90 years ago today 46th Division broke through the Hindenburg Line. You can read about 1/5th Lincolnshire Regiment’s part in the battle in the relevant chapter of Sandall’s history (and if you click linked names in the text you can get to medal citations and an interactive map). Although my great-grandfather served with the battalion he missed this action – by this time he’d been a prisoner in Germany for nearly 2 years.

It’s interesting to note that although people who are down with the revisionist work that’s been done in the last 20 years or so know this as one of the greatest achievements in British military history it still doesn’t seem to have broken into popular awareness in the way that the Somme or Third Ypres have. The coverage in Wikipedia is very poor, with 46th Division’s spectacular success on 29th September given only one sentence! The article gives far more attention to the less successful American and Australian attacks. Is this because people still can’t help thinking about the First World War in terms of failure?

Yesterday I went down to the Public Records Office (call it by its name!). I think I picked the wrong day. As well as the disruption from the building work, the ordering system broke down so I couldn’t order any documents for the first hour.

One consolation of the delay was that I had plenty of spare time to look at the First World War service records on microfilm. This time I was lucky to find a record for Thomas Wenham, my great-grandfather’s older brother (those for William and Charles hadn’t survived, which is exactly the ratio you’d expect from the burnt papers). Tom joined the reserves in 1915 but wasn’t called up for active service until 1916. He was initially in 19th Sherwood Foresters, a reserve battalion recruited in Lincolnshire, but then he was posted to 8th North Staffordshire Regiment, with whom he went to France. On 7th June 1917 he was wounded in the head by a shell at Wytschaete and was sent to hospital in Etaples, then returned to England. He survived but wasn’t fit for combat any more so served at home with the Royal Defence Corps. In 1918 he returned to France with the Labour Corps to guard prisoners of war. So out of three brothers known to have served in the war, all three were wounded in action, one died, and one was captured.

Then on to the real work: SP28 aka the Commonwealth Exchequer Papers. I tried photographing a whole account book to get an idea of how long it would take. The book was about 150 folios with writing on both sides, so about 300 images altogether, which took about an hour and a half. Quality is a bit variable because I didn’t use a camera stand (usually I find they’re all in use; this time there was one free but I then realised I couldn’t attach my camera to it!). Some images are perfect but others are so blurred that I can’t read them. It was also totally exhausting, but not as bad as copying them out by hand. I’m looking into the feasibility of a project which might involve photographing 20 or 30 entire boxes. That looks like it could be long, difficult and expensive.

I’ve just been playing around with the new “My Maps” feature on Google Maps. There are lots of other things I should be doing, but when I saw this post at Mercurius Politicus I just had to try it for myself. So I got out a trench map and came up with this map showing where my 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 reasonably well. It’s impossible to say exactly where the fight took place, but from the battalion war diary we can narrow it down to a relatively small area (the stretch of road highlighted in green on the map).

My Maps is obviously a very exciting development. It means that anyone can create custom maps with a few clicks rather than having to learn the Google Maps API. It took me less than an hour to make the map. The interface is so intuitive I didn’t need any instructions, I just got on with it. Most of the time was spent trying to trace the trench lines more or less correctly. It was easy for the Germans because their front line is still visible on the satellite photo, and the Z redoubt is a nice distinctive feature. The British trenches were more difficult because they don’t seem to coincide with any visible features. The lines I’ve drawn are only approximate and don’t capture all the twists and turns of the trenches but they give a reasonably good impression of the position.

One improvement that I’d like to see is the ability to place a grid over the map, move it, and change the size of the squares. That would help with tracing lines which don’t follow present day features visible on the map. It’s possible to do this with the line drawing tool but it’s a bit tricky. An automatic grid would make life much easier. Also a tool for measuring distances would be very useful – I found myself holding a ruler up to the screen! – and more fine control over scaling so that it’s easier to get the scale to coincide with a paper map. What would be really good is if someone made a map which overlaid the entire trench map grid onto France and Flanders…

I’m trying to get some “proper” English Civil War related work done this week, but at the weekend I did some more First World War stuff. In April I posted about World War I on Flickr, when I uploaded my great-grandfather’s photos from Cottbus PoW camp. Now I’ve added his letters, and another photo which I got from ebay. Although he isn’t on it, it was taken in the theatre at Cottbus and one of the men has the same “Bing Bong Boys” navy outfit:

I’ve now put each letter/postcard in its own set to make the link between the front and back of the same document more explicit. The sets are then arranged into collections. Some people on the Great War Forum were able to help me locate Cottbus Camp No. I, so now most of the photos have been placed on the map.

