This article is derived from a study I made for a private client some years ago, concerning Driver 1712 Arthur George Couch. He enlisted on 25 May 1915 and joined the company in France in late October 1916. Arthur was later renumbered to 514876. According to the company war diary, “Driver Couch, when waiting outside No. 64 billet at Sailly with GS [General Service] wagon and [horse] team with rations for detachment was struck on the head by a piece of shell but having a steel helmet on was uninjured, the helmet being dented.” This took place on 10 January 1917.
Company history
This company was established in April 1908 as a unit of the new Territorial Force (TF). It was largely based on an older unit that was being disbanded, the 1st Devonshire and Somersetshire Royal Engineers (Volunteers). It was one of eighteen similar units that were established at the same time. Their job was to provide engineering support for the coastal defences of Great Britain, notably at the approaches to the great Royal Naval bases and the primary shipbuilding and shipyard areas.
The Devonshire (Fortress) Company was headquartered at Mutley Barracks in Plymouth; had its number 1 (Works) Company at Torquay; numbers 2 and 3 (Works) Companies at Exeter and numbers 4 and 5 (Electric Lights) Companies at Plymouth. Number 1 (Works) Company also operated at stations at Newton Abbot and Yealmpton. The role of the company was to carry out engineering, construction and maintenance work at the many military facilities (such as barracks and gun batteries) around Plymouth and its sea approaches.
The company appears to have moved its operations to Crownhill Fort near Plymouth soon after mobilisation in August 1914 although its depot remained at Mutley Barracks.
On being mobilised for war the company came under command of the headquarters of the South Western Coast Defences, located at Devonport. In September 1914 it formed an “Imperial Service Company” from those men who had signed the “Imperial Service Obligation”: this was an additional agreement in which men would consent to being sent overseas if required. It was specific to the Territorial Force, which had originally been envisaged as being only for home service.
The “Imperial Service Company” was eventually given the name of the 1/1st Devonshire Fortress Company, later the 567th (1/1st Devon) Company. As recruitment continued during 1914 and 1915, the original Fortress Company became the basis for no fewer than seven separate units.
Local newspapers, particularly those covering Exeter, give a very good idea of the company’s training in the part-time period of its service up to August 1914. It held training drills almost every night of the week. They commenced with recruit training, after which a man would attend for training in field engineering, demolition work, bridging, signalling, rifle work and physical instruction. The company also had a very active bugle band.
567th (1/1st Devon) Army Troops Company of the Royal Engineers (Territorial Force)
After spending the first nine months of the war at Crownhill Fort, 567th (1/1st Devon) Company received orders to proceed to France. The company arrived at the port of Dieppe, where it appears to have been employed on local works and to have been under command of the Lines of Communication until late 1916. It was a relatively small unit, usually around five officers and 130 to 150 men strong during its time in France.
Somme sector
On 7 November 1916, the company was ordered to move to join the British Fifth Army in the area of the Somme sector, and it would now become an “Army Troops Company”. This essentially meant that it would be employed within the rear area of an Army’s geographic sector and be under command of the Fifth Army headquarters. Its war diary describes a wide variety of work, particularly in the more mobile latter months of the war, but during the more static period before 1918 it was primarily engaged on matters of water supply.
An advance party left Dieppe on 14 November 1916, followed next day by the main body of the company. It arrived at Authie but soon settled at Coigneux.
During the spring of 1917 the Germans carried out a strategic eastwards withdrawal from the Somme. When this was detected, British forces advanced, continuing until they met the formidable prepared defences of the “Hindenburg Line” into which the enemy had withdrawn. Inevitably, the support and rear-area units were obliged to follow. On 9 April 1917, the company moved to Achiet-le-Grand. They were now in a landscape utterly destroyed by the shellfire of the battle, and deliberately laid waste by the Germans as they withdrew.
