First World War Centenary. 2: Private John Wood

Private John Wood  8969 2nd Btn. Manchesters.

Brothers-in-Arms

John Wood was Peter Wood's older brother, and the 'lucky' one.  He survived the First World War. 

John was born  in Salford, Lancashire, England in 1886.  His early military service is uncertain. Family tradition holds that he joined the army in 1901/2 at the age of 15, and served with the colours for about six years, after which, he joined the army reserve.  On 5 January 1907, he married Emma Platt, who was the sister of Mary Jane Platt, the wife of his brother, Peter. Like most of his comrades-in arms, he was a working class labourer.

John  and Emma Wood
taken after World War I
Photo courtesy of John's grandson, Russell Wood

John Wood was a private in the 2nd Battalion of the Manchester Regiment (2nd Manchesters), which was part of the 14th Brigade, a component of the 5th Division and of II Corps. The 5th Division, along with three other infantry divisions and one cavalry division, were the first to be dispatched to France. This force, along with two later infantry divisions, formed the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), the core of  Britain's relatively small but highly professional regular army.  Kaiser Wilhelm allegedly referred to it as a "contemptible little army", and its troops soon adopted the sobriquet, The Old Contemptibles. 

Manchester Regiment Cap Badge

(First World War)

Mobilisation 

Britain declared war on Germany on the 4th of August 1914, and the army was mobilised.  John said his quick goodbyes before joining some 700 other reservists, who were shipped from the local depot of the Manchester Regiment at Ashton-under-Lyne to Curragh Camp in Ireland, where the 2nd Battalion of their regiment was stationed at the Keane Barracks. They arrived sometime before 12 August.

Gough and Keane Barracks, Curragh Camp, Kildare, Ireland

On 13 August, they left Keane Barracks at 9:30 am, and marched to the Curragh Camp siding where they boarded a train bound for Dublin.[1]  The journey was just over 27 miles, and the train arrived at the North Wall Station at 11.30 am.  The regiment then marched along the quayside of the Liffey to the Royal Barracks (now Collins Barracks), where they slept the night.  On the following day, the 2nd Battalion enjoyed a

OSI Map (North Docks, Dublin) showing North Wall Station (circa 1910)
click on image to enlarge

a "splendid send off from the people of Dublin" as they returned to NorthWall Quay to board the Buteshire, a cargo ship that had been commandeered by the Royal Navy to transport troops to France.  The ship departed at 8:30 pm during an ominous thunderstorm, arriving at Le Havre on 16 August.  After disembarkation, the troops spent the night in a dockyard shed.

Buteshire

click on images to enlarge

The BEF arrived in France as the Schlieffen Plan was unfolding.  Germany's aim was to avoid a two front war, which demanded a quick victory in the West, so that its armies could be quickly transferred to the Eastern Front before the Russians could fully mobilise. This called for a massive sweep through neutral Luxembourg and Belgium and into northern France in order to encircle Paris and force the French to capitulate. 

Schlieffen Plan vs. Plan XVII

The counter-strategy, that of Marshall Joffre, commander-in-chief of the French armies, was Plan XVII, which called for his forces to thrust into Alsace-Lorraine.  With this in mind, it was agreed that the British Expeditionary Force would be deployed on the left flank. This unwittingly placed the BEF directly in the path of the main German thrust.  This resulted in a series of gruelling and desperately bloody battles, causing the BEF to retreat in the face of overwhelming odds. Eventually, the German advance stalled, but the cost to Britain's regular army was Pyrrhic.

It was decided during discussions between the British General Staff and the French that the BEF should assemble around Le Cateau and Maubeuge, which meant that John Wood and his regiment travelled by slow train from the docks of Le Havre to Le Cateau-Cambrésis (about 240 miles). 

Train route marked in red
Source: La carte du grand chaix  (1914-1930)

They arrived on 18 August at 1:00 pm, ate their lunch in a field, and, at 4:00 pm, began marching the 8 miles to Landrecies, where they were billeted. They arrived at 8:00 pm.  On the 21st of August, the regiment moved about 16 miles northward to Saint Waast, a village located to the west of Bavay. Arriving at 2:30 pm, they went into billets. At 6:45 am, on the following morning, they departed Saint Waast and crossed the Belgian frontier at 8:30 am. It was a hot and thirsty 12-mile march to Hainin, where they arrived at 2:00 pm to a warm and generous welcome from the local inhabitants. The regiment was billeted at nearby Thulin. 

