French Flanders: Neuve Chapelle Part Five – The Neuve Chapelle Memorial

This is the Neuve Chapelle Memorial. 

And this is the Neuve Chapelle Memorial, soon after completion.  This site was chosen because Neuve Chapelle was the first action fought by the Indian Corps, in toto, during the Great War.  Unveiled on 7th October 1927, one half of the circular enclosure consists of panels listing the names of the dead, while the other half is trellised.

And this is the entrance chattri.  On the left,…

…a CWGC information board, but before going inside, we are going to circumnavigate the structure,…

…there being interesting stuff to be seen on the outside.

The memorial’s design, a sanctuary surrounded by a circular wall, is based on the railings that enclosed early Indian shrines.

Only inlaid in the grass fairly recently, the small tablet in the foreground…

…is self-explanatory.

The column, fifteen feet high, is surmounted by a capital in the form of a lotus bud, in which rests the Imperial British Crown, topped by the Star of India,…

…the two stylized tigers at its base guarding the Temple of the Dead.

You may have noticed the bullet holes spattering the face of the memorial,…

…a legacy of the intense fighting that took place here in 1944,…

…as the Allies pushed inwards from the Normandy beaches, and the Germans retreated,…

…all a reminder that the ‘War to end all wars’ wasn’t.

Continuing our anti-clockwise circumambulation,…

…brings us to this much smaller memorial to a young subaltern of the 3rd Bn. London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers) who was killed leading his men on a bayonet charge at Neuve Chapelle on 10th March 1915.  Second Lieutenant Cyril Alfred William Crichton (pictured) was twenty one when he died, and at the time he was buried in a garden near where he fell.  When Crichton’s father learned, soon after the war’s end, of the proposal to concentrate individual burials in larger cemeteries he informed the IWGC that he intended to buy the land where his son was buried and would they please ensure his grave remained undisturbed.  They duly acquiesced, and the site was marked.

Except it was the wrong site, and on visiting, Crichton’s father was unable to find any trace of the grave (nor, I suspect, the garden) among the still shell-cratered fields, and it was on the advice of locals that he acquired the piece of land marked with a red dot, which is where his son’s memorial was placed.  In February 1925, however, across the road at the site of the mauve dot on the map, the farmer’s plough uncovered a body, which was exhumed along with numerous personal effects,…

…as listed here, and which proved to be that of Second Lieutenant Cyril Crichton, and he now lies in Le Touret Military Cemetery, two and a half miles to the west of here (a cemetery I have yet to visit).  The orange circle on this map (and all others in this post) marks the site of the Neuve Chapelle Memorial.

At some point, as far as I am aware due to road widening at the crossroads – it had already been smacked by a car and if you enlarge the above picture you will see that it has received much restoration at some point – the memorial was moved across the road to where it now stands.  Other than the car, what caused the damage?  More machine gun bullets, World War II style, would be my guess.

Its position here does seem somewhat arbitrary, to be honest, but the CWGC took over its maintenance way back in the 1920s, so presumably it will remain well looked after.  There are very few memorials to individuals to be found along the British sector of the Western Front – probably a good thing, if one thinks about it.

There being nothing more to see on the outside,…

…here we are back at the chattri at the entrance,…

…and here’s the view once inside, a Stone of Remembrance ahead of us, and a second chattri beyond.

On the left, forty four panels list the Indian dead,…

…and yes, of course I photographed all the panels, as you’ll find out shortly.

Across the other side…

…the little bench you can see one of two, on either side of the centrepiece,…

…each with the regimental emblems – identical on both sides – of the Indian regiments on the trellis above.

Beneath the tigers,…

…a screen wall on which the names of the Belgian & French battlefields on which Indian troops fought and died are inscribed.  Troops of the Indian Expeditionary Force, composed of the Indian Cavalry Corps and the Lahore & Meerut Divisions, were already arriving in France as early as September 1914, prior to their baptism of fire at Messines in late October.  At Neuve Chapelle in March 1915 half of the attacking troops were Indian, and they would fight at Ypres in April, at Aubers & Festubert in May, and at Loos in September before the Corps was redeployed to the Middle East at the end of 1915.  The Indian Cavalry Corps would remain in France into 1918, and contingents of the Indian Labour Corps would arrive in the summer of 1917, their work continuing after the Armistice.  In the very centre of the above inscriptions you will find Neuve Chapelle,…

…and this is the complete map, an extract of which I have shown you before, of the British positions prior to the Battle of Neuve Chapelle,…

…this an enlargement of the bottom left of the map showing the positions of the different regiments of the Meerut Division on the morning of 10th March 1915, and the limit of their advance (red dotted lines) by the end of the day.

