The 18th (Service) Battalion, King's Royal Rifle Corps (Arts and Crafts) (18th KRRC) was an infantry unit recruited as part of 'Kitchener's Army' in World War I. It was raised in the summer of 1915 by the politician Sir Herbert Raphael at Gidea Park in Essex. It served on the Western Front from May 1916, seeing action on the Somme. Later it fought at Messines and Ypres. After a period on the Italian Front it returned to the west to serve against the German spring offensive, when it was almost wiped out. The rebuilt battalion then took part in the final advance to victory in Flanders, before participating in the Allied occupation of the Rhineland.
Recruitment and training
On 6 August 1914, less than 48 hours after Britain's declaration of war, Parliament sanctioned an increase of 500,000 men for the Regular British Army. The newly-appointed Secretary of State for War, Earl Kitchener of Khartoum, issued his famous call to arms: 'Your King and Country Need You', urging the first 100,000 volunteers to come forward. Men flooded into the recruiting offices and the 'first hundred thousand' were enlisted within days. This group of six divisions with supporting arms became known as Kitchener's First New Army, or 'K1'.War Office Instructions No 32 (6 August) and No 37 (7 August).Becke, Pt 3a, pp. 2 & 8. The K2, K3 and K4 battalions, brigades and divisions followed soon afterwards. But the flood of volunteers overwhelmed the ability of the Army to absorb them, and the K5 units were largely raised by local initiative rather than at regimental depots, often from men from particular localities or backgrounds who wished to serve together: these were known as 'Pals battalions'. The 'Pals' phenomenon quickly spread across the country, as local recruiters offered complete units to the War Office (WO). One such unit was the 18th (Service) Battalion, King's Royal Rifle Corps (Arts and Crafts) (18th KRRC) raised by Sir Herbert Raphael, 1st Baronet, MP. He had at one time been an officer in the 1st Volunteer Battalion, Essex Regiment, but had enlisted as a Private in the 24th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers (2nd Sportsmen's) soon after the outbreak of war. In June 1915 he was given the rank of Captain to raise a new battalion. Before the war he had been developing his estate at Gidea Park, Essex, as a 'Garden suburb' as part of the Arts and Crafts movement, and the name became attached to the battalion raised there.Frederick, p. 245.Hare, pp. 94–6.James, p. 95.War Office Instruction No 56 of September 1915, Appendix IX.KRRC at Long, Long Trail.
Raphael was promoted to Major and served as the second-in-command of 18th KRRC in its early days.Who Was Who. Lieutenant-Colonel Newdigate Burne, a retired Indian Army officer, was appointed commanding officer (CO) on 16 August.London Gazette, 10 February 1916. Robert Pennell, who had begun the war as a sergeant and had been badly wounded at the First Battle of the Aisne in 1914, was appointed Regimental Sergeant-Major. By the time the battalion went to France he had been promoted to Temporary Captain.Aston & Duggan, p. 139. The battalion was taken over by the WO on 4 September 1915. Training continued at Gidea Park'Albert's Story' at Milton Keynes Heritage Association. until October 1915 when the battalion moved to Witley Camp in Surrey to join 41st Division, the last Kitchener division to be formed. The battalion was assigned to 122nd Brigade, serving alongside 12th (S) Bn, East Surrey Regiment (Bermondsey) ('12th ESR'), 15th (S) Bn, Hampshire Regiment (2nd Portsmouth) ('15th Hants', the 'Pompey Pals'), and 11th (S) Bn, Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment (Lewisham) ('11th RWK').Becke, Pt 3b, pp. 109–15.41st Division at Long, Long Trail.
The battalions at Witley were equipped with Lee-Enfield Mark III rifles, specialists such as Lewis gunners, signallers and 'bombers' were selected and trained. Route marches were carried out with full kit, the pouches filled with iron weights (known as 'Kitchener's chocolate') to simulate the weight of ammunition; many of the men discarded these weights in roadside ditches. In November 1915 the battalion moved to Ramillies Barracks, Aldershot, where the men fired their musketry courses, before returning to Witley.Pearse & Sloman, Vol II, p. 28. Lieutenant-Col Burne was replaced on 1 February 1916 by Capt George Soltau-Symons, a former KRRC officer who had been recalled on the outbreak of the war and had been acting as a staff officer. During February 1916 122nd Bde returned to Marlborough Lines, Aldershot, to begin final intensive training prior to going overseas to join the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the Western Front.
On 2 May the battalion boarded three trains at the military siding at Farnborough, bound for Southampton Docks. The men boarded two ships and landed at Le Havre next day.18th KRRC War Diary 2 May 1916–31 October 1917, The National Archives (TNA), Kew, file WO 95/2635/3.
