Redford's actions in WW1

1915: Ypres

The 17th Division spent its initial period in France with trench familiarisation and then holding the front lines in the southern area of the Ypres salient which bulged into German-held territory. August 1915 until spring 1916 saw the 7th Borders in action at various positions around Ypres.

A history of the 17th Division reports the following for December 1915:

The month of December came and with it no let up in the bad weather. The Dorsets were issued gum boots in the dark of the Ypres barracks in an attempt to stave off the dreaded trench foot.

Enemy artillery was active and intensified to such an extent that an attack was deemed imminent. On December 14th, the Borders lost 10 men killed, 27 wounded and the Sherwood Foresters had 50 casualties when the Germans bombarded the trenches north of the Menin road. Around 8 p.m. Ypres was shaken by a huge explosion as the Germans fired a mine in front of the 7th Borders at Hooge. The Germans had, however, misjudged the distance and the mine went up 40 yards away from the British line (the crater was 60 feet wide and 30 deep). The Germans rushed the crater but the Borders did the same and drove them out after a fierce fight in the dark. The Borders' losses for the day were 26 killed, 78 wounded.

The Germans attacked with gas on December 19th, the cylinders were placed in the Hooge sector and the cloud spread as far as Ypres. The 51st Bde. were in the line on the Division's left sector north of Hooge with the 52nd Bde. on the right, the 50th Bde. were in reserve. The men in the trenches were relatively unharmed from the gas as they had seen it coming and had managed to put on their gas helmets. The men in the ramparts at Ypres were caught un-awares, the 51st Bde. H.Q. in the ramparts was affected and its commander, Brigadier General Fell, was gassed.

1916: Ypres and the battles of the Somme

 

From the Great War Forum:

The 17th Division was involved in fighting at the Bluff (south east of Ypres on the Comines canal), part of a number of engagements officially known as the Actions of Spring 1916. The Bluff was a raised hillock just north of the Ypres-Comines canal, formed by the excavations for that canal and as such was a valuable position on the relatively flat land of the Ypres Salient. The position is roughly half way between Hill 60 and St. Eloi. It is today a tree-covered Belgian nature reserve.The 7th Borders were about to relieve the trenches in front of the Bluff in the late afternoon of 14 February 1916. At about 16:30 the German 124th Infantry regiment attacked and took over about 300 yards of front and reserve trenches in front of and on top of the Bluff. The 7th Borders were put to helping dislodge these Germans, during the night of 14/15 Feb and also during the next day. They cleared them the reserve trenches but could not dislodge them from the front line. This action was largley fought by the battalion's bombers( grenade throwers).

The Long, Long Trail has more details on the fighting at the Bluff. A 1919 Michelin guide to the battlefields shows the extent of damage to the towns and countryside around Ypres.
Redford had furlough (leave) from the 7th to 14th April 1916. Whether he spent this in France or the UK is not recorded.

The Battle of Albert (Somme)

 

Taken from a Great War Forum entry, which was itself extracted from the book "Border Regiment in the Great War" by Col. H C Wylly:

They had taken part in the first phase of the Battle of the Somme as part of the 51st Brigade, 17th (Northern) Division, in XV Corps under General Horne, in the Fricourt- Becourt sector. On July 1st, they were in support, but on July 2nd they attacked and took Bottom Wood opposite Fricourt and were relieved overnight to Fricourt Wood. They took no further part in the first phase of the battle.

The day of 1st July at the Battle of Albert is better known as the infamous first day of the Somme, when the British army suffered almost 60,000 casualties, including 20,000 dead.

The book Border Regiment in the Great War describes the actions of the 7th Borders on the 2nd July in more detail:

[...] it was not until the 2nd July that it moved up from its billets in Merlancourt to the front of Fricourt Wood, with Battalion Headquarters in Fricourt Chateau, receiving at 3 a.m. next morning orders to attack Bottom Wood. At 9 o' clock, in waves of platoons on a two platoon frontage in line, with a squad of Battalion Bombers in each of the first four waves.

