I HAD to go.
I had joined the Army in 1944 during the Second World War and I served most of my time in the Devonshire Regiment. So I had to go.
I read about the trench that was once held by the Devons near Mametz in 1916 when I was looking at a moving story by Capt J M Archer in the Regimental Journal. That trench is still there. It is now called the Devonshire Cemetery.
The old wooden notice has, as Capt Archer says, been replaced by a stone one bearing the same words as on the original:
'The Devonshires held this trench
The Devonshires hold it still'
A soldier's tribute to some very brave men from Devon who stood firm in the face of withering machine-gun fire until 671 of the Devonshire Regiment had been killed or wounded in one day. They never retreated. They never surrendered.
It happened on July 1, 1916. All the many gravestones bear that date. The padre, Reverend Crosse, tended the dying and the wounded. The trench was filled in, thus 'the Devons hold it still'.
There and back in a day
I had to go and see it. A man called James Power (01202 840520) — a retired policeman — had said that he would take individuals or parties to the old battlefields of the First World War. The Somme was of particular interest to me but he also covered Ypres and other places where British soldiers held the line for four gruelling years or more.
He picked me up in his car at 0700 on June 14 from my home in Farnham. We were at the Channel Tunnel at 0900 and in Calais at 0950 (or 1050 local time of course).
Our route took us through St Omer, Bethune and the battlefields of Vimy Ridge, Arras, Pozieres and Fricourt, and at 1130 (1230 local) hours we were at Mametz Wood and the Devonshire Cemetery. This was the scene of so much bitter fighting on that July 1 of 1916 involving the 8th and 9th Battalions of the Devons. They were part of the Seventh Division attacking Mametz.
It was the first day of the Battle of the Somme.
I am indebted to S J P Aggett's 'The Bloody Eleventh' — the History of the Devonshire Regiment — for the following description of the battle on that day. My own service was in a different war, in a different battalion — the First — and in the Far East.
But I had to know what happened to those men of the 8th and 9th Battalions and to pay a personal tribute to them. Our history book says on that day 208 men of the 8th were killed or wounded and 463 of the 9th (who numbered 775 eleven hours before that battle began).
Bill Aggett says: 'Although observers could see that some wire had been cut by the bombardment and patrols had been out on the night of the 30th to make holes in the uncut sections, the state of the enemy's front line trenches ('shattered' was one description) gave encouragement to the belief that little opposition would be encountered.
However, just as in the other parts of the front, the deep dugouts had not been touched. Further, there was a gap between the 9th Devons and the Gordons, a steep-sided valley in which the road and railway ran and covered by heavy machine gun fire. The steep bank on the west of the railway was masked by undergrowth and full of dugouts. It was known that this would be a danger spot: its potential had been pointed out by Captain Martin.
The German retaliation to the British bombardment concentrated on the front and support trenches which meant that they had become useless as a starting place, so fresh assembly trenches were dug 250 yards from the front line; it was in these that the 9th Devons, with 1 and 2 Companies in the first and second lines, 3 in support and 4 as the Battalion Reserve, took part. Bombers took up position on each flank.
The 8th Battalion formed up further back.
Zero hour for the 9th was 7.27am and the 250-yard advance to the shattered front line was completed without casualties.
Captain Martin falls
No 1 Company, leading, was caught by the machine gun in Shrine Alley as it bunched to get round Mansell Copse and Captain Martin was one of the first of many to fall.
Within half an hour the first PW were being brought back to Battalion HQ but at 9.30am a runner came with the message that 'the right (east of Hidden Wood) is being held up and banked back by parties of enemy from Mametz' which prompted the CO to order 'No 3 Company will fill the gap and consolidate it'. No 3 followed by No 4 moved forward but almost immediately all the officers became casualties and the remnants of the companies lost direction in the maze of destroyed trenches. Not enough arrived at the front line to have any effect on the development of the battle and between 9am and 10am it seemed obvious that, apart from holding on to what had already been gained, the 9th Devons was effectively disabled from further movement. However, it was established on its objective in Shrine Alley and Tirpitz trench but, owing to the damage done to the companies on the right, the West Bank dugouts remained uncleared.
All but one
Colonel Storey, finding that all his officers 'except Second-Lieutenant Porter', were casualties, brought up a further nine, together with 72 NCO and men from 'B' Echelon and led them with a few men from 'C' Company 8th Devons on to the final objective 'to consolidate the position'.
