The Second Battle of Ypres - 6th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry

D/DLI 7/424/2(7) Soldiers of the 6th Battalion The Durham Light Infantry training at their billets in Bensham, Gateshead, taken by PHB Lyon, late 1914 or early 1915

Overview of the Second Battle of Ypres

What was the 6th Battalion Durham Light Infantry?

• The 6^th Battalion (6DLI) was one of the Territorial battalions of 151^st (Durham Light Infantry) Brigade
• Recruits  came from the West Durham area, from Consett to Bishop Auckland
• It was commanded by Colonel HC Watson of Barnard Castle

What happened when war was declared?

• At the end of July 1914, 6DLI was at the annual brigade training camp at Conway, Wales
• 3 August – Recalled to battalion headquarters at Bishop Auckland and stayed overnight in the Drill Hall and the Town Hall
• 4 August – The companies were sent to their respective headquarters and the men dismissed, Colonel Watson received the telegram to mobilise at 8pm
• 5 August - 6DLI convened at and were billeted in Bishop Auckland

What did the battalion do at the start of the war?

• 9 August – 6DLI began the war stationed at Boldon, and spent the first week building defences and digging trenches
• 19 August – they went into camp at Ravensworth Park, near Gateshead
• Early in November they went into billets at Bensham at Gateshead and undertook intensive training until they left for France

D/DLI 7/424/2(28) Soldiers of the 6th Battalion The Durham Light Infantry standing beside a railway engine, en route to France, taken by PHB Lyon, April 1915

 When did the battalion leave the UK?

1915

• 17 April – The transport and machine gun sector left for Le Havre
• 19 April – The battalion marched to Newcastle Central Station for trains to Folkestone, from there they sailed for Boulogne “…on what must have been the first journey across the sea for most of the men.” PHB Lyon (1)
• 21 April – Marched to the vicinity of Cassel, France, in the early hours
• 23 April – Convened with the rest of the brigade at Steenvoorde

When did 6DLI first engage with the enemy?

• 24 April – 6DLI marched through Ypres that evening, “Of all the experiences which attended these weeks there is not one of which I have so vivid a recollection as that march through the perishing city…A shell came shrieking into it as we went through (how our hearts jumped at this first experience)…adjusting our ideas of war as best we could to this shattered reality, which lay about our path, clear-cut in the bright moon.” PHB Lyon

What were the worst days for 6DLI at the Second Battle of Ypres?

26 April

• 6DLI woke to news that the Germans had broken through the line
• Received orders at 10am to advance, “As far as can be gathered, our instructions were vague in the extreme…the objective was completely unknown.” PHB Lyon
• This vagueness created a great deal of confusion, the direction of advance was made by a hand signal; as the battalion advanced in two lines paths veered, men of different companies became mixed up, and unexpectedly found themselves coming upon other regiments
• PHB Lyon was in command of a platoon from D Company that were at one end of a line; to his left he saw the line veering off in that direction and began to do the same, Colonel Watson gave a signal for him to stay on his original course but not everyone saw this signal and “whistle and voice only carried so far”, he managed to keep two thirds of his platoon, but lost the rest of his company, all this took place under constant shell and gun fire, D Company were reunited and had received only superficial injuries
• The rest of 6DLI had not been so fortunate, Captain Jeffreys got the line organised but they were under severe machine gun fire and suffered many casualties
• At 6pm the battalion was ordered to support 7DLI and a battalion of Shropshire Light Infantry who were attacking a hill held by the Germans; for B Company it was the start of five days in a front line trench
• A and D company had been in a defensive position waiting for an attack which did not come, C Company had been sent for rations, finding themselves no longer needed, they realised they did not know where to go
• They found their way back to Zevenkote Farm and halted in a field favoured by German shells, ‘After trying to induce my dog-tired platoon to take some better shelter than that afforded by their greatcoats, I chose the deepest, wettest ditch and went to sleep sitting crouched up on two sand bags.” PHB Lyon
• Colonel Watson collapsed from physical and mental exhaustion and returned to England where, after recovering, he commanded the regiment’s training battalion.  Captain Jeffreys took temporary command of 6DLI

D/DLI 7/424/2(48) Soldiers of the 6th Battalion The Durham Light Infantry, captioned Some of 'D' Company in shelter near the farm, Belgium, [possibly Zevenkote Farm], taken by PHB Lyon, April 1915

 Casualties

• PHB Lyon: “Our first week of campaigning was over and we had lost, killed, wounded and sick, 16 officers and about 300 men.”
• According to the Soldiers Died records, 42 men of 6DLI died on 26 April, seven days after leaving Newcastle

How do I find out more about what happened?

(1) Memoirs of PHB Lyon, Durham County Record Office reference, D/DLI 7/424/2

(2) The Faithful Sixth, A History of the Sixth Battalion, The Durham Light Infantry – Harry Moses, 1995

(3) Faithful, The Story of The Durham Light Infantry – SGP Ward, 1968