I also discovered that another Wenham brother might have died in the Great War. I don’t know why I hadn’t ever looked for Wenhams on CWGC before, but I found a Charles Wenham who could well be one of William’s brothers. Some of the evidence is circumstantial and I need to do more digging to be sure, but the epistemic probabilities are quite high. So far it looks like he joined 10th Lincolnshire Regt (Grimsby Chums), served overseas, was wounded and sent back to England but died of his wounds. Unlike the soldiers who died overseas, his body was brought home and buried in Cleethorpes cemetery. Again the Great War Forum has been a great help, and you can see more details on this thread.

And with regard to the other World War, I played some more of Brothers In Arms: Earned In Blood. I was still a bit curious about the post-Hill 30 storyline, but so far it’s been quite boring, and I gave up when I got into a silly tank level that’s suspiciously similar to the silly tank level in Road To Hill 30 that I complained about before. But there are more trees this time…

I nearly called this post “the Great War on Flickr” but that could easily have been misunderstood…

It’s really about using the photo hosting site Flickr for photos and other documents from the First World War. I’ve uploaded some photos of my great-grandfather here as an experiment in digital history. Flickr is much more than just an image hosting service. I’ve been trying out some of its advanced features to see how useful they can be to digital historians, and what the limitations might be.

One of the coolest features is the way you can geotag your photos (ie drag them onto a map to show where they were taken). You can then view a map of all the locations. There’s an obvious problem with this: you have to know exactly where a photo was taken. So far I’ve only been able to geotag two of the images. One conveniently has the address of the photographer’s studio printed on it. The other has been identified by three people who know Blundell Park. I can’t place this one at all — it was probably taken somewhere in France in 1916, but might just have been taken in Germany in early 1917 (he certainly sent it home from Germany after he was captured). I know that all the rest were taken in the theatre at Cottbus prisoner of war camp but so far I haven’t been able to locate the camp. Here the problem is that Flickr geotagging doesn’t allow for any degree of uncertainty. It would be useful if you could draw an area on the map instead of being forced to select a specific point. Arbitrarily placing the photo at a point that you’re not certain of could be very misleading.

Dating allows for more uncertainty. For example, the football match is tagged with the exact date, while this one from Cottbus is just “some time in 1918″. It would be useful if you could specify a range of years. Although I think the Cottbus photos are probably from 1918 there’s also a possibility that they’re from 1917.

It’s easy to use Flickr photos on blogs and other websites. The owner of the account can copy and paste HTML to link to the photo. It’s also possible to link a Flickr account to a blog (Flickr supports most types of blog, including Wordpress). And there’s a Wordpress plugin, Flickr Photo Gallery, which pulls your photos of Flickr and displays thumbnails in the Write page so you can easily insert them into a post. Here’s an example photo, inserted by copying the code from Flickr:

Click on the thumbnail above to see a bigger version, along with lots of interesting metadata. Down the right of the page are keyword tags, date taken, and link to a map (or would be if I could place it on a map!). This photo also demonstrates notes. If you hover the mouse over the photo (at Flickr, not the thumbnail on this page) you’ll see a box appear with some text in it. I think anyone with a Flickr account can add these notes. You could use them to identify a person, or a cap badge, or draw attention to anything else that you find interesting. You can also leave blog style comments underneath the photo.

In future I’ll probably try to put each document in its own set, so that it makes the relationship between the front and back of a postcard more explicit. Having them all together doesn’t make it clear enough and there’s some potential for confusion. Sets could also contain enlarged details of the photos, especially things like badges. I’ll also try it with letters and postcards that don’t have photos.

