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 1/5^th 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 21^st 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 1/6^th 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 2/6^th South Staffs were also waiting for the German offensive, and when it came the 2^nd 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

Room 101

In the novel 'Nineteen Eighty Four' by George Orwell, Room 101 is a torture chamber in the Ministry of Love in which the Party attempts to subject a prisoner to his or her own worst nightmare, fear or phobia.

Room 101 will therefore contain the things you hate the most.

I have decided that in my Room 101 you would find:-

- Gloucestershire. – Gloucestershire serves no purpose other than to make my journeys to the midlands longer. The M5 through Gloucestershire is boring and featureless.

- Washing Machines. – Extremely heavy devices which are a nightmare to move, due to the large lumps of concrete that are inside to weigh them down together with the extra complication of plumbing, with its potential for leaking and dumping water in places it does not belong. Broken Washing machines are a particular nightmare.

- People who hog middle lane on motorway, when the inside lane is empty. I met quite a few of these again today. I understand that the police may now issue tickets to these people, but police cars are never there when they are needed.

What would be in your room 101?

Parking (again)

Had to take Glyn to Torquay Hospital today for an appointment.

I drove around the car park twice but was unable to find a space, so Glyn got out and went for her appointment. I continued to drive around the three car parks near where I needed to be but was unable to find a space. I tried on the road outside, but there are only about three spaces that are not for residents only and they were all full.

I eventually found a space at the top end of the hospital, by a sign that warned me I'd be fined £70 if I did not buy a ticket, unfortunately there was no sign of a ticket machine.

Just then Glyn phoned to say she had seen the person she needed to see and was ready to be picked up. Just as well she hadn't gone on her own or she would have missed her appointment time altogether.

The frustration is, there is lots of green space in the grounds that could be converted to car parking as it has always been an issue here, but I don't suppose it ever will be converted, it just sits there and grows!

On a brighter note, we went to Teignmouth on Sunday to meet Glyn's Brother and the car park there was free on Sundays. Well done Teignmouth Council, we'll come there again.

An expensive pint

A gorilla went into a quiet country pub, put a ten pound note on the bar and asked for a pint of beer. The barman served him and thinking 'he's probably not very bright' gave the gorilla £5 change. Then, wishing to appear friendly, the barman said "We don't get many gorillas in here".

" I'm not surprised" answered the gorilla, " if you charge them all £5 for a pint of beer"

To Drink or not to Drink.

Monday – I wasn’t going to have a drink, but neighbours were sat outside with one so we invited them over to join us in our garden for one.

Tuesday – I wasn’t going to have a drink but transport arrangements failed and after a tricky journey through country lanes I was on the winning rink in an ‘A’ team game so I though I deserved one. (I usually play for the ‘B’ team).

Wednesday - I wasn’t going to have a drink, but after watching Red Arrows Glyn wanted a Guiness so I was obliged to keep her company by having one myself.

Thursday – I wasn’t going to have a drink, didn’t have a drink after snooker, but after spending evening assembling a bed and crawling round on the floor outside Emily’s block of flats looking for the right water meter, (we found about 8 meters that weren’t the right one) I needed one.

Friday – as part of the Etiquette of Bowls, had to accept a drink from my opponent after the game, and buy one back.

I wonder how I’ll get on tomorrow.

A new Doctors appointment system.

My wife went to the hospital last week for various tests and when she left she was told to make an appointment with her own doctor to add extra items to her prescription. So we went to the doctor's surgery on our way home to make the appointment.

I’m sorry said the receptionist you cannot make an appointment for next week. You have to call the surgery on the day and the doctor will call you back to make the appointment. They said doctors now make all their own appointments? Why?

It is fairly obvious to me this is a silly idea and isn't going to work properly, but we decided to go along with it, so on the day we tried to call the surgery. Well it’s a well known fact that it is difficult to get through on the phone early in the day, so we were trying for about 45 minutes before we got through to reception. They noted our number and said the doctor will call back later. They didn’t say how much later, so we are now stuck at home waiting for the call. About three hours later we called back to see if we were still on the list and were told we were. The doctor called later and said she hadn’t got the results from the hospital but would chase them up and call on the following day. (Well that’s one morning wasted)

So we waited on the following day from 8:30 to 11:45 and then called the surgery, They said doctor will be calling shortly. Well two hours later, after we had been out on to do essential tasks we called back at the surgery, and told them that despite having our home and mobile no’s no-one had called. They said according to our records the doctor called but couldn’t get a reply. We told them that my wife had sat by the phone all morning and no doctor had called. The surgery said the doctor had now gone home. Now bearing in mind my wife’s condition is worsened by stress, this is not the kind of service we would expect. Furthermore my wife had not ordered her repeat prescriptions on line as she was expecting to see a doctor, so she had now run out of her regular medication.

Fortunately another doctor was on the premises and she was allowed to see him to get the repeat prescriptions we needed to tide us over until the hospital letter gets to the doctor.

Can anyone explain why Doctors now have to make their own appointments, as I have been told it is to meet new government targets?

I cannot see why I suddenly cannot book a non urgent appointment with my doctor a few days in advance after this system has worked well for years.

Morrisons

Is shopping getting more complicated?

We went shopping at Morrison’s today and on getting home and checking the bill, I discovered we had paid £6.21 more than expected.

Nescafe Instant Coffee is currently on offer with 300 grams on sale for the price of 200g, ie. A £7 jar of coffee is available for £4.79. But take care which one you pick up. They are all stacked together but don’t all have the 300g for 200g label, and if you take one without the label through the till you are charged £7, even though the identical jars on the same shelf (apart from the label) are £4.79. I wonder how many people don’t notice this?

There is also an offer on Frozen Scampi bits but read it carefully. It says ‘Buy one (for £4) and get two free’. If you only take two packets of Scampi to the till you will get charged £4 for each of them, and the assistant will not point out that had you put another pack through you would save £4, so we got charged £8 for 2 packs instead of £4 for three packs.

Normally we check the bill before leaving the shop, but were in a hurry today so I didn’t notice until later in the day. I phoned them up and they agreed to sort it out.

Firstly she gave me a third packet of Scampi and this created a refund of £4 on the credit card. I said thank you, but what about the coffee? She apologised for forgetting this and rather than process the credit card again she gave me the refund for this in cash. £6.21 back- reasonable result but in future we will have to pay more attention to the exact details of the offers.

I have also noticed these days that occasionally two small packets of a product can sometimes cost less than one large one, due to the constantly changing offers they have.

One other thing I noted was that although we only ever use a small trolley we can still get well over £100 worth of groceries in it, (Could be due to the wine and beer) so heaven knows how much a large trolley full of groceries would cost.