William THROUP

HISTORY OF THE 6TH BATTALION WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT, Vol. 1. 1/6th Battalion by Capt. E.V. Tempest D.S.O., M.C.

THE GREAT GERMAN OFFENSIVE, APRIL, 1918

On April 24th the 1/5th and 1/6th Battalions of the 146th Infantry Brigade moved into the front line immediately north of Wytschaete, and about two miles north-east of Kemmel. The 1/6th Battalion relieved the 15th Battalion Durham Light Infantry (64th Brigade attached 9th Division). … The relief took place during a gas shell bombardment which lasted up to midnight. … The line held by the Battalion was on the south-east outskirts of the Grand Bois, extending to Onraet Farm and Zero Wood, a frontage of approximately one thousand yards. …

At 2-30 a.m. [25th April] a tremendous bombardment was opened upon our positions from Bailleul to Voormezeele, near the Ypres-Comines Canal. The moment the first initial roar of the enemy artillery was heard everyone was on the alert. The Kemmel-Vierstraat area received the most intense concentration of fire. No one in those sectors had ever heard a bombardment which could be compared with it. Gas shells rained down in thousands, and in a few minutes a thick mist of gas covered the whole forward area. Telephone communications were broken instantly, and companies were cut off from battalions and battalions from Brigade Head Quarters. …

Suddenly, about 4-30 a.m., the enemy barrage passed over the Grand Bois. A few minutes of uncanny quietness followed. Shells still passed overhead, but their bursts could be counted! Men in the front line positions came out of their pillboxes, and moved amongst the shell holes. The mist of gas and smoke cleared away slightly. When the enemy shelling began again about 5 a.m. with tremendous intensity, the shells burst far behind our men in the front line. But another even more terrible danger menaced them. German machine guns opened up a terrific fusillade, firing in enfilade along our lines on the eastern slopes of the wood. C Company sent back a runner to Battalion Head Quarters to ask for information, but he never returned. He was immediately lost to sight in the mist, and was killed by machine gun fire within a few yards of Company Head Quarters. About ten minutes later another runner was sent back by C Company. Battalion Head Quarters was only about five hundred yards away, and he was expected back with information in a few minutes. This second runner returned almost immediately, however, and with alarming news. He had run up against a large German party marching in fours down the Wytschaete-Vierstraat Road towards Wytschaete, “every one of ‘em with a pair of new boots on his back.” The significance of this last detail was not lost upon the men of C Company! Evidently the Germans had come to stay! This happened about 5-30 a.m., and so far as C Company at least was concerned the situation was clear. The enemy had broken through in force on the right of the Battalion, probably down the valley of the Wytschaetebeek, and our flank was ‘in the air.’

This fact had been already realized by Battalion Head Quarters, as they appear to have been in contact with the enemy even earlier than C Company. When Lieut.-Col. Wistance had ascertained by runners the position on his right, he had withdrawn his Head Quarters personnel to a ridge near two large craters about one hundred and fifty yards west of the Battalion Head Quarters dug-outs. … By this time the fog was clearing, and Lieut.-Col. Wistance moved Head Quarters forward again to the old Battalion Head Quarters, where he believed a stand could be made. … Evidently C Company had been surrounded, and the natural inference was that the enemy had also over-run the three front Companies!

It was then about 7 a.m. There were very few survivors of Battalion Head Quarters. … Lieut.-Col. Wistance ordered those who were left of his Head Quarters personnel to withdraw again to the ridge one hundred and fifty yard behind, as otherwise they would have been almost immediately surrounded. The Colonel and Lieut. Fairbank remained behind till all Battalion Head Quarters had withdrawn. However, most of the men were hit before they had gone many yards. Captain W.N. Mossop was wounded and taken prisoner. The Regimental Sergeant-Major (H. Barker, M.C., D.C.M.) was killed. He was last seen surrounded by the enemy and firing his revolver at them till he fell. Almost immediately afterwards Lieut.-Col. Wistance was killed by a machine gun bullet as he was rejoining the remnant of his men on the ridge behind. …

It was nearly 7 a.m. when C Company were attacked. For some time previously they had been firing at parties of the enemy advancing near the Wytschaete Road. The mist had cleared and they had a good view of the enemy, but apart from causing a number of casualties, they were unable to hold up his advance. Suddenly strong enemy parties appeared on the Grand Bois ridge behind them, probably detachments of the same force which had been reported by Lieut. Fairbank a few minutes earlier, and which had attacked Battalion Head Quarters. The enemy attacked C Company in groups of six or eight men with a machine gun. Two Germans carrying the machine gun rushed forward a few yards in advance of their comrades and then opened fire, under cover of which the remainder of the enemy group was able to advance. A few of our men escaped by withdrawing to the north edge of the wood, but most of them were killed or captured. … When the men of C Company who had escaped capture reached the north edge of the wood, they saw the enemy was in possession of the Battalion Head Quarters dug-outs. … One of our Lewis Gunners–Pte. Harry King–immediately got to work, and caused the enemy heavy casualties. But retirement on our part was inevitable. By 8 a.m. all the survivors of C Company and Battalion Head Quarters were scattered in the trenches to the north of Vierstraat, and the three front Companies were completely cut off.

