan was uncovered after it was exposed by the double agent Vincent Kraft.

MB

 

Edited 8 August , 2021 by KizmeRD

[charlie962]

1 hour ago, KizmeRD said:

Although there was the small matter of some 8,000 Springfield rifles, 2,400 carbines and 400 odd Hotchkiss repeating rifles purchased by German officials in the USA together with 500 Colt revolvers and 250 Mauser pistols plus a whole heap load of ammo loaded aboard the sailing ships ‘Annie Larsen’ and ‘Henry S.’ Only poor planning and execution prevented them meeting up (as intended) with the SS Marverick in order to tranship the cargo and smuggle them into India to arm the Ghadarites.

There was also a second shipment of over 7,000 Springfield rifles, nearly 2,000 pistols, 10 Gatling guns and a large amount of ammo shipped out on the SS Djember in order to equip a planned raid on the Andaman Islands (to release insurrectionist prisoners held there) and also to launch a take-over of Calcutta. The plan was uncovered after it was exposed by the double agent Vincent Kraft.

What might have been.!

That rather poor extract I posted comparing to the excitement of arresting a pickpocket is put in better perspective in the whole of Chapter 8 of Vol IX of the Australian Official History that I linked above and covers the Annie Larsen/Henry S etc in some detail. A useful perspective.

I would still like to see the RIM version.

Charlie

[charlie962]

Here's another potential line of research:

From University of London OTC Roll:

BROMAGE, Captain John Aldhelm Raikes, Middlesex Regiment City & Guilds College. India December 14 to April 19; secret service Bay of Bengal October to December 1915.

His obituary in the ICE journal says he was Middlesex but doesn't mention secret service. Elswhere, incl MIC, he is noted as serving 1/10th for the whole of the war. Charlie   Edit- there's a tree on ancestry and I've sent message to tree owner, just in case.

Edited 8 August , 2021 by charlie962

[KizmeRD]

2 hours ago, charlie962 said:

That rather poor extract I posted comparing to the excitement of arresting a pickpocket is put in better perspective in the whole of Chapter 8 of Vol IX of the Australian Official History that I linked above and covers the Annie Larsen/Henry S etc in some detail. A useful perspective.

Sorry Charlie, Thanks for posting the link, and I have now read the entirety of Ch.8 which although it suggests that work of boarding suspect vessels was somewhat unexciting, it does indeed go on to state  ‘On the other hand’….

Realistically, I don’t really think that the credible intelligence (coming from so many sources) could sensibly be ignored. There was a real threat of a Ghad inspired armed insurrection, and therefore these anti gun running measures were entirely appropriate in the circumstances.

MB

 

[charlie962]

2 minutes ago, KizmeRD said:

There was a real threat of a Ghad inspired armed insurrection, and therefore these anti gun running measures were entirely appropriate in the circumstances.

It is only from getting sidetracked onto this thread that I've become informed of this whole episode. Good job I only have to work when I want to !

Charlie

[charlie962]

On 08/08/2021 at 16:56, charlie962 said:

BROMAGE, Captain John Aldhelm Raikes, Middlesex Regiment City & Guilds College. India December 14 to April 19; secret service Bay of Bengal October to December 1915.

Further 1/10th officers with interesting notes on 14/15 Roll are:

Lt Philip Claud LISLE, shown under disembarkation as "RIMS Mayo 1915" (ie he went onto a Royal Indian Marine Ship) navalhistorynet has this as an RIM patrol boat Indian Ocean 1917-19

Capt Cyril James Hardinge MUNFORD, shown under disembarkation as  "S.P.V.Fraser 8/15" -  could SPV be Special Patrol Vessel or Steam pilot Vessel- there was a Lady Fraser steam pilot vessel based in Calcutta 1914 and that navalhistory.net shows as a RIM patrol vessel Indian Ocean 1917-19.

 

So at least three 1/10th Middlesex officers have someting unusual going on in 1915, all looking connected with off-shore patrols in the Bay of Bengal and conforming to what the AWM history indicated. There may be others. Someone must have a simple story to tell ?

 

Charlie

 

PS Indian National Archives have some files worth viewing but I cannot get my password to work for those that have been digitised!

eg

 

Edited 9 August , 2021 by charlie962

[charlie962]

Following on from my comment on Indian Archives, this is an extract from one file on Re-instituting patrols. If you can read it it is of interest.

courtesy Indian National Archives:

[Keith_history_buff]

Granted, it is a different time period, but in a few instances when looking at surviving ship musters, which record the passage of supernumeraries, the term "for secret service" has been recorded by the ship's purser. Where the passage of the supernumeraries has been deemed to be unclassified, a brief statement has been recorded i.e. "Passage to Bermuda". The same vernacular was clearly in use a century later.

The ship musters have been for the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812 time period, and have been transferred from the Admiralty to what was the Public Record Office. 

[KizmeRD]

The initial panic (arising from a German inspired plot to land large quantities of US purchased arms into India) had largely dissipated by the end of August 1915 - as it became clear that the ‘Annie Larssen’ had turned up off the Oregon Coast still with her cargo onboard, and the discovery that the S.S. Maverick had gotten herself interned by the Dutch in Java (Batavia).

However fresh intelligence now emerged involving a new German plot - this time originating in Shanghai. The plan was to dispatch a sizeable shipment of rifles to Burma (in order to support a nationalist anti-British uprising there). The arms were to be shipped on a neutral merchant steamer down to South-East Asia, and once there the cargo was to be broken down into smaller loads to be carried onboard a number of native coasters, for completion of the final-leg of the journey into Burma.

