CHAPTER I

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MOBILISATION AND TRAINING.

At the outbreak of war with Germany, early in August, 1914, the West Riding Territorial Division consisted of the following battalions:--

1st. West Riding Infantry Brigade: 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th Battalions West Yorkshire Regiment.

2nd. West Riding Infantry Brigade: 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th Battalions Duke of Wellington’s (W.R.) Regiment.

3rd. West Riding Infantry Brigade: 4th and 5th Battalions King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry; 4th and 5th Battalions York and Lancaster Regiment.

Major-General T. S. Baldock, C.B., was in command of the Division, and Brigadier-General E. F. Brereton, D.S.O., of the 2nd West Riding Infantry Brigade. No change of battalions took place in any of the Infantry Brigades until the reorganisation of the British Expeditionary Force at the beginning of 1918, when each was reduced to three battalions; and even then no fresh battalion was added to the Division.

The 4th Battalion Duke of Wellington’s (W.R.) Regt, was under the command of Lieut.-Colonel H. S. Atkinson, T.D., of Cleckheaton, and Major E. P. Chambers, of Brighouse, was second in command. Capt. H. A. S. Stanton, of the Royal Scots Regt., was Adjutant. Though the regular army had recently been reorganised on a four-company basis, a similar change had not yet been made in the Territorial Force, so that the Battalion consisted of eight companies as follows:--

A Company (Halifax) commanded by Capt. V. A. Milligan. B Company (Halifax) „ Capt. D. B. Winter. C Company (Halifax) „ Capt. D. V. Fleming. D Company (Brighouse) „ Capt. R. E. Sugden. E Company (Cleckheaton) „ Capt. J. Walker. F Company (Halifax) „ Lieut. E. P. Learoyd. G Company (Elland) „ Capt. R. H. Goldthorp. H Company (Sowerby Bridge) „ Capt. W. A. Laxton.

All the four companies from the out-lying districts were well up to strength, but the Halifax companies were weak.

On July 26th, the Battalion went to camp at Marske-by-the-Sea for its annual period of training. The time was one of intense anxiety and excitement. On July 28th, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Three days later general mobilisation was ordered by Russia, which produced an immediate ultimatum from Berlin. The next day mobilisation was ordered in both France and Germany; the latter, as is now well known, had been mobilising and concentrating secretly on its French and Belgian frontiers for some days. On August 2nd, the German armies entered Luxembourg, and violated French territory without any declaration of war. Two days later Britain sent its ultimatum to Germany and as, on the same day, German troops entered Belgian territory, war broke out between the two countries at midnight, August 4/5th. Such was the atmosphere in which the Battalion carried out its training at Marske.

The camp should have lasted a fortnight, but it broke up at the end of a week. The Special Service Section of 100 other ranks, under the command of Capt. R. E. Sugden, with Lieut. H. N. Waller as his second in command, was the first to leave. Orders for it to proceed at once to Grimsby arrived during the church parade on Sunday, August 2nd, and it left the same day. It was employed guarding the Admiralty Wireless Station at Waltham, and the water and electricity works. On August 3rd, the men of the Battalion returned to their homes, where they waited in hourly expectation of orders to mobilise. These came on the evening of the following day, and the same night the Battalion was concentrated at Halifax, the men sleeping in the Secondary Schools in Prescott Street. The Battalion was about 650 strong. Scarcely a man had failed to report.

About 1-30 p.m. on August 5th, the Battalion[1] marched down Horton Street to the Railway Station, and there took train for Hull, its allotted station. There was no public send-off. War had come so suddenly that people seemed hardly to realise what was happening. On arrival most of the men were billeted in a big concert hall in the town, the remainder occupying a Working Boys’ Club in one of the poorer quarters, and buildings near the docks. At Hull the men were variously employed. Guards were provided on the docks and at the Naval Signal Station. Working parties were sent out to dig trenches at Sutton, part of the new system of coast defences which was being prepared. Perhaps the most congenial duty was the rounding up of a number of Germans in the district; these were searched--some of them were found to be in possession of revolvers--and were then marched off to S.S. “Borodino,” one of the new Wilson liners, on board of which they were confined. The guard on the vessel was found by the Battalion and this was considered to be a good job.

