A last-minute addition to our Tour of Langemark, and thus not on the trench maps seen in previous posts, the new memorial to the Hertfordshire Regiment can be found in the fields outside St. Julien (now Sint-Juliaan), less than a mile south east of the outskirts of modern Langemark.
Unveiled as recently as July 2017, this is the first memorial to the men of the regiment to be erected outside the U.K., and its position, on the slopes of the Pilckem Ridge to the north east of St. Julien, in the distance in many of these shots, is no coincidence.
The Hertfordshires were a pre-war territorial regiment who, on 31st July 1917, the first day of the Third Battle of Ypres, were tasked with attacking the German third line trenches across these fields to the north of St. Julien and south of Langemark. That morning the 39th Division, at the southern end of the British attack, had achieved all its objectives for minimal casualties, including the capture of the first two German lines and the village of St. Julien itself, and it was left to the Hertfordshires to complete the days’ advance from the Steenbeek* up this slope to capture the German third line (the Wilhelm Stellung).
*if you haven’t been following this tour, we have encountered the watery obstacle that was, and is, the Steenbeek before, the section of the stream from the outskirts of Langemark to St. Julien running roughly parallel to the road on the left of many of these pictures, about half a mile away to the south west (beyond the trees in the previous shot).
Attacking from right to left across the fields behind the memorial, the Hertfordshires advanced as far as the road on the left to find the German wire, strung along the far side of the road, undamaged by the earlier artillery bombardment and, in the face of increasingly heavy fire and German counterattacks, they were forced to fall back.
The day would prove to be the most costly day of the war for the Hertfordshires. Of the 620 officers and men of the regiment who took part in the attack, all the officers would be either killed or wounded, alongside 459 other ranks either killed, wounded or captured, and all in the space of some two hours.
The map shows the memorial marked with a black arrow in the foreground, the light blue arrows indicating the progress of the attacking Hertfordshires until they encountered the German wire just beyond the road. The battalion war diary for 31st July tells us; ‘About 3.50am the Bn moved forward in 4 lines behind the 116th & 117th Inf. Bdes. east of the river Steenbeek. Up till this time the casualties had been very slight indeed but as the Bn advanced from the Steenbeek toward the Langemarck line (the Bn objective) casualties grew heavier from sniper and machine gun fire. However the Bn continued advancing. About half way to the objective some of No.3 Coy came upon a German strong point which they gallantly charged, capturing or killing most of the garrison and sending the remainder back as prisoners. On reaching the enemy wire this was found to be practically undamaged (except in one place) & very thick. 2/Lieut Marchington & a handful of men of No.3 Coy got through the only gap and got into the enemy trench & killed a lot of Germans. The remainder of the Bn, being unable to get through the wire and suffering severe casualties from enfilade MG fire & the Germans making a strong counter attack from our left flank about this time, had to fall back having suffered exceptionally heavy casualties. The remnants of the battalion subsequently dug themselves in in line with the 1st Cambs Regt. on the west side of the Steenbeek. Estimated casualties to the other ranks were 29 killed, 5 missing believed killed, 132 missing, 68 wounded & missing, 223 wounded & 2 died of wounds, making a total of 459 casualties to other ranks. Died of wounds; Officers 2, OR’s 6. Missing; Officers 9, OR’s 120. Wounded; Officers 8, OR’s 180.’
What amazes me are the entries in the war diary for the following few days. The entry for 2nd August says that ‘Major Phillips, Captain Whitfield and 2nd Lieut. E.M. Paul went up to the line to take charge of the 130 Other Ranks who remained from the fight on the 31st July. This party remained at Tower Post and Irish Farm.’, and for 3rd August, ‘The party went forward in support of the 116 Bde, staying in the old German front line system until the 5th; the trenches being in a terrible condition owing to the almost continuous rain since the evening of the 31st July.’ And finally, on 5th August, the remnants of the regiment were withdrawn to billets at Reigersburg Chateau. It is surely staggering that men who had been through such a traumatic time on 31st July were still in the line a full five days later.
Hertfordshire territorials; one wonders how many of these young men died in this very field.
