The Auchy Raid (July 1st/2nd 1916)

[Barryellson]

Many thanks for the extract from the diary of Capt C.H. Pigg. His account takes me further forward. I should explain that my particular interest is with my grandfather, Pte Howard Ellson (24058) of the 2 battalion. When I visited the RHQ recently I was shown the 'Deaths and Burials ?? of 2nd Worcesters in which Howard's death is recorded as having occured on 2 July at Cuinchy. The entry has 'B2090C rendered' added. Given that the only action on that date was the Auchy Raid, it seems likely that he was involved. His was the only death entered on that date.

The battalion diary; the Regimental history and Capt Pigg's diary all refer to the deaths of two soldiers and Capt Pigg explains the circumstances. I have assumed that the two soldiers would have been known from the roll call. In the case of my grandfather, he was declared missing on 2nd July 1916. Nine months later, on 14 April 1917, the family received a letter from the Records Office at Warwick informing them that Howard, "who has been missing since 2.7.16, the Army Council has been regretfully constrained to conclude that he is dead, and that his death took place on 2.7.16 (or since)".

Is it safe to conclude that he was one of the two men referred to? I am having some difficulty in reconcilling a death near Bethune with the fact that Howard is commemorated at Thiepval on the memorial to the missing of the Somme.

[Mike Jones]

Hello Barry,
I do not usually reply when I dont know the name and a general location for an enquirer but was asked by someone else to point out that Pte. Ellson was a 1st Battalion man, not a 2nd Bn. man. All the missing men from the 1st Bn. (Of this period) are on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing. He also assures me that Pte. Ellson is not in the 2nd Bn. burials book. Well the one we know about, anyway.
Regards Mike Jones from Kent

[Barryellson]

Hello Mike,

Thank you for replying to me despite my incompetence at not having fully followed the system. It was my lack of experience rather than any desire to be anonymous.

I will explain my quest. My grandfather, Pte Howard Ellson 24058, (born 20 January 1887) was killed on the Somme on 2 July 1916. He enlisted on 27 July 1915 and I have been trying to trace the movements of the battalion to which he had been assigned following completion of his training. There is some confusion as to whether he had been a member of the 1 or 2 battalion of the Regiment. Some of the documentation that I have points to the one; other information gives the other. I have what I believe to be a wrist tag which gives 2 battalion. His medal record too gives him as being in 2 battalion. The dividing line seems to be that contemporary documents give the 2 battalion, those produced later – like the War Graves Commission records – give 1 battalion. Having begun with the 2 battalion (simply on the basis that that was the more frequently mentioned), I had traced its route to the Somme and had concluded that it did not arrive there until 10 July, 1916.

I turned my attention to the 1 battalion and had followed its movements up to 30 June 1916. It was possible to pick up the battalion’s movements again from 4 July 1916. This left unexplained the three days at the beginning of the month – days that were crucial since they included the date on which he was killed. I hoped that, by looking at the battalion War Diary for that period, it would provide me with the answer

For this purpose I visited the Archives at Norton Barracks. Mr John Lowles who saw me showed interest in my enquiry and treated me with great courtesy. I was shown a copy of the battalion War Diary of 1 battalion. This confirmed that the battalion to have been behind the front line between July 1 and July 5 1916 only moving into the forward positions on the night of the 6 July prior to commencing action at 8 a.m. next morning.

This presented a puzzle. If not the 1 battalion, then Howard must have been a member of 2 battalion. I looked again at my reasons for having discarded that as a possibility. Had I taken too much at face value the statement of the official historian that “At the beginning of July 1916, the ?? Division moved down to the Somme area to take part in the great offensive battle”.1
1. The Thirty-Third Division in France and Flanders 1915-1919 by Lt Col. Graham Seton Hutchison DSO, MC London Waterlow and Sons 1921 p. 14

As a first step it was suggested that I check the battalion register of deaths and burials. For each of the battalions there was a (surprisingly) slim folio in which these have been recorded whenever possible. Having looked for an entry in the record of the 1 battalion and found none, we opened up the folio entitled “Deaths and Burials of 2 Worcester Regiment. European War 1914-1918” The information, arranged in five columns, related to name, serial number and rank, date of death and place where death was recorded. In this case it read:

24056 Pte Ellson, H. 2.7.16 Cuinchy B2090C rendered

This established, fairly conclusively, that Howard Ellson was in 2 battalion at the time of his death. The reference to the town of Cuinchy would provide a clue as to where he died. It may also help us to discover more of the circumstances of his death.

The next step was look at the war diary of 2 battalion for the first few days of July to see whether that recorded any action either on its own part or by the enemy. This brought to my attention the positioning of the battalion on 1st/2nd July 1916 and details of the Raid on Auchy.

Lt. Col Hutchison in his History … describes how 2 battalion became part of 33 division as it moved to (in mid-December 1915) to take over the line at Cuinchy and Cambrin close to Bethune. If he made any mention of the Raid on Auchy then I missed its significance and will re-check this.

I hope that it will now be clearer to you why I raised various questions in my posting of Mon 25 February, 2008. When I came to consider it, the information that I had still left me with an incomplete picture and I wondered whether there were other accounts of the Raid that might help to make it clearer. It is possible that I may never be able to do so with certainty.

Forgive me if I say that what you have told me appears to have come second hand albeit from a source that you consider reliable. I appreciate that you may not have to hand the 2 battalion war diary, or Stacke’s history. Both refer to the casualties being “two killed and 15 badly wounded”. Capt. Pigg takes the point a step further in that he says “the two missing men ?? believed killed in the explosion of one or our own mines”. I am simply trying to reconcile that information with the fact that my grandfather was reported to his family as missing and his death was not confirmed for a further nine months. That sort of thing obviously happened all the time, but here there was a calling of the roll which must have provided some certainty as to the names of the dead.

Thank you for your time. With best wishes, Barry
birmingham e.mail barryellson@hotmail.com

[Mike Jones]

Hello Barry,
You are not incompetent and you did all that was required to join Louis Scully's Website. I am nothing to do with the website but to keep my workload down and give me time for my own research, I dont reply to anyone who wishes to be anonymous. I am glad I broke my rule in your case, as you have an interesting quest. You have certainly done a lot of work, which I always admire. I am snowed under with work at the moment but will give your quest some hours this week and come back to you. The first thing is to check with my mate, as to who is right about the entry in the burial book or is there two burial books?
Regards Mike