Just in case you didn’t believe me, here’s the second seat and second group of regimental emblems.

Some 90,000 Indian soldiers served on the Western Front, along with around 50,000 men of the Indian Labour Corps (essentially non-combatants), during the Great War.  Of these, perhaps 50,000 were wounded, and some 8,550 died, the graves of almost 3,300 identified Indians now lying in over 140 cemeteries in Belgium & France.  The panels here contain the names of 4,742 Indian soldiers with no known grave.

A further 412 Indian names can be found on the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing in Ypres (above & below).

By far the majority of the Indian casualties at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle have no known grave, so as we take a look at the panels, with their archaic regimental names, like something out of a late-19th Century Boy’s Own book, we’ll intersperse them with some appropriate (if not entirely genuine, in some cases) photos of Indian, British, and a few German troops during and after the Battle of Neuve Chapelle in March 1915.

The first panel in this shot is actually panel two, panel one obscured by the pillar encroaching on the left, but as they are all numbered,…

…you don’t have to take my word that this is it in close-up.  The fourteen officers of the Indian Army Reserve of Officers at the top of this first panel are among the very small percentage of British names to be found among the names on the panels,…

…but, as with Major Henderson at the bottom of the second panel, you’ll spot a few as we go along.

Indian troops, some wiring, some simply waiting, in a nice, dry, zig-zag trench dug to a depth of about four feet that I doubt, actually, was anywhere close to Neuve Chapelle, as the original caption suggests, and certainly nowhere near the front lines.

Two more examples – both originally stereoscopic images – of Indian troops ostensibly in action, but in reality, once again, despite the captions, taken far from the firing line.

At the top of panel six, on the far left,…

…more evidence of Second World War damage.

Regimental mascot (that’s what the caption says), or tonight’s supper?  No, not a joke, just a likelihood.  The British Army had to scour the globe for goats to feed the Indian troops on the Western Front, as much of the other food on offer was unacceptable to their religious beliefs.

The battlefield of Neuve Chapelle.

Debris and trenches on the outskirts of Neuve Chapelle.

German shells bursting near British positions, Neuve Chapelle.

The road – or one of them – to the front line north of Neuve Chapelle, 13th March 1915.

Northumberland Hussars having a meal, by the looks of it, in the reserve trenches at Neuve Chapelle, also on 13th March 1915.

Shells fall on 2nd Battalion, Middlesex Regiment headquarters and adjacent positions on 19th March 1915, a few days after the battle.

At which point we take a brief break, because after the first twenty two panels,…

…a central panel bears the dedication,…

…’To the honour of the Army of India which fought in France and Belgium 1914-1918 and in perpetual remembrance of those of their dead whose names are here recorded and who have no known grave’.

View looking across the memorial towards the Stone of Remembrance and the column beyond,…

…before we embark on another twenty two panels.

The trenches from which the attack at Neuve Chapelle was launched.

Another Second World War bullet hole.

British officers and men at a brigade headquarters tucked into a haystack await news during the battle.

One of two holders of the Victoria Cross whose names appear on these panels, Lieutenant William Arthur McCrae Bruce, 59th Scinde Rifles (Frontier Force), Indian Army, was awarded a V.C. for ‘most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty. On the 19th December 1914, near Givenchy, during a night attack, Lieutenant Bruce was in command of a small party which captured one of the enemy’s trenches. In spite of being severely wounded in the neck, he walked up and down the trench, encouraging his men to hold on against several counter-attacks for some hours until killed. The fire from rifles and bombs was very heavy all day, and it was due to the skillful disposition made, and the example and encouragement shown by Lieutenant Bruce that his men were able to hold out until dusk, when the trench was finally captured by the enemy.’  Bruce, just 24 when he died, is pictured below.  Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the awarding of a V.C. in a fight that was eventually lost rather unusual?

The first of five photographs showing trenches at Neuve Chapelle after the battle.

