The Cambridgeshire Regt and the Schwaben Redoubt.

The Territorial Army has often been the butt of many a joke - "Saturday Night Soldiers", "Weekend Warriors" and the awful "STAB", often used by Regular soldiers who have had little contact with the TA/Reserve. However, the First World War changed all that and much like operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have changed opinions of today's Reserves, the TF regiments soon had the opportunity to prove that they could be taken seriously as professional soldiers. The Cambridgeshire Regt was one such regiment. A true "county" regiment, it had been raised from Volunteer Battalions and Militia when the TF came into existence in 1908. They were mobilised for service two days after their Summer Camp ended and were sent to the Western Front in February 1915. At the end of August 1916, they arrived on the battlefields of the Somme as part of 117 Bgd, 39th Div.
The Schwaben Redoubt was a maze of strongly defended trenches and strongpoints which dominated the lines around Thiepval. On the first day of the Somme battle it had been attacked by the 36th (Ulster) Div who were successful in taking it - one of the few divisions to complete their objectives.But because the flanking divisions did not have the same success, the Ulstermen were left isolated and were soon cut off, the redoubt falling back into German hands the next morning. 

There were continuing attempts to regain the redoubt and finally on 26th September, the 18th (Eastern) Div managed to take the southern face. The job of completing the task was given to the 39th Div and in the afternoon of the 14th October, the 117th Bgd (comprising the Cambridgeshires,and battalions from the Black Watch & KRRC)  advanced towards the Schwaben under a creeping artillery barrage. The battalion War Diary notes that casualties were few in this assault but some of those were from their own shelling as success was gained due to the assaulting troops keeping close to the barrage as it moved forward and thereby gaining the element of surprise as the Cambridgeshire men were upon the enemy before they could properly bring their MGs into action.
There followed an afternoon and evening of consolidation and hand to hand combat as the Cambridge men bombed their way through the German lines. Strong points were dug in front of the German trenches and later linked together and wire laid to form a new defence line. This not only kept casualties low due to the Germans shelling their own - now empty - trenches, but when counter attacks came the next day, they were able to easily repel the enemy who were not expecting the British to have dug in so well right in front of their old lines.

Several of my ancestors served in the Cambridgeshire Regt, one such being Percy Nunn from Sawston. He joined the 1st Battalion in September of 1914, along with his brother Albert. They disembarked in France on the 14th February the following year, thus qualifying for the 1915 Star. Their father, Owen, not wanting to be left out, lied about his age (taking 8 years off it) to enlist in the Royal Engineers. He was a Blacksmith by trade so was a valuable recruit  He went to France in January 1916 and spent 18 months on the Western Front before being sent back to the UK, physically unfit. His wife, Althea, had died two months before he returned, leaving his eldest daughter Dorothy to look after his 3 youngest children. Owen was discharged in 1918. He married again in 1920 and died in 1959.

On the day of the battle to capture the Schwaben Redoubt, Percy was part of the Linesmen section. His job was to go out and repair the telephone cable which was very susceptible to damage from shelling, and enemy action. On this occasion, he went out with the Section Sgt to repair a line in front of their defences after the initial assault. They had just reached the damaged line when a shell exploded next to it and killed them both instantly. He was described by his OC as being "the coolest man I had". His body was never found and he is now commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing, only a  short distance away from where he was killed, and on the Sawston Town War Memorial.

 The above photo was taken by myself on the recent Army Staff Ride to the Somme in September 2016. It shows 4 unknown soldiers buried in Mill Road Cemetery which is sited on part of the Schwaben Redoubt. Behind these graves, the redoubt stretches up the hill. Who know if Percy's remains lie beneath one of these graves, or in one of the 810 other unidentified burials in the cemetery.
For more information about the Cambridgeshire Regt, I recommend the following website: The Cambridgeshire Regiment 1914-18.

Bugler Ralph Frederick Jeffery

For the next few posts, I may well be jumping around a bit in terms of dates as I try and catch up after a few years away from my blog. Today, a few months after the centenary of his death, we remember Ralph Jeffery, the youngest soldier to embark with 24th Field Ambulance in 1914, and the youngest to lose his life.

Ralph was born in Plymouth in the first quarter of 1898. His mother, Jane Pillifent, had married his father, Fred Jeffery in 1895 and he was to be the eldest of their three sons. Fred was a Bricklayer and Mason and the family moved to Wales around the turn of the century, settling near Abergavenny. In 1902, Fred died at the age of 38 and was taken back to Devon to be buried in Jane's family grave. Jane most likely moved back as well at this time and later met Edward Walker, a sign-writer whom she married in 1906 in Exeter. They lived at No 3, Bartholomew Street. 

We have evidence that his brother Jack joined 1st Wessex Field Ambulance, our antecedent unit in Exeter, when he was 14 and taken on as a "Boy" in the March of 1914. Although Ralph's Service Records do not survive, as Jack's service number was only a few digits after his, I think he probably joined at the same time at the age of 16. He became a "Bugler". Territorials could take recruits at the lower age of 17 (18 for the Regulars) so I am not sure why these two brothers were allowed to join at this young age. (Anyone who reads this who knows, feel free to enlighten me!) Jack's record clearly states 14!

Even stranger was the fact that Ralph was then allowed to go with the unit to France on the 5th November 1914. However, he was now Colonel Pickard's "batman" as I suspect it was thought that this would keep him away from danger. Thus, he was with the unit (now renamed 24th Field Ambulance) throughout the campaigns of 1915 and 1916, and through the first month of the Battle of the Somme.

Choques Military Cemetery

Some years ago, one of our members interviewed several veterans of the 24th. Only one recording survives from a Private Casley. He recounted Ralph's fate on 20th August 1916. Acting in his role of Colonel's Batman, Ralph accompanied Col Pickard up the line to inspect new premises for an Advanced Dressing Station. Whilst there, the line was shelled. Col Pickard escaped unharmed but Ralph was wounded by some shrapnel. The colonel dressed his wounds himself and took him back down the line to No 1 Casualty Clearing Station. Here, he succumbed and was buried in the CCS Cemetery, now Chocques Military Cemetery, Pas de Calais. He was a few months past his 18th Birthday and the youngest soldier of all our antecedent units to lose his life. 

His brother Jack was discharged just before Ralph died and the mystery deepens, as it was due to having made a "mis-statement as to age" although as noted above, they were aware that he was only 14. After the war, the family moved up to North Sheilds with Jane giving her address in Princes street for the entry in the CWGC database.

Above is a detail from a photo I have already posted. These two look alike. Could they be Ralph and Jack? In the original picture, you can see several boys of roughly the same age. Time to do some more research....