Sadsack's blog: "36th Ulster Division 1912"

SIR EDWARD CARSON BORN 1854 DIED 1935 CARSON OF THE .U.V.F. Sir Edward Carson (1854 - 1935) might justly be described as the founding father of Northern Ireland. A Protestant Dubliner, he threw in his lot with the northern unionists to become their acknowledged leader, some would say their national saviour. It is largely due to his efforts that the six north-eastern counties of Ulster remain to this day in union with Great Britain under the Crown. Carson rose to high office in both politics and the law, becoming First Lord of the Admiralty in David Lloyd George’s war cabinet and, as Lord Carson of Duncairn, a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary (that is to say, one of the Law Lords). Yet he was notably lacking in personal ambition and turned down the opportunity of becoming Northern Ireland’s first Prime Minister. With single-minded determination Carson dedicated his political life to opposing Irish Home Rule. He regarded England as the fount of liberty and justice, and believed that continued Irish representation in the Westminster Parliament was of inestimable value to Ireland. The rationale of his political outlook was straightforward enough: the political unity of the British Isles should be preserved and Ireland should be treated constitutionally in the same way as any other part of the Kingdom. Carson began his legal career as a radical representing tenants in ‘fair rent’ cases, but he declined an invitation by Parnell’s Land League to stand as a parliamentary candidate because he was firmly for the Union. Accordingly, when Gladstone introduced his first Home Rule Bill in 1886 Carson joined Joseph Chamberlain’s (q.v.) newly-founded Liberal Unionists. The Bill’s defeat led to a general election and a landslide victory for the Conservative Party under Lord Salisbury. A Crimes Act was introduced to combat the ‘Plan of Campaign’, which was a series of protests about rents that led to a reign of violence and murder by Irish extremists. The Crimes Act largely succeeded in curbing this rampant lawlessness and so its provisions must interest us to-day. The Act made ‘boycotting’ punishable by law; the Lord Lieutenant was given power to suppress any association by proclaiming it to be dangerous; an entire district could also be ‘proclaimed’, so that criminal trials might be held in another district under a special property qualification jury. Offences such as intimidation, conspiracy and unlawful assembly could be tried without a jury, witnesses being obliged to give evidence, even if self-incriminating. Carson became intimately involved with the operation of the Crimes Act on his appointment to the post of Counsel to the Attorney-General, a post popularly known as the ‘Attorney’s Devil’ and vigorously carried out his duties under the Act, despite threats to his life, thereby earning himself the sobriquet of ‘Coercion Carson’. There is no doubt, however, that the law-abiding portion of the population had reason to be grateful for order restored. After becoming Ireland’s youngest ever Queen’s Counsel at the age of thirty-five and then Solicitor General for Ireland, he was elected in 1892 as a Liberal Unionist MP for Dublin University. It was an opportune moment because Gladstone was about to introduce his second Home Rule Bill, and Carson was able to bring his intimate knowledge of Irish agrarian violence to bear in the debate. The Lords threw out the Bill, but Gladstone set up a commission to examine the cases of evicted Irish tenants. This led to the Evicted Tenants Act of 1894, which aimed to restore tenants who had been evicted up to fifteen years previously for deliberately withholding rent during political protests. Of course, it also necessitated the displacement of those co-operative tenants who had assumed occupancy of the land in the meantime. During the debate, Carson declared: “It is equivalent to telling people that, if they will only commit a sufficient number of outrages, they will bring the question they desire to raise within the sphere of practical politics.” That seems to be a lesson which liberal-minded British governments have never learned and Irish Republicans have never forgotten. The General Election of 1895 saw the return to power of the Unionists under Lord Salisbury, but now it was the Unionists’ turn to placate Irish nationalist discontent with an Irish Land Act of their own. This caused a rift with the Irish Unionists: “it is part of the everlasting attempt to make peace in Ireland by giving sops to one party at the expense of the other,” declared Carson. He led a walk-out of Irish Unionists during the debate on the Bill and then relinquished the party whip. It was now apparent that he had assumed the mantle of leadership amongst the Irish Unionists. Carson, who practised first at the Irish and then at the English Bar throughout his political career, became Solicitor- General for England in 1900 and was knighted. Around this time he led for the prosecution in the trial for treason of ‘Colonel’ Arthur Lynch, Member of Parliament for Galway, and commander of the Irish Brigade that had fought against the British in the Boer War. Although sentenced to death Lynch was reprieved and released after a few months in prison - a case of justice mocked and treason rewarded. Among other well-known cases which Carson undertook, some have been immortalised in literature and