Category Archives: Western Front

William James Mundy

Army, Commemorated name/s, Other Regiments, Passchendaele, Ypres

William James Mundy
Private G/9171
11th Battalion Queen’s Own (Royal West Surrey Regiment)

  Division 35

Mundy WJ photo

 

William James Mundy was the son of Mrs E. E. Mundy, of 28, Henry Street, Reading. His father H. Mundy was already dead at the time of his son’s death.  He was commemorated on a his family’s grave.  The 1911 census indicates that William was working as a barman at a hotel in Aldershot. William died on the 31st July 1917, the first day of the Third Battle of Ypres.

The Third Battle of Ypres began on 31st July 1917.  A bombardment had begun fifteen days earlier and over four million shells had been fired.  (One million had been fired prior to the Battle of the Somme).  At 3.50a.m. the assaulting troops of the Second and Fifth Armies, with a portion of the French First Army lending support on the left, moved forward, accompanied by 136 tanks.  The Tank Corps was only four days old.  Previously it had been known as the Heavy Branch, Machine Gun Corps, a name adopted for purposes of secrecy at their formation.  Preparations for the battle had taken place in dry weather but on the first day the weather broke and three-quarters of an inch (21.7mm) of rain soaked the battlefield.  Men and tanks moved forward behind the creeping barrage over ground churned and cratered by years of shelling.  The surface was softened by the rain but, for all that only two tanks bogged down at the commencement of battle although many ditched later.  A map was prepared by Major Fuller, Staff Intelligence Officer of the Tanks, of the ground over which the tanks were expected to attack.   Where he expected the ground to be marshy, he coloured the area blue.  What he saw appalled him, it was three-quarters of the battlefield.  He sent the maps to Haig’s GHQ so that the Commander in Chief could judge conditions for himself.  However, the map was intercepted by Charteris who refused to show it to the Commander in Chief on the grounds that it would depress him.  Only 48% of the tanks reached their first objective.  Although there was some progress in the early part of the day by late morning the familiar breakdown in communications between infantry and guns occurred.  At two in the afternoon the Germans began to counter attack with a heavy shelling and this together with the heavy rain turned the battle field into soupy mud.  A halt to the offensive was called until the 4th August.  However, Haig insisted that the attack had been “highly satisfactory and the losses slight”.  By comparison with the Somme, when 20,000 men had died on the opening day, only about 8,800 men were reported dead or missing.  The total wounded, including those of the French Army, numbered 35,000, the Germans suffered a similar number.  However, the Germans remained in command of the vital ground and committed none of their counter attack divisions.  Prince Rupprecht , in his diary recorded that he was “very satisfied with the results”.

It is not known exactly when and where William Mundy  was killed, he has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial, Panels 45 & 47.  He was aged 25.

William Ivor Mitchell

Army, Commemorated name/s, Other Regiments, Ypres

William Ivor Mitchell
Private 267982
Hertfordshire Regiment

 Division 2

Mitchell W I photo

William Ivor Mitchell (Mick) was the husband of Sarah Dove Mitchell, of 144 Southampton Street, Reading.   Before the war he worked for Huntley and Palmers for 12 years.

He was posted missing after last being seen on the 31st July 1917, this was the start of the Third Battle of Ypres.  His wife appealed for information in the Standard of 18th August 1917.  His officer had written: ‘The last sign of your husband was just before we reached our final position…. He was always cheery and most popular among his comrades in the platoon, he will be sadly missed by all.  I can only express to you my deepest sympathy in your sad loss’.

His wife and children acknowledged that he must be dead in the ‘In Memoriam’ published August 2nd 1919. His name is on his wife’s grave.

William Mitchell’s body was never found and he has no known grave.  He is commemorated on the Menin Gate memorial Panel 54 and 56.

Walter May

Alfred Sutton School War Memorial, Army, Royal Berkshire Regiment, Somme

Walter May
Lance Corporal 12760
6th Royal Berkshire Regiment

May Walter photo May W name

Walter May was the eldest son of Mr  Tom and Mrs Emma May of 3 Pitcroft Avenue, Reading.  The 1911census indicates that he was a Clerk Seedsman, probably at Suttons, his father and a younger brother also workedfor the same firm. Walter May had two sisters. He joined up on the 5th September 1914 and went to France on 25th July 1915.

The 6th Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment, with which Walter served, was part of the 18th Division and was amongst those few battalions which had some success on the first day of the battle of the Somme.  They were situated on the far right of the British line near the French and achieved their objective,  the taking of Montauban.  The battalion was also involved in a fateful attack on Delville Wood on the 19th July when many men were lost in a badly planned operation.  The Somme battle continued wearily with great loss of men on both sides through the summer and autumn of 1916.  The 6th battalion was involved in the actions which finally resulted in the eventual successful capture of most of the Thiepval ridge from the Germans.

Thiepval had been a first day objective of the Somme offensive.  The 18th Division was given the task of taking Thiepval and also the strong point known as the Schwaben Redoubt.  “On the Somme” by Colin Fox et al., gives an account of the involvement of the 6th Battalion.  The Division had three weeks  battle training prior to the attack which was set for 26th September.  The 6th Royal Berkshire Regiment was in the brigade reserve with the 8th Suffolks leading the attack with the 10th Essex Regiment.  There were three days of preliminary bombardment with zero hour at 12.35pm on the 26th September.  The initial attack on Thiepval was very successful with the Germans, according to the Official History, eager to surrender without a fight.

However, progress towards the Schwaben redoubt was much more difficult and the advanced came to a standstill at about 6.20pm.  The 6th Berks now provided carrying parties with the task of bringing food, water and ammunition to the front line troops.  The reserve was in trenches at Crucifix Corner and it was here at dusk that the Germans sent over a massive barrage.  On the 28th September there was a renewed attack on the Schwaben Redoubt, the 6th Berks. were again in the reserve, this time in Authuille Wood.  The attacking battalions sustained heavy casualties and the following morning the 6th Berks. were sent in to relieve the Suffolks.  They were heavily shelled all day, and many of the men were suffering from a lack of sleep.  Walter May would have experienced the spasmodic bombing attacks carried out by both sides and the heavy shelling , which in deteriorating weather, reduced the ground into a sea of mud.  By the 5th October the Redoubt was back in British hands.   On the 6th October the 6th Royal Berkshire were withdrawn from the line and moved into billets.

Walter May was one of the 14 men killed during this action, he died on the 5th October 1916.   Walter’s body was never found and his name is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial pier and face 11D. He was 22 years old.