Thursday 11th May 1916

Billets at Pernes

On a dull day the Battalion transport assembled in the market square at Pernes at 9am, under the supervision of the newly-arrived Transport Officer, Lt. Charles Frederick Wolfe (see 8^th May) and departed by road for Hersin, via Camblain-Chatelain, Divion, Bruay and Barlin. The Battalion then formed up in the market square at Pernes ready for departure at 10.45am and completed the short march to the station. The train departed at 11.37 am and reached the vicinity of Hersin at around 2.30 pm. However, as the train pulled into the station at Hersin, German shells began to fall in the area. J.B. Priestley related what happened next, “Our train was just steaming into the station when the Germans started shelling it, because it is the railhead – the furthest point the railway reaches. Enormous 12 inch shells dropped all about us – the engine driver bolted, so we were left about twenty minutes in the train, every minute expecting a shell to hit it. But not one did, though the carriages were well battered with shrapnel, and eventually we backed out of the station and were landed a couple of miles back”. The account in the Battalion War Diary confirms the details, albeit in rather more prosaic fashion, “Just before the arrival of the train it was noticed that the enemy was shelling the Station. In spite of this however the train was stopped at the usual detraining place and all ranks were instructed to retain their seats. The train was standing in the shelled area 10 minutes during which time about 20 shells were discharged. It was decided to run the train back towards Barlin, & the troops detrained in an obscure place. Some of the shells were very near to doing damage; numbers of bits of shells penetrating portions of the carriages”. Remarkably, the Battalion suffered no casualties and the men were able to complete the short march to their billets in Hersin without further incident, arriving at 3.30pm. Many years later Lt. Dick Bolton (see 5^th May) somewhat laconically recalled simply, “the most unpleasant experience of being shelled in a train, when coming up to Hersin from Bruay”.

On arrival at Hersin, orders were received that the Battalion would take over front line trenches in the Angres sector next day, relieving 18^th Royal Fusiliers.

(In Battalion orders dated 4^th May there had been a provision noted in the event that Hersin station was shelled by the Germans).  

Pte. Albert Edward White (see 18^th March), who had been wounded on 9^th March, was discharged from Merryflats War Hospital, Govan, Glasgow; he would have ten days’ leave before reporting to 11DWR at Brocton Camp, Staffs..

Sgt. Herbert Henry Hoddinott (see 19^th April), serving with 11DWR at Brocton Camp, Staffs., was formally discharged from the Army as no longer physically fit for service as a result of an accident in December 1915; he was awarded an Army pension of 19s. 3d. per week, payable for six months only.

Two weeks after being declared unfit for further service, Pte. Willis Ryal (see 27^th April), was formally discharged from the Army. He had originally served with Tunstill’s Company but had not gone overseas with them in August 1915 and had instead been transferred to 11DWR. I know little of what happened to Willis Ryal after his discharge, other than that he married Cecilia Green in the Barnsley area in the Summer of 1918. (Did they have any children? Search again for Willis Ryal). He died in 1964, aged 73.