te John Clegg.This article is dedicated to the memory of all the Matelots and Marines who fought on 13-11-16. Especially Pte John Clegg, Capt. A,Staughton and Capt.E.Bastin all of whom died at that battle or of wounds incurred at that battle. Members of the families of these three men showed me a great deal of unpublished material relating to their service which put the human side forward, it is hard describing this battle without thinking of these men as I have almost come to know them,
Pte John Clegg.
On the night of 8th/9th January 1916 the last of the Royal Marines crept away from the Gallipoli peninsula with the last of the British Troops. Typical of the Royal Marines they had be the first in during shore raids and amongst the first in during the main landings and the last to leave. The Royal Marines who landed were a mixture of old veteran regulars and very young short service men, those that left were a much depleted haggard bunch. Behind them was the heartbreak of leaving the positions they had fought, bled and died for plus the feeling of the betrayal of their fallen comrades whose graves they were now abandoning. They were withdrawing because of the lack of political will and support, and the politicians had decided to support them no more, leaving a bitter feeling of betrayal, a feeling that was not unique to the Anzacs. It would be 1918 before British troops would be back on Gallipoli. The four Marine battalions had been reduced to two due to horrific casualties and the inability to maintain four battalions in the feild as the number of casualties was outstripping the abiltiy to train replacements. The Royal Naval Division was now scattered to the four winds. Some were sent to Stavros, some to Imbros and others to Salonica. Meanwhile at Whitehall the future of the Naval Division was being pondered. There was a clamour to disband it and it was decided to absorb the duration only RNVR men into the army , but the marines would be retained in the Navy and distributed to the ships of the fleet and to garrisons around the world. After a short exciting life the Royal Naval Division was going to die at the hands of it's creators. Many of the regular marines had already been removed from the battalions and returned to the fleet. Then the news came that the Naval division was to be saved, it's commander General Paris and been fighting for it's survival and had succeeded. A deal had been struck , the Division was to be administered by the war office, replacements ad supplies would come from the army as opposed to the admiralty but the personel especially the marines were under the wing of the Admiralty. It was now decided to re assemble the division from all of it's outposts , reinforce it to make up for casualties and transfers to the fleet and to send the division to France
So in May 1916 the RND was reassembled and sent by ship to France landing at Marseilles. The division was now given an army division number and was known as the 63rd (RN)Division. There would be no longer three naval brigades, but two naval brigades 188th &189th and one brigade 190th containing army units. The Royal Marine battalions, 1RM and 2RM, were in the 188th brigade with two RNVR battalions. For once they had there own divisional artillery and it's a matter of pride for me, being a man of Kent , that the Kent Territorial artillery was assigned to the 63rd Division. Since landing in France the division had re equipted and trained extensively as the style and conditions of fighting varied tremendously with that in Gallipoli. On the peninsular the front lines were very close together,often 20 yards apart and grenades could be thrown from one trench directly into the opponents. In France, however, there was usually a large no mans land to cross which wasoften swept by machine gun fire. This large gap meant that in France front lines were often not Garrisoned in strength as there was time to bring men up if needed , forces were often kept in the 2nd and 3rd lines and brought forward for counter attacking when the enemy had showed his hand. On Gallipoli as front lines were not far apart , they were packed to repel any mass charge by the Turks. If the Turks broke through the front line they could be down on the beaches behind the allies in no time, there wasn't the luxury of defence in depth and regrouping if things went pear shaped. In France the front line was leveled by tons of shells and if held in strength carnage would be the result. Meanwhile on the Somme front the summer offensive had begun and was pressing ahead with mixed results, but in virtually all instances heavy casualties resulted. Other divisions which had been with the RND on Gallipoli, the 29th, the Australians and New Zealanders had already been commited and had suffered grievously.
On the 4th October theRND were transfered to the 5th Corps and told to prepare for an assault north of the river ancre. The division mover immediately to the Somme sector to begin reconoitering and extensive training. Since landing in France the casualties had been light, but on 13th October, whilst visiting the front line,General ParisRMA commanding the RND was seriously wounded; he was the father figure of the division , their protector and guiding light.He was replaced by Major General Shute, an army man who had scant regard to naval traditions. This was another attempt by the Army to bring the division to heel. The army disliked the naval traditions, ranks terms etc, and his appointment was an attempt to standardize things on army lines. He didn't have the faith in their abilities ,which was to have other consequences later. Goinginto the first battle in France the RND had at their head a figure deeply unpopular who had little time for them or their unique ways. Once again the division was fighting on two fronts.
