https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/the-german-tanks-kz939vcjd
By noon today it appears to have been again in our hands. The attack which rewon the village was made by Australians, with some British battalions cooperating. Savage fighting went on in the streets and on the roads, and it is the kind of fighting at which one Australian is better than many Germans. We are closing in and reducing the last enemy nests in the village, and by evening I believe the original positions will be restored.
April 26, 1918
The German tanks
The severe fighting in the Villers-Bretonneux area continued through the night. Yesterday morning, after a terrific bombardment lasting about four hours, the Germans attacked on a front of between four and five miles. The first attacks were beaten off, but later the enemy succeeded in forcing back the left of the British line and last evening saw them in possession of Villers-Bretonneux.By noon today it appears to have been again in our hands. The attack which rewon the village was made by Australians, with some British battalions cooperating. Savage fighting went on in the streets and on the roads, and it is the kind of fighting at which one Australian is better than many Germans. We are closing in and reducing the last enemy nests in the village, and by evening I believe the original positions will be restored.
One interesting feature in this attack has been the first employment of the much-talked-of German Tanks. It is not known that more than five were engaged, but these assisted in the attack on Villers-Bretonneux. They came round on our positions in the village from south and west. Eye-witnesses say that they are bigger than ours, with large turrets. At least one passed clear over a trench held by men of the Middlesex Regiment, who fired at it with rifles and revolvers as it went. Four or five enemy Tanks fell in with two of ours, and the first engagement between land ironclads took place. One of our machines was crippled, when a third British Tank hove in sight and joined in the attack. The newcomer knocked out one of the enemy, and the rest appear to have made their escape. Elsewhere on the battlefield British light Tanks were engaged and did fine work, some of them coming back with sides splashed with blood, for, besides using their guns, they were able to ram the enemy, and managed in several cases to get into bunches of Germans.
Besides this severe fighting on the south of the British front, the Germans this morning began the long-expected renewal of their attacks in the Kemmel area. With other troops in reserve, they are in strength enough for very heavy fighting, but we have complete confidence in the French, who hold the most critical positions, and in the cooperation of the two Armies.
It is still too soon for a full report. Clouds made observation from the air difficult after the raid, but our dauntless airmen descended to within fifty feet of the positions they desired to examine. At Zeebrugge they found a clear breach, twenty yards wide, in the mole at the shore end, and at Ostend they saw a sunken object between the piers which blocked the greater part of the fairway. The German account of the landing on the mole is impossible to reconcile with the statements of our sailors. We are asked to believe that no more than forty men succeeded in reaching it, and that, alive or dead, they fell into the enemy’s hands. Not a word is mentioned of the fact that the Vindictive lay alongside it for nearly two hours under the fire of the German guns as quietly as if she had been alongside Dover Pier, or of her safe departure when the last of her company alive on shore had re-embarked. The officers and men who took part in the operations give a very different version of this most desperate and glorious adventure. They admit how terrible was the rush into the enemy’s stronghold under the continuous fire of his guns. They tell something of the inevitable losses as the landing parties formed up under the bursting shells and dashed across the damaged gangways to the mole; they tell how our men had to lower themselves by ropes and rope-ladders before they could get at the foe. They tell of German guns and works blown up and — perhaps the finest among many splendid feats — how the men who fired the submarine charged with explosives that breached the mole escaped in their dinghies after they had set the time-fuse. Above all, they tell us of the coolness and seamanship of our officers and of the unsurpassed daring of all ranks. Vindictive and her gallant consorts have reaped fresh laurels for the Navy and have renewed once again its splendid traditions in the hour of danger and of trial. “Well Done, Vindictive!”
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2018-04-24/register/daring-feat-at-sea-dh577p8mv
Besides this severe fighting on the south of the British front, the Germans this morning began the long-expected renewal of their attacks in the Kemmel area. With other troops in reserve, they are in strength enough for very heavy fighting, but we have complete confidence in the French, who hold the most critical positions, and in the cooperation of the two Armies.