film. They include his defence of Lord Queensberry on a charge of criminal libel brought by the playwright Oscar Wilde, his defence of a thirteen year old naval cadet, George Archer-Shee (‘The Winslow Boy’) wrongly accused of petty theft, and his prosecution of the man who many believe was the real ‘Jack the Ripper’, Severin Klosowski alias George Chapman, who was condemned to death for murder by poison and duly hanged. The Liberal victory at the election of 1906 and the repeal of the Crimes Act encouraged a further campaign of lawlessness. About this time two of Carson’s relatives were murdered on coming out of church. Carson protested in the Commons against the Liberals’ acquiescence in Irish terrorism: “Only three or four weeks ago my own kinsmen were shot as they were leaving their place of worship on Sunday in the presence of a jeering and cheering crowd. This is a disgrace to civilisation under the British flag...I was taught at my mother’s knee that no nation, either in history or at the present day, was so keen and anxious for justice and liberty as the English nation. I believed it. I am beginning to doubt it when I see people in this country standing up and giving consideration and welcome to those who they know have only one object and that is to sever your country from mine.” Despite the passage of time such words have lost none of their relevance to-day. The Lords’ rejection of Lloyd George’s so-called ‘People’s Budget’ provoked the constitutional crisis of 1910. Liberals and Nationalists were determined to abolish the Lords’ veto by means of a Veto Bill. Lloyd George and Winston Churchill, weary of the Liberal/Nationalist alliance, secretly proposed a Liberal/Conservative coalition based on a ‘common programme’, which would include a measure of Home Rule. This proposal found favour with senior Conservatives desperate for office, such as Austen Chamberlain and F.E. Smith (later Lord Birkenhead). Carson was alarmed. The Unionist cause was to be betrayed from within the ranks of the Conservative Party! From this point we can date the ‘Ulster Crisis’ that lasted until the outbreak of war in 1914. The Liberals threatened to use the Veto Bill to force through Home Rule without the agreement of the Lords, and to impose it on the unionist North. Irish Unionists of both North and South began to realise that the best deal that they could secure was the exclusion of Ulster from a future Dublin-based parliament. The Ulster Unionist Council (UUC) was set up in 1905 to represent all shades of unionism in the North. It now invited Carson to Ulster to organise resistance. On 23rd September, 1911 a ‘monster’ meeting attended by 100,000 Ulstermen was held at Craigavon on the shores of Belfast Lough. Carson’s speech marked him as a potential rebel: “We must be prepared in the event of a Home Rule Bill passing, to take such measures as will enable us to carry on the government of those districts of which we have control. We must be prepared, the morning Home Rule passes, ourselves to become responsible for the government of the Protestant province of Ulster.” Two days later the UUC convened to draft a constitution for a provisional government of Ulster. Ulstermen now began drilling and training in the use of arms. This led to the formation of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) under Colonel R.H. Wallace. Another monster meeting of over 100,000 souls took place on 9th April, 1912 in the Belfast suburb of Balmoral. It took three hours for the UVF men to march past four abreast and the meeting was attended by all Ulster’s prominent personalities and around seventy Conservative MPs from Great Britain, including Andrew Bonar Law (q.v.), an Ulsterman by descent, whose words of defiance resounded loud: “Once again you hold the pass for the Empire. You are a besieged city(1).” Despite this agitation, the Liberals were determined to impose Dublin rule on Ulster against the population’s wishes and the Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith, introduced the third Home Rule Bill. An amendment put forward by a Liberal MP excluding Counties Antrim, Down, Londonderry and Armagh from the jurisdiction of the Dublin Parliament was supported by the Irish Unionists but defeated all the same. Ulstermen, it seemed, were not entitled to self-determination. The government told Carson: “We will accept the declaration of war.” At the Balmoral meeting it had been proposed that unionists should bind themselves to oppose Home Rule by a solemn oath. Carson asked James Craig MP to devise a suitable form of words based on the text of the Solemn League and Covenant. To promote Ulster’s Covenant Carson began a vigorous speaking campaign among Protestant workers in the shipyards and factories, which led to the foundation of the Ulster Unionist Labour Association. On 28th September, ‘Ulster Day’, the mass signatures began with those of the dignitaries of the Lords, Commons, Church, councils, clubs and lodges and by the end of the first day 80,000 signatures had been collected, many made in the signatories’ own blood. Nearly half a million signatures were collected throughout the kingdom. Alarmed at the worsening crisis, King George V called the leading politicians to meet at Balmoral, Scotland. Bonar Law made it clear that the Conservative Party would back Carson if he proclaimed a provisional government in Ulster and that if the Army were to use force against