Tag: 15th brigade

Witness to an unnecessary death

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8th September 1914

At 7:07am men from the Dorsets and the Cheshires were assembled to witness a brutal side of Army life. Thomas Highgate, of the 1st Bn Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment, had been found guilty of desertion two days previously and was sentenced to death by firing-party.

Brigadier-General Gleichen remembers that he had “the unpleasant duty  to perform of detailing a firing-party to execute a prisoner.”  Who made up that firing-party remains a mystery. But poor Thomas Highgate was made an example of at this critical time for the Allies. His execution was broadcast as part of Army Routine Orders for that day to the entire BEF.

Picture of Thomas Highgate
Thomas Highgate – executed by firing-party

Thomas had thrown away his uniform and was dressed as a civilian. Fortune was not on his side. He was discovered by a gamekeeper in a barn. The gamekeeper happened to be English. Worse still, he was an ex-soldier. Thomas was immediately apprehended. He had no representation and called no witnesses. He was the first soldier to be executed in The Great War. He was pardoned in 2006* along with 306 other men.

The cruelest part of the story for me isn’t mentioned in any of the other documents I’ve read so far. Thomas Highgate was tried in Tournan-en-Brie. That’s almost 25 miles away from Boissy-le-Châtel. Was he purposely moved to the frontline so that his execution was witnessed by frontline troops?

Highgate’s name is remembered on the memorial to the missing at La Ferté-sous-Jouarre on the south bank of the River Marne.

No mention of this incident is made in the war diary for the Dorsets or the Cheshires.

 

The Dorsets marched with the rest of the 15th Brigade as rearguard to the 5th Division. The BEF was now arranged into Brigade Areas which complicated matters for the Staff officers (namely Staff Captain A.L. Moulton-Barrett) of the 15th Brigade who were charged with billeting and signalling. they were now dealing with lots of other units: artillery, Field Ambulance, cyclists, signallers, Royal Engineers etc.

The Brigade was in support of the 13th Brigade. Although they could hear and see (in terms of burning villages) fighting on both flanks, they didn’t engage the enemy, although Gleichen reports of friendly-fire once more. This was understandable with the heavily undulating and wooded terrain. Prisoners, transport, artillery and mixed up units all added to the confusion.

The Dorsets passed through Doue, Mauroy, down towards St Cyr-Sûr-Morin via Les Hameaux, where they halted at 5:30pm. The weather had turned from hot to wet; rain at last. By 6:30 the Dorsets had moved on again, up a steep hill, to billets in Charnesseuil. They had marched 10 miles.

* The facts on this BBC page are not very accurate. He wasn’t 17 when he died, he was 19, and his unit was fairly intact at that point. Indeed many of the facts surrounding this execution are hazy and lots of it need primary source reference. The Wikipedia entry also has quotes without sources.

As a drop the dead donkey item, the cap badge from the Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment was used by the home guard in Dad’s Army.

Super-excellent “William” pears

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7th September 1914

A Company covered the Battalion during the night. Firing was heard from the right front at about 2am. At 4am officers were sent on patrol to the woods to the north, between Charnois and Carrouge. All was quiet.

The war diary notes several requests for orders throughout the morning. The Dorsets didn’t move until 12:45pm that day.  It appears that movements were very confused at this time. If you look at the map you can see that the 15th Brigade moved in a westerly direction, across the general north westerly movement of the BEF. This almost certainly led to what we’d now call “friendly fire” incidents.

Captain Shore of the Cheshires firmly lays the blame of an nearby incident, which injured two of his men, at the feet of a 5th Division staff officer and Brigadier General Cuthbertson. The Dorsets report shelling at 3pm of their columns as they reached Mouroux. Gleichen also reports friendly fire that day in the same area.

There were still some Uhlans left in the woods, and I turned a couple of Norfolk companies off the road to drive them out. Some of our artillery had also heard of them, and a Horse battery dropped a few shells into the wood to expedite matters; but I regret to say the only bag, as far as we could tell, was one of our own men killed and another wounded by them.

Photo of some French Williams' pears
Williams’ pears – super-excellent

Still, Gleichen seems more excited by “the gift of some most super-excellent “William” pears” than the advance on the enemy.

The densely wooded and gnarly terrain caused a lot of the problems as the BEF tried to manoeuvre itself into the attack position as directed by Joffre, as well as simultaneously clearing out German pockets of resistance.  They were wasting precious time.

You are in a twisty maze of passageways, all alike

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6th September 1914

It’s important to take stock of what had been happening in the days since Le Cateau. The general retirement by the BEF appeared to have had no real plan other than to keep moving back.

Sir John French was considering defending Paris or even withdrawing from the field completely and making for the Channel ports. But all this was set to change. The previous day a battle had started almost by accident.

