The History of the 36th (Ulster) Division — Inside the Classic

his was the character of the struggle into which the Ulster Division was plunged from its entrance into the campaign until its close, and the book describes very fully the part it played in it. Each chapter is a little history of itself, which frequently has sufficient subject-matter for a volume, and which always contains a record of events or incidents of absorbing interest. It is not a narrative of a series of unbroken successes, and there is no pretence that all the efforts made by the Division were successful. Readers of the History will find stories of failures, but they were glorious failures, the account of which no-one need feel ashamed to describe or peruse.

A tribute, no more than is due, is paid to Major-General Sir Oliver Nugent, K.C.B., D.S.O., the General who was in command of the Division for the greater part of the campaign, and who led it throughout with a confidence in it only equalled by its confidence in him. All who served under him will always hold him in affectionate remembrance, and all Ulstermen should realize that they owe him a debt of gratitude.

I hope this History will be read, not only by those who served in the Division and their relatives and friends, but by all Irishmen.

Young men approaching manhood and young women approaching womanhood should read it, and ponder over the example their predecessors have set them. For all who read will realize that in the great struggle which convulsed Europe for more than four years the men of Ulster did not fail.

MALTA, _25th November, 1922._

The history of the 36th (Ulster) Division is published under the patronage of the Right Hon. the Lord Carson of Duncairn, the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, and Major-General Sir O. S. W. Nugent, K.C.B., D.S.O.

Its publication once decided upon, the first step taken was the formation of an influential Committee; the second, that of a Guarantee Fund to cover the whole cost of its production, which was, within a few weeks, largely over-subscribed.

The materials upon which the History is chiefly based are the official War Diaries in the possession of the Historical Section (Military Branch) of the Committee of Imperial Defence. To the officials at 2, Cavendish Square I am indebted for courtesy and assistance in matters of difficulty. I have made use also of a very large number of contributions sent to me by those who served with the Division, from Sir James Craig and Sir Oliver Nugent to several private soldiers. So long is the list that I cannot acknowledge my debt to these contributors by name, but I desire to thank one and all for material without which the record would have been bald and dry, material which has, I hope, enabled me to give some tinge of humanity to the History. In several cases these personal contributions have been of greater value still than this. They have--and this is true especially of the Retreat of March, 1918--furnished me with a record of incidents upon which official Diaries throw no light. Two such incidents, in particular, the defence of a company of the 12th Royal Irish Rifles at Le Pontchu Quarry, near St. Quentin, on March the 21st, and the last stand of the 2nd Royal Irish Rifles at Cugny, three days later, have hitherto gone unrecorded, because the survivors of these heroic episodes fell into the hands of the enemy.

I have also to thank Sir Oliver Nugent, Colonel-Commandant W. M. Withycombe, C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O.; Brigadier-General C. J. Griffith, C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O.; Brigadier-General A. St. Q. Ricardo, C.M.G., C.B.E., D.S.O.; Major H. F. Grant Suttie, D.S.O., M.C., and Major J. C. Boyle for their trouble in reading the History in MS. and for their many helpful suggestions. The Honours List, a very big undertaking, is based almost entirely on the compilation of Mr. Andrew Jardin, M.S.M., formerly Chief Clerk in the Administrative Branch of Divisional Headquarters. In this and other matters connected with the History I have had much assistance from my wife.

The most important acknowledgment, on behalf of the Committee and all interested in the publication of the work as well as on my own, is due to Captain Kenneth M. Moore, M.C., who acted as Honorary Secretary. The whole of the business side of the undertaking has been conducted by him. Into it he has thrown all his organizing ability and his enthusiasm. No appeal has been made to him in vain.

I have only to add that it has been my endeavour to make this History not a mere record of battles, but, so far as space has permitted, a picture of life as it was lived in the days of war. Lacking the second, the first is like dry bones without flesh to cover them. If I have succeeded in combining the two, I have right to hope that I have made a contribution, however small, to history in a general sense, as apart from military history.

It is to-day a favourite pretension that the war was as uninteresting as it was terrible: a vast error, based upon a temporary reaction, when not upon a pose. I made recently the discovery that between 1906 and 1921 there were published over one hundred books on the Napoleonic Wars. The number would have been far greater but for the fall in the publication of all books between 1914 and 1919. So, a hundred years hence, men will be delving into our records of the late war. Soldiers will be studying the lessons of its battles. But a yet greater number of seekers will be demanding with curiosity how men lived in such circumstances, how they reacted to the strain of war, what compensations they found. It behoves those who were eye-witnesses to depict it in all its aspects, not to shrink from discovering its horror, indeed, but also not to pretend that it had not a better side. The picture now so often painted, representing the war as a single scene in a torture chamber, whence men emerged physical or mental wrecks, may be good anti-militarist propaganda, but it is false, because incomplete. From those experiences many men have emerged happy and strong. Many knew how to snatch some happiness even from their midst. A far greater number can see, in retrospect, that they played a part in one of the most dramatic, as well as one of the most terrible, tragedies in history. That stands for something of good, amid all its evil, in any man's life. The comradeship of war's days is a memory not less happy.

