Major John George Brew - 1914/15: Enlistment and Disembarkation

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1914-15 - Enlistment and Disembarkation

In Ulster's southern province, the Armagh Volunteers were organised under their commanding officer, Colonel Stewart W. Blacker, a well respected figure in the community, and became the 9th Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers. They were soon nicknamed "Blacker's Boys". The 9th Battalion was made up partially of farmers from rural Armagh, where, owing to responsibilities on the farm, recruiting volunteers was harder and took much longer.

Camps were quickly prepared at Ballykinler for the 107th, and at Finner for the 109th, while new recruits in the 108th Brigade were taken to the Town Hall in Belfast to complete formalities and were sent off to their training camp at Clandeboye.

Soon after their arrival at Clandeboye, the weather took a turn for the worse and the wet and cold autumn weather soon made living in the hastily erected and inadequate tents extremely uncomfortable. Under the feet of so many men, the ground quickly became a muddy bog, which, unbeknown to them at the time, was a foretaste of what they would experience in France. There was much illness as a result of the poor conditions, in some cases resulting in meningitis. Despite the troops' relatively good spirits, it was recognised that the accommodations were completely unsatisfactory and most men were promptly billeted in and around Belfast, Hollywood and Lisburn. Eventually huts were built, and, though they proved to be cold inside, they were dry and the men were able to return to the camp.

Major General Powell, having done service with the Ghurkas and been a mountain climber in the Himalayas, stressed the importance of physical fitness and route marches soon became an integral part of their training. Lack of full equipment was the major problem facing the Division during this time, and, not having yet received their full equipment, the men carried rucksacks on their backs full of stones. Attacks and advances were practised in the hills and forests against an imaginary enemy. Some training consisted of mundane tasks such as marching, drill, and PT, though there were more 'fun' things such as fighting with bayonets, charging sand-filled figures, and tossing handgrenades. They had only drill rifles, so limited shooting practice was done on old Mauser rifles borrowed from the UVF on UVF ranges.[3]

A programme had been introduced soon after the outbreak of war which detailed the training requirements and expectations of the newly raised armies. The six month syllabus covered everything from basic recruit training, through drill, discipline, hygiene, to battalion, brigade and divisional exercises. Every aspect of a soldier's training was covered, but the 36th Division was never able to complete it.

As recruiting continued and numbers grew, Clandeboye soon became too small for the entire 108th Brigade so in early December the 9th Irish Fusiliers were moved to neighbouring Newtownards with the 12th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles, where they occupied new huts at the Ards Recreation Society grounds, where they continued their training.

By the Spring of 1915, the 12 Battalions of the Ulster Division were finally prepared for service in France. The 9th, 'Blacker's Boys', was described as "being the best battalion in the division" and the Division as the "best equipped, best drilled and most professional unit in the United Kingdom". As the 36th readied for departure, local women in 'Comfort Committees' organised sock, mitten and warm clothing collections. Concerned for the men's' spiritual needs, 'mission services' were held for the two battalions at Newtownards over the period of a week at the end of May, which around 70 men attended each evening.

The culmination of the preparations for departure was a Divisional parade through the streets of Belfast on 8 May 1915, a day after the Lusitania was sunk. Relatives and families of the men travelled extra to Belfast from outlying regions of north Ireland to see their boys off, and gave them a rousing farewell. The march through Belfast was preceded by an inspection of the Division's 17,000 troops by Major General Sir Hugh McCalmont in Malone, from where they marched for the centre of Belfast and on past the Mayor and Mayoress at City Hall. It took over one-and-a-half hours for the entire Division to pass by! Newspapers were filled with stories of the parade during the following week, proudly praising their young men, and retelling the story of the emotions of the celebrated farewell.

In June the Division was sent to Seaford, Sussex, to complete training before their embarkation to France. The troops travelled by train to Dublin where they boarded a ship bound for Holyhead in Wales. Here they entrained for Seaford, and took a leisurely route through Wales and southern England.

The war was getting closer, but the mood of the troops remained good. Seaford was for most troops a pleasant place to be in; the weather was good, and when off duty many took the opportunity to visit Brighton and bathe in the English Channel. Some even travelled to London to see the great city and ride the underground. But there were constant reminders in this part of England of the war they had come to fight; it is said that on a calm evening, when the breeze was just right, one could hear the distant guns in France. Some airships hung in the air, tethered to the ground, and aeroplanes often passed overhead while the men continued their training over the rolling South Downs.