The order of companies was "B", "D" and "A" with "C" in reserve in Willow Trench. After leaving Fricourt wood the first trench to be taken was Railway Alley and this was captured without any serious opposition being met with, although Captain T.L. Crosse and Second Lieutenant A.H. Crompton - the latter carrying a Lewis Gun on his shoulder - were both killed. "B" Company remained in the rear to clean up Railway Alley, while "D" Company pushed on to attack Bottom Wood lying some 250 yards further up the slope.

A good deal of resistance was here experienced, mainly in the capture of an unmarked trench 50 yards in the rear of Railway Alley, but this was overcome, when "D" and "B" Companies, supported by "A", attacked Bottom Wood. A small party under Second Lieutenants Sanger and Thompson got into the wood and found the enemy here in strength; the Germans did not, however, realise how few in number their assailants were and all attacks were beaten off, and the enemy having been driven from Shelter wood by our guns and infantry, the latter being able to push on to occupy Bottom Wood, when the position reached was at once consolidated.

The enemy resistance had now here wholly broken down and they either ran or surrendered. During the night the 7th Border Regiment went back to German Dugouts in Fricourt Wood. In these operations Second Lieutenant H.H.Linzell was killed and Captain H.C. MacMichael and Second Lieutenant F.P. Joyce were wounded.

The Battalion took no further part in the July fighting.

More information on the fighting on the 1st and 2nd see the Wikipedia entry on the Capture_of_Fricourt.

The Battle of Delville Wood

 

The Battle of Delville Wood was the second battle in the Somme and was one of the most ferocious battles of the First World War. It was also one of the last before the heavy attrition of the trench warfare strategy seen in the rest of the war. The 17th Division relieved the 2nd Division some days after the intensive fighting of 14th -20th July, although this didn't mean that enemy activity had entirely subsided. The Border Regiment in the Great War continues:

Second phase of the Battle of the Somme 1916: on the 5th August the 7th Battalion was holding Delville Wood, which during the preceding ten days the Germans had made repeated attempts to recapture, and on the 7th August , the Battalion received orders to attack at 4.30 p.m. that day. The order of attack was two platoons of "B" Company on the left and two of "C" Company on the right, with "D" Company in support. The enemy trench was no more than 70 yards distant, and before the assaulting platoons had got halfway, they were received with so heavy and so well directed a volume of machine gun and rifle fire, that the attack - over very difficult ground covered with shell holes and fallen trees - could not be expected to succeed and the survivors were ordered to withdraw after dark and occupy their original position.

The casualties were 9 killed, 34 including Second Lieutenants Sanger, Cope, and Gascoigne-Roy wounded, 4 missing and one wounded and missing. On the 9th August the Battalion withdrew to close support in Montauban Alley, incurring additional casualties during the retirement, 4 men being killed and Second Lieutenants Thompson and Matthews and 17 Other Ranks wounded. Then on the 15th August, the 7th Battalion moved by rail and march to Bienvillers and on the 4th September was stationed at St Amand.

1917: The Somme, trench foot and the start of the Arras Offensive

Transport and camps in the Carnoy Valley, September 1916 © IWM (Q 1444)

According to his service record, Redford was admitted for treatment of a case of trench foot on 13th January 1917. The battalion had just spent three days in the appropriately named Frosty and Winter Trenches in the Somme. The battalion war diary for the middle of January shows:

CARNOY, 13th: Camp 23. Cleaning and baths

CARNOY, 14th: Battn moved to VILLE. 60 other ranks sent on fatigues. Battn moved straight [illegible]. Owing to Battn remaining 3 days in the line instead of 2 the number of bad foot trench increased. Bad weather also accountable. About 36 sent to dressing station. 10 [?] men fell out on the line of march. During the time in the line all men had fat rubbed with whale oil twice daily.

Whale oil would be rubbed into feet daily and some front line battalions got through as much as 10 gallons a day. Many men found it effective and stopped wearing socks, preferring to rely on the thick layer of whale oil instead.

