Back in 2022, I wrote a previous blog post about my Grandad - who I'll refer to as Jack - and his WW1 experiences. My research basically dispelled the family myths about him, and with some help at the time from research officers at two relevant museums - the Fusiliers Museum in Bury and the Passchendaele 1917 Memorial Museum near Ypres, Belgium - I was able to get a more factual perspective on where he was and what he did. In 2024, some further, more in-depth information came to light which broadened my research, gave me a more detailed picture and led me along the route of 'I think there's a book in this'.
New Information Comes to Light
In May of 2024, I received an email from Simon Augustyn, a research officer at the Passchendaele Museum near Ypres. It was Simon who had previously helped me with the information which clarified that Jack's battalion - the 15th Lancashire Fusiliers - had not been at the Battle of Passchendaele and were instead on defensive duties on the Belgian coast.
However, Simon explained that he had looked again at Jack's information, and instead of focussing on 1917, which we had done when we communicated previously, he looked ahead into 1918. It transpired that, at the end of 1917, the 15th Battalion had ended their coastal defence duties and been sent to the Passchendaele area. This was because although the main battle was considered to be over in November 1917, there were still pockets of fighting between the Allied forces and the Germans forces who were dug in there.
Below: The regimental war diary entry for the Moonlight Massacre campaign. Courtesy: UK National Archives
The Moonlight Massacre
On the night of the 1st/2nd December 1917, troops from a wide range of different regiments took part in a campaign at Westrozebeke, on the Ypres salient. To gain territory to use for observation, the plan was to send a force 'en masse' to rush forward and overrun the German lines there. The attack was scheduled at 1.55 am, with no advance artillery bombardment, to maintain an element of surprise.
Officers voiced concerns about the unlikelihood of the plan's success, for a number of reasons. Firstly, the chosen night was two days after a full moon and the night sky was still very bright. Secondly, the ground was muddy, waterlogged and frozen. The Passchendaele battle had destroyed the landscape and there was no cover or shelter for the advancing troops. Instead, they had to walk along broken, slippery duckboards to cross the treacherous terrain. There was no way to 'rush forward and overrrun'.
All concerns were ignored and the attack went ahead. It was a disaster. There was no element of surprise. The bright moonlight made the troops visible when they were still two hundred yards away, and they were easily mown down by German machine gun fire.
Soldiers scattered everywhere in panic, to
to try to protect themselves, and the objective was not achieved. There was a catastrophic loss of life. Jack's battalion is recorded as taking part in this campaign, and so it can be assumed that he was there.
Very little seems to have been written about this campaign, as if it was 'brushed under the carpet' of British military history. I found only one piece of written material, a Ph.D. thesis by Michael LoCicero.
Below: The regimental war diary entry for the raid of 17.2.1918. Courtesy: UK National Archives
February 1918
With further help from Simon Augustyn, the details emerged about how Jack was wounded. During a small-scale raid to take prisoners on the 17th February 1918, he received a bayonet wound and a gunshot wound. Again, it has to be assumed that he was part of this raid, because 17th February is the date noted on his casualty sheet, and it is also the date of the only activity noted in the regimental war diary. Being wounded, and sent back to England to recover, began the journey and choices he made which got him into trouble.
The Book: 'From Hexham to Barry - One Moment in Grandad's War'
After recovering from his wounds and being given ten days leave, Jack travelled to Barry, in Wales, to join a reserve battalion. What happened next is described and explored in the book From Hexham to Barry - One Moment in Grandad's War. A book of two parts, the fiction section speculates on what he did, 'filling in the gaps' of what was missing from what I found in my research, and a second section consists of a 'mini-memoir' of the facts behind the story. While writing the book, I contacted Barry War Museum, and was given various articles and photos which helped steep me in what Barry was like in 1918.
Conclusion
The initial research for the 2022 blog post brought me closer to the Grandad I never knew, in what I thought was an 'interesting' way; a 'Oh, I didn't know that' or 'So that family story wasn't true after all' kind of way. The further research, which resulted in the book, has done much more. This time round, I feel a more empathetic connection between what happened to my Grandad, and how/why he reacted as he did. The broadening of that emotional connection to a wider context just reminds me of the horror of the actions, consequences and implications of war, and how unless mankind finds another way, it seems to be never-ending.
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Find out more about my book at these two internal weblinks: Books and The Family History Fiction Project
From Hexham to Barry - One Moment in Grandad's War is available in paperback and as an ebook at Amazon. Follow this link: amzn.to/46cAleC
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