Fred Karno's Army.

Reading "The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry" I am pleased to see that they have included the songs sung by ordinary soldiers. The usual war poets (Brooke, Owen & Sassoon etc) just don't do a great deal for me but I do find these songs far more compelling.

I particularly like this one called "Fred Karno's Army" which is sung irreverently to the tune of the hymn "The Church's One Foundation"! What I like about the songs of the British infantry in World War One is how self-deprecating they are - this is just one wonderful example.

"We are Fred Karno's Army, the ragtime infantry.

We cannot fight, we cannot shoot, what bleeding use are we?

And when we get to Berlin we'll hear the Kaiser say,

'Hoch! Hoch! Mein Gott, what a bloody rotten lot are the ragtime infantry.'

Fred Karno was a late 19th/early 20th century British music hall comedian who specialised in slap-stick humour, he is credited with the custard-pie-in-face gag and worked with the likes of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel before they moved onto bigger and better things with the advent of cinema.

Jim Swift, killed in action, aged 19.

James Swift was my father's elder brother who died on the Western Front in 1918. When I was a kid the First World War seemed like ancient history to me but the older I get the time difference seems less and less significant.

Last weekend in Leeds I attended my aunt's 100th birthday party. Auntie Anne would have been 8 years old when Jim was killed; it is a remarkable idea that the records I airily pick over represent a real person that Anne knew and grieved for.

The details I have on Jim are sparse but knowing the date of his death and the unit he was with I can place him in the path of the German Spring Offensive of 1918. This was the German's final gamble to win the war outright before the Americans could intervene in force. The offensive is now known as "The Kaiser's Battle" or "Kaiserschlacht". German forces no longer required on the Eastern Front following the military collapse of Russia during the Revolution of 1917 were transferred west and the full force fell on the British front line starting on 21st March. British forces reeled under the blow, the Germans broke through and the army was forced to retreat across ground won at such a high cost in the preceding years. Eventually the British lines held and the German threat was contained.

I gather from the family that Jim had only just got to France when he was killed. This is the record I obtained from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Casualty: Private JAMES SWIFT. 205628
Served With: 7th Bn. Queen's Own Royal (Royal West Kent Regiment)
Died: 28th March 1918
Commemorated: POZIERES MEMORIAL
Somme
France
Panel 58 and 59
Additional Information: Age 19
Son of Patrick and Mary Ann Swift, of 38 Exeter St.,
Bradford, Yorks.
He was born and enlisted in Bradford and formerly served in the Yorkshire and Lancashire Regiment.

Jim has no known grave.

DANIEL BEAK V.C. ... and my Grandad.

A year ago I wrote about my grandfather's experiences in the First World War as an NCO in the Royal Naval Division. I had had to reconstruct the account from his service record which I found online in the National Archive because he never actually spoke that much about the war right up until the time he died over 35 years ago.

My grandfather was wounded on 13th November 1916 when the 63rd Royal Naval Division was involved in a major operation to destroy a German held salient at Beaucourt near Beaumont Hamel (probably held by the 'Leipzig Regiment'). For years afterwards this date would be commemorated as 'Beaucourt Day' by the survivors of this closing phase of the Somme campaign known variously as the Battle of the Ancre or the Tenth Phase of the Battle of the Somme. My grandfather was in "Howe" battalion when they launched their assault that fateful morning. I recently saw some photographs of the battlefield and I was horrified to see the fields of mud they would have had to run over when they 'went over the top'. The casualties they suffered were horrendous. I have just discovered that out of close on 1,000 men 'Howe' battalion only had 21 left unscathed when all their final objectives were taken several hours later. The attack was considered an outstanding success.

My grandfather was in hospital for a couple of months and then seems to have spent 1917 working as an instructor back in England. I think he may have spent some time at a "grenade school" at Bretton's Bench in the New Forest, where recruits would have been trained in the use of munitions to clear trenches and obstacles.

In 1918 he returned to combat on The Western Front and was posted to 'Drake' battalion 'Howe' battalion having been disbanded. I was amazed to discover that during the closing months of the war when the allies were advancing on the Hindenburg Line 'Drake' battalion played a pivotal role in the British offensive. As the attack faltered 'Drake' battalion provided some backbone to the assault. My grandfather's immediate battalion commander was called Daniel Beak and for actions carried out principally on 25th August he was awarded the Victoria Cross (the UK's highest award for bravery): interestingly the citation says he was accompanied by a 'runner' during this action. My grandfather dismissively described himself as just 'a runner' and curiously his service record shows that he was wounded for a second time within 24 hours of Beak's charge!

It was only when I turned up this record did any of the family even realise that grandad, my mother's father, had been wounded for a second time. My mother wasn't even aware that grandad had been at the Somme! Of course I have to be careful in how I interpret all of this because I would like to believe it was my grandad who was with Beak that day - but it does make you wonder doesn't it? What is for sure is that he was with this unit at the right time and in the right place when they attacked the German defences and he was wounded in action the very next day as the fighting continued.

I think the thing I most admire about this story is NOT that my grandad was a hero - which he undoubtedly was whatever role he played - but that he never drew attention to the fact!

63rd (Royal Naval) Division.

