Chapter 10a – Aisne

Redeployment to the Aisne Towards the end of April the 50th Divn was busy training and reorganising in the Roquetoire area when, rumours began to circulate of a move to another part of…

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1.  Lt Gen. Sir Alexander Hamilton Gordon - (1859 - 1939). Took command of IX Corps in 1916 and was relieved in 1918 
2. Chemin des Dames (literally the “Ladies’ Path”) is a 30km long limestone and chalk ridge running from east to west between the Aisne and Ailette rivers
3.  General Robert Georges Nivelle (1856–1924)
4.  Gen. Philippe Pétain replaced Nivelle in May 1917. Thousands of French troops were court martialled and the ring leaders executed, however, going forward Petain ensured that leave was subsequently more frequent and of longer duration
5. Pernes – southwest of Bethune 
6. The town of La Fere en Tardenois served as HQ for Gen. Sir John French during the 1^st Battle of the Marne and Aisne
7.  The 4^th Yorks arrived on 28^th April. The entire day of the 27^th was spent aboard the trains, the Bn arriving at Fismes at 8.00 am. From here they marched to billets in Courville 
8. Open warfare tactics
9. Concevreux village website  (Concevreux History) 
10.  On 30^th March, the 33^rd Regt relieved a part of the 110^th Regt in the la Ville aux-Bois sub-sector. On 3^rd May, the 33^rd was detailed by the 217^th Regt to move west and replace the 73^rd, in nearby sub-sector. On the evening of the 6^th of May, the Regt was replaced by the NF and withdrew to Courcelles and Concevreux for rest. Embedded 14^th May, Braine station, Regiment, went in the Beauvais region http://www.association14-18.org/references 
11. Capt. Sidney Rogerson served with the 23^rd Bde (25^th Divn) and published a book of his experiences on the Aisne in a book entitled the [zotpressInText item="{UI9W5GEQ,1}"] 
12. 8^th Divn HQ was south of the river in Roucy 
13. The village of Pontavert lies on the north bank of the Aisne River and canal crossing. It was immediately south of the 149^th Bde sector
14. 23^rd Bde - 2^nd Devonshire Regt, 2^nd West Yorkshire Regt, 2^nd Middlesex Regt
15. French 19^th, 62^nd & 118^th Regts (22^nd Divn, 11^th Corps)
16. 25^th Divn HQ in Montigny 
17.  Maj. Gen. Denis Auguste Duchêne – GOC French 6^th Army
18.  A young officer called Charles de Gaulle had served with the French 33^rd Regt prior to his capture in 1916. 
19. (Historique du 33ème Regiment D’Infanterie)
20.  'The Trench of a Thousand Days’ - Boyau Des Mille Joures
21.  Boyau - French term for a communication trench
22. Command Post Kleber 
23. 6^th NF War Diary (Adjutant_6th_NF, 1914 -18) 
24.  La Hutte 
25. Command Post Verdun 
26. Command Post Marias 
27. Mt Hermal 
28. Trench Behart 
29. French 22^nd Divn – 19^th, 62^nd, 118^th Regts 
30. Butte is a knoll or small hill
31. War Memorial - The Great War 1914 - 1918  (Noble) 
32. Lachrymatory – tear gas
33. The detonation of a Thermite shell produced a flaming shower of incendiary shrapnel. It was developed for anti-aircraft guns
34. [zotpressInText item="{SAB4IGA7,10}"] 
35. There was always a natural tendency to blame withdrawals on being outflanked by the enemy penetrating other units on the left and right.  However the role of the storm trooper was to slip past strongly defended positions in order to attack the HQ and artillery positions to the rear
36. The Boyau de Margrave was a communications trench running north from Route 44 to the front line, on the right flank of the 4^th NF. It was also the divisional boundary 
37. Boyau de Siegfried was a communications trench running north east from Trenches ‘de la Redoubte’ and ‘de la Plaine’ to Route 44
38. [zotpressInText item="{UI9W5GEQ,31}"] 
39.  3^rd Battle of the Aisne (Blanchard, 2005)
40.  3^rd Battle of the Aisne (Blanchard, 2005) 
41.  Maj. Ivan Marshall Tweedy (5^th NF) first embarked for France on the 20^th of April 1915 
42.  Brig Gen. Cuthbert Thomas Martin, formerly of the 2^nd HLI 
43. [zotpressInText item="{4R6FADJ9,347}"] 
44.  A ‘Detail’ is a military term for a small body of men selected for a specific or special duty 
45.  (Adjutant_149th_Bde, 1918)