Joffre had been hastily assembling a scratch force, under General Michel-Joseph Maunoury. Moving troops from his eastern flanks by train and any vehicle that could carry them, Joffre created the French Sixth Army to screen Paris from the approaching German forces. The BEF was now no longer on the extreme left flank of the Allies.

The German Schlieffen plan had wanted to encircle Paris from the west, but their pursuit of the retreating French and British forces led them down the eastern edge of Paris. The Germans weren’t aware of the new Sixth Army on their right flank. They generally believed the BEF to be pretty much destroyed. And so they were drawn on by the pursuit, possibly hoping to draw the Allies into a pitched battle.

On the morning of the 5th September, the French Sixth Army started to advance east from Paris. At the River Ourcq they met the approaching German IV Reserve Corps. As the German First Army began to wheel eastwards to face this new threat to its right flank, the Allies spotted a potential gap between the German First and Second Armies. This gap opened up exactly where the BEF and the French Fifth Army were positioned.

Joffre gave the orders to attack early on the morning of the 5th September. The British Army HQ was informed but, unfortunately, as we saw yesterday, the BEF had already started continued to retreat with a night march, and so was 12-15 miles away from where Joffre thought they were.

So when the Dorsets set out at 5am to Villeneuve (sic) as advanced guard to the 15th Brigade, they could already hear the guns in the distance. Gleichen remembers the attitude of the men as they advanced.

What had happened, or why we were suddenly to turn against the enemy after ten days of retreat, we could not conceive; but the fact was there, and the difference in the spirits of the men was enormous. They marched twice as well, whistling and singing, back through Tournans and on to Villeneuve.

The 15th Brigade then marched, passing with some difficulty through the forest at Crécy, to Montcerf. Here the Brigade paused for an hour. While Gleichen met with General Smith-Dorrien, the Dorsets pushed C and D Companies into outposts. Later on at 6:45pm the advance continued to La Celle-Sur-Mourin. It was very difficult terrain to move through in the dark, with narrow streets, tight valleys and twisting roads. The Dorsets disturbed a German Uhlan patrol, who left after firing a few shots but nothing else was seen of the enemy.

The Brigade bivouacked in a stubble field and waited for their next orders, while guns rumbled to their right. The Third Division was engaged with the Germans at Faremoutiers. The Battle of the Marne had begun.

In an aside, I think I can confirm that Frank was in A Company. I recently found a conduct sheet marked with A Company. There are also a few other shards of evidence that confirm this but they appear further down the line. I’ll go back and elaborate any A Company action in previous posts.

Image showing Frank's conduct sheet
Frank’s conduct sheet showing A Company reference

A horrible little house

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3rd September 1914

The 15th Brigade remained as flank and rearguard to the 5th Division. They set off at 5:30am, crossing the Marne at Trilbardou on their way to Esbly on the southern banks. The weather was fearfully hot. Many stragglers dropped out during the day complaining of bad stomachs. Hot sun and unripe fruit do not mix.

Gleichen reports that they finally arrived for the night in the “beastly little” hamlet of Montpichet. This is 3 miles north west of Crécy. Yes, that Crécy. The British were here once again, a small ragtag force in a foreign land, with the odds stack against them.

Gleichen got his knickers in a twist because his “wretched” pony refused to cross a stream while on patrol. The Brigadier-General was forced to walk “four miles on foot”. What a hero. Not for the first time he takes the only decent room in the lodgings, “a horrible little house”, only to complain that he wished he’d slept outside with the rest. I don’t think you’d have wanted to cross his path that evening, when he returned to the Brigade HQ.

The Dorsets bivouacked in Montpichet for the night. The Brigade hadn’t received any orders so a “good night’s rest” was enjoyed by all. They’d marched 15 miles.

The crossing of the Marne was significant. It acted as a defensive barrier between the Allies and the approaching Germans. During their march the 15th Brigade had passed a Royal Engineer who was waiting for the troops to cross the river so that he could blow the bridge. They were blowing all the bridges across the Marne.

A stout peasant

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2nd September 1914

It’s the shortest diary entry yet in the war diary. “Retirement continued to MONTGE where Bge billeted. Weather fine & hot. Distance marched.” The writer didn’t even finish the entry. The Dorsets had set off at 4:15am, acting as rearguard to the 5th Division. They arrived at Montgé-en-Goële at 10:45am, after a journey of about 10 miles.

Funnily enough, Gleichen mentions that today “retirement was morally rather bad for our men, and the stragglers increased in numbers”. The men were getting disheartened by the constant marching. Day after day they walked past disappointed or bewildered civilians. The local Maire of Montgé-en-Goële , “a stout peasant”, questions Gleichen on the retirement. Even he struggles to work out why they were still retiring and not standing and fighting. Gleichen suspects that Joffre had a “deep-laid plan”, guessing that the BEF was to garrison Paris.

The BEF was now within spitting distance of Paris. From Montgé-en-Goële you could sometimes apparently see Montmartre and the Eiffel Tower. Their backs were against the wall.