It is not alone because the story of the Ulster Division is a record of courage and fortitude, in which men who are my friends had part, but because it represents in a microcosm man in one of the greatest and most curious catastrophes the world has known, that I have had, however unworthy of the task, a pleasure so intense in writing this book.

I THE RAISING AND TRAINING OF THE DIVISION: SEPTEMBER 1914 TO SEPTEMBER 1915 1

Lord Kitchener and Sir Edward Carson--Sir Edward Carson's Appeal--Formation of the Division--A Commander appointed--Training begins--The Clan Spirit--Realities of War--The Move to England--Lord Kitchener's Tribute--His Majesty's Review.

II THE DIVISION IN FRANCE: OCTOBER 1915 TO JUNE 1916 22

First Experiences--Picardy--107th Brigade in Line--The Division enters Line--Holding a Quiet Front--Rations--The Brighter Side--Preparation for Offensive--Reorganization of Artillery.

III THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME: JULY 1ST, 1916 41

New Aspect of Warfare--Plans for the Attack--Artillery Programme--A Successful Raid--Anniversary of the Boyne--Attack North of Ancre--Advance of 107th Brigade--A Desperate Situation--July 2nd--Causes of Failure--Move to Flanders.

IV FROM THE SOMME TO MESSINES: JULY 1916 TO JUNE 1917 64

In Line before Messines--Warfare Underground--Trench Mortar Battles--The Policy of Raids--Lieutenant Godson's Ambush--A Series of Raids--La Plus Douve Farm--A Growth of Activity--Shelling of Ulster Camp.

V MESSINES: JUNE 1917 82

Preparation for the Offensive--Plans for the Attack--Second Army Methods--Medical Arrangements--Waiting for Zero--First Objective reached--Wytschaete captured--Artillery moves Forward--Pack Transport--Death of Captain Gallagher--German Commander's Problem--Von Richthofen.

VI THE BATTLE OF LANGEMARCK: AUGUST 1917 107

Plans of the Allies--107th Brigade enters Line--Wieltje Dug-outs--Barrage Plans--Failure of 108th Brigade--The Division's Losses--Causes of Failure--General Nugent's Suggestions.

VII YPRES TO CAMBRAI: SEPTEMBER TO NOVEMBER 1917 125

The Hindenburg Line--Fighting at Yorkshire Bank--Raiding Activity--The Livens Projector--Life amidst Desolation--British Organization--Problem of Man-power--Work in the Mist.

VIII CAMBRAI AND AFTER (I): NOVEMBER 20TH TO 22ND, 1917 143

Plans for Cambrai--Task of 109th Brigade--Tanks move up--Capture of Spoil Heap--Defence of Flesquières--Results of November 20th--Gains of November 21st--Mœuvres: November 22nd--A New Phase.

IX CAMBRAI AND AFTER (II): NOVEMBER 23RD TO DECEMBER 31ST, 1917 162

Plans for Nov. 23rd--The Grapple at Bourlon--Relief of 36th Division--The German Counter-offensive--British Withdrawal--Defence of 9th Inniskillings--Attack of 11th Inniskillings--Relief in a Blizzard--Summary of the Battle.

X THE GERMAN OFFENSIVE ON THE SOMME (I): JANUARY TO MARCH 22ND, 1918 181

The New Line--Reorganization of Division--System of Defence--Dispositions--The Weeks of Waiting--Morning of March 21st--The German Assault launched--Defence of Le Pontchu--Break-through to the South--Defence of Racecourse Redoubt--Heroic Action of Lieutenant Knox--The Second Withdrawal--Open Warfare begins.

XI THE GERMAN OFFENSIVE ON THE SOMME (II): MARCH 23RD TO 30TH, 1918 208

Sights in Ham--Both Flanks turned--Dawn of March 24th--2nd Rifles at Cugny--Relief of 36th Division--Horrors of the Retreat--A Gap between the Allies--Colonel Place captured--Counter-attack at Erches--What the Division achieved--Action of the Artillery--Defence of XVIII. Corps.

XII FLANDERS: THE 108TH BRIGADE IN THE MESSINES-KEMMEL BATTLE: APRIL TO JUNE 1918 232

Back to Ypres--108th Brigade on Messines Ridge--Fighting at Wulverghem--A Black Day--Withdrawal from Poelcappelle--German Rebuff in Flanders--Changes in Command--Back after a Rest.

XIII BACK TO THE MESSINES RIDGE: JULY TO SEPTEMBER, 1918 248

Successful Raids--The Enemy withdraws--A Fighting Retreat--September 3rd and 4th--Attack of September 6th--Move to Ypres--The Hope of Victory.

