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IRISH BATTALIONS: DOWNLOAD TEXT - SOMME, 1918 (PART 2)

The last crusade, The Somme, March 1918: On the 10th of February 1918, the 16th (Irish) Division lost its much respected commander Major General Hickie through illness. His replacement was an old friend of his named Major General Sir Amyat Hull. He took up his appointment on the 23rd of February 1918.

For some time past the heavy and increasing drain on the manhood of Britain and Ireland had been causing the military authorities very considerable anxiety and it was finally reluctantly decided to carry out a reorganisation of the divisional composition of the British Army in France. Prime Minister Lloyd George lost confidence, not in the army but in its commanders. During the month of February, the number of battalions in a division was reduced from thirteen to ten and the number of battalions in each brigade from four to three. In terms of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, the effect of this reorganisation upon the 16th (Irish) Division was the disbandment of the 8th/9th and 10th Battalions of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. This occurred on the 15th of February 1918. Hundreds of men from these disbanded battalions filled the ranks of the regular battalions of the other Irish regiments.

There were not enough troops to man continuous lines of trenches; a new method was devised around a three zone system which the British had learned from the ‘defence in depth’ concept developed by the Germans in the winter of 1917 - ‘18. The first line of defence was called the Advanced Zone, a thin line of infantry supported by numerous strong posts composed of infantry and machine guns. Along this line were a series of listening and observation posts, for example there was one platoon of men from the 2nd Dublin Fusiliers in a post called Zebra Post which was only six hundred and thirty yards from the observation post in the 2nd Dubs Advanced Zone trench. This post was commanded by 2nd Lieut. O’Connell. Behind Zebra Post was another post, named Yak Post, commanded by 2nd Lieut. Jackson and contained one platoon. On staff military maps, it was shown as a Blue Line.

Approximately one thousand yards behind the Advanced Zone was another zone called the Battle Zone. Within this zone lay the main body of infantry. This would be the main area in which the fighting and killing would take place between infantry-men from both opposing armies. This line on the staff maps was shown as a Red Line. On the night of the 20th / 21st of March 1818, the 48th Brigade held a line between the villages of Ronssoy and Epehy, a distance of about two miles. The front line of the 1st Battalion of the Dubs was between a farmhouse called Malassie Farm and a wooded area called May Copse. Both the farm and wood are still there to this day. It was a distance of about fifteen hundred yards. The 2nd Battalion of the Dublins was to the right of the 1st Battalion. Their front line was approx. one thousand one hundred yards long. The communication trench that linked the men of 1st and 2nd Battalions of the Dublin Fusiliers in the Advanced Zone with their Battalion HQ was called St. Patrick’s Avenue. Behind the Battle Zone was yet another zone, it was the Rear Zone, where reserve formations were placed. It was depicted on the staff maps as a Yellow Line. Behind these three main lines of defence lay a further two defensive lines and yet two more colours to depict on the staff maps. They were the Brown Line, which ran in front of St. Emile and the finally the Green Line which ran in front of Tincourt. The last two lines were not actually dug and were only marked out on the map. The order of colours were Blue, Red, Yellow, Brown and Green. (One might wonder did Haig’s Generals plan the defence of Paris on a snooker table in some elegant French Chateaux.)

The 1st Battalion had a strength of twenty eight officers and six hundred and forty five other ranks. The strength of the 2nd Battalion was twenty three officers and six hundred and forty three other ranks. The War Diary for March the 20th of the 1st Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers contains the significant entry:

Enemy attack is expected any day now. It is now stated to be certain, although on many previous occasions it was given out that it was about to take place.

The pattern of fighting in the First World War was massive bombardments on the opposition followed by a massive infantry assault on their lines of defence. Both the German and British armies followed this pattern from the beginning to the end of the war. In 1914, the first battle of Ypres was a German offensive, the Battle of the Somme was a British offensive, the third battle of Ypres in Autumn 1917 was a British offensive, now in March 1918 it was the turn of the Germans to launch their offensive. The common feature about these mass offensives was that little ground was made, all ended in stalemate and all had unbelievable tragic loss of human life. The historian, Sir Arthur Bryant in his English Saga (1840 - 1940) describes the philosophy which had ‘taken hold of the British military mind’ during the First World War.

The dominating idea was that as the total population of the Allied Powers was higher than that of their foes, the process of scaling down both fighting populations, man for man, as rapidly as possible must end in the ultimate survival of the larger. The quicker the rate of mutual destruction the military statisticians argued, the sooner the war would be over.

At 4:45 am on a foggy 21st of March 1918, the Germans threw their last great offensive at the Allies. It was called, ‘The Battle of The Somme 1918,’ otherwise known as the, 'German March Offensive.' The bombardment extended to a depth of eight miles. With Biblical undertones, the 2nd Battalion of the Dubs had been in the front line without relief for forty days and forty nights. They were due for relief when the Germans launched the first wave of their attack using gas. Major Wheeler was in command and Rev. Father Casey was their Chaplain.

