Remembering the fallen

The 29 foot high memorial is dominated by three figures, a Scottish soldier, a sailor, and a soldier of the Dominions of the Empire. The symbolism of the sculpture reflects the service of the fallen; of the 85 men named on the War Memorial four served in the Royal Navy or Mercantile Marine, eight in regiments of Dominions of Australia, Canada and Newfoundland, and the remainder served with Scottish Regiments.

The stories of each of these men are both unique and tragic. To mark this special anniversary we are telling the story of three of the men named on the war memorial, one representing each of the three figures standing proud on top of the monument.

On the 3rd July 1916 the troop ship ‘HMAT Ayrshire’ set sail from Melbourne Australia with reinforcements for the Australian Infantry Force (AIF). One of these men was Private Daniel Allan, the son of Daniel and the lateJanet Allan of 14 Brisbane Road, Largs. Daniel hadimmigrated to Australia in 1912 and had settled in Auburn, Victoria, where he worked as a farm labourer.

He arrived in England on the 9th September 1916, and after a period of training was assigned to the 14th(Victoria) Battalion AIF, part of the 4th Australian Brigade which had already established a formidable reputation on the battlefields of Gallipoli and the Somme. He joined his unit on the 23 February 1917 in France, having spent his embarkation leave in Largs withhis family. 47 days after arriving in France, he was dead; a victim of one of the worst days in the bloody history of the Australian Forces in the Great War.

In the early morning of the 10th April the 4th Australian Brigade quietly moved out into ‘no mans land’ to wait the arrival of a section of six tanks. These tanks werepivotal to the whole attack; their role was to punch holes in the field of barbed wire protecting the formidable German defensive system – the Hindenburg Line at the twin fortified villages of Buttecourt and Riencourt. After long hours of waiting in frequent snow storms the tanks failed to appear. At the last minute and just before first light the order was given to cancel the attack.

After much debate, and protest from the Australian commanders, the order was given for the attack to recommence at 4.30am on the 11th April. After a day of further snow, the cold and tired troops once again took up their positions in ‘no mans land’. By 3.30 am three of the six tanks had arrived, the remainder had either brokendown or had become bogged down. A steady fusillade ofmachine gun fire accompanied their arrival which wasdesigned to disguise the noise of the tanks. The artillery bombardment had also been deliberately light; both tactics designed to achieve measure of surprise. Bothdeceptions failed, and by 3.20am the German Artillery started to lightly bombard the area. At 4.30am the tanks moved off, and 15 minutes later the infantry. The plan was already starting to fall apart, and as the tanks either bogged down or were knocked out, the infantry were left to complete the attack against largely undamageddefences. By a feat of remarkable courage and sacrifice,the Australians successfully overcame the defences to first capture the German front line trench and then the second line. These heavily depleted units were now isolated from reinforcement and rapidly consuming their supplies of ammunition. In the confusion of the battle the British artillery were unsure of their location and so repeatedly failed to respond to their SOS flares. At about 10.00 am the Germans, almost unmolested by the British artillery, started concerted counterattacks from all sides.Soon, as their ammunition and numbers dwindled, the Australians were left with a choice to either stay and bekilled or captured, or run the gauntlet of ‘no mans land’which was now a bullet swept killing ground. At the end of the battle the 4th Australian Brigade had all but beenannihilated, suffering 2339 casualties out of a total of3000 men engaged; the 14th Battalion AIF itself having601 casualties out of the 750 men who went into battle.

For Daniel Allan’s father, and sisters, back home in Largs his loss was yet another body blow, for this was his second son to be killed in the war. The first, William was killed whilst serving in one of the most famous Scottish Regiments - The Black Watch.

Private William Allan’s death, in contrast to that of his brother who was killed in the heat of battle, illustrates the other extreme of trench warfare. Between the pitched battles and the trench raids, there was an almost mundane routine of death. In January 1916 William Allan with his comrades of the 8th (Service) Battalion, The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) moved into the trenches near Ploegsteert Wood, in Belgium. For the next four months a routine of trench life was established, undisturbed by any notable action. This sector of the line suffered little from artillery fire, but there was at night a great deal of machine gun fire. In the period up to the end of April 1916, the battalion’s casualties were 21 killed and 61 wounded from this sporadic and random fire. One of these was William Allan who was shot in the head and killed on the 25th April 1917.

At sea a different type of war was being fought. After the inconclusive Battle of Jutland in 1916 between the Grand Fleets of Britain and Germany, the principle weapon of the war at sea became the submarine. In 1917 the Germans policy of unrestricted submarine warfareagainst allied shipping was taking a heavy toll, and was in danger of turning the tide of war in favour of the Germans. In May 1917 alone 206 allied ships were attacked in the English Channel and North Atlantic. One of these ships was the SS Dartmouth, a defensively armed merchant ship of 2,870 tons, which was torpedoed without warning and sunk 35 miles south east of theFastnet Lighthouse, off the coast of Ireland. Her whole crew of 25 were lost. The 2nd Engineer onboard the Dartmouth was 35 year old, Largs born, John Main MacArthur. He was the third son of Jamieson and Agnes Main MacArthur of 8, Lorn Street, Glasgow, and resided with his wife of only a few months at 46 Wilton Street, Glasgow.

As with the Allan family, this was not the only loss the MacArthur family had suffered in the War. Two other sons, Lance Corporal Jameson MacArthur and Private Robert MacArthur had already been killed; Jameson on the 1st July 1916 on the first day of the Somme, and Robert on the 9th April 1917 in the Battle of Arras.

Two families, five sons - Lest we forget.