I think Flickr has exciting potential despite its limitations. There are already some Flickr groups devoted to the First World War (groups allow users to share and discuss photos). Combined with the depth of knowledge on the Great War Forum it could be exceptionally useful. I’ve started a thread there to see if anyone there has tried using Flickr or would have any use for it, so it’ll be interesting to see what other people think.

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.

William Albert Wenham was born in Hamilton Street, Grimsby, on 15th September 1890. His father Thomas was Captain of a fishing smack. Billy joined his local Territorial unit, 5th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment, in early September 1914 (Steve Bramley narrowed his enlistment date down to 5th, 6th or 7th September by comparing his service number with other recruits). He was put into B Company, and given the number 2683 and the rank of Private. On 15th September 1914 (his 24th birthday) he played in goal for B Company in a football match against A Company which was reported in the Grimsby News (thanks to Steve Bramley for the reference). He might also have played in the match between 5th Battalion and 10th Battalion (Grimsby Chums) at Blundell Park (home of Grimsby Town FC) in October 1914 (thanks to Chris Bailey for the reference). This photo from our family collection looks like it was taken at Blundell Park, and the goalkeeper is probably Billy Wenham:

He was with 1/5th Battalion when it first went to France in February 1915, as part of 46th (North Midland) Division, the first division composed entirely of Territorial battalions to be sent into action on the Western Front. His battalion sailed from Southampton on the SS Empress Queen, landing at Le Havre at 4.00am on 28th February. On 1st March, the battalion’s first full day in a theatre of war, Private Wenham officially qualified for the 1914-15 Star (which we still have, along with his other campaign medals).

From this point it’s difficult to know exactly where he was and what he was doing. Without his service record or the battalion’s muster and casualty lists we have no way of knowing whether he was sick, wounded, on leave, or absent on other duties on any particular day. By the time he was captured on 6th December 1916 he had been appointed Lance Corporal, but was still with 1/5th Lincolnshire and had the same service number, so was unlikely to have been transferred or posted to another unit for any time in between. After the battalion changed from 8 company to 4 company structure in early 1915, he would probably have been in A Company (Chris Bailey’s best guess), but there isn’t any definite proof so far.

After landing at Le Havre, North Midland Division moved towards the front line to form the reserve at the battle of Neuve-Chappelle. Sandall and his men were hoping to take part in the planned breakthrough, but as it turned out the breakthrough never happened, and they weren’t brought into action. The battalion had its first man killed in action later that month, during trench warfare training on the front line near Ploegsteert Wood. When this training was complete, the battalion took over its own sector of trenches near Messines Ridge on 8th April. As was usual, they spent four days at a time in the trenches, and four days behind the lines when they were relieved by another battalion. Most of the time in the front line was spent digging to improve the defences. Sandall reports that the sector was very quiet, with little shelling and few casualties suffered, until 20th May, when the Germans exploded a mine which destroyed one of the forward trenches and buried many men alive. Although 40 men were killed or wounded, the trench was rebuilt by the next day.

Towards the end of June, the battalion moved into the Ypres salient, which was not nearly as quiet as the Messines area. The trenches were frequently shelled by German artillery, and the battalion’s casualties increased. The Germans also dug several mines. Some were discovered and counter-mined, but others destroyed parts of the trenches. The mining and shelling led to yet more digging, as damage caused to the trenches had to be repaired as soon as possible. The battalion finally left the Ypres salient on 2nd October. During their six months in the trenches they had never been directly assaulted by the Germans, and had never had to take part in an assault themselves.

The Battle of Loos gave 1/5th Battalion its first opportunity to take part in a major attack. 46th Division was ordered to attack the German positions at the Hohenzollern Redoubt, with 1/5th Lincolnshire in the first wave. Sandall gives the impression that his officers and men were excited by the prospect and confident of success. Preparations were very thorough. The officers studied a model of the redoubt and the men spent several days practising for the attack, which was scheduled for 2pm on 13th October. The assault was preceded by a two hour artillery bombardment and a gas attack. Simpson’s history of the Lincolnshire Regiment claims that “all these arrangements went like clockwork” (C. R. Simpson, The History of the Lincolnshire Regiment 1914-1918, London, 1931, p. 126), but Sandall notes that when the gas cylinders were opened, gusts of wind blew some of the gas back into the British trenches (p. 47). Along with German artillery fire on the crowded trenches, the gas caused many casualties before the battalion had even gone over the top.

