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1/12 Do numbers matter? When 48th Infantry Brigade (16th Irish Division) assembled on Frezenberg Ridge, east of Ypres, in readiness for Zero, 4.45a.m., on 16th August 1917 the battalions were at less than 50% strength. Third Ypres, Battle of Langemarck #FWW #WW1 #GWG
2/12 Brigade war diary: “During the period that the Brigade was in the line prior to the attack, severe casualties were suffered from shell-fire, gas and sickness (due to adverse weather conditions). These casualties amounted to 27 Officers and 678 Other Ranks.”
3/12 The history of 36th (Ulster) Division, brigades to the left of 16th (Irish) Division’s brigades, recorded that the division had more than two thousand casualties prior to the attack on 16th August.
4/12 48th Inf Brig was significantly under-strength on arrival in Ypres sector on 31/7. It did not attack that day. Next few days saw it providing working & burial parties for attacking troops; followed by holding new front line of 31/7 & brief rotations to camps under shell fire
5/12 e.g. between 6 p.m. on 5/8, when 8th Royal Dublin Fusiliers marched out of Erie Camp to go to the Front Line, and 3 a.m. on 12/8, they had spent only one spell of 38 and a half hours away from the Front Line, including marching time. 13/8 full day in camp, 14/8 out again.
6/12 For the renewed attack on 16/8, the 8th Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers had men on attachment to the other battalions in the brigade, leaving a composite company of only 6 Officers, 85 Other Ranks, plus the Chaplain.
7/12 9th Bn RDF had 17 Officers and 353 Other Ranks; 2nd Bn RDF 14 Officers and 293 Other Ranks’ 7th Bn Royal Irish Rifles 21 Officers and 423 Other Ranks, including a Medical Officer. An infantry battalion at full strength should have been approx 1,000 split over 4 companies.
8/12 Of the 6 officers forming the “composite” co 8th RDF, 2 were wounded in a dug-out whilst waiting to go forward, 3 were killed in the follow up attack, leaving only Maj Cowley. The padre, Fr Doyle, was also killed in the front line, trying to get one of the officers to safety
9/12 The casualties for the four battalions of 48th Infantry Brigade, already at less than half strength, that day were: 66% casualties 9th Royal Dublin Fusiliers; 64% casualties 7th Royal Irish Rifles; 50% casualties 2nd Royal Dublin Fusiliers; 52% casualties 8th RDF
10/12 General Gough, OC Fifth Army, complained the next day to Field Marshal Haig that the two Irish divisions, 16th and 36th, had failed to keep the ground that they had won. On the other hand, the history of the 8th Division records that Gough congratulated the division and …
11/12 “pointed out that it was no fault of theirs that they failed to retain the ground won on the 16th August, and that their fine success and in going forward over all difficulties of ground was due to their great spirit and their good discipline and training”.
12/12 The only nos I have at present for 8th Div is that, whilst they had 3K casualties in the sector prior to assembling to the right of 16th Div (Steel and Hart), their history notes they were reinforced with 48 Officers and 2,213 Other Ranks between 2 and 16/8 @HartMilitary
