Home. Origins of the Battalion.
Page 1. Start of the First World War.
Page 2. To the Ypres Salient.
Page 3. Ypres. The Battle of St Julien.
Page 4. April 1915. Ypres. Gas.
Page 5. Battle of St Julien losses.
Page 6. New Division Name.
Page 7. The Battle of Bellewaarde.
Page 8. Bellewaarde Losses. Sanctuary Wood.
Page 9. Neuve Eglise, Kemmel Sector.
Page 10. August 1915. To Armentieres.
Page 11. Sep/Oct 1915. Armentieres.
Page 12. October 1915. Armentieres.
Page 13. Oct/Nov 1915. Armentieres.
Page 14. Nov/Dec 1915. To Merris.
Page 15. Back to the Ypres Salient.
Page 16. Jan 1916. Armagh Wood.
Page 17. Feb 1916. Hill 60.
Page 18. Mine Explosion.
Page 19. Feb 1916. Ypres. Hill 60.
Page 20. Armagh Wood. CO Killed.
Page 21. Mar/Apr 1916. Kemmel.
Page 22. Apr/May 1916. Fletre. Kemmel.
Page 23. June 1916. Friendly Fire Kemmel.
Page 24. Jun/Jul 1916. Kemmel.
Page 25. July 1916. Kemmel.
Page 26. Aug 1916. To the Somme.
Page 27. Battle of Flers Courcelette.
Page 28. Sep 1916. Flers-Courcelette.
Page 29. The Thiepval Memorial.
Page 30. Flers-Courcelette. Losses.
Page 31. Flers-Courcelette. Attack repelled.
Page 32.Training. Martinpuich.
Page 33. In the Line near Flers.
Page 34. Nov 1916. Martinpuich. Flers.
Page 35. Flers. To Belloy.
Page 36. Feb/Mar 1917. Belloy.
Page 37. April 1917. To Arras.
Page 38. Capt D.P. Hirsch. V.C.
Page 39. The Arras Memorial.
Page 40. The Arras Memorial.
Page 41. Arras Burial Sites.
Page 42. Arras. Famechon.
Page 43. May 1917. Famechon. Bayencourt.
Page 44. June 1917 Back in the Line. Arras.
Page 45. Sep 1917. Arras. Wancourt.
Page 46. Oct 1917. Back to Ypres.
Page 47. Nov 1917. Passchendaele.
Page 48. Jan 1918. Ypres.
Page 49. Feb 1918. Last of Ypres.
Page 50. The Battle of St Quentin.
Page 51. German Offensive. Michael.
Page 52. German Advance. Pozieres Memorial.
Page 53. Losses on both sides.
Page 54. From the Somme to the Lys.
Page 55. April 1918. Battle of Estaires.
Page 56. Ploegsteert Memorial.
Page 57. From the Lys to the Aisne.
Page 58. German Offensive. Blucher-Yorck.
Page 59. May 1918. 150th Brigade decimated.
Page 60. End of the 4th Yorks.
Page 61. Last Weeks of War.
Page 62. Prisoners of War.
Page 63. Prisoners of War.
Page 64. Prisoners of War.
CONTRIBUTED EMAILS
Links for 4th Battalion Yorkshire Regiment
Mail Form
|
.
 |
DEC 1916 TO FEB 1917. FLERS. TAKE OVER LINE LEFT OF FRENCH SECTOR.
1st to 29th DECEMBER The Btn were training at Contay. The Diary remarks that so many orders were issued from Higher Command that they understood paper was to replace coal and wood as fuel.
Btn and Bde Sports and Football competitions were held and Pork provided for Christmas dinner.
It was noticed that the Transport men with a strength one third of a Company consumed twice the amount of beer than any Company drank.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3883 Pte Hudson Harold. Home at - Leeming Bar, Bedale, N Yorks. Enlisted at Northallerton, N Yorks. Died of wounds on the 4th. Age 19. Buried at St Sever [Hospital] Cemetery Extension, Rouen.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6135 Pte Patrick William, Arthur. Home at Giddington Northants, place of birth. Enlisted at Kettering, Northants. Died on the 21st. Age 25. Buried at Contay British Cemetery.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
30th/31st DECEMBER The Btn moved back to Becourt, near Albert and on New Years Eve moved back to the trenches near Bazentin Le Petit, where they took over from the 2nd Munsters.
1st to 7th JANUARY. The Btn were in Nissen huts near Bazentin Le Petit.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5434 Pte Longfield Leonard. Home at Darlington Durham. Born at Leeds and enlisted at Northallerton, N Yorks. Killed in action. Commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
..
 |
The Front in January 1917,
The red line marks the furthest extent of ground gained in this area by the 1916 Battle of the Somme.
The 4th Yorks Btn were in the Trenches around Eaucourt.