On 27 July, Lord Kitchener came to inspect the troops. Unfortunately for the men, he didn't stay long, and many were disappointed for all the preparation they had made for his visit. Despite the shortness of his visit, he was apparently nonetheless impressed as he is on record as having said that it was the finest division of his army which he yet seen.   

The one main outcome of the Kitchener visit was, however, the realisation that due to a lack of weapons and ammunition, there had been alarmingly little training either on rifles or machine guns. The Division was moved from Seaford to Bordon and Bramshott, outside Aldershot, at the beginning of September, where they were given the opportunity to learn. Despite efforts, it seemed the training was too little too late.

On 23 September, during the final days before their departure for the Continent, General Powell was replaced by the more experienced Major General Oliver Nugent, who had already seen service in South Africa and France. It was felt that only general officers with experience in France should command divisions deployed there. To appease him, General Powell was given the K.C.B. with the official reason that it was in recognition of his services in the training of the Division. Just a week later King George V came to review and inspect the Division with Lord Kitchener. He congratulated General Nugent, remarking what a fine division the 36th was.

A few days later, the Ulstermen marched out of Aldershot and crossed the Channel to France. An advance party of 1000 of the Division's Engineers went over first followed by the infantry, the first of which were the 15th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles, who embarked on 3 October trailed closely by the rest of the troops on consecutive days. The ships seemed crammed with equipment and overflowing with men. Smoking was forbidden and the crossings were made in complete darkness.

The 9th Royal Irish Fusiliers were landed in Le Havre at 06:30 on 4 October 1915 and marched to a rest camp in the vicinity for the day. Battalion strength stood at 30 officers and 995 other ranks.[4] It is impossible to know what was going on in the men's minds on this, their first day in France; some were surely thrilled by the notion of adventure, but the reality which lay before them was in stark contrast to the previous year's training, and as this became obvious, it is certain that the hearts of many were filled with fear.

On their second day in France, the 9th Irish Fusiliers entrained at 17:30 with other battalions of the Division for Longueau, south-east of Amiens, in the Somme area of France's Picardy region. It was a long and slow trip, and although the Officers travelled in a first class wagon, the rest of the troops were astonished to realise they were travelling in wagons made for the carriage of horses. Their arrival at 05:30 the next morning was followed by a 15km march via Amiens to the village of Rainneville where they were billeted. As they neared the front, they soon came into contact with the realities of war, shocked to see the steady flow of casualties being conveyed to hospitals in the rear.

The 9th Irish Fusiliers were billeted with 13th Royal Irish Rifles in the same village, but soon found it much too small to accommodate two entire Battalions. The 9th Battalion's War Diary noted,

Accompanied by the unfamiliar sound of thundering artillery in the distance, they found places to sleep on hay and out of the weather in the village's barns. A few days later, the 13th Rifles were moved to the village of St. Gratien, making Rainneville much more comfortable both for the inhabitants and the 9th Irish Fusiliers, who were redistributed throughout the village.

Further training was the main priority and the battalion's War Diary over the ensuing ten days, for example, show the men involved in drill, parades and inspections, field exercises and route marches, demonstrations and lectures, and shooting and bombing practice. Here, they also made their first experiences with gas. On the afternoon of 12 October there was a

Soon after midday on 17 October, the Irish Fusiliers were marched to new billets for the night in the village of Puchevillers, 8km to the north-east, where they rejoined the 13th Irish Rifles. The following morning, the march was continued a further 15km in the same direction to Couin, where they camped in tents in the park surrounding a castle.

Part of their training consisted of being attached to experienced units on the front for first-hand training in trench warfare and survival. Each of the Division's brigades was attached to either the 4th Irish or 48th South Midland Divisions for a five day period. The Irish Fusiliers, for their part, were attached to the 144th Brigade of the 48th Division and marched from Couin and via Sailly-au-Bois to Hébuterne on 19 October to join them. Each of the battalion's four companies was further attached to one of the Brigade's battalions : 'A' Company was attached to the 1/4 Gloucesters, 'B' Company to the 1/6 Gloucesters, 'C' Company to the 1/8 Worcesters, and 'D' Company to the 1/7 Worcesters.

Over the next five days, the 9th Fusiliers got their first real taste of life in the trenches. They were fired upon and shelled, and had their first direct contact with the enemy. On the evening of 21 October, a patrol of Fusiliers from 'B' Company, under instruction from, and accompanied by men of the 1/6 Gloucesters, came face to face with a German patrol approximately 200 yards in front of British wire. Bombs were thrown at each other, but those of the Gloucesters and Fusiliers failed to explode. They then opened up with machine gun fire and were able to retire without suffering a casualty, while claiming several enemy killed. The patrol arrived back in British lines carrying a dead German who was later identified as being from the 169th Bavarian Regiment.[7] Then, on 23 October, the Battalion suffered it's first casualty of the war when Private Wilson of 'C' Company was wounded in the arm.