When they did go over the top, things appeared to be going well. The attacking battalions found plenty of gaps in the barbed wire and easily overran the Hohenzollern Redoubt, which had been all but abandoned by the Germans. However, their next objective, the Fosse trench running behind the redoubt, was very heavily defended. As the battalion moved into the open ground beyond the redoubt they were massacred by German machine guns. The survivors fell back to the redoubt where they were reinforced by the reserve battalions. The British positions on the redoubt were shelled by German artillery, and there was heavy fighting between the surviving attackers and German counter-attacks in the communication trenches all night. When 1/5th Lincolnshire was relieved the following morning, it was a battalion in name only. Lt. Col. Sandall gives the casualty figures as 460 other ranks killed, wounded, and missing. Sandall himself and 10 other officers were wounded, and another 11 officers killed. Captain Madge, the only unwounded officer, temporarily took command of what was left of the battalion. The battalion war diary notes that “only about 160 men returned safely”. (You can see some maps of the action at the Great War forum)

When 138th Brigade was inspected by the King on 28th October, 1/5th Lincolnshire could only muster one company, and even that was filled out with the quartermasters and transport section. Shortly after passing the battalion, the King fell off his horse. I’m not sure whether this would have provided some much needed light relief, or just added to the grimness of the situation! The losses were replaced fairly quickly. By mid-November the battalion had nearly 700 men and a full complement of officers. Some of the replacements were Lincolnshire men from 2/5th Battalion, although Sandall says of another group of 11 new officers “none of them Lincolnshire officers unfortunately” (p. 54). On 17th November the battalion went back into the front-line trenches in Flanders.

In December 1915, Billy Wenham was allowed to go home on leave. He married Lillian Pearson at St. Aidan’s church, New Clee, on 13th December, but would have been back at the front before too long, as home leave was usually for a period of 10 days.

St. Aidan’s Church, New Clee, photographed by Paul Fenwick (from English Church Photographs):

In January 1916, 46th Division was ordered to Egypt. The battalion took a train to Marseilles and a ship to Alexandria. They spent a few uneventful weeks camping next to the Suez canal, which seems to have been a pleasant break from the mud and cold of Flanders. In February 1916, Billy was playing for a football team called the Egyptian Stars, by which time he had been given the nickname Stiffy (thanks to Steve Bramley for the reference). However, the holiday was soon over, as the whole division was ordered back to France in early February, 1/5th Lincolnshire arriving back at Marseilles on 9th February. Lt. Col. Sandall was fit enough to resume command of the battalion in April, by which time they were holding the line near Vimy Ridge. In May, they moved to Beinvillers to prepare for the Battle of the Somme.

46th Division was at the northern extreme of the Somme offensive. Along with 56th Division, they were assigned to carry out a diversionary attack on the Gommecourt salient, the most westerly point of the German lines in France. 1/5th Lincolnshire were kept in reserve, and so were lucky enough to avoid having to go over the top on the morning of 1st July, but they didn’t quite get off lightly. The original plan was for them to advance later in the day to consolidate the gains that were expected to be made during the initial attacks. The battalion spent most of the day waiting behind Foncquevillers, listening to the sound of the artillery barrage and infantry attacks. They were not ordered to advance until 9pm, by which time the situation at the front was very confused. The battalion war diary describes what happened that night:

At 9.30PM battalion began to leave MIDLAND Trench & proceeded thro’ FONQUEVILLERS & then by ROBERTS AVENUE to its position, which was on frontage between WHIZBANG AVENUE & STAFFORD AVENUE.

Owing to congested state of trenches (they were full of dead bodies, badly battered by shell fire, & stragglers & wounded were coming in rapidly from NO MAN’S LAND) battalion did not finally get into position until 12.45AM, 2nd inst.

Officers Commanding Companys were met by battalion on way up to trenches & had recieved their orders by 11PM.

