Muster Roll
1st Platoon
Platoon Staff:
Leftenant
(Platoon first-in-command)
Leftenant Joseph Graham
Non-Commissioned Officers
Staff Serjeant
(Platoon second-in-command)
Vacant
Serjeant
(Platoon third-in-command)
Vacant
Corporal
(Section commanding officer)
Corporal Bryan Osmond
1st Section
Spoiler
Fireteam Alpha
Lance-Corporal
Lance Corporal Damian Watkins
Enlisted men
Private Jim Eden
Private Oliver Bryant
Private James Mountford
Private Robert Aveyard
Fireteam Bravo
Lance-Corporal
Lance Corporal Alan Johnson
Enlisted men
Private David Richardson
Private Andrew Rushton
Private Gregory Jackson
Private William Shurmer
History
March
Anniversaries
Back Badge Day (21st March)
Motto
By our deeds are we known.
1914Outbreak of First World War Following its invasion of Belgium, Great Britain declared war on Germany on 4th August. Within a week 1st Battalion, The Gloucestershire Regiment had left their quarters near Aldershot and crossed to France as an integral part of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). Taking part in the retreat from Mons, they distinguished themselves in what later became known as 1st Ypres at Langemarck and again at Gheluevelt, before the battle front stabilised into the stalemate of trench warfare - a stalemate that was to last for the next four years.
Private Barton of No. 4 Platoon, "A" Company remembered the hot firefight at Langemarck on 23rd October: ". . . Our casualties were mounting rapidly. In the left traverse of the trench only one was left out of 7 and in my traverse, the second from the left, only 2 were left out of 6."
"Ammunition was becoming scarce, all the wounded and killed were searched for ammunition. The attack from the Farm Road was again pushed on and reached a point 75 yards from us where it was held. The fire from the ditch was so intense that practically all the bayonets in the trench were broken. When hit by bullets they snapped like glass and the fragments were responsible for 7 head and neck wounds. 2 of which were serious."
". . . Shortly after 1 p.m. the enemy fire died down from the ditch and quietened from the front. Some men ran from the village under Sergt. Wilson and brought more ammunition. The Germans were then seen to be trickling in small parties down the ditch in retirement. The platoon, now respectable in numbers kept up a continuous fire on them and caused a great number of casualties. Strangely enough we were not again fired on. This continued for an hour or so and the line in front which had attacked from the Farm Road were seen to be making movement. They arose in groups of 5 and 6 and as we were at point blank range and waiting for their movement they were all mown down, immediately after rising. No man reached the shelter of the road."
". . . During the day I fired 600 rounds of ammunition."
Meanwhile, 2nd Battalion was on the other side of the world at Tientsin near Beijing in China, being the British contingent of an International force which also included French, Russian, German, Austrian, American and Japanese troops. On 1st August the German commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Kuhl, wrote to the British commander regretting the movement of his troops, concluding:- ". . . The friendly relations which have always existed between us remain a very pleasant memory."
The British commander concurred:- ". . . On my own behalf, and that of the officers N.C.O.s and men of the British troops under my command, I can only say that we sincerely regret the severance of those friendly relations - a severance which we earnestly hope may only be a temporary one." 2nd Battalion left China the following month and on December 19th 1914, they landed in France.
As soon as the war had broken out, the Territorial battalions were mobilised and went into a period of intensive training, not seeing their first action until the next year. As volunteers rushed to fight for their country, the Territorial battalions destined for overseas service were divided and then brought back up to strength. 1/4th, 2/4th, 1/5th, 2/5th, 1/6th and 2/6th Battalions of the Gloucestershire Regiment were all destined to play their parts on the Western and Italian Fronts.
Private Henry Buckle of 1/5th Battalion, who was something of an amateur photographer and artist, noted in his diary, while training near Chelmsford:- "My giddy aunt, what a parade, the only thing was we were nearly all the same colour, misfits galore. At the dinner hour we had a general swop round with caps and tunics, resulting in a much more presentable appearance this afternoon, like a row of Turveydrops from Bleak House.
"What rumours today, millions of Russians passed through last night, France must be full and we are going to Egypt or somewhere hot, for there are trucks of pith helmets at the station! But cannot meet anyone who has actually seen either Russians or Helmets so far."
Additionally, as a flood of volunteers poured into recruiting stations in response to Kitchener's call to arms, several New Army battalions were raised from around the county including Bristol, Cheltenham, Gloucester and the Forest of Dean. Seven of these were raised in 1914, and more would follow. Later, too, additional Special Reserve Battalions were raised which acted in support of 3rd Battalion as training battalions. As the year wore on, these raw recruits eventually received their uniforms and arms and they too went into training to become part of the great British Army of the later years of the war. |
1915Gallipoli Once the hundreds of thousands of volunteers who had rushed to join the British Army were allocated to their various regiments and corps and trained for war, so the size of the British armies on campaign overseas swelled in numbers. 1/4th, 1/5th and 1/6th Territorial battalions of the Gloucestershire Regiment were the first to join the two Regular battalions, landing in France in March 1915. Soldiers of the New Army, in 8th, 9th, 10th, 12th and 13th Service battalions followed the Territorials into France, and on 11th July 7th Battalion landed on the Gallipoli beaches.
The Gallipoli front had been opened as a result of the Royal Navy's failure to clear the passage of the Dardanelles Strait, dominated as it was on either side by Turkish shore-based artillery. The landings made in April had secured for the Allies a precarious foothold on the Gallipoli peninsula, and both sides had sustained heavy losses. 7th Battalion, The Gloucestershire Regiment saw its major commitment to battle in the attempt to take the hill of Chunuk Bair, just inland of Anzac Cove. On 7th August the battalion went into battle almost 1,000 strong, but only 181 emerged from it completely unscathed, the rest being either killed or wounded. Of the battalion's twenty officers, ten were killed and ten were wounded.
