Ninety four years ago in April/May 1917 the battles raged east of Arras The above image (IWM Ref Q6228) of British troops boarding buses at Arras after returning from the capture of Monchy-le-Preux was used on the covers of “Cheerful Sacrifice” by Jonathan Nicholls published in 1990 and “Lancashire’s Forgotten Heroes” by Stephen Barker and Christopher Boardman published in 2008. A brief outline of the battles is inside together with a tribute to one soldier from Kirkby Lonsdale serving with the Honourable Artillery Company who fell as the battles ended. Also inside is an account of the commemoration of the Canadian Memorial on Vimy Ridge in 1936 seen through the eyes of a schoolboy who was there, and much more including a tribute to Mike Sherrington (Page 26) Editor’s Musing and the Battle of Vimy Ridge; 23rd-24th April, the Second Battle of the Scarpe; Recollection of my interest in WW1 23rd-29th April, the Battle of Arleux; 3rd-4th goes back to visits as a young teenager May, the Third Battle of the Scarpe; and to scour the shelves of Atherton library 3rd-17th May, the Second Battle of but it was not until early 1992 that I made Bullecourt, fought after a first my first whistle-stop tour of the unsuccessful attack on the 11th April. battlefields. The excuse to travel alone to Including the fighting round Bullecourt, France was a meeting in Luxembourg. I 33 British and 37 German divisions took took two days leave from work and part. travelled early via Charles de Gaulle and After a 5 day preliminary bombardment visited the Somme, Arras/Vimy, le the offensive started on Easter Monday, Cateau and Verdun. 9th April in sleet and snow. Initially the One of the books in the forefront of my British and Canadians were successful. mind at that time was the then recently The British captured Neuville Vitasse and published “Cheerful Sacrifice”. Setting Fampoux whilst the Canadians made aside the picture of buses on the front their famous capture of Vimy Ridge. cover which made me hark back to a Over the next few days the British childhood where my daily routine was advanced their line to capture Wancourt often influenced by my father’s shift and Monchy-le-Preux but the Canadians patterns as a bus driver, to me, Jonathan lost impetus after the first day. When the Nicholls’s book, woven with veteran’s offensive eventually started at Bullecourt stories, was a masterpiece in describing on 11th April it was a complete failure with the events of April/May 1917. the Australians losing more troops than As I mulled over a suitable on any other day of the war. frontispiece/focus for this Despatch with With troops suffering from the intense the experience of numerous subsequent cold as well as fatigue, the offensive was visits and gains in WW1 knowledge, maintained only to distract attention from nevertheless I thought the Battles of preparations for the Nivelle’s French Arras would de nicely. offensive to the south. It was halted on th April 15 . MORE INFORMATION FOR ARTICLES WHEN: The offensive was resumed on 23rd (+P) : photos, maps in Photo Gallery, April to support French operations on the (+S) : supplementary information report Chemin de Dames with further gains east See our website www.wfanlancs.co.uk and look against this Despatch and north of Arras, but, according to the Official History, attacks were continued after they would normally have ceased. THE BATTLES OF ARRAS 1917: Terry The second very desperate Battle of Dean Bullecourt commenced on 3rd May and resulted in further heavy Australian and The Battles of Arras 1917 are best British losses. known by the capture of Vimy Ridge, In “Cheerful Sacrifice” Nicholls points which happened in the first stage. They out that the average daily casualty rate actually included several phases: 9th to was far higher than either the Somme or 14th April, the First Battle of the Scarpe Passchendaele. The Allied casualties for 2 the 39 days that the battles lasted are The Official History devotes estimated at slightly fewer than 150,000. approaching 400 pages to the Battles of The Official History indicates there is Arras and with regard to the next article “reason to suppose that the German mentions the 2nd Battalion Honourable casualties in the Arras offensive up to the Artillery Company taking over part of the end of May were lighter by comparison line in Bullecourt on the night of 14th May. with those of the British than in most of It goes on to describe the last and the British offensives. The tactical biggest counterattack made by the dispositions adopted by the Germans Germans on 15th May which was after the first few days did not expose repulsed with heavy losses on both sides their troops to the same degree as on the and how “Second Bullecourt had the Somme in 1916. reputation of a killing-match typifying trench warfare at its most murderous.” 