Intelligence Report.At 7pm one of our aeroplanes was hit by enemy shellfire. The aeroplane was seen to drop for some distance during which a portion of the machine burst into flames. Two dark objects were seen to drop and the plane descended in a spiral manor until lost to view behind trees somewhere in the direction of Festubert village. The aeroplane was burning fiercely the whole time. The two dark objects were obviously the air crew.
The following extracts were taken from the 93rd Brigade War Diaries and reports of actions from the 93rd L.T.M.B Commanding Officer in Charge.
As shown in the war diary of the 28th July 1916 when the enemy wounded Lieut Evers on a trench raid his command was taken over by Lieut F.C. Prickett. This officer was to be in charge of the battery for the rest of the war.
On the 17th October 1916 the 93rd Light Trench Mortar Battery moved to Thivres. From there they moved to Warront Wood St Ledger. On the 30th October they moved to Rossignol Farm.
Lieut Prickett makes the first report on the 11 November 1916, and Douglas Hunter is mentioned as being in charge of number 2 Gun Team. The team consisting of 16/228 Lance Corporal Hunter D, 803 Pte Marshall and 21/149 Pte Cable. There were two other Gun Teams in this section and all were placed in positions in Rualt trench. The officer in command of these gun teams was Lieut H Smyth Pigott.
It was on the 3/5/1917 that Douglas was to win his DCM (Distinguished Conduct Medal) in the battle of Oppy Wood (Gavrelle).
Douglas Hunter was first entered into the London Gazette on the 1st January 1918 and later on the 17th April 1918. These entries did not show the date or the place the action had taken place, this was found for me by David L Seeney – research advisor for Sunset Militaria to whom I am most grateful.
The action at Gavrelle on the 3rd May 1917 in which Douglas Hunter won his DCM was probably won at the Windmill area of the battle, as shown in a copy of a report by Lieut H Smyth Pigott.
The report by Lieut H Smyth Pigott is dated the 3rd May 1917 and is headed: -
Report by O.C. Trench Mortars At Windmill Position.
At 1030 pm Lieut Smyth Pigott and Trench Mortar teams left the battle headquarters at B.30 Central and made their way to the Windmill position arriving at 1030 am. A carrying party arrived with 16 rounds of Stokes shells. Work had already commenced on building emplacements and digging a trench, this work was finished by 3.30 am.
The ‘creeping barrage’ opened at 3.45 am and was followed by the first wave of the 18th West Yorkshire Regiment at 4.05 am and the second wave at 4.08 am moving through the positions of the battery. At 4.15 am the first two Prisoners with two Escorts came back through the position.
A couple of enemy machine guns continued firing throughout the advance, one to the right and one to the left. On seeing this the Stokes Mortars fired all their rounds in the direction of the gunfire but this failed to stop most of the fire, this was because the Trench Mortar fire could only be registered on the enemy by the sound from their guns.
At 4.25 am two wounded, two S.B and three O.Rs from No 5 Platoon of the 18th West Yorkshire Regiment returned jumping into our position. They stated that their platoon was withdrawing, but knew nothing else. They were told to return to the attack and place themselves under an Officer or N.C.O. They left with one S.B.
At 4.30 am another wounded man jumped into their position, this was not surprising, on observing the enemy they could be seen advancing slowly from shell hole to shell hole about 50 yards away and they were bayoneting the wounded as they did so.
It was decided to take the mortars across to the trench held by our Machine Gunners, but as they were half buried and the enemy were only 50 yards away, there was no time to take them. They ran across to where the machine Gunners were but two men had to remain behind to fully bury the Trench Mortars to stop them falling into enemy hands.
On reaching the post the officer in charge Lieut Dingley was found to be mortally wounded, this left Lieut Pigott in charge of the defence.
At 5.30 am L/Cpl Marshal of the 93rd L.T.M.B and L/Cpl Raynor of the 93rd Machine Gun Coy were sent back with a verbal message for reinforcements.
At 5.35 the two guns in ‘A’ trench were out of action. ‘B’ trench was being heavily bombed so two men raced across the bullet swept open and brought back a gun but there was no ammunition left in ‘B’ Trench.
The remaining crews from the Trench Mortars carried out rifle fire on the enemy in conjunction with the remaining Machine guns. Our men could be seen withdrawing in the dip below followed by the enemy, our fire finally halted the enemy but at this point we had lost over one hundred men.
At 7.15 am an enemy aeroplane flew over and registered on their position to which they were shelled with 5.9 inch. At 7.25 the last Machine Gun became out of action so it was decided to withdraw, they fought their way back, returning fire on the enemy and managed to get away with slight casualties.
This report was signed by Hugh Smyth Pigott 2nd Lieut 18th West York’s Regt attached 93rd L.T.M.B. The report was given to the C.O of the 93rd L.T.M.B Capt F.C. Prickett and although Lieut Smyth Pigott had commended members of the Machine Gun Coy for this action I feel sure that the senior CO would have done the same for his own L.T.M.B crews.
It is possible that Douglas Hunter could have won his DCM on the left of the attack but as shown earlier LCpl Marshal had served in No 2 gun team with Douglas Hunter and they were under the command of Lieut Smyth Pigott.
Copy of extract from (Honours Deeds) London Gazette
April 17th 1918
The 93rd Brigade would not just be on the offensive; there would be several attacks by the enemy, normally trench raids carried out under an artillery barrage.
One such attack occurred on the 31st August 1917, the enemy had put down a very heavy barrage on the British front lines; this was in the area of Mericourt. Two groups of enemy were seen to be attacking positions on the line. Immediately we retaliated with Lewis guns. Later a wounded man reported he had seen the enemy entering the line on the left.
The commanding officer of the 93rd Light Trench battery was ordered to open fire and did so with deadly effect causing heavy losses to the enemy. Patrols were sent out once they had managed to stop the trench mortar fire. It was later found that the enemy had not managed to enter the front line and had only managed to reach the wire where they had been met by devastating trench mortar fire. Thus the trench raid had been repulsed.
Douglas Hunter was to take part in many battles and skirmishes. However, I remember him telling me about one incident in 1917. A British recognisance patrol out at night had come across a party of the enemy building a new trench system. It was decided to leave them until they had finished their work before taking any action.
After several weeks of working on the system the enemy started to move in their weapons. Because of this it was decided to act. Douglas Hunter and his crew, plus one other crew were moved in under cover of night to register their weapons on the trenches.
The trenches were completely destroyed with their weapons. This always seemed to amuse my Grandfather as the enemy had spent such an amount of time building the system. This kind of operation revealed how accurate and deadly the Stokes Mortar could be and in the later stages of the war would become a key weapon against the enemy.