April 25, 1918
Well done Vindictive!
“Well done, Vindictive!” Sir Roger Keyes signalled to the battle-seamed old cruiser as she passed homeward after the night she and her consorts have made famous. Never were words of praise better earned. The nation and the Empire will echo them as the world rings with the story of a feat destined to live forever in the annals of the British Navy.It is still too soon for a full report. Clouds made observation from the air difficult after the raid, but our dauntless airmen descended to within fifty feet of the positions they desired to examine. At Zeebrugge they found a clear breach, twenty yards wide, in the mole at the shore end, and at Ostend they saw a sunken object between the piers which blocked the greater part of the fairway. The German account of the landing on the mole is impossible to reconcile with the statements of our sailors. We are asked to believe that no more than forty men succeeded in reaching it, and that, alive or dead, they fell into the enemy’s hands. Not a word is mentioned of the fact that the Vindictive lay alongside it for nearly two hours under the fire of the German guns as quietly as if she had been alongside Dover Pier, or of her safe departure when the last of her company alive on shore had re-embarked. The officers and men who took part in the operations give a very different version of this most desperate and glorious adventure. They admit how terrible was the rush into the enemy’s stronghold under the continuous fire of his guns. They tell something of the inevitable losses as the landing parties formed up under the bursting shells and dashed across the damaged gangways to the mole; they tell how our men had to lower themselves by ropes and rope-ladders before they could get at the foe. They tell of German guns and works blown up and — perhaps the finest among many splendid feats — how the men who fired the submarine charged with explosives that breached the mole escaped in their dinghies after they had set the time-fuse. Above all, they tell us of the coolness and seamanship of our officers and of the unsurpassed daring of all ranks. Vindictive and her gallant consorts have reaped fresh laurels for the Navy and have renewed once again its splendid traditions in the hour of danger and of trial. “Well Done, Vindictive!”
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2018-04-24/register/daring-feat-at-sea-dh577p8mv
April 24, 1918
Daring feat at sea
Under cover of artificial fog, British naval forces carried out a daring raid on the enemy bases at Zeebrugge and Ostend on Monday night. In order to seal the entrance to the Bruges Canal at Zeebrugge, two old British cruisers laden with concrete were run in and sunk there. A third grounded on the way in. Much damage was caused to the Mole approaches by the blowing up of a submarine laden with explosives. Volunteer storming parties of Marines landed at the Mole and gallantly engaged the defenders in a fierce fight which cost both sides heavy casualties and the enemy much material damage. A German destroyer was torpedoed, and other enemy craft damaged. At Ostend two more block ships laden with concrete were run ashore and blown up, but it is not known whether the the port has been blocked.
Sir Eric Geddes gave Parliament a detailed account, based on the information then to hand, of what he described as “the extremely gallant and hazardous raid”:
“I would ask the House to appreciate that most of the officers and men from whom we have to get information have been fighting the greater part of the night, and some of them are not yet in. The raid was undertaken under the command of Vice-Admiral Roger Keyes, commanding at Dover (cheers), French destroyers cooperating. Six obsolete cruisers took part in the attack — Brilliant, Sirius, Intrepid, lphigenia, Thetis, and Vindictive. The first five were filled with concrete, and were to be sunk in the channels and entrances to the ports if that could be managed. Vindictive, with two auxiliary craft, Daffodil and Iris, carried storming and demolition parties to the head of the Mole at Zeebrugge. The men on the block-ships and in the storming and demolition parties were bluejackets and Royal Marines, volunteers from the Grand Fleet (loud cheers) and from naval and marine depots (cheers). A large number of motor launches, coastal motor-boats, small, fast craft carrying a crew of six, and other small craft took part.
“The casualties to personnel are, I regret to say, heavy in proportion to the numbers engaged. All three ships withdrew successfully. One destroyer was sunk by gunfire off the Mole, and two coastal motor-boats and two motor launches are missing.”
