12th (Service) Battalion, Suffolk Regiment (East Anglian)

The 12th (Service) Battalion, Suffolk Regiment (East Anglian) was a 'Bantam' infantry unit recruited as part of 'Kitchener's Army' in World War I. It was raised in the summer of 1915 and served on the Western Front from June 1916, seeing action against the Hindenburg Line and at Bourlon Wood. It was almost destroyed during the German spring offensive of 1918 and was sent back to England to be reconstituted. The reformed battalion then took part in the final advance to victory in Flanders.

Background

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, and 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. 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 flood of volunteers overwhelmed the ability of the army to absorb and organise them, and by the time the Fifth New Army (K5) was authorised on 10 December 1914, many of the units were being organised as 'Pals battalions' under the auspices of mayors and corporations of towns up and down the country.Becke, Pt 3b, pp. 51–9.McGreal, pp. 19–21.

However, a large number of otherwise medically fit volunteers were turned away because they did not meet the minimum height requirement of the prewar Regular Army, of 5 feet 3 inches (160 cm). Alfred Bigland, the Member of Parliament for Birkenhead, persuaded Kitchener that this pool of potential manpower should be tapped, and he was given authority to raise a battalion of 'Bantams' (named after the small but pugnacious fighting cock). Three Bantam battalions were quickly raised at Birkenhead for the Cheshire Regiment, many of them coal miners who had travelled long distances to enlist, and the scheme spread to other areas. The War Office (WO) authorised each military district to recruit a battalion, attached to whichever regimental depot had sufficient capacity.McGreal, pp. 21–48.Whitton, pp. 7–10.War Office Instruction No 138 of 14 June 1915.

Recruitment and training The Bantam battalion for No 9 District of Eastern Command, covering East Anglia, was assigned to the Suffolk Regiment and was organised at its depot at Bury St Edmunds Barracks. Enlistment began on 21 June and the battalion was officially formed on 7 July 1915 as 12th (Service) Battalion, Suffolk Regiment (East Anglian). Most of the recruits came from Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, the Isle of Ely and Essex.Frederick, p. 224.James, p 56.Murphy, pp. 97–8.Suffolk Regiment at Long, Long Trail. Honorary Colonel Robert Pigott was appointed as commanding officer (CO) on 29 July as a Temporary Lieutenant-Colonel. He was the Chief Electrical Engineer of the Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway (BB&CIR) and CO of 1st Battalion BB&CIR Volunteer Rifles; since January 1915 had been serving as a Temporary Major in the 12th (Reserve) Battalion, Essex Regiment.Pigott at Grace's Guides. Quarterly Army List, 1916 Q2, Vol 3.London Gazette, 8 February 1915. When Pigott arrived the battalion consisted of the adjutant, Temporary Lieutenant Lemuel Lloyd from the 10th (Reserve) Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, two other officers and 62 other ranks (ORs), but recruits came in fast, with a draft of 200 Bantams arriving from the depot of the Middlesex Regiment. Initial training was carried out by retired non-commissioned officers (NCOs) of the Suffolk Regiment.London Gazette, 11 August 1915. On 25 November the battalion, now 800 strong with 16 officers left for Bordon Camp where it joined other Bantam battalions in 121st Brigade of 40th Division.Becke, Pt 3b, pp. 101–7.40th Division at Long, Long Trail. The depot companies of 12th Bn Suffolks joined 10th (R) Bn at Colchester.Murphy, p. 340.

In December the battalion marched to Pirbright Camp. It had been finding that many of the recruits were not mature men of stocky build but under-age boys, and at this time 130 had to be discharged. Others were found to be physically unfit for service, a problem faced by all the later Bantam battalions after the initial volunteer rush of fit miners and other manual workers had waned. 40th Division had been intended to be a second Bantam division (after 35th Division) and while the Welsh Bantam Brigade (119th Bde) was fit for service, it was estimated that the four battalions in each of 120th and 121st Bdes only had enough fit men for two serviceable battalions each. After the 'weeding-out' process, 12th Suffolks was brought up to strength in February 1916 by absorbing 22nd (Service) Battalion, Middlesex Regiment, which was disbanded. (This bantam battalion had been formed at Mill Hill Barracks on 29 June 1915 and had joined 121st Bde in October.Frederick, p. 216.James, p. 94.Middlesex Regiment at Long, Long Trail.) After the reorganisation 121st Bde consisted of two bantam battalions, 12th Suffolks and 13th Green Howards, and two regulation height 'Pals' battalions, 20th (Shoreditch) and 21st (Islington) Bns, Middlesex Regiment. Major Theodore Eardley-Wilmot, a regular officer of the York and Lancaster Regiment who had been wounded at the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915, was appointed second-in-command of 12th Suffolks.Whitton, p. 21.Wyrall, pp. 19–23.

