And to feel the thrill of victory’
September, 1914, when they first landed at St Nazaire.
These ‘Old Sweats’ were involved in fierce fighting right up until just two days before the Armistice was signed.
After liberating the French town of Bavay – and receiving a rapturous welcome from the townsfolk – they were machinegunned as they moved into the front-line to the west of the River Hogneau, losing five men killed and seven wounded.
They then chased the enemy off the high ground, cleared a wood of German soldiers and captured the village of Gros Chene.
The next day, November 9, they continued to chase the German Army out of France, facing yet more machine gunners as they captured several more formerly German-held villages as they pushed up to the Mons to Mauberge road.
During that night, their outposts were heavily shelled and they lost another three men killed and seven wounded.
They were relieved on November 10 and were back in billets at Feignes when they heard the news that the war had been won. But in the 48 hours up to November 9, they had lost 10 men killed and 30 wounded.
Among the dead was Lance Corporal John Smith, a 21-yearold soldier from Sparrow Street, Smallthorne, the son of Albert Henry and Mary Ann Smith.
Other North Staffordshire soldiers continued to fight and risk their lives even as negotiations were taking place to end the war.
The 5th (Royal Irish) Lancers – later amalgamated into the Royal Lancers, which now recruits heavily in Stoke-on-trent – returned to Mons, where they had fought in 1914.
With them, commanding D Squadron in support of Canadian infantry, was Captain Robert Arthur Heath of the Leicestershire Yeomanry, but attached to the Lancers.
Captain Heath was born in Madeley, the son of Colonel Arthur Howard Heath, who had been MP for Hanley from 1900 to 1906, and for Leek in 1910.
On November 10, 1918, with just hours to go before the Armistice would be signed, he won the Military Cross for his bravery during the Battle of Mons.
His citation reads: “At Ghlin, near Mons on November 10, 1918, this officer was in command of a squadron detailed to guard the exposed flank of the 7th Canadian Infantry Brigade and push out reconnaissance patrols to clear up the situation. He handled his Squadron extremely well, drove the enemy from a village, read the situation and was able to furnish the most valuable information.”
Mons itself – the last-remaining major centre of German forces – was captured on the morning of November 11. An advanced guard entered the city at 10.30am – the same time The Sentinel received a telephone call announcing hostilities would cease at 11am – and were invited into the town hall for a reception hosted by the local mayor.
Elsewhere on the morning of November 11, shells continued to fall, while in hospitals across the Western Front and at home in Britain, doctors and nurses watched the lives of men they couldn’t save slowly slip away.
There was also the deadly ‘Spanish Flu’ epidemic which was sweeping across the world, killing soldier and civilian alike.
Even after the terms of the Armistice had been agreed (it was signed at 5am), men continued to die until the treaty came into effect at 11am.
In fact a total of 910 Allied soldiers lost their lives on November 11, 1918.
Among them was John Parsons, of Longton. John had joined the North Staffordshire Regiment at the age of 18 in 1893 and had fought the Mahdists in the Sudan in 1896, and the Boers in South Africa in 1902.
He had been discharged in 1905 and was living with his wife, Margaret, at 16 Park Hall Street, in Longton, and working as a bricklayer when the First World War started.
John left his wife and children to serve with the Royal Army Medical Corps. He was either wounded or fell ill and had returned to Britain. He took his last breath on November 11, as most of the Potteries was celebrating the end of the war.
Even though the war was over the body count continued to rise as badly-wounded soldiers died weeks, months and even years after the war was over. In fact between Armistice Day, 1918 and New Year’s Day, 1921, more than 46,000 UK troops died from wounds and illness.
Almost 200 of these casualties had served with the North Staffordshire Regiment.
They included Sergeant Robert Cummings, of Barker Street, Chesterton, and Private Edwin Batty, of Baker Street, Newcastle.
Father-of-two Robert never recovered from a gunshot wound to the back. He died on March 28, 1919, at the age of 48 and is buried at Holy Trinity Parish Church, in Chesterton.
Edwin was gassed in the fighting at Ypres and was invalided out of the Army suffering from bronchitis in April, 1918. He died on February 19, 1919, aged 24. He is buried at Newcastle Cemetery.