On
Little wonder then, perhaps, that 30th June has
slipped past largely unnoticed for the last eighty-nine years. Yet that day
held great significance for the people of
“The day
Between the towns of Bethune and
The
British troops had been fighting in
the area since 1914. The 2nd and 5th Battalions of The
Royal Sussex, had fought at Richebourg during the Battle of Aubers Ridge, in
May 1915, and in June of 1916 came the turn of the three Southdowns Battalions,
which together formed the 116th (Southdowns) Brigade of the 39th
Division, which had arrived in France on March 5th, 1916, taking
over trenches in the Fleurbaix sector on March 20th.
On the 11th of June, the three Battalions went to
the Divisional Reserve, being billeted around Locon, and commenced training for
an attack (though this was still only a rumour). On June 16th they
returned to the front line trenches in the Ferme du Bois area near Richebourg,
holding the line until June 23rd, when news was received that the 39th
Division were to make an attack on the Boar’s Head, a salient of the German
lines, and that the 116th Brigade, the Southdowners, had been chosen
to lead the attack. Further training followed. A replica of the battlefield had
been built behind the lines, but the battalions had only days, not weeks, to
consider it.
Initial plans had been that the 11th Battalion
should lead the attack, with the 12th on their right, and the 13th
in reserve. At the time that these orders were received, Lieutenant Colonel Harman Grisewood, was the
Commanding Officer of the 11th (1st Southdowns).
Grisewood had lost his brother George, the Adjutant, who died of illness, his
obituary says of pneumonia, at Merville on
" I am not sacrificing my men as cannon-fodder!"
Needless to say the attack had to go in, but the Divisional
Commander, Major General R. Dawson, aware of Grisewood’s comments, was
concerned that this might be passed down to the men of the 11th
Battalion, and so the roles of the 11th and 13th Battalions
were reversed.
According
to a letter from Col. Grisewood to Captain Neville Lytton, Grisewood was told
to “clear off at once”.
On 24th June, Colonel Grisewood
relinquished his command of the 11th Battalion, being sent on a
short period of leave in
Colonel Grisewood was succeeded by Major G H Harrison.
Grisewood was posted to the 17th Manchesters in
1917, and commanded them in the field until severely gassed. His second brother
Francis was to become a casualty of the Boar’s Head.
In
consequence it was the 12th and 13th Battalions, with
half the 11th supplying carrying parties, who made final
preparations on 29th June, then assembled in the trenches of the
Richebourg sector in the early hours of 30th June for the
forthcoming attack, which was designed to “bite off the German position known
as the Boar’s Head”, making the Germans believe that the real offensive was
here, not the Somme.
At
In his history of the
regiment Martineau writes:
“The records of one battalion are liable to be more eloquent than
those of another. Yet, with the Southdown Brigade in
Thus, the 11th Battalion,
while supplying carrying-parties for the 12th and 13th on
the day of the Richebourg and Ferme du Bois assault, sustained 116 casualties
in this service alone. The 12th
Battalion, assembling in the front line at Ferme du Bois, while the artillery
bombarded the enemy trenches, attacked at
Naturally it could not last. The Germans were ready. There is even a story
that one man brought back a notice in English, announcing: “Come on,
A heavy barrage on the front line and
communication trenches prevented reinforcements from being sent forward, the
supply of bombs and ammunition gave out, and the valiant survivors were
compelled to withdraw. The Battalion’s 429 casualties included 17
officers.”
The
War Diary of the 13th Battalion gives a more detailed account of the
attack
“FERME DU BOIS. The
battalion assembled at
The preliminary
bombardment on the morning of the attack opened at
The two right companies
succeeded in reaching their objective, but the two left companies only
succeeded in penetrating the enemy’s wire in one or two places.
Just at this moment a
smoke cloud, which was originally designed to mask our advance, drifted right
across the front and made it impossible to see more than a few yards ahead.
This resulted in all direction being lost
and the attack devolving into small bodies of men not knowing which way to go.
Some groups succeeded in
entering the support line, engaging the enemy with bombs and bayonet, and
organizing the initial stages of a defence.
Other parties swung off
to the right and entered the trench
where the flank party was operating, causing a great deal of congestion.
On the left, the smoke and darkness made the job of penetrating
the enemy wire so difficult that few, if any, succeeded in reaching the enemy
support line, where they were subjected to an intense bombardment of HE. and
whizz-bangs.
Capt.