23rd (Reserve) Battalion The depot companies of 18th KRRC remained behind when the battalion joined 41st Division, and in December 1915 they were formed into 23rd (Reserve) Battalion, KRRC, to supply reinforcements to 18th KRRC. Its CO was Lt-Col Sir John Hope, 16th Baronet, MP, a former Regular KRRC officer who had been wounded as second-in-command of another Kitchener battalion, 9th KRRC, at Hooge in July 1915.9th KRRC at Great War Forum. Major Sir Herbert Raphael transferred from 18th KRRC to serve as second-in-command.
By January 1916 23rd KRRC was at Banbury, Oxfordshire, in 26th Reserve Brigade, which moved to Wimbledon Common in June. On 1 September 1916 the Training Reserve was established following the introduction of conscription, and 23rd (R) Bn KRRC became 111th Training Reserve Battalion, though the training staff retained their KRRC badges. The brigade continued to provide reinforcement drafts for the KRRC and the Rifle Brigade. The battalion was disbanded at Wimbledon on 2 March 1918.
Service By 8 May 1916 41st Division had completed its concentration between Hazebrouck and Bailleul in Second Army's area. While continuing its training, including the use of 'gas helmets', parties from the new division were sent up to the line for an introduction to trench warfare from experienced units. 41st Division then relieved 9th (Scottish) Division in the Ploegsteert trenches, with 18th KRRC going into the line on 30 May. It then began a routine of one week in the trenches and one in reserve at the 'Piggeries' or at Papot, usually alternating with the 15th Hants or 26th Royal Fusiliers (Bankers) of 124th Bde. The battalion also had to supply working parties, and it began to suffer a trickle of casualties, particularly from chance shelling or rifle grenade fire. Lieutenant-Col Soltau-Symons was invalided on 13 June and the second-in-command, Maj E.RH. Herbert, took over temporarily. On 25 June Maj Charles Marten (West Yorkshire Regiment), the second-in-command of 32nd Royal Fusiliers (East Ham) in 124th Bde, arrived to take over command of 18th KRRC.Aston & Duggan, pp. 23–30.Eden, pp. 75–9.Pearse & Sloman, Vol II, pp. 183–4.
When 41st Division arrived on the Western Front the BEF was preparing for that summer's 'Big Push', the Battle of the Somme, the bombardment beginning on 24 June. To confuse the enemy as to the extent of the offensive, 41st Division was ordered to make diversionary raids at Ploegsteert. The other three battalions of 122nd Bde carried out a large raid on 30 June, and although 18th KRRC was not involved it suffered some casualties from retaliatory shellfire. The battalion carried out its own raid on 12/13 July, but the parties found the enemy barbed wire newly repaired and their trenches strongly held: the raiders withdrew with some casualties. On the night of 5/6 August 18th KRRC and 228th (Barnsley) Field Company, Royal Engineers (RE), carried out an operation under the codename 'Jump' to advance the line by digging new trenches and erecting a new belt of barbed wire in No Man's land. The digging and wiring parties were protected by covering parties and Lewis gun teams. The battalion was congratulated by the division and corps commanders for this work.Aston & Duggan, pp. 30–40.Eden, pp. 79–81.Pearse & Sloman, Vol II, pp. 252–3.
Flers–Courcelette
On 15 August 18th KRRC left Papot and marched by stages to the Méteren training area, where it began special training before 41st Division joined Fourth Army in the offensive. It moved on 24 August to Brucamps, where the training included operating in a wood similar to the notorious Delville Wood on the Somme. Then on 6 September the battalion entrained at Longpré-les-Corps-Saints station for Méricourt-l'Abbé, whence it marched to bivouacs at Fricourt, which had been captured at the beginning of the Somme Offensive. 41st Division was now ordered to take part in the next phase of the offensive, the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, in which 122nd Bde (code-name 'Jam') on the division's left was to capture the village of Flers. For this its first attack, 41st Division had support from tanks, also making their first ever appearance on a battlefield. Ten Mark I tanks of D Company, Heavy Section, Machine Gun Corps, were assigned to the division, formed up behind the infantry. 122nd Brigade took up its positions north-west of Delville Wood by 02.00 on 15 September. 18th KRRC (code-name 'Jar') was on the left of the brigade's first line with 15th Hants to the right, followed by 12th ESR and 11th RWK respectively. 18th KRRC was to advance on a four-platoon front with each company (A–D right to left) in four platoon waves at intervals. While the tanks crept into position behind them, the leading waves lay down in No man's land.Aston & Duggan, pp. 36–45.Miles, 1916, Vol II, pp. 299, 321–2.Miles, 1916, Vol II Appendices 28 & 29.Pearse & Sloman, Vol II, pp. 253–4.Pidgeon, pp. 71–7. '15 September 1916 – Supporting 41st Division' at Landships.