“I would ask the House to appreciate that most of the officers and men from whom we have to get information have been fighting the greater part of the night, and some of them are not yet in. The raid was undertaken under the command of Vice-Admiral Roger Keyes, commanding at Dover (cheers), French destroyers cooperating. Six obsolete cruisers took part in the attack — Brilliant, Sirius, Intrepid, lphigenia, Thetis, and Vindictive. The first five were filled with concrete, and were to be sunk in the channels and entrances to the ports if that could be managed. Vindictive, with two auxiliary craft, Daffodil and Iris, carried storming and demolition parties to the head of the Mole at Zeebrugge. The men on the block-ships and in the storming and demolition parties were bluejackets and Royal Marines, volunteers from the Grand Fleet (loud cheers) and from naval and marine depots (cheers). A large number of motor launches, coastal motor-boats, small, fast craft carrying a crew of six, and other small craft took part.
“The casualties to personnel are, I regret to say, heavy in proportion to the numbers engaged. All three ships withdrew successfully. One destroyer was sunk by gunfire off the Mole, and two coastal motor-boats and two motor launches are missing.”
april 23, 1918
Captain Richthofen killed
Yesterday’s German communiqué announced that “Cavalry Captain Freiherr von Richthofen, at the head of his trusty 11th Pursuit Flight, has gained his 79th and 80th victories in the air.” Before that had been published Richthofen was dead. He was brought down behind our lines not far from the Somme, and is to be buried this afternoon. While probably not as brilliant as Captain Ball, all our airmen concede that Richthofen was a great pilot and a fine fighting man. If all the victories credited to him were really personal triumphs and not merely those of the squadron of which he was the leader, then Cavalry Captain Baron von Richthofen was easily the most famous airman that the German Flying Service has produced. Immelmann first, and then Boelke, in whose squadron Richthofen gained his first success, were accounted great pilots, but their exploits were insignificant compared with those attributed by German headquarters to Richthofen. While he was reported, as late as Sunday, to have achieved his 80th victory, Immelmann, when he was killed in June, 1916, had only 15 “enemy machines” to his credit, and Boelke had brought down, officially, only 38, and unofficially 40, when he met his death the following October.
Richthofen’s “star” day was, apparently, April 28, 1917, when it was claimed that he had shot down five machines. In August last year it was reported by captured prisoners, that he was wounded in a fight with a British airman, and his name was absent from German communiqués for September and October. He received a letter of congratulation from the Kaiser, who is said to have looked with special favour upon the airman, and upon whom this month he conferred the Order of the Red Eagle with Crown and Swords.
In his “Memoirs”, published last August, Richthofen paid tribute to the British airman’s love of a fight. “He is a dashing fellow,” he wrote. “He used to come now and then and pelt Boelke’s flying ground with bombs. He simply challenged one to battle, and always accepted it. I hardly ever encountered an Englishman who refused battle. During my whole life I have not found a happier hunting ground than in the course of the Somme battle.” And it was on this battleground he fought his last fight.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2018-04-21/register/saving-the-wounded-7kbplfpbn
In his “Memoirs”, published last August, Richthofen paid tribute to the British airman’s love of a fight. “He is a dashing fellow,” he wrote. “He used to come now and then and pelt Boelke’s flying ground with bombs. He simply challenged one to battle, and always accepted it. I hardly ever encountered an Englishman who refused battle. During my whole life I have not found a happier hunting ground than in the course of the Somme battle.” And it was on this battleground he fought his last fight.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2018-04-21/register/saving-the-wounded-7kbplfpbn
april 21, 1918
Saving the wounded
The people who had to bear the full share of the hardships and dangers of the retreat were the Royal Army Medical Corps, with the sisters, in the advanced casualty clearing stations, and all the hospital staffs. When the offensive began we had the usual complement of dressing and clearing stations well up behind the front. All the Fifth Army stations had to be evacuated on the first day. That at Ham fell back to Villers-Carbonnel, but was only able to stay one day, for it was already under shell fire, and was obliged to fall farther back. At Achiet-le-Grand, shells began falling and eight orderlies were killed and the operating theatre destroyed. By the second day, all the clearing stations were back, or moving, to second line positions. None of these, however, afforded more than a temporary resting place, and journeys had to be resumed to positions farther back, where most still are. Every patient was got away. The narrowest escape was at Roye, where the hospital stayed till March 26, and then had to go in a hurry and left 70 patients behind with an officer and 12 orderlies. Happily, some motor ambulances were met and urged to go back and get the patients off. As the last one left it was fired on by the advancing Germans with their rifles.