Battle of Mons

At Mons the British and German armies collided, and the BEF's first battle was at hand. At about 9:00 am on 23 August,  the silence was shattered by the sound of artillery, and shells were bursting in the air over Mons, which lay about 11 miles to the east of Thulin. The 2nd Manchesters fell in at 11:30 am, and took up positions along the Canal Mons-Condé.[2]  By the afternoon, elements of II Corps were forced to evacuate Mons and the salient north of the town. 

West of Mons, showing the Mons-Condé Canal and disposition of
opposing armies. 2nd Manchesters circled in green
Source: British Battles

In the evening, news reached them that the French 5th Army on their right flank had been mauled at the Sambre River and was retreating. Field Marshall John French, the British commander, realizing that he was facing a numerically superior force, with his right flank exposed, ordered the BEF to withdraw southward. Thus began the Retreat from Mons, the long fighting withdrawl to the outskirts of Paris. 

Retreat from Mons

At the Battle of Mons, the advance of the German juggernaut was delayed, at a cost of over 1600 British casualties. The retreat would be an even more sobering affair.  On August 24th, the 5th Division, under command of General Sir Charles Fergusson, was attacked at Elouges, and suffered 1650 casualties during the day's fighting.  By evening, they were in the Bavay area, and the II Corps was ordered to fall back on Le Cateau-Cambrésis, where its commander, General Smith-Dorrien, decided to stand and fight. By 5:00 am, II Corps and the Cavalry Division had reached Le Cateau, and were joined by the 4th Division, recently arrived from Britain. In the ensuing Battle of Le Cateau (26th August), the 2nd Manchesters were on the 
  

British dispositions at Le Cateau.
2nd Manchesters circled in green.
Source: British Battles

right flank, and lost two-thirds of their strength, from 1200 to 400 men. Though II Corps outfought the Germans, they were overwhelmingly outnumbered, and lost 7,812 men and 38 guns, as their flanks began to crumble. However, the II Corps, with the 4th and Cavalry Divisions, managed to extricate itself as a viable fighting force, and, after an all-night march, reached Le Catelet. The retreat continued via St. Quentin and Pontoise-lès-Noyon. By the 29th of August, they were reunited with I Corps, which had been fighting rearguard actions on the right flank.

First Battle of the Marne and Aisne

The retreat ended on 6 September when Marshall Joffre ordered the French and British armies to attack.  While the Germans were penetrating deeper into France, a gap had opened up between their First Army, under the command of von Kluck, and their Second Army, under the command of von Bülow.  The BEF, now increased to three corps, attacked into this gap, supported by the French 5th and 6th Armies to their right and left. On 9th September, the 2nd Manchesters fought an action at Saâcy-sur-Marne, before the BEF crossed the River Marne to attack von Kluck's left flank. Realizing the threat this posed, the German armies withdrew to formidable defensive positions along the River Aisne. By 13 September, the 2nd Manchesters had crossed the Aisne by pontoon bridge. However, toward the end of the month, it was clear that a stalemate had been reached in this sector. Both sides began to entrench, while attempting to encircle each other's northwestern flank.

Rivers of Nord Pas-de-Calais, Picardie and Champagne-Ardenne

Race to the Sea

It soon became apparent to both sides that a military vacuum existed along a 170-mile front from the River Oise to the Channel. By the 9th October, the opposing sides had extended the line of battle from the Aisne to within 30 miles of Dunkirk and the coast.. On 27 September, Sir John French requested that the BEF be transferred to its original position on the left of the line, and closer to the Channel ports in order to improve communication and logistics. Their carefully concealed movement to Flanders took place between the 6th and 9th October. II Corps were transported by rail to Abbeville, and, by 11th October, it had advanced toward a line just north of La Bassée, with the 5th Division on the right. From the 10th to the 29th October, fighting in this sector was fierce, and, by the end of the month, II Corps had suffered 14,000 casualties. John Wood was one of them. Sometime during October, he lost his right arm to shrapnel. Having survived Mons, Le Cateau and the Great Retreat, the First Battles of the Marne and the Aisne -- two months of gruelling fighting -- his war was over.