the Province, “undoubtedly we should regard it as civil war and should urge the officers of the Army to ignore the government’s orders.” Carson now turned his attention to arming the UVF, commissioning Major Fred Crawford to purchase 30,000 rifles and ammunition overseas and smuggle them into the Province. Carson was prepared “to go to prison for it”. The Larne gun running followed. It is still possible to see one of the smuggled rifles bearing UVF markings to-day. It is on display in the Imperial War Museum, London AND AT THE FERNHILL HOUSE MUSEUM GLENCAIRN BELFAST THE HOME OF THE WEST BELFAST VOLUNTEERS 1912. In 1914, the so-called ‘Curragh Mutiny’ occurred, when Asquith’s government ordered the Army in Ireland to be mobilised to march on Ulster but the officers resigned en masse and so the government’s attempt to coerce the Province was foiled. Powerless to impose its will by force of arms, the Liberal government nonetheless put the Home Rule bill on the statute book. The King convened another all-party conference, which met at Buckingham Palace, warning the delegates that “to-day the cry of civil war is on the lips of the most responsible and sober-minded of my people,” but no agreement was reached. In the South Arthur Griffith(2) had begun recruiting armed militias for Sinn Fein, advocating not Home Rule, but a republic. Carson, addressing a Twelfth of July rally, averred: “I can see no hopes of peace...in my opinion the great climax and the great crisis of our fate, and the fate of our country, cannot be delayed for many weeks - unless something happens - when we shall have once more to assert the manhood of our race.” Something quite unforeseen did indeed happen. On 24th July, 1914, the day that the breakdown of the conference was announced, Austria-Hungary issued the ultimatum to Serbia which was to spark off the Great War. Carson had already prepared his “Go ahead!” message to the UVF, but now the Ulster crisis was to be deferred and an incipient civil war was superseded by a World War. Ulster played a valiant part in the war. Carson patriotically placed the UVF at the disposal of the authorities for Home Defence and 35,000 Ulster volunteers immediately enlisted. “England’s difficulty is not Ulster’s opportunity; England’s difficulty is our difficulty and England’s sorrows have always been our sorrows,” Carson affirmed(3). He joined the war cabinet as First Lord of the Admiralty, co- operating with Lloyd George, who was critical of Asquith’s uncertain leadership and Churchill’s disastrous Dardanelles folly. England’s difficulty did, as expected, prove to be Sinn Fein’s opportunity. At Easter 1916, at the height of the war, it launched its bloody rebellion in Dublin (the ‘Easter Rising’) followed by a terrorist campaign in the South. Southern Irish opinion abandoned all moderation and at the post- Armistice election of 1918 Sinn Fein swept the board, almost wiping out John Redmond’s Nationalist Party, which, for all its faults, had never sought finally to repudiate the Union. Refusing to take their seats at Westminster, the Sinn Fein MPs convened at the Mansion House in Dublin in early 1919, styling themselves the Dail Eireann. In February 1920, the Liberal/Conservative coalition introduced the fourth Home Rule Bill known as the Government of Ireland Act, which repealed Asquith’s pre-war Act and provided for two devolved parliaments, one in Belfast for the six counties of Northern Ireland, and one in Dublin for the rest. Although Carson had always wanted to preserve full legislative union under the Westminster parliament he recommended acceptance of this arrangement as it at least ensured that the majority of unionists would be excluded from Dublin’s jurisdiction. The subsequent election in Northern Ireland returned an overwhelming unionist majority and Carson was pressed to accept the premiership, but, believing it was for a younger man to open a new chapter in Ulster’s history, he declined in favour of Sir James Craig. On 22nd June, 1921 King George V opened the first session of the Parliament of Northern Ireland. The King expressed the hope that a similar ceremony could be held in Dublin (as the Act of 1920 provided) but when the Lord Lieutenant opened the Dublin Parliament a week later it was a fiasco, only four MPs turning up. Lloyd George took this opportunity to invite Sinn Fein to negotiate a new settlement which resulted six months later in a ‘Treaty’ giving de facto independence to southern Ireland as the Irish Free State with Dominion status under the Crown. The British were to withdraw from the greater part of the island after a tenure of seven centuries and the British Isles were to be partitioned into two separate states. Amongst the negotiators of this surrender on the British side were Lloyd George, Churchill, and the Conservatives, Austen Chamberlain(4) and Lord Birkenhead (F.E. Smith). Parliament brought the Treaty into law even though the majority in both Houses consisted of so-called ‘Unionists’, who for the past thirty-five years had opposed the relatively mild form of devolved government proposed by Gladstone and later by Asquith. F.E. Smith had been a particularly intemperate opponent of Home Rule, yet was instrumental in pushing the Treaty through, but all the English Unionists, with the honourable exception of Bonar Law, had combined with the Liberals to smash the Union. And all this without any electoral mandate!

