14th HLI raid on "Farm Trench" Villers-Plouich on 28 July 1917

This article is based on research of Private 30864 Hugh Elliott that I carried out for a private client in 2018. He was wounded in the raid operation described, but returned to service only to be taken as a prisoner of war later the same year.

The unit concerned is the 14th (Service) Battalion of the Highland Light Infantry. It came under orders of 120th Infantry Brigade of the 40th Division.

Background

In February and March 1917, the Germans began a strategic withdrawal eastward from the Somme to prepared and immensely strong positions of the “Siegfried Stellung” (called by the British the “Hindenburg Line”). The battalion was part of the British force that cautiously probed forward until they ran up against the outposts line of these defences. The forward positions were a good way away from the town, but in general this could be thought of as the Cambrai sector.

A present-day map of the area of relevance. The battalion went once again into a front-line trench position near Villers-Plouich on 21 July 1917. This village can be seen to the south west of Cambrai, near Gouzeaucourt.

The raid in which Hugh Elliott was wounded took place on 28 July 1917, with the 40th Division still in the same sector. Many such raids were carried out during the early summer months. The date is also significant in that a major British offensive (the Third Battle of Ypres, often known as “Passchendaele”) was just about to be commenced in Flanders and no doubt the raids were intended to maintain pressure on all parts of the German-held front.

The raid

The British front line is shown here by a solid black line. Principal German defences are in red. The front ran around the eastern side of Villers-Plouich, which lies in a shallow valley or ravine. It is overlooked from German positions on the high ground known as Welsh Ridge

At 11.30pm on 28 July 1917, a raiding party of 35 men of the battalion’s “B” Company, under Second Lieutenant Parker, left the battalion’s trench. They were under orders to take two Bangalore Torpedoes (lengths of pipe filled with explosives), destroy the enemy’s barbed wire defences and through the gap created enter the German trenches at grid location R.9.c.1.2. I have marked this spot with a red flag, and as you can see it is on “Farm Trench” on the height of Welsh Ridge. The battalion was holding “Mountain Ash Trench” and “Welsh Trench”.

While in the act of pushing the two pipes into the barbed wire, a German patrol of 12-15 men encountered the left-hand detachment of the raiding party. Parker ordered his men to pursue the enemy but, after throwing a number of hand grenades, the Germans escaped to their trench through a gap in the wire. One officer and 16 men of the party were wounded, although most only slightly. Unable to continue the raid as planned, Parker ordered his men to withdraw: the wounded were all safely brought in. It is possible that Hugh was one of the raiding party, although we know that when captured later in the year he was not with “B” Company but “A”.

The battalion’s diary diary also informs us that during the same night, a patrol from “A” Company encountered a hostile patrol in “no man’s land” – no doubt now fully alerted by the attempted raid. Once again, the Germans threw hand grenades and Second Lieutenant Bruce and three men were slightly wounded. All were safely brought in: I speculate that Hugh Elliott was one of them.

The locations of the points on the medical evacuation route are given in the war diary of 40th Division’s chief medical officer (Assistant Director of Medical Services). Wounded men would receive first treatment at Regimental Aid Posts situated within the forward trench area. If they needed more extensive help they were brought by stretcher to the Advanced Dressing Station (I have marked its location with a red cross), and from there moved by light railway to the Main Dressing Station in Fins (blue cross). With the men being only slightly wounded, they may not have gone any further rearward than Fins and been returned to their battalion within a short period of time. More seriously wounded men would be evacuated by motor ambulance to larger Casualty Clearing Stations in the rear.

Hugh Elliott was named alongside other wounded men in the War Office casualty list that appeared in “The Scotsman” on 4 September 1917. Most, if not all, of these men were casualties of the raid.

The site of the raid today

I have overlaid the German (red) and British (now in blue) trenches, and the red flag, onto a present-day map. The area is little changed, and it would be quite straightforward to walk the ground where these actions took place. Note the small lane, with a crucifix on it, that runs across towards the point marked as “117”.

Thanks to Google Maps we are standing on the lane, where it begins at the brown road (the D56). On our right is the village cemetery, with some British war graves. The battalion’s trenches and area where the raid took place are on the left of the lane, just beyond the line of trees that can be seen. The open, undulating nature of the ground is typical of the Cambrai battlefield.

Links

Highland Light Infantry

40th Division