100
Years Ago, October and November 1918
The successful Allied response to the failed German offensive on
the Western Front
continued during October. The advances eastwards across a wide
front gained
momentum, with the Germans in almost constant withdrawal. There
were specific
British attacks on 3 October (along an eight-mile front), 4
October (a 20-mile front) and
8 October (a 21-mile front, with many tanks involved).
By this time, Bulgaria, a somewhat reluctant supporter of the
‘Central Powers’ and
having lost its German subsidy and supplies, had already signed an
Armistice with the
Allies, on 30 September.
On 4 October, the Germans had sent a note to the American
President, Woodrow
WILSON, proposing an Armistice. Allied advances continued
meanwhile, with the
Germans in retreat across a wide front, though still resisting
strongly. The Allies were
no doubt bolstered by the significant presence of many American
troops now, though
these were not always committed to the action. Their commander,
General John
PERSHING, remained insistent that they participated as distinct
American formations
under American command.
On 13 October, President WILSON demanded German capitulation,
while advances continued and the Germans retreated; on 23 October
the President said he
was willing to discuss an Armistice. Other theatres were also
progressing in the Allie’s
favour and on 28 October the Austrians requested an Armistice and
one was signed
with Turkey on 30 October. A mutiny was spreading in the German
navy while the last
major Allied assault on land, the successful four-day Battle of
the Sambre, started
across a 30-mile front, with tank support, on 1 November.
At the same time, the Allies held a conference at Versailles to
agree the Armistice
terms to be offered, President WILSON authorising Marshal
Ferdinand FOCH to
present them to a German delegation. This duly took place on a
train at Rethondes
Railway Station in the Compiegne Forest on 8 November. The Kaiser
abdicated the
next day, crossing into neutral Holland; there was ‘unrest’
reported in Berlin.
The Germans had been given 72 hours to accept the terms, expiring
at 11.00am
on Monday 11 November. Their delegation was in close discussion
with the Allies’
representatives overnight on 10/11 November, with the Armistice
signed at 5.00am, to
take effect from 11.00am that day. The guns fell silent!
From 17 November 1918, British Second and Fourth Armies were moved
towards
the German border, occupying German territory from 1 December.
Second Army was
later officially named the ‘British Army of the Rhine’ from 2
April 1919.
The one theatre still active was East Africa, where the undefeated
German commander, Colonel Paul von LETTOW-VORBECK, had been
conducting a very successful irregular war which occupied a
disproportionate number of mainly British troops. It took until 25
November to reach him and persuade him to surrender, by then in
Northern Rhodesia. Bugbrooke man Harry James AMBLER, a Lieutenant
(and sometime Temporary Captain) in the Royal Engineers and
employed as a Signals Officer, served in this campaign (with only
a short break) from 29 May 1917 to 29
November 1918, when he embarked for England and eventual release
to civilian life.
The Germans had been more successful at sea, with almost daily
sinking of
merchantmen by U-boats, with the last recorded attack occurring on
7 November. The
last major loss by the Royal Navy (RN) occurred on 9 November,
with the sinking
(again, by U-boat) off Cape Trafalgar of the battleship HMS
Britannia, in which
Bugbrooke man Thomas KING had served pre-war, though he was not
aboard that
fateful day. (Thomas had joined the RN as a ‘Boy’ in 1910 and
served until discharged
to a pension in June 1934). Elsewhere, the Allied Intervention in
Russia continued
inconclusively during 1919, with the last British units leaving in
late 1920.
A formal Peace Treaty was signed at Versailles on 28 June 1919 and
ratified in
Paris on 10 January 1920, with the USA a notable absentee, signing
separate terms
later.
Back in Bugbrooke, life continued as ‘normal’, with the school
closing for
blackberrying on 1 October (afternoon), 7 October (all day) and 8
October (afternoon),
with two separate loads just over 100lbs (45kgs) despatched and
the pupils paid
accordingly. Notable events include Rev Ernest HARRISON visiting
the school on 9
October and the school gate repair the following day. The
Headmaster, Frank
WRIGHT, notes that the completion of Food Rationing Cards – a task
given to the
teachers – was long and demanding.
On 29 October the sad news was received of the loss of 19-year old
Private Fred
CHAPMAN in Belgium, while serving with 26 (Service) Battalion, the
Royal Fusiliers,
which had returned to France in March after some four months in
Italy. A letter to the
school suggests he was killed on 25 October, but the official
records state 14 October.