IT IS A MISTAKEN BELIEF THAT ALL THE YOUNG MEN AND BOYS FROM THE SHANKILL AREA WHO ENLISTED IN THE BRITISH ARMY IN THE GREAT WAR OF 1914-1918 JOINED THE 9TH BATTALION ROYAL IRISH RIFLES THE WEST BELFAST VOLUNTEERS .U.S.S.F. MANY YOUNG MEN FROM THIS AREA JOINED ENGLISH ,SCOTS, AND INDEED JOINED THE 10TH AND 16TH IRISH DIVISIONS ccording to populair It was a belief that the youngest boy to enlist in the allied armies was John Condon from Waterford, Ireland. He was supposedly 12 years old . In 1915 John Condon went with the Royal Irish Regiment to Flanders. He died on 24th May 1915, during a German gas-attack near Ypres. His gravestone (picture on the right), nr. 6322 at the Poelkapelle British Cemetery in Belgium, mentions his age as 14. New investigations in 2002 by Aurel Sercu from Ypres, Flanders, revealed that someone else may be buried in John Condon's grave. Sercu also found indications that John Condon was in fact 18 years old. WE MUST BE CAREFUL NOT TO PUT THE 10TH AND 16TH IRISH DIVISIONS ON ONE HAND AND THE 36TH ULSTER DIVISION ON THE OTHER INTO THE OBVIOUS POLITICAL NICHES SOME IRISH REGIMENTS NOTABLY THE ROYAL IRISH RIFLES HAD ALWAYS RECRUITED BOTH CATHOLICS AND PROTESTANTS. AN OFFICER IN THE 10TH DIVISION WE FOUND THOUSANDS OF POINTS ON WHICH WE AGREED ON THE SAME MUSIC COULD SPEAK TO BOTH. WHEN THE PIPES OF THE ROYAL IRISH HOWLED OUT BRIAN BORU, THAT TUNE TRADITIONALLY PLAYED BY SOME IRISH REGIMENTS TO LIFT HEARTS AND SQUARE SHOULDERS IN THE ASSAULT ON GUILLEMONT ON THE 15TH SEPTEMBER 1916, A MAN DID NOT HAVE TO COME FROM THE SOUTH TO FEEL HIS SPIRITS SOAR.AND WHEN A NORTHERN BATTALION AND SOUTHERN BATTALION MET AND THE BAND PLAYED AN OLD REBEL AIR SHE,S THE MOST DISTRESSFUL COUNTRY , THERE WERE CHEERS OF APPROVAL. THE APOTHEOSIS OF THE FIGHTING IRISH CAME ON THE 7TH JUNE 1917 WHEN THE 16TH AND THE 36TH DIVISION ATTACKED SIDE BY SIDE IN THE 2ND ARMY,S GREAT ASSAULT ON MESSINES RIDGE. THE HOME RULER JOHN REDMOND BROTHER MAJOR WILLIE REDMOND MP, WHO HAD LAST SPOKEN IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS JUST A MONTH BEFORE TO DEMAND IMMEDIATE HOME RULE FOR IRELAND, WAS AT 56 YEARS OLD TO OLD FOR FRONT LINE SERVICE. BUT HE BEGGED TO BE ALLOWED TO GO BACK TO HIS OLD BATTALION THE 6TH ROYAL IRISH BUT WAS HIT AS HE WALKED FORWARD SEEING REDMOND WOUNDED ON THE BATTLEFIELD STRETCHERS-BEARERS FROM THE 36TH ULSTER DIVISION RUSHED FORWARD PICKED HIM UP THE WOUND WOULD PROBABLY NOT HAVE KILLED A YOUNGER MORE FITTER MAN BUT IT WAS ALL TO MUCH FOR MAJOR REDMOND. A ROMAN CATHOLIC CHAPLAIN TOLD HOW: HE RECEIVED EVERY POSSIBLE KINDNESS FROM THE ULSTER SOLDIERS.IN FACT, AN ENGLISHMAN ATTACHED TO THE ULSTER DIVISION EXPRESSED SOME SURPRISE AT THE EXTREME CARE THAT WAS TAKEN OF THE POOR MAJOR , THOUGH NO IRISH SOLDIER EXPECTED ANYTHING ELSE , AFTER ALL ULSTERMEN ARE IRISH TOO.

