Stand To! No 86, the journal of the Western Front Association, is now being distributed to current subscribed members of the WFA.
Stand To! is published three times a year in Dec/Jan, April/May and Aug/Sept.
The Editor is always prepared to consider original articles for publication.
Below you will find the contents list and an example article from the current edition.
Contents of Edition 86
1. Communication lines - Pages 2-2
2. Harry Bowring and ‘The Hampshire Cross' in the Wellington Quarry Arras by Roger Coleman - Pages 4-5
3. The Enemy Above: British Reactions to German Zeppelins Raids in World War I by Frank A Blazich Jnr. - Pages 6-10
4. 47167 Gunner Thomas William Sargent - His wartime service with the 117th Heavy Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery by Stan Sargent - Pages 11-13
5. ‘Dear Robert' - The Letters of Frank Richards to Robert Graves - Part 3 by David Langley - Pages 14-16
6. A Spy in the Lincolns? By David Nalson - Page 17
7. Sergeant Hermon William Tozer. 57318. Pilot 110 Squadron Royal Flying Corps by David Evans - Pages 18-19
8. British Casualty Clearing Station 37 Mont Notre Dame Aisne by Fred Ashmore - Pages 20-22
9. War Art - Percy Smith by David and Judith Cohen - Pages 23-25
10. The Camera Returns to Fletre by Bob Grundy and Steve Wall - Pages 26-27
11. Rutherford, Geiger, Chadwick, Moseley, Cockcroft and their role in the Great War - Part 1 by John Richardson, Russell Egdell, Nick and Harold Hankins - Pages 28-34
12. The Lowestoft Drifters and the Dover Mine-Net barrage in the Great War by Neville Skinner - Pages 35-38
13. They Also Serve - Charles Bryce Muir by Trevor Lindley - Pages 39-40
14. Luxmoore-Newcombe - a Scholarly Soldier by John Sly - Pages 41-42
15. Garrison Library - Pages 43-48
Front Cover:
Never before published, it depicts a black British prisoner of war from a collection discovered by Peter Barton in the archives of the Bavarian Army Museum in Ingolstadt during his research into the Australian/British grave pits at Fromelles. There is no caption as as is known but it comes from a series of images showing British prisoners taken in the Ypres Salient in August 1917.
Black British troops were certainly not unknown in the British Army but were present in such relatively small numbers that their capture was perhaps still a source of fascination as is obvious from the way the man has been posed and the expression of the curious onlooker peeping out from behind the tree. The sign board on the tree has '10. B. 3. Br. Geschafts.' painted on it.
Khaki Chum Taff Gillingham suggests that the man is an infantryman; his uniform consists of a British/Commonwealth wartime economy tunic with tailored collar, 1916 Pattern cap and he has executed neat turnovers over dismounted puttees. He also appears to have a darker coloured patch at the top of his left sleeve. Taff also spotted a small, 1914 Pattern pack buckle just poking out under his leg, next to the bench - perhaps his haversack? The lack of detail makes it difficult to identify the cap badge but it appears to have three points.
Another Khaki Chum, Lawrence Brown, has suggested that ‘Geschafts' on the sign board stands for ‘Gaschaftskammer' (company store) and that ‘3. Br.' may indicate that it was associated with the 3rd Battery of the 10. (Bayerische) Foot/Field Artillery.
Image courtesy of Dr. Ernst Aichner, Firector, Bayerisches Armeemuseum, Ingolstadt, Germany.
Article Extract
Sergeant Hermon William Tozer. 57318. Pilot 110 Squadron Royal Flying Corps
by David Evans
Introduction
Sergeant Hermon Tozer was born on the 27 December 1895, at 12 Hereford Street, Bedminster, Bristol. He was the third of twelve children.
At the outbreak of War in 1914, Hermon volunteered for Army service and joined the 5th (Service) Battalion of the Connaught Rangers (5/Connaught Rangers), part of 29 Infantry Brigade of the 10th (Irish) Division. The Battalion was mobilised at Basingstoke, Hampshire for active service in Gallipoli. Most of the unit sailed from Davenport on board the SS Bornu on 8 July 1915, and the remainder from Liverpool aboard the SS Mauritania the next day.
