The Second Munsters 1914-1918
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
n December 1916, General Joffre, the French Commander- in-Chief, was remov- ed from his position and replaced by Gen- THE SECOND eral Robert Nivelle, one of the .defenders of Verdun. Although Nivelle was seen as a hero, his appointment was to have serious consequences for the French Army, who were by this time suffering from war-weariness. Nivelle had decided to attack the German Army south of the Somme, roughly on a front between Soissons and Reims. The British Army came to their aid by carryinsout a diversinary attack north of the Somme at Arras. Meanwhile, the Germans, although knowing of the impending French attack, were straightening out their front line on the by Des Ryan Somme front, between Arras a~dSois- Part ~hr& sons; in some parts they withdrew to a distance of between thirty and fifty booby-trapped. Furniture was chopped their thousands. A French officer miles. up, and livestock taken away.2 All this described what happened: "We found As the Germans retired, they should have been a warning to Nivelle nothing but barbed wire. If it hadn't destroyed the towns and villages. Key but he choose to ignore it. been forthat we'd have been far ahead, towns such as Peronne were devas- On April 6th, America entered the instead of being killed where we tated.l Every house in the abandoned war on the Allied side. The British Army stood". areas was blown up. Trees were chop- attacked at Arras, in a blinding A corporal, who had been using a ped down and laid across roads. snowstorm, on April 9th, and by April rifle as a crutch, said: "We just couldn't Thousands of booby-traps were laid; 12th they had captured a position keep moving ... Too many blasted some of which were extremely ingeni- known as Vimy Ridge. Nivelle's offen- machine-guns, which we couldn't do ous. A new shovel lying among old sive began, in similar conditions, on anything again~t".~ ones, would be wired to a bomb, as Monday, April 16th. The men, who had By Tuesday, Nivelle had lost just would an innocently opened door; been led to believe that this would be under 120,000 men, and a fortnight even fountain-pens left on desks were the deciding battle, were cut down in later the offensive was coming to a A drawing by Christopher Clark of Munster and Dublin fusiliers returning from the Somme, 1916. 4, b NINETEEN grinding halt. By May 3rd, mutinies artillery .shells rained down on the dierswent overthe top on July 3lst, the were beginning to break out in the camp, destroying most of the huts and rain began to fall. By August 4th, the French Army. Regiments refused to killing seven men; another forty-one ground was turning into a swamp. man the trenches. Others said they were wounded. Luckily most of the Bat- After setbacks on August 10th and would defend their trenches but would talion were out working at the time or 16th, "Haig was advised that the attack not attack; red flags were also unfurled. the losses would have been greater. should be abandoned"12 but he was One regiment, on being led to the front, Regimental Sergeant-Major John Ring, committed to carrying on. persisted in baa-ing like sheep oblivious to the danger, supervised the At Clipon Camp, on October 15th, it to indicate that they were like lambs evacuation of the remaining soldiers. was announced that the landing was being led to the ~laughter.~When they When the Battalion returned to the posponed but the Munsters remained were told to shut-up, they returned to front two days later, it again came there until October 29th. By tpat time, the rest billets from which they had under heavy artillery fire. One of the the battle for Passchendaelewa/s enter- come. In Paris itself there were strikes men, unable to stand the strain, rushed ing its final phase. /'/ and demonstrations among the civilian forward towards the German lines. He Concrete German strongpoints, population. On April 28th, General was followed by a private named known as pill-boxes, and rain-filled Petain was made Chief of the General Donovan who brought him back, under shell-holes dominated the landscape. Staff, and shortly afterwards Neville heavy fire, to their own lines. Private For the wounded, seeking refuge in a was,asked to resign. Donovan was one of six Munsters who, shell-hole was attimes fatal. Exhausted Petain visited the front lines and after the fighting at Etreux, in August and losing blood, they crawled into the restored morale and discipline. He 1914, had hidden in France for a holes, only to learn that this move promised the men more leave (one of number of months. Eventually, he