B/2388. Rifleman John Richard Groom

8th. (Service) Battalion, Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort’s Own). Born in Miles Platting, Lancashire. Enlisted and Lived in Manchester. Killed in Action on Friday 30th. July 1915 in the fierce fighting at The Battle of Hooge, during The Second Battle of Ypres. Lost Without Trace. No Known Grave. Known unto God. Commemorated on Panels 46 - 48 and 50 of The Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial to The Missing, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium. A staggering total of 168 of John’s Comrades from the Battalion also fell on this day, together with the following 8 Officers who were all Killed in Action:

Second Lieutenant, The Hon. Gerald William Grenfell

Captain Lewis Alexander McAfee

Lieutenant Sidney Milsom

Captain Bertram Pawle

Second LieutenantThomas Keith Hedley Rae

Lieutenant Michael Scrimgeour

Second Lieutenant Anthony Thornton Walker

Second Lieutenant Sydney Clayton Woodroffe

The Actions of Hooge: Summary

On 2nd June 1915, a severe German bombardment from 5am to noon, followed by an infantry attack from the Northeast, led to the loss of the ruins of the Chateau and Stables. At this time the position had been occupied by regiments of the 3rd Cavalry Division. During the evening, two Companies of the 1st Lincolns and one of the 4th Royal Fusiliers of 9th Brigade of the 3rd Division counter attacked and successfully recovered the Stables.

At 7pm on 19th July 1915, a large mine was exploded by 175th Tunnelling Company RE, under a German trench position. The spoil from the detonation threw up a lip 15 feet high, around a crater 20 feet deep and 120 feet wide. After the firing, it was immediately occupied by two Companies of the 4th Middlesex (8th Brigade, 3rd Division). British artillery quelled all signs of German attempts to recover the crater.

German retaliation came on 30th July 1915. The Hooge sector was being held by 41st Brigade of 14th Division, which had taken over the area only a week before. The 8th Rifle Brigade held the near crater lip, with the 7th KRRC on their right, across the road. These battalions had relieved the others of the Brigade during the night. At 3.15am, with dramatic suddenness, the ruins of the Stables were blown up, and jets of flame shot across from the German trenches. This was the first time in warfare that liquid fire flamethrowers had been used by the Germans against the British. Immediately a deluge of fire of all kinds fell on the Brigade, and on all support positions back to Zouave Wood and Sanctuary Wood. The ramparts of Ypres and the exits from the town were also shelled. The Germans achieved complete surprise, but although the British front lines were evacuated, they did not follow beyond them. There was intensive hand to hand fighting in some trenches; eventually virtually all of the positions held by the Brigade were lost. The 42nd Brigade on the left was not attacked, and the left Battalion of the 46th Division on the right held on. Division rushed up reinforcements, and a new line along the edge of the woods was formed. At 11.30am, orders were issued for a counterattack by the 41st and 42nd Brigades. A feeble 45 minute bombardment preceded this. The 41st Division attack at 2.45pm, by the 6th DCLI, failed, with no man approaching closer than 150 yards the new German positions; the 9th KRRC of the 42nd fared better and recovered some of the lost lines. The 43rd Brigade relieved the badly-hit 41st during the late afternoon and evening. During the night, another flamethrower attack was repulsed, but further efforts by the 14th Division on the 31st came to nothing against heavy German shellfire.

A surprise attack by 6th Division on 9th August 1915 regained all of the ground lost, including the ruins of the Chateau Stables.

Casualties

At Givenchy, IV Corps suffered over 2,700 casualties. At Bellewaarde, the 3rd Division alone lost over 3,500. Both attacks were characterised by very high losses among officers and senior NCOs. The 14th Division lost just under 2,500 on 30th July at Hooge.