After a month of treatment Redford was marked in mid February as being "sound" again. Total January "wastage from sickness" was listed as 55 other ranks.

The war poet Siegfried Sassoon had also been at Carnoy (gutenberg.org) the previous summer and wrote the poem "At Carnoy":

Down in the hollow there's the whole Brigade
Camped in four groups: through twilight falling slow
I hear a sound of mouth-organs, ill-played,
And murmur of voices, gruff, confused, and low.
Crouched among thistle-tufts I've watched the glow
Of a blurred orange sunset flare and fade;
And I'm content. To-morrow we must go
To take some cursed Wood.... O world God made!

July 3rd, 1916.

Apart from his poetry, Sassoon was also known for his singlehanded attack on the German trenches at Mametz Wood on 4th July 1916.

From the 7th Border Regiment in the Great War site:

In early 1917 the battalion was in the Combles area where Lieutenant Colonel W.N.S. Alexander D.S.O. took over command and they moved into training at La Neuville. The 17th Division joined VI Corps, Third Army to relieve the 15th Division north of Monchy.

The Battalion held Railway triangle and worked on the defences, within an hours notice of being moved up to the front line, during 14th -22nd April 1917.

From the Felsted Remembers site:

The Battle of Arras is not as well known as the Somme or Third Ypres and yet, in 39 days from 9th April to 17th May it became the most bitter contest for the infantry battalions. The result was 159,000 casualties - a daily rate of over 4000 compared with 2900 on the Somme and 2300 at Passchendaele. Yet, Arras was only a diversionary battle agreed reluctantly by Haig to take the enemy’s attention away from a planned French assault in the Champagne region. Had Arras only lasted until 14th April it would have been extremely successful with a relatively low casualty rate. Haig was forced to carry on into May 1917 with greater casualty rates and long term consequences for the 7th Borderers.

The First Battle of the Scarpe

 

The 7th Battalion war diary tells us that they eventually arrived in Arras on 10th April 1917 and went into the cellars of the Library Museum. The city was full of BEF troops, many of whom were living in the tunnels under the city dug by the tunneling companies. The war diary entry for 10th April says:

Battalion at 50 minutes notice to move. Weather still severe. Snow blizzard. The inveterate propensity of the British soldier to light fires and make tea at the slightest opportunity was again emphasized.

On 11th April the relatively successful First Battle of the Scarpe was already winding down and the 17th Division moved in to take the place of the 15th Division. From a short history of the Arras Offensive:

On the left of Monchy the 15th Division struggled to advance on Pelves and found themselves pushed towards Monchy which they helped capture. Pelves though remained beyond their reach and when the Division was relieved by the 17th Division later that day the new arrivals didn’t like the disorganised and non-continuous front line that they were inheriting. The 17th Division finally decided to occupy a position along the Monchy-Fampoux Road which meant that they gave up ground that had been won at great cost the day before. The village of Monchy le Preux, which only a few days before, had been almost undamaged now lay ruined beneath a covering of new fallen snow.

23rd April 1917: Arras Offensive and the Second Battle of the Scarpe

 

Locations of the 7th Borders and relevant landmarks at this battle can be seen on the following map. The black lines mark the trenches that were attacked, Bayonet and Rifle, as well as the main objectives of the new Brown and Blue Lines:

View Movements of the 8th East Yorks and 7th Borders in a larger map.

The Border Regiment in the Great War notes:

the 7th Battalion moved into the assembly trench south of Lone Copse replacing the 9th Northumberland Fusiliers on the night of April 22nd. Only two casualties occurred that night. The next morning April 23 1917, the 29th Division [on the right flank of the 17th Division] attacked on the right in front of Monchy-le-Preux. The 51st Brigade [actually the 51st Division] were on the north side of the Scarpe River. The objective was a line running from the east edge of Pelves village along the road to the east side of Bois du Sart

From the 7th Border Regiment in the Great War:

On the 23rd April 1917 VI Corps attacked along its front, the 7th Border attacking Railway [Bayonet] Trench and Rifle Trench near Pelves. The attack was very heavily met with machine gun fire and ended in no gains at the cost of 19 killed, 186 wounded and 214 missing. Many men had to shelter in shell holes from the intense machine gun fire all day, only managing to scramble back to their own front lines after dark.

