M2/167531 Pte F Bird, ASC - BWM & VM pair plus ASC brooched collar (sweetheart?) badge. Shrapnel wound 31 March 1918 whilst attached to 111th Siege Battery.
Frederick Bird was a chauffeur, aged 26 years 7 months on attestation. He attested for General Service on 11 December 1915 at the recruitment office at Dunmow in Essex. He gave his address as Shremhall Priory Cottage, Lakeley, later changed to the College Mews, Hertford Heath, Hertfordshire. He gave his next of kin as his wife, Beatrice Maud (née Turner), whom he married at Hertford Heath on 11 August 1915. Frederick, having sought to have his service deferred, was posted to the Army Reserve the following day, 12 December.
He was mobilised on 8 April 1916 and appointed to the Army Service Corps - Motorised Transport, being sent to the ASC Motor Transport Reserve Depot, Grove Park on 10 April, his attestation being approved at Grove Park on 11 April 1916. He was sent to France with surprising speed, being sent out as 'spares' on 22 April 1916.
Once there, after a short stay at base depot, he was attached to 111th Siege Battery Royal Garrison Artillery (which went out on 11 May 1916) as a motor lorry driver. 111 Siege Battery was armed with 6" Howitzers.
After spending some time near Arras and serving on the Somme near the start of the great offensive, the battery was in action on 22 May 1917 at Soyer Farm west of Ploegsteert, cutting wire in preparation for the Battle of Messines Ridge, and then again around Boesinghe from 14 July to some time in August 1917 as part of the Artillery support for the Third Battle of Ypres. The following extract quoting Lieutenant Allfree of the 111th battery relates to the journey to the battery positions at Boesinghe to the north of Ypres, near the ruins of the village, and with the Steenbeek canal to the east:
"On 13 July [1917], Allfree and his battery got their movement order and were trucked to their billets in the village of Reninghelst, south of Poperinghe. Told to move his guns into position that night, he set off in a jeep [sic], towing his gun carriage behind it, up the road out of Poperinghe. His lorries had already departed. Diverted by shellfire to Elverdinghe, he soon caught up with his trucks, which had stopped by the side of the road. The drivers were reluctant to continue: shelling up ahead had knocked out several vehicles and horse-drawn wagons. Allfree could hear the rounds exploding but 'I had to go on. So I spoke to each of the lorry drivers and told them what they had to face...' He ordered them to 'get on with all speed, and not to stop for anybody or anything'. It was crucial to get the guns and supplies forward by daybreak, before the lorries became visible targets.
His driver proceeded carefully: the spokes on the wheel of the gun they towed had 'jarred loose'... They soon reached the scene of the shelling ahead - disembowelled horses and smashed-up wagons and lorries and the smell of blood and high explosive'. There was so much traffic the German guns couldn't miss striking a lorry if they got the range of the road right. Allfree drove around the mess. The shells burst just behind and ahead of his vehicle. Then the gun carriage's axle came loose on the potholed road, and he abandoned it. He arrived without any of his guns, which were brought up the next day."
In November 1917 the battery was part of 27 Heavy Artillery Group and in position at Le Verguier near St Quentin. The battery was subsequently at Epehy (about 10 miles to the north), and caught up in the opening day of the German Spring offensive, 21 March 1918, when as part of the Germans' plan to cripple the British counter-battery work the gun lines and OPs were deluged with high explosives and gas, which combined with the prevailing heavy mist to create dreadful conditions for the British defenders.
Writing again, Allfree noted the conditions as follows "...outside in the sunken road [next to the battery positions]...[i]t was still almost dark and there was a thick mist. Shells were falling everywhere. It was a perfect hell...the eyepieces of the respirator got fogged immediately and you could see nothing... the layers...could not see the lamps on the aiming pickets owing to the mist. I sent a man out with an electric torch to lay on, but even this could only be seen with difficulty". Soon the targets were coming ominously closer ("Presently a target came through from the Major...It represented an alarmingly short range with a 6" howitzer... soon my difficulty was to get a sufficiently low elevation on the guns to hit the targets and yet to clear the bank in front of the guns.") In the end, one gun had to be left behind, and the battery's horses transport pulled the remainder out. A few hours later, however, when the battery had once again to pull out, the battery's guns were only saved, when the FWD lorries did not turn up, by commandeering the horse team of a sister battery.
Ten days later Private Bird was wounded - a Gun Shot Wound to the right thigh resulting in a fractured femur - on 31 March 1918.
He returned home on 3-4 June 1918 and was placed under treatment at the War Hospital, Reading, at some point going into the books of the RASC Clearing Office, Blackheath. His character form (Army Form W.3226) as signed by Officer Commanding 40 Brigade, ASC, on QE June 1918 gave his sobriety as good and noted that he was intelligent and reliable.
He was finally discharged from Reading War Hospital as an invalid - equipped with suit, overcoat, cap collar and tie - on 22 September 1919. His discharge from the Army, under paragraph 392 (XVIa) of King's Regulations - no longer physically fit for war service - was accomplished at the same time. He was aged 30, and his address on discharge was 1 Crown Terrace, Hockerill, Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire. His wound was judged as 70% disabling, and he was pensioned at 28/- weekly for 26 weeks from 23 September 1919, plus a 7/- allowance for his wife Beatrice. He received his Silver War Badge, number B317593, in October 1919.