The following evening the last of the Battalion's troops retired from their first assignment in the trenches at 17:00 and spent the night behind lines in Hébuterne. Up early next morning, the Fusiliers left for Couin again at 06:30, marching via Sailly-au-Bois where they took a break to take much welcome hot baths, and marched on to billets in Beaval the following day.[8]

But the relative comfort of billets in village barns would all too soon be left behind as the time came for the Division to finally move up to take their allotted place in the front line trenches, next to more experienced units. Only a few days later, the 9th Irish Fusiliers took over their new positions near the village of Hamel, north of the nearest large town, Albert, and on the western side of the Ancre River. This would be their 'home territory' for many months to come.

The trenches were in reality not a pleasant place to be. They afforded little shelter from the elements, except for small dugouts and holes burrowed out of trench walls. They were cold, muddy and infested by rats, fleas and lice. The walls were lined with wicker, the ground with duck-boards, and the rim strengthened with sandbags and barbed wire. Rains filled communication trenches with water and became impassable. In some trenches, some men sunk so deep in mud, they had to be dug out. Then, between German and British lines there was what was known as 'No Man's Land', a barren and deadly zone sometimes only yards wide. Besides the daily artillery duels, sniping was an additional and lethal reality to reckon with; there was a high price to pay for a head protruding over the rim of a trench, but it would still be 1916 before helmets were issued.

On 22 November, the Division's first death in action was reported, that of soldier from the 12th Royal Irish Rifles, soon followed by others, some of whom fell victim to German snipers, and others to the daily artillery bombardments. But, compared to other sectors, theirs was a relatively quiet one, and casualties remained comparatively low.

As Winter settled in and Christmas approached, life in the trenches grew more uncomfortable. But there was no lack of action, and a stint in the front line trenches would last around 7-10 days and include daily artillery bombardment and nightly patrolling in No Man's Land. Some of the more sinister weapons the Division was to come in contact with were 'mining' and gas. Mining consisted of burrowing tunnels forward to enemy lines, and detonating explosives under the Germans' feet, which the Ulstermen practised around Beaumont-Hamel. Gas was a completely different matter. First used by the Germans at Ypres in April 1915, it was certainly no new weapon, but it struck fear into the hearts of all. Although training had been conducted, gas masks were still very primitive; indeed the first gas masks afforded little protection at all. Gas could cause a painful and choking death, but to the survivor it meant irreparable damage to the respiratory system. The first sign of gas was to be reported by the loud and clear shout "Gas!", followed by the wild chiming of gongs made of empty shell cases which would be the sign to don gas-masks. Chlorine gas was in use throughout 1915, but in December that year a new, more deadly gas was introduced : phosgene - much more powerful and completely invisible. Understandably, the extremely painful retching and ensuing death brought by this new form of gas wrought horror in the ranks.

Living conditions were to become even harsher with the arrival of snow and ice. A heavy snow would sometimes prevent supplies getting to the front, and the men lacked hot food just when they needed it most. Drinking water became scarce so many sucked on ice, but that only gave them stomach cramps. The weather meant damp and cold clothing, and mud stuck to everything and froze. Illnesses took there toll on the Division too, during Winter, and many men spent time in field hospitals recovering from bouts of fever and flu; 'trench foot', known as 'foot rot' by the Ulstermen, was rampant, brought on by constantly damp feet.

Sometimes, however, small luxuries arrived from home. Once, the 9th Irish Fusiliers received 1000 handkerchiefs from the Queen Alexandra Field Force Fund, much to their amusement.

When Christmas arrived, however, nights on the front took on a more placid air. Sometimes the men would sing carols and their counterparts in the German trenches opposite them would recite them too. One story is told of a German soldier who the men would hear playing 'Silent Night' on his cornet each night. Christmas dinner consisted of turkeys, geese and hams which were supplied by the officers and supplemented by packages sent from home, while some of the more cunning soldiers managed to arrange other treats, such as candy or a bottle of French brandy. Many had seriously believed they would be home by Christmas, but the day's arrival brought with it the realisation that they were still a long way from home, both in distance and in time. Their families back in Ireland would be celebrating Christmas without them and although the very essence of the Pals Battalions meant the men were in France with friends and relatives, they all missed home and loved ones. Despite the loneliness, they had no choice but to make the best of it.

Next Chapter - The Big Push