Wednesday 19 March 2014

World War 1 - My two Granddads.


George Henry Tame ---------------

My two Grandfathers almost met in World War 1 in 1918
 
In 1914 the two men who would become my two Grandfathers were totally unaware of the existence of each other and were living 220 miles apart in the UK.  
 
Granddad George Henry Tame, born in 1891, was living in Wolverhampton where he was working in a local brewery.
 


Granddad John William Proom, born in 1892, was living in a small coastal village in Northumberland called Seaton Sluice, where he was a coalminer, together with his father and two brothers.
John William Proom
 
In 1914 WWI started.
 
Granddad Tame enlisted in Wolverhampton where he joined the 1/5th South Staffs Regiment.
 
Granddad John William Proom and his two brothers joined the army in Northumberland, Granddad joined the Northumberland Fusiliers and his brother Alfred joined the Durham Light Infantry. His second brother, Robert, joined the Royal Engineers, survived the war and emigrated to South Africa.  Alfred Proom died, aged just 20, on the Somme in Aug 1916.
 
By 1918 both my Granddads had spent some considerable time in the trenches in France and were both now located just a few miles apart in the region near Bullecourt in Northern France.
 
It was known by now that the German General Luderndorff was planning an offensive but no one knew where or when this would take place.
 
On March 21st 1918 Luderndorff launched his offensive, known as the KaiserSchlact.
 
This was a major German offensive which was the Germans last gamble attempt to win the war by breaking through the British and French lines before USA troops joined the war in France.
 
Several thousand Germans guns blazed away to a predetermined plan that lasted for five hours, firing a mixture of Shrapnell shells, which exploded in mid-air raining down shell fragments and balls of lead, high explosive shells that detonated on impact and three types of gas shells containing either, chlorine, phosgene or a type of tear gas.
 
In just five hours, the Germans fired one million artillery shells at the British lines held by the Fifth Army – over 3000 shells fired every minute.
 
Grandad Tame was with the 1/6th South Staffords holding a line at Annequinn when the Germans began this tremendous bombardment. Believing this was to be a German assault they manned their defences in readiness for the German attack. The attack never materialised.
 
Further south, in Hirondelle Valley to the west of Bullecourt the 2/6th South Staffs were also waiting for the German offensive, and when it came the 2nd South Staffs were overwhelmed, with 6 officers and 106 men being killed and many more being taken prisoner.
 
Further up the line near Bullecourt, the Northumberland Fusiliers, including Granddad Proom were also in a state of readiness. But here the artillery bombardment was followed by an attack by elite German storm troopers. This was a new tactic, these soldiers travelled lightly and did fast, hard-hitting attacks before moving on to their next target. Unlike soldiers burdened with weighty kit etc., the storm troopers carried little except weaponry (such as flame throwers) that could cause much panic, as proved to be the case in this attack. Granddad Proom’s Battalion found themselves being attacked and overwhelmed.
 
An eye witness account says ‘We kept up rapid fire as the Germans advanced, but there were so many of them and we seemed so few. Eventually we could do no more and some of the men put up their hands to surrender. Others decided to fall back to reserve positions, a decision that cost many men their lives as they were under shell and machine gun fire as they retreated.
 
From what I have been told, I believe Granddad Proom started to retreat but fell into a shell crater, and sheltered there from the bullets and shells until the advancing Germans found him and took him prisoner.
 
Granddad Proom was captured on 21st March 1918. He was made a prisoner of war but told the Germans he was a farmer, because he knew if he’d told them he was a miner he would probably been sent to work in a German coalmine.
 
By the end of the first day of the German attack, 21,000 British soldiers had been taken prisoner and the Germans had made great advances through the lines of the Fifth Army. Senior British military commanders had lost control of the situation. They had spent three years used to static warfare and suddenly they had to cope with a German onslaught. The British Fifth Army were ordered to withdraw. The German attack was the biggest breakthrough in three years of warfare on the Western Front. Ironically, the British gave up to the Germans the Somme region – where so many British and German soldiers had been killed in the battle of 1916.
 
The Germans kept up the offensive for 5 days but it proved difficult to hold on to the newly gained territory due to a lack of resources and the KaiserSchlact petered out by the start of April 1918.
 
Not long afterwards, the British and allied forces prepared for another push forward and Granddad Tame’s South Staffs Regiment were involved in the Battle of St Quentin, an attempt to break through the German defences on the Hindenburg line. By now the British were being supported by American troops, but were still outnumbered by the German forces.
During this ferocious battle, Granddad Tame was bringing transport containing rations and small arms ammunition to the front line under heavy shell fire. In recognition of this he was awarded the military medal, for bravery in the field. When he returned to Wolverhampton he was awarded a pocket watch by the Patriotic committee in recognition of his honour.
 
Granddad Tame lived the rest of his life in Wolverhampton, where he brought up 4 sons including my Dad, and he worked for 50 years at Butler’s Brewery. He died in 1963.
 
Granddad Proom returned to Seaton Sluice after the war where he lived until his death in 1979. After the war he always celebrated 21st March as a second birthday, as he was of the opinion that being captured on that day probably saved his life.
 
 
Bob Tame, family history researcher.
 
Web site: - www.tameclan.me.uk