Many of the Ulster dead are buried at the edge of Thiepval Wood in the Connaught Cemetery. A short distance away to the north, across the sunken road and up the hill are Mill Road Cemetery, and the 36th (Ulster) Division's Memorial. This is the Ulster Tower, built as an almost exact replica of Helen's Tower in Clandeboye Estate near Bangor in County Down where many of the soldiers of the Ulster Division trained. The Ulster Tower and Mill Road Cemetery are very near to the site of the Schwaben Redoubt, and both command a panoramic view of the surrounding countryside and former battlefield. A few hundred yards to the south-east, and visible for miles around, is Sir Edwin Lutyens' imposing Memorial to the Missing, standing now on the site of the ruined Thiepval Chateau. It is built from bricks which have stone facing on which are inscribed the names of over 73,000 men who died on the Somme in 1916 and 1917 and who have no known graves.

The division, formed mainly from the Ulster Volunteer Force, came into being in September 1914 as the Ulster Division with brigades numbered 1st, 2nd and 3rd. A month later it was numbered 36th, retaining its Ulster title and the brigades were renumbered 107th, 108th and 109th. As a divisional sign the Red Hand of Ulster was adopted. The 36th arrived in France in October 1915 and on 1st July 1916 its attack on the Schwaben Redoubt, Thiepval, achieved the only success that day apart from XIII Corps on the extreme right of Fourth Army.But the failure of the divisions on either flank to secure their objectives left the Ulstermen exposed and they were forced to fall back. Their casualties that day amounted to 5,100 and four VCs were won. Their memorial, the Ulster Tower, stands on the ground where they fought on that day. The division was at Messines in June 1917, fighting side by side with fellow Irishmen from the South, the 16th (Irish) Division in the capture of Wytschaete. Later in 1917 it was engaged in the Battle of Langemarck in August during Third Ypres and its last major action that year was at Cambrai where it took part in the tank attack and the capture of Bourlon Wood. When the German March 1918 offensive was launched the 36th was in the line just below St Quentin, part of the ill-fated Fifth Army. During the ensuing two weeks the division sustained 7,310 casualties, 5,845 of them missing. In April the division moved north to the Ypres Salient where it took part in the Lys battles and subsequently pursued the retreating enemy in the Advance to Victory. It fought its last battle around Ooteghem on 25 October and when the armistice came the divisions total casualties throughout the war had amounted to 32,186. Nine VCs were won. Reference must now be made to the fine war record of the ten Battalions which served with the 36th Ulster Division. Their numbers went from the 8th Battalion to the 16th. The 36th was the sole Irish Division to have its own reserve formations, to which the Royal Irish Rifles contributed no fewer than four. These had important tasks to perform at the time of the Rebellion of Easter Week, 1916, a detachment of the 18th Battalion taking part in the capture of Liberty Hall. Training was in full swing by the end of September 1914. But it was not until July 1915 that the Division moved to Seaford in Sussex. Shortly afterwards it was inspected by Lord Kitchener but was not sent overseas until it had completed its official musketry and machine-gun courses. In the meantime, the Division was inspected again-this time by His Majesty King George V and finally crossed the Channel in the first week of October. But the first real test was not to come until the Battle of the Somme, the great day of the Ulster Division and still a day of great mourning throughout Ulster. The Division never really recovered from its shocking casualties. In the meantime, the 13th Royal Irish Rifles were destined to take the first German prisoners captured by the 36th Division. That was on July 26th. Originally, the major attack was to have taken place on June 30th. The bad weather, however, caused a postponement until July 1st. The two days' postponement had an unexpected effect on the men. The extra strain of waiting was more than counterbalanced by the coincidence of the date. For it was upon July the 1st, the anniversary of Boyne, that the sons of the victors in that battle, after eight generations, fought this greater fight. To them it had a very special significance. A stirring in their blood bore witness to the call of their ancestors. There seemed to them a predestination in the affair. They spoke of it as they waited, during the final intensive bombardment, while the German counter-barrage rained upon their trenches. Zero came, and the hurricane Stokes bombardment ceased. The artillery lifted off the first line. The whistles of the officers sounded, and the men sprang up and advanced at steady marching pace on the German trenches. Those who saw those leading Battalions move to the assault. above all their commanding officers, who, forbidden to accompany them, waved to them from the parapet, received one of the most powerful and enduring impressions of their lives. On the left the 12th Rifles were unlucky. The wire round the German salient over the hill-brow, less easy to observe, was not so completely destroyed as on the rest of