The Bing Bong Boys
On 5th December 1916, 1/5th Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment moved into the front line near Gommecourt to relieve 8th Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment. The previous month had been spent training behind the lines, even though it was officially a rest period. After this exhausting “rest”, and a parade and inspection in very cold weather, the battalion marched on foot from Halloy to Bienvillers. Battalion HQ and one company were placed at Foncquevillers, and the other three companies went into the wet, muddy trenches between La Brayelle and the Hannescamps to Essarts road (you can see the Foncquevillers area on Google Maps).
At about 9.00pm on 6th December, Lieutenant R. E. W. Sandall led a reconnaissance patrol into No Man’s Land. Somewhere on the road between Hannescamps and Essarts, they were ambushed by a group of Germans (probably from 77th Reserve Infantry Regiment). The patrol fell back to the British trenches under heavy fire from small arms and hand grenades. Lieutenant Sandall was wounded, and one man was missing. A bigger patrol was sent out straight away, but the Germans had gone and there was no sign of the missing man. That man was almost certainly 2683 Lance Corporal William A. Wenham, my great-grandfather.
(Click on images to see full size scans)
5th Battalion was a Territorial Army battalion of the Lincolnshire Regiment, recruited in Grimsby and northern Lincolnshire. Before the introduction of conscription in 1916, Territorial soldiers were not compelled to serve outside Britain, but many volunteered to go to France with their first line battalions while the new second line battalions stayed at home to defend the coast (until they too were posted overseas from 1916 onwards). 1/5th Lincolnshire was part of 138th Brigade, 46th Division, which went to France in February 1915. William (known as Billy) got married to Lillie just before he left. On 22nd December 1916, the army sent official notification to his mother that he had been posted missing:
Territorial Force Record Office,
Lichfield Station.
22-12-1916.
Madam,
I regret to have to inform you that a report has this day been received from the War Office to the effect that (No.) 2683 (Rank) L/Cpl. (Name) W. A. Wenham (Regiment) 1/5th. Bn. Lincolnshire Regt. was posted as “missing” after the engagement in the field on the 6th December 1916. Should he subsequently rejoin, or any other information be received concerning him, such information will be at once communicated to you.
The form might have arrived just before for Christmas. It wasn’t until January 1917 that Billy’s family found out that he was alive. He had been sending postcards from the prison hospital in Berlin where he was being held since December 1916, but they took a long time to get to England. This is the first postcard he sent (on 20th December), which got delayed in the post and didn’t arrive until March:
Dear Mother! I got slightly wounded on the right elbow so I am not able to write yourself. I was taken prisoner on account of being wounded. Do not worry I am quite alright. Please let Lillie know. I shall soon write again. Your loving son William
His second postcard, written on 21st December was actually the first to arrive, being received on 16th January. By 4th January his arm had recovered enough for him to write a card himself. By 19th February he had been moved to Cottbus, and in March his regiment sent him some new clothes. He continued to write home from Cottbus fairly regularly throughout 1917, mentioning miserable weather in November, and snow in December. He also sent several photos, including this one of an entertainment group called The Bing Bong Boys which he was part of:
The last letter we have is dated December 1917, but the picture postcards are probably from 1918 (including the portrait in uniform near the top of the page). We know that Billy got home eventually, although he died before I was born.
The letters, postcards, and photos have been in our family for nearly 90 years. They are now in the possession of Kevin Robinson (Billy’s grandson and my father), who has been transcribing them and doing background research. He found details of the night patrol in Colonel T. E. Sandall’s History of the 5th Battalion of the Lincolnshire Regiment (pp. 96-98). Since the history only mentions one man being lost that day, we think it must be Billy. I’ve been helping out with the research, and later this week I’ll be going to the Public Records Office to see if Billy’s service record has survived (unlikely because many of them were destroyed by the Luftwaffe in the Second World War) and look at 5th Battalion’s war diary (which should at least confirm the number of losses on 6th December).
Everyone (especially GCSE history students) knows about the stereotypes of the First World War: the pals wiped out in a single day, the shell-shocked deserters shot at dawn, the callous generals in their chateaux, the repressed homosexual poets. Billy Wenham was none of these, but his story is just as interesting as the more familiar ones.
Comment by Natasha — 3:47 pm, 6 December 2006 [permanent link to this comment]
A wonderful read.
Thanks for writing it up.
G’luck at the PRO.
Pingback by Investigations of a Dog » Back to the archives (and seminars) — 3:59 pm, 8 December 2006 [permanent link to this comment]
[...] previous post: The Bing Bong Boys — [...]
Comment by Uncle Robert — 4:42 pm, 9 December 2006 [permanent link to this comment]
Top stuff our Gavin
Uncle B
Trackback by Tim Worstall — 1:17 pm, 10 December 2006 [permanent link to this comment]
Britblog Roundup #95…
Welcome once again to out little listing of those posts you think we all should see. You can send nominations for next week’s simply by emailing the URL to britblog AT gmail DOT com. One small adminstrative note. Next week’s…
Comment by Robert — 2:27 am, 11 December 2006 [permanent link to this comment]
How interesting.
I had a Great-Uncle who was part of that Lincolnshire Regiment “The Grimsby Chums”. He died on the first day of The Battle of The Somme, 1st July 1916.
Comment by Gavin Robinson — 11:56 am, 11 December 2006 [permanent link to this comment]
That diary is fascinating. I’d love to see more of it online. The Grimsby Chums were 10th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment, raised as part of Kitchener’s New Army in 1914. They would have gone to France in January 1916 as part of 34th Division.