He is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial and the effects sent
to his mother
Ellen, included payments of £5.16s.2d on 18 March 1919 and £4 on
10 December that
year.
An ominous note on 6 November says that children are absent with
flu. On 11
November news of the Armistice reaches the school at midday, and
after some
parents are gathered, the national anthem is sung around the
flagpole, flying the
Union Flag. Apparently the children asked for and were immediately
granted a halfday
holiday! The school was still chasing fuel supplies and closed
from 18 to 21
November inclusive, when fuel was at last delivered.
There were two other casualties before hostilities ceased, though
only one was
fatal. Private Charles Edward DAVIS was serving with a Signal
Company of the Royal
Engineers when he received a head wound – probably from shrapnel –
on 20 October.
He was treated in France before discharge from hospital on 1
November and return to
England to recover (and to marry a nurse on 26 December, in
Bugbrooke).
Private Charles Henry EALES, originally in the Northamptonshire
Regiment, but
serving locally with an Agricultural Labour Company of the Royal
Army Ordnance
Corps (RAOC), succumbed to pneumonia following flu, in a hospital
in Northampton
on 7 November, his mother at his bedside. He had served on the
Western Front the
previous year, from 1 January to 11 April, when he received a
gunshot wound to his
shoulder. On his recovery he was found unfit for further active
service and remained in
England; he is buried in the Towcester Road cemetery in
Northampton. His effects
went to his father, including payments of £8.6s on 6 February and
£6 on 9 December
1919.
Three further deaths should be noted, one attributed to military
service and two to
later illness. Private William Henry MILLS, serving with an
Ammunition Section of the
RAOC in France, was killed in an accident on 2 June 1919 and is
buried in Meaulte
Military Cemetery on the Somme. The effects sent to his widow
included a payment of
£29.4s.4d on 23 February 1920. Private Arthur Sydney Jacob BASS,
serving with the
Machine Gun Corps (Cavalry) in the army of occupation in Germany,
had died from flu
on 4 January 1919 and is buried in Cologne Southern Cemetery. The
effects sent to
his father included a payment of £32.8s.1d on 22 April that year.
Sadly his older
brother (John Henry) Dennis BASS, late of the Machine Gun Corps
and the army of
occupation, was to succumb to flu in Northampton in September the
following year.
Although this is not registered with the Commonwealth War Graves
Commission as he had been discharged by then, his name is on the
memorial plaque in Bugbrooke
church.
It took many months for the long-planned
demobilisation process to bring everyone home. Priority was given
to men with trades vital to getting Britain back to work and
normality, regardless of length of service or family needs.
For a Victory (or Peace) Parade in London on 19 July 1919, a
temporary wooden and plaster cenotaph was built, it being retained
for the first Armistice commemoration on 11 November that year,
including a two-minute silence, which has been observed on each
such occasion since. On 11 November 1920 the stone Cenotaph we
know today was unveiled by the King, en route to the interment at
Westminster Abbey of the ‘Unknown Soldier’, intended as a symbol
of national mourning..
Roger Colbourne for the 100 Year Project
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10
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The
100 Years Project
The article in this issue of the LINK for the ‘100
years
project’ is the final one. Over the last 4 years,
we have
produced an article every issue trying to give LINK
readers an idea of what was happening to the people
of Bugbrooke in the village and
in the Great War exactly 100 years ago. As 100
years ago, as the Great War came to
an end so now do our articles.
We have talked about all of the 29 soldiers who are
associated with Bugbrooke
and died in the war, and researched all 160
soldiers who served. With around 192
homes in Bugbrooke at that time, virtually every
family would have been affected.
It has been an endurance test for the four of us
who have done it, and for those of
you who have taken the time to read the articles.
The school letters, the war diaries,
the personal accounts, and stories we have come
across, have produced a unique
insight into life for Bugbrooke folk 100 years ago
during the war.
For those of you who missed them or want to re-read
the articles, they are all
accessible on the Bugbrooke LINK website at
www.bugbrookelink.co.uk/ww1 ,
together with information on all men who served,
all the school letters, and all the spin
off information we came across. Do have a look.
For those of you who have not read any, and have
been bored by these articles,
thank you for your patience, your suffering is at
an end.
Geoff Cooke, Dave Marshall, Jim Inch and Roger
Colbourne for the 100 Years Project
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