Practically no men came back from the three front Companies of the Battalion. Their fate remained a mystery till the end of the war, when prisoners came home and were able to tell their story. …

In the early stages of the attack the enemy was completely checked on the front opposite A, B and D Companies. Men fired till their own ammunition was exhausted, and then drew on the reserve stores at Company Head Quarters. About 6 a.m. the mist cleared. Shortly afterwards Germans were observed in the reserve lines near Battalion Head Quarters, and also on the right flank south of the Wytschaete Road. There was still a way of escape for our men to the north by Louwaege Farm and Bois Quarante. Bur very few tried to save themselves, and the fight went on. The Germans brought small field guns into their forward positions and fired point blank into our lines. … Many casualties were also caused by an aeroplane which flew extremely low and fired belt after belt from its machine gun into our shell hole positions. The right Company (D Company) was the first front line Company surrounded by the enemy and compelled to surrender. It was of course, the nearest company to the point in the British line where the enemy broke through, and for some hours it had been without support on its right flank. Moreover D Company was holding a line in the bottom of the valley with a sharp ridge immediately in front of it, and the result was that the position was untenable when the enemy began to attack from the rear. It was impossible for any of our men to move as the enemy could snipe at them with the greatest ease and accuracy.

Throughout the bombardment, and up to approximately 6-30 a.m., Capt. Whittaker (D Company) had been able to maintain telephone communication continuously with Capt. J.S. Gordon M.C. (B Company), but the communication was terminated very abruptly by the B Company operator shouting out “The Bosches are here.” Whether the operator was killed by the enemy or the telephone line was broken, it is impossible to say, but half an hour later the enemy could be seen from D Company Head Quarters moving about near what had been B Company Head Quarters. D Company remained in their positions till approximately 10 a.m., when they were suddenly rushed from behind by large numbers of the enemy, and as they had used up their ammunition, our men were compelled to surrender. In the meantime Capt. Gordon, with all available men of B Company, having lost his Company Head Quarters, had side slipped further north to positions on the left of A Company. Capt. Gordon sent runners to inform D Company Head Quarters of this move, but they never arrived with the message, and were either killed or captured. Towards noon the whole front still held by the Battalion was enfiladed by machine gun fire from both flanks. Men of A Company lined a light railway running in a south-east direction past Renty Farm, till they were surrounded by the enemy about 4-30 p.m. and the remnant were compelled to surrender. Capt. Gordon reports that the survivors of his Company Head Quarters, with his reserve platoon, occupied a strong point west of Onraet Farm with a number of men of A Company under Lieut. Warner. “Here we held out until about 7-30 in the evening, when we were finally surrounded, having used up all our ammunition. During the whole period we were unable to get into touch with the battalion on our left, and from all appearances we were the only people left on the right.” Thus it was over twelve hours after the whole of our front line position had been surrounded that the fight ended. For twelve hours our men had held on to hopeless positions till all their ammunition was exhausted. No men could have done better. In no finer way could the resolution and tenacity of the British soldier have been vindicated. The history of the Battalion on April 25th gives many illustrations of how our line was steadied by the action of small groups of men who refused to retire, and who, in spite of inevitable cases of cowardice, incompetence and selfishness, saved the whole situation by their self-sacrifice. By the time the enemy infiltrating parties reached Vierstraat early in the afternoon of April 25th, they had lost the impetus of their advance, and the line east of Grand Bois, which throughout the afternoon was still being held by the three forward Companies of the 1/6th Battalion, effectively prevented Vierstraat being captured. …

Towards evening on the 25th the order was given for all survivors of the 146th Infantry Brigade to concentrate in one of the Hutment Camps at Ouderdom. As units were scattered in all quarters of the battlefield from Voormezeele to south of Vierstraat, it was no easy task to inform them of the order. Messengers were sent out in every direction, and throughout the night and during the following day small parties of men were gathered in. …

The casualties in the Brigade were as follows:–1/5th Battalion, eighteen officers and 557 other ranks; 1/6th Battalion, twenty-two officers and 457 other ranks; 1/7th Battalion, five officers and 139 other ranks. The Trench Mortar Battery of the Brigade was engaged on Kemmel Hill during the battle, and none of those in action returned. …

The total strength of the 1/6th battalion on April 27th, including the rear echelon, which had taken no part in the battle, consisted of seventeen officers and 210 other ranks.

[Private William Throup died of wounds received on the 25 April 1918.]