Great Uncle James Evans - Second Military Cross, Somme 1918

This is the first of two long posts that will cover each of the Military Crosses awarded to my Great Uncle during his service on the Western Front. For logistical purposes (and the fact the weather is once again awful here on the Somme) I am doing the second award first if you follow...

Thanks again to Chris Baker for all of the detailed research on his record and for being able to provide such precise locations for the action - something that allowed me to stand on the same spot my relative did all those years ago. I'm telling you that really makes you think!

Here is the announcement in the London Gazette confirming his second MC.

“For conspicuous gallantry and initiative when called upon to assume

command of a company at Tara Hill near Albert on 23-24 August 1918.

He handled is 16 guns with great skill during the attack, and later he led

four of the guns through very heavy artillery and machine gun fire and

occupied ground from which he was able to prevent the enemy from

consolidating a new line”.

This took place during the last great Allied offensive of the war in 1918 - but was fought back on ground initially won in the Somme offensive of 1916 (at such high cost) and then lost again to the Kaiser's offensive of early 1918. Thus my great uncle was back in the same general location as his initial service in 1916 and 1917.

The attack mentioned in the Gazette was part of a broad effort to push the Germans back from around Albert. My uncle was in charge of a company of machine guns in the machine gun battalion - a group used by Divisional leaders to support other units in the attack. This allowed concentration of resources to support specific tactical objectives.

This picture comes from Michael Stedman's Battleground Europe 'Advance to Victory 1918' Somme, Pg96. The action my uncle was involved in was broadly speaking around E and F. Chris Baker did a great job superimposing my uncles unit positions onto a modern map.

The four red flags are where my uncle had his guns positioned at various stages in the battle. I've called bottom left position one, top left position two, the one by 'Montalot' position three and the one right by 104 as position four.

Now we can put ourselves (to a certain extent!) in my great uncle's shoes...

 

This is looking BACK towards positions one and two - so one is on the left of the photo and two is on the right. The road is the D108 to Becourt from Albert.

This is now looking towards the next positions of his guns - so towards Becourt and 'Sausage Valley'. We are standing on the summit of the 'Tara' Ridge.

 

This is machine gun position four! I am standing pretty much right on it. The valley below is 'Sausage Valley'. The high ground to the left is 'Tara' and in the distance in the middle as La Boiselle and the Lochnagar crater.

 

I believe the German front line would have been 'enfiladed' from this position - so the gunners could fire down and along the trench line. A powerful position to help prevent German defending actions and counter attacks.

 



Panorama from the same position showing Tara on the left and Sausage valley in the middle and Becourt Wood on the right. There is a cemetery in this one about 300 or 400 metres away.

This is the exact location of 'position four' if the overlay of WW1 details and modern map is correct!

To get a different perspective I then carried on towards La Boiselle and the Lochnagar crater (see earlier posts)

This is from the other side of 'Sausage' valley with Tara on the right. The edge of the trees is where I was at 'position four'. I zoomed in a bit - can't be more than 800-1000 metres as the crow flies.

I said earlier that this was like being in his shoes - but the conditions then were unimaginable. It is a gross simplification to describe it that way. The following picture is from Michael Stedman's book again - Advance to Victory 1918, Somme. Pg 99. It was taken just before the Allied attacks in 1918.

Contrast this with the 'battle map' and today's modern map and pictures. The ground my great uncle was fighting over was not the green and yellow Somme farmland complete with picturesque woods and valleys. It was blasted wasteland. Fought over for three years. Devastated. A burial ground.

The bottom left of this picture is the same one covered in my pictures in the post.

I have another powerful picture for the Web. Apologies for using without permission.

This is La Boiselle today and during the War. My uncles action supported taking this objective. There was no village - just rubble and trenches and bunkers.

So that covers one chapter from my great uncle's war time career. Tomorrow I will post on his first Military Cross earnt in 1917 at Irles.