Messines Ridge Military Cross
Although I have been absent from the forum for a while, I am still dabbling with militaria. My absense has been due to a new addition to my family - my birthday gift presented to me last January, and 'Poppy' - as my granddaughter christened her - has taken up much of my spare time. She is a miniature Yorkshire Terrier, and that gorgeous face allows her to get away with murder!
Just recently I was very fortunate to acquire two very nice George V Military Crosses, one of which was awarded to Lieutenant Francis Rennie Daniel of 187th Brigade RFA (TF), and the other to Lieutenant David Kiddie of 97th Infantry Brigade. I'll deal with the Kiddie award in a separate post when time permits. So back to the MC awarded to Lieutenant Daniel.
The picture is captioned : 'The William Tell stunt', Lieutenant Daniel is on the right.
The Officers record of services (ARMY BOOK 439) for Lieutenant Daniel states that he enlisted with the 4th Battalion Gordon Highlanders (Territorial Force) on February 20th 1914, and there he stayed until transferring to 51st Division Signal Corps R.E. on 12th August 1914. He then joined 320th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery on May 26th 1915 with the substantive rank of 2nd Lieutenant. On June 6th 1916 he was promoted to Lieutenant, and then on September 21st he received a letter warning him to prepare to move to France where he joined 187th Brigade RFA (TF).
During 1917, Lieutenant Daniel saw action at Messines ridge where he served in the highly dangerous role of a Forward Observation Officer (FOO), and then a few months later the Brigade moved to Italy where they stayed until early 1918. In August 1918 Lieutenant Daniel joined the fledgling RAF and trained as an artillery observer. During the inter-war period he served in the RAMC (TF), and then throughout WW2 he served in the Home Guard. He was awarded the Military Cross - which was gazetted on June 3rd 1918 - and he also qualified for the British War Medal, Victory Medal, Territorial Forces War Medal, and the WW2 Defence Medal.
The second to last picture shows Lieutenant Daniel on his gunnery course in 1915. The last picture shows A German gun battery.
The Military Cross came with several documents, photographs mounted on pages from a photo album, a sketch book, and his personal pocket diary for 1917. His other four medals are missing - possibly spread amongst family members - along with the other parts of the photo album. It is only the documents that link the MC to Lieutenant Daniel as the medal was always awarded unnamed, it was up to the recipient of the award to have it engraved if he so wished. There is a register of all MC's awarded from 1914 to 1920 which was compiled by the author Peter Warrington, the list running to 700 pages. Each recipients name has the London Gazette issue number for the gazetting of the award. And in the case of Lieutenant Daniel, it also states: 'MC in Italy'.
The MC awarded to Lieutenant Daniel.
The Military Cross was instituted by Royal Warrant on January 1st 1915, with awards being backdated to August 1914. It was intended to fill the gap for junior officers and warrant officers whose acts of gallantry; 'did not reach the standard required for the appointment of the DSO'. The MC was meant to recognise acts of individual gallantry in the field of combat, but the system of awarding them came in for very heavy criticism from the soldiers actually fighting on the front line. Many awards were being made to officers on staff duties who never went anywhere near the front line, and the author Peter Warrington cites one such award made: 'The adjutant of the Second Army Trench Mortar School was awarded the MC for putting on a good demonstration in front of senior British & French generals'.
Such awards only served to cheapen the MC - which was the third highest award to the Victoria Cross - and steps were taken to ensure that; 'the award should be restricted to the 'teeth arms', and those in direct support of them'. Needless to say, those MC's awarded to the men who never really 'earned' them are of lesser value to collectors of the Military Cross.
In the case of the award made to Lieutenant Daniel, although it might be that it was awarded for his services in Italy - I have evidence to support that it was awarded for his service in Belgium. Those collectors on the forum who still bother to do their own research will know only too well the frustration of coming up against a brick wall when researching documents, but for me this is the most interesting part of collecting - regardless of the often encountered setbacks. Researching gallantry decorations made to officers can be very rewarding, and the first place to check is usually the London Gazette. The announcement of the award does not always record the citation, and in some cases the citation is published separately from the gazette announcement. In the case of Lieutenant Daniel, I have only been able to find the official announcement of the award and no record of the citation.
