WW1 Pair impressed to 174921 Gnr W Bland RA, wounded in action at Ypres, 25 October 1917

WW1 Pair impressed to 174921 Gnr W Bland RA, wounded in action at Ypres, 25 October 1917

WW1 Pair impressed to 174921 Gnr W Bland RA, wounded in action at Ypres, 25 October 1917

William Bland was born on or about 20 September 1896 in Northwich, Cheshire to Herbert (formerly a drayman and collector for an aerated water works and later a labourer at an alkali plant) and Annie Bland. In 1911, aged 14, and known as ‘Willie’ he was a farm servant to Frederick Walmsley of Whitley Superior. By 1915, standing 5’ 8” tall and with a chest measurement of 35”. he was working as a teamsman and living at Fir Tree Grove, Higher Whitley, Cheshire, the same address as his father, Herbert (given as his next of kin on his descriptive report on enlistment) and mother, Annie. He attested his willingness to serve aged 18 years 2 months on 16 November 1915 at Warrington before 2/Lt J.S. Faith, acting for the Lt/Col Recruiting Officer for the 40th Recruiting Area. He was transferred to the Army Section ‘B’ Reserve the following day to await call-up, finally being transferred out of it, seemingly after an appeal to his local tribunal some time in 1916, on 3 April 1917. He was medical category A1 upon joining.

Destined to be a field artillery gunner (either on the 18-pounder field gun or 4.5” howitzer), he was appointed to the Royal Field Artillery on 5 April 1917, at No.2 Depot, Royal Field Artillery, Preston, being given the regimental number 228165 and posted-on the following day to the 7th Reserve Battery, and then on to 6c Reserve Brigade later in the month. However, presumably in light of a need for more gunners for the heavy guns of the Royal Garrison Artillery, he was transferred on 1 August 1917 to the RGA under authority of a War Office wire, and posted to No.1 Reinforcing Depot. He was subsequently given the regimental number 174921, seemingly by No.1 Reinforcing Depot on 17 September 1917, after going overseas and joining his unit. Going overseas after five months training, he first made his will, in which he left the whole of his property and effects to his mother. He embarked for France from No.1 Dept Siege Artillery on 4/5 September 1917, after three days confined to barracks for overstaying his B.E.F. leave from 10.30pm 25 August (?) 1917 to 12.30pm 27 August(?) 1917. Once in France he joined the 241st Siege Battery [possibly at this time with 1st Anzac Corps], joining them in the field on 16 September 1917. The Battery, raised at Portland, went to France, 10 January 1917 with a complement of 4 6” BL (breech loading) 26cwt howitzers under the command of Lieutenant (Temporary Captain, later Acting Major) SS Wenman, RGA.  

Having been in action at Arras since prior to the opening of the Battle of the Scarpe on 4 April 1917, on 4 September the right section of battery was sent to join II Corps at Ypres (the left section being left at Arras). After a few days at ASC Rest Camp the right section took over four 6” BL 26cwt howitzers from 297th Siege Battery at positions on Spoil Bank south-east of Ypres (map reference sheet 28, 33C 95 50). By the time Gnr Bland joined the battery a week and a half later the gun positions had been reconstructed and a rising number of rounds fired, from 28 rounds at minor targets on 6 September to 538 rounds (350 of which were on one map reference, J 23a 65 09) on the 13th. On the 15th 630 rounds were fired on Corps Concentration, and the left section arrived from Arras, having presumably left their guns behind there. On the 16th, the day of Gnr Bland’s arrival, a further 309 rounds were fired on Corps Concentrations. After firing 726 rounds on barrage tasks to support an attack on 20 September, over the next two days the battery moved up in two sections to positions on Observatory Ridge (I 24c 58 22), adjacent to Kennel Hill in the southern part of the Ypres Salient. 

Clearly more dangerously exposed to counter-battery fire, two men were wounded on the 22nd whilst preparing battery position and a further one man wounded on the 24th. The 24th also saw Gnrs Knox and Kinally killed in action, buried by hostile artillery fire. A further 5 men were wounded between the 25th and 30th, a significantly higher attrition rate than experienced in the fighting at Arras; meanwhile, the battery positions were completed and an attack east of Ypres was supported with 352 rounds fired ‘at many targets during day and night’. Further men were wounded in early October, eight on the 5th alone, one of whom (Bombardier Turner) died of wounds. On the 7th, in the midst of firing 788 rounds on unnamed targets, two men were wounded, Gunner Ledsham dying of wounds later that day. On the 12th the battery fired 710 rounds and on the 13th Gunner Clarke was killed by a shell at the battery positions. The following day gun no.762 was put out of action by a hostile shell and condemned. Between the 17th and 22nd October five men and two officers, including the commanding officer, now-Major Wenman, were wounded by gas shells.