the front. Many gaps were cut, but machine-guns were trained upon them. Beaten back at the first rush, and having lost the barrage, the remnants of the Battalion were twice re-formed by devoted officers under that withering hail, and twice again led forward. It was of no avail. On their left the leading troops of the next Division crossed the front line trenches, but were attacked from the rear by machine-gunners emerging from dugouts. At eight o'clock the 36th Division was informed that the enemy had re-taken his front line. The attack north of the Ancre was a failure, though it was just as gallant as that of the Battalions on the left bank. Elsewhere, for all its; losses, the attack was a complete success. Every objective was reached. Had it been possible to attain the same results all along the front, the day would have ended with the greatest British victory of the war. The leading waves, still moving as if on parade, reached the German front line trench and went straight across it. They did not suffer heavily. Hardly were they across, however, when the German barrage fell upon "No Man's Land," upon the rear companies of the first line Battalions, and upon those of the second line. And immediately the barrage left it, flanking machine-gun fire burst out from the dominating position of Thiepval cemetery. The 11th Inniskillings and 14th Rifles, as they emerged from the wood, were simply mown down, and "No Man's Land" became a ghastly spectacle of dead and wounded. On the left of the line the 13th Rifles, under long-range fire from the Beaucourt Redoubt across the river, suffered most heavily of all. They had lost the bulk of their officers before they even reached the German trenches. The Division on the right was never able to clear Thiepval village, and it was that fact which was responsible for the gravest losses of the 36th. Under this deadly punishment the men never hesitated. They went straight forward across the first two lines, sending back the few prisoners they took. The "B" line was to be reached at 7.48. Despite the gaps in their ranks the first wave swept upon it at precisely that moment. There was not much fighting here, but a large number of prisoners was taken, the German infantry surrendering as our men came upon them. The 15th Rifles, the supporting battalion of the 108th Brigade's attack, had, however, to deal with some Germans who came up out of unnoticed dug-outs after the leading battalions had crossed the "A" lines; the bombing squads told off to clear the trenches having been destroyed by machine-gun fire. On pressed the leading waves. Never losing the barrage, they took the "C" line, including the north-east corner of the Schwaben Redoubt, at 8.38. Even in the trenches they suffered loss from the flanking machine-guns, while movement from front to rear was now almost impossible. The supporting battalions, or their survivors, were also upon their objectives. Every man had done what he was set to do, or dropped in his path. And, to the eternal credit of the artillery, no man appears to have needed his wire-cutters. The 107th Brigade had meanwhile advanced to the "A" line. It had moved from Aveluy Wood and across the Ancre to the western skirts of Thiepval Wood, nearly at the bottom of the valley, assembling at 6.30 about the track known as Speyside. It had an hour to wait, shell after shell passing just over the heads of the troops and bursting in the marshes beyond them. At Zero, led by the 10th Rifles, it moved back cast for a short distance, to reach the rides which were its paths to the front line. Here the men could see the troops of the Division on the right issuing from their trenches, and each platoon, as it extended in "No Man's Land," disappearing before the blast of machine-gun fire that met it. The ride used by the 10th Rifles on the right had been denuded of its foliage by the bombardments of several days, and was in view. The Battalion came under machine-gun fire from front, right, and right rear simultaneously. The commanding officer, Colonel Bernard, was killed, and casualties were high. The final passage had to be carried out by rushes to the front line. The leading men could even see the German machine-guns firing at them, so that it is easy to imagine what sort of target they offered to those guns. Lewis guns were brought forward to engage them, but their teams were destroyed. The other battalions suffered considerably less, being screened in their rides and further from the Thiepval guns. Before ten o'clock, runners, with the skill and devotion of their kind, had come back to report that the "C" line had been reached. To General Nugent it had long appeared probable that his troops, if they went forward further as a wedge into the enemy's defensive system, with not a yard gained on either flank, would go only to their own destruction. At 8.32 his G.S.O.1., Colonel Place, had asked the X Corps whether the 107th Brigade might be stopped from advancing upon the last line. The reply was that a new attack was being made on Thiepval, and also by the VIII Corps north of the Ancre, and that the 107th Brigade must do its part by continuing its advance. But three-quarters of an hour later, at 9.26 a.m., instructions from the Corps to withhold the 107th Brigade till the situation upon the flanks had been cleared up were received. General