Analysis

 +   no significant gains of ground or improvement of the tactical positions was achieved

 +   the losses of officers and NCOs was to hurt the British Army badly in the coming months

+    the surprise deployment of a new military technology (flamethrowers) gained little of significance for the German Arm

+   lines of infantry, attacking "over the top" into unassailable machine guns proved to be a poorly planned and highly questionable strategy

+   the participants fought gallantly and with heavy losses, to little avail

Hooge

Hooge ('high' in Flemish/Dutch) was where the Germans chose to launch their first attack against the British aided by the use of flamethrowers; they had used them on a number of other occasions against the French. They were highly successful at Hooge, and caused much confusion and panic amongst the British defenders. The Germans launched their attack at the end of July 1915, with the aim of establishing control over the remaining dominant ground held by the British in the area around Hooge Chateau.

Hooge: 30 July 1915

The rigorous German pressure on the British in their crater continued, making it untenable. Apologies for trenches, damaged by the incessant shell fire, ran up to the lip on either side, but with no definite connection between them around the crater (the original defence was essentially a sandwich of sandbags in which the British sat). The relief of battalions was allowed to go undisturbed, despite the extreme proximity of the trenches in places, so that bombs could have wrought great damage, especially in the confusion of the hand over. This was ominous. Stand to - the practice of all men equipping themselves with their kit and manning their posts ready to expel an attack - took place as customary half an hour before dawn. The men would expect to hold this position for an hour or so - the most vulnerable time in the trenches, when the enemy might be expected to use the tricks of light at this time to effect a surprise.

Liquid Fire: 30 July 1915

Streams of liquid death spat out from the German lines on the morning of 30 July 1915, heralding an assault on the British positions around Hooge.

At 3:15 am on Friday, 30 July 1915 the Germans (Württemberg Infanterie-Regiment 126, part of the 39th (Alsatian) Infanterie-Division) launched their attack. The remnants of the stables were blown up, whilst simultaneously men of the 8th Rifle Brigade (at battalion strength) were subject to jets of flame streaming from the German parapets rather like water might come from a large hose. At the same time a massive bombardment of shells and mortars, grenades and machine-guns was opened on the communication trenches and the 300 yards or so of ground between the front line and the support lines in Zouave and Sanctuary Woods.

The defenders were hustled from their trenches; but the Germans stopped immediately to consolidate their position, and tried to extend it eastwards by launching an all-out assault on the 7th King's Royal Rifle Corps (also a battalion), which unit eventually succumbed to the pressure and surrendered most of its trenches. Further south 1/8th Sherwood Foresters was attacked, but managed to hold on to its position to the north of Sanctuary Wood. Not a single "flame thrower pioneer" died in combat or of wounds in that attack, described in the 2 August edition of the (London) Daily Chronicle as "The Flame Fight".

Counter attacks were launched as soon as practicable, in this case at 2:45 pm; always a feature of the Great War, and often questioned nowadays, the purpose behind such attacks was that the enemy should be attacked whilst he was off balance and prevented from settling into his new position. In this case they were partially successful, 9th King's Royal Rifle Corps regaining some trenches; but the attack from the south failed dismally, men not getting within 150 yards of the new German positions.

One of the casualties was Lieutenant Gilbert Talbot, now buried at Sanctuary Wood Cemetery. A member of 7th Rifle Brigade, his battalion counter-attacked from Zouave Wood. The Battalion War Diary comments on 31st July,

"A correct casualty list is very hard to prepare without details from the Clearing Stations and owing to many being killed and wounded beyond reach."

Talbot's Company (C) attacked to the left of the Old Bond Street communication trench. The War Diary has him listed as "missing believed killed". Subsequently a note has been added, "Body found. Killed." Doubtless his was one of the many bodies recovered when the line was recaptured on 9th August. For the moment the British licked their wounds and planned their next move.

“C” Company of 8th Rifle Brigade, to the right of the crater, seemed to have been almost completely obliterated very early on in the attack. 8th Rifle Brigade went into the line with 24 officers and 745 other ranks; it lost 19 officers and 469 other ranks killed, wounded and missing.

