If you could indulge me one more time, I would like to show this pic of my Gt Uncle, David Robertson, from Musselburgh. He was my Mum's mother's brother. He volunteered for Kitchener's army in Musselburgh Town Hall on 2nd June 1915, joining the 8th Service Battalion, Black Watch. He was given the service number S/9365. The 8th BW was in 26th Brigade, 9th (Scottish) Division, which had left its base at Bordon Camp, Aldershot, in April 1915 to go to the Western Front - just 2 weeks before the 51st Highland Division left Bedford for the Western Front. Being a new recruit, David went to the 8th BW's training company left behind at Bordon. By late September, he had completed training well enough to be given a lance-corporal's stripe and command of a section. Used only for training new recruits at square-bashing and 20 day tiresome manoevres under the poor English weather, he felt dissatisfied by his lot and wrote a letter home (which I possess). He had tried to hand back his stripe and just be one of the boys again, but his company captain hauled him over the coals and the stripe would stay ! So then David stated he wanted to get out to the Western Front, to do his bit. That letter was written on 26th September 1915 and unknown to him, the 8th Black Watch and the 9th Scottish Division had been part of an offensive launched at Loos the previous day, the first major Kitchener's Army action, resulting in heavy losses. The battle was ongoing and more men died over the following days. David was in the trenches of Zonnebeke, in No 5 Platoon, B Coy, 8th Black Watch, by mid-October 1915.
I have 14 letters and cards written by David to his mum and dad and his sister between 26 September 1915 and late December 1916. His letters are usually hopeful and talk of home and loved ones, as well as some of the conditions in the trenches. He uses phrases about the future like "if I am spared" and "God willing", however having gone through the hell of the capture of Longueval in July 1916 (where 170 men of the 8th Black Watch were left unharmed out of over 800) and the whole Somme campaign, by the time New Year 1917 approaches, his sentiments have become
"Don't worry about me. If it is my time to go under I won't be the only one. Many sons have gone before. This country is a fair graveyard. The kaiser has a lot on his head".
On 9th April 1917, a highly-planned and trained French-British joint attack commenced in two places - the Chemin Des Dames for the French and further North, in the area of Arras for British, Canadian and Australians. The plan was to pinch out the Somme salient North and South. The French under Nivelle, had grand plans to end the war by their thrust. The British would provide a diversion, to attract German forces away from the French front. The British intended to reach the plain of Douai and free up communications networks of road and rail and later to liberate the channel coast. To assist the French further, the British attacks would go in one week before the French attacked, to maximise the number of Germans attracted to the British diversion front.
The attack got off to a great start. The Canadians captured Vimy Ridge, the British pushed out from Arras to the Germans' great surprise but the Aussies in the South suffered a setback at Bullecourt, which was at the Northern end of the newly-built Hindenburg Line. The British pushed the Germans out of their trenches and back for the next 3 days, covering several kilometres. It was the greatest allied advance of the war so far. However, as the days passed, german resistance stiffened as more reinforcements arrived. Finally, the French attack commenced. It was a bloody disaster, with losses so high that French troops refused to continue to attack. The British would have to go it alone. Haig ordered further assaults over the next 3 weeks, at a reduced scale, to gain local advantages. By the end of April, the River Scarpe had become the centre of attention and the capture of villages and vantage points. Locally, the 51st Highland, 9th Scottish, 34th and 4th Divisions had taken turns to capture the villages and features around Roeux. Of particular notoriety was the Chemical Works at Roeux, a fortified machine-gun strongpoint which controlled the area. Roeux was captured by the 51st then lost.
Early in the morning of 2nd May, the 8th Black Watch moved forward into a recently captured and hastily converted German trench line, now called Cuba Trench. The unit of another division they replaced moved out to the rear. 9th Scottish Division's objective would be the German "Weed-Weak" trench line on Greenland Hill opposite. The attack was planned for 4.45am on the Thursday 3rd May, just before dawn. An artillery bombardment would proceed the attack, pinpointing enemy artillery and trenches and the infantry would proceed under an umbrella of fire. Infantry were recently trained in the new SS143 platoon tactics, where small mixed groups of riflemen, rifle-grenadiers, bombers and Lewis-gunners would advance using the ground, rather than the spread-out lines of the Somme 1916. All was set.
Then just a few hours before the assault, High Command decided to bring forward zero hour to 3.45am to surprise the enemy. At that time, it would still be dark. However, it meant the British troops wouldn't have time to lay marker tapes to show paths through the barbed wire hedges etc. Also, the Germans had zeroed their machine-guns and artillery on the British front line, suspecting an attack might happen. Just as worrying, the German trench system was incomplete, so that many groups of Germans, including machine-guns were in undetected fox-holes dotted over No-Man's Land and the British artillery would not know of their existence when they bombarded German positions.
The attack went off at 3.45am. Though a moonlit night, artillery explosions threw up clouds of dust, obscuring objectives in the darkness. The infantry went over the top and immediately became disorientated in the dust-filled darkness. Some battalions collided while others diverged and left gaps, a company of the 10th Argylls luckily filled in one such gap. Some small groups reached German positions and held out as long as they could, but most of the attack became casualties. It was a disaster, repulsed with heavy loss.
S/9365 L/Cpl David Elder Robertson was killed during the attack. He has no known grave, having been buried in a communal grave with his comrades and is remembered on Bay 6 of the Arras War Memorial.
The series of attacks went on, intermittently, until Field Marshal Haig terminated it a few days later, the 51st Highland Division having recaptured Roeux and the Chemical Works. Haig then turned his attention to the Ypres Salient once more. Roeux was in British hands until March-April 1918, when the Germans launched their last major offensive and it was captured once more. It finally came into British hands for the last time in August 1918, when Haig's brilliantly planned Amiens offensive, utilising all the allies, swept the Germans from their trenches and kept them on the run and in the open in a mobile war until the Germans sued for an Armistice in November 1918.
The very field in which Cuba Trench sat and in which David died, is now a peaceful farmer's field once more, viewable on Google Earth. The German positions, so dearly bled for, now holds up a motorway interchange.
The photo was taken at Bordon Camp, Aldershot 1915. David is shown by the X someone put on the photo.