8th to 11th JANUARY. They moved to Flers reserve trenches where they relieved the 7th Northumberland Fusiliers. The wet conditions are described by a letter of the time - "Wherever one looked, one saw the same endless extent of black mud and water, christened all over the place with the remains of old trenches, and wherever one walked, one slipped or slithered about among the innumberable shell holes. Almost every day both British and Bosche lose their way and get into the enemy lines. Wandering about in the mud at night was rather an uncanny business as there were a great many dead bodies lying about, some already sunk in the mud. The mud will have swallowed them all up before the winter is over......We found two men sitting in the mud. Their gum boots had been sucked off by the mud, their feet had gone wrong and they were absolutely done to the world. They both went to hospital next day with "trench feet."
The Diary describes the area as a series of gun positions connected by trenches into a miniature Hampton Court maze. Several thousand rounds of ammunition had been left as a legacy by a battery which formerly occupied the position. A quiet 4 days.
11th to 19th JANUARY. The Btn moved to a left sub-section of the Front line in relief of the 5th Btn D.L.I. with Btn HQ at Hexham Road. [Hexham Road was the British name for the road that connected Warlencourt to Eaucourt.] The Front line is described as a series of isolated posts where 2 half Companies were positioned. |
|
..
 |
Section of the above map showing the Allied and German Trench systems.
4 prisoners came in during the tour and they had one case of trench foot.
Work was done on improving and revetting advance posts. On the night of the 11th the Btn walked into a German barrage at Hexham Rd.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3313 Cpl Leeks Harry. Home at 57 Wharton St, North Skelton, N Yorks. Enlisted at Skelton in Cleveland, N Yorks. Killed in action on the 11th. Age 21. Buried at Warlencourt British Cemetery.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
15th to 23rd JANUARY. The Btn were back in reserve at Bazentin, where they provided working parties for roads, light railways and cable burying. From the 17th to the end of the month there snow and hard frost and the Diary describes attempts at bombing and musketry as something less than serious, but the Btn persevered.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9116 Pte Hamp Frederick. Home at 32 Sheep St, Northampton, town of enlistment. Born at St Sep, Northants. Died at home, age 29, on the 13th and buried at Hipswell (St John) Churchyard.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The following 2 men died of wounds on the 15th January and are both buried at Dernancourt Communal Cemetery, Extension.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
200235 Pte Allen Fred. Born and enlisted at Guisborough, N Yorks.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1828 Cpl Cook Herbert. Home at 51 Park St, Skelton in Cleveland, N Yorks, place of enlistment. Born at Guisborough, N Yorks. Age 37. He had been awarded the Military Medal for some unknown action in 1916.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
23rd to 27th JANUARY. The Btn moved on the 23rd into Flers Reserve trenches in relief of the 7th Btn Northumberland Fusiliers.
The hard frost made conditions much more pleasant and the Btn lost many of its amphibious habits. Bosche aeroplanes active and during the last 2 days his gunners appeared to have discovered the position.
On the 27th the Btn were relieved by the 3rd Btn Australian Imperial Force and they moved back to site 3 at Bazentin Le Petit.
28th JANUARY. Btn moved to Camp B at Fricourt, just East of Albert, where they were billetted in Nissen Huts with "plenty of fuel". |
|
....
 |
Cpl Harry Leeks of North Skelton, North Yorks.
Killed in action, aged 21, on the night of 11th January 1917.
Buried at Warlencourt British Cemetery.
[Photograph kindly contributed by his great nephew, Andrew Berwick.]
30th JANUARY. Moved to Buire sur L'Ancre, a village about 7k South West of Albert.
Two and a half Companies were in billets and the rest in tents.
Diary "During the last month the Btn was in the Front line 4 days only and very few men did more than one spell of 24 hours in advanced posts. Casualties were few and sickness was chiefly confined to diarrhoea when in Reserve. The Btn was working with Companies of an average strength well under 100 and with 3 Officers per Coy. The divisional area was left in a much better condition than it was taken over in and this Unit had no experience of the entente cordiale reputed to exist between the front lines of the respective armies."
Diary is signed off by Capt W. F. Mott as Officer Commanding the Btn.
1st to 8th FEBRUARY. The Btn stayed at Buire where they learnt the true functions and composition of a platoon. The ancients appear to have referred to it as a Company. A great deal of bombing done.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
241007 Pte Metcalfe N. Enlisted at Beverley Yorks. Died at home 2nd Feb. Buried at Beverley (St Mary) Church Cemetery.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9th FEBRUARY. Leaving its billets scrupulously clean the Btn proceeded to Morcourt [a village on the River Somme, due South of Albert and a 10 kilometres march from Buire]. Here they spent one night in "a pleasantly situated French camp"
10th FEBRUARY. Btn marched 9 kilometres towards the Front to the village of Foucaucourt, where they were billetted in the Camp De L'Eglise.
11th FEBRUARY. At night they relieved parties of the 218 and 18th Regiments of the French Infantry in the right subsector, right Brigade of the new Divisional area. "The entente cordial must have been cemented by this relief which was completed with no confusion and much cordiality. All ranks of the Btn appreciated being the right Btn of the British Armies and the close neighbours of our gallant allies. So long as the frost continued the new sector was an admirable home and moderately quiet." |
|
|