Ninety years ago exactly on Monday 13th November 1916 the Royal Naval Division launched an attack on Beaucourt near Beaumont Hamel in the closing phase of The Battle of the Somme which had raged from 1st July of that year. I recently discovered that it was on this date that my grandfather was wounded. He would survive the First World War but not before being wounded for a second time.

My grandfather died when I was a teenager and apart from some self-deprecating anecdotes rarely spoke of the war. A chance remark by my sister, that Grandad had a naval rank and the fact that I had coincidentally read something about the RND made me wonder if that was the unit he was with. The Naval Division was one of the most distinguished fighting units of the British army in the First World War!

The army records of The Great War were largely destroyed during The Blitz in 1940 but the documents of the Royal Navy have survived - and it was among these records at The National Archive on-line that I learnt about my Grandad's war. None of us had appreciated that he was in the RND!

I already knew enough about The Royal Naval Division to recognise that this was an elite fighting unit formed in 1914 at the outbreak of the war for amphibious operations. So I was surprised to learn that this was the outfit my grandfather had volunteered for. The RND was the brainchild of Winston Churchill who was then First Lord of the Admiralty - how could any unit created by him not be elite? Among its more famous members were Rupert Brooke,
the war poet, who died en route to Gallipoli. Arthur Asquith, son of the then Prime Minister Herbert Asquith, was a battalion commander. Bernard Freyburg would be a future Governor
General of New Zealand.

In fact the RND was fighting on the Turkish coast in late 1915 when Grandad volunteered. If he was hoping for an exotic posting it wasn't to be. The RND was withdrawn from Gallipoli early the next year and sent to France which is where grandad first saw action. Command of the RND switched from the Admiralty to the War Office (i.e. army) in April 1916 and was redesignated the '63rd (Royal Naval) Division'. Despite now being officially part of the British army the division insisted on continuing to use naval ranks, fly the White Ensign, salute navy style and speak naval slang, even though they were deep inside the french countryside on the Western Front. I imagine any elite fighting force will seek to retain its distinctive character. This did not win it any fans among certain army types who sought to stamp out these idiosyncracies.....and failed. The RND was said to be the only force to have fought both the German army and the British army!

My grandfather [my mother's father] was an all round sportsman; he played football (soccer) and was a fine cricketer. He won a battalion boxing competition cup - which my aunt still owns (we suspect that it was actually a looted chalice!) He had a passionate love of the Yorkshire Dales and would frequently go walking there. The cricketing gene has since passed to my cousins [watch for the name Jonathan Tattersall in the coming years!] But the walking gene passed to me! I love the Dales too.

Grandad's division was in action throughout the Somme Offensive of 1916. In the UK we largely remember this battle for its disastrous first day when British and Commonwealth forces suffered their worst losses ever. We forget that the offensive lasted several months and lessons about the nature of modern warfare were drawn. One of the final actions of the Somme campaign was the attack on the German stronghold of Beaumont Hamel. It was on the opening day of this attack that my Grandad was wounded and evacuated to the 1st Canadian Hospital at Etaples and then back to England. The RND suffered major casualties in heavy fighting over the next few days.

An interesting aside; during the night of 13th/14th one of the RND's junior officers went AWOL. He was later tried and shot for desertion; one of only two British officers shot for cowardice in the whole of the First World War.

From his record it looks like my Grandad spent 2-3 months in hospital and then had a quiet 1917 working as an instructor around various bases in England, he was probably still recuperating from his injuries. He was promoted to Leading Seaman - and then got busted - twice! Family memory has it that he got involved in a fight; I imagine his protagonist came off the worst.

In March 1918 the Germans launched their massive Spring offensive. Using all the troops freed up from the Russian front after the Communist revolutionary government made a separate peace; it was Germany's last best chance of winning the war before the Americans could intervene effectively. Incidentally it was on the 23rd March 1918 that my father's elder brother Jim was killed aged 19 - he has no known grave.

To stem the German advance reinforcements were sent to France - including my repromoted grandfather. As best as I can judge it from the history of his battalion it looks as if he went back to virtually the same area he had fought in in 1916! It must have been enormously painful to find oneself fighting desperate rearguard actions across the Somme battlefield which had been bought at such a high cost only two years earlier. He was wounded again, but returned to the front a few weeks later. The British army managed to hold the Germans and then in the Summer of 1918 the allied armies began their 'Advance to Victory'.

During one action involving my grandfather's battalion at this time his immediate commander won the Victoria Cross.

There was a ceasefire on 11th November. The Royal Naval Division was disbanded in 1919 and my Grandad returned home. The RND had suffered over four times its original number in casualties - a dreadful attrition rate even by First World War standards. He died in 1971 in
his late seventies. On my grandad's file under 'distinguishing marks' a tattoo is noted - my grandfather's initials [not an uncommon practice even today for elite forces to have such tattoos to aid identification in the event of their death]. But family memory recalls a tattoo
commemorating his lost comrades. I suspect that the original mark was tattooed over and incorporated into the more recent one after the war. Grandad rarely spoke of the war - perhaps it felt unseemly to glory in events that proved so costly to so many families, including those who had died at their hands. My impression is that that generation had a tacit contract with itself never to talk about such things - perhaps their memories were too painful to address or maybe
they simply felt no-one could understand unless they too had been there. Or it could simply be a refusal to allow those few years to effectively define who one is, Grandad's life was bigger than "war" and maybe that was why it had been fought.