Bert Tall’s War.
                               Home Page   Family History    Tall Family Start     Military   29 March 2007

Bert (Regimental Numbers: 568189 and 44669) enlisted on the 15^th September 1917, a few days after his eighteenth birthday, in the 25^th Battalion of the Kings Royal Rifles totally unaware that his eldest brother William had just been killed. He would, however, have heard of the appalling front line conditions. Just before he transferred to France, Bert was "Confined to Barracks" for 5 days because he was "absent from Roll call 9.30 pm 3.2.18 " at Northampton.

Bert was fortunate in that when he went to France on the 1^st April 1918 he found that he was in a ‘Pioneer’ battalion in the Army’s 59th Division. Pioneer battalions were the labour force of the British Army, their work ranged from consolidating front line trenches, developing water supplies, laying mine fields and building and repairing roads to digging graves.

Although he was in France just after the start of the final, and initially very successful, series of German offensives, just 8 members of his battalion died and only half of them from enemy action: 3 Killed in Action (08/07/18, 31/07/18, & 09/09/18), 1 Died of Wounds (11/10/1918), the remaining 4 ‘Died’ presumable from accidents (21/10/18, 29/1018, 31,10/18 & 03/11/18).

Bert described his role to his children as "a messenger".

The Battle of Picardy or the Second Battle of the Somme

General Ludendorff, launched a major German offensive in the Somme area of France against the British on March 21st^th 1918.

" training laid emphasis on individual initiative and personal discipline. Luddendorf was one of the first commanders to recognise that the infantryman must be a specialist, like the signaller or sapper, and not just an unskilled rifle carrier. On the courage, endurance and tactical acumen of the infantry rested Germany’s fate." (Bourne, 1989, p85)

The initial attack was very successful. The British 5^th Army retreated and by the 23^rd of March the Germans were able to shell Paris. Albert, the base for British operations in the first battle of the Somme, was captured on the 27^th of March.

On the 8^th of April the Germans were within 10 miles of Amiens, having taken 90,000 prisoners and captured 1000 guns, when they launched a successful second attack in the Armentieres region. Again, the British were forced to retreat, with the result that the Germans soon held a large salient from just South of Ypres to Lens. For a period of a month the Germans consolidated their gains. On the 27^th of May the Germans attacked the French Sixth Army and within four days had captured 40,000 prisoners, 400 guns and were on the banks of the Marne. (Livesey, 1989, pp180-181)

Everything seemed to be in Germany’s favour; yet the very speed of her advance had brought her armies near to exhaustion. In late June, both Ludendorff and Prince Rupprecht noted that 1000 to 2000 men in each division were suffering from flu’ the supply system was breaking down, and the troops were underfed. (Livesey (1989), p181)

The German attack on the French line on the 15^th July was stopped with the assistance of the troops which had just arrived from America. On the 18^th July French and American soldiers counter-attacked. On the 8^th of August Australian Forces retook part of the Amiens-Paris railway line preventing German troops being able to move freely along the front line.

Between the 8^th and 21^st August the British used 400 tanks in a surprise attack from Arras, between the Somme and Ypres. By the 11^th November:

Haig’s 59 Divisions outfought and defeated 99 German divisions, capturing one and a half million prisoners and nearly 2,300 guns. Lloyd George attributed this triumph of British arms to the guiding ‘strategic genius’ of Marshal Foch. He was wrong. The principal achievement was Haig’s. ‘In the last hundred days of the war,’ wrote C.R.M.F.Cruttwell, ‘he showed a vision and a calculated resolution in taking chances worthy of a great captain.’ (Bourne, 1989, p97)

Bert will not have been involved directly in any of the fighting, though he would have suffered from bombs and shelling. The toil and heavy lifting involved almost certainly caused his rupture in November 1918.

After the end of the war he was transferred to 2/16^th London Regiment on the 25th April 1919 and de-mobilised on the 19^th September 1919. On leaving the army he was, classified as A1 and given a "Certificate of Identity", "an advance of £2", and "granted 28 days furlough …. after which date uniform will not be worn except upon any occasions authorised by Army Orders".

In WW1 more than 670,000 (13%) British soldiers died decimating 25-45 year old population. 165,000 wives lost their husbands, 300,000 children lost their fathers. By 1921 the Government was distributing 3.5m war pensions. (Bourne, p178). According to the range of references studied it was the punitive damages insisted upon by France that led to the rise of the Nazi’s and WW2.

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