TEIGNMOUTH & SHALDON

Private Walter John Smith.

Born on 15 November 1897 and baptised on 16 October 1898 at Tormohan, son of Walter Charles, butler, and Elizabeth Jane Smith. On 1901 census he was living at Tormoham, Torquay with his parents and brother. He was still living with his family in 1911 at Torquay, he was still at school.

Walter enlisted at Newton Abbot with 9th (Service) Battalion, Devonshire Regiment; service number 20095. He was killed in action on 1 July 1916 at the Battle of the Somme. Remembered on Thiepval Memorial, Somme.

Unable to find any connection with Teignmouth.

The 8th and 9th Battalions of the Devonshire Regiment

Devonshire Regiment
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The 8th and 9th Battalions of the Devonshire Regiment were formed in 1914 from war-time volunteers.

After very little training they landed at Le Havre in France on the 28th July, 1915 and moved to the Front in August 1915.

The men had only a very brief experience of trench warfare when on the 25th September 1915, the British Army launched a massed attack against the German defences, this was later to be known as the Battle of Loos.

At the Battle of Loos both sides used poison gas as a weapon.

Men preparing for a gas attack © IWM (Q 51650)

This was the first time that the British used poison gas.

After they released the gas the wind changed and a green blanket of gas, dust and smoke as high as a two-storey house covered some of the British troops, it was very difficult to see anything, some men had terrible difficulty breathing and others died later because of the damaging effects of the gas.

'The gas hung in a thick pall over everything, and it was impossible to see more than ten yards. In vain I looked for my landmarks in the German line, to guide me to the right spot, but I could not see through the gas.'

Account by George Wilfred Smith, 2nd The Leicestershire Regiment, to his fiancée.

Before the men left the safety of their trenches and went 'over the top' to capture the enemy positions the Gunners would often fire a huge artillery barrage to shatter the enemy's barbed wire and other defences and kill defending troops.

German barbed wire entanglement © IWM (Q 4593)

In this battle the artillery barrage had not cleared all the barbed wire, so the Devons had to cut their way through whilst the Germans fired machine-guns at them.

The 8th and 9th Devons were battalions with 1000 men in each unit. In a single day they had more than 1000 casualities and 500 men died or went missing.

Casualties at the Battle of Loos on the 25th September 1915 were the worst in a single day for the British army, with some 8,500 dead.

The Battle of Loos lasted from 25th September to 15th October, 1915.

The First Day of the Somme

On July 1, 1916 the 9th Devons, with the 8th Devons in support, headed the attack on the German front line near Marmetz.

The British artillery had bombarded the German Lines in preparation but this had failed to destroy machine-gun positions.

A German machine gun crew, probably of the 18th Infantry Regiment, manning their Maxim machine gun. © IWM (Q 87923)

As the 9th entered No Man’s Land many of them were cut down by rifle and machine-gun fire.

The 9th Devons had started the day with 775 men but by the end of it 204 of them were killed (or missing) and 267 were wounded.

Of the 8th Devons 50 men were killed or missing.

 The division secured Marmetz by the end of the day.