Withycombe was ordered to stop his troops, and employed every means in his power to do so. But all the telephone lines taken forward had been cut by German fire, and for a runner to reach the line now held by the troops took a very long time. The message arrived too late; the troops were committed to the attack. With them there went forward some men of the other Brigades. Of that last wild and desperate venture across a thousand yards of open country, few returned to tell the tale. Those that did tell of an entry into that last entrenchment, of desperate hand-to-hand fighting, and then, when the odds were too great, for the trench was full of German reserves, of a stubborn retirement to the next line. And now the German bombers surged up the trenches from St. Pierre Divion, to be beaten off again and again by the 8th and 15th Rifles, and the handful of the 13th remaining on that flank. Pressure on the other side did not come so soon, in fact, Lieutenant Sanderson, of the 9th Rifles, reconnoitring the trench " Mouquet Switch," on the front of the 32nd Division, found it unoccupied. But Thiepval's machine-guns were still firing, and "No Man's Land" was a scene of desolation. Two companies of the Pioneers were sent up to dig a communication trench across, which would have permitted the sending up of bombs and water. But at two o'clock Colonel Leader, their commanding officer, reported that the machine-gun fire rendered the task impossible. Supplies had run out, and the little parties that strove to bear them across were annihilated by fire. After noon came attacks upon the right flank also; the 11th Inniskillings at the Crucifix, and the 9th.R.I.R. THE WEST BELFAST VOLUNTEERS in the Schwaben Redoubt, being hard set. At seven a.m., next morning, as sun dispersed the first summer ground-mist, observers on the Mesnil Ridge saw that there were still British troops in small numbers in the first two lines of German, trenches. General Nugent ordered General Withycombe to support and reinforce these troops, and to send forward supplies of bombs, ammunition, and water. General Withycombe collected a force of four hundred men of the four battalions of his own Brigade, together with two guns of the 107th Machine-Gun Company. Under the command of Major Woods, of the 9th Rifles, this devoted band moved across "No Man's Land" at two o'clock in artillery formation. It lost a third of its numbers from the enemy's fire, but it reached its objectives. Two small parties of the 16th Rifles (Pioneers), with bombs and ammunition, crossed later in the afternoon, going through the German barrage in most gallant fashion. That night the 36th Division was relieved by the 49th. The 148th Brigade relieved the 107th in the two lines of trenches now held, between A.12 and A.19. The relief was not complete till after ten o'clock the following morning, when a weary, tattered, pitiful remnant marched into Martinsart and flung themselves down to sleep. They had brought back to Thiepval Wood fourteen prisoners. The total number captured by the 36th Division in the offensive was five hundred and forty-three. Its casualties in the two days amounted to five thousand, five hundred officers and other ranks killed, wounded, and missing. The whole Province was thrown into mourning for its sons. Among the dead were Colonel H. C. Bernard, of the 10th Rifles; and Major G. H. Gaffiken, of the 9th, who had led his company to the final objective. The figures of the 8th Rifles, a battalion below rather than above the average in casualties, were: Officers: fifteen wounded, five missing. Other Ranks: twenty-four killed, two hundred and sixteen wounded, one hundred and eighty-six missing. And of the "missing," it must be recorded that three-fourths at least were in reality dead, somewhere out in front of the line. Of the deeds of courage performed that day, it is not possible to enumerate one-hundredth. Lieutenant Sir Harry MacNaghten, 12th Rifles, twice re-formed the tatters of his company in " No Man's Land," and led them against gaps in the German wire, to fall himself on the second occasion. A very remarkable Victoria Cross was that won by Rifleman Quigg 12th Rifles, Sir Harry MacNaghten's servant. He had, on July 1st, advanced thrice to the attack. Next morning he heard a tumour that his officer was out wounded in "No Man's Land." Seven times he went out to look for him, and seven times he brought in a wounded man, the last dragged on a water-proof sheet from within a few yards of the German wire. On July 5th, the Division moved back to Rubempre and the neighbouring villages, and five days later to the Bernaville area. Within a fortnight the Division was moved up and it was destined to remain, until 1917, in the neighbourhood of Plug Street Wood and Bailleul. June 1917 saw the Battle of Messines-the first completely successful single operation on the British front since the outbreak of war. Once again the Royal Irish Rifles fought with great credit. Then came the Battle of Ypres, followed by Cambrai. Further heavy casualties were inflicted on the Regiment and the weather was growing worse. More fighting occurred round Bourlon and after the German counter-attack the Division was ordered to withdraw. The 36th Division, which had already received the 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Rifles, was