46.  Supplement to London Gazette dated 26 Jul 1918 p.8784. (D.S.O. gazetted 11^th December, 1916) (First Bar gazetted 26^th September, 1917) 
47. Under the command of Capt. R. Green, M.C 
48. Lt. Col. F. Walton – OC 6^th DLI from April 1918 – 18 Oct 1918 
49.  The German 7^th Army was comprised of the 3^rd, 7^th, 8^th, 17^th and 65^th Corps. A total of 42 Divns 
50.  39^th (Niederrheinisches) Füsilier Regt, 53^rd (Westfälisches) Regt, 158^th (Lothringisches) Regt (100^th Infantry Bde, 50^th Infantry Divn, 65^th Corps, 7^th Army) 
51.  39^th (Lower Rhineland) Füsilier Regt 
52.  Onlineprojekt Gefallenendenkmȁler  (Verlustliste: Füsilier-Regiment General Ludendorff (Niederrheinisches Nr. 39):)
53.  The actual location of the Kugelberg is unknown
54.  The Winterburg was the German name for the Californie Plateau 
55.  This would have been 8am 
56.  Height 77 is likely to have been a 77 metre high knoll approximately 1 km south of the Butte d’Edmond -IGN Map Ref 559.5473 
57.  Ployon Wood lay immediately behind the line of redoubts (It is now referred to on maps as Marias du Temple) 
58.  25^th Divn HQ – Montigny sur Vesle 
59.  Green line – Reserve line 
60.  1^st Wiltshire Regt, 10^th Cheshire Regt, 4^th South Staffordshire (7^th Bde, 25^th Divn) 
61.  8^th Border Regt, 1/6^th Cheshire Regt, 11^th Cheshire Regt, 2^nd South Lancashire  Regt (75^th Bde, 25^th Divn) 
62.  Général de Joseph Bodin de Galembert - GOC French 157^th Divn (214^th, 233^rd and 252^nd Regts) HQ - Braine 
63.  (L’offensive dans l’Aisne ) 
64.  The Royal Engineers used explosives to demolish the bridge at Chaudardes 
65.  Chaudardes – on the north bank of the Aisne River south-west of Pontavert 
66.  Words taken from Lt Goodbody’s Military Cross citation 
67.  Pte Stephen Robert Futers (200835)
68.  Pte John Daykin (204568)
69.  Futers and Daykin were awarded the Military Medal for their actions on this day. 
70.  Presumably four crossing points for both waterways 
71.  8^th Border  Regt, 1/6^th Cheshire Regt, 11^th Cheshire Regt, 2^nd South Lancashire Regt (75^th Bde, 25^th Divn) 
72.  The 8^th Divn Machine Gun School, commanded by Major A H Cope of the Devons was based at Roucy prior to the offensive (Scully) 
73.  (Adjutant_6th_NF, 1914 -18) 
74.  RSM George Dodds Fewster is commemorated on the Soissons memorial 
75.  [zotpressInText item="{S3P253E2,208}"] 
76.  Maj. John Ridley Robb
77. 3rd Worcestershire Regt, 74th Bde, 25th Divn  
78.  1st Wiltshire Adjutant 
79.  Lt Kenneth George Kelly  (Noble) 
80. 3^rd Worcestershire Regt (74^th Bde, 25^th Divn). Assigned to support 50^th Divn 
81.  Details and remainder of Bde organised on line running from Concevreux bridge - Canal Bank - to bridge at 47.47 (Berry Au Bac 1/20,000) thence to the west end of wood. (Adjutant_6th_NF, 1914 -18) 
82.  Probably the entire 50^th Divn 
83. This may have been part of the Green Line
84.  Just north of point 200, where the track crossed the road [zotpressInText item="{HUXKQ9EA}"] -High ground south of Roucy (Ref Soissons 22 1/100,000) 
85.  11^th Lancashire Fusiliers (74^th Bde) 
86.  Fusilier Regiment: Rheims, May 1918 (39th Fusilier Regt) 
87.  L/Cpl Halliwall was awarded a Victoria Cross for his gallantry here after evacuating ten wounded men, one by one, on horseback 
88.  11^th Lancashire Fusiliers War Diary (Adjutant 1. B., 1918) 
89.  8^th Divn HQ and 8^th Bn M.G.C. had moved to Montigny-sur-Vesle around 6pm 
90.  Brig. Gen. A.A. Kennedy 
91.  Maj. Gen. William Charles Gifford Heneker. GOC 8^th Divn from 9 Dec 1916 
92.  Maj. George R. Hennessy 
93.  (39th Fusilier Regt) 
94.  8^th Border Regt War Diary (8th Battalion War Diary, May 1918)
95.  214^th , 252^nd & 333^rd Infantry Regt & 70^th Territorial Regt (French 157^th Divn) 
96.  Lt Col J.N de la Perelle DSO, MC - CO 8^th Border Regt 15 May 18
97.  Cpl John Edward Mogerley, DCM (4/920, 200091). Citation for Military Medal [zotpressInText item="{NH3TRT6B,85}"]
98.  S.A.A - Small Arms Ammunition 
99.  2^nd Lt Alexander Armstrong Pickering (1890-1964), a farm worker from Barrasford, Northumberland who originally enlisted in the Northumberland Hussars.
100.  Pte John J Knott - 4^th NF (4/1905, 200489) Citation for Military Medal [zotpressInText item="{NH3TRT6B,85}"]