XIV THE ADVANCE TO FINAL VICTORY (I): SEPTEMBER 28TH TO OCTOBER 17TH, 1918 262

Attack of September 28th--Advance of September 29th--Menin-Roulers Road reached--Review of Situation--Death of Captain Bruce--Attack of October 14th--A Great Day--Courtrai entered--Difficulties of Supply.

XV THE ADVANCE TO FINAL VICTORY (II): OCTOBER 18TH TO NOVEMBER 11TH, 1918 280

Plan for Forcing the Lys--Success of the Crossing--Attack of October 20th--The Advance continued--Kleineberg Ridge occupied--General Jacob's Tribute--Special Order of Marshal Foch.

XVI THE END: NOVEMBER 1918 TO JUNE 1919 294

Preparations for Christmas--The Divisional Fund--Characteristics of 36th Division--The End.

APPENDIX I ORDER OF BATTLE 305

" II LIST OF HONOURS AND AWARDS 313

I THE BATTLE OF ALBERT, 1916 at page 62

II THE BATTLE OF MESSINES, 1917 " 106

III THE BATTLE OF LANGEMARCK, 1917 " 124

IV THE BATTLE OF CAMBRAI, 1917 " 180

V THE POSITION BEFORE GERMAN ATTACK, MARCH 21ST, 1918 " 206

VI THE RETREAT OF MARCH 1918 " 230

VII THE FINAL ADVANCES, 1918 " 292

SKETCH IN TEXT page 284

THE MEMORIAL TO THE 36TH (ULSTER) DIVISION AT THIEPVAL Frontispiece

MAJOR-GENERAL SIR C. H. POWELL, K.C.B. facing page 14

MAJOR-GENERAL SIR O. S. NUGENT, K.C.B., D.S.O. " " 36

WINNERS OF VICTORIA CROSS, 1916 " " 76

" " " " 1917 & 1918 " " 184

MAJOR-GENERAL C. C. COFFIN, V.C., C.B., D.S.O. " " 244

THE 36^{TH} (ULSTER) DIVISION

THE RAISING AND TRAINING OF THE DIVISION: SEPTEMBER 1914 TO SEPTEMBER 1915

It is no rightful part of the historian of a Division in the Great War to embark upon preliminary sketches of the state of Europe or of the movements in international politics that preceded the catastrophe. If once he begin to seek for causes he must seek far. Three pistol shots fired in the narrow streets of Serajevo may be likened to an accidental spark that explodes a great charge. But the charge was long laid. War had been determined upon in Berlin. Without that accidental spark, there can be no doubt that it would shortly have been deliberately exploded by a detonator from that quarter. If the divisional historian cannot trace the laying of the charge, which had been accumulating, it may be a hundred, and certainly fifty, years, let him not begin by dealing with what were merely the final accretions. Let him begin with the beginning of the war. War was declared between this country and Germany on the 4th of August, 1914.

There are, however, certain local circumstances anterior to that declaration, which have an intimate connection with the particular Division that is the subject of this History, and so could not be omitted without robbing the latter of much of its significance. The Ulster Division was not created in a day. The roots from which it sprang went back into the troubled period before the war. Its life was a continuance of the life of an earlier legion, a legion of civilians banded together to protect themselves from the consequences of legislation which they believed would affect adversely their rights and privileges as citizens of the United Kingdom--the Ulster Volunteer Force.

The Ulster Volunteer Force, or U.V.F., as it soon came to be known the world around, was the creation of Sir Edward Carson.[1] He believed that if the Imperial Parliament were to persist in its declared intention of forcing the Protestant population of Ulster into an Irish Parliament, without its consent, the inevitable consequence would be civil war in Ireland. Unorganized resistance would be ineffective, and would beyond doubt lead to disorder and unnecessary bloodshed. That the attempt would be made appeared certain. The fate of the Government was bound up with its Home Rule Bill. A failure to carry it through would have involved instant defeat in the House of Commons, wherein the Irish Nationalist Party held the balance of power. All the signs pointed to a clash. It appeared to Sir Edward Carson that the surest defence of the political ideals of his followers lay in convincing the people of Great Britain that Protestant Ulster would fight for the preservation of liberties and traditions which it held dear, which, in its eyes, were now menaced. It was in this faith that he gave his approval to the formation of the U.V.F.

It was on the advice of Lord Roberts, a warm advocate of Ulster's cause, that Sir Edward Carson invited General Sir George Richardson to take command of the U.V.F. Under his leadership the force was organized on a territorial basis. At the outbreak of war it contained over 80,000 men between the ages of seventeen and sixty-five, and a number of women, enrolled not only as nurses but for many of those supplementary services which were not allotted to women in the European war until a comparatively late period. The people of Ulster entered into their adventure in the same spirit that they entered into that of the war when it came, a spirit of single-minded faith in their leaders and in themselves. Admirably did Mr. Kipling sum up their attitude in the lines:

Believe we dare not boast, Believe we do not fear.

