§ LORD HENEAGE had the following Notice on the Paper—
§ To call attention to the omission of any Despatch from the G.O.C. in France in command of the British Expeditionary Force dealing with the operations on the British Front between the 8th of October, 1915, at which date Viscount French's last Despatch finishes, and the 19th of November, 1915, when Sir Douglas Haig's first Despatch commences; and to ask His Majesty's Government whether any official Despatch dealing with that period of the war exists, and, if so, why it has not been published; and, if not, what steps the War Office propose to take to remedy the injustice done to the troops engaged with great credit to themselves and which sustained heavy losses at the attack on the Hohenzollern Redoubt on the 13th of October and in many other engagements during the period referred to, by the omission of all mention of 392 their gallant conduct in the operations in which they took part and for which they have been honourably mentioned by their divisional and other commanders at the Front in the usual Orders of the Day or other official communications.
§ The noble Lord said: My Lords, I need not detain the House for more than a few minutes, but I wish to emphasise the facts connected with the Question standing in my name on the Paper. The question arises, why has there been no record from the Headquarters of the British Expeditionary Force dealing with the operations on the British Front for the period of over six weeks mentioned in my Notice. The last Despatch from the noble and gallant Field-Marshal, Viscount French, brought us down to October 8; the first Despatch received from Sir Douglas Haig commenced on November 19, and there is an entire blank as regards any narrative of the war from official sources between those two dates. No one will deny that a great deal went on at the Front during that period, and a number of new Divisions of Territorial battalions were then engaged for almost the first time. They lost heavily, and there is not the slightest doubt that they behaved with the greatest credit to themselves. Why, I ask, has all mention of their gallant conduct been omitted from the official records?
§ I do not wish to take your Lordships through the whole of the six weeks in question. I will confine my remarks to the first week, which will be quite enough to show that by the omission of any official record a great injustice has been done to these troops. On October 13, five days after the conclusion of the period covered in Lord French's Despatch, there was a very important engagement in the attack on the Hohenzollern Redoubt. The Division which was foremost in that attack, the 41st Division, had not very long left these shores, and it consisted entirely of Territorial battalions from the Midland counties. I am not able to tell your Lordships the casualties in all these battalions, because I have no proof with regard to them all and do not wish to state anything for which I cannot be absolutely and entirely responsible. But I can give you, from the case of one battalion, an example of the number of casualties sustained. Of the two Lincolnshire battalions engaged in this attack I know a great deal, and naturally I am very interested in them, having been 393 the first chairman of the Territorial Association in Lincolnshire under which they were formed. But I am more particularly interested in the 5th battalion, because it has its headquarters at Grimsby and was enlisted to a large extent in North Lincolnshire. I know the officers personally and have been in camp with the battalion. This battalion—and I do not refer to it in order to take more credit for this battalion than for any other, because they all deserve the highest credit—this battalion went into action with twenty-three officers, of whom twenty-two were either killed or wounded, only one officer coming out untouched; and of the whole battalion, only 120 men came out without being wounded. That shows that this was a pretty heavy engagement; and if all the other battalions engaged lost in the same proportion, the engagement was obviously one which ought not to have been entirely overlooked. I know that there is a bitter feeling both at home and at the Front owing to there never having been an official record of their services, though the whole Division have received the greatest praise from their divisional and other commanders for the way in which they behaved.
§
Let me say that there were two brigades of this Midland Division. They included, besides the two Lincolnshire battalions, two Leicesters, four Sherwood Foresters, and four Staffordshire Territorial battalions; they were all highly commended, as well as the Midland Artillery Brigade. I will read a semi-official communication which we received at the Lincolnshire Territorial Association from the Major-General commanding the 46th Division—
I shall be obliged if you will inform the president and members of your Association that in a recent attack on the enemy's position the North Midland Division behaved with distinguished gallantry, worthy of the best traditions of the British Army. I trust that their example may arouse enthusiasm in their various counties, and that the result of their gallant efforts may be to bring every able-bodied man into the ranks. I am proud to command a Division composed of officers and other ranks who, for love of King and Country, have sacrificed private interests, and whose example should be widely followed by other men imbued with patriotic sentiments.
(Signed) E. STUART-WORTLEY.