Another way of researching the award is by trawling through the unit war diaries held at The National Archives. Currently the downloads are free of charge, and anyone wishing to look at them should search under 'WO 95'. I downloaded the diaries of 187th Brigade RFA (TF) and started trawling through, but to my utter dismay, the war diary for June 1917 was missing. This was the crucial diary for the battle of Messines Ridge, and to make matters worse the diaries for the brigades movement to Italy was also missing. The only information I had left to go on was the personal diary kept by Lieutenant Daniel, and what snippets of information were in there proved to be invaluable.
187th Brigade RFA (TF) were the gunners of 41st Division during the battle of Messines ridge where Lieutenant Daniel served as a Forward Observation Officer (F.O.O). The F.O.O operated as far forward as they could possibly get to set up their O/P and relay target information back to the guns. One of the objectives for the 41st Division on June 7th was the capture of Damm Strasse - a German supply line which ran through a shallow cutting behind their front line trench system. The 41st divisional boundary for the assault stretched from St Eloi on their Right flank, to Triangular wood on their Left flank. The largest of the 19 mines detonated at 03:10am on the morning of June 7th was at St Eloi (95,600lbs), and close to the site of two mines which were detonated in 1916. The combined explosions of the 19 mines at Messines were the largest and loudest man-made none-nuclear explosions ever recorded in history.
Map showing area of attack by 41st Division. British lines to the top.
The following are extracts from the diary of Lieutenant Daniel. All entries are typed exactly as written.
Tuesday June 5th ...
'Slept in badly this morning. Colonel asked me to volunteer to go over the top on Z day. Went down to see Harry and mde all arrangements with him'.
Wednesday June 6th...
'Went around the trenches to spot the country with Sergeant Weston. Met party at 4am and explained the show. Rocked (shelled) all night'.
Thursday June 7th....
'Rose at 2:30am & proceeded to HQ. Got gassed on way down. At 3:10 (zero hour, five mines went up. (Hill 60, Craters, wytshaete, Messines Y?) About 4:30 wounded began to arrive & a few prisoners. 4:45. orders to proceed forward. Shelled slightly in Middlesex Lane*. Reached D.C.P* & commenced laying wire. Shelled with gas and 4.2s over no mans land. Bosch F.L.T* had practically ceased to exist. Crossed over to Dammstrasse*. Country fearfully cut up. Very few dead & wounded. Tanks badly bogged in Dammstrasse. Saw infantry going over to take Black Line. Communications very bad with Group. Went forward and tried to reach F.L.T but had to turn back owing to barrage. Dammstrasse & Damm Wood shelled (lightly) all morning. 3:10pm 24th passed and went on to take the Green Line. Fair barrage. Followed up & got up to Green Line. Saw the Bosch guns & got director as souvenier.Slept in Dammstrasse & got badly rocked'.
* Middlesex Lane was a communications trench behind the British front line.
* D.C.P... Division Command Post
* F.L.T... Front line trench
* Dammstrasse (Damm Strasse) was a main German supply route
Friday June 8th...
'3am. The battery commander came up to register. Went up to F.L.T and sniped Bosch from no mans land. Got back to battery about 9am and went down to group to report. Went to bed at 12 noon and slept till dinner. Sergeant Jones badly wounded.
Saturday June 9th...
'Went round wires with Harris. Called on D battery in afternoon. Sergeant Jones died of wounds. Rocked slightly at night. Hindson Killed.
The next diary entry is the one that suggests to me that Lieutenant Daniel earned his MC for his actions on June 7th.
Wednesday June 13th...
'Colonel called in to me he had put me in for a decoration. Recommended Sergeant Weston'.
I'll add a bit more to the thread shortly.
Cheers,
Steve
.
by BlackCat1982
Bookmarks