could cost them their lives.13 Slowly the regiments'had been in continuous escaped through Belgium and Holland they would slip down the muddy sides, action since Verdun), increased family and rejoined the Battalion in August too weak to hold themselves up. Their allowances to soldiers' wives and l915'.7 feeble whispers often could not be improved canteen facilities. But there On July 19th, the 1st Division, of heard by their comrades passing by. were to be other consequences. Al- which the Munsters were part, moved Each shell-hole with blood on its water though General Nivelle was merely to a special training camp, situated usually meant another corpse demoted, those soldiers who had re- south-west of Dunkirk. This was Clipon entombed below.14 fused to let themselves be slaughtered Camp (nicknamed 'Hush Camp') and it On November 6th, with cold rain in futile attempts to break the German was here that the Battalion went into beating down on them, soldiers of the line were executed. Figures vary on training for an amphibious landing 2nd Canadian Division fought their way how many were executed. One source behind the German lines. The 1st Divi- through the rubble of what was once gives the figure as twenty-three and sion were to make an assault on the the village of Passchendaele. Wolff, another as fifty. Two hundred and fifty Belgian coast at Zeebrugge and Ostend the official Canadian historian, more were marched to a quiet sector in order to capture the German sub- describes the moments before their and annihilated by their own artillery. marine bases which were at that time entry: Over a hundred ringleaders were causing serious losses to Allied ship- "It is not too much to compare the banished to various French colonies. ping. The landings were due to take Canadian troops struggling forward, Especially disruptive units were sent to place about two weeks after the open- the pangs of hell racking their bodies, the most dangerous front^.^ ing of General Haig's Flanders offen- up the Ridge, (Passchendaele was In January 1917, the Munster sive. fifty-feet above ground level) their Fusiliers' marched south, across the General Haig (who had replaced dying eyes set up the summit, with a Somme River, and took up a position General John French as head of the Man who once crept up another hill, on the front line, not farfrom thevillage British forces in December 1915) with agony in soul and body, to of Barleux. They remained in this area believed he could force a successful redeem the world and give until St. Patrick's Day. By that time the conclusion to the war by driving the Passchendaele its glorious name".15 German Army had evacuated its posi- German forces out of Belgium. The It was on that day also that the tions around the town of Peronne and French Army's mutinies and the fear of Munsters moved into the battle area. were withdrawing to a new line of the German submarines operating out On November 8th, they passed defence which they called the Siegfried of Belgium were a blessing to Haig, as through Ypres on their way to the front Line; the Allies preferred to call it the they were used to justify his Flanders' line. On November loth, a new effort Hindenburg Line. The fusiliers re-cros- campaign. The ground over which the was made to extend the front line. The sed the Somme on March 18th and battle was to be fought was reclaimed Battalion had instructions to capture began work in the Peronne area by marshland. The city of Ypres had once three or four wrecked farm buildings restoring communications which had been a seaport and it was now an and some pill-boxes which the Ger- been destroyed by the retiring Ger- inland city only because of the man- mans were holding; each man was car- mans. Some of the Munsters became made drainage systems. The ground rying an extra bandolier, 150 rounds of victims of the numerous booby-traps between %res and Passchendaele was ammunition, steel helmet, two Mills that the Germans had planted.=On May composed of clay fields. When it rained bombs (a forerunner of the hand-gre- 24th, the Battalion won three competi- the water could not soak through the nade). They also carried three days' tions at the 1st Division's Sports Day. ground; it formed into swamps and rations, waterproof sheet, extra water Towards the end of June, the Munsters pools and sluggishly spread towards to drink, and a gas and smoke helmet. moved up to the Belgian coast to near the already swollen rivers and canak8 Their artillery opened fire at 5.55 a.m., the town of Nieuport. About twenty Farmers living on the reclaimed marsh- zero-hour being 6 o'clock.