Private Domican from Bristol, who had to have his right hand amputated as a result of a wound he had suffered in the battle, recalled a few months later:-
"The big attack took place on Sunday morning. As soon as day broke we had orders to rush for the ridge, about 600 yards away, in extended order, and this we did amidst a hail of shrapnel. Our orders were to extend out two yards, take all possible shelter, and one man was to dig and the next one to open fire on the enemy who were about forty yards away.
"It was my duty to follow out the firing order while my companion was digging. I was struck in the face by shrapnel early in the attack and my wrist was shattered. With some 250 Australians [actually New Zealanders], Ghurkas, and Gloucesters, I remained in the gully until eight o'clock in the evening, shells continually bursting in the vicinity.
"When sunset came those of us who were able crawled back to our lines and had our wounds attended to. We, of course, heard the firing all day on the ridge, and afterward learnt of the terrible losses which the 7th Gloucesters and other regiments had suffered both in men and officers."
Chunuk Bair remained in Turkish hands.
The Royal Gloucestershire Hussars, who had been part of the Territorial Forces since 1908, arrived in Alexandria in Egypt on 24th April 1915, a mounted force 537 strong, without having lost a single horse or mule on the voyage. Training, escort and guard duties came to an end when the Regiment was ordered to Gallipoli on 11th August, but to leave its horses behind. As with so many others who had landed there before them, the Hussars landing was not unopposed. Second Lieutenant Edgerton Cripps noted in his diary for August 19th:
". . . The boat we went in was oddly enough a Bristol pleasure-steamer: much appreciated by the Bristol Troop! We put off at dark and steamed for five hours. I slept on the boards well, with my pack under my head. We landed . . . as luck would have it, ran up against the Gloucestershire transport, such as it is, and put my valise down and joined up. Very glad to see them I was, about sunrise yesterday morning. We marched on up from the landing-stage and lined up on the side of the hill, just above the landing -- very broken ground, with low, thorny scrub, rocks and stones on a clayey soil. They began to shell us, or rather the next landing party, so we dug ourselves into temporary graves! -- you can't call them anything else -- with head-stones to protect us. Mine is just long enough to hold me, two feet deep, piled up all round with earth, a stone at my head, two pieces of wood I found floating in the sea in the middle of each side, and my mackintosh sheet as a sun shelter. . . ."
General Sir Ian Hamilton, commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, watched the Hussars advance on Chocolate Hill on the 21st August:-
"The advance of these English yeomen was a sight calculated to send a thrill of pride through anyone with a drop of English blood running in their veins. Such superb martial spectacles are rare in modern war. Ordinarily it should always be possible to bring up reserves under some sort of cover from shrapnel fire. Here, for a mile and a half, there was nothing to conceal a mouse, much less some of the most stalwart soldiers England has ever sent from her shores. Despite the critical events in other parts of the field I could hardly take my eyes off the yeomen; they moved like men marching on parade. Here and there a shell would take a toll of a cluster; there they lay. There was no straggling; the others moved steadily on; not a man was there who hung back or hurried."
For the next six weeks the Royal Gloucestershire Hussars were in and out of the front line around Chocolate Hill and Cator House trenches. Second Lieutenant Cripps noted in his diary for August 26th:-
"Am in a dug-out in the firing trench. Came up last night and was sent with my men to dig a new communication trench in the dark. Boring performance, as they sniped at us in the moonlight all night. Got the men back to the trench at 2 a.m. went to sleep - very smelly - four dead Turks found buried in the corner! We buried over 30 in front of the communication trench last night. . . . This morning had such a good breakfast, as Pemberton (machine gun officer, Warwicks), who is with me had some rations - bacon and jam - which he shared with me.
"Sniping goes on all the time. One man spots, the other shoots. I had ten shots at one man making a trench 950 yards, and hit the bag last two shots. Such fun! I get so keen I could go on all day, only it means putting your head over the trench to fire and I am much too careful of my skin. You can't imagine how interesting and beastly it all is. I quite enjoy it in an extraordinary way that I can't explain. The shelling is the worst part. They gave us a doing last night and found our camp for the first time. The men bolt like rabbits, and only two were hit."
By 17th October the Royal Gloucestershire Hussars were down to an effective strength of 95, all ranks, with battle casualties and, more decisively, disease, having taken their dreadful toll. |
Credits
- Thread Design & Signatures; Joseph Graham
| | Rank Structure
Platoon Staff
Leftenant - Lt
| |
Non-Commissioned Officers
Staff Serjeant - SSgt
Serjeant - Sgt
Corporal - Cpl
| |
Enlisted men
Lance-Corporal - LCpl
Private - Pte
|
Structure
Rather than following the traditional structure of Napoleonic Wars regiments, that of massed infantry, the Gloucestershire Regiment in Iron Europe organises members by section, led by a Corporal. A section typically comprising of one to two fireteams, each led by a Lance Corporal. Each fireteam is expected to operate independent of each other and at the direction of the Corporal, although they may in certain circumstances by directed to work together to defend or assault an objective. On average, a section will contain eleven men; one Corporal, two Lance Corporals and eight Privates.
Set alongside the two sections is an additional fireteam known as the auxiliary. These infantrymen are trained to be adaptable and fulfill the specialist roles on the battlefield; be it light-machine gunner, medic, sniper or whatever else the situation might require. Typically the Leftenant will function with the auxiliary, although he will often function with the main section when necessary. The auxiliary fireteam fields five at a maximum.
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 British Officer, 1914. |
Media
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