ANZAC Cove
The Battalion came together in bivouacs at Mudros on the Greek Island of Lemnos and sailed to Gallipoli aboard the SS Clacton, landing at Anzac Cove, at 3.00 am on 6 August 1915. They moved forward under heavy shellfire, to be attached to 3 Australian Brigade in the frontline on a hill called ‘The Pimple'. The Rangers had to clear the trenches of dead before they could take up the positions allotted to them.
They were soon engaged in an attack on the Turkish positions at Lone Pine before being withdrawn back to Anzac Cove on 10 August 1915.
On 21 August 1915, following a number of fierce actions, the Battalion made a determined attack on the Turkish strongpoint at Hill 60 on the Aghyl Dere Ridge. The Battalion War diary states the leading waves of Rangers were cut down by very heavy machine gun and rifle fire, but the Battalion pressed home the attack and captured the first line of enemy trenches.
Their CO Lieutenant Colonel Jourdain, reported that not a single man had fallen back down the slopes of the hill, and lines of dead men could be seen later: ‘Each man with his rifle beside him, as if on parade!'
Despite heavy enemy-counter attacks throughout the night and the next day, the Battalion held their positions on the hilltop until relieved late on the evening of 22 August 1915 by Australian infantry.
The Battalion was involved in very heavy fighting in the area against enemy troops ‘Six times their number' until, on 29 August 1915, the exhausted remnants of the Rangers were moved to reserve positions, where they still suffered casualties, until on 29 September 1915, they sailed aboard the SS Abbas from Anzac Cove to Mudros.
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Sergeant pilot
The Battalion's total casualties during its service at Gallipoli were 591 of which 220 were killed and 371 wounded). Hermon received a leg wound during this time and was transferred from a Casualty Clearing Station (CCS) on one of the offshore islands to a Base Hospital, probably in Egypt. Hermon's wound was considered a ‘Blighty' and he was returned to Britain for further treatment, rehabilitation and home leave. Hermon had recovered sufficiently by May 1917 and joined the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), being accepted for flight training at Denham, near Uxbridge.
After qualifying as a Sergeant pilot - No. 57318 - he joined 110 Squadron, at Rendcombe, Gloucestershire on 1 November 1917. It was later based at Sedgefield, near Kings Lynn, and it was here that Hermon escaped unscathed when a BE2e trainer aircraft he was landing tipped and crashed nose first onto the runway.
Strategic bombing
On 1 April 1918 the Royal Air Force (RAF) was created, and 110 Squadron was equipped with the first batch of the new Airco DH 9a aircraft, which were sponsored by the Nizam of Hyderabad.
After tactical training at No.1 School of Navigation and Bomb Dropping at Stonehenge, Hermon flew with the Squadron to Bettoncourt near Nancy in France on Friday 13 August 1918.
They were part of what was, strictly speaking, known as the Independent Force, although many commentators have called it the Independent Air Force - an RAF unit based at aerodromes near Nancy, in order to conduct strategic bombing of Germany in retaliation for German bombing of Britain. Hermon was soon flying long distance, daylight bombing raids on industrial targets along the Rhine Valley. The aircrews did not have parachutes, and although they had a crude form of electric heating in their trousers, their upper clothing did not afford much protection when flying in open cockpits at heights often exceeding 20,000 feet. Icing sometimes caused engine failure, but a greater threat was from the swarms of German fighter aircraft they met when approaching their target area at a lower altitude, carrying a bomb load of 660lbs.
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Sadly, Hermon and his observer/air gunner, Sergeant William Platt, were killed when their Airco DH 9a aircraft (serial no E8422) was shot down on 25 September 1918, while on a bombing raid on factories and rail targets at Frankfurt, 120 miles from their base. The Germans buried them side-by-side, in Sarralbe Military Cemetery, (B14, B15), now in the Moselle department of France, but formerly in Germany.
Interestingly one of the other machines in the patrol was Airco DH9a F1010, which is the aeroplane now in the RAF Museum. Four crews were lost in total plus other woundings and killed. As a result of this raid, three DFCs were awarded.
References
The Hermon family
Bristol Record Office
The National Archives Kew
RAF Museum Hendon
Mike O'Connor