Between 04:45 and 14:30 on the 21st of March 1918, over a distance between Zebra Post in the 2nd Battalion's sector and the village of St. Emile, i.e. a distance of approx. two miles, one thousand and sixty two men of the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the Dublin Fusiliers had been gassed, blown to bits or had been driven crazy and gone missing. Among the dead was a Dublin postman named Andrew Kinsella, who came from Arbour Place in Dublin. Andrew was a member of the 1st Bat. Royal Dublin Fusiliers, he was thirty six years of age when he was killed somewhere near the French village of Epehy. He was typical of the thousands of Irish men who lost their lives in the many bloody battles that made up the Great War and have for so long been forgotten, or labelled as not real Irishmen.

At the risk of being totally annihilated, the Dubs were ordered to retreat. The retreat of the entire 16th (Irish) Division lasted ten or eleven days. The official history records the losses as 7,149 men killed, wounded or missing which means they were taken prisoner, buried from artillery or just blown to bits. The Ulster regiments suffered 6,109 casualties. The losses for the entire VII Corps which consisted of five  divisions was 25,000 men.

The 16th Division was reduced to one infantry brigade consisting of two battalions of men, i.e. a total strength of 36 officers and 1242 other ranks, roughly the establishment strength of one regular army battalion. It was the end of the 16th (Irish) Division. The Dublin Fusiliers assembled at Hamel with what was left of the 16th (Irish) Division. ‘The 16th Division was now rather a crowd of warlike particles than an organised unit.’ Both battalions of the Dublin Fusiliers obtained some reinforcements from remnants of the Division.

On the 31st of March 1918, the 1st Dubs received twenty three men who had been fighting with the 2nd Dubs. Echoes of Gallipoli and the Dubsters must have come running back to the Dublin Fusiliers in those last few days of March 1918.

The losses suffered by both battalions were so great that in order to compile some sort of resistance force to stop the German advance, they were joined together to form the 1st/2nd Battalion the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. This amalgamation occurred on the 13th of April 1918. The majority of Dublin Fusiliers killed between the 21st and 31st of March 1918 and whose remains were never recovered or identified are named on the Pozieres Memorial in France. There are 244 Dublin Fusiliers mentioned on this Memorial. The youngest recorded Dublin Fusilier mentioned on the Memorial is Corporal Frederick Smith. He was eighteen years of age when he died. He came from Swan Lane, Whetstone in London. The oldest man recorded to die was Lance Corporal John O’Brien from Dublin Road, Naas, Co. Kildare who was forty eight years of age.

Sixty-four German Divisions took part in the operations on the first day of the battle, a number far exceeding the total forces composing the entire British Army in France. At Hamel, where the retreat stopped, what was left of the 16th (Irish) Division came together to form a unit under the command of Major General Carey, known as Carey’s Force. It comprised of pioneer and engineer troops from all disciplines. It included five hundred Americans and four hundred Canadians. Its object was to dig in the fields just outside the village to the east of Hamel, fight and stop the German advance, and to their credit, this they did.

In the histories of both the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers there is nothing but praise for the fighting spirit of both battalions. On the 2nd of June 1918, Brigadier General Ramsey, Commander of the 48th Brigade, 16th (Irish) Division wrote to the C.O. of the 2nd Dubs;

I can’t tell you how much I feel the loss of your battalion; for two and a half years now I have had Dublin Fusiliers under my command, and I am very proud to have had the honour of having them in my Brigade so long. No troops could have served better and I am indeed grateful to them for all the good work they have done for me.

As usual, the hierarchy of the British military command looked for a scapegoat for the loss of the line. There were allegations that,' as soon as the Boche attacked, the whole Division, every officer and man put down their arms and walked over to the Boche Ö only the staff of the Division are left and they are all Englishmen.' The forecast made by Rawlinson back in December 1917, came true on the 21st of March 1918. On the 28th of March 1918, Gough and his 5th Army HQ Staff were relieved by Sir Henry Rawlinson. Within a week, Gough was ordered home.

After the German March offensive, the 16th (Irish) Division ceased to exist as an Irish Division. The Division remained in the line but the Irish were gone. The Division was made up of English, Welsh and Scottish battalions. The only Irish regiment left was the 5th Royal Irish Fusiliers. Between the 1st and 3rd of April 1918, the 16th (Irish) Division, what was left of it, spent the time digging a switch line at the rear of Hamel. On April the 3rd, they were withdrawn from the line and split up. Many of the officers of the Division ended up as instructors to the new and very battle-raw American soldiers. On the 26th of April the 1st Battalion Dublin Fusiliers went back to the 86th brigade of the 29th Division, oddly enough on the anniversary of the Gallipoli landings at Cape Helles. At the end of May, the 2nd Battalion went to the 94th Brigade of the 31st Division. On the 6th of June, the 7th Battalion of the Dubs joined the 94th brigade and were absorbed into the 2nd Battalion. Many of the 7th Battalion were suffering from malaria contracted in the Struma Valley fighting the Bulgarians in the Salonika campaign. It was indeed their last crusade.