During these first days of war the ration question was extremely difficult. The carefully planned pre-war scheme had broken down the very first day. The Battalion had no transport, and neither the Quarter Master nor the transport personnel had accompanied it to Hull. Taxis had to be requisitioned to take the place of transport vehicles; food had to be obtained as and where it could be found. Great credit was due to R.Q.M.S. F. J. Cooke and his staff for the way in which they pulled the Battalion through the difficulty. At this time the men were armed with the C.L.L.E. rifle and were fairly well equipped; difficulties of equipment only became serious when drafts began to arrive. About 100 National Reservists joined the Battalion at Hull.

On August 11th, the Battalion was relieved by a Special Reserve Battalion of Lancashire Fusiliers and moved by water to Immingham, where it was stationed at the docks. Here it had its first experience of war conditions. There were no proper billets. The officers all slept on the floor of a granary, a part of the same building doing duty as a Battalion Mess. The men were even worse off, having nothing better than a number of sheds with concrete floors. At Immingham the Special Service Section and the transport personnel rejoined. There, too, the whole of the 2nd West Riding Infantry Brigade, except one battalion, was concentrated. A further draft of National Reservists also joined.

Only two days were spent at Immingham, and then the Battalion marched to Great Coates, where it remained for nearly five weeks. This was the beginning of the long period of intensive training which preceded its departure overseas. The men were billeted in barns, granaries and stables, thus getting an early taste of what was to become their normal mode of life for long periods in France. Training consisted mostly of route marches, and battalion and company schemes. Great attention was paid to musketry. Newly-gazetted officers began to arrive, and further drafts of men brought the Battalion up to full strength before it left Great Coates, though a good many National Reservists were rejected at the medical examination. The weather was perfect. Days of glorious sunshine followed one another with monotonous regularity.

On September 15th, the Battalion went under canvas in Riby Park, where training continued for another month. At first there had been few volunteers for service overseas. Little information was available as to the conditions of service, and few men had yet realised the greatness of the crisis. But when the situation was properly understood they responded to the call well. The Battalion became definitely a foreign service unit. All officers and other ranks who had not volunteered for general service left it, and joined the 2/4th Battalion Duke of Wellington’s Regt., which was being formed at Halifax. About the middle of October, the whole Battalion moved to the neighbourhood of Marsden, in the Colne Valley, to fire the General Musketry Course. Several ranges were used by different companies, but the shooting was much interfered with by the atrocious weather which was experienced there. Here most of the men were inoculated, and leave was plentiful.

On November 5th, Battalion H.Q. moved by train to Doncaster, at which place the whole of the 2nd West Riding Infantry Brigade was concentrated during the next few days. There it remained throughout the winter and only left when the time came for it to move to France.

It was not until the middle of January, 1915, that the Battalion was reorganised on a four-company basis, in accordance with the system adopted shortly before the war by the Regular Army. The original companies were then amalgamated as follows:--

A and D Companies joined to form No. 1 (afterwards A) Coy. E and G „ „ No. 2 ( „ B) „ B and C „ „ No. 3 ( „ C) „ F and H „ „ No. 4 ( „ D) „[3]

Companies were billeted in schools in the town. On the whole these billets were made pretty comfortable, for the men were fast learning how to look after themselves.[4] Officers occupied rooms in various hotels and private houses, but had a Battalion Mess, first at an hotel, but later in a house which was rented in Regent Terrace.

All available time was occupied in training and organisation. With the exception of a few small guards, the Battalion had no garrison duties to find. During the earlier part of its stay at Doncaster most of the training took the form of field days. Training areas were allotted near the town, and these were frequently changed in order to give variety. Many fierce “battles” were fought both by day and night. Usually the Battalion worked out its own schemes, but occasionally there were Brigade and Divisional days, when the officers and men learned something of the co-operation of the different arms. The training was very strenuous and involved a great deal of route marching. The Battalion would parade about 7-0 a.m. and march out, often a distance of seven or eight miles, to the training area. A scheme would then be worked out, and after it was over the Battalion would be marched back. Considerable distances were thus often covered in a day, and the men got into splendid condition. After the Battalion had been reorganised into four companies, the system of training was considerably changed for a time, as a completely new drill had to be learned. So an ordinary day’s training became much as follows. After about half-an-hour’s physical training, the Battalion marched down to the Race Course where the morning was spent at the new drill; an hour’s bayonet fighting in the afternoon completed the work for the day. Much attention was also paid to musketry. This was carried out under the supervision of Major R. E. Sugden, who lived at Battalion H.Q. for that purpose, and thus was not able to see much of his Company. Ranges at Cantley and Scunthorpe were used. A little trench digging was done near Armthorpe but, as it was still hoped that the war would soon become one of movement again, this form of training was not taken very seriously. On one occasion the Battalion was inspected on the Race Course by the G.O.C., Northern Command; but otherwise, little attention was paid to ceremonial drill. Lectures on various military subjects were given by the officers and, in order to give variety to the men and lighten the work of the lecturers, senior officers went round the different companies giving the same lectures to each.