This reorganisation had held up the training process, but once it was completed 40th Division intensified the training, and all the necessary arms and equipment were issued. In mid-May the division was warned to prepare for service with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the Western Front. 12th Suffolks mobilised at Pirbright on 27 May and on 4 June entrained at Brookwood station bound for Southampton Docks. The battalion embarked on 5 June and landed next day at Le Havre.Murphy, pp. 199–200.12th Suffolks War Diary June 1916–May1918, The National Archives (TNA), Kew, file WO 95/2616/1.

Service By 9 June 40th Division had concentrated at Lillers, near Béthune. 12th Suffolks spent its first weeks in France on further training, in 'bombing' (suffering its first casualties in accidents), the attack, anti-gas defence, digging and repairing trenches, and musketry, as well as route marches. On 24 June 40th Division moved to the Calonne sector behind 1st Division, where A and B Companies of 12th Suffolks were attached to 1st Black Watch and then 1st Cameron Highlanders for instruction in Trench warfare. Afterwards C and D Companies were attached to 10th Gloucestershire Regiment. Although Calonne was a quiet sector the attached companies suffered several casualties. 40th Division then took over the front from 1st Division on 3 July, with 12th Suffolks at Maroc, including the famous Double Crassier spoil-heap facing Loos, which was where the battalion bombers were stationed. 12th Suffolks alternated spells of trench duty with the two Middlesex battalions and was billeted at Les Brebis when out of the line. Both armies were concentrating on the Somme Offensive further south, but units in the Loos sector still saw casualties mount up during the summer from occasional shelling, snipers, and trench mortars, or during patrols and raids. No man's land was narrow enough for both sides to use rifle grenades. D Company of 12th Suffolks carried out a raid on 'Cameron' and 'Gordon' craters and the 'White Mound' on the night of 3 August, destroying a German mine shaft and a deep dugout. Lieutenant-Col Pigott was invalided on 12 August and Maj Eardley-Wilmot took over command, later being promoted to Lt-Col.Taylor, pp. 78–93.Whitton, pp. 26–30, 35–9.

40th Division was relieved at the end of October and moved south to join Fourth Army in the Somme sector. Three weeks' training was first carried out around Abbeville, with 12th Suffolks billeted at Berneuil, then by road and rail to the area west of Bray-sur-Somme, with 12th Suffolks at Mouflers. The division then went into the line at the end of December, with 121st Bde initially in reserve, 12th Suffolks in 'Camp 17' at Suzanne. On 31 December 12th Suffolks took over the front line at Bouchavesnes. Here there was complete destruction left by that summer's fighting. The front line troops spent the winter among a maze of smashed and flooded trenches, under occasional bombardments. Living in these conditions the number of sick and cases of Trench foot rose sharply.Crozier, pp. 132–7.Taylor, pp. 132–4.Whitton, pp. 40–8. Due to the lack of fit replacements, the Bantam concept was abandoned during the winter of 1916-17 and thereafter reinforcements to the battalion (unless they were returning wounded) were of normal height.Becke, Pt 3b, p. 58.

Hindenburg Line Training for the battalions was stepped up during the winter, with emphasis on Lewis guns and the new 'fighting platoon' tactics.Griffith, pp. 77–9.Taylor, pp. 142–3. Trench-raiding by both sides resumed when the weather improved. On 28 February 12th Suffolks provided a smoke barrage for an attack by the neighbouring XIV Corps, the Germans retaliating with artillery fire that landed just in front of the battalion and did no damage. 40th Division was ordered to penetrate into the German lines at least once a week. On 17 March 119th Bde raided the enemy line under cover of bad weather, and reported it only lightly held. Two platoons of 12th Suffolk joined 21st Middlesex probing forward and found the trenches in front of 121st Bde empty: the Germans had begun withdrawing from in front of 40th Division that day. This was part of a large-scale retreat to the prepared positions of the Hindenburg Line (Operation Alberich). The division immediately began cautiously following up, with patrols out in front in contact with German rearguards. Lieutenant-Col Eardley-Wilmot and Capt F. Miskin went into Péronne on 18 March and found it deserted. 12th Suffolks. moved into the town, an outpost company continuing with the division's deliberate advance. On 20 March 121st Bde was leapfrogged by another division taking the lead. 40th Division was then set to repairing the roads and railways that had been destroyed by the retreating enemy. Once communications had been restored, XV Corps, to which 40th Division belonged, closed up to the Hindenburg Line during the first three weeks of April. On 12 April 12th Suffolks acted as outposts for 121st Bde moving up to Gouzeaucourt. German resistance stiffened among the fortified villages they held as outworks to their main line.Crozier, pp. 140–2.Falls, 1917, Vol I, pp. 123, 134–5.Murphy, pp. 255–9.Taylor, p. 143–4.Whitton, pp. 48–74.