The second Victoria Cross was awarded to nineteen-year-old Rifleman Gobar (often spelled Gabar) Sing Negi, 2/39th Bn. Garwhal Rifles, who is pictured below.  During the resumed attack at Neuve Chapelle on 10th March 1915 – half the attacking force were Indian, their first mass action of the war – and despite an ineffective artillery barrage, Negi led a bayonet party, his officer having been killed, into the main German trench, driving the Germans back and forcing many to surrender.  His citation reads ‘For most conspicuous bravery on 10th March, 1915, at Neuve Chapelle. During our attack on the German position he was one of a bayonet party with bombs who entered their main trench, and was the first man to go round each traverse, driving back the enemy until they were eventually forced to surrender. He was killed during this engagement.’

After the battle: German photograph of British dead on the Neuve Chapelle battlefield, 12th March 1915.

After the battle: Bodies of men of 2nd Bn. Middlesex Regiment lying between the opposing trenches at Neuve Chapelle, showing what tends to happen if your artillery barrage fails to destroy your opponent’s trenches, and in particular, their machine gun positions.

After the battle: Men of the 2nd Bn. Cameron Highlanders lie dead in No Man’s Land, Neuve Chapelle.

After the battle: Scottish survivors on the battlefield.

After the battle: German trench with blanketed British wounded awaiting evacuation.

Panel 44 includes these Second World War casualties; in 1964 the remains of eight Indian soldiers, two of whom could not be identified, were exhumed from Sarrebourg French Military Cemetery Extension, down in the Vosges, and cremated.  The six identified men are now remembered here; it’s a pity nothing remembers the two men with no names.

After the battle: Wounded British & Indian soldiers await transport to hospital.

After the battle: German prisoners are escorted to the rear by their British captors.

Two views of the same incident.  Men of the crew of No. 5 Mountain Battery, 3rd Mountain Artillery Brigade, Royal Garrison Artillery (Indian Army) lie dead behind their 2.75 inch mountain gun in Neuve Chapelle.  There are only thirteen men of the R.G.A. listed on the panels (you will find them on Panel 2 – one naik and a dozen drivers) but these men are more likely gunners, and it may be their bodies now lie in one of the cemeteries we have visited, or have yet to visit, nearby.  Who knows?

German troops surrendering to men of the 1st Bn. Worcestershire Regiment at Neuve Chapelle.

More German prisoners, the man in the centre with a head wound, guarded by troops of the Worcesters, by the looks of it in Neuve Chapelle itself.

Inside the enclosed chattri,…

…beneath the Star of India,…

…two addenda panels flank a central bronze tablet…

…which was added in 1964 and lists the names of 210 servicemen of undivided India who died whilst in German captivity during the Great War and were buried at Zehrensdorf Indian Cemetery in Germany, but whose graves had since become unmaintainable.  Although this plaque remains here, the graves in Germany were reinstated in 2005.

The two addenda panels…

…list men not included, for whatever reason, on the main panels.

A last look at the Stone of Remembrance,…

…before we return to the entrance chattri and depart.

And a final look over our communal shoulder on leaving,…

…because at about this point the British front line trench crossed the road, with No Man’s Land on our right, and the road to the centre of Neuve Chapelle passing the houses in the right background,…

…which are marked in blue on the map.  Bear in mind that the dotted red line shows the limit of the first day’s advance, and you can see that here, to the south of the village, gains were minimal.  The wood – the Bois du Biez – behind the German lines, and appropriately marked in green, just creeping into the picture on the right…

…is seen here in this excellent aerial view of the southern part of the battlefield.  Neuve Chapelle itself is marked in red at the top, the memorial is as usual marked by the orange dot, and the mauve oblong I have now added shows our next and final stop on this tour.  The German front line crosses the photo from bottom left to centre top, with the British front line towards the top left, crossing the road just south of the memorial.  The Indians could quite possibly have taken the Bois du Biez on the first day of the battle, 10th March 1915, but due to the lack of progress further north, they were ordered to dig in some way short of the wood, which, as the top right of the map shows you, some troops had very nearly entered, allowing the Germans time to stiffen their defences and rush forward reinforcements.  The next attack on the wood, intended to take place on 12th March, would never occur; early that morning an intense German bombardment was followed by a counter-attack which, although a slaughter, as the British & Indian defenders cut down the attacking Germans in swathes – some 2,000 bodies were counted in No Man’s Land afterwards, which is worth bearing in mind as you study the above photo – put paid to any further advance, Haig officially suspending operations the following day.

Thus, as we make our way towards our final stop, we once again find ourselves in what was once No Man’s Land, as we have done before on this tour, with the German front line crossing the picture a couple of hundred yards beyond the cemetery, for this is indeed a burial ground,…

…one unlike any other to be found in Flanders Fields, as you will discover next post.