now joined by the 1st Battalion. Other regular battalions from other Irish regiments also reinforced the Division, with the result that the 8th/9th, 10th, and 11th/13th Rifles had to disappear. The 12th and 15th, however, remained, later forming the 107th Infantry Brigade with the two regular battalions of the regiment. The achievement of these troops of the 36th Division, almost broken by fatigue, in many cases without food, deserves the greatest praise during the retreat in March 1918. The Division was not destined to take part in the early counter-offensive which showed the world that the tide had turned at last, and it was not until the last days of August 1918 that they attacked again. The advance to final victory began on September 28th and continued to October 17th, 1918. Thereafter, the Division went from strength to strength. Wrote Lieutenant-General C. N. Jacob, commanding II Corps to Major-General C. Coffin, V.C., D.S.O., commanding 36th Division:- " The spirit, dash and initiative shewn by all ranks have been splendid and beyond all praise. When the history is written of what the Division has done in Flanders during the past month, it win prove to be a record of magnificent fighting and wonderful progress .... Over the worst of country, and under the heaviest machine-gun fire ever experienced in this war .... The 36th Division has overcome every obstacle, and has proved itself one of the best fighting Divisions in the Army .... " The order of battle shows that 107th Infantry Brigade had no fewer than six commanders during the four years of war. They were: Brigadier-General Couchman, C.B. Till 20th October, 1915. Brigadier-General W. M. Withycombe, C.M.G., D.S.O. Till 7th March, 1917. Brigadier-General F. J. M. Rowley, D.S.O. Till 2nd June 1917. Brigadier-General W. M. Withycombe, C.M.G., D.S.O. Till 30thApril, 1918. Brigadier-General E. I. de S. Thorpe, C.M.G., D.S.O. Till 13th September 1918. Brigadier-General H. J. Brock, C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O. The troops, apart from the temporary inclusion for eight months of the 1st Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers, were all men of the Royal Irish Rifles, thus:- Wrote Lieutenant-General C. N. Jacob, commanding II Corps to Major-General C. Coffin, V.C., D.S.O., commanding 36th Division:- " The spirit, dash and initiative shewn by all ranks have been splendid and beyond all praise. When the history is written of what the Division has done in Flanders during the past month, it win prove to be a record of magnificent fighting and wonderful progress .... Over the worst of country, and under the heaviest machine-gun fire ever experienced in this war .... The 36th Division has overcome every obstacle, and has proved itself one of the best fighting Divisions in the Army .... " 8th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles amalgamated with 9th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles WEST BELFAST VOLUNTEERS, 29th August 1917, as 8th/9th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles. 8th/9th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles disbanded 7th February 1918. 10th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles disbanded 20th February 1918 15th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles 1st Battalion Royal Irish Rifles joined from 8th Division 7th February 1918. 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Rifles joined from 108th Brigade 8th February, 1918. This Brigade was attached to 4th Division from 6th November 1915 to 7th February, 1916, being replaced during that period by the 12th Infantry Brigade. The 108th Infantry Brigade had three commanders. Once again, with the exception of the 1st and 9th Battalions of the Royal Irish Fusiliers, the Royal Irish Rifles provided all the men thus:- 11th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles amalgamated with 13th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles, 14th November, 1917, as 11th/13th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles. 12th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles. 13th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles amalgamated with 11th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles, 14th November, 1917, as 11th/13th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles. 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Rifles joined from 25th Division 14th November, 1917. To 107th Brigade 8th February, 1918. Only the 14th Battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles served in the 109th Infantry Brigade and they were disbanded in February 1918, but the 16th Royal Irish Rifles provided the Pioneer Battalion throughout the war. On the cessation of hostilities the Regiment was awarded no fewer than forty-six battle honours, though Army Regulations laid down that no regiment in the Army could bear on its colours more than ten Great War battle honours. Many of them were earned by the later battalions of the regiment, but they were won at a terrible cost; 361 officers and 6,652 other ranks were killed in action, or died of wounds. The official figures for the wounded and prisoners can be assumed to be at least four times the number killed. V.Cs OF THE 36th BRIGADE BELL, EMERSON, SEAMAN, HARVEY DE WIND, MCFADZEAN,QUIGG, CATHER, KNOX