Part three – First World War casualties, 1917
This week the Oban War Memorial Project continues to look at 1917 losses. Here war historian Neil Owen writes how, after the appalling carnage of the Somme the previous year, a new offensive was planned for an attack on the German trench lines to the east of the city of Arras.
“Once again the British offensive was designed to support the French armies which were scheduled for an attack south of the British lines on the Chemin des Dames ridge.
“Field Marshall Haig was against the attack at Arras but he was overruled by Prime Minister Lloyd George, again for political reasons. The Germans had not been idle meantime and had constructed a formidable defence position, known as the Hindenburg Line by the British, and withdrawn their previous forward entrenchments to this barrier. To the north of the city of Arras lies the Vimy ridge which allowed the German forces to dominate the surrounding low ground to the west. The Battle of Arras was divided into several set actions, the first of which was scheduled for April 9.
“This time, however, the lessons learned from the Battle of the Somme ensured that radical new tactics and planning were implemented by the British. For the first time, tanks and by infantry, together with air support, were to play a major role in conjunction with creeping artillery barrages of high explosives and poison gas. The Canadian attack on Vimy ridge was successful and the British Third Army advanced three and a half miles into enemy-held territory south of Vimy. British casualties numbered some 13,000 on the first day, considered an acceptable figure in comparison with the equivalent period during the Somme advance.
“The French offensive launched on April 16 sustained such heavy losses that the 2nd Division mutinied and refused to fight, leading to the cessation of the French offensive by the May 9.
“Haig continued a series of British offensive actions, concluding with an action at Bullecourt between May 3 and May 16. The Scottish 9th, 15th and 51st Highland Divisions as part of XVII Corps of the British Third Army, took part in the first stages of the Battle of Arras during the advance on the French town of St Laurent and Athies. Total losses were in excess of 159,000 men killed, wounded or missing, including many from Oban and Argyll. British success was shortlived, a stalemate returned to the front at Arras with the attrition of trench warfare re-established.
“That same year would see five further major offensives, Messines Ridge (10,000 Germans killed in huge tunnelled-mine explosions), Pilckem Ridge, Langemarck, Passchendaele and Cambrai.
“Scottish regiments, including the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, would suffer considerable casualty rates. The three opposing armies, French, British and German each came close to collapse in the late autumn of 1917 due to the huge losses in manpower, but the war would go on.”
▮ Lance Corporal John Brown Smith, Military Medal, s/n 4881, 9th Battalion, Seaforth Highlanders, right, was born in Ballieston, Glasgow, on November 17, 1891, to Peter, a hairdresser, and his wife, Mary Brown.
By 1901 the family was living in the Oban Hotel, Stafford Street, and comprised three sons, with John being the oldest. Like so many of his generation at Oban, he was a member of the Boys’ Brigade.
Ten years later, John was 20 and worked as a barman. At the outbreak of war, he joined the Seaforth Highlanders and was subsequently awarded the Military Medal for bravery in the field. He was promoted to Lance-Corporal but was hit by shellfire and died of wounds in France on July 11, 1917, aged
25. He was buried at Coxyde Military Cemetery, Grave I.H.49, Belgium.
▮ Lance Corporal James Falconer Eddie, s/n 30264, 18th Battalion, Highland Light Infantry, was born in Brechin on June 7, 1880, to Andrew Eddie and his wife, Mary Ann. In 1911, James was living in Oban and working as an ironmonger’s clerk for Duncan MacDougall.
He eventually became a bookkeeper and cashier with the firm. James joined the H.LI. in April 1916 and was killed in the front trenches east of Arras on July 13, 1917. He was 37 and was buried within Templeuxle-Guerard, British Cemetery, Grave, II.G.36, France.
▮ Private Duncan MacIntyre, s/n 13655, 1st Battalion, Scots Guards, was born on August 4, 1893, at Fortingall, Perthshire, to John, a ploughman and subsequently a railway plate-layer, and his wife, Isabella MacNaughton.
By 1901, the family had moved to Killin. Duncan was the oldest child. Ten years later, he was living in Station Cottages, Appin. He joined the army after war broke out and was attached to the Scots Guards, although he is