My great-grandfather was lucky enough not to have to go over the top on the morning of 1st July. 46th Division was at the northern extreme of the Somme offensive, and suffered very heavy casualties during the diversionary attack on Gommecourt, but 1/5th Lincolnshire was in the reserve line so avoided the worst of the fighting. The plan was that they would advance in the evening to consolidate gains made during the attack, but as there weren’t any gains in that sector they spent the whole night bringing wounded men back from No Man’s Land.
Comment by Gavin Robinson — 8:59 pm, 11 December 2006 [permanent link to this comment]
I’ve just noticed that the first postcard sent on 20th December was actually from Wahn. The next one is from Berlin Alexandrinenstrasse hospital, sent on 21st December.
Trackback by Acephalous — 1:33 am, 16 December 2006 [permanent link to this comment]
The History Carnival’s Annual Happy Holidays Party (as Reported by a Belligerent Lush)…
The annual History Carnival Happy Holidays Party started with a bang. Someone had circled the twenty-third on the dry erase board and scribbled Scott’s B-Day! underneath it. Then David Parker informed me of how special I could have been. Should…
Comment by Gavin Robinson — 7:39 pm, 27 December 2006 [permanent link to this comment]
Update: Steve Bramley, who is working on a history of 5th Battalion has supplied more details of Billy’s career in this thread on the Great War forum. He joined up in early September 1914, played in the football team and was nicknamed Stiffy!
Comment by Gavin Robinson — 12:36 pm, 28 December 2006 [permanent link to this comment]
More good stuff from the Great War forum: Egbert has posted photos of Wahn camp, including the hospital.
Comment by Gavin Robinson — 6:27 pm, 5 January 2007 [permanent link to this comment]
And in this thread Kate Willis adds some more information about concert parties and the significance of the name “Bing Bong Boys”.
Comment by Gavin Robinson — 6:44 pm, 12 January 2007 [permanent link to this comment]
More information from the Great War forum: his capture is also mentioned in the history of the German 77th Reserve Infantry Regiment.
Pingback by Investigations of a Dog » Berlin By Christmas — 8:10 pm, 17 January 2007 [permanent link to this comment]
[...] More details of my great-grandfather’s experiences in the First World War, up to the night he got captured in December 1916. Since my last post on the subject we’ve uncovered a few more details of his life, including copies of his birth and marriage certificates. I’ve also had some invaluable help from Steve Bramley and Chris Bailey who are writing a new history of 5th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment, based on years of research. It turns out that Chris has been trying to trace William’s descendants to find out what happened to him after he went missing but had drawn a blank! Even with this new information it’s difficult to trace the movements of one individual, so this post is as much about the battalion as about the man. Most of this is paraphrasing the official history of the battalion written by its commanding officer (Lt. Col. T. E. Sandall, A History of the 5th Battalion the Lincolnshire Regiment, Oxford, Blackwell, 1922), along with some quotes from the battalion war diary (Public Records Office, WO95/2691). It should at least give an impression of what things were like. [...]
Comment by Ernest Taylor — 3:53 pm, 25 June 2007 [permanent link to this comment]
Lance corporal Ernest Button 2237 1st/5th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment killed in Action 13th October
1915
Pingback by Investigations of a Dog » Google Trench Maps — 6:44 pm, 27 July 2007 [permanent link to this comment]
[...] great-grandfather was captured by the Germans in December 1916 (I wrote about that in more detail here and here). We’re lucky that the incident was recorded in enough detail to reconstruct it [...]
Comment by matt eyre — 1:37 pm, 24 October 2007 [permanent link to this comment]
My Grandfather, Corporal William Needham, Lincolnshire Regt was posted missing on the 26th September 1915 (presumably with 8th Lincolns at Loos) and was a prisoner for the rest of the War, would love to find out any more info. He was from hasland, Chesterfield
Comment by Gavin Robinson — 6:19 pm, 24 October 2007 [permanent link to this comment]
I was going to suggest asking at the Great War Forum but I see you’re already there. I can’t add anything much as I’ve never looked into 8th battalion.
Pingback by Investigations of a Dog » 90 Years On — 1:00 pm, 17 November 2007 [permanent link to this comment]
[...] William A. Wenham (I’ve posted about William’s experiences in the Great War here and [...]
Comment by Steve Chambers — 1:30 am, 22 December 2007 [permanent link to this comment]
It’s getting close to the 90th anniversary of my great uncle’s death. He was a bandsman in the 5th Lincs. He died christmas day 1917, still trying to find out how.
Glad to see that your grandad got out of it ok.
Comment by Gavin Robinson — 10:44 am, 22 December 2007 [permanent link to this comment]
Was he in 1/5th or 2/5th?
You’ve probably already seen the official history of 1/5th Lincs, but this is all it has to say about Christmas 1917 (see here for the whole chapter; I’ve put the entire book online):
“Christmas Day, marked by a heavy fall of snow, passed quietly, but was saddened by the accidental death of 2nd Lieut. Harvey, who was killed by the premature explosion of a rifle grenade which exploded 6 feet from the muzzle. More snow fell on the 26th, when we were relieved and proceeded to Divisional Reserve at Beuvry.”
It’s not unusual for this book to only name officer casualties and ignore other ranks, so the battalion war diary might have more details of the incident. On the other hand if he died of wounds in hospital then it would be very difficult to find out when and where he was wounded.
Comment by michael mccall — 8:27 pm, 21 May 2008 [permanent link to this comment]
Beginning to understand my father more & more & feel very humbled.