The crucial defence of Bailleul

The crucial defence of Bailleul

AFTER three years of war fought in moribund trenches, fighting out in the open was a new type of warfare for even battle-hardened soldiers.

However, not everything had changed. The German River Lys Offensive that started on 9 April 1918 was killing British soldiers just like battles before. The difference was the intensity and progress of the fighting.

After a short, sharp battle for British trenches, enemy troops broke through and were pressing on into open countryside beyond.

The German Army had perfected a method of breaking through the British trenches. It worked first on 21 March 1918, around the city of St Quentin. When that offensive congealed outside Amiens, General Ludendorff orchestrated another breakthrough, to the north on the River Lys. Stunned at first, fresh British troops were soon rushing to close the breach.

PUTTING ASIDE RIVALRIES

Among those arriving were the 1st Battalion Royal Guernsey Light Infantry. After crippling losses in late 1917, the RGLI ranks now also contained men from across Great Britain. These included quite a few from Jersey – conscripts whose thoughts about joining the Sarnians can only be guessed.

The RGLI and its mixed complement were sent to the unremarkable village of Le Doulieu, where they made a heroic yet ultimately unsuccessful stand. Shattered, the battalion withdrew, leaving behind hundreds of dead and missing. Families throughout Guernsey wept again at the terrible losses – and eight Jersey families mourned too.

A short distance from Le Doulieu was another, even smaller, band of Channel Islanders. The RGLI were part of the British 29th Division, along with 2nd Battalion Hampshire Regiment or 2nd Hants. And serving in 2nd Hants was what remained of the Jersey Contingent, now preparing to defend the strategically important town of Bailleul.

It had been a long, hard road for these Jersey volunteers to reach this point. Worn down at Loos, decimated on the Somme, shattered in front of Ypres, the 326 Contingent originals were down to around 70, but were still together at the start of 1918.

The closing months of 1917 had been especially hard. British mistrust after the Easter Rising in 1916 had led to the disbanding of 7th Royal Irish Rifles – the Jersey volunteers’ unit up to then. Thrown as nameless reinforcements into another Irish battalion, they had fought bravely in the Battle of Cambrai and again suffered considerable losses.

BAND OF BROTHERS

Being nondescript individuals in a nondescript unit was not what they had volunteered for. They were the Jersey Contingent, loyal representatives of their Island. Now it was time, they reckoned, for the Island to recognise it.

A petition from the trenches reached the Bailiff, Sir William Vernon, in the autumn of 1917. It respectfully demanded that he honour commitments made to keep the volunteers together, as a Jersey unit representing their Island. And not as members of an Irish battalion – they were tired of that island’s divisive problems – either bring us home or let us join an English regiment.

Chastened, the Bailiff asked the Lieutenant-Governor, General Alexander Wilson, for support and he arranged a transfer to the Hampshire Regiment – known as ‘The Tigers’. The men joined its 2nd Battalion in January 1918.

They were led by the last original Jersey Contingent officer, Captain Cyril Ogier, who was scion of an illustrious Island family, with well-connected relatives prominent in the local legal and retail sectors. Unfortunately, such links had not prevented him suffering alongside everyone else – he had been wounded twice in action already.

UNDER NEW COLOURS

On 10 April 1918, the captain led his remaining men into a tiny hamlet called La Crèche, around five miles in front of Bailleul. Palls of smoke ahead showed that the enemy was approaching – fighting out in the open.

The initial attacks were comparatively light, probing by stormtroopers seeking an easy way forward. But they killed the Contingent’s Harry Richards (22), a Jersey Mechanics’ Institute employee and son of Henry and Florence of Gloucester Street. Tragically for them, his remains were never found.

While 2nd Hants and its band of Jersey volunteers managed to hold La Crèche throughout the next day, makeshift Allied defences elsewhere sagged under relentless enemy pressure. The threat was not just to Bailleul, a vital communications centre, but also the Channel Ports behind. Losing these could mean losing the war. Reluctantly, the defenders retreated closer to the town.

Recognising the gravity of the situation, the normally reserved British Commander-in-Chief, Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, issued an emotional appeal. ‘With our backs to the wall,’ we must carry on fighting he urged. Defeat was out of the question.

Whether the appeal reached the Jersey Contingent before they were forced to retreat from La Crèche is not known. Their withdrawal ended on a ridge near Bailleul. Here gathered an assortment of units, survivors of the retreat, as other troops rushed in to help. Jointly, they battled to hold the naturally strong position.

After five days in action, 2nd Hants was granted some respite. Relieved on the ridge, they pulled back a short distance for a wash and hot meal. The escape was just temporary, however, as the Germans renewed their assault on Bailleul.

INTO A BLOODY FRAY

Rushed back, the Jersey volunteers became part of a counter-attack force, ready to intervene wherever and whenever needed. The call came at 3.30 pm on 17 April, as the enemy threatened to break through. It was Captain Ogier who led his men forward at a critical moment, as noted in the battalion war diary.

‘…Captain Ogier…forestalled a wavering in the front line by advancing his company and meeting the enemy. This action undoubtedly saved a breech in the line. Throughout operations Captain Ogier has greatly distinguished himself showing great powers of command and initiative.’

Captain Ogier’s later reward for his bravery was a Military Cross. On the day, he had received a bullet in the leg, although he gallantly refused to leave until the danger had passed. This wound, combined with earlier ones, ended his war – and eventually claimed his life. He would spend much of the 1920s and 30s in pain in various hospitals, until he died in 1937.

Cyril Ogier, others of the Jersey Contingent and their new Hampshire Tigers comrades had helped – in a small way – to stem the massive German Lys Offensive. Their reward was relief on 19 April and transfer to a rest camp. A few days later, the commander of their parent 29th Division, General Douglas Cayley, visited to thank the men personally.

It had been an unforgettable few days for those who had fought ‘with their backs to the wall’ and succeeded in halting the German offensive. Yet as they rested, the sound of battle could be heard on the wind – the war was far from over.

THOUGHTS OF HOME

The small band of Jersey volunteers must have reflected how far they had come since leaving the Island in March 1915. From more than 300 to now fewer than 50, the survivors had endured three shockingly costly years.

Yet, there must have been comfort in knowing they had not been completely forgotten by those who had lined the route to the harbour and the quayside to wave them off.

The move to ‘The Tigers’ had proved that. And with The Tigers, they prepared for the battles to come.

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