The 7th King's Royal Rifle Corps held the line near the stables, running south to Sanctuary Wood. The flamethrower attack was not directed specifically at them, though the position held near the stables did suffer from the extreme easterly part of the seeming wall of flame and clouds of smoke. An attack against the trenches to the south of the Menin road from the east was quickly suppressed by defensive fire, but were then subjected to very heavy machine-gun and shell fire. What did happen, though, was that the Germans who had captured the crater area now poured over the Menin road and attacked the G3 trenches in the rear and from the south. Meanwhile, further south, just above Sanctuary Wood, the Germans launched a flamethrower attack on G1 and a very exposed position - the Sap. However, the Germans who attempted to rush across the 20 yards between the trenches succumbed to the fire from the British. They tried once more with bombs, but once more failed.

Meanwhile, in the complex of trenches between Zouave and Sanctuary Woods scenes of extraordinary chaos and individual initiative were taking place as bombing and counter-bombing took place, with even a spare group of Royal Engineers being thrown into the fray.

One can only feel sorry for the two battalions that had been relieved earlier - 8th King's Royal Rifle Corps and 7th Rifle Brigade. 7th Rifle Brigade had only reached its rest billets at Vlamertinge (several kilometres to the west of Ypres) at 3:45 am; at 4:45 am it was put on the alert, and by 5:30 am they were ordered back to Ypres - tired, unwashed, not fed or rested, and probably with a clear idea of what was likely to be in store for them. 7th King's Royal Rifle Corps was eventually forced to retire back to the northern edge of the woods, having spent almost the whole day being fired at from front, back and flanks by all manner of weapons.

The Flammenwerfer

There can be no doubt that this period marks increasing German willingness to live up to their "blood and iron" theories of war, and, in July 1915, another device with a considerable surprise value was used against us: the flame projector, or the German flammenwerfer. Field-Marshal Sir John French signalled the entry of this new weapon as follows:

"Since my last despatch a new device has been adopted by the enemy for driving burning liquid into our trenches with a strong jet. Thus supported, an attack was made on the trenches of the Second Army at Hooge, on the Menin Road, early on 30th July. Most of the infantry occupying these trenches were driven back, but their retirement was due far more to the surprise and temporary confusion caused by the burning liquid than to the actual damage inflicted. Gallant endeavours were made by repeated counter-attacks to recapture the lost section of trenches. These, however, proving unsuccessful and costly, a new line of trenches was consolidated a short distance farther back." 

In Flanders, Belgium, on July 30, 1915, the Germans put their new weapon, the flammenwerfer, or flamethrower, to devastating use against the Allies at the Battle of Hooge.

The Battle of Hooge represented one of the first major employments of the flamethrower, one of the most feared weapons introduced during World War I. Eleven days before the battle, British infantry had captured the German-occupied village of Hooge, located near Ypres in Belgium, by detonating a large mine. Using the flamethrowers to great effect, along with machine guns, trench mortars and hand grenades, the Germans reclaimed their positions on July 30, 1915, penetrating enemy front lines with ease and pushing the British forces back to their second trench. Though few men were lost to actual burns, a British officer reported later, the weapons had a great demoralizing effect, and when added to the assault of the other powerful weapons, they proved mercilessly efficient at Hooge.

German troops had started with stationary flamethrowers, which allowed them to take large gains of land at Verdun in February 1915. Through the efforts of Bernhard Reddemann, a reserve captain, and Richard Fiedler, a Berlin engineer, the Germans progressed to smaller, lighter models, including a portable version, carried like a backpack. The number of flamethrower attacks conducted by Reddeman's men in the first half of 1916 was three times that of 1915.

One great puzzle that emerged from World War I was why Germany's opponents never made equal use of this terrifying weapon. The British made three attempts with larger, more unwieldy prototypes: the smallest one was equal in size to the German Grof, which the enemy had almost abandoned by 1916. The French were more persistent, and by 1918 had at least seven companies trained in using flamethrowers; the use of the weapon never progressed to the same level as that in the German army, however.

The flamethrower was included, along with the submarine, the battleship, heavy artillery, the tank, poison gas and the zeppelin, on the list of weapons forbidden to German forces by the Treaty of Versailles. After Hitler came to power in 1933, though, and Germany began to rebuild its army, backpack flamethrowers were liberally supplied to the combat forces, and the formidable flammenwerfer would again play a deadly role in the clashes of World War II.

Barry Jenkins