Alarms were not infrequent but, only once, was there any real reason for them. That occasion was the day when a few fast German cruisers slipped across the North Sea, and bombarded Scarborough for a short time. That morning the Battalion had marched out about eight miles to do a scheme. It had just arrived when urgent orders to return at once were received. Without any rest the men fell in and marched straight back to Doncaster without a halt. It was very hot for the time of year, and the march was no mean performance. For the rest of that day all troops were confined to billets; but they were not called upon to do anything further and everything was normal the next day.

The time spent at Doncaster was very pleasant. The townsfolk were very kind to all the men, many of whom made good friends. Long after they had gone overseas several men were still corresponding with Doncaster people, and most of the survivors have warm recollections of the hospitality extended to them. Christmas was celebrated right royally. Few were able to get home, but everything possible was done to make the season an enjoyable one. Dinners were served at the principal hotels[5] of the town and, thanks to the generosity of the Doncaster Tradesmen’s Association, about half the Battalion was entertained in the Corn Exchange on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

But in spite of everything there was much discontent in the Battalion, though one can hardly grumble at the cause of it. The men longed to be at the “Front.” Most of them had expected to go overseas very soon and, as the weeks dragged into months, some began to wonder whether they ever would get there. This long delay was due mainly to shortage of equipment. Practically everything was going to the New Armies, which were in training, and there was little left over for the Territorial Force. Furthermore, there was the ever-present fear of invasion, and it was not deemed safe to send the Territorials overseas until new troops were sufficiently trained to defend the country in case of need. But few of the men understood these things. One man actually deserted in order to enlist in another regiment, because he thought the Battalion was not going out. Another wrote direct to the Secretary of State for War to ask the reason for the delay and, of course, was well “told off” for his pains. Rumours were plentiful, but, as nothing came of them, they only served to increase the feeling of disappointment.

At length, one day early in April, definite news was received. A tactical tour for the officers and senior N.C.O.’s of the Battalion had been arranged, under the personal supervision of the Brigadier. When the latter arrived he brought the news that the Battalion was to move in a few days. Immediately there was a light-hearted feeling about that party such as there had seldom been before.

The days which followed were full of excitement and activity. There was an enormous amount of work to be done, and very little time to do it. During the last few days there was little rest for officers and N.C.O.’s. Up to that time it had been extremely difficult to obtain articles of kit and equipment. Owing to the enormous demands of the army already in France, and the fact that the productive power of the British factories was scarcely a hundredth part of what it became towards the end of the war, there was very little material available for distribution to troops at home. But, now that the Battalion was under orders for the Front, all kinds of stores were thrust upon it. The miscellaneous collection of spring carts and vans, which had done duty as transport vehicles, were replaced by the proper limbered wagons; transport animals and harness arrived quicker than they could be dealt with. Men were constantly being paraded to receive some article of kit or equipment; one time it would be new winter underclothing, another time new boots. These articles are particularly worthy of notice. Why a Battalion should be fitted out with winter underclothing early in April is a question which probably only the War Office officials of the period could satisfactorily answer. While as to the boots, it was not long before many a man was yearning for his comfortable old pair. Right up to the end fresh stores were arriving and being issued. Indeed, about midnight of the Battalion’s last night in England--reveille was to be at 4-0 a.m.--A Company was hauled out of bed by two enthusiastic subalterns to exchange its old web pouches for new; the men of the company, it should be added, hardly showed themselves so enthusiastic as their officers about the change,

## particularly when they discovered in the morning that nearly all the

pouches received were for the left side. But, in spite of all, things somehow got done.