One nursing sister was killed and one wounded. The nurses were moved first on an ambulance or lorry. Then every patient who could walk took the road on foot. The severely wounded were loaded on ambulances, and the staff then turned to the work of destruction or salvage before following. Some officers were so worn out with the care of wounded and marching that they swayed about the road like drunken men. Casualties were heavy — heavier in those few days than in all the course of the battle of the Somme. The majority of cases on the first day were shell wounds from the heavy bombardment. After that a great majority were machine-gun injuries, which are generally slighter.
A curious detail of the casualties is that in one of the base hospitals there lies, with other honourably wounded heroes, one Jack the Baboon, the mascot of the South African Brigade. He lost a leg and is wounded in one arm, but he has stood an operation and treatment well and is said to be a most amenable and gentle patient.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2018-04-20/register/irish-appeal-to-the-world-fkwgpq5qz
As the result of the passing of the Conscription Act a number of Roman Catholic schools have allowed the boys to return to their homes. The Labour Party proposes to keep a general holiday next week in order that the working classes may sign the Bishops’ pledge against conscription. Dublin is quiet, and one gathers that the whole country is sobered by the gravity of the action which has been taken in the name of Nationalist Ireland. The Roman Catholic Church has taken a large risk in identifying itself with the activities of the Sinn Fein movement, but one must suppose that it has received guarantees that none of the parties to the new agreement will take any decisive action without its consent.
A curious detail of the casualties is that in one of the base hospitals there lies, with other honourably wounded heroes, one Jack the Baboon, the mascot of the South African Brigade. He lost a leg and is wounded in one arm, but he has stood an operation and treatment well and is said to be a most amenable and gentle patient.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2018-04-20/register/irish-appeal-to-the-world-fkwgpq5qz
April 20, 1918
Irish appeal to the world
The conference of Nationalist leaders in the Dublin Mansion House did not conclude till after 8 o’clock this evening, when a report was issued. It states that the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin and the Lord Mayor of Dublin have consented to act as trustees of the Irish National Defence Fund, and that they will nominate a third trustee. Local committees of defence will be formed throughout Ireland. The statement of Ireland’s case against conscription will be prepared for presentation to the world, and the Lord Mayor of Dublin has been requested to go to Washington and to present in person a statement to the President of the United States.As the result of the passing of the Conscription Act a number of Roman Catholic schools have allowed the boys to return to their homes. The Labour Party proposes to keep a general holiday next week in order that the working classes may sign the Bishops’ pledge against conscription. Dublin is quiet, and one gathers that the whole country is sobered by the gravity of the action which has been taken in the name of Nationalist Ireland. The Roman Catholic Church has taken a large risk in identifying itself with the activities of the Sinn Fein movement, but one must suppose that it has received guarantees that none of the parties to the new agreement will take any decisive action without its consent.
The country’s whole thought is occupied with conscription. The situation is entirely novel and very dangerous. The Church and the political leaders seem to contemplate a policy of passive resistance, but the country is full of sinister influences. Sinn Fein is highly organized in the South and West. The young people of the rural districts are almost incredibly ignorant, and the wildest stories are current about the fighting in France. It would be fatal to cancel the conscription proposals in face of present opposition, but a just Home Rule Bill quickly introduced will do much to relieve the tension of affairs. Meanwhile the fear that the Conscription Act may be applied at any moment is likely to keep the country in a state of panic. The Government might be well advised to name a definite date before which the Act will not be enforced, and to use the interval for a vigorous campaign of voluntary recruiting.
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