3 QUEEN ELIZABETH GRAMMAR Company was pushed back as far as SCHOOL, KIRKBY LONSDALE, ROLL Battalion Head Quarters (H.Q.) and there OF HOUNOUR: c/o Oliver Wilkinson was a danger of the Germans enveloping (+S) several battalions. Jackson and the rest of ‘D’ Company, Wilfred Henry JACKSON Sergeant, together with survivors of the other 4246, 2nd Battalion Honourable Artillery companies, were ordered to attack and Company (HAC) clear Bullecourt of the Germans. As a sergeant of a Lewis Gun Section, Wilfred Henry Jackson in many Jackson took charge of his gun and it respects can be seen as Queen was reported by a corporal in his section Elizabeth Grammar School’s favourite that he knocked out a German machine son. Throughout his service he kept in gun position as well as two German contact with the school, and perhaps snipers. The German attack was checked because he had only left a year before and subsequently faded away. the war started, his former teachers held Unfortunately during the resistance him in high regard. He also proved his Jackson was killed, however, his sacrifice worth as a soldier, rising through the was said to have made a real difference. ranks to become a senior NCO, before His work had prevented 3 Battalions being killed during a massive German being enveloped and afterwards the counter-attack on 15th May 1917. QES Divisional Commander had had lost a bright and greatly loved son. complemented all the gunners of ‘D’ In May 1917 it was decided that a huge Company, referring to Sergeant Jackson assault of the Hindenburg Line would in particular, for their excellent work. take place, with the objective of capturing Jackson, however, was not there to the village of Bullecourt. Jackson’s unit, hear this praise, and he was not the only the 2nd Battalion Honourable Artillery absent man. All that was left of the whole Company (HAC) was involved in the 2nd Battalion were 4 officers and 94 men. assault on the village on the 3rd May but The life of Jackson was, like many of was unable to capture it. The 91st the ‘old boys’, full of potential. He was Brigade achieved this objective on the 7th born on 14th December 1895, the only May. However, the cost was extremely son of John Warbrick Smith Jackson, high, and the HAC in particular suffered Kirkby-Lonsdale’s blacksmith. Initially he huge casualties. Thus, on the 14th May, was educated at the National School, and when the battalion was ordered to relieve then went to some newly captured front line trenches, Queen Elizabeth the fighting strength of the unit stood at Grammar School just 250 men. Jackson was included in for four years. At this number. the school he The relief of the new trenches was became captain undertaken without incident, but the of the football battalion did not have time to get team, and his comfortable in the new positions. At 4 sporting ability in both football and cricket a.m. a massive enemy counterattack was was said to be unequalled. Moreover he opened, and ‘C’ Company was almost was also talented academically, entirely annihilated. Consequently ‘B’ particularly in mathematics and 4 languages. In extra-circular activities he was an accomplished violinist, and he “We got aboard a transport on the played in competitions at the Winter Sunday night, but did not set sail as it Gardens, Morecambe. was found to be rather dangerous, two of Upon leaving school he began three neutrals [neutral ships] having been studying to gain entry into the Civil torpedoed the night before. So we Service and successfully secured an marched back six miles through the dark appointment to the Inland Revenue, to a rest camp where we stayed the night. where he was described as having a The next night we sailed and after a promising business career. When war seven hours pleasant voyage arrived in came he was employed as a Second France. Followed a long, uphill, tedious Division Clerk at the Admiralty in London. march to a camp, and next morning a This was a ‘war job’, meaning that march back to the station, where we Jackson had no need to join up, and for a entrained in cattle-trucks for a railway year he was content in his administrative journey of 21 hours.” position. However, his patriotic flare got After the Battalion arrived at the the better of him and on the 23rd August trenches Jackson received a baptism of 1915 he joined the Honourable Artillery fire. Within just a few days at the front Company (HAC).