The location of the attack had been decided by mid October, and the operational order was issued on 23rd October; it was to be north of the Ancre in front of Hamel, an area that had been assualted 5 times since July 1st with every attack failing with heavy cost. This was going to be a nasty baptism on the western front. It might be wondered, and it's a theory of mine that the location chosen was also part of the conspiricy to break the naval hold of the RND; by sustaining heavy casualties it's will could be broken and it's casualties replacements taken from the army would further dilute the naval element, although there is no firm evidence for this. The reason for this attack was that in the course of the battle the front had moved forward and was becoming concave. The front hadn't moved much at all at Beaumont Hamel and Serre in the north of the Somme sector . There was to be attacks at these points to advance the line and take the convexity out-to broaden the shoulders above the ancre river. Therefore the RND were moved to the trenches of this sector and started rotating through them with spells in the front,second and reserve lines.
The attack had been planned and posponed several times , but on the 10th November it was finally decided that it would go ahead on the 13th .
These delays were in many ways benificial as it allowed extra trench raids and more artillery preparation was possible, it also meant that more men were lost through illhealth and natural wastage. The artillery started shelling the front line early every morning as if an attack was about to take place, but of course it didn't. The delays forced the defenders into a set routine , a tactic that had allowed the British to put the turks to sleep to allow the escape from Gallipoli. This acclimatizing of the Germans helped in the attacks, as the shelling on the morning of the 13th was probably written off as yet another morning hate session. Also importantly there was more time for the artillery to cut the wire in front of the German positions. The original operational order of 2RM planned to include 6 tanks, but these were never used and I have been unable to find out why. It leaves you with the what if thought, but the ground in which they were to be used I feel was probably not the type of ground to try a tank attack.
The attacks of the 13th November on the Ancre involved six divisions ; in the south against the north bank of the Ancre the 63rd RND; on their left the 51st Highland Div. To the left of them , between Beaumont Hamel and Serre, the 3rd Division and furthest north was the 31st Division in front of Serre. There was to be an attack south of the Ancre river by the 19th Division to run alongside the attack of the RND.
The objectives set on the RND front were coded by colour lines rather than by trench names. These were four objective lines, the green dotted line,the green line the yellow line and finally the red line. The first objective was the green dotted line,set on the German third trench line. The green line was set on the ridge behind station road, which linked Beaumont Hamel with Beaucourt; this was in a valley, was a fortified defensive position and was the second objective. The third objective was the yellow line, which was set on a trench called Beaucourt trench , which ran from behind Beaucourt , along the top of a ridge to behind Beaumont Hamel. It should be noted that the last three objectives were all on high ground ,affording excellent observation of the attacking troops . These lines were tiered like the side of a football stadium so that the occupants of all of these trenches could see the attackers and therefore engage them or call artillery strikes down on them. The colours assigned to the objectives are as defined in the RND divisional history , the operational order for the Royal Marines mentions different colours but changes them in an amendment to that order. The RND attacking formation was to be two brigades attacking side by side and one in reserve. The two attacking brigades were to be 188th and 189th , the two naval brigades, 188th was to be on the left. The reserve brigade 190th was to be deployed behind and across the whole width of the two naval brigades and was only intended for use if the momentum had dropped out of the attack. The attack was to be made leapfrog style, and each objective was assigned to two groups of attackers. The objective would then be assaulted and captured by the first group of attacking troops, who would once the objective had been taken ,consolidate and re organise. The next objective would be assaulted by the second group of attackers who would pass through the first group. On capturing their objective they too would reorganise and consolidate and allow the first team of attackers to pass through to the next objective and so on. This consolidation and re organisation on the objective was a concept born out of the early failures in the Somme offensive. Previously an objective had been taken and the assaulting troops pressed on , often in a disorganised state , without fully clearing the captured trenches. They would blunder on to the next set of enemy trenches , the Germans would then come out of their dugouts from the uncleared trenches and shoot them in the back. The attacking forces often then found themselves to be the filling in the sandwich. The lesson learnt was to rest on an objective, bomb and clear every dugout ; hence for this attack the leapfrog style was adopted.
Each brigade was split into two halves, one consolidating whilst the other attacked. In 188th Brigade , 1 RM and Howe battalion were to assault the green dotted line and the yellow line, 2RM and Anson battalion were to assault the green line and red line. In 189th Brigade Hood and Hawke were to take the green dotted line and the yellow line, Nelson and Drake were to take the green line and the red line. 188th brigade were to be supported by the 10th Royal Dublin Fusiliers and the 4th Bedfords, 189th Brigade by the Honourable Artillery Company and the 7th Royal Fusiliers. Although the Royal Marines were only represented by two battalions in this offensive there was a wider Royal Marine presence as the Commanding officers of Anson,Drake Nelson and Hawke Battalions