During the remainder of 1915 the Bay of Bengal thus became the main focus of anti-gun running activity, with a layered system of patrols getting established. Offshore there was the light cruiser HMS Diana, the armed merchant cruiser HMS Laurentic, the sloop HMS Cadmus and two Australian naval vessels, ‘Psyche’ and ‘Fantome’ - and inshore, the Government of India provided a number of small steamers and armed launches (supplied by the Royal Indian Marine). These smaller craft (with some local police and/or British soldiers onboard) scouted the coastline, boarding and inspecting all suspect vessels.

It would appear that the Shanghai plot faded away by year’s end, but evidently the fear of renewed attempts (real or imaginary) lead to calls for the anti gun-running patrols to be re-introduced in March 1916 (as per Charlie’s clipping).

MB

 

Edited 9 August , 2021 by KizmeRD

[charlie962]

I note Capt Bromage 's brother was in the Indian Police** at the time and was involved in the arrest of certain dissidents (see Indian National Archive 1915 Trial report). I wonder whether this connection between brothers has any relevance to the involvement of the Middlesex ?

As I have already noted above there may have been other units involved where the soldiers had an earlier entry date to a War Theatre thus no mention of Bay of Bengal.

The Sunderban Estuaries referred to in the extract a couple of posts back are part of the Ganges Delta.

 

** Edit- JVBR Bromage, Deputy Commissioner of Police Calcutta from 1913-1915. He resigned his appointment to join the Army in 1916 (Rifle Brigade).

Edited 10 August , 2021 by charlie962

[charlie962]

Five more Middlesex officers (1/10th) with revealing 14/15 Star Roll annotations:

2Lt Loveday, SG    9/15 Patrol Ship, Bay of Bengal

2Lt Watson AG     1/12/15 HMS Jalton (haven't identified this ship yet)

2Lt Dardier CE   20/10/15 Bay of Bengal

2Lt Mitchell AP  1915  Provincial Gun-Running expedition, Bay of Bengal

2Lt Bramall B     6/15  Patrol Boat, Bay of Bengal

[charlie962]

I think we are now generally clear about what was going on in the Bay of Bengal as far as these Middlesex men are concerned.  It is all linked with service on gun-running patrol ships based near Calcutta at the time of the Hindu/German Plot between July and December 1915. But it is frustrating not to have found any of the following:

1.  An Admiralty/Army Order confirming service in theatre 'Bay of Bengal' qualifies for 14/15 Star.

2.  An account or letter from one of the 1/10th Middlesex men that describes in a little more detail what they had to do.

3.  An official 1/10th Middlesex account/diary describing this period.

4.  A list of other units that participated.

 

Charlie

Edited 12 August , 2021 by charlie962

[Richard Stiles]

Dear all,

Especially Charlie and Maureen, thank you for your responses to my query regarding the Bay of Bengal War Zone. I agree with Charlie, I think we do have a clearer understanding of this little known episode. If, at anytime, someone comes up with the official Admiralty / Army Order confirming the award, it would be great to know.  

Richard

[charlie962]

This Officer seems to have been doing the same as the others but his MIC makes no mention of 14/15 Star entitlement and I don't get a hit on Ancestry Roll for 14/15 Star.

Ernest  Geoffrey BACON Master Pilot, Bengal Pilot Service ; till Dec. '15, on patrol in Bay of Bengal, on Steam Pilot Vessels Fraser & Lady Fraser (armed), in search of German raider Emden ; on furlough, '16 : T/2nd Lt. R.E. attd. I.W.T. 22/5/16 ; T/Lt. 22/6/16 ; T/Capt. 1/11/16 ; T/Maj. 5/10/18 ; Mesopotamia, 29/7/16-Jan. '18, attd. I.W.T. [Sanna-i-Yat to Kut & Baghdad, Eeb.-Mch. '17] : India, attd. Ind. Munitions Bd. Bombay, Jan.-June, '18 : Mesopotamia, June, '18-12/12/19 ; Dep. Asst. Dir. of I.W.T. (Cl. BB), 2/4/19-23/1/20 : relinqd. commn. 25/1/20 w. rk. of Maj. Mesopotamia (1) Apr. 10, '17 ; (2) Apr. 15, '18 ; (3) Feb. 7, '19.
Source: Tonbridge School and the Great War of 1914-1919

 

Edit

With officers having to claim their medals, it might explain why there was such a variety of wording on the 14/15 Roll for those Middlesex officers and perhaps Bacon omitted to claim ?

 

Charlie

 

 

Edited 13 August , 2021 by charlie962

[charlie962]

Another Middlesex man with an odd entry date 1914 but a notation Attached Indian Signal Service Bay of Bengal Patrol.

I suppose the WO memo might be copied in his Officer's service file?

Courtesy Ancestry

[charlie962]

A little bit more I came across whilst searching for something completely unrelated.

Also stationed at Fort William, Calcutta in 1915 was " 62 Company RGA". Their battery digest reports this:

 

"At the beginning of August 1915 parties were sent on various small ships and launches for patrol work in the Bay of Bengal in connection with the German  gun running plot. In all 9 different detachments were sent, varying from a Sergeant and 9 men to an NCO and 4 other ranks between the beginning of August 1915 and the end of January 1916. These boats were armed with 12pdrQF or 6pdrQF guns." 

I have not yet checked out whether any of them earned a 14/15 Star. Based on this report one would expect about 50 men who could have qualified?

Charlie