Finally, Gnr Bland himself was wounded in action, suffering a Gunshot wound to the face and mouth on or around 25/10/1917. Along with fellow 241st Siege Battery Gunners Blythman & Seward*, both of whom had also suffered GSWs to the face (although only two men are reported in the war diary as wounded for the day) he was admitted as Walking wounded for the period from 9am 25/10/1917 to 9am 26/10/1917 to 14th Field Ambulance, and then sent off to Remy Siding, a major casualty clearing complex in the Ypres salient. The record indicates that, as for practically all men admitted that day, Gnr Bland had 500 units of anti-tetanus serum administered, implying that the wound was considered a ‘dirty’ one, possibly contaminated with the well-manured Flanders soil. He was accordingly reported as wounded in War Office Daily List No.5429, Report Date 29/11/1917. This gave his next of kin address as Higher Whitley.

Fortunately his recovery seems to have been fairly speedy, and by 24 November 1917 he had been discharged to base depot, there to await posting onwards to an active service unit. He did not have to wait long for this, as his Casualty Form – Active Service (Army Form B. 103) records that on 7 November 1917 (presumably a mistake for 7 December) he joined 174th Siege Battery (raised Weymouth, 13 June 1916), another 6” howitzer battery, with which he appears to have spent the rest of the war. The battery remained in the Ypres salient, moving between Heavy Artillery Groups. On 27 January 1918 Gnr Bland began a two-month attachment to ‘B’ Siege Park, which ended on 24 March, possibly connected with the effect of the German Spring Offensive 1918. He would therefore have taken part in the Battle of the Lys, which fell on Second Army in April 1918 and placed heavy demands on the RGA as the fighting pressed the British lines back. As noted in the battery’s Wikipedia entry “79th Brigade had shifted to First Army by 1 May, and on 28 June it supported XI Corps in Operation Borderland, a limited counter-attack on La Becque and other fortified farms in front of the Forest of Nieppe, in what was described as 'a model operation' for artillery cooperation.” On 29 July Bland was admitted to no.51 Casualty Clearing station with defective vision – it is not clear when he returned to his unit, which had (re)joined 79th Heavy Artillery Group at the end of February 1918, the Group then being renamed 79th (Mixed) Brigade, RGA. Gnr Bland’s later service would have included supporting IX Corps’ attack on the St Quentin Canal on 29 September, in which the Corps heavy artillery maintained fire on the canal banks as the 137th (Staffordshire) Brigade of 46th Division took the outpost line and crossed the canal. Similar fire support was given to the attack on the Beaurevoir Line on 8 October and in the days leading up to it, accompanied by follow-up counter-battery and harassing fire. 

Taking 14 days’ leave to the UK in mid to late October 1918, Gnr Bland would have missed the immediate preparation for the Battle of the Selle and the renewed advance on 23 October, however he would have been with the battery to take part of the Battle of the Sambre, in which IX Corps crossed the Sambre Canal on 4 November. Post-war he served as an Acting Paid Lance-Bombardier, reverting to his previous rank of Gunner in June 1919. Following a further period of leave he was sent home for demobilisation in September 1919. He did not claim any disability due to military service.

In 1919 he was recorded as living in parish of Whitley Superior near Fir Tree Farm, described as "Willie" Bland, Pte, RGA. The Absent Voters List also includes 60759 Percy Bland, a Pte in the RWF, presumably his younger brother. Gnr Bland passed through No.1 Dispersal Unit, Prees Heath on 25 September 1919 and was transferred to the Army Class ‘Z’ Reserve on demobilisation on 25 October.

For his service Gnr Bland was entitled to the British War Medal and Victory Medal. By 1922 he was living at Arley House, Antrobus, Northwich, Cheshire.

*117511 Gnr J W Blythman, 321190 Gnr A Seward