[Illustration:

Lieut.-Col. H. S. ATKINSON, T.D.]

On April 12th, the transport men, with their animals and loaded vehicles, entrained for Southampton. They were to move by a different route from the rest of the Battalion. Major R. E. Sugden and Lieut. C. Hirst, the Battalion Transport Officer, were in charge of the party. Considering the men’s lack of experience, the embarkation went very smoothly. On board elaborate drill in case of torpedo attack was practised, but the voyage proved uneventful. They disembarked at Havre and proceeded by train to Hesdigneul, where they rejoined the Battalion on April 15th.

April 14th, the fateful day, arrived. Reveille was at 4-0 a.m., and, after breakfast, preparations were soon complete and the Battalion paraded ready to move off. The following is the complete list of officers, warrant officers, and quartermaster sergeants who were to accompany the Battalion overseas:--

_Battalion H.Q._

Lieut.-Col. H. S. Atkinson, T.D. (C.O.). Major E. P. Chambers (Second in Command). Capt. H. A. S. Stanton (Adjutant). Hon. Lieut. T. Fielding (Q.M.). Lieut. E. Lee (Machine Gun Officer). Lieut. S. Balme (Signalling Officer). Lieut. C. Hirst (Transport Officer). Capt. A. T. Griffiths, R.A.M.C. (Medical Officer). R.S.M. J. McCormack. R.Q.M.S. F. J. Cooke.

_A Company._

Major R. E. Sugden; Capt. M. P. Andrews; Lieut. G. W. I. Learoyd; Lieut. E. N. Marshall; Sec.-Lieut. E. Taylor; Sec.-Lieut. G. P. McGuire. C.S.M. E. Bottomley. C.Q.M.S. C. Southern.

_B Company._

Capt. J. Walker; Capt. H. N. Waller; Lieut. J. T. Riley; Lieut. B. A. Bell; Sec.-Lieut. J. G. Mowat; Sec.-Lieut. H. H. Aykroyd. C.S.M. A. Parkin. C.Q.M.S. D. McKeand.

_C Company._

Capt. D. B. Winter; Capt. E. E. Sykes; Sec.-Lieut. W. C. Fenton; Sec.-Lieut. F. Walker. C.S.M. E. Lumb. C.Q.M.S. W. Lee.

_D Company._

Capt. A. L. Mowat; Capt. W. F. Denning; Lieut. W. B. Yates; Sec.-Lieut. T. D. Pratt; Sec.-Lieut. W. L. Anderton. C.S.M. C. C. MacKay. C.Q.M.S. G. Jackson.

The 2/4th Battalion Duke of Wellington’s Regt. had come into Doncaster a few days before and was encamped on the Race Course. Officers and men turned out now to give their friends and townsmen a rousing send-off. Their Band played the Battalion to the Railway Station, while their men lined the streets. The townspeople also turned out in considerable numbers to say farewell to their recently-made friends. A platoon of A Company constituted the loading party, under the command of Lieut. E. N. Marshall, who records that among the miscellaneous stores which he helped to load upon the train was one coil of barbed wire. Even in those early days he considered it unnecessary.

Two trains were provided for the journey. The first, under the command of Lieut.-Col. H. S. Atkinson, T.D., carried A and B Companies. It was due to depart at 12-0 noon. When all were entrained and everything seemed ready, the driver, being a civilian, thought it was time to start and began to move off. But, of course, that was all wrong. The train was stopped, the “Advance” was blown on the bugle, and then off they went. The other train, under the command of Major E. P. Chambers, and carrying C and D Companies, started more quietly and with less formality from a siding further down the line.

The journey was uneventful and slow. The trains circled round London, and the first arrived at Folkestone Quay about 8-45 p.m. The men immediately embarked on S.S. “Invicta,” which the Battalion had all to itself, and were soon at sea. The night was quiet and the crossing calm. Soon after 10-0 p.m. the vessel arrived at Boulogne, and the Battalion had its first sight of the “promised land.” At last it was really on active service, and was to take its place side by side with the men who had made history at Mons, the Marne, Ypres, and a score of other battles.

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