At 10.30am 'B' and 'D' companies of 8th Devons advanced; 'B' to reinforce the right of the 9th, and 'D' 'lent' to the CO 2nd Gordons, as additional support. 'B', using the Mansell Copse route into a hollow on the Bray-Fricourt road, lost contact with Battalion HQ until 4pm — by which time all its officers were either dead or wounded and command had been assumed by CSM Holwill. 'D' also 'got caught' at Mansell Copse where, almost immediately, Captain Mahaffy was seriously wounded and shortly afterwards the remaining officers became casualties. Sergeant Tucker then took over to dispose of several groups of Germans before bringing his Company up into line.
There are different versions of what happened to 'A' Company 8th Devons. The 9th's war diary states that a verbal message was sent to Brigade HQ by the CO asking for a company of the 8th to reinforce his right and that permission was given. The 8th's Diary states that 'Colonel Storey ordered the advance of A . . . No information of this move was given to Battalion HQ.
All were killed or wounded
We can never know who actually gave Geoffrey Tregelles his order to advance but we do know that he used the dreadful Mansell Copse route. He and all his company officers were either killed or wounded.
At about noon Storey went forward to Mansell Copse to find that all the officers and NCO of his No 4 Company save one, were casualties, whereupon he instructed the survivor to collect what was left of the company, take them forward and join up with 'A' Company 8th Devons. Lance Corporal Beale did so.
At 3.30pm Colonel James threw his, and the Brigade's last reserve into the battle, when 'C' Company commanded by Lieutenant Savill was ordered forward to Hidden Wood — via Mansell Copse. Now Savill had spent since 10am that morning in the reserve trench with a clear view of the carnage around this feature so that, as soon as his advance began and his leading platoons started to lose men, he switched direction to the left and gained cover from a slight rise in the ground. 'C' company reached Hidden Wood without further loss.
A little before 4pm James sent Second-Lieutenant Duff to go forward, find 'A' and 'B' Companies and order 'them to push on in support of 'C' Company . . . Duff discovered the remnants of 'B' in Mametz trench, Second-Lieutenant Joseph of 'C', some 'A' Company men led by SCM Melhuish and a few 9th Devons. 'C' had got forward to an orchard SW of Mametz and, with the Borders, taken about a hundred PW.
Calling the roll
At last light the remnants of the two Battalions were separated, reorganised, the rolls called, and the cost of the day evaluated. Among the dead was William Hodgson, poet. ' . . . the bombing officer . . . a most inspiring personality . . . as much liked and respected by all ranks (in the 8th) as in his own Battalion . . . ', his two friends, the artist Duncan Martin, whose reading of the battle before it took place was so precise, and the ebullient young Harold Rayner.
Disaster without parallel
So ended 1st July 1916, the middle day of the middle year of the war and the first day only of what became known as 'The Somme'. In terms of human loss it was a disaster without parallel in British military history. The 4th Army lost over 57,000, all volunteers, of whom almost a third — 20,000 — were killed. The gains were paltry, a hundred or so yards on the right, 2,000 prisoners, 20 guns. Thirty-two battalions each suffered more than 500 casualties.
The Devonshire Regiment began the advance at 7.30am with three full strength battalions; less than twelve hours later the equivalent of one full strength battalion had disappeared.
The Battle of the Somme was to last until mid-November.
On July 4th, the indefatigable and much respected chaplain to the 8th battalion, the Rev E C Crosse ('he was always up in the front line with the stretcher bearers, helping the wounded . . . ') consecrated a patch of ground at Mansell Copse where 160 members of the Devonshire Regiment who fell on the 1st July were buried. A special service was held and someone set up a wooden notice board to mark the spot with the inscription:
The Devonshires held this trench
The Devonshires hold it still
85 years later I stood on the spot, read those words and thought of those brave men from Devon. I saluted them. They will not be forgotten by this county or this newspaper. If I have some of the story wrong, I hope they will forgive me.
Onion soup
We had onion soup and ham in a French farmhouse at Auchenbillers and we were back in Farnham at ten minutes past 6pm.
A day I shall never forget.
Our war memorial in Burma says:
When you go home
Tell them of us and say
For their tomorrow
We gave our today
I said those words last week in the cemetery at Mametz and I wrote them on the wreath.
All the graves there are wonderfully maintained. I thanked everyone involved on behalf of all the people of Devon. I felt sure you would want me to do so.
Ray Tindle
A soldier of the old Devonshire Regiment
(The Bloody Eleventh)