What we do know for a fact…
…is that many of these men did. This is No. 7 platoon, No. 2 company, taken during a spell in reserve only weeks before the attack, and many of the men in this photograph would indeed die in the fields beyond the memorial on the first day of Third Ypres.
Some may still be there. With thanks to Herts at War.
One more cemetery to see on this tour, so click here for Part Nine.
An awful sacrifice. Truly a field of death. God rest their souls.
Gave me goosebumps standing there, I can tell you!
How do I find your blog, Andrew?
another superb and really interesting article. That’s some rate of attrition! Poor sods
Thank you Nick. Poor sods indeed.
A sad albeit infuriating example of officers mindset in WW1 – throwing those 130 other ranks back into the fray after their shocking experience a couple of days before. It makes the blood boil.
A real pity the strategies devised by Sir John Monash, credited with turning the War against the Germans after years of death-dealing stalemate, strategies used a few months later at Hamel/Amiens and the Hindenburg Line – and used to this day – were not listened to earlier by the high command buffoons of the day.
May the souls of those Hertfordshires (from my mothers 1905 birthplace) continue to RIP and never be forgotten
Hello Sid! I know you are a Monash supporter – you should explain more, actually – but don’t include my subalterns whom I wrote about two posts ago in your officer assassination. They certainly were not to blame.
Not sure what you mean MJS about “should explain more”. The General Sir John Monash story is well documented elsewhere and far too long to tell here. I’ll email you a short 853 word summary that does not include his civilian life achievements. His 586 page biography “An outsider who won a War” by Roland Perry is well worth the read. Before and after WW1 he was a brilliant Civil Engineer and a volunteer in the civilian part-time militia. To turn the tide in WW1 he discarded the British previous-century disastrous strategy of advancing troops in rigid lines and swarming out of trenches into suicidal enemy fire. Instead he co-ordinated use of infantry, aircraft, artillery and tanks along with the carefully considered best preservation of his soldiers’ lives. A strategy used by most armies to this day.
Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, who was an officer in World War I, credited Monash as “the best General on the Western Front in Europe”.
I’ll also include a remarkable coincidence about Monty’s formative years – you guessed it – in Australia.
There you are, you have explained more!! Look forward to the summary.
I was stood at the Herts Memorial in October 2018. A very sombre moment for me. A cousin (3 x removed) of mine, was a Sergeant in the 1st Battalion Hertfordshire Regiment, and he died along with so many of his fellow soldiers that day. His name was Hiram John Hammond. He was 28 and from Ware in Hertfordshire. The records I found said he was missing and then listed as killed. I then found a record which listed him as being wounded, then taken to a casualty clearing station which was hit by shell fire killing him. He is listed along with so many others on the Menin gate.
His brother, Herbert Samuel Hammond, was killed 13/11/16 in the Battle of Ancre. He was a Sergeant in the 4th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment. He is listed on the Thiepval Memorial.
Hello Robert. Thanks very much for taking the time to comment. Fyi, these photos were taken in September 2017, not too long after the inauguration. It’s a sobering place to stand on a grey Flanders day.
Hi again MF, we visited this spot on our last but one trip to the area (inspire to do so by your excellent telling of the tale. A very melancholy place for sure).
Just a few days ago I came across what I think is an excellent piece on Youtube all about this very action and thought it might be of interest to people.
Here is the link – hope its ok to do this (apologies in advance if not !)
I have no problems with a YouTube video that is on-topic. I am not even sure that I have seen this. I actually watch a lot of YouTube on my TV late at night when writing this stuff, so I shall check this out in due course. Cheers Jon!
Thank you for visiting. We unveiled it 100 years after the event and there more people from Hertfordshire there on the 31/7/2017 than at any other time since 31/7/1917, I will be there next week to do a little maintenance. Jonty from Herts At War.
Hello Jonty. Thank you very much for taking the trouble to comment, and it is good to hear that the memorial is well looked after, and how many people were there for the unveiling. I took these pictures soon after, in late September 2017, if memory serves. Oh, and your excellent site helped in the writing of this post, of course, so thanks for that too!!