Hughes, who was wounded, seeing that his company was in danger of being cut
off, gave the order for the evacuation of the enemy trenches, and the remainder
of the attacking force returned to our trenches.
The enemy,
who was evidently thoroughly prepared, now concentrated his energies on the
front line, and, for the space of about 2½ hours, our front and support lines
were subjected to an intense bombardment with heavy and light shells, causing a
large number of casualties . . . The enemy casualties are also considered to
have been considerable, large numbers of dead being seen in the enemy
trenches.”
During
the attack, the majority of Officers were killed or wounded, platoons, if not
companies being led by NCOs.
Probably
the best remembered of these was Company Sergeant Major Nelson Victor Carter,
age 29, of
CSM
Carter attacked a machine gun post which was causing particular trouble, shot
one, or more, of the crew with his pistol before, apparently, turning the
machine gun on the Germans. This bought much needed time to withdraw safely,
and with this having been done Carter finally left the position.
The
action in the support line had lasted only thirty minutes. CSM Carter continued
to aid in the withdrawal to the first line, and later in the day, whilst
bringing in the wounded, was shot in the
chest, dying almost immediately . For his actions that day CSM Carter was
awarded the Victoria Cross. The Citation read as follows:
Boar's Head,
"For most conspicuous
bravery. During an Attack he was in command of the fourth wave of the assault.
Under intense shell and machine gun fire he penetrated, with a few men, into
the enemy's second line and inflicted heavy casualties with bombs. When forced to
retire to the enemy's first line, he captured a machine gun and shot the gunner
with his revolver. Finally, after carrying several wounded men into safety, he
was himself mortally wounded and died in a few minutes. His conduct throughout
the day was magnificent."
The following is a part
of a letter written by Lieutenant (later Lt. Col.) Howard Robinson, 
Carter's Company
Commander to Kathleen Carter, Nelson's wife.
"When I last saw him
he was close to the German line, acting as leader to a small party of four or
five men. I was afterwards told that he had entered the German second line, and
had brought back an enemy machine gun, having put the gun team out of action. I
heard that he shot one them with his revolver. I next saw him about an hour
later (I had been wounded in the meanwhile and was lying in our trench). Your
husband repeatedly went over the parapet. I saw him going over alone and
carrying in our wounded men from 'No Man's Land'. He brought them in on his
back, and he could not have done this had he not possessed exceptional physical
strength as well as courage. It was in going over for the sixth or seventh time
that the was shot through the chest. I saw him fall just inside our trench.
Somebody told me that about
a month previously your husband carried a man about 400 yards across the open
under machine gun fire and brought him safely into our trench. For this act I
recommended him for the Military Cross. On every occasion, no matter how tight
the hole we were in, he was always cheerful and hopeful, and never spared any
pains to make the men comfortable and keep them cheery."
Company Sergeant Nelson
Carter is buried in the
Also in action that day,
with “B” Company, 12th Bn, was Private SD/2389 John Searle of
Private Searle is
remembered on the Loos Memorial to the missing. He was amongst those whose
bodies were never recovered after the battle.
Among
the rare poetic spirits to be found among those who officered these battalions
was Edmund Blunden. His Undertones of War contains impressions, eloquent in
their verbal economy, of the life lived by the men, and of the men themselves,
which are intensely revealing. Concerning the Richebourg diversion, he wrote
“What
the Brigade felt was summed up by some sentry who, asked by the General next
morning what he thought of the attack, answered in the roundest fashion, ‘Like
a butcher’s shop.’ Our own trenches had been
knocked silly, and all the area of the attack had been turned into an
The
The Southdowns Brigade
lost 17 officers and 349 men killed.
Over 1000 were wounded or taken prisoner.
The 13th Battalion was all but wiped out.
Thanks to the Mayors of
Richebourg and Aubers
a commemoration of the
sacrifice made by those men was held at
Richebourg St. Vaast
Cemetery on 30th June 2006.
Also on
Group members laid
wreaths at the Loos Memorial,
and CSM Carter’s grave
in the
since the ninetieth anniversary
WE have REMEMBERED THEM.
We will endeavour to continue to do so at
Richebourg St. Vaast Post Military Cemetery
At 17.00hrs on the last Saturday in June
each year until the 100th anniversary
The 100th Aniversary
Commemoration will be held at 17.00hrs on
God willing we will be there.
The major Boar’s Head
Cemeteries are:
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This piece draws on information from the
Regimental Archive of The Royal Sussex
Regiment held at the West Sussex County Council Records Office at