CRAVEN IN FLANDERS.
War Record of the ⅙th Battalion Duke of Wellingtons (West Riding) Regiment.
In these few pages it is only possible to give in the barest outline the story of the part played by the Craven Territorials in the great war of 1914-1919. Time must necessarily elapse before any definitive history can be written, when events can be critically studied and full credit be given to all. The present sketch aims simply at recording how men of Skipton and Keighley, of Settle and Bingley, of Haworth, Guiseley and Barnoldswick, from the dales of Ribble, Aire and Wharfe, from the moors of Sedbergh and from the Forest of Bowland, left their peaceful avocations and went to war at their country’s call, as their fore-fathers had done before them. It will tell how their previous military training enabled them to go overseas and bar the road to the Channel while Britain was yet gathering her latent strength; of how they faced the Salient in its darkest hour, and of the parts they played in the great battle of the Somme, in the fighting among the sand-swept dunes of Nieuport, and in the grim tragedy of Passchendaele; and finally how, after foiling the last German onslaught in a quick series of desperate encounters, they took their full share in the swift, relentless attacks that ushered in the crowning victory.
No space can be given to the full list of honours won; they are already written in the official records. And when, here and there, a few names necessarily come into the story, it must be remembered that to every name mentioned a dozen more could easily be added of men who deserved equally well of their country.
FROM PEACE TO WAR.
On July 26th, 1914, the 6th Bn. Duke of Wellington’s Regt. went into camp near the little village of Marske for its annual training, and it was amid the peaceful moorlands of the Yorkshire coast that it heard the first rumblings of the storm to come. When the camp was suddenly broken up and the companies returned home on the fateful first Monday of August, there was a general feeling of tense expectation. They had not long to wait. At 6 p.m. the following day (Tuesday, August 4th), the orders for mobilization were issued from Skipton Drill Hall, and the Skipton men at once began to stream in. The outlying companies arrived during the night, and at noon next day the complete battalion, with a heterogeneous transport commandeered from willing neighbours, entrained for Immingham Dock under the command of Lieut.-Col. John Birkbeck, of Settle. The rapidity with which the change from peace to war conditions was effected is abundant testimony to the keenness of all ranks and to the practical character of the Territorial organization; but the chief credit of the successful move must be given to the sleepless labours of the three South African veterans, Capt. Sidney Marriner (Adjutant), Lieut. John Churchman, D.C.M. (Quartermaster), and Regimental Sergt.-Major Buckley.
COAST DEFENCE AND TRAINING.
Of Immingham, the Battalion has only confused memories of concrete floors as sleeping places, of endless tours of sentry-go, of its first experience of strict army rations, and of countless rumours to which unnecessary credence was given, since the troops had not yet learnt the tainted source from which such stories rise. Early one morning there was a particularly strong report of a great battle in the North Sea, and an officer asked a recruit just coming off duty if he had heard any firing in the night. “I’m very sorry, sir, it was me!” was the unexpected reply: “I let it off by accident.”