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The Bulletin of the Birmingham Branch of the WFA Compiled by Bob Butcher |
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February 2009 |
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A DIVISION WITH A DIFFERENCE By Bob Butcher In the opening weeks of the war the Admiralty formed the Royal Naval Division (RND) consisting of two naval brigades composed of naval reservists surplus to current manning requirements and the Royal Marine (RM) Brigade. Despite being virtually untrained and ill equipped, in October 1914 it was sent to Antwerp in a desperate bid to save that city. It was too little and too late—Belgium's 'National Redoubt' was already doomed and the division was withdrawn after a few days. During its retirement, however, a naval brigade was cut off and its commander had no option but to lead it into Holland where it was interned whilst another group fell into enemy hands when the train carrying it to Ostend was ambushed. The RND returned to Britain having sustained 2609 casualties including 2337 prisoner or interned, Despite its unfortunate start, the division was given only a short time in which to refit, make good its losses and complete its training. In April 1915 it was committed to the Gallipoli operation. It was still only partly trained, was under strength and had no artillery or divisional troops and was initially employed in staging a diversionary mock landing or on beach duties. When the battalions were later committed to action they were placed under different brigades so that when the division finally went into action as a division, its battalions were past their best. Nevertheless the division continued in action and was, in fact, one of the few divisions to serve on the peninsula from first to last. The Gallipoli campaign cost the RND 7528 casualties and it had been reduced to two brigades. In 1916 control of the division was transferred from the Admiralty to the War Office and it joined the BEF. It was retitled63rd (Royal Naval) Division, the two naval brigades became the 188th and 189th whilst 190th army brigade brought it up to strength. Its first action was at the Battle of the Ancre in October 1916 and it saw plenty of action on the Western Front during the rest of the war. By the end of the war its ten battalions comprised four naval, one marine and five army whilst its divisional troops were also army. Originally all battalions were numbered but the naval ones were also named after famous admirals by which names they were usually known. The original RM battalions were named after their respective HQs. Marines wore army uniforms. During the Antwerp expedition the sailors wore sea going uniforms and few had any equipment. Later naval men wore army uniforms with naval headwear and with naval badges of rank on one sleeve and the army equivalents on the other. By the time that the division arrived in France few, if any, ratings had seen sea service but they all clung tenaciously to naval customs, a practice that did not endear them to the army brass. Indeed, the division was always the subject of some controversy, probably because it had been the brain child of the then unpopular Winston Churchill. For this reason it has always been difficult to arrive at a balanced and accurate assessment of its record.
THE DUMFRIES ATROCITY By J.P.Lethbridge On 16 September 1914 the Dumfries & Galloway Standard & Advertiser printed a facsimile of a letter purportedly written by Grace Hume, a local nurse serving on the Western Front, and a longer covering letter from a Nurse Mullard. Allegedly the Germans had overrun a British Field Hospital butchering the wounded and the medical staff. Returning British soldiers had killed the Germans responsible, and before she died Hume had written her last message. Many national papers reprinted this story. It then emerged that Grace Hume was alive and well and still working at a Huddersfield hospital; and that she did not even know Nurse Mullard. There was speculation that this story might be a German hoax to discredit the real atrocity stories. However it emerged that the letters were both written by Grace Hume's younger sister, seventeen year old clerk Kate Hume. Kate Hume was arrested and charged with forgery. She was brought on trial at the Kate Hume it turned out had, at the time she forged the two letters, recently left home after clashing with her father and stepmother. Kate was earning eight shillings a week as a bookkeeper at a Dumfries engineering works, and living in lodgings. She had been badly traumatised first by her mother's death and her father's remarriage; and then by the death of her older brother (a bandsman) on the Titanic in 1912. Her sister Grace had indeed volunteered for the Western Front. Although she had not gone there, being considered too inexperienced, Kate had not heard from her for some time. The letters were proved to be forgeries based on Kate Hume's hysterical adolescent fancies that were in turn based on both real and false press atrocity stories. The concluding prosecution and defense speeches were based on if she was responsible for her actions. The judge recommended that she be convicted, but suggested that the fifteen man jury might recommend mercy for the prisoner. The jury convicted Kate Hume of forgery but recommended her to mercy. In view of the time she had already spent in prison the judge let her go free.
DID YOU KNOW That a factory in WOLVERHAMPTON was one of only three making steel helmets which it did at a rate of 25-30,000 per week; That BIRMINGHAM was a centre for the making of Mills bombs on a group system of local firms. The grenades were made by a wide variety of manufacturers but the finer work on the small parts was undertaken by the Birmingham brass founders and by dental instrument makers and by the manufacturers of bolts and nuts,toys,locks,bells and fishing tackle; That BSA supplied 1,581,854 of the 3,954,226 rifles made by the three firms making them (The other two were the Royal Small Arms Factory and the London Small Arms Company)? |