August 2005

 

THE GENERAL DIDNT HAVE TO EAT HIS HAT!

It is not generally recognised that on the first day of the Somme, the extreme right hand British corps succeeded whilst the corps on its immediate left also achieved a measure of success. The C in C therefore decided to concentrate future efforts on that wing, including the capture of the German second position. General Rawlinson, commander of the Fourth Army, accordingly arranged for his XV and XIII Corps to attack the line Longueval -Bazentin Ie Petit village (the Bazentin ridge).

No man's land was 1200 yards wide on XIII Corps front and between 350 and 600 yards in front of XV Corps. Hoping to avoid the lack of surprise, which resulted in such dreadful casualties in the daylight attack on 1 July, Rawlinson decided that the attacking troops should form up in no man's land under the cover of darkness and attack just as dawn was breaking thus being almost upon the enemy before he could see them clearly. This was much against existing British and French practice, which required several hours of daylight immediately before the assault in order to enable accurate artillery preparation. At first Haig, concerned about a possible disaster if the troops were caught forming up in the open, refused to sanction it. However, the Army, corps and divisional commanders were unanimous in wanting to go for it and the C in C finally gave way and the attack was set for dawn on 14 July.

The French implored Fourth Army not to go ahead with "this madness' and finally the Army's chief of general staff, Montgomery (no - not HIM), told the liaison officer to tell the neighbouring French general that if the British were not on Longueval ridge by 0800, he would eat his hat. The liaison officer conveyed the message verbatim!

Artillery preparation began on 11 July, but to help gain surprise the final intense bombardment would last for only five minutes as the usual thirty minutes gave the enemy warning of an attack. Moreover the creeping barrage would consist of HE shells with delay fuses, which proved to be much, more effective than shrapnel barrages. It was known that the Germans had tapped the British telephone lines so on the night of the attack a false 'operations cancelled' message was sent, the recipients having been verbally warned.

The attack was carried out by the 9th and 3rd Divisions (XIII Corps) and 7th and 21st Divisions (XV Corps). (The 1st and 18th Divisions established left and right defensive flanks respectively.) By the appointed time the six assaulting brigades of over 22,000 men had silently formed up on previously laid tapes without confusion only 500 yards from the enemy and many troops then crawled even closer. Promptly at 0320 the intense artillery and machine gun barrage opened up. It lifted at 0325 and the infantry charged taking the enemy completely by surprise and within a few hours the Bazentin ridge was in British hands and several counter attacks beaten off. The French general, on learning of the success informed Montgomery that he need not eat his hat.

Further fighting continued for the rest of the day but, as was so often the case, the British failed to exploit their gains. The commanders in front of High Wood knew that it was their's for the taking, but the corps commander forbade it. The total casualties for the two corps on that day amounted to a little over 9000, a striking contrast to the 1st July. Some experts discern in this, the beginning of the learning curve that eventually led to the BEF becoming so formidable.

THE CONSCRIPTION APPEAL TRIBUNAL

byJ.P.Lethbridge

 When conscription was introduced in 1916 a system of local and appeal tribunals and a final appeal tribunal in London were set up to deal with conscription claims. The Birmingham Local Tribunal was chaired by the Lord Mayor, Alderman Neville Chamberlain and was a mix of businessmen, professional men, trade unionists and charity workers (see my February 2005 Brumration article).

These men and one woman had to deal with disputes arising from Acts of Parliament, eight sets of statutory regulations, several lists of certified occupations, many Local Government Board instructions and 103 London Central Tribunal decisions. There was ample opportunity for honest mistakes and for bias. Nearly all the local tribunal members were ordinary people struggling to make a living. My late father told me of one case of a clash of interests from his own village near Coventry.

Consequently a system of county appeal tribunals was set up to deal with first appeals. For the Birmingham Tribunal and for separate tribunals in Sutton Coldfield, Atherstone, Meriden, Solihull, and Tamworth (despite Tamworth being in Staffordshire) this was a section of the Warwickshire County Tribunal.

The chairman of the Birmingham and area section of the County Appeals Tribunal was Sir Michael Henry Lakin (1846 -1931). The Lakin family traced itself back to seventeenth century Tamworth area farmers. They made their family fortune from their cement works at Harbury in Warwickshire and from Michael Lakin's mother an heiress Rebecca Lakin nee Greaves of a banking family. Sir Michael was a working executive of his family's Harbury cement works, a Warwickshire County councillor from the council's creation in 1889 to his death in 1931; a Warwick town councillor from 1901 to 1923; a working Mayor of Warwick from 1902 to 1905 who organised the improvement in the town's water supply; a member of many committees; High Sheriff of Warwickshire in 1899; a staunch Unitarian; Chairman of the Visiting Committee of the Warwickshire County Lunatic Asylum at Hatton; and a keen foxhunter. He had been made a baronet, i.e. hereditary knight, by the Liberal Government in 1909. Sir Michael's wife, Lady Alice, was Vice President of the Warwick Nursing Association. They had four sons and a daughter. Their fourth son, Major Michael Laurence Lakin of the 1tth Hussars, was born in 1881. He won the DSO in 1915; and the Military Cross in 1918 while serving with the Tank Corps.

 Looking at two other members of this appeals tribunal; Alderman John Suckling Pritchett (1855-1941) studied at King Edward's, Birmingham at Oxford University where he obtained a first in mathematics. He became a Birmingham barrister, eventually serving as a county court judge and deputy stipendiary magistrate of Birmingham He was to finish his judicial career by being appointed Recorder of Lincoln in 1921. He was originally a King's Norton councillor becoming a Birmingham alderman in 1911 when King's Norton came into Birmingham. He spoke six foreign languages, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Finnish and Japanese. A prominent freemason his main hobby was bell ringing.

A third appeals tribunal member was Norris Tyidesley Foster (1854 -1925). A Birmingham born wealthy Birmingham barrister he was a leading Conservative. From 1914 to the Armistice in 1918 he chaired the Birmingham Street Collections Committee which co-ordinated Birmingham street collections which raised a hundred and forty thousand pounds for wartime charities, about ten million pounds in modem money. He was knighted in 1920.

These three men and others like them knew the world but they could afford to be more detached than could the ordinary Brummies of the local tribunal. And of course Sir Michael Lakin's Harbury cement works was a good way from Birmingham!

 BOOK OF THE MONTH: A Serious Disappointment by Adrian Bristow, number 16 on the library list. A readable account of the Battle of Loos, published in 1995.

 

 

 

The Bulletin of the Birmingham Branch of the WFA

Compiled by Bob Butcher

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