Flanders
By 16 May 1917 the company had arrived in the Second Army’s area in Flanders, which included the notorious Ypres sector of the front. The company was now based at Reninghelst but was involved in work as far forward as Zillebeke: this brought it for the first time within range of enemy shellfire. I believe that it was during this period that the company suffered its first death, when Torquay man Sapper 515083 Ernest Oldrey was killed in action. On 7 June 1917 it moved a short distance to a hutted camp at Dickebusch and ten days later moved again, to a camp at Heksken near Reninghelst. During this period, the Second Army carried out the most successful British attack of the war to date: this is known as the Battle of Messines, 7-10 June 1917. It was a preparatory step towards another, much larger offensive that eventually began on 31 July 1917: the Third Battle of Ypres, often known as “Passchendaele”. It is of particular interest that the company constructed a large scale model of the front which was to be attacked. The model was used for the instruction of the officers and men who were to go into the assault.
The company remained working in the rear of the Ypres sector throughout the offensive, which lasted until November 1917. On 2 September the company base relocated to Abeele (Abele), and on 13 November half of it went to La Clytte (De Klijte).
In February 1918, against military advice, the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George agreed with the French that the British Army would take over another 50-plus miles of front. This was at the very time that British manpower was at a low point; the German forces in France were building up as they were able to move troops from the East after the collapse of Russia; and it was all too evident that the Germans were massing for a climactic battle. The company was one of many ordered to move south into the area being taken over from the French: it was a fateful decision indeed. On arrival the British were horrified to find the French defences had been terribly neglected. There was much work for all units in the rush to make the defences adequate before any attack fell on them, and few units were more hard-pressed than the Royal Engineers’ companies.
Somme again
567th Devon (Army Troops) Company was one of those sent southwards. On 13 February 1918 it left Hopoutre (a halt on the railway east of Poperinge and a soldier’s joke: “Hop out here”). Arriving initially at Jussy, the company soon moved to Faillouel and was there when the attack began on 21 March 1918. The Germans called it Operation “Michael”, although it is also known as the “Kaiserschlacht (Kaiser’s Battle)”.
Over the next few days, the British were forced into withdrawal which eventually took it some 40 miles westwards. Many units were destroyed in the battle; many were split up and fragmented; casualties to both sides were enormous. Rear-area units were ordered to withdraw soon after the battle began, but many found themselves fighting as front-line troops as desperate efforts were made to halt the German advance. The company’s war diary describes a series of moves – and how by 25 March 1918 it was involved in such a defence, in the area of Tarlefesse. While preparing defences it came under heavy shell fire; then prepared to defend the line itself; witnessed French troops retiring on its right; became fragmented and the remnants formed up into a composite battalion with men of 568th (Devon) Army Troops Company RE. This was, by any measure, the most hazardous and costly time experienced by the company during the whole war.
Further withdrawals took place as the German attack continued, but it slowed noticeably by the end of March. By 7 April 1918 the company was being reorganised and was engaged on building defences at Glisy, east of Amiens. On 24 April 1918 the Germans began a refreshed attack, capturing the key town of Villers-Bretonneux before being ejected by an Australian counter-attack. The company was once again called to man the defences at Villers-Bretonneux on the day.
In late July 1918, the tables began to turn. The allied nations (Great Britain, France, United States and Belgium) commenced what turned out to be a series of highly successful offensives that drove the German eastwards by many tens of miles and forced them to an Armistice at 11am on 11 November 1918. Inevitably this meant many movements for the company and much work on roads, tracks, bridges and other aspects of the advance.
Of historical significance is the company’s work on repairing the canal bridge at Riqueval on 28 September 1918. This bridge had in the previous 24 hours played a key role in the British breaking of the “Hindenburg Line” defences. It stands to this day and is an important part of many battlefield tours. The company continued to advance, reaching Cartignies on 10 November and was there when hostilities ceased.
Germany
The company was given the honour of being selected to move into Germany as part of the Army of Occupation of the Rhine bridgeheads, which had been agreed as part of the Armistice terms. The war diary describes a long series of marches across southern Belgium throughout December 1918: the company crossed the frontier to Malmedy (which was soon ceded to Belgium) on 18 December. The final leg was a railway journey to Euskirchen on New Year’s Eve. The company then settled in billets in Kierberg, and from the timing it would appear that it was from there that most of its men began their journeys to home and demobilisation.
A further note
Arthur George Couch’s step-brother Sidney was drowned on 4 April 1918. He had been employed as the cook’s mate on board the elderly destroyer HMS “Bittern”, which was based at Devonport but went down with all hands after colliding with another ship near Portland. He is commemorated at the Plymouth Naval Memorial.