§ I think, after what I have said about the casualties and what I have read to your Lordships from the officer commanding the Division, there can be no question that this was a considerable engagement and one which ought to have been recorded.
394§ Although I do not think it is necessary that a large number of troops should be present at an engagement under some General of high rank in order to make the engagement an important one, I wish to point out that the 10th Division, besides others, was also engaged in this attack on the Hohenzollern Redoubt. Therefore I should think that an Army Corps commander must have been present; at any rate, there must have been reports from the divisional commanders. What I want to know is, what has become of these reports? We are told that there was some confusion on account of the change in command about this time, but it does seem to plain business men extraordinary that for eight months it should never have been discovered that there was this omission in the narrative of the war. Were the reports of the divisional Generals and of the Army Corps commander in the hands of Lord French's staff when they returned to England; are they in the hands of the staff of Sir Douglas Haig in France, or are they pigeon-holed in the recesses of some sub-department in the War Office? It is extraordinary that no single person connected with the Staff either abroad or at the War Office should have discovered this omission. I wish to ask whether there are any such Despatches, and, if there are not, what the authorities are going to do to remedy the great injustice under which these gallant troops have been suffering.
§ THE DUKE OF RUTLANDMy Lords, I cordially support the attitude which has been taken by my noble friend Lord Heneage on this subject, because I have an intimate knowledge of what the North Midland Division went through on October 13 and 14 last. I do not wish to emphasise the gallantry of any individual battalion, because all the battalions behaved well in the series of battles during those two days. But I should like to say, on behalf of one or two battalions which were primarily engaged in the taking of the Hohenzollern Redoubt, that although they had their personal gallantry mentioned in the Gazette and many officers and men received their just rewards, still there has been something lacking in the absence up to date of any official Despatch relating to the matters which occurred at the Front between October 8 and November 19.
I do not pretend to know what has become of anything that may have been 395 written with respect to that period, but I feel that the regiments which were employed over that period of time have some ground, I will not say for complaining, because regiments do not complain, but for hoping that before long the missing Despatch may be published, so that the public may know exactly what did occur and what these troops did on that occasion. One battalion with which I am intimately concerned, which was employed primarily with one of the Lincolnshire battalions in taking the Hohenzollern Redoubt, lost between fourteen and sixteen officers killed and wounded and a proportionate number of men; but I can say on the highest authority that they held on, and, notwithstanding the terrific losses in officers, did most admirably, and I received the highest private congratulations on the conduct of this battalion.
In replying to a question on this subject in the other House Mr. Tennant—who has done extraordinarily well in the management of the tremendous work which has fallen on his shoulders as representative of the War Office in the other House, and who has invariably answered for the Department not only with courtesy and promptitude but often with a great amount of wit—fell rather short of what he has hitherto succeeded in doing in that respect, for he said that during the period in question no events of outstanding importance occurred which seemed at the time that Lord French laid down the command to call for a Despatch additional to that of October 15 which had already been published. This can hardly be so, because some of the hardest fighting took place during this period. These events were certainly of outstanding importance and had a considerable effect upon the general determination of that fight.
Mr. Tennant also said that great difficulties occurred during the transition in the chief command in preparing any such Despatch, but I hope that we may very shortly have the missing document laid before us, because in justice to those gallant regiments which fought so well—not only this Division but the other brigades and Divisions which were engaged in conjunction with the North Midland Division—we should know what the opinion of the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief was of their behaviour on that occasion.
LORD SANDHURSTMy Lords, I fear that I am not competent to follow the noble Lord and the noble Duke in the speeches which they have delivered, beyond saying that I cordially share the appreciation which they have expressed of the gallant conduct of these troops. I am afraid that I am not in a position to give more of an answer than that which has already been criticised by the noble Duke and a portion of which he read. The reply that I have to give is this, that during the period in question no events of outstanding importance occurred which seemed at the time that Lord French laid down his command to call for a Despatch additional to that of October 15 which has already been published. The change in the chief command and the subsequent assumption of new and onerous duties by Lord French caused an unavoidable delay; but a Despatch covering the period between the beginning of October and the beginning of November is now being compiled. I may add that I will convey to Lord French what has been said by the noble Lord and the noble Duke, and I have no doubt that he will lay the Despatch with as little delay as possible.