Remembering the Pals at Hebuterne

The Bradford Pals were in Hebuterne over the winter of 1916/17 and took part in a battle there in February, 1917. More than 40 Pals are buried in a cemetery there.

One of them was Ernest Nettleton, an 18-year-old office worker when war was declared. He enlisted in the 1st Bradford Pals’ Battalion.

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His brother Hubert was only 16 but followed Ernest to the recruiting office and, once he was of age on March 10, 1915, was accepted into the 2nd Pals’ Battalion. Close on Hubert’s heels, six days later came his sister’s husband, Edmund Hugh Steele. Younger sister Bertha’s uncle-in-law, Edward Branson, had joined the Seaforth Highlanders in Manningham Park.

Of these four men, two were to survive the war but both of them (Hubert Nettleton and Edmund Steele) were awarded Silver War Badges. Edmund Steele suffered wounds and was discharged on November 1, 1917. Hubert Nettleton was discharged wounded in January 1919.

Tricia Platts takes up Ernest Nettleton’s story. “While Ernest, Hubert and Edmund had all survived the Somme, by the winter of 1916 the Pals were depleted in number and low in spirits. And what a winter it was! In weather conditions described as the most severe since 1880, the outdoor life of the men was incredibly harsh.

“New drafts of men arrived while the two Pals’ Battalions were billeted around Hébuterne. Eight new officers and 418 other ranks joined the 16th Battalion; but many of these were new conscripts and 224 of them were described as ‘untrained’.

“There were also a few who returned after recovering from wounds, some of these from other West Yorkshire Battalions: the wholly ‘Bradford’ flavour of the Pals was becoming diluted.

“After a period of rest near Doullens, the Pals returned to trench life near Hébuterne on February 21. The tactics of the German high command had changed since September 1916. Ludendorff and Hindenburg, the new commanders, were building a massive new defensive line and preparing to give up ground to lure the Allies forward. Field Marshal Douglas Haig, suspicious of this apparent retreat of the Germans, was preparing to ‘probe’ the enemy’s front line. One such probe was planned as an attack on a copse near the village of Hebuterne,known to the Germans as Copse 125 and to the British as Rossignol, or Nightgale, Wood.

“Two companies of the 16th Battalion were the troops chosen for the task. Among them were Lance Corporal Ernest Nettleton. While the enemy had been observed by the Bradford men tending the wire in front of their lines, staff officers at Brigade HQ some miles further back, were convinced that the Germans were actively withdrawing and such ‘tending of the wire’ was bluff.

“The attackers left Hebuterne by Woman Street trench before dawn on February 27, 1917, and crossed the quiet fields in darkness. Battalion HQ in Woman Street waited for news. When news eventually came, it was all very bad. Poor intelligence gathering had missed spotting a German gun emplacement in Rossignol Wood. When the Bradford men merged from their trenches to start the attack they were cut down. Had no lessons been learned from the Serre attack on July 1, 1916?

“Men sheltering in shell holes who remained alive were quickly surrounded by a German counter attack and taken prisoner. The cost of the slaughter was 226: 78 killed, 83 wounded, 65 missing.

“Forty three of those who died that morning lie buried in an old German trench, now known as Owl Trench Cemetery. It is a mass grave and the names of the Bradford lads are inscribed three to a headstone. Ernest Nettleton’s family received a photograph of the original grave marker which has pinned to it nearly 50 flimsy metal plates, each with the impressed name of one of the Pals."#

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