Felsted Remembers has this to say about the day:

On St George’s Day 23rd April 1917 the 7th Borders found themselves attacking on the east of the Village of Pelves, north of Monchy le Preux. The 7th Battalion war diary provides a detailed explanation of the attack and its objectives:

At zero hour, 4:45am, a standing barrage was put down on Bayonet trench. A creeping barrage began 200 yards west of Bayonet trench and moved at a rate of 3 minutes per 100 yards. Both barrages lifted at plus 10 and then crept E at a rate of 4 minutes per 100 yards as far as the Blue line. Two tanks were detailed for the attack on Pelves. Battalion advanced at zero hour.[see below for the remainder of the war diary of the 23rd]

7th Borders were attacking Bayonet trench but did not get far as they came under intense machine gun fire from Rifle Trench on their right and from across the other side of the river Scarpe on their left. The survivors had to withdraw back to the assembly trenches near Lone Copse from where they had attacked. Many men were caught in shell holes and had to find their way back under cover of darkness. In the early hours of April 24th 7th Battalion survivors were ordered back to the Railway Triangle. The battalion had suffered heavily with 19 killed, 186 wounded and 214 missing.

Jonathan Nicholls in his excellent book on the Battle of Arras “Cheerful Sacrifice” describes how the 7th Borderers and South Staffords of 17th Division lead the assault up the slopes between the river Scarpe and Monchy le Preux. The Colonel of the Border regiment had said to his men:

Bayonets will be fixed for dealing with the enemy at close quarters with the cold steel

The Border men mainly miners, dalesmen and farmers from Kendal, Whitehaven and Cockermouth together with the Essex agricultural boys never got anywhere near to the enemy to use their bayonets. Private Reg Eveling, an eye witness in the 7th Battalion, recounts the events of 23rd April [also taken from "Cheerful Sacrifice"]:

It was my first and last action. I was totally terrified. I kept well back from the creeping barrage. I was very frightened, you could see the shells bursting only fifty yards in front. Then we came to the barbed wire and it wasn't properly cut. It was sheer murder, that was. There were paths cut through the wire and, like animals, we crowded into the paths. That's where most of our casualties came from, machine guns were trained on the gaps, blokes just fell in heaps. Somehow I got through that OK and kept on going, but then I looked to my left and right and couldn't see another soul. To my utter dismay, I was on my own. I panicked and dived into the nearest shell hole and stopped there till it was dark. That was one of the longest days of my life. When I crawled back, a Scots Regiment had taken over our bit of the line and were going to shoot me as they thought I was a German. I never saw a single German that day, yet the whole battalion was wiped out.

[...] The same fate befell the 51^st Brigade's 8^th South Staffords and 7^th Lincolns. The latter were ordered to attack the north end of Bayonet Trench, the same objective as the 7th Borders [not quite true, the 7th Borders advanced on the southern half of the trench], and lost 200 men in five minutes.

The next day Lieutenant NM Saunders, commander of C Company of the 7th Borders wrote to his wife [from the book "Monchy le Preux: Arras" by Colin Fox]:

We had a very rotten day yesterday. Nearly all our officers who did the attack were killed or wounded. I got through all right but was out in No Man’s Land from 5:30 in the morning to 9:30 at night and then managed to get past in front of the Boche line with some of my company in the dark.The postman is just going and I feel rather fagged after the strain. All the companies suffered rather heavily, I'm afraid.
[War letters of Captain NM Saunders 1916-1918. Department of Documents, Imperial War Museum, Documents.4325]

The war diary entry for the 23rd shows a picture of confusion and tragedy:

Bn advanced at zero hour. Right leading Coy (D) lost direction and moved too much to its right, striking old German trenches about H 36 d 6.8. This Coy. then moved to its left and crossed Bayonet trench about H 36 b 8.6 and moved east. after crossing Bayonet trench an intense MG fire was met from Rifle trench. The remaining men of D Coy swung up to the left towards Rifle Trench and entered a German strong point about I 31 a 8.4 which they enlarged and consolidated. D Coy was joined by the survivors of right support Coy (C) which had crossed Bayonet Trench and had advanced due E. The left leading Coy (A) struck Bayonet Trench with its centre about the junction of Bayonet Trench and Rifle Trench. The left supporting Coy (B) followed and was also mown down by MG fire. The survivors of B and A Coy retired with companies of S Staffs to the assembly trenches NE of Lone Copse. By that time there were no officers of leading Coy surviving. After their retirement the Germans in a portion of Bayonet Trench held up their hands when the men of the Border again advanced but were again repulsed by MG fire. The survivors of the left coy's then retired and occupied the assembly trenches N of Lone Copse. The attack by the 8 S Staffs was also repulsed by heavy MG fire. The survivors of C & D Coys remained out in shell holes until dark when they made their way back to our line. Many were hit by MG fire on their way back. Lt Saunders and about 50 wounded and unwounded made their way in up to 2 AM. The 10th Sherwoods who were occupying the southern portion of Bayonet Trench found a party who brought in 2nd Lt Sanger wounded in the knee and about 100 wounded and unwounded men. Batn HQ moved from gun pits H 35 d 8.9 at 5:40 am to trench about H 36 d 8.8 where it remained during the battle. This piece of trench was held by 9th N.F. The trench was shelled throughout the day but few casualties were suffered by Batn HQ. The Bn was ordered to move to Rly [Railway] Triangle about 1 1/2 miles E of ARRAS and Bn HQ with about 100 men who had come in started to move at 2.30am [24th April] reaching the destination about 4am. [signed] C G Page Adjt

I have used the details from the war diary to plot the initial advance of the 51st Brigade's two leading battalions (7th Borders and 8th South Staffs) onto an officer's sketch map of the attack:

Initial advance of the 51st Bde on the morning of the 23rd April

Rifle and Bayonet Trenches can also be seen on this 8th July trench map from the McMaster University map site:

Courtesy of McMaster University Library

Pelves is at the top right and the Scarpe river runs past Roeux along the top. Monchy le Preux is just off the map at the lower left. The dark blue lines are trenches, with Bayonet and Rifle Trenches in the centre of the lower half. The machine-guns in Roeux were over a kilometre from the advancing 7th Borders but this was well within their 2km effective range.
The route of Bayonet Trench can still be seen in the fields today:

(from Google Maps)

On the same day, on the same fields, Captain Percival Knight Allen of the 10th West Yorkshire Regiment also fell:

At 4.45am the following morning [23rd April] the attack began with Bayonet Trench being allocated to the battalions of 51st Brigade although 100 men of the battalion assisted in the assault under heavy shell fire. This attack failed and at 2.30pm the West Yorks received orders to continue the attack at 6pm with the objective of Riele [Rifle?] Trench. The 6th Battalion Dorset Regiment were detailed to resume the attack on Bayonet Trench. As the two battalions advanced the German artillery opened fire with a heavy bombardment. As the 10th West Yorks were spotted by the enemy advancing down the slope towards them, they opened a "hurricane" barrage of 5.9 and 8 inch shells with machine guns sited on the northern bank of the Scarpe joining in and sweeping their fire down the ranks of Yorkshire men. Despite the murderous fire the West Yorks managed an advance of 200 yards before being forced to stop and dig in to the east of Lone Copse where they hung on until relieved by the 7th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment. The survivors then withdrew to the old British front line where they supplied carrying parties for the East Yorks. Percival Allen was one of the many casualties they sustained that day.

One reason for the heavy losses would have been the preparedness of the opposing German 26th Division. Again from the book "Monchy le Preux: Arras":

One of their regiments established a concealed post overlooking Lone Copse valley where the 17th Division troops were assembling and it was able to report on the preparations for the attack half an hour before it began.

Today the battlefield is still primarily farmland.