1914 "Mons Star"

John Wood's medal card, showing the '1914' campaign. He received the Victory Medal, the 1914 Star, with 'clasp and roses'.  The clasp, together with two small silver roses, was awarded to those who had served under fire or who had operated within range of enemy mobile artillery in France or Belgium during the period between 5 August and 22 November 1914. His record also indicates that he was given a SWB (Silver War Badge).

Insult to Injury

After walking a few miles to an aid station, where he was patched up, John Wood was discharged from the army and sent home. He received the Mons Star for his efforts, but that wasn't all.  John was returning from a trip to a Manchester hospital, where the results of his amputation were being treated.  To protect himself from potential injury to his wound, he sat with his right side against the tram window.  It was only a matter of minutes before a woman passenger presented him with a white feather. He didn't have chance to respond before his mother, who was sitting beside him, subjected the woman to the full force of her wrath.

Thanks from a Grateful Nation

In 1931, Britain was in the throes of the Great Depression. In response to budget deficits, the government decided to make cuts in the public sector. The wages of civil servants, teachers, other public employees and members of the Armed Forces [2] were earmarked for reduction. However, the hardest hit would be Britain's nearly three million unemployed and their families, many of whom were already living in dire conditions. They were to be subjected to a 10% cut in their dole, along with the introduction of stringent means testing, which resulted in thousands being denied any benefits at all.  At the time, one third of the adult population of John Wood's city, Salford, was unemployed.[3]

John, now 45, with children [4], added one more battle to his impressive list, the Battle of Bexley Square. On the 1st October 1931, John joined a march of the National Unemployed Workers Movement (NUWM). The organizers intended to hand in a petition, deploring the cuts, to the Town Council at Salford Town Hall, located in Bexley Square.  The assembly point for the march was a cinder croft next to Hyndman Hall, headquarters of the NUWM, on Liverpool Street, which was near the gas works.  The protestors then proceeded up Albion Street to The Crescent and along Chapel Street. When they arrived the entrance to the square was cordoned off.  Ewan MacColl described the ensuing scene in his autobiography, Journeyman.[5]

Without warning, mounted police, wielding riot sticks, attack us from side streets on both sides of the road. They are followed by foot police, who come at us slashing with their truncheons. 'It's a fucking ambush!' Way back down the column, the marchers are still chanting slogans, not yet aware of what is happening ahead. Here the rhythmic protests have swelled to an angry roar, punctuated by yells, curses, screams and the clatter of galloping horses. in the midst of the mêlée it is difficult to get a clear picture of what is happening. All around us there is a crush of shouting, bellowing, screaming, angry and bewildered men and women. They are pushing, pulling, trying to avoid the swinging batons of the police and the terrifying hooves of the horses. Some are trying desperately to shove their way out of the ambush, others push forward, intent on reaching the barricades which the police have erected around Bexley Square. A police horse looms over us, gigantic, eyes rolling, nostrils flared. The smell of horse sweat mingles with the smell of our fear. Panic-stricken, we try to escape as its rider leans out of the saddle to give extra impetus to the swing of his club. The blow lands with a dull thud across the shoulders of a skinny man in an old raincoat.

John Wood was knocked to the ground during this attack, and here we leave his story with a sense of irony. The Old Contemptible of the First World War was indeed treated with contempt, but by the country he had fought for!  To John there must have seemed very little difference between life on the battlefield and life in Salford -- in both places it was a struggle for survival.

March to Bexley Square, Salford

Any additional help on John Wood, particularly his early military career, photo, medal card, etc., would be greatly appreciated. Contact: camvlospub@gmail

Sources:

Lomas, David. Mons 1914: the BEF's tactical triumph (Oxford: Osprey, 1995)
The Diary of Major Swindell
Military Operations, France and Belgium, 1914
David, Daniel. The1914 Campaign: August - October, 1914

Notes

[1] Photos of Curragh sidings.  British soldiers entraining at the Curragh. Map of the route to Dublin.
[2] Sparking off the Invergordon Mutiny.
[3] After 1931, Salford's population began its steady and inexorable decline.

[4] He named one of his four daughters Lille, after the French city near the La Bassée sector. He also had two sons. 

[5] Walter Greenwood, author of Love on the Dole, also described this confrontation.