At 11.30PM orders were changed from 1. to 2. below.

1. Battalion would attack & consolidate front line reconoitre beyond it getting into touch with any parties of Sherwood Foresters who might have entered hostile trenches on left of battalion frontage & there been surrounded.

2. Battalion would not consolidate but would retire as soon as in touch with Sherwoods bringing the latter back too & in any case battalion would retire to our lines before dawn.

Owing to enemy’s fire & confusion caused by relief & the presence in all fire & communication trenches of parties of other battalions wounded or stragglers it was found impossible to communicate the alteration in orders before 12 midnight to the left company.

2/7/16:

At 12 midnight only 1 company was completely ready but nevertheless the first line went forward but at once lost touch in the darkness & also lost direction. Two platoons only reached enemy wire which they found uncut. Enemy sent up numerous flares & opened heavy rifle fire. Their first line was found to be strongly held by them & our party retired finally having lost 3 officers and 45 other ranks.

Lieut. L. G. E. WALCOTT killed, 2/Lieut O H H LORENZON dangerously wounded, 2/Lieut. G. J. PEARSON slightly wounded.

138th Brigade now ordered that a second attack should be made but after some time being spent in attempting to collect lost parties & find direction in the intense darkness the order was countermanded & battalion ordered to clear trenches & bring in wounded, of whom very many were lying between the opposing trenches, Staffords, Sherwoods, Lincolns, & Monmouths.

39 wounded men were got in before dawn & at 4AM Lieut. I. Welby & 2 men went out 150 yards & brought in another in broad daylight & under heavy fire.

Enemy very quiet during day. 3 wounded men crawled in. Battalion Headquarters moved from dug out in support line near ROTTEN ROW back into FONQUEVILLERS. Day very fine & warm. QUIET night. 5 wounded men & 21 bodies recovered from trenches.

The battalion spent the rest of the summer and much of the autumn holding trenches in the Foncquevillers and Monchy areas. In October 1916, A Company carried out a successful night raid on the German trenches, having received special training beforehand. November was an extended period of rest and training behind the lines. The battalion returned to Foncquevillers on 5th December, taking up positions in the front line between the La Brayelle road and the Hannescamps to Essarts road. B Company was on the right, A Company in the centre, D Company on the left, and C Company in reserve with battalion HQ at Foncquevillers.

In a letter written the following year, Billy mentioned that he was in line for some more home leave in December 1916. This would probably have been the first time he could get home since his wedding in December 1915, as soldiers usually got roughly one lot of home leave per year (although there were many variations according to circumstances, and some men got much less). However, it wasn’t to be. On the night of 6th December he went out on patrol with Lt. Robert Sandall (Col. Sandall’s son), and didn’t come back. This how the war diary describes the incident (a map reference isn’t given, but it would almost certainly have been in 57D NE2 E.17):

A very quiet night. The day spent in clearing of trenches, pumping, & attempt at drainage.

At 9pm a patrol of 15 men under Lieut SANDALL was surprised by a German party lying in wait on the HANNESCAMPS-ESSARTS road. Lieut SANDALL was wounded & L/Cpl WENHAM missing. A strong patrol sent out immediately found traces of the fight but no trace of the missing man.

Instead of going home, Lance Corporal Wenham would be spending Christmas in Berlin, but as a prisoner rather than a victorious conqueror. Meanwhile, 1/5th Lincolnshire had nearly two years of hard fighting ahead of them. This would culminate in what has been called one of the greatest victories in British military history, when 46th Division broke through the Hindenburg Line in September 1918. They would do it without Billy Wenham and most of the other Lincolnshire men who had set out in February 1915.

Bibliography

1. Thomas Edward Sandall, A History of the 5th Batt. the Lincolnshire Regiment. by Colonel T. E. Sandall, Etc (pp. vi. 221. Basil Blackwell: Oxford, 1922).
2. Charles Rudyard. creator Simpson, The history of the Lincolnshire Regiment, 1914-1918 Compiled from war diaries, despatches, officers’ notes and other sources (Medici Society,: London :, 1931).

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.