Probably their worst danger was over before the declaration of war. The incident at the Curragh, as well as conferences at the War Office, at Aldershot, and elsewhere, of which the general public never knew, had made it clear that the Army could not be used to enforce the legislation projected at the cost of civil war. General John Gough, V.C., then Sir Douglas Haig's Chief of Staff, visited Ulster in July, and stated that the idea of coercion was abandoned. He is known to have formed the opinion that the Ulster Volunteers could, with experienced leaders, be made a very formidable fighting force. He, as well as the Government, knew that those leaders would not have been lacking.

Lord Kitchener, once at the War Office, was not long in arriving at the same opinion as General Gough. He was appointed Secretary of State for War on Wednesday the 5th of August. On Friday the 7th he sent for Colonel T. E. Hickman,[2] a Member of the House of Commons, President of the British League for the Defence of Ulster, who had acted as Inspector-General of the U.V.F., and said to him: "I want the Ulster Volunteers."

Colonel Hickman replied: "You must see Carson and Craig."

Lord Kitchener saw them. Sir Edward Carson's position was not easy. He was most eager to help by every means in his power. But he had a heavy responsibility towards the people of Ulster. If the fighting men of the Province were to go to the war, and in their absence a Home Rule Act, such as they had banded themselves together to resist, were to be forced upon those they had left behind, they would have had cause to reproach him. The Prime Minister was asked for an assurance with regard to the Home Rule Bill. No definite assurance could be obtained from him. A political truce had come into operation at the beginning of hostilities, but it was ill-defined, and the Prime Minister evidently did not see his way clearly out of the difficulties of his situation.[3] Sir Edward raised some minor points, asking that the word "Ulster" might succeed the number of the Division which it was proposed to raise. To this Lord Kitchener at first demurred, but the appelation was subsequently granted.[4]

A short delay ensued. The news from France was bad. A meeting of the Ulster Unionist Members of Parliament, attended by Lord Roberts, was held at Sir Edward Carson's house in Eaton Place. The result of the meeting was that, then and there, Colonel Hickman took a letter to Lord Kitchener, offering the aid of Sir Edward and the Council in raising as large a force as possible from the Ulster Volunteers, without any conditions whatsoever. Later that day there was another meeting between the Secretary for War and the Ulster representatives at the War Office. At first Lord Kitchener was modest in his demands, thinking that a Brigade from the U.V.F. would be ample, at least as a start. Captain Craig[5] assured him they could recruit a Division. Lord Kitchener at once appointed Colonel Hickman and Captain Craig as Chief Recruiting Officers for the Ulster area.

Captain Craig, on leaving the War Office, jumped into a taxicab in Whitehall and went straight to a firm of outfitters with which he had had dealings in equipment for the U.V.F., and gave an order for 10,000 complete outfits. Returning to the House he was somewhat exercised in his mind as to where the money was to come from to pay for all this. He spoke to Mr. Oliver Locker-Lampson,[6] one of Ulster's staunchest friends, who pulled out a cheque-book, and said:

"Don't say another word! There's a thousand pounds: to go on with, and nine more will follow in a day or two. This is out of a special fund just available for your purpose."

In the first days of September Colonel Hickman and Captain Craig crossed to Ireland to begin their work. On the 3rd of the month Sir Edward Carson made a great appeal, at a meeting of the Ulster Unionist Council in Belfast, to the men of the U.V.F., urging them to come forward for the defence of the Empire, the honour of Ulster and of Ireland.

In Ireland much had happened meanwhile. A large number of Ulstermen, the eager spirits who would not wait, had already enlisted. Of these the greater number had gone to the 10th Division, then being formed. Others had crossed the Channel and joined Manchester and Glasgow battalions. At Omagh Captain A. St. Q. Ricardo, D.S.O.,[7] Reserve of Officers, had been put in charge of the Depot, and in mid-August had, anticipating the formation of an Ulster Division, begun to recruit men from the Tyrone Volunteers for a battalion of Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. In a very short time he had two companies, which were, as they had as yet no official status, attached to the 5th and 6th Battalions of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. In these battalions some of the officers subsequently elected to remain, and went with the 10th Division to the Dardanelles. When the Ulster Division was formed these two companies became the nucleus of the senior battalion of the 109th Infantry Brigade, the 9th Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers.[8] This was an exceptional incident, since Captain Ricardo, before taking up his duties at the Omagh Depot, had been Adjutant of the Tyrone Regiment, U.V.F. Throughout Ulster, however, a preliminary recruiting campaign had been carried out, promises to enlist on the official formation of an Ulster Division being obtained from members of the U.V.F.